Reviews (4)

A kings story
I felt sorry for the duke, he must have been such a lonely man.....He never got any compliments from his father or his family. They all seemed so far away from each other. No wonder he fell in love with Wallis, she paid attention to him, this is what he needed, someone to treat him with respect and high regard, no wonder he abdicated....He wouldn't have to abdicate,but the P.M. at that time was a very vicious and ugly person who was JEALOUS of King Edward, he wouldn't even allow the king to speak to the other members on his own behalf...Queen Mum was also jealous and vicious, she did not like Wallis, because she was divorced and an american, she would not allow King George to communicate with the duke after he was exiled. The people all wanted King Edward to become King, they all loved him because of his charistma and his feelings for the common people.Edward and Diana were very much alike and treated VERY BADLY by their so called "royal families". Edward and Diana had more "guts" than all the royals together. King Edward would have been a "great" king, thanks to Queen Mum and her coldness toward Edward and Wallis caused him to live in an empty wrld. All the worl loves "lovers"and the Duke and Duchess were the lovers of the 20th century. How many people can have such a love????????I really loved this book and read it over and over.....

Vapid, yes...though totally fascinating...
I can't help it. Even though I believe that the Duke and Dutchess of Windsor were probably two of the most self-serving people ever to exist on the face of the planet, I find them totally fascinating. And this book lets us into their domaine. Imagine a man so totally mesmerized by this woman, that not only did he leave her a fresh flower on her pillow every night of their married life, he slept surrounded by photos of her (separate bedrooms). There were 10,000 photos of them in his bathtub (covered with a mahogany top. He ONLY showered.) that were discovered after her death. That means for the duration of the time that they were married, they were photographed approximately 300 times a year. Every year. The photographs of the refurbished decor in the Paris house were fascinating. Too bad everything was sold after Dodi & Diana's death. This book is truly a window into a lifestyle that no longer exists.

finally a sneak peek into their very private world
I was very impressed with the photography and the information contained in this book. Wallis Simpson is amazing, she comes off as more chic and more royal than any of the royals. Fascinating inside look into that very glamorous era, and it's most powerful couple.

too much to pay for a couple with zero to offer
It is beyond me how any person with a functioning brain could ever find the Windsors more than the most over publicized, most tedious couple who ever inhabited the pages of People Magazine and its predecessors. What is even more alarming is that there are people willing to pay $67.50 for a book of pictures of the duke, the duchess and their collection of stuff. Pardon me for my rant, but I needed to do it. I don't think I've ever typed out my feeings on this subject before. I've ranted about this couple more than I wish to admit.. but, hell, we all have our quirks. ... Read more

Book Description

How do you keep up in the age of information when there's so much to know and so little time? Here's the ideal solution: a practical book of knowledge offering in-depth analysis, detailed interpretation, and penetrating insight into the key concepts, the most influential minds, and the major intellectual movements in history. A World of Ideas is an essential tool for anyone who wants to be fully informed and stay ahead of the curve in today's world.

Now you can get to the bottom of the big bang theory; find out where Freud's ideas were coming from, and where Einstein's may ultimately take us; demystify surrealism and survivalism, nature and nurture, communism and capitalism. With hundreds of in-depth entries, drawn from a wide range of fields--including religion, philosophy, psychology, economics, politics, history, art, literature, and science--A World of Ideas enables you to turn immediately to the term in question for a comprehensive description of its history, meaning, and context.

- Hundreds of entries, alphabetically arranged, with key words and concepts highlighted and cross-referenced
- Reviewed and approved by an academic board of leading scholars
- A unique emphasis on multicultural influences and the long-neglected impact of women on the history of ideas
- An extensive bibliography of further readings and resources

Here are the concepts that shaped civilization . . . the minds that made history . . . the thinkers, the thoughts, and the theories--everything you need to know to fully understand the world we live in. Concise and authoritative, meticulously researched and lucidly written, this invaluable resource is sure to become a standard reference for years to come.
... Read more

Reviews (10)

Everything I Always Wanted to Know, But Was Afraid to Ask
"A World of Ideas" is an excellent reference book for anyone who wants to know more about philosophies, ideas, beliefs, and perspectives from numerous cultures through centuries of thought. Many of the ideas the author chose are subjects that I've wanted to understand for years. Several times I've found myself reading with my fingers stuck in different parts of the book because there are so many aspects to the entries that I want to find out more about. The entries are clear and very layperson-intelligible.

This "dictionary of ideas" is handily presented in alphabetical order, and the cross-referencing is extremely well done. And I love the fact that all of the different and sometimes opposing viewpoints are presented with equal weight -- nothing is put forward as being better or worse or right or wrong. It is truly clear information with no editorializing, no slant to prejudice a reader. It lets us make our own choices, and that is a great gift when it comes to presenting information.

The best part about it for me is that when I went to school, I always knew that they didn't offer information about the most interesting stuff, and I never knew where to find it. I've finally found it: "A World of Ideas" satisfies my intense curiosity about the infinitely diverse viewpoints through the centuries and around the world.

Hnady Reference Tool
If you're struggling with that last-minute paper, and trying to show you understand the basics of key terms and concepts, this is the book for you. Giving you a lot more than any standard dictionary would, this volume summarizes major ideas, thoughts and lives in the mere scope of approximately 500-1000 words. From Rastafarianism to deconstruction, from anomie to sunyata, it's all here and perfectly clear. Easy to read, arranged alphabetically, and with a full index and cross references. Also includes a bibliography for further reading. It should make a great gift for any college student.

Concise, yet detailed
This book should be on everyone's shelf. This book is easy to read and is essentialy a dictionary of various philosophies. You won't get much insight from this book, nor will it maintain your interest very long. It is designed as a dictionary, not to be read from cover to cover. Use it as a reference rather than leisure reading.

I Needed This One Years Ago
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading or studying - period. I had returned to college after a twelve year absence to study history (I'd studied business before, yuck) and found many concepts, names, and ideas either new to me or fairly well forgotten. "A World of Ideas" became an absolute life-saver and, furthermore, a book that I began to peruse out of enjoyment and interest.

Contrary to another review, there is a list of sources for further reading. However, I doubt the mere 28 books listed will satisfy most needs, a fuller more specific listing would have been the icing on the cake. I usually reference "A World of Ideas" to clarify ideas from specific readings. In this case, the book in hand will usually have additional sources available in its notes and bibliography. Also, if you are taking a class, you can ask your professor. They love talking with interested students and can steer you towards appropriate books, or away from less useful ones.

I am unable to convey how helpful this book has been for me now, nor how strongly I wish that I had had it when I was in high school, or even before. If you crinkled your brow when Gore said, "... the zeitgeist", or if Hegelian dialectic sounds like a Greek waterway, then get this book.

Excellent Reference For Armchair Philosophers
If you're an avid reader of philosophy, history, psychology, science, or even just the New York Times, you're likely to find "A World of Ideas" to be quite helpful. Often I find that I come across a word that I feel I should know, but can't quite remember the gist of it (e.g., "What does 'hermeneutics' mean again?"). This book provides very clear, concise, and helpful summaries (generally ranging from 1/2 to 2 pages long) for all the various "isms" (and other general topics) as well as the people who helped define them. It's organized like a compact encyclopedia, alphabetized by entry name, with copious cross-references to topics by using LARGE TYPE to refer to alternate encyclopedia entries. Entries on people focus on their ideas more than on biographical details. I've found the book to be an invaluable resource in my own informal studies of philosophy, where you come across familiar names but may not be familiar with the details of those thinkers' ideas. The author has done a fine job of distilling the entries down to their essential points, so that you really feel that you've learned the key ideas. The book is useful both as a reference as well as for casual reading (often I find myself looking up one entry and then going off on tangents to follow fascinating threads of cross-references that catch my eye). ... Read more

Reviews (1)

If you love works of Joplin, get this book.
This book is a complete and precise collection of Scott Joplin's works.The book also gives a summary of the composers lifetime.

I highlyrecommend this book. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

Cobb the legend
Was Tyrus Cobb as good as you imagined? Better.

Did Tyrus Cobb innovate the game? Absolutely.

Did a worse human being play the game? Maybe not.

Al Stump focused on the first and especially the third question above. Being a sports writer, Stump knows that a healthy legend and juicy scandel sells books. In this book Stump gives excellent descriptions of some of the most famous incidents in baseball- mostly from the mouth of Cobb with whom Stump spent parts of a year interviewing. Perhaps that time tainted Stump. For example, Stump repeatedly mentions the 'extreme cruelty' Charlotte Cobb used as grounds for divorce. He fails to mention that Mrs. Cobb stressed that it was mental and never physical abuse. Why? Perhaps Stump intended to paint Cobb as completly vile. Perhaps Cobb deserved it. But this important information for a book of nearly 500 pages to fail to mention. Stump keeps a highly negative focus on Cobb the man while building up Cobb the player.

I finished this book disliking Cobb the man, convinced Cobb the player would have dominated ANY era, and wanting to know more- so I read Alexander's book. Charles Alexander's "Ty Cobb" provides a more complete, less biased view of Cobb in about half the pages. The Stump book is more colorful however.

Amazingly eye-opening
This book is a quick read for baseball fans, and an interesting look at the psychosis of an American icon for non-baseball fans. Al Stump went through a living hell while writing Ty Cobb's ghost-written autobiography and thirty years later he tells Cobb's true story. The story of Cobb's obnoxious, cruel behavior is told in detail, with Stump's vicious pen tearing at the soul of the legend. It is rare in biographies to see a writer tear at the subject, but Stump does it as a reconciliation with his soul. In between the lines, Stump comes to terms with his own demons, and it brings the book to life. Every one of Cobb's misgivings and psychotic rampages is shown, and his one truly great asset, that of being the greatest baseball player of all time, is also given full credit. An amazing work for its balance between the two worlds of writing the truth and writing what our legends want us to see is covered. Al Stump wrote the story of an American legend in everyday life in Cobb, and leaves the reader one possible conclusion, Cobb isn't the man we want our children to emulate.

A not-so-sweet Peach
A "natural" with a Napoleonic complex ("He knew how to win against the odds"), Tyrus R Cobb was, in the words of his biographer Al Stump, "the most chilling, the eeriest of all American sport figures". In fact, Mr Stump's impressed if sometimes impatient "Cobb" (1994) is subtitled "The Life and Times of the Meanest Man Who Ever Played Baseball"; and Mr Stump, who has contributed to Esquire and Sports Illustrated, has the anecdotes to prove it -- some from the Georgia Peach himself. Mr Stump helped Cobb write his memoirs in 1960, and it seems their collaboration was wary, to put it mildly. One thing Mr Stump never had any doubt about: Cobb was a great player. With a career batting average of .367 (compared to Honus Wagner's .329, for instance) and 6,294 put-outs, he was formidable both at bat or in the outfield. Then there was the draconian side: the bullying of team mates (even worse when he became player/manager of the Detroit Tigers) and using his spikes as stilettoes against opponents. Cobb had a reputation as a virulent racist, his hatred of Negroes causing him on one occasion to even beat up a black woman. During his rivalry with Babe Ruth Cobb's ethnic prejudice went so haywire he accused Ruth of being the product of miscegenation and applied all the common slurs. He also attacked fans (as did Ruth), sending at least one to the hospital. Of course, the "cranks" often asked for it, the stands filled with a rudeness and disrespect mainly confined today to a stadium which shall remain unnamed. Cobb's personal life and the reasons for his problems are sketchy. The razzing he received as a rookie, added to a bizarre family tragedy, caused him to have a nervous breakdown at the age of twenty. Some of Cobb's contemporaries thought he was truly insane, but the explanation for his behavior could be less drastic. Emotionally selfish (though financially generous) and subject to tantrums, it could be he simply never grew up; but Mr Stump doesn't explore the complexities that thoroughly. Of the 20 photographic illustrations in the book only one shows one of his five children. The wives are not pictured at all. Cobb was married twice and divorced twice. The second wife is barely mentioned; the first wife was strictly kinder Kirche Küche. As Cobb grew older, the Game grew away from him. His despotic attitude (Mr Stump calls him "the Torquemada of the ballpark") became unacceptable to a new breed of better-educated ballplayer, and his rejection of the Ruthian home run meant that many of his tactics didn't work anymore. He died in 1961, an alcoholic alienated millionaire, admired by Mr Stump though he felt distanced from Cobb. (Just three of Cobb's fellow players attended his funeral.) The fact that Mr Stump wrote this lengthy biography is proof that he thought Ty Cobb was an athlete worthy of respect and remembrance for his professional intelligence. As Connie Mack said: "His secret is that he thinks two plays ahead of everybody else."

Riveting
Al Stump was chosen to ghostwrite the memoirs of Ty Cobb in 1960. After almost a year of research and harrowing experiences, "My Life in Baseball: The True Record" was published. The final product, which bore the name of Ty Cobb, was, in the words of Stump, self-serving. So much of the Cobb story either remained untold or was sanitized that Stump decided to write a corrective article for True Magazine. This article brought accolades and eventually "Cobb" published some 30 years after the original Cobb autobiography.

Ty Cobb was the first player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and from a purely baseball perspective, he was most certainly deserving. Many of baseball's pioneers are given short shrift today and even devoted fans are ignorant of their accomplishments and the conditions under which they played. Low pay, abuse by owners, no helmets, beanballs, doctored balls and dim lighting were all circumstances that ball players from the early part of the 20th century had to endure. To then realize that some of the personages in the book (Cobb, Mathewson, etc.) excelled in this environment is staggering. I could list Cobb's accomplishments....homeplate steals, his lifetime batting average or any of the other statistics that imbue baseball with its unique charm, but suffice it to say that Tyrus Cobb is arguably the greatest player to ever don a cap. It is of course the case that this is not the whole story. If it were, Cobb would be remembered much more fondly; however, this biography may not have been necessary and even if it were written, it would likely be less interesting.

The dark side of Cobb make him a decidedly unsympathetic human being. Here was a man possessed of great intelligence, business acumen, persistence. A fierce competitor with a certain sense of honor who, for example, was instrumental in forming baseball's first union (the Baseball Players Fraternity) to protect the rights of all players. He also set up a charitable foundation (the Cobb Educational Fund) to aid bright but poor students from Georgia. This normally taciturn man was reported to have cried when some of the students helped by his endowment tearfully thanked him. Yet within this same man existed a person who was bigoted, foul-mouthed, humorless and prone to violent outbursts when he felt wronged.

In the preface, the author writes "During the long stretches of time we spent together, my feelings for Ty Cobb were often in flux." Every chapter in this page-turner of a book provoked the same sense of ambivalence in me. While some of his on-field antics, and especially his bigotry, are painful to read and well-nigh impossible to forgive, his talents and the tragedies which he experienced make him a figure not easy to dismiss or forget. The untimely death of his beloved father and the subsequent murder charges levied against his mother seem to have set the stage for an adulthood destined to be memorialized in print or perhaps even the silver screen.

At the time of his death, Cobb was estranged from his surviving children. The book concludes with Al Stump telling us "....the funeral of the most shrewd, inventive, lurid, detested, mysterious, and superb of all baseball players went unattended by any official representative of the game at which he excelled." Whether you are a baseball fan or not, this book is an informative and compelling read.

Perhaps Baseball's Most Disliked Player
This book documents the life and times of one of the most complex, violent, angry, and racist men to ever play the game of baseball. It takes the reader from his growing up in rural Georgia to going to Detroit to play for the Tigers and finally to his later years in California and his death of prostate cancer in 1959. But along with these personality defects, Cobb had incredible talent to go with his competitiveness----and he was competitive both on and off the field. Anyone interested in baseball's history would undoubtedly enjoy reading this biography of one of the game's most colorful characters. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Alistair Cooke writes in the preface to this collection of 23 biographical sketches, "Most of these pieces tend to find, and rejoice in, what is best about their subjects." That is not to say that the distinguished British print and broadcast journalist (resident for many years in America) is starry-eyed about the men and women he profiles: George Bernard Shaw was a crank; Frank Lloyd Wright a prima donna; General George Marshall an appalling public speaker. Yet Cooke's smooth prose and keen insights explore the larger issues his subjects' stories raise and invite readers to appreciate the people who have made a difference. Franklin Roosevelt's visionary leadership was possible because of a gentleman's agreement with the press inconceivable today: they never printed a single photo of him in his wheelchair. FDR's vice president, John Nance Garner, was a Southern politico who understood only power and back-scratching: "There is one man left who is like him," Cooke wrote in 1967, "Lyndon Johnson"--cogently and simultaneously nailing LBJ's strength and weakness. Politicians and statesmen preponderate here (Cooke's Winston Churchill portrait is justly famous), but the author covers writers (P.G. Wodehouse, Robert Frost), performers (Gary Cooper, Duke Ellington), and columnists (James Reston, Erma Bombeck) with equal shrewdness. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A Good Read
Prior to buying this volume of Alistair Cooke's writings, I knew him only as the former host of Masterpiece Theater, with his career as a journalist being only something I had heard about. The essays collected here are from various periods of Mr. Cooke writing career (1957 through 1999) and include a diverse group of people, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Irma Bombeck, Gary Cooper, Barry Goldwater and Eleanor Roosevelt . Each essay is rather short, averaging about ten pages. I read a comment by a reviewer that Mr. Cooke was excellent at creating a "portrait" of his subjects. While this is probably true, "Memoirs of the Great and Good" aims more at anecdotes and episodes, that Mr. Cooke elaborates upon, rather than having the detail and depth of a short biography. Many were written upon the death of the subject, so they are valedictory in tone. The essay about FDR relates an occurrence that happened to Mr. Cooke when he encountered the President as he was arriving to give a speech at Harvard. The last piece is a book review of "The Last Lion" by William Manchester, a biography of Winston Churchill, that gives us an insightful look into the early years of Churchill.

In sum, I found these essays to be thoughtfully written and compulsive to read. It was surprising to realize how quickly I went through the book.

A Partial Review
"Memories of the Great and the Good" is a collection of essays that, as much as introducing the more casual and less public sides of nearly two dozen luminaries, reveals the evolution of America and of Alistair Cooke. The pieces stretch from 1951 through 1999 and the most useful advice, repeated both in discussing Churchill's love of war and hatred of the idea of women's suffrage, and in dismissing the alleged racism of golfer Bobby Jones, is to beware the "shame of seeing a man out of his time." One reporter recently dubbed Cooke the Dorian Gray of journalism, perhaps both for having been silver-haired and apparently the same age for as many decades as not, and because it is difficult to tell to what time the man himself belongs.

Even though he is my grandfather, I can be no help on that score; in recent years I have seen the replacement of a knee and an angioplasty (both of which he has mentioned in his weekly BBC "Letter from America") leave him as sprightly as I have ever known him.

Each essay reflects the time of its creation, whether that was 1967 or 1999. The 1974 piece on Duke Ellington mentions a visit to the bandleader's flat "on the swagger side of Harlem," and comments, "There is such a place," the Duke being at the top of "the hierarchy of Negro social status." Yet the 1999 piece on FDR is most memorable for an account of the unexpected, unseen, and contemporarily unpublishable view of the president being carried out of a car and limping, assisted, into a giant hall. By urging the reader to look at his subjects in their times, he sometimes implicitly admonishes himself for failing to do so. "Wodehouse at Eighty," for one, shows the father of Jeeves unquestionably out of his time, an anachronism as viewed--and, to be honest, caricatured--by Cooke, in his early fifties at the time. In other essays he steps almost too much into the times and shoes of his subjects, for example when mirroring the outlook of Erma Bombeck, whose career "was that of her generation--brace yourselves!--mother and housewife." While many of the pieces attempt and succeed at portraying the individuals 'in their time,' a large number of the pieces were written far after 'their times' as obituaries, which should not be surprising as Cooke shares with every nonogenarian the fact of having seen an extraordinary number of players both step onto the stage and then take their bows and make their exits some time later.

Combined with this historical span, what is truly worthy about this book is that, like his earlier "Six Men," it displays the extraordinary degree of access which he, as a foreign correspondent par excellence, enjoyed with a dizzying array of figures. George Bernard Shaw is in a behind-the-scenes committee discussing the pronunciation of proper "BBC English." "The General"--Eisenhower-- sits on his back porch, commenting on his golf and waiting for Cooke's t.v. crew to reposition themselves. And Duke Ellington is in his boxers and a towel, devouring breakfast at two p.m. These are the kind of stories that I've heard come out over drinks in his study, or on Christmas afternoon in Vermont, as if they were the most pedestrian, ordinary experiences.

On October 2, 1999, a fascinating sixteen-minute interview about the book was broadcast on Weekend All Things Considered, recorded in that self-same study in New York. NPR's finest have come to call, just as Cooke did on Wodehouse or Ike; as Cooke thus becomes a living museum of the twentieth century, I wonder if his plea is partly that he himself not be viewed out of his time. In the interview, he posits that America and Americans have, in asserting our 'rights,' lost track of the collective societal duties to which they correspond. With this I must respectfully disagree; we must recognize that these courtesies, if they existed, were only accorded to a small, privileged establishment. Thus, I far prefer a society where anyone can enforce his rights, to one that relies on a collective sense of duty from which many could never benefit. In any case, "Memories of the Great and the Good" offers a rare look, at Cooke (long an icon of Britain to Americans and in icon of America to Britain) and at many of the most important actors on the stage of the twentieth century. I truly hope you will enjoy it.

Alistair Cooke's Insights on Renown Figures
I purchased this book for my 13 year old son for Christmas, and took the liberty of reading it. I read Cooke's sections on George C. Marshall, Winston Churchill,Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Bobby Jones because I was familiar with all of them from other works. Cooke writes in a breezy style, butI believe he captures the noble, transcendent charateristics of each man.I enjoyed each sketch thorougly. His vignettes are all perceptive. I hope that this might spark my son's interest in reading more about these figures. Overall an excellent, quick read. ... Read more

Book Description

The worldwide impact of Christianity is a direct result of people who have played key roles in the missionary enterprise. This unique reference work documents the global history of Christian missions with biographical articles on the most outstanding missionaries from the past 2,000 years. Written by 350 experts from 45 countries, the BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY contains more than 2,400 original, signed biographies that portray leading missionary figures from Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, Pentecostal, independent, and indigenous churches. Arranged in a convenient A-Z format, the articles provide biographical information for each missionary covered as well as discussion of their writings, public achievements, and contributions to contemporary mission issues. ... Read more

Book Description

Media visionary and business titan Michael Eisner presents a candid look back at one of the most formative experiences of his life--the time he spent at summer camp.

For the millions who enjoyed childhood summers spent away from home at camp, that time is recalled with everything from dismay to nostalgic bliss.For Disney CEO Michael Eisner, the time he spent at Keewaydin summer camp, nestled in the mountains of Vermont, served as a cherished and invaluable starting point for an adult life that would include a career and family life filled with unparalleled success. From the first time his father took Michael to Keewaydin at the age of seven, he realized it would become an important part of his life. Over the years, as a camper and a counselor, Michael absorbed the life lessons that come from sitting in the stern of a canoe or meeting around a campfire at night. With anecdotes from his time spent at Keewaydin and stories from his life in the upper echelons of American business that illustrate the campís continued influence, Eisner creates a touching and insightful portrait of his own coming-of-age, as well as a resounding declaration of summer camp as an invaluable national institution. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (5)

Easy to Use for People Just Wanting to Learn About Sparta
For people who do not have the time to read all of Plutarch just to find out about Holy Sparta. A great book for finding out about the Ideal State. Plutarch, like most Greek thinkers hated the mob rule of Demon-ocracy, had a love-hate relationship with the warrior caste system of Sparta. He admired the Greatness of Sparta, but disliked its so called "oppressive nature", albeit, this is what made Sparta great. Plutarch preferred Spartan "oppression" over the mob rule of that other Greek city-state.
This is a great book for anyone wishing to stop the decline of the West. Sparta is the answer to the night of the living dead government of the United States of Zombies. Wyatt Kaldenberg

Read the fine print
It is with a slight reservation that I recommend this book to classical history buffs & fans of the ancient Spartans. Those (like myself) who lick their chops @ the chance to read a book about the Spartans in their prime might be a bit disappointed.

The Lacedaemons were never the same after their defeat at the hands of the Thebans @ Leuctria in 371BC. A good chunk of this book (about 1/3, in fact) is spent on Agis & Cleomenes. These personages were post-Leuctria fellows who tried to resurrect the Lycurgan principles and traditions which the Spartans were so well known for. Both failed, but gave noble efforts to these ends. Basically, they represented the death-knell to the hardcore Laconian way of life.

Now, both figures are certainly important to classical history; that much is not in debate. However, confronting them in a book entitled "On Sparta" by a historian the calibre of Plutarch is a bit anti-climactic. Again, I was so looking forward to reading about this magnificent culture while it was in its prime - cover to cover.

On the upside, the best part of the book deals with Lycurgus. It was he who founded the famous "Spartan way of life" around the 8th century BC. It was he who contrived such innovations as the long hair on Spartan males, the Lacedamonian distaste for $$ and all things artistic (with the exception of music) as well as virtually all luxuries and comforts of life. It is because of Lycurgus that the Laconians who came after shunned all things effeminate and became such a brutal fighting force. It was also he who promoted egalitarian distribution of land - noted as his most significant reform. Here Plutarch furnishes one of the most detailed biographies of this great man that you will find. The chapter on Lycurgus alone is well worth the price of the book.

In the remainder of the treatise, Plutarch displays sundry quotations of Spartan kings, warriors and women [it is ironic that in such a militaristic state that Lacedaemon women had more rights and privileges than any other city state in Greece]. There are many salient quotes that exemplify Spartan ideals quite nicely.

If you're looking for a book on Sparta, you can do much worse than this one. I will continue my search for more books on Sparta during her heyday. In the meantime, I will have to settle for daydreams about Lycurgus.

I will leave you with one of my favorite Spartan sayings (this one by King Agesilaus):

"Courage has no value if justice is not in evidence too; but if everyone were to be just, then no one would need courage." (P. 119)

A Good introduction to Spartan History
This book contains Plutarch's biographies of Agis, Cleomenes, and Lycurgus. It is not exactly a linear book about Spartan history, like W.G. Forrests, but it contains a great deal of information about the society within the biographies. Like any of Penguin's translations this one is good and faithful to Plutarch's words. The book is great for the newcomer to the study of ancient Greek history, but even an experienced classics student would appreciate it, especially the section on famous Spartan quotes. The lives of the Spartan nobles are interesting and Plutarch's writing is very readable. There are some concerns about the accuracy of the information since Plutarch was writing about these people long after they died. Some scholars even doubt if Lycurgus really existed. Regardless, Plutarch is one of the only available sources of information about Sparta, a civilization that kept few records. I would recomment this book to someone desiring an introduction to Spartan history. A more advanced reader would probably want to buy a complete copy of Plutarch's lives and get the biographies in this volume with those of two other Spartans, Lysander and Agesilaus and many other classical figures. However, the chapter in "Plutarch on Sparta" containing famous quotations alone makes the book a necessity for the serious Laconiphile.

Plutarch on Sparta
For Plutarch diehards. Other than Lycurgus, the few Lives covered are all relatively obscure Spartan kings of the Hellenic period. Half the book is comprised of Spartan "sayings" which are very tedious.

Great research source
This collection contains Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus, Life of Agis and Cleomenes, and his collection of Spartan Sayings. It also has Xenophon's Spartan Society in an appendix, as well as other useful objects such as king lists, maps, and a glossary. This is on top of Richard Talbert's excellent notes. This volume is interesting enough to read for pleasure, and Talbert's notes and appendices aid in understanding Sparta and its people. It was very useful to me when writing a research paper, and I am sure it would be to anyone else. The index is thorough and accurate, and the translation understandable and consistant. I would recommend this to anyone interested in either Plutarch or Sparta. ... Read more

Book Description

Doctors and Discoveries tells the story of Western medicine through the lives of its most influential figures, chosen for their relevance to contemporary medicine. With eighty-six profiles-from Hippocrates to today's gene hunters-this is the most extensive collection to be published in a single volume in more than fifty years. Famous figures like Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard are profiled alongside lesser-known but intriguing figures such as patent-medicine pioneer Lydia Pinkham and the founder of chiropractic, D. D. Palmer. Founders, modernizers, and heroes are presented in a spirited and engaging style that makes for engrossing reading or browsing. Doctors and Discoveries is the perfect gift for anyone interested in history, science, or just great storytelling. "For the history of medicine, and much of modern medicine itself, there can be no better introduction than these biographies skillfully woven into our accumulated knowledge. They make for compulsive reading." (Edward O. Wilson, University Professor at Harvard University) ... Read more

Reviews (3)

How today's health practitioners work
Centuries of research and medical insights have contributed to the fundamental principles of today's medical and research practices: Doctors & Discoveries is dedicated to the pioneers who made these initial medical discoveries. Key figures in medicine from past to present are detailed in a collective biography of medical history chronicling their lives and achievements. Solid links are drawn between discoveries, discoverers, and how today's health practitioners work.

A great addition to your reference library
A splendid book for writers, doctors, scientists, reference librarians and any educated reader who wants to understand the history of medicine through the biographies of its chief proponents. From Paracelsus and Harvey to Koch and Gallo, this is a highly readable history.

Many unfamiliar names lie behind numerous major discoveries and the reader is in for a real education discovering the pioneers of molecular biology, enzyme chemistry, viral theories of cancer, medical education, electrocardiography, cellular immunity and much more. A pefect gift for the young daughter or son who is looking forward to a medical career.

Great book on physicians as explorers/inventors!
I am always on the look out for decent books that can be used to teach students about phenomenal lives and mentors. This book accurately fills that need. Most of the physicians in this book were also researchers before scientific research was even a field. Many of these men (they are mostly men) came from backgrounds that were not particularly conducive to doing medicine, let alone the research that they ended up doing. Their families were not aristrocratic or learned, many had fathers who were tradesmen...yet for some reason, they chose to enter fields of medicine. Medicine was not always the prestigious field or career that it is now. Often, it was looked down upon, especially prior to its consolidation as a science. The work that these men did helped to raise the prestige of medicine, anatomy, physiology, and neuroscience.

Medicine, like most sciences, is a long ongoing process of learning. Not just about the body, but about what chemicals and what therapies are going to work for individuals. One of the things that this book makes clear is that those who succeeded in furthering medical knowledge all possessed great curiosity as well as often possessing great courage. So many times, these guys had to buck the current establishment, whether it was clergy, current medical knowledge (often dating back to Greece even in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance), and even governmental authority.

This book is well-written, and provides a lot of diverse stories about medical achievement mainly in European countries. There are a few chapters dedicated to women and only a couple involving men from the Middle East, none from the Orient. The author does bring up alternative medicine, but since I can think of several other medical discoveries and physician/inventors from parts of the non-European world that could and should be mentioned, I think this book should be followed by another including the inspiring stories from the rest of the world. All children and all adolescents, need to see mentors, scientists, and physicians that are like them; that it is possible to achieve in this area no matter where you are from, what gender or race or ability you have. This book is a critical and good start, but it is essential to take it farther...

It's important for kids to have diverse meanings for the word 'hero'. With so many in the sports world, in the world of entertainment, and now in the business world providing bad examples, it is paramount that teachers and parents provide alternatives to these people as to what actually constitutes a 'hero'. So many in the media and in government lambast how poorly our students are doing in science and math education, yet part of the problem lies in the fact that adults are not providing good examples of what is important and what is not. This book helps to place this critical emphasis back on the importance of intelligence, of creativity, and of compassion for fellow human beings. A truly vital book to have for educators and those who would be mentors.

Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh ... Read more

Book Description

A true, first-person account by the victim who survived the crimes committed by the rapist and killer made famous in the movie Dead Man Walking.Debbie Morris takes readers beyond the story of those crimes and into the journey of her faith as she wrestles with the question all of us face at some point in life: Is there any crime, any hurt, any person beyond the power of forgiveness? ... Read more

Reviews (14)

An Inspiring Story : An Incredible Woman
I just recently returned from a convention of youth workers where Debbie Morris was one of our General Session speakers. To hear her story, then read it, is a powerful experience. When she spoke, there were close to 5,000 people in an exhibition hall which served as our main staging location -- as she spoke, you could have heard a feather drop in the room. Whether hearing Debbie speak, or reading her book, issues surrounding forgiveness are almost sure to surface. Please read this book for yourself, and for those in your life who need to hear this message of the power of forgivness.

forgiveness at it's best...and hardest
i thought this was one of the most honest, vulnerable stories i have read. the author, debbie morris, has a faith that was tested beyond belief. her account of the traumatic events in her life at the age of 16 open the reader completely to her world. though written from a reflective point of view, it is written so that i felt like i was experiencing it with her, though i realize i hardly have the right to think that.

anyone who wants to better understand or relate to a friend who is going through similar trauma should read this without a doubt. she is brave and would inspire anyone in facing reality and finding real forgiveness, within themself, and for the offender.

Powerful Book
I originally saw this book in a discount bookstore during summer 2002. I was curious and eventually red the inside flap and back cover. I was intrigued by just that much alone. Then about a year later, I finally ordered me a used copy through a private seller on Amazon. My only regret is that I didn't order this book sooner.

Debbie (Cuevas) Morris was abducted by Robert Willie and his friend. In addition, she was raped 3 times while in thier hands. Her testimony eventually lead to his death sentance, due to some previous murders he committed.

Most of what was said or reported prior to this book focused on Willie, his crimes, and his eventual execution. All too often the law enforcement officials, with help from the media, are so busy tracking down a criminal that people forget all about the victims left in their wake. I do agree that we should go after the criminals and bring them to justice. But what about those affected by their crimes?

Debbie Morris tells the whole thing from start to finish. But don't be mislead. This isn't just a true-crime book. Debbie also tells of the long and painful journey back that she had to make. She had to re-examine herself, her beliefs about criminals and the death sentence, and ultimately about her anger towards God.

Perhaps the best part about this book is how Debbie Morris tells how she came to terms with Biblical forgiveness. Everyone in the world could certainly learn many lessons on just this alone. I say this because unforgiveness will eat you alive. Debbie stresses this point too, because she said that she was still unhappy even after Rober Wille was executed. As she states in the book, justice doesn't automatically bring about forgiveness. Sure, justice should happen. But we still have to have God's help in forgiving others. Justice in and of itslef will not make us happy and live a peaceful life inside.

To Debbie Morris-thank you for writing this book. I think that your book should be a must reading for all Christians. And thank you for your strong Christian faith. To God be the glory!

More than just a book!
The author gives just enough detail to imagine it all. Her descriptive words leave you with strong feelings of sadness for what happend to her. This is a great gift for just about any occassion. I would recommend it to my friends.

A wonderful book about forgiveness
My sister gave me this book, and I found it to be one of the best books on a person personal journey from being victimized to forgiving the victimizer. It portrayed what Biblical forgiveness really means-it isn't saying what the victimizer did was okay, or that you have to be best friends with him, it simply means that you no longer hold anger in your heart, and will not let what happen to you grow to bitterness. Her journey wasn't easy, but her words were very genuine. I think this book is a great lesson in forgiveness to anyone, but I think any woman or man who has been the victim of a brutal crime should read this book. ... Read more

Book Description

"Belongs on the shelf of classics about surviving degradation with dignity and even humor." Time
In March 1985, Terry Anderson was swept up in the violent conflict of a turbulent era. At the mercy of Shiite captors for nearly seven years, he lived in chains, wondering fearfully if each day would be his last. But his spirit soared beyond captivity, and he never gave up. Nor did those who loved him. And now, a free man again, he tells the harrowing and poignant story of a hostage's survival and final triumph.
... Read more

Reviews (8)

A lot of time to think
Mr. Anderson's book is a lesson on how to maintain sainity in the most horrible situations you could every be in; kidnapped and the lose of personal freedom.

This book is not a pleasant read. It is very important though in that it allows the reader, who is probably very comfortable while reading, to feel the sense of dispair that Mr. Anderson went through.

The political reasons as well as the climate in the Middle East in the 1980's is very interesting and this account allows us to see it from a totally different perspective.

Plus it has a happy ending, I highly recommend it.

What a Waste of His Life
I do not want this to sound insensitive, but the one thing I kept thinking as I was reading this book is why was he there? The U.S. government was telling U.S. citizens to leave, the Lebanese government did not care, his employer wanted him to leave, and there were increasing hostage incidents. The book his the story of his capture and the seven years he spent as a captive of this militant group. He does a good job in describing the locations he was in, the people that were his captors, and the other persons that he was with. I thought the most interesting parts of the book detailed his conversations with some of his captors and their views on the situation.

The book is a very interesting view of what happened to the author. The details are rich and he does a good job of painting the scenes for us. He also did a good job of explaining the depression of being a captive and what it is like to loss seven years of your life, although I do not think any author could truly express the emotional pain that he must have gone through. If you are interested in this part of the world or this story, this is a great book. It is also interesting given the current climate in the Middle East to read about what was happening 20 years ago.

An amazing book
Den of Lions: Memoirs of Seven Years by Terry Anderson is one of my favorite books. The book grabbed my attention and kept it. I read the book in one day. Learning of Terry Anderson's ordeal through his eyes and in his words was amazing. Having been only 4 when he was taken hostage, I did not really know much about him until he was released from Lebanon in 1991, when I was 10. I grew up watching the news with my parents and I can remember seeing his return on television.
When I decided to study journalism in college, I chose the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. When I heard that Terry Anderson was going to be joining the faculty at Scripps, I was truly excited. I read his memoirs and then had the opportunity to hear him speak about his ordeal. Having him as a professor at Scripps was a wonderful experience for all journalism students. I have the great privilege of saying that I met one of my role models and I am grateful for that.
Den of Lions: Memoirs of Seven Years is one of the best books I have ever read. It is touching and wonderfully written. It tells Terry Anderson's story in a way that only he could.

A heart pummeling hostage memoir of the Beirut crisis.
Terry Anderson's Den of Lions is a den of insights into the radical bi-polar terrorist mentality in which he was trapped for over seven years. His descriptions of the bombings, shootings and random daily violence that permeated around the non-citizens and the citizens of Lebanon, make this a classic Middle East hostage survivor's story. Anderson's poems of his cruel incarceration are filled with searing depth that transport you to the various scummy basement cells which he shared with other Westerners. Den of Lions and Hostage by David Jacobson go hand in hand and are important contributions in the collection of Middle East books that help those of us citizens who were not there or too young to remember, the horror that Beirut was during the eighties and early ninties. Very highly recommended!

A gripping, insightful book.
I am a Westerner who has lived in Lebanon for many years and yet I gleaned new knowledge of the Middle East from reading "Den of Lions". Terry Anderson is a wonderful writer, and the addition of his fiancee's thoughts and feelings adds depth of insight into the agony of hostage-taking. There are interesting looks into the interaction between hostages and into the daily frustrations of the waste, and yet somehow the not-waste, of almost seven years away from freedom of choice. This is a book that has stayed on my mind. ... Read more

Book Description

For some of the world’s great thinkers, including Aristotle, Aquinas, and Hegel, philosophy is a vast system of fixed, capital-T Truth for humankind to discover, explore and comprehend. For others, even among those with philosophies as diverse as William James and Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosophy is simply a tool, or a process for ascertaining individual factual truths specific to a given time and place. It is often said that if you ask any ten philosophers to define their subject, you’re likely to get ten different answers. Here, presented for non-specialist readers, is an easy-to-understand survey of ideas put forth by 100 important philosophers, from the pre-Socratics of ancient Greece to the analytic philosophers of the present day. Each thinker is summarized in a single illustrated page, or in many instances, in a two-page spread.Each entry includes the philosopher’s birth and death dates, titles of major works, major influences, a capsule biographical sketch, and a brief summary of his or her most important ideas. In addition to philosophers in our own Western tradition, readers will find Chinese sages, including Confucius and Lao-tzu, the Indian Buddhist philosopher Ngrjuna, and thinkers representing other cultures. Just a few of the 100 important thinkers represented in this book are:

• Plato
• Aristotle
• Augustine of Hippo
• Roger Bacon
• Thomas Aquinas
• Thomas Hobbes
• John Locke
• Rene Descartes
• Baruch Spinoza
• Immanuel Kant
• G.W.F. Hegel
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• William James
• Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Martin Heidegger
• Jean-Paul Sartre
• Alfred Jules Ayer
• Willard V.O. Quine
• Thomas Kuhn
• Donald Davidson
• and many others

Book Description

The names of ancient Egyptian kings such as Cheops, Akhenaten, and Ramesses II have become part of popular culture. Yet, for all the tombs and statuary that have survived over the millennia, surprisingly little remains that speaks to the workings of government, cabals in the palace, political factions, and the private lives of the royal families. In The Book of the Pharaohs, Pascal Vernus and Jean Yoyotte offer an indispensable, basic reference to the full human reality of royal Egypt.

The Book of the Pharaohs is an encyclopedia made up of short essays on the pharaohs themselves, as well as on places, dynasties, personages, subjects, and themes relating to the kings and their rule. Entries range from "Adoratrices" (priestesses of Hathor, the Egyptian Aphrodite, whose role was to arouse the erotic impulse in the creator gods) and "Amarna" (the capital created by the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten) to "Scorpion" (who ruled before the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt) and "Zero Dynasty" (the designation for pre-pharaonic Egypt). In addition, Vernus and Yoyotte include a substantial essay on the sources for Egyptian history, a bibliography of books for general readers, and a chronological table that organizes the major periods of Egyptian history and notes the most illustrious royal names from each. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Well researched book on Melvil Dewey
The author, Wayne Wiegand, has written the definitive book on Melvil Dewey. He tells us how Dewey accomplished so much in his lifetime. We also learn of some of the less than admirable qualities of Dewey. I found the following parts fascinating: the rise and fall of the Lake Placid Club; his difficult time at Columbia College; riding his bicycle to work on a regular basis; his ownership of Library Bureau; and the development of the Dewey Decimal System. I really felt that I knew Melvil Dewey after reading this book. The author relates the successes and the frustrations of Dewey. No one has had a greater impact on librarianship in the English speaking world than Melvil Dewey. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn about Dewey. The author is to be commended for a truly outstanding biography! ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A rousing and true biographical account
Polar Extremes: The World Of Lincoln Ellsworth is the historic and engagingly written saga of Lincoln Ellsworth's impressive and hazardous struggle to make aviation history by flying over the earth's Poles. From his 1926 attempt to fly across the North Pole in a dirigible, to flying his custom-made plane over Antarctica in 1935 and discovering a mountain range now called the Ellsworths, Polar Extremes is a compelling biography of a daring and adventures life driven by death-defying passions.Polar Extremes is highly recommended as a rousing and true biographical account and a welcome contribution to the growing library of Aviation History. ... Read more