Book Description

In this pictorial survey of the genius of Robert Adam, the most versatile and productive architect of the eighteenth century, Eileen Harris also illustrates the way in which the use and presentation of Adam's houses have changed over the past hundred years. The country houses featured range from the works of the early 1760s, such as Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, Syon House in Middlesex and Audley End in Essex, through the masterpieces of his maturity, which include Osterley Park and Kenwood near London and Harewood House in Yorkshire, to the later designs of the 1770s and 80s, including Culzean Castle in Scotland and Headfort House in Ireland.

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Customer Reviews (1)

ROBERT ADAM
Robert Adam was one of the most influential architects and decorators of the 18th century.His work influenced Hepplewhite and Sheraton to just name a few.This book does a fine job of making the reader understand the influence and the range of Adams work.The text is highly informative and well researched and the images are crisp and vivid.This book is expensive, yes, but if you have any interest whatsoever in this subject I can't imagine you being disappointed.Great book to buy, if you have the means to buy it. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Adams, a noted photographer of the American West, dislikes words that describe pictures. In this collection of poetic, thought-provoking and highly original essays, he examines Paul Strand's devotion to America and analyzes the origins of his art; he looks at the contradictions in Ansel Adams' life and work, and comes to his own conclusions. He writes movingly not only of people but of place--his beloved West--and his belief that "we live in several landscapes at once, among them the landscape of hope..."Book Description

Customer Reviews (7)

In full agreement with Chris Akin
It couldn't be better said.

This book is pure enjoyment.What a wonderful command of the language from this former English professor!Insightful and reflective, this book is about so much more than the obvious.Though perhaps the title is not that far amiss...

My only "criticism" would regard the desire to see more of the photographs to which Adams refers or describes in detail.He gives us very few opportunities to understand what he says by looking at the picture itself.

wonderful
A wonderfully written book about the wonders of photography written by a wonderful writer with a wonderful eye and a wonderful brain.

Title might not be accurate, but book is nonetheless terrific
Most of the book doesn't really respond to the title, but Robert Adams writes in a very engaging manner and talks about issues that most photographers will find interesting.I found particularly interesting his discussion of famous photographers and their aesthetic philosophy.This is not a book for the casual photographer, but for the photographer who is interested in photography's background, or a collector who'd like to better understand the photographer as artist, this book is terrific.

Photographers -- this book is your friend.
If you are not connected with any photography/art community, this book is for you. If none of your friends has an MFA, and if you are in need of someone who can speak intelligently about photography as art, then again, this book is for you. Robert Adams' writing is clear, concise, and insightful. Adams tells us why we photograph, for example, why we photograph landscapes. The answers include: because the images are of "emblems of a land" (pages 146 and 163), because our photographed subjects redefine us and is part of our biography (page 15), because art is "specifics made universal" (page 120), and because "art is a discovery of harmony" (page 181). Adams consoles photographers who come to realize that spending ten years doing photography won't necessarily result, e.g., in a contract for preparing a coffeetable book: "[t]hey may or may not make a living by photography but they are alive by it" (page 15); and the experience of having an exhibit where the photographer "stand[s] through the opening of an exhibition to which only officials have come." (page 16). Adams reveals the secrets of some of the masters, e.g., Weston: "limbs and torsos . . . treated as shapes to be enjoyed as one might the sight of a smooth stone" (page 64); and Paul Strand: "he worked off axis as if it were a moral principle . . . but usually just slightly off axis." (page 81) Robert Adams offers some critiques of the masters, e.g., of Paul Strand: "[o]ff-centering is used here . . . it begins to seem formulaic (page 87); and of Ansel Adams: "I have been derivative of myself for fifty years." (page 116). Robert Adams' book is a stand-alone book, that is, it does not require a knowledge of literature, art criticism, or history. The book is for the layperson. Another fine, insightful book on photography criticism is Light Readings by A.D. Coleman. A remarkable bit of insight by A.D. Coleman, for example, concerns his view of the typical amateur (page 164): "Typically, a snapshot of someone's relative at Grant's Tomb will show the relative too far from the camera to be identifiable and Grant's Tomb too close to be recognizable . . . Their charm and poignancy derives specifically from their failure to communicate . . ."The writings of Robert Adams and A.D. Coleman may be contrasted with the poetic commentary David Wallace (in Morley Baer's The Wilder Shore) and with the "writing" of Sally Eauclair in The New Color Photography and New Color/New Work.The writings of David Wallace and Sally Eauclaire are silly, and sometimes very silly, and serve only to draw attention to the words printed on the page instead of serving to invoke new concepts and connections in the mind.

Dog eared and well thumbed
This book has been of great assitance to me in my teaching and creative practiceover the years.It has been a source of inspiration and motivation allowing me to continue working with my cameras and photography, at the same time reconciling different ideas about 'money', 'ideas', 'freinds', 'teaching' etc to enable me to maintain my faith in what I do.

The essays on teaching and money in particular have helped me clarify my position as both an artist and teacher, I highly recommend this book to anyone considering teaching or photography as a career. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
The New West is a reprint of the photography book, first issued in 1974, that was a formative influence on a whole generation of American photographers. In the book Robert Adams documents the changing landscape of the United States in the 60s and 70s. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The (old) new west
The New West is one of the most significant works of photography in the 20th century, presenting the reality of the western landscape in harsh contrast to the mythology of the other Adams...The pictures cut straight to the bone, showing the damage done to a landscape by our progress, but always the light is perfect, the skies brilliant, and the distant horizon intact.This work is a challenge to photographers, to see the world clearly, and to others, who struggle to live with the earth, rather than on it.

New edition makes me want for more
The return of this beautiful book is as inspiring as the book itself. Never having seen the original however makes it hard to compare editions but as I am a BIG Adams fan the work is stunnning, the neat catergories help the beginner to understand Mr Adams and where he is coming from. ... Read more

Book Description
Robert Adam was one of the greatest British architects of the latereighteenth century. So widespread was his influence as a decorator and furniture designerthat his name has become a household word. But it is the synthesis of architecture,planning, and decoration that stands at the heart of Adam's achievement, as Eileen Harrisshows in this elegantly illustrated book. She considers in detail the interaction of each ofthese elements in nineteen of Adam's most accomplished interior projects, includingsome of the most famous British country houses and London town houses.Most ofAdam's enormous body of work was in preexisting houses; the challenges of remodelingstimulated his inventive imagination, and he became a master at turning awkwardsituations to advantage. Harris has mined archival sources, including the large collectionof drawings from the Adam office at Sir John Soane's Museum in London, and fullyexamined the houses themselves to discover exactly what Adam did in each project andwhy. In her detailed discussions of the planning, decoration, ceilings, carpets, chimneypieces, and furniture of such interiors as those at Kedleston, Syon House, Osterley Park,Newby Hall, Culzean Castle, and Home and Lansdowne Houses in London, Harrisuncovers the full extent of Adam's prodigious achievements. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

B+
This is a gorgeous book; the photos are first rate (always in color) and appropriate to content. The only factor detracting form the book's general excellence is a text that is sometimes disjointed and with references to pictures or illustrations not included in the book. Were that not so, the book would rate an A+. ... Read more

Book Description
Since the 1960's, Robert Adams has used his camera lens to document the changing landscape of the United States. Covering the turbulent period from 1978 to 1983, Robert Adams' photographs of the Los Angeles basin document a disintegration that is at once social and ecological. At the same time, however, they reveal a persistent verdancy and vitality in the landscape that contains a glimmer of hope. This hope that Adams shares with the viewer is much like the hope held out at the end of a classical tragedy--insistent, yet difficult to account for. In California we find a bird in a defoliated orchard, a suddenly clear day on a quiet road, the astonishing silhouette of a eucalyptus in smog--and we are left wondering how to explain these seemingly unreal moments.The images here constitute yet another chapter in the oeuvre of one of the most important landscape photographers of our time, building on and communicating with Adams' continuing contribution to the national dialogue about America's health and future--as well as his monumental contribution to contemporary photography. Printed in stunning tritones, this new monograph features a revelatory introduction by former United States Poet Laureate Robert Hass. ... Read more

Book Description
Description: Turning Back: A Photographic Journal of Re-Exploration is published to coincide with the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The narrative begins at the Pacific Ocean and moves eastward through what was formerly one of the world's great rain forests. Photographs at the center of the book report on the forest's destruction. Elsewhere they trace a search for hope. Two hundred years ago, Lewis and Clark reported finding in the American Northwest a vast forest of ancient evergreens. In Turning Back Robert Adams looks again at the region's trees, discovering evidence both of America's failure and of a continuing promise. President Jefferson's primary charge to Lewis and Clark was to prepare the way for American commerce. Today, historians still speculate about why, upon his return, Lewis lapsed into depression and apparently committed suicide. "Going east," Adams suggests, "was more difficult than going west."So then, what is the future? Turning Back documents two kinds of predictive evidence. On the one hand we observe the results of greed so unrestrained that they are indistinguishable from those of nihilism. On the other we see what still lives, whether by our design or neglect, or Providence; in these 164 pictures the tone is celebratory, as in a prayer book. From coastal landscapes populated with tourists to timber clear-cutting and small family farms in eastern Oregon, here we reflect on what was lost, what is retained, and what we value both regionally and as a people with a common history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

all our lives
This is not a 'coffee table' book, but one which requires serious thought and study. Ostensibly about clear cutting in Oregon, it is a commentry on our world and what we are doing to it. He does offer hope but it is a thin one. It should be essential study for all photographers involved in environmental photography, in fact anyone concerned with our present attitudes to the world we all live in. Robert Adams most important book yet,but a demanding book to 'read'.

TURNING BACK
Robert Adams is a significant American Photographer.Adam's photographs and this book are a reminder how much of our natural world has been destroyed by the greed of the forest industry in the Pacific Northwest. Adams has shown devastation inflicted on the landscape as Mathew Brady showed Civil War battlefields. This book goes further and is a superb book to own.

A difficult book for a difficult time
This book may seem a bit inaccessible at first, but rewards those willing to spend time with it.The images are of forests, mostly in Oregon, close to the place Bob Adams has made home for the last decade.In this landscape, Adams finds elements that resonate both with the past and the present, celebrating what remains, but also showing very clearly the damage done.The most savage pictures are those of clear cuts, where the stumps of the virgin forests still remain, but the effect seems more to be from war rather than commerce.These images are all the more striking when we consider the images we have not seen from our recent history.

Disappointing
Although I have enjoyed Robert Adams earlier work, I am having difficulty seeing the photographic merit of this current project.If one reads the text with the explanation that Adams is attempting to show some of the destruction of the wilderness caused by a man in the areas that were explored by Lewis and Clark, then there is a context and a meaning to be had.But if you look at the photographs on their own, without any explanation of the intent of the photographer, they appear to be bland and boring. ... Read more

Book Description
The distinguished philosopher Robert M. Adams presents a major work on virtue, which is once again a central topic in ethical thought.A Theory of Virtue is a systematic, comprehensive framework for thinking about the moral evaluation of character. Many recent attempts to stake out a place in moral philosophy for this concern define virtue in terms of its benefits for the virtuous person or for human society more generally. In Part One of this book Adams presents and defends a conception of virtue as intrinsic excellence of character, worth prizing for its own sake and not only for its benefits. In the other two parts he addresses two challenges to the ancient idea of excellence of character.One challenge arises from the importance of altruism in modern ethical thought, and the question of what altruism has to do with intrinsic excellence. Part Two argues that altruistic benevolence does indeed have a crucial place in excellence of character, but that moral virtue should also be expected to involve excellence in being for other goods besides the well-being (and the rights) of other persons. It explores relations among cultural goods, personal relationships, one's own good, and the good of others, as objects of excellent motives. The other challenge, the subject of Part Three of the book, is typified by doubts about the reality of moral virtue, arising from experiments and conclusions in social psychology. Adams explores in detail the prospects for an empirically realistic conception of excellence of character as an object of moral aspiration, endeavor, and education. He argues that such a conception will involve renunciation of the ancient thesis of the unity or mutual implication of all virtues, and acknowledgment of sufficient 'moral luck' in the development of any individual's character to make virtue very largely a gift, rather than an individual achievement, though nonetheless excellent and admirable for that. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (3)

I Didn't Get It
In an essay in this little book, entitled "Civilizing Criticism", Robert Adams cites Henry James as asking of a work of art "What is the artist trying to do?Does he do it? Was it worth doing?"I had to guess at what Adams was trying to do; if I guessed correctly, it was worth doing; he didn't do it.

Adams, who was born in 1937, was and probably still is an American landscape photographer.This series of short essays was originally published in 1981 and has now been republished.The essays range in title from "Truth and Landscape" to "Photographing Evil".I am reluctant to describe the contents further because I found it hard to follow the author's reasoning or extract a theme from most of the essays.The author writes with good grammar but his rhetoric seemed weak to me.Perhaps this was a failing on my part, but I read most of the essays twice and still failed to grasp them.

Consider the first essay.Adams seems to say that we are disappointed by the American landscape because it has been despoiled.I'm not going to deny that the littered beaches of Long Island are not as beautiful as they once were.But after watching the sunrise from Cadillac Mountain in Maine and rafting through the Grand Canyon, I've still been able to become excited about the landscape.In the same essay Adams says that landscape can offer us three verities: geography, autobiography and metaphor.He states that geography, the mere recording of the view, cannot hold our attention unless the photographer impresses himself on the picture. I agree with this, but he offers no basis for this conclusion, and offers no suggestion of a use for this information.He never discusses metaphor again.

One has to wonder who the audience for this book is.Photographers have little to learn from it.Photograph viewers get no help in understanding the truth of a photograph, landscape or otherwise.Who else is there?

I guess I was misled by the title.I expected discussions of beauty in photography and what the traditional and present values were.I never got it.

recommended
For me, there are two key assertions in Robert Adams' "Beauty in Photography".First, that we "live in discouraging hours of society's apparent decay" (p. 88).Second, that the purpose of art is to "help us meet our worst fear, the suspicion that life may be chaos and that therefore our suffering is without meaning" (p. 25).

From these two assertions Adams develops his interpretation of photography: Photography detects, extracts and emphasizes the beauty around us, and by doing so it points toward something deeper in the world, an organizing power, a coherence supporting the world and our lifes.To Adams, photography is a spiritual exercise, making bearable an otherwise decaying sourrounding.

Art not concerned with depicting the world beautifully is, to Adams, mere "decoration".Thus, Adams tells us little interesting about most modern art, and his approach does not generalize, for instance, to music.That beauty can exist as such, that it can tell us something about ourselves even without refering to things in the world: This does not seem to be Adams experience.

In these very conservative views I disagree with Adams.Still, I recommend his essays to anyone who wants to understand why some photography is moving us while other is not.Even if Adams is not telling the whole story -probably nobody will- he is an excellent writer who talks about art in a clear and understandable way.

The only disappointment with the book was the poor reproduction quality of the images depicted.As a publisher specializing in photography books Aperture could do better.

a MUST READ for serious photographers!
This is an important collection of essays for the serious photographer andfor anyone interested inthe art of photography.This book is destined tobecome a classic and will be read a hundred years from now.Adams' manyexcellent books of his own photography are testimony to the validity ofwhat he writes about.I have read these essays over and over again andcontinue to learn.Robert Adams is one of the few photographers whosewriting matches his photography. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Best Overview of Classical Architecture
This work is the best overview of classical architecture that the reviewer is aware of.While most such works concentrate on the five orders, usually in traditional "parallel" format, this work shows all five orders, variations of each, and how each is used.The work shows the various other pieces making up the "kit of parts" of Classicism, and how they are used.In short, a one-book guide.

Great book...
This is the best recent book I've seen on classical architecture. It doesn't get into every possible nuance, but is graphically very rich and clear... well worth the price.

The Gray's Anatomy of Classical Architecture
This is a brilliant book. Derek Brentnall's illustrations are superb. What makes this book a joy is that it really opens a world for anyone who wants to know more about why so many of our banks, office buildings, schools andhalls of government look the way they do. And it really gets detailed - notin an overwhelming or pedantic way - but in a fun, informative and artfulstyle that calls out the venerable ghosts of our classical past for afestival of discovery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Not New Age Neo-Advaita
I have been studying Advaita Vedanta for over forty years including all the traditional sources.I have not been impressed by the current crop of New Age Advaita teachers, whose teachings might be characterized as "the cult of non-practice".Such teachings may be attractive and consoling to those who wish to be congratulated for being "already realized" but not so useful to those who are truly moved to realize the true nature of self and world for real.They do have the value of introducing newbies to the fundamental conclusions of non-dualism, but the seemingly logical advice to engage in no spiritual practice has a serious flaw.This flaw is the failure to recognize or acknowledge that nearly everyone is already doing a very intense practice -- the practice of identification with a presumed separate self.All of the devastating consequences including fear, sorrow, anger and all the rest -- called "suffering" in Buddhism -- follow from this already ongoing practice.This practice is not undone by simply reading the great Advaitic conclusions and somehow "noticing" that they are true.Such noticing doesn't cut very deep into the already firmly-held conviction of separation and mortality.Those teachers who merely offer "pointers" to one's true nature delude their followers into thinking that nothing beyond noticing what is being pointed to is necessary.For awhile, at first, this may seem to "work", but soon the deeply entrenched practice of egoity and presumption of separation reasserts itself with a vengeance.

I am sorry to see Robert Adams wonderful book, "Silence of the Heart", sometimes lumped into the category of such New Age Neo-Advaita.It is actually something quite different.It is far more reflective of the strong non-dualistic teachings of Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj.Such traditional teachers fully understood the power of maya and did not underestimate its force.While they articulated the highest non-dualistic conclusions, they also offered potent practices to undermine the deeply encrusted egoic presumptions of aspirants.Robert Adams teaches in this same spirit.This book contains the highest wisdom that can be expressed in words along with a healthy respect for the obstacles faced by sincere aspirants.Adams offers the kind of realistic assessment and authentic practices to move beyond the limitations which have plagued us for eons, into the clear light of authentic wisdom and transcendental realization.Robert Adams was the real deal and is worthy of serious attention.Highly recommended for those who wish to move beyond the sometimes inspiring, but ultimately limited offerings of the New Age Neos.

Silence of the Heart
This will resonate with the sincere reader who recognizes the truth within herself/himself.The question posed, "Who am I?" is the key.

Review from a different perspective
Most often, a reviewer presents a "cold analytical autopsy" of a book, gives a content-oriented analysis, or gives an enthusiatic "Hurrah, great/entertaining reading!". While these devices help in preparing oneself to judge whether the contents may be of interest academically or indicate the overall emotional impact upon a reader, I would like to make a more generalized and personal statement regarding this volume. I have been reading/"researching" spirituality for decades and have a fairly broad understanding and appreciation of the various viewpoints/messages/practices/ etc. which are "out there". But, I must say that until I read Robert Adams' work, I had never been able to find a framework which so comprehensively and convincingly explained the personal experiences I was having -if only I had come across this work so much earlier (please, no "cracks" about "when the student is ready...), how infinitely it would have eased my mind and guided me away from "mistakes" due to mis-understanding how my experiences were in fact a coherent part of "the process". I write these words for any who may be searching for something to "make coherent sense" out of a process which they may be going through which doesn't seem to be adequately encompassed by any other third party structures. For me and for "where I am at", this is the most valuable book I have "stumbled across"(?)in a long time. It has helped not merely to understand an "intellectual idea" but to understand my personal experience - I am sure there are others at a similar point who would benefit greatly from reading his words and sharing his understanding.

Powerful
While none of us can ever really know the spiritual "mind" of another, the voice of Robert Adams is as authentic as any I've read. His message is advanced and may not be appropriate for the spiritual "beginner," but there is no question in my mind he has been illuminated to a degree the rest of us cannot even imagine.

Great advaita/nonduality book by a westerner
I found this book a nice summary of advaita and nondual thought...particularly the lineage from Ramana Maharshi. ... Read more

Book Description
Questions for an Overcast Day is a series of 33 photographs of young alder trees growing along the Oregon coastline near the artist's home. The series begins by focusing on the branches of the trees, and, progressing from one image to the next, narrows its focus, culminating with several images of a single leaf.
The leaves on the trees appear perforated, the precise cause of which is unknown. The artist likens the particular pattern of erosion on each leaf to hieroglyphics, reading in them a unique "calligraphy of disaster." About them, Adams writes:
What would account for the condition of the leaves--
drought, insects, rocky ground, disease, herbicide, wind?
Are the leaves beautiful?
As with the artist's earlier photographs--of suburban detritus, tract housing under construction and devastated, clear-cut forests--the viewer is invited to find beauty as it coexists with the imperfection, even destruction, of the present day. ... Read more

Book Description
A study of the shore, sea, and light in the American Northwest by a major figure in contemporary photography.

Robert Adams reveals the beauty of the American landscape, exploring lost paradises and areas threatened with destruction. Time Passes is a meditation on transience and on the promise inherent in beauty. The pictures were made near Adams's home in the American Northwest, a region once famous for its vast woodlands but now infamous for the ravages of industrial forestry. In the book the photographer turns away from environmental catastrophe in order to study the shore and sea and light. 32 tritone illustrations. ... Read more

Book Description
Renowned scholar Robert Adams explores the relation between religion and ethics through a comprehensive philosophical account of a theistically-based framework for ethics. Adams' framework begins with the good rather than the right, and with excellence rather than usefulness. He argues that loving the excellent, of which adoring God is a clear example, is the most fundamental aspect of a life well lived. Developing his original and detailed theory, Adams contends that devotion, the sacred, grace, martyrdom, worship, vocation, faith, and other concepts drawn from religious ethics have been sorely overlooked in moral philosophy and can enrich the texture of ethical thought. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Complex Philosophy of Divine and Creaturely Love
Metaphysician and moral philosopher, Robert Merrihew Adams, offers an elaborate framework for ethics based upon divine love as the ultimate good.Adams understands God as the Good itself, which means that the Good is a concrete personal individual.In Adams' metaphysics, God plays the part of the form of the beautiful in Plato's thought.God as the supreme Good transcends all other goods.

Adams believes that God's existence is metaphysically necessary, and those properties that fit God follow necessarily from the divine nature.The supreme Good is one aspect of the divine nature.This means that the only limits upon God are those that follow from God's own nature.Love is a necessary aspect of the divine nature, but God's preferences and actions as expressions of love are contingent."The freedom ascribed to God does not include, as ours does, a possibility of desiring or choosing those ends that are rightly counted as bad" (48).This means that the standard of goodness is defined by the divine nature and thus is good for all possible worlds.

According to Adams' theory, what counts as good is not reducible to any human view about what the good is.The good is not fully accountable by any empirical test.Rather, the realm of value is organized around a transcendent good that is God.This means that the nature of value cannot be confined to the horizon of the physical or human world.

Adams makes a distinction between well-being and excellence.He notes that most contemporary thought focuses mainly upon well-being, or what is good for a person.Adams' own theory places primary importance upon excellence.Excellence implies a goodness in itself rather than goodness for another. Interest in well-being is secondary to the greater interest in excellence.What is good for a person is the living of a life characterized by the enjoyment of that which is excellent.

In the second segment of the book, Adams addresses what it means for individuals to love the good.The appropriate ethical relation is to be for the good, which entails loving it.God expresses eros in that God loves the good.Instead of understanding divine love as pure benevolence, Adams entertains seriously the notion that God desires relationship with creatures.This non-instrumental interest in relationships and excellences is part of what it means for both God and creatures to love.Adams considers what divine grace entails, arguing that it is a fundamental aspect of divine love."Grace is love that is not completely explained by the excellence of its object" (151).While Adams claims that it would be absurd to suppose that all love excludes instrumental interest in the beloved, he also claims that love requires an interest in the beloved that is not merely instrumental."Even divine love would be the richer rather than the poorer for finding value in the beloved" (165).Ideal love finds its reasons in the non-comparative appreciation of an object.This means that God's love is directed to things that are good, but it is not dominated by caring about whether these things are the best. Adams concludes this section with chapters on devotion, idolatry, and the value symbols.

Adams labels the third part of the book, "The Good and the Right."According to him, the good provides a proper framework for thinking about what is right and not the other way around.What is good has a fundamentally social aspect.Adams incorporates his theistic vision in chapter eleven by arguing that it is only the commands of a definitively good God that are candidates for defining what is human moral obligation.A main advantage of divine command theory of the nature of moral obligation, argues Adams, is that it satisfies the demand for objective moral requirements.There are a range of possibilities for how these commands are communicated or revealed by God.These possibilities may include scriptural texts, utterances of prophets, requirements of human communities, individual intuitions, etc.Signs that occur in time and place note these commands.

After examining the story of Abraham and Isaac, Adams concludes "that in any cultural context in which it is possible to worry about Abraham's Dilemma, it will hardly be credible that a good God has commanded the sort of sacrifice that is envisaged here" (290)."I think it is the part of religious as well as moral wisdom to dismiss all thoughts of our actually being commanded by God to practice something as horrible as human sacrifice.The question whether God commands such a thing should stay off our epistemological agenda as long as it possibly can, which I expect will be forever" (291).

The question of love and obligation leads to an inquiry into vocation.Adams defines vocation as "a call from God, a command, or perhaps an invitation addressed to a particular individual, to act and live in a certain way" (301).Direct and unambiguous commands from God are extremely rare, argues Adams, which means that conflicting values and obligations in any situation need to be thought about critically before interpreting these as communicating a divine command.The concept of vocation helps to solve the issue of whether or not creatures can love all other creatures.A divine call to love some persons and some kind of goods provides a way of understanding one's vocation.These questions of vocation lead naturally to the concluding part of Adams' book, which address the epistemology of value.

Thomas Jay Oord ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

2 and a half stars; this 3rd book better than the sequel
In the prior book The Seven Magical Jewels of Ireland, Lord Commander of the Royal Horse (and unwitting time-traveller to an alternate past) Bass Foster was commanded by King Arthur III to join the High King of Ireland and help him unite the warring kingdoms of his country. Almost halfway thru this third installment, he makes it to Ireland and finally meets the High King Brian. Shortly after, it's once more into the breach for Foster and his allies as Robert Adams does what he's done best in the Castaways in Time series: detailing in abundance passages of medieval military campaigns. Somewhere in there, Bass also rescues a princess and gives an undiplomatic dressing down to a monarch. Meanwhile, very slight mention is made of the disappeared group of "projected" people from the second book. And, somewhere in the background, the manipulators of the time machine are still, well, manipulating.

I was hoping that Of Quests and Kings would improve on the last sequel but, alas, it only slightly betters it. The first half of the book is boring, as Adams meanders about, attempting to catch the reader up to his various characters, but without making serious inroads in the storyline. Again, Adams narrates one particular character's backstory in overt detail, to the detriment of the book. I felt my time was wasted reading up on newest unwary time-traveller Rupen Ademian's past, especially since he hasn't even done anything yet to service the current storyline. Oh wait, I guess he serves as the Archbishop of York's confidant (big whoopee). More time instead should've been devoted to main protagonist Bass Foster. For what it's worth, the pace does pick up in the second half.

Here's another quibble:the second book of this series is called The Seven Magical Jewels of Ireland but nowhere in that book was the title at all relevant. I was banging my head on the wall (figuratively, of course), wondering what jewels Adams was referring to. At last, here in the third book, @ page 75 (if you're holding a Signet edition), High King Brian mentions the seven (but actually 8, and even possibly 9) sacred gems, symbols of sovereignty of the various kingdoms of Ireland. The High King means to have each Jewel as a sign of fealty from his warring factions. Methinks The Seven Magical Jewels of Ireland would've been a more apt title for this third book.

Also jarring is Adams' growing inclusion of his characters indulging in multi-paged soliloquies, long-winded inner thoughts that more or less serve a re-cap function. Not to mention, I also don't like the path down which Krystal Kent Foster is heading.

But, as per usual, the book is a medieval antiquarian's delight, as the author continues to lavishly detail life in the 17th century.

The first book Castaways in Time was a riproaring book that I tore thru in one sitting. It held a promise that these two sequels haven't kept. The adventures of Bass Foster and chums continue in the fourth book Of Chiefs and Champions. Is it worth it? I dunno.

... Read more

Book Description
In 1976, Robert Adams shot "Fort Collins, Colorado," a nighttime picture of a lone tree in a Colorado parking lot, the crescent moon hanging in the sky above. More than 30 years earlier, Ansel Adams had captured "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico," showing a magnificent vista of desert scrub and clustered buildings, snow-capped mountains in the distance, the full moon majestically presiding in the expansive sky overhead. These two pictures could be neither more different nor more similar; nor could the younger Adams have made his photograph without knowledge of his greatly admired predecessor's. If Ansel Adams created singular images in search of a platonic ideal of nature, Robert Adams explored repetition and conformity; both were responding, in their own personal and aesthetic way, to the landscape of the American West. The first book to juxtapose bodies of work by these two 20th-century master photographers, Reinventing the West reveals how their photographs reflect changing attitudes toward the western landscape and the natural world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Great book for ingineering students ...
I really like this book. It is crystal clear and practical. I am studying electrical ingineering and I find this book to be my number one reference and math study book. If you need to go deep into math and like to study long proofs, then you can probably get something 10 times as big to study. To all of us who thinks that it is fine that someone can do the proofs, but don't have time to read and learn long proofs this book is the thing. At the technical university where I am studying it is used as a mathbook, and my peers find it very clear too (exept some students to whom nothing is clear), and as you probably can see on my grammer english is not our native language !

A great reference, definitely not instructional
Having worked through two thirds of the book I have found it extremely frustrating.The main problem is the lack of defined examples, poor proofs and discussion of material that is superfluous to the subject matter.The layout is also extremely poor which was evidenced by the large number of revisions between edition 3 and 4.To understand just how poor the proofs and descriptions are have a comparison to Thomas/Finney or Anton, the number of pages devoted to each section is usually a third greater and more detailed.The greatest frustration is the poor referencing of examples and proofs to past proofs or examples (re: Howard Anton).

In conclusion its a great reference because it covers the many areas of calculus but as an educational text it is most unhelpful.

Really Bad...
Well this textbook, has to be the most confusing thing in the world. Usually textbooks start off with the easiest problems first but not Mr. Adams.

He decided to not only put the hardest question first but also to tie in concepts that were used like 3 chapters ago. And for rotations he justs throws you some equations and doesn't even bother to tell you how they work, or what does it even mean.

The only thing which is good about this book, is if you get the solution manual

A excellent text
I am surprised at the poor reviews of this text.Though some complain that there is a "lack of explanation" in proofs and in exercises in the study guide, I prefer Adams's approach as it forces the reader to think while reading.Working through a proof or example should not be done in order to memorize one line of thought but rather to *learn* the concepts and as an exercise in itself.I do not think that Adams is overly demanding--he pushes the reader, but not too hard.The exercises are well thought out and often challenging, and the text is extremely helpful.I do admit that some problems and examples took me quite some time to figure out, but the time invested was well worth it.I would suggest that you take a look at the book and study guide for yourself and not to take the reviews of it too seriously (borrow it from your university library).This text is especially suitable for an honours class in first year calculus.It is perhaps in between something like Edwards and Penney and Spivak: not as easy as the former, but not as demanding as the latter.

Great reference text
I was very surprised to see the poor score of this book.I think it is great.It is very well set out and cleverly leads the reader by the hand to ideas and theories of calculus.The chapters read well and diagrams illustrate the ideas effectively.I have used it throughout my maths degree and is also helpful for other maths topics such as linear programming.All my class mates agree that it is a classic text! ... Read more