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(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)

Herodotus is not only the father of the art and the science of historical writing but also one of the Western tradition's most compelling storytellers. In tales such as that of Gyges—who murders Candaules, the king of Lydia, and unsurps his throne and his marriage bed, thereby bringing on, generations later, war with the Persians—he laid bare the intricate human entanglements at the core of great historical events. In his love for the stranger, more marvelous facts of the world, he infused his magnificent history with a continuous awareness of the mythic and the wonderful. For more than a hundred generations, his supple, lucid prose has drawn readers into his panoramic vision of the war between the Greek city-states and the great empire to the east. And in the generosity of his spirit, in the instinctive empiricism that took him searching over much of the known world for information, in the care he took with sources and historical evidence, in his freedom from intolerance and prejudice, he virtually defined the rational, humane spirit that is the enduring legacy of Greek civilization.Amazon.com Review
Since the release of the film version of Michael Ondaatje'sThe EnglishPatient, there has been renewed interest in theHistories of Herodotus--the book the dying patient treasures somuch.

The writings of Herodotus are the ground zero of Westernhistory.He lived during the fifth century B.C.E, and hisHistories chronicle the events of the Persian Wars, which werewithin living memory when he wrote. He was the first writer to examinereal, rather than mythical history, and although his work lacks therigor of later histories, it has a breathtaking scope.Herodotus is awonderful storyteller, and in recalling the wars with Persianinvaders, he ranges across the ancient world, mixing politics withnatural history and anthropology. These are traveler's tales, and agreat deal of their appeal to a modern audience lies in the wayHerodotus describes the cultures that influence his story. Thesocieties of Scythians, Arabs, and Egyptians are depicted in detail,from their political structures to their dining habits. Herodotuscreated a sense of history for his people, and he gives us a pictureof a distant past that reminds us of the vast continuum ofcivilization. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

A Great Book in a Tough Translation: There Are Better!
I am surprised to see people raving about this edition of Herodotus while conceding that the translation is a bit "formal" and that it would have helped to have "a map."

Indeed!

There are better translations - certainly more readable ones.And the three editions I own all have maps. Preeminent among available editions for the non-specialist is the Landmark Herodotus, first issued in November 2007, edited by Robert Strassler (editor of the Landmark Thucydides, and now the Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika), which is just crammed with lots of very fine maps (127, no less), helpfully placed in the text just where you need them and referenced in notes so you can easily find the places being mentioned as you go. There are also footnotes, marginal glosses, headings, a chronological summary of events, black and white pictures and photographs. A set of appendices by leading specialists provides insight from the best of current scholarship into many issues and areas about which readers may wish to know more, including religion, triremes, weights and measures, important lineages, and the like. The translation may lack the delights of a work with real literary grace but it is very easy to read and quite competent. In fairness, the literary quality seems to improve and "rise to the occasion" in the more dramatic, final 3-4 books. This edition is really indispensable. The maps alone more than justify the extra cost because you have every opportunity now to see where the places were and where things happened. It makes an immense difference. Considering all the other helpful and up-to-date materials that are included, this is an outstanding, handsome volume.

For those who, like me, prefer to read Greek with more than one translation, the David Grene and Aubrey de Selincourt versions are quite good. Both are highly readable, racy and literate. They also feature notes and a few maps, though these features are less accessible than in the Landmark. Robin Waterfield also does a good job, though I find his English prose a bit choppy. You can get these translations in paperback.

I have struggled with Rawlinson's translation: it is a tough read. If you really mean to haul your way through the entire Herodotus, and you really should because it is great stuff, do yourself a favor and read a more contemporary translation. As you are slogging along in Egypt, Scythia or Salamis, watching digressions and divagations piling up along the way, you will be glad you did.

A Must Read!
A great book! For any history buff out there, this is a must read! Herodotus clearly is the, "Father of History."

Herodotus: The Father of History
A must have for any history buff. Not only is this book facinating but it teaches important lessons about human nature.Through Solon and Croesus' conversations one can learn what it truly means to be "happy". Or, through the actions of the 300 Spartans one can learn what bravery realy is.This is a very important work and it is my opinion that everyone should read it at some point in their life.

The Time Machine
The nine books of History by Herodotus try to be a history of the Persian Empire and its wars with the Greeks, but by telling both peoples' story, the author ends up by narrating the history of the whole world known to him. Although Herodotus is the first known "serious" historian, he is not the first "scientific" one (that would be Thucydides), due to the fact that Herodotus still believes in gods and their direct intervention in human affairs. Nevertheless, in an interesting sort of transition to "modern" history, he has doubts about the stories and legends he picks up, and then he tries to give rationalized explanations of the events he relates. Even so, with inexactitudes and mixing fact with fiction, he renders a most vivid portrait of the Ancient World, so like ours in substance and so different in form. Something to remark is how much we have inherited and preserved from the Greeks, our most influential cultural ancestors.

In Book I, H. talks about the mythical precedents of clashes between Greek peoples and Asian "barbarians". Then he tells the story of the richest man in the world, Croesus, the king of Lydia, the first man to attack and conquer the Ionians, Greek peoples inhabiting the Eastern coast of the Aegean sea. Croesus then consults an oracle asking if he should attack the powerful Persians, to which the oracle answers: "do it and you will destroy a great empire", as he does: he destroys his own empire. Thus begins the expansionist policy of the Persians. H. then goes on to tell the ancient history of the Medes, the predecessors of the Persians, and how king Cyrus takes power. Cyrus proceeds to attack practically all his neighbors, increasing his empire before dying.

In Book II, Cambises inherits the Persian throne and decides to invade Egypt, which is the subject of the whole book. Herodotus, always and thankfully the king of digression, tells us the whole story of myths, geography, habits and "recent" history of Egypt, in one of the most fascinating parts of his work. Book III tells the story of Cambises's rule, the rebellion of the Magicians, the plot of the Seven and the ascension of Darius, whose kingdom is described in the last part. Book IV relates Darius's (failed) campaign against the Scythes, peoples from the Nothern coast of the Black Sea, truly exotic, primitive and savage guys. He elaborates on the habits and strange life they live. Book V includes the Thracian and Macedonian invasions, as well as the Ionian revolt. Book VI brings us to the First Median War's first part, the expedition of Mardonius which finishes in the massive shipwreck of the Persian fleet in Mount Athos. Then comes a digression (a fascinating one) on the history of Sparta, and then the second expedition, which ends up in disaster in the battle of Marathon. In Book VII we see the start of the Second Median War. It includes preparations and the beginning of the invasion, as well as the naval battles of Magnesia and the battle of Thermopylae. Book VIII tells the end of the operations of year 480-479 B.C.: the naval battle of Arthemisius, the Persian advance through Central Greece, the evacuation and sack of Athens, the battle of Salamis (a crucial turning point of Western Culture's history), Persian King Xerxes's flight and the winter recess at Thessalia. Finally, in Book IX Herodotus talks about the military operations of the following year, the second take of Athens, the battle of Plathea, the Greek decisive victory, the Persians' escape, and the final digression over the wisdom of Cyrus.

Few books are so rich in information, stories, legends, and analysis as this one. Herodotus comes alive as a superb, good-willed historian, a hard worker. For all its depth and amplitude, his style is always quick and easy to read. He includes many a good story and has a sense of humor. It's fun to hear his admonitions and preventions like you were a man of his time, a contemporary reader. He was born in Halycarnassus, where today is South Western Turkey. Born to a rich family, they are forced to escape, for political reasons, to the island of Samos. There he decides to travel around for ten years, time during which he collected the material for his masterpiece. Almost always, he tries to give more than one account of facts, leaving the reader to decide whcih one to believe. He interviews everyone he can, compares official records and documents, analyzes the situation, and when he tells his own opinion, he is straightforward about it. Fun, interesting, educational, this book is truly a time mechine.

The father of History is also a good historian
The Histories is sheer ecstasy and emotion, and the reader is kept attentive trough the many fascinating histories narrated by Herodotus, always keen on given the reader the most accurate version to the many stories he was told regarding some important issue. By this many accounts he begins to end the tradition of oral transmission in the Greek culture, a powerful tradition which was responsible for the preservation to posterity of works of such caliber as the Odyssey and the Iliad, from Ulysses. In Herodotus view, the written report of the many different points of view would adduce credence to the histories.

The main focus of The Histories is on the battles of the Peloponnesus war, and the chapters revolve around the feats of the Persians and Greeks for the supremacy of Europe and Asia Minor. His is a 360 degrees analysis of customs, culture and habits of war and peace of the most variegated people, being him eyewitness to many events reports. Above all, and part of the merit must be given to the excellent translation to English, Herodotus is an expert with words and narrates many pretty interesting tales in a way reminiscent of Arabian nights: the dialogues between Solon the legislator and Croesus, the richest man in the world, the customs of some people who ate their deceased kin, but not if they died sick, the battle between the cavalry of Croesus and the camel riders of Cyrus, the detailed descriptions of the customs of Egypt and the supposition by Herodotus that the Greeks inherited much of their pantheon from them, the origin of the myth of Cyrus having a bitch as a suckling mother (paralleling the myth of the foundation of Rome), and many etceteras.

I was quite surprised with the overall quality of the book and, mostly, by the many excellent ideas Herodotus gives for each and every act of the likes as Cyrus, Darius, Croesus and many more. His geographical descriptions of each and every territory he interested on, adds luster to his narrative and are not all boring, quite to the contrary, serving always as a background to some historical events he analyses. His demystifying of Greek ideal of being the center of the earth, his projection of the fulfillment of the Red Sea by the Nile water flow in the next 20.000 years gives a vague idea of the man that lies behind the book and who has a lot to teach, even if he does not say so, to future generations, also to our.

I think that every reader interested in the ideas of great thinkers of the Humanity, should take a look upon Herodotus and his Histories. I am sure he/she will not be disappointed, being the Histories, in my humble opinion, one of the 100 best books to be read.


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Product Description
Volume: 1General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1920Original Publisher: The Macmillan companySubjects: World historyHistory / GeneralHistory / Ancient / GeneralHistory / Study ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

A keeper
A worthwhile addition to the library of any family who has members who want encyclopedic oversight to what has happened in the existence of Homo Sapiens with modest detail.

Misleading Ad
The ad indicated that I would receive the 2 volume set, but I just received 1 volume.

This Is the Good Stuff
If you're looking for a concise history of the world without all the Negrified Egyptians and other revisionist PC lies that masquerade as history these days, then look no further. This book is all that and a masterpiece in it's own right. As others have noted, the archeology and prehistory in the beginning of the book is rather out-of-date, but if you get one of the later editions, many of the more serious errors, such as the information about Piltdown Man, will have been corrected. And even if you get one of the earlier editions it's still a minor flaw as this is a book mainly about history, and only about a hundred pages are dedicated to prehistory in the beginning of the book as prologue.

After you get done with this, if you want to read a more exhaustive history of the world, check out Will Durant's Story of Civilization series. Admittedly, both Durant and Wells have their own biases (what historians don't?), but what makes their work such a delight to read is that they're utterly, deliciously free of the monolithic cultural Marxism and stultifying political correctness which seems to pervade every book published in the U.S. within the last 20 years. In fact, these will probably be among the books banned and burned by the Clintons and Obamas of the world when they finally figure out a way to get around the First Amendment, so buy 'em now, while you can.

Theory is out of date
This book is an interesting example of how a well-educated European between the wars evaluated history, but its theories have been discredited by subsequent events, and the problems go far deeper than the use of the word "Aryan".For example, Wells said that the "natural" division of Europe into nations was to group people by language.Two decades later Hitler was to use this theory to invade neighboring countries to "rescue" German-speaking communities. And when Wells talks about "communities of will", doesn't that remind you of the Nazi propaganda movie TRIUMPH OF THE WILL?Of course Wells didn't agree with the Nazi Germans; he was just being naive.

1920 Edition!
Note that the Kindle version offered here for a dollar is the original 1920 edition, complete with errors about the Piltdown man really existing, and so on. This is the first book-length published edition; it was later updated right up to Wells's death and beyond. I understand from Wikipedia that the lastest update is 2005, more than fifty years after Wells died. This edition is interesting, though even IT is not the very first: the very first was a series of about twenty magazine installments from the year before. It probably has a lot less ghostwriting than later editions, too; Wells acknowledged that he used ghostwriters later. But those of you who are looking for a recent edition might feel ripped off. ... Read more

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Hip-hop culture includes rapping, DJing, graffiti art and b-boying, also known as break dancing. The History of Rap and Hip-Hop chronicles the evolution of hip-hop culture and focuses on its most significant segment, rap. ... Read more

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Since around 1500 C.E., humans have shaped the global environment in ways that were previously unimaginable. Bringing together leading environmental historians and world historians, this book offers an overview of global environmental history throughout this remarkable 500-year period. In eleven essays, the contributors examine the connections between environmental change and other major topics of early modern and modern world history: population growth, commercialization, imperialism, industrialization, the fossil fuel revolution, and more. Rather than attributing environmental change largely to European science, technology, and capitalism, the essays illuminate a series of culturally distinctive, yet often parallel developments arising in many parts of the world, leading to intensified exploitation of land and water.
The wide range of regional studies--including some in Russia, China, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Southern Africa, and Western Europe--together with the book's broader thematic essays makes The Environment and World History ideal for courses that seek to incorporate the environment and environmental change more fully into a truly integrative understanding of world history.
CONTRIBUTORS: Michael Adas, William Beinart, Edmund Burke III, Mark Cioc, Kenneth Pomeranz, Mahesh Rangarajan, John F. Richards, Lise Sedrez, Douglas R. Weiner ... Read more

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In a remarkably vibrant narrative, Michael Stürmer blends high politics, social history, portraiture, and an unparalleled command of military and economic developments to tell the story of Germany’s breakneck rise from new nation to Continental superpower. It begins with the German military’s greatest triumph, the Franco-Prussian War, and then tracks the forces of unification, industrialization, colonization, and militarization as they combined to propel Germany to become the force that fatally destabilized Europe’s balance of power. Without The German Empire’s masterly rendering of this story, a full understanding of the roots of World War I and World War II is impossible. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

book review
book arrived promptly as promised and was well packaged.excellent condition! a thoroughly satisfactory transaction.my thanks to the vendor and five stars!!!

concise bridge from feudal states to nation
I can't say I'm very interested in the national and indutrial development of germany prior to WWI. That's probably why I liked this book so much. Its short and to the point.

I'm a casual reader of history and have mostly focused thusfar on pre-Napoleonic times. I've wanted to move on to WW1 era history but felt that I didn't really understand how Germany became such an international player in the intervening years. It always play a second fiddle to France and Britain. This book fills in the gaps quickly and concisely. I feel confident now to pick up a nice book on WW1 without complete ignorance of Germany's status and motivations prior to the war. I almost feel that this is the niche that the author intended to fill as there is a tragic sense of foreshadowing throughout the text.

There are probably more complete (and much longer) books available on this part of German history, but this one suited my needs perfectly. A good answer to that age-old question - whatever happened to Prussia? ... Read more

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This comprehensive three-volume history of the medieval Inquisition by the influential American scholar Henry Charles Lea, first published in 1888, was firmly based on primary sources, and adopted a rationalist approach that departed from the pious tone of earlier histories of the middle ages. Lea was convinced that the Inquisition was not arbitrarily devised and implemented but was an inevitable consequence of forces that were dominant in thirteenth-century Christian society. In Volume 3 Lea focuses on particular aspects of the Inquisition. He considers the impact of the Inquisition on scholarship and intellectual life and on faith and culture, and describes how movements including the Franciscans and the Fraticelli gained prominence. He shows how the concept of political heresy was used by the Church and the State, and argues that belief in sorcery and witchcraft in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was stimulated by the Church authorities. ... Read more

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A vividly drawn portrait of the powerful Iroquois nation during colonial America

In the fourth title in The Penguin Library of American Indian History, Timothy J. Shannon tells the story of the most influential Native American confederacy of the colonial era. The Iroquois occupied a strategic region between Canada and New York and engaged in active trade and diplomacy with their colonial Dutch, French, and British neighbors. While they were famous as fierce warriors, it was actually their intercultural diplomacy that accounted for the span and endurance of their power in early America.

By carefully maintaining their neutrality in the Anglo-French imperial wars in North America, they were able to claim an unrivaled influence in colonial America at a time when other Indian nations experienced dispossession and dispersal. Europeans who wanted to remain in the good graces of the Iroquois had to learn the ceremonies and the use of sacred objects that their diplomacy entailed. Shannon’s portrayal contradicts the notion of the “noble savage,” showing just how politically savvy—and at times treacherous—the Iroquois Nation was in the face of colonialism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

incredible history of the iroquois part in french/english conflicts
i read this book to enhance my understanding of my french ancestors who were in quebec from the founding of that city and even though it took me over 3 months to read it since i would get sidetracked to read something or see a movie/documentary in between that would embellish the facts/ideas presented in this book,i finally finished it & found it to be one of the most interesting, well-presented, well-written historical books that i've ever read.timothy j. shannon is an incredible author & i wouldn't hesitate to read something else by him.i got so much more out of this book than i had ever intended to, it was worth the time i invested.

Good and should be read
Timothy Shannon's thesis is simple and clean:The "eighteenth-century Iroquois were neither mercenary killing machines nor idealistic forest-dwelling democrats.They were flesh and blood participants in a scramble for dominion in North America, and diplomacy was their tool of choice."

The former mistaken perception, that of Indians as "killing machines", has long since been out of fashion in our self-criticizing modern American society.Shannon's citation of it as a mistaken view requiring correction seems almost silly.Are many people currently suggesting the Iroquois were mercenary killing machines?This is doubtful.One wonders if Shannon merely sets up this straw-man to deflect possible criticism of one inevitable consequence of his thesis:that no clear viewing of the Iroquois could lead a reasonable person to view them as a race nobler than that which followed it.The latter perception however, that of Iroquois as forest-dwelling democrats that inspired the U.S. Constitution, is a more worthy target and Shannon calmly, methodically, and inexorably vanquishes such foolishness.Shannon indeed shows - through well-written, readable narrative, supported by copious footnotes - the Iroquois were flesh and blood, with all the good and bad that entails.This book is well worth reading for anyone with an interest in the American colonial period, or anyone interested in history at all.

Shannon is much more even-handed than we have come to expect in histories involving Native American interaction with whites.The Iroquois are not always the good guys in this telling, as indeed they were not always the good guys in fact.The book is nonetheless written in what has come to be the modern style:with a hierarchy of moral agency that tends to minimize non-European malfeasance and amplify European iniquities.Shannon is much fairer than most however and this book does its share in making modern scholarship of American colonial history seem more objective than it lately has been, or at least more objective than the layman has seen in popular history writing.If Shannon feels the only atrocity worth describing in detail, during a period with no shortage of Mohawk atrocities, is an atrocity against some Mohawks, he does at least acknowledge Mohawk atrocities also occurred.He can be forgiven for only briefly and vaguely referring to them, but it is somewhat irritating - this is the modern style after all - that Shannon usually labels any Iroquois atrocities as `retaliatory'.

This review is not meant to be negative.On the contrary, this book is good and should be read.That Shannon's book is a product of its time is not remarkable.That the book is as fair as it is despite the times in which Shannon writes it, is so refreshing as to actually seem remarkable to this reviewer.

It is not clear that Shannon ultimately sells the conclusion of his thesis: that diplomacy was the Iroquois tool of choice.The Iroquois certainly used diplomacy, often well, and understood that it was frequently a more appropriate tool than war.It is not clear they preferred it this way, but Shannon makes, or at least starts, a very good argument.

Brilliant, Insightful and Gripping.

I very rarely gush over my Amazon book reviews (just check out my other reviews).In fact, I am usually quite harsh and focus primarily on the negative, but this book review is perforce going to be different.The fact is that I loved this book.

Iroquois Diplomacy by Timothy J. Shannon is a scholarly monograph on the form and substance of Iroquois treaty making and diplomatic/trade interactions with both Europeans and other Native American groups from the origins of the Iroquois as a distinct people until the 1800s.It is a combined work of history and historical anthropology done to the highest standards of Scholarly integrity.This does not sound like the most fascinating or gripping of subjects but somehow Shannon has done it.

The language and narrative style are dynamic and drive the reader onward through what would normally be repetitive accounts of Byzantine and obscure treaties and conferences.This is done without sacrificing scholarly integrity in the least.In fact this is one of the most academically honest books in the best traditions of good historiography.By way of example, the author is necessarily quite limited in his source material for the early days of the Iroquois because of the lack of any written material so he is forced to rely on later accounts.However, when he does so, he points out when and where his material originated and does not make the mistake of reprinting as fact what is only conjecture.He draws on an incredible variety of primary and secondary sources and places each in its context and proper place in his work.

His first few chapters are particularly interesting and explain the format of Iroquois diplomatic ritual and their origins.He then goes on to show how Europeans adopted/adapted these forms in their dealings with the Iroquois.The later chapters are a narrative chronicle of the major treaty conferences and resultant treaties with the European powers.

Finally, and I am really sorry to be so unreservedly complementary of a book, to add to this list of superlatives, is his stunning even-handed treatment of ALL parties.There was little or no detectable bias or agenda behind this text.I truly admire that since it is very hard to accomplish.He shows all parties in their nobility and with all their blemishes and weaknesses.

Despite being a monograph on historical anthropology this book is very accessible, requiring no great amount of additional background knowledge on the part of the reader.This book, or at least selections from it -particularly the early chapters-, could (and should) be incorporated into a high school or undergraduate course on American history, and yet could still be read with profit by a professor of the same subject.Quite simply I recommend this book to anyone, ANYONE, with an interest in American, Colonial, or Diplomatic History as well as Anthropology and Native Americans.

Disclaimer:I do not -to the best of my knowledge- know nor have met the author or the publisher, nor do I have any financial interest in this book's sales.My average book rating is 3 stars and this would get six if I could do it.
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Packard's Final Years. Includes twentieth through twenty-sixth series, 5400 through 5600 series, and the final S7L and S8L series cars with factory & custom bodies in a series of rare factory photographs from the collection of the National Automotive History Collection of the Detroit Public Library. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great book!
This is one of the finest books on the Packard automobile that I have found. Loaded with information and great photographs, it's a must have for those of us who are enthusiasts of this fine car.

Packard Motor Cars 1946-1958 Photo Archive
Can't get enough photos of Packards? Here is your book! Fabulous pictures for a Packard lover! ... Read more

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In 1787, the American union was in disarray. The incompatible demands of the separate states threatened its existence; some states were even in danger of turning into the kind of tyranny they had so recently deposed.

A truly national government was needed, one that could raise money, regulate commerce, and defend the states against foreign threats–without becoming as overbearing as England. So thirty-six-year-old James Madison believed. That summer, the Virginian was instrumental in organizing the Constitutional Convention, in which one of the world’s greatest documents would be debated, created, and signed. Inspired by a sense of history in the making, he kept the most extensive notes of any attendee.

Now two esteemed scholars have made these minutes accessible to everyone. Presented with modern punctuation and spelling, judicious cuts, and helpful notes–plus fascinating background information on every delegate and an overview of the tumultuous times–here is the great drama of how the Constitution came to be, from the opening statements to the final votes.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic also includes an Introduction and appendices from the authors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Overview
This was for me a good first iteration overview of the Constitutional Convention.An easy to read introduction in preparation for a graduate level course.

good basic information
larson and winship provide a very good accounting of the constitutional convention.i presume that all of madison's notes are accurate and complete, unless otherwise noted.editorial comments are helpful to this reader - aiding in the understanding of the process of the convention.while the authors provide an excellent annotated bibliography, i felt like, well, there was much missing from this piece.i wish that the authors might have begun with a couple of chapters on the political backdrop as well as the socioeconomic factors.you know, one of the things that i wonder, is this - of all the guys at the convention, who all went to the tavern afterward?to what extent did they discuss constitutional issues with family, aides ...what documents exist from each of the state legislatures that directed delegates addressing scope of authority / responsibility.what were the developments and publications that affected the delegates' thinking?this is a fine basic text but i guess i wanted a more comprehensive examination ...
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Customer Reviews (8)

I like books even bad book is better than no book
Reading such bookit reminds me time when Issac Assimov was manufacturing inteligence.Reading books is easier than write them. On page 142 A case of overuse, NY Times rectangle, on it I was surprised by author either ignorance or lack of visual practice. While he correctly reasoned that without right angle puzzle is difficult to solve, everyone can see that hypoteuse is identical with base of rectangle. And even when we do not know parameters of height it is.. , everyone should know from 5 year of school that area of triangle is 1/2 of area of its rectangle . I see that author is twisting Pythagoras elbows to make some science out of it.But things are perhaps not so over complicated as book presents. Any one can enjoy it in more simple way. I for example use the same model on demonstrating currentsocial - economical bust in local pub. Just look on whole reactangle asavailable material of our universe , and on triangle as faculty of productive mankind. While marketable ideology shifts point E once to left and next to right the productive cappacity or absorbtion of wealth really does not change, as well as so called growth. Of course somes at upper reaches of distributive structure can get out of picture.I am some timessurprised what can be done from recycled knowledge and who has on it copyright.

Only 2500 years old!
There are many books popularizing Mathematics. In order to fascinate and impress the layman
they mostly takeresults and theorems from number theory, Mersenne primes, Fermat numbers or Theorem,
formulas like that of even perfect numbers...
As such the book would get three stars, as one of the multitude of mediocre books out there.
Another way to gain attention is to choose something easily recognizable (almost everybody has heard of the Pythagorean theorem) and a sensation!
Pythagoras theorem is not due to Pythagoras!

But the author misses several important points! He misleads. He does not popularize!

1) There more than 400 different proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem.
Yet none of these 400 proofscan be attributed to Babylonians or to Egyptians.
The first to formulate and PROVE the theorem was, just that,Pythagoras of Samos.

2) Babylonians were superb calculators but lousy geometers.
The very crude value 3 for pi, appearing even in the Bible, was used by the Babylonians.
Anychild, who learns how to draw a circle on the sand,can easily establish that pi must be greater than 3. And after 2 cuttings in the middle of the radiusthat pi>3+1/8=3.125
And yet the author calls Babylonians superb geometers!!

3) On the other hand the Egyptians had aremarkableapproximation for pi, (16/9)^2=3.1605.
It appears at problem 50 of Rhind papyrus. But they did not leave us any hint of how they arrived at this value.For them it was irrelevant how you reason.
A very plausible answer of how they did it , appeared in 1977,in a wonderfulpaper of Hermann Engels "Quadrature of the Circle in Ancient Egypt".The paper illustrates the practical character of the Egyptian Geometry. ANDit contains an unexpectedside result. The Egyptians did NOT know the relation a^2+b^2=c^2 for the sides ofa right triangle.
And yet Eli Maor does not refer to Engel inthe text under the title "Did the Egyptians know it ?"

4)The author shows a clear agenda in the lastparagraph of the first chapter. It reads:
"Plimpton 322 thus shows that the Babylonians were not only familiar with
the Pythagorean theorem, but that they knew the rudiments of number theory
and had the computational skills to put the theory into practice--quite remarkable
for a civilization that lived a thousand years before the Greeks produced
their first great mathematician."

Eli Maor has obviously not understood
what a giant intellectual leap the Greeks took when they passed from the particular to the general, from
observing to proving.
Or even from 7 Babyloniankush,7 Egyptian khet or 7 horses to the number 7.
What are the properties ofthe number 7? What isits role in the multiplicative structure of the integers ?
The author of Plimpton 322 would stand agape in a classroom where a Greek tutor
explained that 7 is a prime and proved that its square root is irrational.
Concepts like prime, irrational, theorem, proof were outside his mental capacity.
He would consider such concepts as sheer Greek gibberish.
But for us moderns Mathematics is exactly that Greek"gibberish".Axioms, theorems, proofs,...
To put it bluntly, for us moderns, Pythagoras is a Mathematician, the author of Plimpton 322 is not!
Maor'sclaims about Babylonians, Theorems, Geometry, and Number theory are simply wishful thinking.

Allow me to conclude byusingthe words ofT. E. Rihll,a real expert on the History of Science, when she writes about the matter of Babylonians vs Pythagoras, in her Oxford new survey of "Greek Science", page 18.

"...herein lies the difference between Greek activities, which we are calling Science, and what went before or elsewhere,which we do not call science. The Babylonians observed a mathematical regularity, and compiled or calculated tables of similar regularities. The Greeks, or rather (as later tradition asserts) a Greek called Pythagoras, observed this mathematical regularity and proved geometrically that it holds for all particular cases.
The search for the general, the abstract, and the process of arguing rationally about the case: these are the hallmarks of science, which are absent from non-scientific knoweledge and understanding."

The theorem is still Pythagoras and only 2500 years old!

Christmas gift
I purchased this book for my husband as a gift and he enjoyed the read.It is always difficult to find exactly the correct book for him ... and this time I did it! with the help of Amazon.com. Thank you Amazon.com

The Univerisal Story of the Pythagorean theorem+
As a social history book,you will probably be overwhelmed by the math formulas.As a mathmetical history book,you will be impressed by the story of this classical theorem.I never realised that so many of the isolated ancient cultures,developed their own version of the theorem.Much like the story of the 'Great Flood',it became a part of the universal folk-history of mankind.The noted scholars of yesteryear elucidated a profound numerical 'law of Nature',if not the most important.This arithmetical model has forever changed the way humankind has approached and proposed number problems and numerical functions.Einstein once said,'God does not play with dice.'.In other words,the cyclical laws of Nature are univerisal and steadfast,even if against the desires of humankind.The abstract rhythms of physical Nature can be measured and demonstrated in numerical constructions.Not too many books around,that deal with the sole topic of the encyclical global story of the Pythagorean theorem.I generally disagree with giving someone's name to an object,locus or idea.For example ,Mount McKinley or Pike's Peak,to name a couple.A better name would be ,'the Universal Theorem'.Yet,a lombard Greek has his surname attached,forever assuming his sole creative ownership over this profound theorem is correct.We still think so and his 'locus classicus' remains to this day.

Finally!!A book that deals exclusively with the history of one of the most beautiful and most recognized math equations!!
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"To this day, the theorem of [Greek mathematician] Pythagoras [which states that the square of a right-angled triangle's longest side orhypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, written in the language of mathematics as (c^2 = a^2 + b^2) or, more commonly, (a^2 + b^2 = c^2)] remains the most important single theorem in the whole of mathematics.That seems like a bold and extraordinary thing to say, yet it is not extravagant; because what Pythagoras established is a fundamental characterization of the space in which we move, and it is the first time that it is translated to numbers...In fact, the numbers that compose right-angled triangles [called Pythagorean Triples such as (3,4,5), (28, 45, 53) and (65, 72, 97)]have been proposed as messages which we might send out to planets in other star systems a test for the existence of rational life there."

The above quotation is found in this fascinating book authored by history of mathematics professor and author Eli Maor.(Note that the above quotation was not said by Maor.)It catches the importance of this deceptively simple theorem, a theorem children's writer Lewis Carroll (who was also a mathematician) called "dazzlingly beautiful."

What did I learn from this book?Answer: there's a lot more to the Pythagorean theorem than (a^2 + b^2 = c^2)!!Maor may be the first author who has examined all the mathematics, history of mathematics, and physics books and collected just the material directly and indirectly related to the Pythagorean theorem.

The result is that Maor has brought the long history of the Pythagorean theorem back to life.Sometime around 570 BCE Pythagoras proved (notice I said "proved" and not "discovered") a theorem about right triangles that made his name immortal.He also pondered the workings of the universe and tried to relate its workings to the laws of musical harmony.In the subsequent centuries, this theorem was used and developed by others such that it has become central to almost every branch of science, pure or applied.After twenty-five centuries, this theorem was expanded and thrust into four-dimensional space-time by Albert Einstein to formulate his own picture of the universe.

Yes, there is simple mathematics in this book.To understand it, all you will need is some high school algebra and geometry and a bit of elementary calculus.

Do you have to follow the mathematics found in this book? NO.Personally, I found that you could skim, even skip the mathematical parts and still not lose the essential flow of the main narrative.(Actually, the more difficult mathematics is relegated to the book's appendices.)

Throughout the book are diagrams and even some pictures to enhance its main narrative.As well, there are eight pages of colour photographs found near the book's center.

A feature of this book is that it contains "sidebars."These are brief sections (there are ten) found at the end of some chapters that usually focus on some aspect of the Pythagorean theorem.My two favourites have the following titles:"The Pythagorean Theorem in Art, Poetry, and Prose" and "Four Pythagorean Brainteasers."You don't have to read each sidebar.

Another feature of this book is its chronology.It more or less summarizes the main events in this book in chronological order.This chronology begins in the year 1800 BCE and ends in the year 1996.

Finally, a note on the book's cover picture (displayed above by Amazon).It shows the detail or "zooming in" of a beautiful larger 1649 picture called "Allegory of Geometry" by artist Laurent de la Hyre (displayed on this book's inside back flap).The book's cover picture zooms in on several geometric figures, the one on the top left showing Euclid's proof of the Pythagorean theorem.

In conclusion, this book is essential for anyone that wants to be familiar with the four thousand year history of the Pythagorean theorem.I leave you with some actual lines from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance:"

"I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical,
I understand equations, both simple and quadratic,
About Binomial Theorem I'm teeming with a lot o'news,
With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse."

(first published 2007;list of colour plates;preface;prologue;16 chapters;epilogue;main narrative 215 pages;8 appendixes;chronology;bibliography;illustrations credits;index)

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Product Description
The Body in the Library is a unique tour of the history of medicine and its practitioners. It provides a nuanced and realistic picture of how medicine and society have abetted and thwarted each other ever since the lawyers behind the French Revolution banished the clergy and replaced them with doctors, priests of the body.

Ranging from Charles Dickens to Oliver Sacks, Anton Chekhov to Raymond Queneau, Fanny Burney to Virginia Woolf, Miguel Torga to Guido Ceronetti, The Body in the Library is an anthology of poems, stories, journal entries, Socratic dialogue, table-talk, clinical vignettes, aphorisms, and excerpts written by doctor-writers themselves.

Engaging and provocative, philosophical and instructive, intermittently funny and sometimes appalling, this anthology sets out to stimulate and entertain. With an acerbic introduction and witty contextual preface to each account, it will educate both patients and doctors curious to know more about the historical dimensions of medical practice.

Armed with a first-hand experience of liberal medicine and knowledge of several languages, Iain Bamforth has scoured the literatures of Europe to provide a well-rounded and cross-cultural sense of what it means to be a doctor entering the twenty-first century. A book for every bedside. ... Read more

Product Description
About a quarter of the people in the world today speak or use English. In homes and schools, offices and meeting rooms, ships and airports, people are speaking English...How has this happened? How did English begin, and what will become of it in the future? The history of the English language is a journey through space and time, from thousands of years ago to today and beyond, and to all parts of the world. Come on that journey and meet the monks and soldiers, the kings and scientists, the printers, poets, and travellers who have helped to make the English of today. ... Read more

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Discover how a game of lacrosse led to a victory for the Ojibwa tribe against the British, find out why the Menominees are called the wild rice people, and meet some of the great heroes of Native America, from Sequoyah and Sitting Bull to Pocahontas. Enjoy the holidays, foods, dances, and stories of these diverse peoples and find the answers to all your questions about Native American history....

Why did the Mound Builders build mounds? See page 14.

What was the Trail of Tears? See page 59.

Why didn’t Montezuma attack Cortes’ men? See page 27.

Who were the Navajo Code Talkers? See page 94.

What was the Alcatraz takeover? See page 107.

What was the Iroquois confederacy? See page 33.

Did all Inuit live in igloos? See page 131.

What were the Mayans’ greatest scientific achievements? See page 21. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A rather paternalistic viewpoint
I have mixed emotions about this book. It does include interesting information, but- at least in the section about the Hopi and other Pueblo people- it acts as though they are a dead culture. Everything is in the past tense. Furthermore, the author described ceremonies which should NOT be discussed in a book intended for children. Especially inappropriate was their discussion of the katsinvaki, which is an initiation ceremony for children. What? Do they think Hopi kids cannot read???I suggest that the author read the book "Appropriated Pasts" by McNiven & Russell. It is in interesting consideration of how anthropology has been used by dominant cultures.It's too bad. This book has some good points, but I would certainly not carry it in our shop, which is in northeastern Arizona (Hopi country)!

Fun! -- For Kids and Adults
I bought this book for my ten year old, who's going through an "Indian" phase. He loved it--it's full of fun facts, and it got him even more interested in Indians and their culture. (He's getting to be a real buff on the Cherokee.) More surprising, though, the book got me hooked. I had a great time reading it with Jeremy. The Q&A format lets you flip around, and each entry is short enough to read quickly, but long enough to contain plenty of information. The illustrations are also good. All and all, it's a terrific book to read with your kids.

To find the answers...First find the questions
Sonneborn's book is a compilation of very brief answers to questions assumed to interest kids. The book's organization, however leaves much to be desired.The attempt to divide the material into sections on ancientAmericans, contemporary Indians, and various indigenous cultural andgeographical regions was apparently ignored by the author and informationseems to pop up in unexpected spots.One finds material both on thenineteenth century leader Tecumseh and on the contemporary leader Ada Deer under the Northeast Woodlands section. The ancient skeletal remains ofKennewick man is found under the Contemporary Native Americans section andboth Wounded Knee 1 which occurred in 1890 and Wounded Knee 2 whichresulted from the AIM takover in 1973 are in the historical section, withAIM barely mentioned in the section on contemporary Indians. One mustconstantly check the index to be sure that the scattered material one isseeking has been read.

There is not even a vague sense of continuity andthe material is so superficial that it serves little purpose.The bookmight be helpful for a student to peruse in order to select a topic forfurther research.It will not help much once the focus of the research hasbeen determined. ... Read more

Product Description
Henry Charles Lea's comprehensive three-volume history of the medieval Inquisition, first published in 1888, was firmly based on primary sources. Lea was convinced that the Inquisition was not arbitrarily devised and implemented but was an inevitable consequence of forces that were dominant in thirteenth-century Christian society. In order to give as full a picture of the Inquisition as possible he examines the jurisprudence of the period. In Volume 1 he presents background information, giving a general account of the Catholic Church in the twelfth century and exploring the events that prompted the Church to set up the Inquisition. He explains the prevalent medieval understanding of the roles of the Church and government in society, and looks at medieval concepts of the relationships between individuals and the Church, the government, one another, and God. Lea shows how these views formed the basis of the Inquisition's structure, organization and processes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

What a history!
Lea has brought out a very compelling rendition of one of the darkest chapters in "Christian" history.For history fans, and especially church history fans, this should be a real page-turner.Lea's in-depth study is quite phenomenal. ... Read more

Product Description
In Infinite Ascent, David Berlinski, the acclaimed author of The Advent of the Algorithm, A Tour of the Calculus, and Newton’s Gift, tells the story of mathematics, bringing to life with wit, elegance, and deep insight a 2,500-year-long intellectual adventure.

Berlinski focuses on the ten most important breakthroughs in mathematical history–and the men behind them. Here are Pythagoras, intoxicated by the mystical significance of numbers; Euclid, who gave the world the very idea of a proof; Leibniz and Newton, co-discoverers of the calculus; Cantor, master of the infinite; and Gödel, who in one magnificent proof placed everything in doubt.

The elaboration of mathematical knowledge has meant nothing less than the unfolding of human consciousness itself. With his unmatched ability to make abstract ideas concrete and approachable, Berlinski both tells an engrossing tale and introduces us to the full power of what surely ranks as one of the greatest of all human endeavors.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (22)

Too clever by half
Math teachers and mathwriters face a daunting problem. Some subjects are just difficult andsome students and some readers just lack the intellectual wherewithal to understand.

This problem is made worse when teachers and writers like Berlinski not only undertake a difficult task but add to their burdens and those of their studentsby taking on one final task, convincing the reader or student just how very smart the teacher or author is.

Too often in Infinite Ascent the author goes off on metaphorical tangents which seem little more than ego driven side trips to impress the reader with the brilliance of the author. That he is well read and literate, I have no doubt. I just wish he would put more effort into a better explanation of metamathematics. I still don't get it.

Thanks, Mr. Berlinski , for your tingles!
"The sum total of what a man knows is vanishingly small. What seems in the end more important is that one should pursue knowledge." Bertrand Russell

Discussed mostly are mathematical things which will always be beyond me. But, to my credit, I keep trying to understand them. To David Berlinski's credit he keeps trying to explain them.(Yes, he can be obtuse--but can anyone make some of this stuff clear? . .Yes, he can be flippant. . .Yes, he can be arrogant. . .) (He can be refreshing and funny, too!) But instead of finding fault with any of the presentation, I would rather praise him for bringing me some insight and for bringing me somewhat closer to understanding. He ends this book with a reference to the tingle that mathematicians sometimes sense. That, perhaps, is how Berlinski should be judged; and there are times this book tingles.

Does not eschew obfuscation
What an annoying book! There are some authors with the knack of taking a difficult subject and making it understandable: Richard Dawkins comes to mind, or the late Isaac Asimov. Mr. Berlinksi has the opposite talent, of taking a subject that could be clearly explained and making it mystifying! I have some background in math (college courses in advanced calculus, probability, and number theory, most of it now long forgotten) and hoped to get some insight into other fields. Alas, no such luck. His discussion of Euler's famous equation (e to the i pi..., which I used to understand) was so astonishingly obscure that I now despair of ever figuring it out again. The book is full of quirky turns of phrase and startling allusions, which may give the casual reader the impression that he is learning something, but I can't see any conceivable audience. Those with little or no math knowledge will be utterly mystified. And to judge from the other reviews here, those who do know their math will find the book full of errors. I just found it confusing.

A quirky commentary rather than a history
The first thing to say is that this book isn't a "short history of mathematics," as the subtitle indicates.Rather, it's a commentary on a handful of key developments in mathematics, namely numbers, proof, analytic geometry, calculus, complex numbers, groups, non-Euclidean (and Euclidean) geometry, sets, and Godel's theorems.

David Berlinski is surely brilliant and erudite (and he clearly wants us to realize that), but he's also a quirky fellow who has never really "fit in" with polite academic society, perhaps not even society in general.Stylistically, this book reflects its author, with Berlinski constantly making all sorts of tangential remarks.Overall, I did find his remarks to invigorate the book and entertain, but they don't add much insight.Moreover, some of his remarks are just plain weird and have no place in the book, especially his perverse sexual remarks (and it's telling that he couldn't resist putting them in the book).

As far as presenting information about mathematics, this book is rather weak.If you don't already know the mathematics, you won't be able to learn it effectively from this book, since Berlinski compromises clarity for cleverness.And if you do already know the mathematics, you'll still have to do some work to fill in the frequent gaps in Berlinski's presentation.I was also a bit disappointed that Berlinski didn't suggest any further reading; as a non-mathematician with a serious interest in mathematics, surely he could have told like-minded readers about some of the books he's personally found helpful?

Overall, I think this book merits 4 stars for entertainment value but only 2 stars for content delivery, so a net3 stars.With a more honest title like "Comments on Some Milestones of Mathematics," I could have rated this book 4 stars.

Since it's a quick read, I can still recommend this book to the mathematically initiated who are looking for entertainment.But I can't recommend it to readers with limited mathematics background, nor to readers looking for a genuine history of mathematics.Personally, I enjoyed this book, but learned almost nothing.

Basically Garbage
This book irritated me so much that I'm going to just rant and abandon any hope of writing a 'helpful' review. I picked the book up on a remainder table for $1, and I clearly paid too much. Berlinski doesn't appear to know any more than a smattering of mathematical history (or math for that matter), but he dearly loves to hear himself talk as if he does. His flowery, grandiloquent delivery style accomplishes nothing remotely useful. An example from Chapter two: "Not until the twentieth century would mathematics and logic, having for so long exchanged their moist breath (sic), fuse ecstatically into the single subject of mathematical logic." Come on - "moist breath"?, "fuse ecstatically"? Nothing is being accomplished here except for the author going on a linguistic ego trip. Other reviewers have commented on the sloppy fact-checking and needlessly obscure presentation of the mathematics, and I agree with every one of those comments. Don't waste your time or money on this clunker. ... Read more

Product Description
Alexander the Great, Elizabeth I, Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, Horatio Nelson, William Shakespeare and Wolfgang Mozart all changed the world in which they lived. This history of 10 great personalities from history is accompanied by classical music and is aimed at 8 to 12 year-olds. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great cds for kids and adults!
Got 3 of the series for when my 7 and 10 year old grandkids would be spending a week with me.We planned trips to the museums and observatory and how nice it was to see a statue carved by the person you had been listening about on the tape, or see an early telescope credited to Galileo after listening about his life.It just rounded off the educational/fun travels perfectly!Recommend the one on Greek legends, historical figures and famous scientists.All of them.(Greek legends was the most fun).And I learned so much myself!

Kids need heroes...
I entertain my minivan-bound children with books on tape/CD. The best are the Harry Potter series.There are many other good ones.And this is a good non-fiction title for children.

Kids need heroes, and this tape provides my 5 and 7 year old boys with some impressive ones. The heroes come from the worlds of politics, science, literature, religion...This tape is one of my 7 year old son's favorites.It has a very positive message for him. He gets ideas of what he could be.

Volume 2 (the one I have)tells the stories of some historical figures, emphasizing all the positive and heroic qualities of each: Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Mahatma Gandhi, and George Washington.

As an adult accustomed to having his heroes routinely discredited, I find these idealized portraits naive, but kind of refreshing. If you have kids you know that they have a purpose: to introduce you to the world again, and show you its wonder. These portraits of heroes are simplified and abstracted in a way that highlights their abilities. No jaded cynicism here. These scientists, thinkers, statesmen, musicians, were all leaders. My young leader could do worse than to select a role model from one of these larger than life heroes.

Two other notes.
1. The tapes are abridged, while the CDs are not. Buy the CD.
2. Amazon has one description for both volume 1 and 2.Misleading.They contain different people.

Vol 1 - Queen Elizabeth I, Abraham Lincoln, Christopher Columbus, Horatio Nelson, William Shakespeare, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Vol 2 - Alexander the Great, Joan of Arc, Leonardo Da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Ludwig van Beethoven, Louis Pasteur, Marie Curie, Mahatma Gandhi, George Washington (This is the one I am reviewing) ... Read more

Product Description
With astonishing authority and clarity, Richard Pipes has fused a lifetime’s scholarship into a single focused history of Communism, from its hopeful birth as a theory to its miserable death as a practice. At its heart, the book is a history of the Soviet Union, the most comprehensive reorganization of human society ever attempted by a nation-state. This is the story of how the agitation of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, two mid-nineteenth-century European thinkers and writers, led to a great and terrible world religion that brought down a mighty empire, consumed the world in conflict, and left in its wake a devastation whose full costs can only now be tabulated.Amazon.com Review
As Harvard University professor Richard Pipes shows in Communism: A Brief History, the tragedy of Communism is that its history was anything but brief. For most of the 20th century, it held much of the globe in its fatal grip: The utopian ideology is responsible for nearly 100 million deaths, which is 50 percent more than the number of people killed in the two world wars combined. "Communism was not a good idea that went wrong; it was a bad idea," writes Pipes, who is also the author of The Russian Revolution and Property and Freedom.

This compelling little book is a devastating critique of Marxism, Leninism, Stalinism, and everything else that fits under the awful rubric of Communism. It begins by tracing Communism's philosophical origins (it has antecedents in Plato) and then outlines the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Next comes the story of why Communism took root in Russia and not the industrial West, where Marx himself believed it would sprout (answer: the traditions of property rights and the rule of law were too strong). Even in Russia, Communism was not the product of popular demand (in fact, it has never been the product of popular demand anywhere). Instead, it was a top-down revolution imposed on the whole country by a small minority of elites, led by Lenin. The Communists claimed to represent workers, but few workers were actually a part of their movement. Thus, "the Communists had to rule despotically and violently; they could never afford to relax their authority." And they were capable of incredible cruelty: "The so-called purges of the 1930s were a terror campaign that in indiscriminate ferocity and number of victims had no parallel in world history." In 1937 and 1938, for instance, the Soviet rulers of Russia executed an average of 1,000 people per day; the tsarist regime they supplanted, which was often criticized as inhumane, executed less than 4,000 people for political crimes over an 85-year period.

Though Pipes appropriately spends much time discussing the Soviet Union, he also examines Communism's reception in the West and in developing countries. The book is a concise tour de force. As the cold war fades into history, it is critical not to forget the monstrous legacy of Communism, whose horrible record Pipes lays out on these pages. This is a magnificent book, a wonderful primer on a topic whose importance is difficult to overstate. --John Miller ... Read more

Customer Reviews (76)

Everything you need to know
Concise and comprehensive, Richard Pipes' "Communism: A History" is extremely well-written and actually enjoyable to read--------not at all dry like so many others of this genre. Whether you are just beginning to learn of the evils of communism or are already well-versed and looking for an overview, this book is well worth your time. Definitely recommended.

One of the Best Books I've Read in Years
This books is easy to read, dense with insight and very enjoyable.Not a word wasted.

I love this book!

Review from a Freedom-Loving American Capitalist
Richard Pipes 'Communism: A History' is a sharp and to-the-point tour de force.Most freedom-loving, pro capitalist Americans will find there are many shocking parallels, intentionally or not, between what is being engineered now in our country (!) and the early Marxist socialist implementations - including that perpetrated by Leninism with his Bolshevik soviets (a 'soviet' is a council of workers and soldier deputies who exercised paralyzing control over the Duma).

Today we are witnessing - in kind if not form - the same anti-capitalist ambivalence despite the amazing history of success, wealth and freedom found only in the United States.The instincts and attitudes of today's Left Progressives are plainly Marxist - and shockingly they are in power.One struggles to name one single critical or large industry that hasn't been brow beaten, threatened, nationalized or intimidated by this administration and the left.Meanwhile the courts and universities have been packed with Socialists and the Supreme Court was even publicly brandished by the President during his address!Obama's "czar" lieutenants run the country, often for the benefit of the unions, effectively acting as cabinet members who haven't been vetted by congress or anyone else.And their 'powers' are increasing every day.

This short book is so well written and to-the-point that I will be recommending it to a broad audience.Richard Pipes makes one large mistake in predicting that these notions were so destructive and devastating in practice that they would not likely be seriously tried again.I guess he was SLIGHTLY WRONG there, but I would have predicted the same thing in the face of such horrendous historical consequences. In fairness, he wrote the book in 2001 prior to the arrival of Captain Hope and Change.

Communism stinks
That's the message that comes through loud and clear in Richard Pipes' concise little history, "Communism," a lightning survey of the history of communism, from the Bolsheviks to Pol Pot. The very first sentence informs us that this book is "an introduction to Communism and, at the same time, its obituary."

Whoa, I say, not so fast. There are something like a gazillion Chinese who haven't heard the good news. They're still running around thinking they're communists! And let's not forget Cuba, where not even Castro has died yet, let alone communism. And North Vietnam, which noone cares to remember at all. Besides, didn't Rambo singlehandedly win that one? Hugo Chavez--there's him, too. Oh, and Russia itself, where communism died first and most spectacularly, but seems to be ressurecting itself, like Nosferatu, in the creepy form of Putin. And I'm sure I'm forgetting some other examples of communism scattered about here and there.

Pipes would argue that nowhere, not even in China, does true communism exist, pure and true, as professed by Karl Marx, or even the variation preached by Lenin, or the even loonier version taught by Mao. But by the same token, pure capitalism doesn't exist either, not even here in the USA, an oligarchy of elite special interests, where the government seems to be grabbing control of yet another part of our economic lives every day.

Still, this one-sided, hostile critique of communism points out what happens when a few idealogues decide what's best for the rest of us. Communism is a big lie, because it depends on human beings acting in ways that human beings have never acted, and never will act: that is, in a spirit of communal brotherhood.

Communism stinks because people stink. There will always be an elite that floats to the top of the cess pool; it doesnt matter what sort of government is in place. Yes, our system stinks, too. Its beyond reform. But at least it hasnt forced millions into gulags or condemned them to starve to death in contrived famines. Well, not yet anyway.

But this isnt about my political philosophy, which can be summed up in three words, "leave me alone." It's about Richard Pipes' book, "Communism," which makes no pretence about its purpose: to expose the atrocities perpetrated by totalitarian leaders in the name of a utopian ideal called communism for what they really were: the extermination of all those who would oppose their merciless and unquenchable lust for power.

There really isnt a proper end to this review. If you're a communist, you're going to hate this book, because it's going to rub your nose in all the horrible things your heroes have done for the "good of the people." If you hate communism, communists, socialism, liberals, left-wing revolutionaries, and the like, then this book will give you the ammo you need to cow your commy friends into dialectical submission.

As a scholar, as a historian, Pipes should probably have been a little more objective. As it is, his book reads like propaganda. It would be nice to have a companion volume that told the same story from the other side. But then it would be nice to have a lot of things which I dont have, so what's the point of even making such a statement?

Excelent & short book
Este libro presenta y excelente panorama de la aplicacion en la vida real del comunismo teorico Marxista.
Aclara muy bien sus origenes junto al anarquismo, pensamiento que estaba mucho mas cerca de la realidad del comportamiento y conducta humana que el marxismo, y por lo cual es expulsado del movimiento en la segunda internacional donde ya Lenin va preparando el camino para el estado totalitario, al que solo le quedaba por separar a los Manchevick.

Luego se señala muy bien la disputa con los socialista que abogaban por un concordato con el capitalismo por medio del cual gobiernos socialistas podrian funcionar parasitando de la produccion del modelo capitalista, para ello creando sindicatos de obreros, sistemas publicos de seguridad etc todos financiados por la produccion de los hombres de empresa pero donde los politicos demagogos cosecharian los votos del poder. Este sistema socialista de no destruir al capitalismo sino solo usufructuarlo se origina en la sociedad Fabian de Inglaterra y es la que hoy domina las llamadas "democracias sociales" de Europa y de Norte america.

En resumen, un excelente libro para aquellos que desean conocer la evolucion de una idea falsa, imposible y muy dañina para la humanidad como lo fueron los planteamientos de Marx & Engles y del manifiesto comunista. ... Read more

Product Description
Highly praised when published in Germany, The Quest for the Lost Nation is a brilliant chronicle of Germany's and Japan's struggles to reclaim a defeated national past. Sebastian Conrad compares the ways German and Japanese scholars revised national history after World War II in the shadows of fascism, surrender, and American occupation. Defeat in 1945 marked the death of the national past in both countries, yet, as Conrad proves, historians did not abandon national perspectives during reconstruction. Quite the opposite--the nation remained hidden at the center of texts as scholars tried to make sense of the past and searched for fragments of the nation they had lost. By situating both countries in the Cold War, Conrad shows that the focus on the nation can be understood only within a transnational context. ... Read more

Product Description
An innovative remapping of empire, Imperial Connections offers a broad-ranging view of the workings of the British Empire in the period when the India of the Raj stood at the center of a newly globalized system of trade, investment, and migration. Thomas R. Metcalf argues that India itself became a nexus of imperial power that made possible British conquest, control, and governance across a wide arc of territory stretching from Africa to eastern Asia. His book, offering a new perspective on how imperialism operates, emphasizes transcolonial interactions and webs of influence that advanced the interests of colonial India and Britain alike. Metcalf examines such topics as law codes and administrative forms as they were shaped by Indian precedents; the Indian Army's role in securing Malaya, Africa, and Mesopotamia for the empire; the employment of Indians, especially Sikhs, in colonial policing; and the transformation of East Africa into what was almost a province of India through the construction of the Uganda railway. He concludes with a look at the decline of this Indian Ocean system after 1920 and considers how far India's participation in it opened opportunities for Indians to be a colonizing as well as a colonized people. ... Read more

Product Description
During World War Two, 131 German cities and towns were targeted by Allied bombs, a good number almost entirely flattened. Six hundred thousand German civilians died—a figure twice that of all American war casualties. Seven and a half million Germans were left homeless. Given the astonishing scope of the devastation, W. G. Sebald asks, why does the subject occupy so little space in Germany’s cultural memory? On the Natural History of Destructionprobes deeply into this ominous silence. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

w. g. sebald
subtle, interesting and disturbing book from a viewpoint seldom encountered in America; author deserves to be better known

Memory Will Speak

I'm a great fan of W.G. Sebald. I think he's possibly the most powerful writer of my lifetime in any language. But I wonder if this 100-page essay, based on a couple of lectures, hasn't received undue attention in the body of Sebald's work. It's far from his most creative writing, it's uncharacteristically ambiguous, and it has been received with oddly obtuse misunderstanding. Still, the problems I and other Sebald fans have with it are important and need to be confronted. After a couple of readings in English and in German, I've come to think that Sebald was a deeper psychologist than a historian, and that he was confused and dissatisfied with his own relationship to Germany and to German history.

The "Destruction" in question here is the devastation of 131 German cities caused by British and American bombing, during which the RAF dropped a least a million tons of explosives and set off fire-storms of a new level of horror. There are issues of debate about the moral and strategic justifications of such bombing of civilian targets; the British themselves debated at the time, not least because the casualty rate of bomber personnel was 60% and the bombing consumed more than a third of Britain's resources of war materiel. There have been similar heated debates about the American decision to us atomic bombs in Japan. But the strategic efficacy and the moral justification of the bombings are NOT Sebald's main concern. He is not offering a plea for pity or self-pity, or a claim that one wrong counters another. Here's what he says on page 103: "The majority of Germans today know, or at least so it is to be hoped, that we actually provoked the annihilation of the cities in which we once lived. Scarcely anyone can now doubt that Air Marshal Goring would have wiped out London if his technical resources had allowed him to do so." Sebald offers this remark in reaction to an absurdity, the appalling notion that "International Jews" were behind the strategy of destroying German cities, a notion that Sebald finds rooted in the xenophobia and paranoia of pre-war Germany.

Sebald's preoccupation is not, therefore, with the tactics of destruction, but rather with the post-war response of the German people to their catastrophe and its meaning. He is concerned with `historical amnesia.' Here are his own words: "The destruction of all the larger German cities and many of the smaller one, which one must assume could hardly be overlooked at the time and which marks the face of the country to this day, is reflected in works written after 1945 by a self-imposed silence, an absence also typical of other areas of discourse, from family conversations to historical writings.... This scandalous deficiency, which has become ever clearer to me over the years, reminded me that I had grown up with the feeling that something was being kept from me; at home, at school, and by the German writers whose books I read hoping to glean more in formation about the monstrous events in the background of my own life."

It's important to recall that this essay, and the lectures it was based on, are primarily critiques of German post-war literature, most of which is unknown to English readers. For example, Sebald spends four pages analyzing Die Kathedrale by Peter de Mendelssohn, a minor bit of kitsch that wasn't even published until years after the war. Here, I fear, Sebald is open to serious reservations. Rather than showing that no one recorded the destruction, or responses to the destruction, Sebald seems to be judging the records and responses as inauthentic and inadequate. Yet among those records is an account by Peter Reck which Sebald treats extensively, an account so horrific and vivid that it calls Sebald's judgement of it into doubt. Sebald's own writing style is so carefully dissociative, so nuanced and distanced and yet so resonant with emotions, that hardly any mere journalist or popular author could possibly satisfy him. Is the question perhaps not whether German writers addressed memories of the war, but whether they did so profoundly and honestly enough?How many aftermaths of wars have been chronicled by writers of Sebald's caliber?

It's also important to recall that Sebald himself was only one year old when the war ended. He was a small child in a remote rural corner of Germany during the most painful years of reconstruction. Whose memories have been deselected then? Certainly not his own! And Sebald was not an exile from Germany; he was an emigrant. Unlike that brilliant exile, Vladimir Nabokov, Sebald had no memory of or nostalgia for a pre-war Germany, a better or at least more gracious lost world. Sebald's nagging dissatisfaction with post-war Germany is the rancor of one who has tried to leave more behind than he has been able to. Sebald has declared that he'd rather not be German but can't help it. For all his years as an emigrant to England, when he began writing late in life, he wrote in German, about Germany. I have to wonder why Sebald felt such furious dislike for the Germany of his own lifetime; I suppose he felt a self-contempt and disappointment with his Folk roughly like my own outrage at the historical failings of my own birth country, and at the unreadiness of my people to acknowledge our true history.

Sebald's theme, like Nabokov's, is always memory. For them, what cannot be remembered does not exist. Life itself is memory and the fullest memory amounts to the fullest life. But only a substantiated memory is real rather than merely literary pretense. Why else does he include his characteristic random photos? On page 73, for instance, he shows a simple bedroom, his parents' bedroom in Germany when he was a child, with a picture on the wall of the Nazarene in prayer in the moonlit garden of Gethsemane. He had just noticed a memorial in a Corsican village to victims of Auschwitz, and now he sees the same picture of Christ, the exact same!, on the wall of a Corsican church. Meaningful? For Sebald, yes; he writes: "Such is the dark backward and abysm of time. Everything lies all jumbled up in it, and when you look down you feel dizzy and afraid."Oddly enough, the same picture, the exact same!, hung on the wall of my own grandparents' bedroom when I was a child, and I FEEL, however irrationally, what Sebald meant. Memory is not what you remember but what you feel when you remember.

ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DESTRUCTION
This book is about the aftermath of the bombing in Germany in WWII.It's about what really happens to people in war.It's about what really happens in war.Everyone in the United States should read this book.If they did, war would always be the last choice, and we wouldn't be in Iraq today.

Flies of the Lord
Why was there so little German writing about the destruction of the war? And why was the little that did get done so steeped in mystic rambling instead of acute description and analysis? Sebald's theory: this was so for the same reason that enabled the Germans to go for their amazing reconstruction: they were so numbed by the experience, that they had turned off any perception and just put one foot in front of the other. And for the same reason the alleged war aim of demoralizing the German population failed. They did not stop to think about it.
Sebald also does a good lot of destructive criticism on writers of the first hours: Kassack, Nossack, Mendelsohn, also Arno Schmidt get demolished badly (which hurts me in the case of AS, the hermit of Bargfeld, but admittedly the text that Sebald demolishes is utter crap). Boell gets off lightly, his contemporary novel was not published until decades later, because publishers did not think the public was 'ready'. Good stuff was only produced and published in the 70s: especially Kluge and Fichte. A special attention is paid to the previously thought respectable Andersch. Devastating.
In principle the message stands: the firestorms, the reign of rats and flies was not written about from the inside.
The area bombing concept was developed when Britain had no other choice: in no other way could they get back into the fight. Why was it continued when it was not needed any more and did more damage than good to the war effort? Plausible answer: two reasons: first, the material was produced and needed to be used, simple economic consideration; second, the propaganda effect on the domestic front was overwhelming. Never mind it was useless.

Not much of a book
This very slight volume consists of about 100 pages of an interesting set of lectures on the subject of why there hadn't been much written in contemporary German literature on the subject of the destruction of German cities by aerial bombing in World War II. It's a very interesting topic but the lectures pre-date the publication of "Der Brand" ("The Fire") by Joerg Friedrich which I imagine makes Sebald's earlier lectures somewhat obsolete.

The lectures are somewhat interesting read in conjunction with Gunther Grass' very disappointing and confusing "Peeling the Onion" although Sebald doesn't refer to Grass' work anywhere in this book.

The rest of the book is padded out with three short essays on two German writers and one German artist who are mostly unknown outside of the German-speaking world.I majored in German literature as an undergraduate in the 70's but don't think I had ever heard of Alfred Andersch, or if I had, I had completely forgotten about him.The essay on Peter Weiss, an artist of some kind, is particularly obtuse without any illustrations accompanying the text. ... Read more