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Contributors to this text on Bernard Stevens's work include Alan Bush, Michael Finnissy and Malcolm Lipkin. ... Read more

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In this study, Steven Botterill explores the intellectual relationship between the greatest poet of the fourteenth century, Dante, and the greatest spiritual writer of the twelfth century, Bernard of Clairvaux. Botterill analyzes Bernard's appearance as a character in the closing cantos of the Paradiso in the context of his medieval reputation as a contemplative mystic, devotee of Mary, and, above all, a preacher of outstanding eloquence. Botterill's new critical stance will provoke a reevaluation of Bernard's significance in the Commedia. ... Read more

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The administration of Burlington, Vermont mayor Bernard Sanders is the focus of this study on municipal socialism. Soifer evaluates the role local electoral politics played in incorporating democratic-socialist principles in Burlington, and assesses possibilities for implementing socialism on the municipal level elsewhere. The book explores how the mayor and members of the Burlington Progressive Coalition were elected several times, and explores such issues as development and growth, citizen participation, municipal ownership, taxes, quality of life issues, and foreign policy concerns. This book takes on added significance in light of Sanders' recent election to the U.S. Congress. ... Read more

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A handbook that promotes the art of good speaking, Pocket Guide to Technical Presentations provides basic guidelines that foster confidence. Up-to-date information in a simple, straightforward format–you will learn to speak competently, overcome anxiety, analyze the audience, research a topic, and to organize, illustrate, and deliver a professional-level talk. After a comprehensive and interesting overview about public speaking and technical presentations, this convenient pocket guide covers audience analysis, coping with anxiety, presentation organization, illustrating the presentation, graphics, delivery, evaluation, and adapting to different situations. Because of its convenient size, ease of use, and informative appendix, this guide is invaluable to those who need to present information from all walks of life: from students to trainer-facilitators to CEOs.

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*********Text Available as of 5/21/2004!**********The second edition of Fundamentals of Machine Elements, second edition provides undergraduates and praticing engineers with a clear understanding of the theory and applications behind the fundamental concepts of machine elements.

The text is rich with examples and homework problems designed to test student understanding and build their skills in analysis and design. The engineering design process is stressed throughout the book through the use of Case Studies, open-ended problems, design procedure boxes, and in-text discussion.

The book is divided into two parts: Part I (chs 1-8) covers fundamental background topics, and Part II (chs 9-20), presents the design of various machine components. Unique coverage of MEMS devices is provided in chapter 20, reflecting the importance of microsystems in today's industry.

The book is complemented by extensive online resources for instructors and students. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

If you...
...like to know where equations come from instead of blindly using them, don't use this book.

...like information to be presented in a consistent manner, don't use this book.

...do not enjoy using equations condensed down to such an extent that they become black-box engineering, don't use this book.

...must use this book for a college course, sell it afterward and look elsewhere for a reference book.

Poorly written, disappointing.
The author seems to have no graduate level education.This book is filled with empirical equations and has no academic deapth.The author himself does not know where each equations come from.Most of the exerciseproblems are the exact copy from other books.There is no referencelisted, and it seems a violation of copywrite.Too many typos and wronglydrawn figures bother readers.This book is a waste of time and money. ... Read more

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The Islamic school of law, or madhhab, is a concept on which a substantial amount has been written but of which there is still little understanding, and even less consensus. This collection of selected papers from the III International Conference on Islamic Legal Studies, held in May 2000 at the Harvard Law School, offers building blocks toward the entire edifice of understanding the complex development of the madhhab, a development that even in the contemporary dissolution of madhhab lines and grouping continues to fascinate.As scholars look to the construction of a new Islamic legal history, these essays inform on the background to madhhab formation, on inter-madhhab polemics and the drive toward legal authority, on madhhab perpetuation and anti-madhhab tendencies, on the constitutional role of the madhhab, on the madhhab's legislative and adjudicative mechanisms, and on the significance of the madhhab in comparative terms. This volume is of value to anyone interested in the nature of Islamic law.

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This is the long-awaited twenty-first novel in the number one bestselling series featuring Richard Sharpe. In the winter of 1811 the war seemed lost. All Spain has fallen to the French, except for Cadiz which is now the Spanish capital and is under siege. Wellington and his British army are in Portugal, waiting for spring to spark the war to life again. Richard Sharpe and his company are part of a small expeditionary force sent to break a bridge across the River Guadiana. What begins as a brilliant piece of soldiering turns into disaster, thanks to the brutal savagery of the French Colonel Vandal who is leading his battalion to join the siege of Cadiz. Sharpe extricates a handful of men from the debacle and is driven south into the threatened city. There, in Cadiz, he discovers more than one enemy. Many Spaniards doubt Britain's motives and believe their future would be brighter if they made peace with the French, and one of them, a baleful priest, secures a powerful weapon to break the British alliance. He will use a beautiful whore and the letters she received from a wealthy man.The priest will use blackmail, and Sharpe must defeat him in a sinister war of knife and treachery in the dark alleys of the city. Yet the alliance will only survive if the French siege can be lifted. An allied army marches from the city to take on the more powerful French and, once again, a brilliant piece of soldiering turns to disaster, this time because the Spanish refuse to fight. A small British force is trapped by a French army, and the only hope now lies with the outnumbered redcoats who, on a hill beside the sea, refuse to admit defeat. And there, in the sweltering horror of Barossa, Sharpe finds Colonel Vandal again. "Sharpe's Fury" is based on the real events of the winter of 1811 that led to the extraordinary victory of Barossa, the battle which saw the British capture the first French eagle of the Napoleonic Wars. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (35)

Sharpe marches on, agian.
I stumbled on to the Sharpe series accidently. I have now read all 20+ and am working on the video series. The books are better, even though Sean Bean does a good job in the videos, he is not whom I pictured as Richard Sharpe. (Too short and too fair.) The books have some repetitive themes, the battle horrors, while accurate get a little tiresome when repeated so often, but then Cornwell didn't write them intending them to be read one after the other.
As a history major I am very impressed with the research the author has done to make his novels so real. Tarring mustaches! I'd never heard of that. The action scenes are well written and the plots are mostly realistic, even though getting saved at the last minutes time after time stretches it. As I said, I'm sure these books were not meant to be read back to back to back.
In all, worth the effort.

Intrigue, underhandedness, politics...
Good fall asleep reading, except you keep wanting to read another chapter.

Bernard Cornwell continues his story about Richard Scharpe.Richard Sharpe is a fictional character in the tradition of the Horatio Hornblower series by CS Forrester.Instead of following the rise of a Navy midshipman rising through the ranks of the British Navy (interestingly following a similiar path as Nelson).Richard Sharp is a the soldier on the land directly fighting Napoleon.The story by itself is exciting and would be enough.

For me the frosting on the cake is the way Bernard weaves the history into a fictional story.The reader comes away understanding Spain's attitude towards France.The fear the French had for the Spanish gurella fighters.The tensions and anger between the Spanish governments and England.

It's also intrigueing to compare the foibles of a great man in the early 1800s and compare that with our political leaders today. I can imagine thier are men in Richard Sharpe's situation cleaning up political and other indiscretions in our time as well.

Richard Sharpe is similiar to an 18th Century James Bond, though the gadgets are replaced with a determination, viscousness and raw edge not seen in Roger Moore's James Bond, that allows him to step across the grey areas of right and wrong. Instead focusing on staying alive and accomplishing a goal no matter how sordid or morally unclear.

Enjoyed the book a great deal.

Good but not the best Sharpe book.
As a new comer to Sharpe books, i have been reading them in chronological order. So this is #11 for me. I must say I love ALL the Richard Sharpe books - I am usually a sci fi fantasy reader but from the first Sharpe novel (Sharp's Tiger) I was hooked. The depth of detail, the smell of the battlefield, its all so very well done.

I have to say however, this is my least favorite Sharpe book of the 11. It's not that bad - it's just not as good as the others. The main reason for this is that for some reason, Sharpe virtually disappears from the 2nd half of the book. More so than the past books, this is almost 2 very different books. The first half is all about Sharpe trying to recover stolen letters that are being used to blackmail an english ambassador. Once that's taken care of - the vantage shifts away from Sharpe and onto General Graham (a fine character to be sure) and Sharpe is only seen intermittently while the main battles rages. This confused me as all previous Sharpe books thrust our Captain right into the main events of the story. Usually Cornwell has no problem putting his fictional Captain right into the main events ofbattle - but for some reason Sharpe only hovers around the edge of this one. I found that odd.

So, in the end my only complaint is not enough of our favorite rogue, Captain Richard Sharpe. Of course I'll be onto #12 soon enough.

Blood, Guts, Honor, Wine and Romance
If you get up early in the morning for work, or to get the kids off to school, this book and other Cornwell books are not for you. They is are impossible to put down.
They are proverbial page turners.
My wife, here-to-fore, has been contented to read the "classics"; all of the English writers and most Vampire novels. But
now, she can't put the Sharpe series down. My only regret is that we didn't find out about Cornwell earlier. Excellent writer.

He's a thief and a murderer - and that's why gentlemen need Sharpe
I am sad. "Sharpe's Fury" was my last Sharpe novel. I'd read the others in more or less chronological order, then gone back to read this, the most recently published and inserted midway in the series.

For me, there will be no more Sharpe wenches. There will be no more craven aristocrats, in commands they don't deserve, plotting Sharpe's demise, nor more admirable officers Sharpe and other men would follow through the gates of hell.

There will be no more moments where the Napoleonic Wars hang in the balance, no more Sharpe treasures plundered or lost, no more intrigues with French spies.

There will be no more riveting battle scenes, drawn in enough detail for the military buff but clearly enough for the novice to follow, with the human element so dramatically but naturally woven into the scene's fabric.

And no more chestnuts pulled out of the fire by Richard Sharpe, one of fiction's greatest soldiers, raised from the gutter to find the only thing he does well - fight.I feel a grief similar to that felt when finishing the Jack Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brian.

In this episode Sharpe and Harper, on a patrol near the border of English-controlled Portugal and French-held Spain, are separated with a few men and an injured brigadier, and end up in Cadiz, the only part of Spain not taken by France.

The British ambassador there, Henry Wellesley - brother of Lord Wellington - is embroiled in scandal. The love letters he wrote to a dubious woman are being made public by unknown enemies. Called in to handle the matter, threatening as it does England's delicate relations with Spain, is Pumphrey, the fey Foreign Office spy. Sharpe, available for the moment, is detailed to do what it takes to get the letters back - to guard Pumphrey in his meetings with blackmailers, or to steal them back if need be.

There are lots of good things in this book, probably the last Sharpe novel Cornwell will write. Sharpe's low background is brought to the fore:he's a thief and a murderer, but it is precisely those skills gentlemen need to protect a gentleman's honor. Wellesley's erstwhile lover Caterina Blasquez is a memorable Sharpeian wench, and without giving too much away is a key factor in the book's ending where a Sharpe antagonist gets his in a non-violent but amusing way.

This book portrays perhaps better than any of the others the deeply divided Spanish public - many wanting to make a separate peace with Napoleon in return for the restoration of the Spanish monarchy, but with many different reasons for doing so. Sharpe must operate in a Cadiz that's like a tinderbox, ready to go off against the English at any time.

An English night-time amphibious attack on French artillery shelling Cadiz from across the bay is well done. And while nothing in the series can top Cornwell's account of Waterloo, the Battle of Bussaco is a fine climax to this book. English troops, unassisted by their Spanish allies, face annihilationwhen cornered by a vastly superior French force. Cornwell pays tribute to the French in this battle scene, as one of his characters note the brave and relentless pressing of the battle characteristic of them.

Adieu, Sharpe.
... Read more

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Univ. of Arizona, Tucson. Text delivers detailed descriptions of exemplary drug treatment programs for adolescent substance abuse. Covers outpatient, residential, family-oriented, and therapeutic community programs. Addresses the trends in adolescent substance use and various treatment approaches. Hardcover, softcover available and listed in approval week 2003-16. ... Read more

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No composer contributed more to film than Bernard Herrmann, who in over 40 scores enriched the work of such directors as Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Franois Truffaut, and Martin Scorsese. In this first major biography of the composer, Steven C. Smith explores the interrelationships between Herrmann's music and his turbulent personal life, using much previously unpublished information to illustrate Herrmann's often outrageous behavior, his working methods, and why his music has had such lasting impact.From his first film (Citizen Kane) to his last (Taxi Driver), Herrmann was a master of evoking psychological nuance and dramatic tension through music, often using unheard-of instrumental combinations to suit the dramatic needs of a film. His scores are among the most distinguished ever written, ranging from the fantastic (Fahrenheit 451, The Day the Earth Stood Still) to the romantic (Obsession, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir) to the terrifying (Psycho).Film was not the only medium in which Herrmann made a powerful mark. His radio broadcasts included Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre of the Air and The War of the Worlds. His concert music was commissioned and performed by the New York Philharmonic, and he was chief conductor of the CBS Symphony.Almost as celebrated as these achievements are the enduring legends of Herrmann's combativeness and volatility. Smith separates myth from fact and draws upon heretofore unpublished material to illuminate Herrmann's life and influence. Herrmann remains as complex as any character in the films he scoreda creative genius, an indefatigable musicologist, an explosive bully, a generous and compassionate man who desperately sought friendship and love. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

The definitive work on our finest film composer
Steven C. Smith's critical biography of Bernard Herrmann is a superb blend of scholarship and accessibility. Smith's critiques of the individual scores (and the films they support) are shrewd and insightful, and his devotion to Herrmann's commanding talent doesn't blind him to Herrmann's miserable personal behavior and career-damaging temper tantrums. This is likely to remain the last word on Bernard Herrmann for decades to come. An outstanding job.

Excellent survey of the great film composer
Bernard Herrmann is undoubtedly a genius, but he was also a tortured man. His ability to churn out scores under pressure for radio and then film is simply astonishing. He also found the time to orchestrate his scores, which was not common at the time.
His films scores added immeasurably to the the films they served - Vertigo, Psycho, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Ghost and Mrs Muir, Taxi Driver, Citizen Kane, North by Northwest, The Magnificant Ambersons to name but a few. But despite this success he craved recognition as a "serious" composer and conductor. This book does him justice and it is hard to manage a better biography of the great man.

Could be much better
I realize this is probably the best (if not only) comprehensive bio on Herrmann, but I found the book a bit clumsy and disjointed.Whenever a particular piece of music or film score is reached, there is a sudden jump into in-depth musical analysis.I would have preferred to have read about his life and career first, and then read a separate book that explores the music itself.I didn't want to take the time to run out and buy a CD or DVD everytime an unfamiliar work or film is detailed, so I found myself skipping over the discussions of instrumentation, thematic material, etc.Perhaps later I will refer back to them for later study.The appendix listing his works for film, radio, television, and concert is a nice addition.

The biographical material is fine, with a point of noting all of the musicians, conductors, actors, etc. that Herrmann either knew, worked with, and more often, hated and criticized.The infamous break with Hitchcock was very well written, and is a fascinating story within itself on the clash of ego and power.The portrait of the composer is one of an incredible talent with superior knowledge of his art, but with a difficult personality that resulted in harm to his own life and career.

The text makes extensive use of long quotations and letters, which are in a slightly smaller font, but otherwise identical to the main text.I found this to be confusing at time, as most books that I have read will print these sections either indented or offset.It was probably the fault of the publisher, as this would have added quite a few more pages to the book.

I recommend this book to anyone that is interested in learning about film music, or just want to read about one of the most talented and amazing musicians of the twentieth century.

The go-to Herrmann bio, but it needed better editing
Though a major biography, the 1991 book has problems. There are mis-spellings ("Macken" is actually "Machen"), factual errors ("Riders to the Sea" is a one-act play, not a novel), and typos (e.g., "Herrmann like the film" should've been "Herrmann liked the film"). The prose is occasionally clumsy. There are inconsistencies. At one point we learn that Herrmann didn't drink, and later we find that he is drinking.
It is a challenge to tell when long quotes occur, since their typography is so close to the "normal" text. There is such a great proportion of quotes, there is at times a scrapbook feel. The running title at the top of a page does not indicate what chapter you are in, and each chapter heading should have indicated years of coverage in addition to its number.Most of what I am describing are editing problems, whose blame must be laid on the University of California Press. I hope the 2002 edition is better.
As a person, Bernard Herrmann was obnoxious, bullying, insulting, and disregarded the feelings of others. If this applied only to his music vocation, these qualities would be somewhat understandable, but he was liable to gratuitously lash out at whoever crossed his path, whether taxi drivers or party guests.
Nonetheless, his music is a thing for love, enthusiasm, and admiration.

Bernard Herrmann lives on!
One of filmdom's most innovative and influential composers was the late Bernard Herrmann.Remembered mostly for the six films that he scored for director Alfred Hitchcock, the composer had successes with other filmmakers, along with a long tenure as lead conductor of the CBS Orchestra on radio. During his time at CBS, he wrote many compositions for the medium, and finished an opera based on Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights".

Author Smith has compiled a fascinating look at Herrmann, exposing the man's genius that went hand-and-hand with his tempetuosity.The book also reveals how Herrmann suited his music for the characters that were to be seen onscreen, crafting each note to the storyline and the director's wishes.

"A Heart at Fire's Center" is a must-read for those that admire the man, as well as for those that have an interest in the nuances and mandates of scoring for the movies. ... Read more

Product Description
The second edition of Fundamentals of Machine Elements provides thorough coverage of basic machine elements and their realistic application in modern engineering. The book is divided into two parts: Part I (chs 1-8) covers fundamental background topics, and Part II (chs 9-20), presents the design of various machine components. Unique coverage of MEMS devices is provided in chapter 20, reflecting the importance of microsystems in today's industry. Fundamentals of Machine Elements, second edition is rich with examples and homework problems designed to test student understanding and build their skills in analysis and design. The engineering design process is stressed throughout the book through the use of Case Studies,open-ended problems, design procedure boxes, and in-text discussion. The book is complemented by extensive online resources for instructors and students. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

amazon is doingGOOD JOB
when i was buying the product form amazon i was little bit confused because it is the first time i am buying anything from AMAZON. but when ireceived the book from amazon i was in seventh wonder. the condition of the book is like new. no body can tell that it is a used book. it simply great. i really thanks to amazon team for doing a great job. ... Read more

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The author studies the thought of the Japanese philosopher Nishitani. He examines the contradictory relationship existing between his political engagement in favor of ultra-nationalism and his religious ontology based on Buddhist and Christian values.French text. ... Read more