Domus: Wall Painting in the Roman House (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum)

Customer Reviews:

A Must Have Book.......2006-01-31

I saw a copy of Domus while in Naples and knew I would have to order a copy when I returned home. The book is beautifully produced with an excellent essay by Donatella Mazzolini on the architecture of Roman houses, focusing on those under discussion in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Rome. This is followed by an essay by Umberto Pappalando on the Domus Romana, focusing on the development of houses and gardens. As good as these essays are it is the pages dealing with the houses themselves that is jaw-dropping. The houses are arranged in sections following the development of the Roman domus and include color pictures and diagrams of the houses. There are short introductions to the homes followed by a portfolio section consisting of close up pictures of the frescos printed on non-glossy textured paper that gives a better impression of how the painting appears to the observer. These reproductions are superb.

The choice of buildings is impressive. There are far too many to list but among them are: from Pompeii the House of the Faun, the House of Julius Polybius, the Villa of Mysteries, the House of the Golden Bracelet, the House of the Tragic Poet and the House of the Labyrinth; from Herculaneum: the Samnite House, the House of the Skeleton, the House of the Grand Portal, the Collegium of the Augustales; from Rome: the House of the Griffins, Livia's House on the Palatine and at Prima Porta and the Domus Aurea. The Villa of Poppea at Oplontis gets special attention in the book, and a fresco from the house appears on the cover.

This book is a must for anyone interested in ancient Roman houses and their decoration. If you have even visited Pompeii, Herculaneum and the other villas destroyed by Mount Vesuvius you will enjoy this book.

Fabulous in every respect.......2006-01-07

A wonderful work in all respects - scholarship, printing, presentation, photography. Some of the paintings are more like wall paper samples, the paper and printing is that good.

Another great work in the Getty catalog. A must have for any serious student of Roman Art/Architecture.

The Roman Banquet: Images of Conviviality.(Houses and Monuments of Pompeii: The Works of Fausto and Felice Niccolini)(Domus: Wall Painting in the Roman ... review): An article from: The Art Bulletin

Average customer rating:

The Roman Banquet: Images of Conviviality.(Houses and Monuments of Pompeii: The Works of Fausto and Felice Niccolini)(Domus: Wall Painting in the Roman ... review): An article from: The Art Bulletin
Ann Kuttner
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000RRA69Q
Release Date: 2007-06-08

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Art Bulletin, published by Thomson Gale on June 1, 2007. The length of the article is 6340 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Roman Banquet: Images of Conviviality.(Houses and Monuments of Pompeii: The Works of Fausto and Felice Niccolini)(Domus: Wall Painting in the Roman House)(The Social Life of Painting in Ancient Rome and on the Bay of Naples)(Book review)
Author: Ann Kuttner
Publication: The Art Bulletin (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 89 Issue: 2 Page: 360(5)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Handbuilt Tableware: Making Distinctive Plates, Bowls, Mugs, Teapots and More: (A Lark Ceramics Book)
Average customer rating:

Great resource for potters

Handbuilt pottery book

Sparked new ideas for my own work

Quirky tableware in an otherwise well-written book

Handbuilt Tableware: Making Distinctive Plates, Bowls, Mugs, Teapots and More: (A Lark Ceramics Book)
Kathy Triplett
Manufacturer: Lark Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1579902049

Book Description

Imagine making serving dishes perfectly suited to the food you're preparing--perhaps a cone-shaped bowl on a pedestal, filled with shrimp and corn, with the husks shooting up gracefully. What an impression this would make on your guests...and what a pleasure for your family to sit down to such a beautifully prepared table. With clay, and guidance by a best-selling author who's a real pro at ceramics, it's simple to hand-build stylish, customized tableware that's just like the pieces you covet in pricey galleries. Even beginners will easily follow the illustrated instructions for making slabs, extruding, molding, and more. Every seasonally themed project showcases a complete table setting, with a delicious extra in each--a teapot in one, a pitcher in another--and features a new technique to try out. For more creative inspiration, four top potters share detailed expertise in the special section on surface decoration: they'll reveal the reasons behind their stylistic choices and walk you through the entire process. And, if you're a "rebel" who likes to do it your own way, the book is simply packed with options for adapting and substituting!

Customer Reviews:

Great resource for potters.......2007-08-06

This a a great resource for the functional potter or ceramic artists. Full of images and inspiration, as well as detailed inspructions of many items. A must have.

Handbuilt pottery book.......2007-01-12

Good pottery book for hand building. Some interesting and workable ideas.

Sparked new ideas for my own work.......2004-08-02

The technical information in this book is excellent: well presented, illustrated and explained. While I agree with the other reviewer that most of the actual projects shown are not fitting with my taste, the ideas and techniques presented have proven helpful to me. I also found myself wishing that the cover art was included in the how-to projects (which it is not). My only other criticism is that darting is not covered, but great examples of it are, so the reader never gets the explanation of how such forms are achieved.

Overall, this is one of the best technique books I've come across. I would recommend it, especially for the hobby or beginning potter. If you have a formal education in the ceramic arts you will know most of these tips already and find the suggested projects lacking in sophistication. It may however spark some new ideas for your own work.

Quirky tableware in an otherwise well-written book.......2001-06-28

I was misled by the cover of this book thinking that the tableware inside would be clean, simple and elegant. I couldn't be more wrong. I find many of the pieces featured looking weird and overly-decorated. Maybe that's what the author means by "distinctive". This is my greatest misgiving about the book. Otherwise, the author did quite a good job explaining the basics of pottery (with helpful tips along the way), guiding the reader on how to make tableware to suit the four seasons, and demonstrating the surface decoration styles of four different artists. There is a glossary at the end of the book and appendices detailing cone-firing ranges and glaze formulas.

How to Photograph Cars: An Enthusiast's Guide to Equipment and Techniques
Average customer rating:

Great book for beginners!

Waste of time/money

How to Photograph Cars: An Enthusiast's Guide to Equipment and Techniques
Tony Baker
Manufacturer: Haynes Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1859608558

Book Description

Tony Baker shares his tricks of the trade so that you too can shoot like the pros! Expert advice and the know-how you're looking for on the materials and techniques required for capturing sensational automotive photos. High-quality color images and detailed captions guide you through procedures for finding and preparing cars to photograph, selling your photos, photographic competitions, post-production computer skills, equipment, materials and more. Key content: Equipment and materials; Techniques for action and static photography; How to find and prepare cars to photograph (permissions, owners' clubs, dealers); Selling work (photo libraries, books, calendars, greetings cards, motorsport participants); Photographic competitions, studio photography, and post-production techniques using a Mac/PC; Captions include the car's make/model, the location of the photograph, time of day/year, camera/lens/filter combination, shutter speed/aperture where relevant, and any other pertinent information.

Customer Reviews:

Great book for beginners!.......2007-02-23

This book is not as technical as the Mann book. If you are just starting out as a photographer, I recommend this book! Baker gives good clear descriptions of depth-of-field and aperture, etc. If you are more experienced with cameras, then the book How to Photograph Cars by James Mann is probably the one you want. [...]

Waste of time/money.......2007-01-09

The techniques used were pretty old school and not so much for today's digital world. Majority of the pictures inside the book aren't impressive at all. I didn't learn anything I haven't already read online. I guess it's a cool read if you're new to photography but would not recommend it.

Book Description

Three friends - a minotaur, a goldfish in a robotic human body, and a humanoid plant - meander through empty vistas on a gradually revealed quest, talking about life, nature, sex, parents, and much more. Will they ever say what they left behind in favor of this uncharted pilgrimage?

Customer Reviews:

A Fast Read, With a Lot To Think About.......2006-12-08

Reviewed by: Brady Russell. This review posted courtesy of the Underground Literary Alliance Book Review Blog.

The problem with writing about comics is that you can't pretend like you aren't writing about comics. Comics have their own baggage that come around with them. Polite people say things like "I'm just not into comics," but that's just a way to prevent talking about their prejudices. Lots of art forms come with prejudices. Symphony music is thought of as boring. Theater is thought of as pretentious. Modern Dance is incomprehensible.

Come to think of it, I don't really disagree with many of those prejudicial statements. Maybe that's why I wrote them. Comics, though, I give comics free reign. Comics are in the middle of an historical moment right now. Once upon a time, the novel was simply a vehicle for bosom heaving love stories, but then writers came along who broadened its scope and depth and now very boring people in very expensive buildings sit around unpacking the layers and layers locked within novels and bringing different theoretical formulas to bear on ripping them apart, which is thought of as serious, and important work.

Which is part of how you can tell an art form is dying: when boring people in expensive buildings become deeply, deeply interested in it.

Well comics aren't anything like that. Boring people in expensive buildings want no more to do with comics than they want anything to do with rock-and-roll, and both art forms are very much alive, changing and well. The difference is that the public has a pretty good handle on what rock-and-roll is, even when it gets pretty strange (such as when groups like The Cure and The Decemberists come along). Comics, though, people think comics are a vehicle for superhero stories, that's it, that's flat, baby - done.

If you get out there and have a look, though, the comic underground is really moving the form in new places. Take Pulpatoon Pilgrimage. I'm in part so excited about this book I can't quit thinking about it and also afraid to invite anyone I know to look at it for fear that they just aren't prepared for it, that their prejudices will get in the way and they won't like it and they'll insult it and
then that will force me up onto a high-horse where I'll say something condescending that I'll regret such as, "Well clearly you just don't get it or even understand how to enjoy it."

See, when you've got comics you have this crazy marriage of the visual and the narrative. Painting, you know, is pretty much all visual. We forgive painting for all kinds of quirks. Its a one shot deal. It's one image. I almost never have any clue what a given painting is trying to tell me, but it's cool. It's cool because I like the colors or the line or I think the thing has an interesting impact on my subconscious.

Then stories are even cooler when you get into them. They really grab you. They work just like our brains work.

Well, with comics you can do a lot of both (where as you can just do a little of both with stories and painting, but let's not quibble too much here - all art is pretty fungible and the boundaries are hazy. That discussion is done.). It's the sheer amount of both the visual and the narrative that you can do with comics that make them so exciting.

The point I'm getting to is this, I love Pulpatoon Pilgrimage. I really, really love it. It's so simple and short and enriching and mystifying that I'm going to
read it again and again (this writing follows the third reading in two days).

That said, if someone handed me the prose version of Pulpatoon Pilgrimage I'd read three pages and throw it across the room. It just wouldn't work. I wouldn't
care. I would be like, "what is the point?"

I'd want to know where the heck Bull even comes from. Where are they? Where the hell are they going? Who are these freaks?

So what is it? Okay, I guess I had to get to that question eventually, but I don't want to go into too much detail here. Pulpatoon Pilgrimage is the story of a sort of Minotaur, Bull; a walking plant, Delaware Thistle and a robot with a goldfish in his head, Rowbot. We meet the three of them walking across a barren landscape. The first few pages suggest that they have previously walked through
forests, rolling hills, woods and jungles before we even hear a voice for the first time. They are on some sort of quest. We don't know where to or why. For some reason, they need to go in a group of three.

They all seem to like each other.

Along the way, we get small character vignettes. We learn a little about each character's sadness and we learn a lot about each character's charm. There is an enormous amount, perhaps an epic amount that we don't learn. Joel Priddy has shown a remarkable restraint here. You get the sense that he could talk about each of these three characters and the world they are walking through (or away from?) for hours and hours.

You'll finish reading the book in twenty minutes if you go slow. He doesn't tell us where we are. He gives us just enough so that we know the three have some sort of reason to walk and enough that we want to go with them.

Or I wanted to go with them. I can't speak for you. Like I said, this isn't your normal story. It's more visual than narrative. It's more mystical than logical.

I'll say this about the characters: you get the sense that Delaware Thistle is the most worldly and the most forlorn of them. He's the smartest of the group. Rowbot is the most mysterious. He suggests the most about the world. His very existence hints that this is not some ancient story, but maybe something in the far off future. Not that I can imagine a future in which they'd put goldfish in the heads of their androids, but I'm not as wise as Joel Priddy, either.

Bull, though, is my favorite character. Perhaps because he reminds me of my best friend back home. He was a big guy I have known all my life who didn't say a lot and didn't take on any airs. When he did act like he knew what he was talking about, though, you usually realized that he did and if you listened you realized he had a pretty good handle on more than you'd think. Bull's like that. Priddy
makes it a point to show us that Bull gets the workings of the world on both an analytical and a gut level. Bull doesn't go into a lot of detail and what he says takes a while.

Which is not a bad description of how the story in Pulpatoon Pilgrimage gets told.

If you want to believe that comics can be art, then check it out. If you just want to meditate for twenty minutes, try it for that, too. If you want to understand what it means when people say "still waters run deep," then that's
another good reason to try it out.

Just don't complain to me because it's slow or meandering or doesn't make a very clear point or doesn't really seem to end neatly (especially when you still don't know why it began). I warned you, didn't I? I told you that's why I love it. So don't cry to me when you're more mystified at the ending than you were at the beginning? Because, I'll wager, that you have a pretty good idea of what it is that's mystified you. You probably weren't the least bit mystified when you started reading Pulpatoon Pilgrimage, but now you are. You wonder what was going on? What happened? What's going to happen? Most of all how? Better
yet: why?

And if you're thinking right, you realize that mystification isn't a problem. It's Priddy's gift to you to leave you mystified, wondering, flummoxed. It's
better to have a nice set of questions in hand than it is to have answers, especially if the questions are good ones.

Pulpatoon Pilgrimage will leave you with good questions, and you'll need to read it twice or even three times to find them all (and answer a few). I hope you won't mind. Priddy's haunting muse and lovely, graceful, gentle lines will be glad to take you through the questions again and again.

AN ODE TO SMALL PRESS DAYS.......2005-06-02

Pulpatoon Pilgrimage is one of those little, fascinating comics that takes me back to the days of small press and self-published titles in the 1980's. There were a lot of very talented cartoonists doing outstanding books which never saw the light of day outside of the small press community. But thanks to companies like Ad-House books, great titles like Joel Priddy's Pulpatoon Pilgrimage are available to a mass audience. You won't find scantily clad women in tights or lasers shooting out of someone's eyes, but you will find a talented cartoonist producing a thoughtful and bittersweet strip that really captures the essence of small press.

Pulpatoon Pilgrimage tells the tales of three traveling friends: a robot sailer named RowBot, a Minotaur named Bull, and the walking plant-man, Delaware Thistle. These three friends are on a pilgrimage through the wilderness, each in search of a specific goal. Along the way they discuss life and relationships, as well as relating their various pasts and how they met. The graphic novel is told out over a series of smaller chapters as Priddy relates more and more about this eclectic collection of characters, but like any good quest he keeps the readers in suspense, wondering what's over the next hill or beyond that river. The most interesting and tragic chapter dealt with Delaware's mother, who fell asleep outside against the warnings of her parents and found herself cross-pollinated by a bee in a subtle barb at racism and even mixed marriages. Priddy has a cartoon style that compares favorably to Jeff Smith's with a very clean, crisp style while maintaining an attention to detail in the character's expressions and reactions.

A truly wonderful and insightful little graphic novel by a very talented cartoonist.

Amazon.com

New York Times journalist Charlotte Curtis's mother was a prominent suffragist who was the first woman American Foreign Service Officer. But Curtis was not her mother's brand of feminist, nor was she a proponent of the women's lib movement of her contemporaries that hit its stride during the 1970s. (She was even at times openly scornful of its tactics to win equal pay and other rights.) Instead, Curtis, who began at the Times as a society-column writer in 1961, ended her career (she died of cancer in 1987) as the powerful editor of the paper's op-ed page. Instead of confronting the inherent sexism at the paper--she did not join the class-action suit filed against it by other women employees in the 1970s--she seemed work within it. Curtis used her society columns to write subtle sociological critiques. She listened carefully to "newsmakers" and their wives when they spoke off-guard at parties and wrote pieces about their lives and what drove them. She covered Leonard Bernstein's fund-raising party for the Black Panthers, Truman Capote's famous Black and White Ball, and the pop-culture allure of the Mafia. Soon, these types of impressionistic stories moved from the back pages of the paper to the front. Curtis helped change the face of journalism: today, as readers know only all too well, the story of a prominent person's life is as newsworthy as his or her accomplishments. This engagingly written biography strongly traces the arc of its subject's career. It is less clear in its analysis of whether Curtis's success led to lasting positive changes for other women at The New York Times. Still, it is an interesting account of an exceptional woman and her times. --Anna Baldwin

Book Description

For twenty-five years, Charlotte Curtis was a society/women’s reporter and editor and an op-ed editor at the New York Times. As the first woman section editor at the Times, Curtis was a pioneering journalist and one of the first nationwide to change the nature and content of the women’s pages from fluffy wedding announcements and recipes to the more newsy, issue-oriented stories that characterize them today. In this riveting biography, Marilyn Greenwald describes how a woman reporter from Columbus, Ohio, broke into the ranks of the male-dominated upper echelon at the New York Times. It documents what she did to succeed and what she had to sacrifice. Charlotte Curtis paved the way for the journalists who followed her. A Woman of the Times offers a chronicle of her hard-won journey as she invents her own brand of feminism during the 1960s and 1970s. In the telling of this remarkable woman’s life is the story, as well, of a critical era in the nation’s social history.

Customer Reviews:

No brouhaha over Curtis.......2000-09-14

After seeing a re-broadcast of Marilyn Greenwald on CNN and having just read yet another review (NY Times and Dallas paper), there is no brouhaha over this one --this is a fine work.

Move over Doris K. Goodwin, there's a new biographer in town.......1999-08-24

Ms. Greenwald's insightful biography of the fascinating woman who was both a shaper and observer of the women's movement is fascinating reading. Highly informative and entertaining this book is a real page turner.

The authors writing style is captivating and I look forward to her next endeavor.

excellent.......1999-08-15

Insightful and well written. I really enjoyed sharing the life of this remarkable woman.

insightful.......1999-08-15

As a former Times writer I was impressed with Ms. Greenwald's thorough investigation and her ability to capture Charlotte's persona.

A Woman of the Times: Journalism, Feminism, and The Career of Charlotte Curtis

Average customer rating:

A Woman of the Times: Journalism, Feminism, and The Career of Charlotte Curtis
Marilyn S. Greenwald
Manufacturer: Ohio Univ. Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RBC7RQ

The Trail Home: Along The Pacific Crest
Average customer rating:

disappointing read

The Trail Home: Along The Pacific Crest
Alfred Wohlpart
Manufacturer: Universal Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Travel | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1581125674

Book Description

The Trail Home describes my 2,650 mile trek on the Pacific Crest Trail and the internal transformation that occurred along the way. Starting in southern California and heading northward, I spent six months journeying through some of the most spectacular landscapes in America, from the arid deserts of the southwest to the High Sierras and the Cascade Mountains. Ultimately, I would arrive at the Canadian border in mid October, but I was no longer the same person as when I began. The Trail Home describes the intertwined, dual journey that I would undertake the external journey exploring the physical landscape and the internal journey exploring the landscape of my soul.

I came to the realization as I hiked along the Pacific Crest Trail that we live fragmented and disjointed lives. We have been promised happiness and fulfillment from a culture mired in materialism, competition, and shallowness. As a result of following the pathway to success laid out before me, my life had become fragmented without any real meaning: my spirituality had stagnated; my intellectual curiosity had deteriorated; my imagination had atrophied. As I walked northward along the trail, the sheer steadfastness of the land its permanence, patience, and endurance seeped into my soul. The rhythm of the landscape slowed my pace and calmed my spirit, allowing a new, more spiritual life to unfold within me, often leaving me in tears. By the end of the hike, I had recaptured the lost harmony that feeds the mind, body, and soul and I became whole again.

Customer Reviews:

disappointing read.......2007-03-10

I'm addicted to reading books about thru-hiking on either the PCT or the AT, but this book seems to get bogged down in minutiae, describing every rock, tree and mountain along the way with little reference at all to the human aspect of this great adventure. This is a book about two old friends who have not seen each other in many years but came together again to hike the PCT. Yet there are only 1 or 2 references to their relationship and a sentence or two about their conversations along the way. One gets little sense of the actual journey from reading this book.

Book Description

A classic of Italian literature! The chief merit of this work lies in its scope: it directly assays the personal value system of the Florentine bourgeois class, which did so much to foster the development of art, literature and science. It displays a variety of high styles--high rhetoric, systematic moral exposition, novelistic portrayal of character--in the typical Renaissance framework of the dialogue. The treatise, in its entirety, shows a Florentine paterfamilias and two uncles instructing some submissive nephews in the ethics of private life. Money and reputation are its primary themes. Book III, the most dramatic, far-ranging, and down-to-earth of the four books, does not present a single bourgeois outlook but, as a dialogue, expresses conflicting points of view, enabling readers to relive social and moral conflicts that troubled early capitalist society.

Book Description

Renowned for its accuracy, brevity, and readability, this book has long been the gold standard of concise histories of the Napoleonic Wars. Now in an updated and revised edition, it is unique in its portrayal of one of the world's great generals as a scrambler who never had a plan, strategic or tactical, that did not break down or change of necessity in the field. Distinguished historian Owen Connelly argues that Napoleon was the master of the broken play, so confident of his ability to improvise, cover his own mistakes, and capitalize on those of the enemy that he repeatedly plunged his armies into uncertain, seemingly desperate situations, only to emerge victorious as he blundered to glory. Exploring this neglected aspect of Napoleon's battlefield genius, Connelly at the same time offers stirring and complete accounts of all the Napoleonic campaigns.

Customer Reviews:

Very intersting look at Napoleon's battle plans.......2006-12-14

How did Napoleon succeed in battle? According to Connelly it was by having detailed and perfect plans that fell apart leaving Napoleon forced t0 improvise. Napoleon's ability to improvise on the battlefield were the true ways he won. His enemies expected him to follow his plans which were easy to discern and when he did not he won battles. This provides excellent accounts of various battles and does so without becoming bogged down in details. I highly recommend it for those starting out with Napoleon and want to understand how he won battles. (as someone who did their thesis no Napoleon this book would have been invaluable at the time). The book is well written and a quick read that will help understand the Napoleonic wars in the context that they were in.

A Special Kind of Genius.......2006-07-13

Dr. Connelly sees Napoleon as probably the greatest general of all time, in part because, paradoxically, 'he never really made any plans that he stuck to.'

That lack of planning would appear to be disastrous for anyone else. But for Napoleon it marked him as one of the most remarkable military leaders in history, Connelly said. 'He made plans so that he would have special men and supplies in the right places, but made everything else up as he went along. This equates to genius by him.'

It's considered a truism that 'No plan survives first contact with the enemy (Helmuth von Moltke).' So much so that many military organizations have altered the way they do planning so that they are making no presumptions of what the enemy will do. Get good leaders, get enough men and equipment, get them the food, ammo, etc. they will need, and point them in the right direction.

The interesting point is that Napoleon recognized this so long before von Moltke, Patton, etc.

The book is delightful. It's got a bit of humor, and analyzes Napoleon's battles from a slightly different aspect.

Blundering to Glory: Napoleon's Military Campaigns

Average customer rating:

Obvious bias against Napoleon
Deliberately Controversial but Informative
Excellent introduction to the Napoleonic wars
A Little Disappointing
Napoleon in a Nutshell

Blundering to Glory: Napoleon's Military Campaigns
Owen Connelly
Manufacturer: SR Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0842022317

Customer Reviews:

Obvious bias against Napoleon.......2006-02-25

Blundering to Glory is intended to be an account of how Napoleon got lucky as a general and emperor. While there are numerous events where Napoleon was lucky or his marshals saved him from himself, there were times that Napoleon's abilities were apparent. Connelly unnecessarily bashes Napoleon throughout his book while overemphasizing his marshals' accomplishments.

Blundering to Glory is well written if the reader understands the bias Connelly shows against Napoleon. The information included on his battles and empire is informative making Blundering to Glory a good companion to other Napoleon books such as Horne's How Far From Austerlitz, Elting's Swords Around a Throne and Schom's Napoleon.

Deliberately Controversial but Informative.......2005-07-19

The extent and nature of Napoleon's genius will always be a matter of debate and controversy. Owen Connelly has added fuel to the fire in an interesting way. He is in fact trying to stir the pot, not least with the provocative title of this work. In the process, he has turned out his usual well-written, clear and concise work. This book is a great outline of Napoleon's campaigns, whether or not one agrees with his conclusions. I have put it to good use assigning it in my courses, and my students always enjoy it. They get a good, quick overview of Napoleonic warfare. Owen Connelly (an American) is one of the most knowledgable and objective living historians of the Napoleonic period.

Excellent introduction to the Napoleonic wars.......2004-09-03

It is a real gem of a volume, and although I have many other books on the Napoleonic Wars I have used it as a reference source countless times. The writing is very good, all trivial matters have been excluded and the maps although simple are numerous and informative. This book is the perfect choice for someone who wants to learn a lot about the wars of Napoleon without spending weeks to read the massive volumes of the other experts on the subject (Chanlder etc.)It gives the essence of Napoleon's operational art and reveals many little known aspects of his campaigns, like his excellent defensive maneuvers under desperate conditions in France in 1814.

A Little Disappointing.......2004-04-11

I started out very involved and interested in Connelly's premise, but as the book went on, he strained his credibility.

With such misleading statements as, "Massena scored a victory over [Wellington] at Bussaco in September 1810," Connelly made me wonder just how strenuously he had checked his facts and just what he may have twisted to suit his argument. Bussaco was a clear defeat for Massena, who had thrown five assaults at the British/Portuguese troops and been repulsed in every case. The allies were not only left in possession of the battlefield but had lost approximately 1,000 men to Massena's 4,000. How Connelly could count that as a victory for Massena is beyond me. Unless, of course the fact that, two days AFTER the battle, Massena's drive to outflank the allies caused Wellington to start his strategic withdrawal toward the Lines of Torres Vedras, is what Connelly calls a "victory."

And it made me wonder, what else did Connelly change or leave out...what may he have glossed over because it didn't suit his argument? One reviewer here complained that Connelly covered Napoleon's early battles extensively but barely covered what some consider to be Napoleon's most brilliant display of genius: the battles of 1814. Was 1814 glossed over, perhaps, because it was damaging to Connelly's argument? Who knows? It's too bad, really. This book had great promise, but it lost me through sheer sloppiness. My recommendation: Read it for its interesting approach, but don't expect to be convinced by the end of it.

Napoleon in a Nutshell.......2001-10-03

I first read this little gem in 1992 & I've just finished my 4th enjoyable reading. Personally, I can't think of a more readable, economical, introduction to the Napoleonic wars. Following an introductory chapter on Bonaparte, each chapter examines a separate campaign (Italy, Austerlitz, Spain, Russia etc). Professor Connely's lifetime of scholarship in this field is well reflected throughout to include a comprehensive bibliography and a very good bibliographic essay examining works published since the first edition of this book. Whether you agree or disagree with his thesis (Napoleon the opportunist) this work is well worth the price. I also recommend Connelly's FRENCH REVOLUTION/NAPOLEONIC ERA, a short but well-done college text examing the military, political and cultural events of that period. Prior to attacking David Chandler's massive opus The CAMPAIGNS of NAPOLEON, also see
David Gates' The NAPOLEONIC WARS, Charles Esdaile's Thr WARS of NAPOLEON & Gunther Rothenberg's ART of WAR in the AGE of NAPOLEON.
All three are available in paperback. Happy reading!

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BLUNDERING TO GLORY: NAPOLEON'S MILITARY CAMPAIGNS.
Owen. Connelly
Manufacturer: Wilmington, Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1987. 250 pp., frontis, maps. Fine copy of first edition, in dust jacket.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UDX0NG

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Blundering to Glory: Napoleons Military Campaigns
Owen Connelly
Manufacturer: SR Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JVAO3I

Book Description

Handbook of Media for Clinical Microbiology, Second Edition provides an easy-to-use reference for routine and specialized media employed in the cultivation of pathogenic bacteria, fungi, and viruses in clinical diagnostic laboratories. This edition adds descriptions of newly employed media used for cultivating emerging pathogens. It also discusses the role of the clinical laboratory in the diagnosis of infectious diseases, and the process for detecting infectious diseases, including specimen receipt, media selection, antibiotic susceptibility testing, and biosafety considerations. It also covers the clinical laboratory's role within the Laboratory Response Network for detecting bioterrorism.

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