How To Draw Puppies & Kittens - Pbk (How to Draw)

Customer Reviews:

So cute, they're almost real.......2003-04-12

My nine year old says: "This book is a good book to learn how to draw puppies and kittens. The drawings are so cute, they're almost real."

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How to Draw Puppies & Kittens

Manufacturer: Scholastic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0439693527

Customer Reviews:

Fabulous for Students.......2005-02-23

This book is fantastic simply for the amount of information it contains, both about designers and info about the particular decade of fashion. Just buy it, especially if u r a student on a limited budget.

THE book of 20th Century fashion.......2004-06-07

This is the book on fashion - if you only want to buy one book about fashion in the twentieth century, this is the one to buy. Even if you have many books already, buy this anyway. The pictures are fantastic - a great mix of the classics (Dovima and the Elephants is of course included) and some you may not have seen before - and the prose is great, not too flowery but still capturing the art and drama that is fashion. Organised chronologically by decade, this book includes not just an overview of each era, but also informative sections on most of the major designers, including some of the oft-forgotten pioneers such as Lanvin, Fortuny, McCardell and Capucci. There are also articles on various aspects of the fashion industry, from how the clothes are made the idols of each era, costumes in the movies and many more. A beautiful book to look at as well as one of the most informative non-scholarly, this is a fantastic book for any fashionista, whether a total devotee or someone just new to the charms of fashion.he

If you only buy one, buy this one.......2002-11-02

One reviewer said if you have "Couture" dont buy this. Remember Couture is 20 years out-of-date and mostly black and white. This is the book for every fashion student who wants to know each decade's celebrities, looks, designers, etc. It is the whole course in a nutshell (well rather a big heavy nutshell) but still, if you only buy one, buy this one.

Text Book Worthy.......2002-01-11

"Fashion" by Seeling is the best book out on the market today when it comes to a survey of 20th century fashion. It is full of fabulous photographs, great historical data, and lists a plethora of designers including more current ones that "Couture" does not. This book is being used as the course textbook for the class "The Great Designers" at Marymount University in Arlington, VA. Thank you to Seeling for providing us with such a great "jumping off" point for our class discussions!

Good Review.......2000-07-16

Excellent photographic journey of 20th century style -- not only clothing, but hair and make-up as well. Very similar to COUTURE: THE GREAT DESIGNERS by Caroline Milbank and includes many of the same photos and drawings. FASHION is about 200 pages longer than COUTURE, however, and therefore includes more information, plus is somewhat less costly. If you already have COUTURE, you already have FASHION -- no need to buy both unless it's an area of detailed research.

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The Essential Collection: Vivaldi--Gold (Gold Essential Collections) (Gold Essential Collections)
Quentin Thomas
Manufacturer: Chester Music
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 184449778X
Release Date: 2005-05-30

Product Description

A fine selection of the most famous masterpieces by Antonio Vivaldi transcribed and arranged for solo piano. An essential addition to your piano library.

Customer Reviews:

Nice book.......2007-07-10

This is a really nice book for collectors and enthusiasts, it's mostly in full color and the quality of the paper is pretty good. It's light on text but is packed with photos of arcade cabinets and artwork. The graphic layout could have used a little bit of work and the reproduction quality of the photos isn't quite top notch ... also I ideally would have liked to have seen more games included of Japanese origin. But these are small complaints given how nice the book is as it stands. Really a great coffee table type book for enthusiasts and a 100% must have for anyone who loves classic arcade games. Very glad I made the purchase and really happy with it.

Book Description

As information technology becomes increasingly essential within organizations, the reputation and role of the CIO has been diminishing

To regain credibility and avoid obscurity, CIOs must take on a larger, more strategic role. Here is a blueprint for doing exactly that.

This book shows how CIOs can bridge the gap between IT and the rest of the organization and finally make IT a strategic advantage rather than a cost sink.

Customer Reviews:

More readable than others.......2007-05-11

The New CIO Leader has some insights for current and aspiring CIOs. Its a good book to benchmark where you stand today and what you could do differently.

Like every book, you may not agree with everything that the authors have to say; but overall I found it interesting enough to give a few copies to some of my high potential staff.

Recommended if you are a CIO or want to be one.

Standing on the shoulders of Kouses & Posner.......2005-12-22

Broadbent and Kitzis have produced a remarkable work. I have found their work to be like a capstone, integrating many streams of thought that have gone before. Unfortunately, the work suffers from lack of awareness of the leadership literature. "The Leadership Challenge" by Kouzes & Posner predates this work by more than 3 years, yet Broadbent and Kitzis, while seemingly familiar with "The Leadership Challenge" do not acknowledge their debt. Readers who enjoy "The New CIO Leader" will benefit from Kouzes and Posner's seminal and very readable work on leadership.

Here is a comparison of a short passage from "The New CIO Leader" with excerts from "The Leadership Challenge" ...

From "The New CIO Leader" by Broadbent & Kitzis (2005)

On Page 17 "The good news is that leadership skills can be developed. Leadership isn't mysical or mysterious; it has nothing to do with immutable personality traits. Nor is it something for only the chosen few.
" The first step in becoming an enterprise leader is to understand what leadership really is. And the fundamental aspect of leadership is credibility."

COMPARE THIS WITH THESE EXCERTS

From "The Leadership Challenge" by Kouzes & Posner (2002)

"developed" on Page 386: "... it's the persistence of the myth that leadership can't be learned. This haunting myth is a far more power- 388 THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE ..."

"mystical" on Page 144: "... Yet this leadership practice isn't always effectively employed. In fact, we've consistently found ... others' spirits? We believe that most people have attributed something mystical to the process of inspiring a shared vision. They seem to see it as supernatural, as a grace or charm ..."

"personality" on Page 13: "... each case we looked at was unique in expression, each path was also marked by some common patterns of action. Leadership is not at all about personality; it's about practice. We've forged these common practices into a model of leadership, and we offer it here as guidance ..."

"chosen few" . on Page 386: "... we wait for someone to ride in and save us. Well, forget it! It's just pure myth that only a lucky few can ever understand the intricacies of leadership. Leadership is not a place, it's not a gene, and it's not a ..."

"first step" on Page 64: "... finding your voice-by clarifying your values and by expressing yourself in unique ways. By finding your voice you take the first step along the endless journey to becoming a credible leader.

"credibility" on Page 23: "... CREDIBILITY IS THE FOUNDATION OF LEADERSHIP Without credibility, you can't lead. Brian Carroll, Challenge Bank, Australia You can't follow someone who isn't credible, who doesn't truly ..."

You Want To Fix The Mercedes or Drive It?.......2005-11-30

The times they are changing. The direction of change for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) has had different answers from different people. In their December 2004 book, entitled The New CIO Leader: Setting the Agenda and Delivering Results (2005, Harvard Business School Press, 338 Pages, ISBN 1591395771), Marianne Broadbent (Associate Dean of the Melboune Business School) and Ellen S Kitzen (Group Vice-President of the Gartner Group's Executive Programs) argue that the choice is yours. You can choose to be a new CIO Leader or be relegated to Chief Technology Mechanic. The authors do an outstanding job of discussing the seas change, until the book loses some of its luster from what appears to be their interpretation of Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (CobiT).

The authors start out strong by identifying what the sea change is, as technology is increasingly relied up to support all functions within the enterprise. After a discussion that lays down a foundation of how they view leadership, they break the goals of the new CIO Leader down into two parts: "Demand-Side Leadership" and "Supply-Side Leadership". On the demand side, they cover politics, realities and the need for strong IT governance. They emphasize that the new CIO leader has to be willing to step and be recognized as part of the leadership team. On the supply side, they delve it what it takes to create a high-performance IT team, measure results, and communicating the results. In all, they lay a strong foundation for a framework/paradigm for CIOs to follow.

And that is where the book loses it. They are laying down a foundation that strongly resembles the CobiT Framework. CobiT is about linking technology and business objectives in an integrated fashion, providing a controls framework to ensure success. It is essentially a circular (feedback-driven) cradle to grave process. So I wondered why I was not seeing it mentioned in the book. Eventually I came to it, but only in a very brief discussion of developing security policies. This "silo" misses the mark and may give those unfamiliar with COBIT, the wrong perception of what it is. I was quite surprised given the back ground of the authors. However, this may partially be the fault of inconsistent messages that the IT Governance Institute (ITGI) puts in some of their publications.

Who Should Read This Book

This book should be read by current CIO's looking to shape their future. It should also be read by those who aspire to be a CIO one day/ The discussion is full and thought provoking.

The Scorecard

Birdie on a long par 5 reachable in two.

Pedantic and boring.......2005-08-27

Buried in various places in this 287 page book are few intellectual gems which strikes a chord with reality. Otherwise, the authors of this book never seemed to have touched a server nor managed an IT department.

The book deals with 10 topics:

1)Lead, don't manage. (This part was very weak)
2)Understand the fundamentals of your environment (The CIOs have to understand the fundamentals too??)
3)Create a vision for how IT will build your organization's success. (You mean CIOs should have a goal??)
4)Shape and inform expectations for an IT enabled enterprise (You mean computers can't do everything??)
5)Create clear and appropriate IT governance. (The authors claim that IT governance is secret to IT success...and I was dumb enough to believe having talented personnel is secret to IT success).
6)Weave business and IT strategy together. (As if business and IT are not weaved together in the first place. Yeah, all those million dollars worth of servers are secretly being used to play video games and do nothing for the business at all)
7)Build a new IS organization--one that is leaner and more focused than its more traditional predecessor. (Do more with less...what else is new??)
8)Develop and nurture a high performance team in your IS organization. (I think this one has been written only a million times in other books).
9)Manage the new enterprise and IT Risks (Strictly fillers)
10)Communicate IS performance in business relavant language. (This chapter was nice...essentially, you should market the importance of IT as much as possible).

Moving Into Line Management.......2005-01-21

Traditionally the senior management of companies have not come from the "staff" organizations like accounting or information management. The authors of this book contend, however, that this time may have passed. With the ubiquitous presence of technology in organizations and the recent technology downturn, the Chief Information Officer have reached a critical breaking point.

Based on exclusive research conducted by Gartner, Inc., with thousands of companies and CIOs, the book reveals exactly what CIOs must do to solidify their credibility with the executive team and bridge the chasm that currently separates business and IT strategy. Broadbent and Kitzis outline the agenda CIOs need to integrate business and IT assets in a way that moves corporate strategy forward.

The authors have identified ten critical points of focus that will distinguish the new CIO leaders. Each of these is discussed so that the new CIO can be prepared to take action on each of them.

Arming the CIO.(Book Review): An article from: The Australian Library Journal

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Arming the CIO.(Book Review): An article from: The Australian Library Journal
John Levett
Manufacturer: Australian Library and Information Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Australian Library Journal, published by Australian Library and Information Association on November 1, 2004. The length of the article is 646 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: Arming the CIO.(Book Review)
Author: John Levett
Publication: The Australian Library Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2004
Publisher: Australian Library and Information Association
Volume: 53 Issue: 4 Page: 431(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

1599 was an epochal year for Shakespeare and England

Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.

James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare's staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599, bringing together the news and the intrigue of the times with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.

Download Description

An intimate history of Shakespeare, following him through a single year -- 1599 -- that changed not only his fortunes but the course of literature

How was Shakespeare transformed from being a talented poet and playwright to become one of the greatest writers who ever lived? In this one exhilarating year we follow what he reads and writes, what he sees, and whom he works with as he invests in the new Globe Theatre and creates four of his most famous plays -- Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet.

James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare's staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599: sending off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathering an Armada threat from Spain, gambling on the fledgling East India Company, and waiting to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.

This book brings the news and intrigue of the times together with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.

Customer Reviews:

A Magnficent Account Of Shakespeare's Annus Mirabilis.......2007-08-04

While we have his magnificent plays and poetry, we know little about Shakespeare the man. We have the dry details of his birth, marriage, and death, the birth and death of his children, his education at Stratford Grammar School, his will, and some business and legal records. We can infer a little from what others wrote about him, especially in the 1623 First Folio; and we can extrapolate a bit more from what we know of the London theater scene and its denizens during the Elizabethan period. But the stuff of a real biography -- what Shakespeare was thinking, feeling, and experiencing during his life -- perforce are matters only for speculation.

It is truly remarkable, therefore, that Professor Shapiro uses this small heap of facts to bring Shakespeare brilliantly to life. Shapiro focuses on Shakespeare's life during 1599, which Shapiro forcefully argues was the year Shakespeare began his transformation into one of the greatest dramatists of all time. It was a year in which Shakespeare and his partners built the Globe Theatre where the Chamberlains Men / Kings Men would perform for the rest of his career. It was also the year in which Shakespeare ground out masterpieces in all three of his genres of history, comedy, and tragedy: Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. Linking his sensitive and erudite explications of these plays to contemporary political developments (such as the bogged-down English invasion of Ireland and the threat of Spanish invasion), occurrences in the rapidly changing Elizabethan theater world (e.g., the diminishing roles of clowns like Shakespeare's partners Will Kemp and Robert Armin), literary trends (such as the development of self-expository monologue in Montaigne's essays and Shakespeare's soliloquies) and events in Shakespeare's own life (e.g., his quest for middle-class status as evidenced by his application for a coat of arms), Professor Shapiro paints a colorfully vibrant portrait of Shakespeare and the competitive theater business in which Shakespeare became so prominent as both a creator and an entrepreneur.

I don't know enough about Shakespeare to have an independent opinion about whether Shapiro overstates the case for the crucial nature of the year 1599. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Although a product of deep learning, it is beautifully written and compellingly readable, and makes Shakespearean scholarship accessible even to a general reader like me. It also made me want to read many of the plays again, which I haven't since school days. Whether you love the Bard, or haven't thought much about him since you were forced to read the plays in school, this book is a wonderful and essential companion to Shakespeare's works.

a magnificent book; clear, detailed and lucid........2007-07-12

A joy to read.

This is a magnificent book; clear, detailed and lucid.

Much has been said already about this book. It gives a very clear insight into Elizabethan London towards the end of Elizabeth's reign. As a student of the Bard, Shapiro performs well in widening the discussion to mention the theatre-going habits of plebs and aristocracy alike; how Shakespeare and his players would have attended palaces which informed his works. Shapiro notes the echoes of Catholicism, the threat of another Spanish invasion, the deeply unsettling rebellion in Ireland, even the confusion over the calendar and holy/national days. Given the difficulties and expense of publishing in the 1600's, I suppose it is possible to read every individual item published in 1599, and the comprehensiveness of the author's grasp of Elizabethan London, makes me believe he may have done so.

All told extremely well, he plots Shakespeare's emergence as a serious playwright, who eschews the popular trivialities and takes on large questions of politics and personality.
I was less impressed with the later discussions of Shakespere's rewrites of the great plays of 1599, however it is a work of great learning, synopsized very well and told in an engaging style.

1599 - it was "a very good year" .......2007-03-23

In this insightful and innovative book, Shapiro adopts the reverse approach to the usual. Instead of analysing the plays to find the man, he explores the life to illuminate the plays. The result is a revelation of both.

A Prologue describes the building of the Globe from timbers secretly transported across the Thames by Shakespeare and Co. from The Theatre (on which the lease had expired). Then Shapiro trains his lens on 1599, dividing it into its four "seasons". Maintaining dynamic readability throughout, each season deals with a set of preoccupations at national, professional, and personal levels:

1. Winter - Shakespeare's artistic differences with his comic star, Will Kemp; the run-up to Essex's Ireland campaign, with mobilisation and departure - as well as pacifism.

2. Spring - logistics of building the Globe; censorship, book-burning and history; the appropriation of religious holidays for politcal purposes.

3. Summer - paranoia in London with rumours of a second Armada invasion); Shakespeare's anguish at an unauthorised, cobbled-together edition of his poems; sincerity, fakery, and learning the true nature of love.

4. Autumn - the decline of chivalric values and rise of empire via merchant-adventurers and the East India Company; the impact of Montaigne's essays on soliloquies; and finally, an elucidation of how the various versions of "Hamlet" reveal Shakespeare's changing view of this most problematic play.

Shapiro correlates these topics with the themes and language of Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet (the four dramas Shakespeare wrote in 1599). He also provides us with details so unexpected as to be poignant - for example, Shakespeare changing horses while riding home to Stratford. These touches reveal what critics formerly called "Shakespeare the Man" - but there's minimal speculation here, with skilful deployment of primary sources. Also the texture of Elizabethan court and civic life is stunningly evoked.

So we have the feeling of moving through the year "in real time" with Shakespeare. Daringly illuminating, this will make you critically re-evaluate not only Shakespeare, but other biographies and criticism. Well done indeed.

"Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" and Other Lessons.......2007-01-16

"No," I tell my students, "Shakespeare did not write in Old English. Beowulf was written in Old English. Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Shakespeare's language was firmly in the Modern English linguistic period." I then confess the obvious, that the language has indeed changed in the four centuries since Shakespeare wrote, but, as Shapiro's book clearly demonstrates, much else in society has not. Such demonstrations, while not Shapiro's goal, are, to me, among the strong points of his book, so let's take a peek at those first, shall we?

Looking at the year 1599 in Elizabethan England, we are struck by more than a few parallels with contemporary world affairs. We see a national leader intent on invading another country, Ireland in the earlier case. We observe ill-starred Essex leading an invading army which utterly fails to subdue the Irish. We look on in astonishment as the English quake in fear of a reported Spanish invasion and as they block the streets of London with chains and illuminate the night with burning lamps to thwart enemy infiltration under cover of darkness. Potentially, of course, that may have been somewhat more pragmatic than creating a new government department and a rainbow-hued series of "threat levels." One can only recall the French axiom "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose," or "The more things change, the more they stay the same." Little in human nature, it seems, has changed in the past four hundred years.

Shapiro's book also helps pierce the mask of literary demigod behind which Shakespeare has been hidden by generations of admiring teachers and bewildered students. We see a man who produced plays through hard labor and laborious revision. We come to appreciate that Shakespeare was a businessman with an eye toward profitability, even when such was perhaps not completely legal or ethical. In this, he was certainly a man of his time, for the proto-capitalist British West Indies Company also got its start during this period.. With another eye toward profit, he and his fellow investors literally made off with the timbers from another theater to build the Globe that has become synonymous with his plays, although of course many other plays were enacted there as well. And speaking of enactments, Shapiro reminds us that Shakespeare was an actor as well as an investor and a playwright, and suggests some of the parts that the author very likely reserved for himself.

Reading Shapiro, one comes to appreciate the political realities of late 16th century England as well. In an era when writing that was perceived to be critical of the monarchy or to justify assassination or usurpation was banned and when books were burned, one simply did not publish Julius Caesar in Elizabeth's realm. Writing that portrayed the rise of republicanism at the expense of monarchical rule simply did not appear without retribution. Such insights as these make Shapiro's book a rewarding experience for those seeking to understand the social, economic, political, and intellectual milieu which formed both Shakespeare and his dramatic creations.

The book, however, is not an unmitigated joy to read. I found my interest in Shapiro's text waxing and waning, being the strongest when he delves into historical events such as the invasion of Ireland, Essex's failed leadership of the military and his devolution from trusted general to seditious and condemned prisoner, the panic among both government and citizenry over the reported Spanish invasion with its "Invisible Armada," and other facts, such as the common practice of plagiarism among authors of the day, including Shakespeare himself, the "inconvenient" fact that copyrights were owned by publishers, not by authors, and the annoyance that Shakespeare surely felt when he discovered some of his sonnets, which he circulated only privately among a few friends, featured in a book along with others of various quality but all attributed to him! My interest does tend to wane when Shapiro departs from his historical writing to immerse us with his qualitative descriptions of the plays whose compositions he ascribes to 1599: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet; his vocabulary and syntax become somewhat dense and obfuscated when he lapses into literary analysis; moreover, that aspect of the book does not appear to be delivering what the title has promised.

My other disappointment lies in the "bibliographical essay" that consumes forty-one pages of the book. Entries are arranged by chapter and discussion topic within each chapter and are hidden within a structure of sentences and paragraphs. A simple alphabetical bibliography would have been far more usable and beneficial for the reader interested in Shapiro's sources and related works.

As far as a recommendation is concerned, I would truly regret seeing this book become assigned reading for high school or university students whose interest in Shakespearean drama and in 16th century England in general is tenuous at best. While informative for them, the writing is not sufficiently captivating to ensnare their attention and appreciation, and is likely to be considered another bit of drudgery foisted upon them by an educational system out of touch with reality. Moreover, for the well-read Shakespearean scholar and Elizabethan historian, I doubt that the book contains any revelations that have not been encountered in other sources. However, for the general reader and for the student who enjoys filling in all of the massive gaps in understanding that persist despite high school diplomas and university degrees, Shapiro's book does give a most helpful, interesting, and usually readable overview of the society that formed Shakespeare and that determined the style and tenor of his long-lived literary creations. If one is at all curious about the "life and times" of William Shakespeare, then the book is certainly worth its purchase price and, more importantly, it is worth the time and effort expended in reading it.

shakespeare in 1599.......2007-01-03

Superb look at the bard in one of his most productive years. Places Shakespeare firmly in his times. Highly recommended.

A Year In The Life Of William Shakespeare - 1599

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A Year In The Life Of William Shakespeare - 1599
James Shapiro
Manufacturer: Harper Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000P8PQ6K

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare CD: 1599

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A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare CD: 1599

Manufacturer: HarperAudio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0060823178
Release Date: 2005-10-18

Book Description

An intimate history of Shakespeare, following him through a single year that changed not only his fortunes but the course of literature.

How did Shakespeare go from being a talented poet and playwright to become one of the greatest writers who ever lived? In this one exhilarating year we follow what he reads and writes, what he sees, and who he works with as he invests in the new Globe Theatre and creates four of his most famous plays -- Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet.

James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare's staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599: sending off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathering an Armada threat from Spain, gambling on a fledgling East India Company, and waiting to see who will succeed their aging and childless Queen.

This audio includes a selection of scenes from Henry V, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet featuring performances by Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Scofield, Ian Holm, and many more.

Average customer rating:

A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, 1599
James Shapiro
Manufacturer: HarperAudio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEX64O

Was Shakespeare a Christian, and if so, what kind of Christian was he?(Shakespeare the Biography)(Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of ... An article from: Christianity and Literature

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Was Shakespeare a Christian, and if so, what kind of Christian was he?(Shakespeare the Biography)(Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of ... An article from: Christianity and Literature
John D. Cox
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Christianity and Literature, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2006. The length of the article is 11910 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: Was Shakespeare a Christian, and if so, what kind of Christian was he?(Shakespeare the Biography)(Shadowplay: The Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare)(Shakespeare's Second Historical Tetralogy: Some Christian Features)(Spiritual Shakespeares)(Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare)(Shakespeare's Religious Language: A Dictionary)(Shakespeare's Religious Allusiveness: Its Play and Tolerance)(Shakespeare the Papist)(A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare 1599)(Secret Shakespeare: Studies in Theatre, Religion and Resistance)(Book review)
Author: John D. Cox
Publication: Christianity and Literature (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 55 Issue: 4 Page: 539(28)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

This is an in-depth analysis of the strategic theories of John Boyd, the leading US strategist.

The book corrects the common misinterpretations of his work, showing how his thinking impacted on US military doctrine and defense policy over the past 25 years. Boyd is important for his introduction of scientific and philosophical developments into a methodology for strategic thinking. This book presents these complex ideas in an enlightening context.

Customer Reviews:

New Insights into a Modern Classic.......2007-01-20

John Boyd's answer to the problem of winning in any form of conflict, the "Discourse on Winning and Losing," is a set of roughly 300 charts, and Dutch AF Col Frans Osinga has set himself the task of guiding his readers through them. It is a formidable assignment. Boyd, you see, did not intend the briefings of the Discourse to be read on their own. For years, he would not give out copies until after the presentation, and it had to be the "whole brief or no brief." It may seem obvious, but it was in briefing format not so much in tribute to Sun Tzu - although The Art of War is, like the Discourse, a set of bullet points - but simply because he didn't feel that there were enough readers inside the Beltway to make it worthwhile.

Osinga accomplishes his mission magnificently. If you are interested in Boyd's problem of how to win regardless, stop right now and order the book. If you have not heard the briefings, my recommendation is to begin with chapter one, then skip back to chapter seven for a summary of Boyd's influence on strategy. Then, download the charts, go back to chapter two, and work your way through the rest of the book. [The briefings are all available on Defense and the National Interest.]

Is it a tough read? Do you know of anything really worthwhile that is easy? Just as there is no royal road to mathematics, there is no royal road to Boyd. I was present at the creation of many of these charts, and I found a lot in this book that was new and helpful in broadening my understanding (for one thing, I have not, as Osinga did, read Boyd's original notes in the source books).

This book is a distilled version of Col Osinga's Ph.D. dissertation, which he completed while serving as a research fellow at the Clingendael Institute of International Relations in The Hague. He has done an excellent job of making academic rigor accessible to the general reader - the only equations, for example, are the ones Boyd used in "Destruction and Creation" - while exploiting the depth of research that a dissertation requires. There are 32 pages of single-spaced notes and 12 of bibliography.

I enthusiastically recommend Science, Strategy and War to all students of strategy, particularly those more concerned with where strategy is going than where it has been.

Book Description

In these three poignant essays, prolific author Wendell Berry reflects deeply on the current sources of world hope and despair. Thoughts in the Presence of Fear, written in response to the September 11 attacks, has since been reprinted in 73 countries and seven languages. The three essays provide a much-needed road map to a full cultural recovery.

Customer Reviews:

Berry should have been laughed out of the publishing world long ago.......2007-04-02

American presidents, understandably and out of what must be very close to grammatical necessity, have always used the pronoun "We" to speak of American policy. Yet in 2002, Berry said President Bush's use of this "We" was the royal "we" and ran counter to the Declaration of Independence.

Rather than being laughed at, Berry's essay has been anthologized and praised. It's time to speak the truth: never have inanity and insipidity been so fused in one author to the extent that they are fused in the ridiculous Wendell Berry.

already in "Citizenship Papers".......2006-11-18

These nice and thoughtful essays were already in Berry's "Citizenship Papers: Essays" I wish I had known that before I bought both.

Clarity of thinking.......2006-01-12

It has taken 5 years, but the ideas expressed by Wendell Berry shortly after 9/11 are finally starting to spread. Thought XXIII In the Presence of Fear - " We must not again allow public emotion or the public media to caricature our enemies. If our enemies are now to be some nations of Islam, then we should undertake to know those enemies. Our schools should begin to teach the histories, cultures, arts, and languages of the Islamic nations. And our leaders should have the humility and the wisdom to ask the reasons some of the people have for hating us."

As I hear more and more frustration from those caught in the mechanical web of phone tree "service" and the difficulty of having problems addressed by a real person, Berry's call for Local Economies rings loud and true. For the sake of real security, for the sake of community and knowing where your food or other goods come from, for the sake of jobs for our kids, his words should be carefully considered.

For fuller treatment of the subjects discussed in these essays, read Wendell Berry's new book, "The Way of Ignorance".

an eye opening analysis.......2003-10-27

This book helped me to see how modern so-called self-named "First World" countries are guided by the worship of the dollar. One can take it to the next level and say that ultimately racial and class issues today are a result of this love of the dollar and that white supremacism in this world is based on it. In order to dismantle white supremacy you need to get to the heart of it's greed which creates a necessary lack of respect for humanity and ultimately LIFE on earth. God's creations are sorely put upon for the sake of vain greed. America has caused problems in this world and has yet to fully face them. I say this as an igbo woman born here in america being forced daily to realize things mainstream whites can and do ignore.

Not the best Berry.......2003-09-01

A small book with little development. Perhaps if your taste runs to that, it might be okay. I think I would find it a confusing introduction to Berry and hesitate to recommend it to newcomers to Berry. The second essay is particularly brief. Readers who do not know Berry might better sample essays in The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry, a collection that locates Berry in his particular landscape, and explicates his ideas about "Agrarian Economics" and "Agrarian Religion." The first essay is a series of twenty-seven numbered statements. It can be found online. The third essay contains some solid ideas. Movement efforts are often "insincere," Berry argues, in that they focus on policy or other people's behavior, not on the behavior that we can best change--our own. This, in a sense takes us back to the numbered statements which are advices for living towards a changed world. Berry is worth reading, but this does not seem a book for beginners nor for experienced Berry readers.

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