Morel Tales: THE CULTURE OF MUSHROOMING

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"How nature is interpreted is not 'natural,'" argues sociologist and author Gary Fine. "Nature is a cultural creation...." Interested in how humans make meaning out of nature through culturally grounded images and interpretations, Fine has coined a new phrase for his study--"naturework." But if it's all so much mind play, what is the point of this deconstructionist preening? In his introduction, Fine parades lengthily phrased, teasingly conceptual theories, positing them against the range of contemporary environmentalist thinking.

His three-year study of mushrooms and the people who love them (the Minnesota Mycological Society) utilizes his own field observation, interviews, surveys, and document analysis. He covers such topics as the history of mushroom collection and the mythology they have inspired ("The fact that mushrooms can literally appear overnight makes them seem a gift from the divine"). Indeed, the writing becomes engaging when Fine risks relinquishing his academic pose and offers simple statements tied to experience. His account of a foray on a crisp day in autumn is quite wonderful--the extrapolations are more grounded; the speculations more attuned to a layperson's curiosity. Reports and stories of the mushroom collectors themselves illustrate our human moral-and-meaning-making apparatus.

"Mushroomers place faith in the judgments and advice of peers," Fine notes, "and under some circumstances, risk their lives, without little worry. Much trust and confidence in the competence of others characterize the mushrooming community. Yet this community also depends on competition in finding mushrooms, and this leads to secrecy. How is secrecy compatible with the equally visible trust?" Fine's book is, above all else, an astonishing tenacity of focus. --Hollis Giammatteo

Book Description

Drawing on the observations of three years spent in the company of dedicated amateur mushroomers and professional mycologists, Gary Alan Fine explores the ways in which Americans attempt to give meaning to the natural world, while providing an eye-opening look inside the cultures they construct around its study and appreciation.

A landmark work of environmental sociology, Morel Tales is an engaging and instructive examination of a thriving community, one with its own language, ceremonies, jokes, narratives, rivalries, and social codes. Fine also provides a detailed discussion of the American phenomenon he calls "naturework"--that is, culturally constructing one's own place in the natural environment through communities with shared systems of assigned meaning.

"Naturework," Fine observes, is something we all do on some level--not only birders, butterfly collectors, rock hounds, hunters, hikers, campers, and outdoor enthusiasts, but all of us who construct community through narrative and nature through culture.

Book Description

Packed with stunning photographs, easy-to-use maps, and all the information you really need to get the most from your visit! In this compact guide, our writers help you plan itineraries for short and longer stays. Complete with must-see sights on and off the beaten track as well as current hotel and restaurant recommendations. And the convenient size of the guide allows you to take it along in your pocket or handbag. Take the world in your pocket next time and travel with this handy Berlitz guide.

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Beijing Berlitz Pocket Guide

Manufacturer: Berlitz Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 9812461396

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Berlitz Beijing Pocket Guide

Manufacturer: BERLITZ
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GSM9DM

Book Description

Many of the worlds fisheries are in trouble - they no longer yield the catches, and potential profits, they once did. The habitats that support fisheries have been damaged by pollution and other irresponsible use of coastal land. Destructive fishing methods like trawling and blast fishing have also changed fish habitats resulting in support of fewer fish.

The authors draw on more than 1000 scientific papers covering 11 groups/species of marine invertebrates. From this large literature, they distill 20 lessons for assessing and guiding the use of restocking and stock enhancement in the management of invertebrate fisheries.

· Written by 7 expert authors
· Covers 11 groups/species of marine invertebrates
· Reviews over 1000 scientific papers
· Identifies 20 lessons that can be learned from past restocking and stock enhancement initiatives
· Proposes a new approach to assess the potential value of hatchery releases to
complement other forms of management
· Assesses progress of disciple against the blueprint for a responsible approach

Restocking And Stock Enhancement Of Marine Invertebrate Fisheries, Volume 49 (advances In Marine Biology)

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Restocking And Stock Enhancement Of Marine Invertebrate Fisheries, Volume 49 (advances In Marine Biology)
Peter C. Rothlisberg, John L. Munro, Neil R. Loneragan, Warwick J. Nash, Robert D. Ward Johann Bell
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OH20R0

Examinations and Solutions for Introductory Chemistry
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Examinations and Solutions for Introductory Chemistry
Herzog , and Agarwal
Manufacturer: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0840378785

Book Description

For perhaps two decades, a small group of writers rooted in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror have been simultaneously exploring and erasing the boundaries of those genres by creating fiction of remarkable depth and power. Their connections to the genres they have been radically redefining have, for many of these writers, limited the appreciation of their accomplishments to a specialized readership. For example, though John Crowley and Jonathan Carroll have massive underground reputations, and Peter Straub has written two books with Stephen King and other bestselling novels such as Ghost Story, Koko, and The Throat, many if not most readers of Conjunctions will be unfamiliar with their work. In this haunting and beautiful collection of tales, Crowley, Carroll, and Straub join Elizabeth Hand, China Mieville, M. John Harrison, Neil Gaiman, and Kelly Link to demonstrate precisely how science fiction, fantasy, and horror have been unobtrusively colonizing serious literature during the past twenty years. As an added bonus, science fiction and fantasy experts Gary K. Wolfe and John Clute offer a critical perspective and explain everything in sight. With original cover art by master cartoonist Gahan Wilson.

Customer Reviews:

Most stories are uninteresting.......2007-09-21

I generally like creative fiction and the collection included some of my favorite authors but the stories here disappointed me. No consistent reason, except perhaps that many failed to address anything. An exception is Jonathan Carroll's tale which was very moving.

Often delicious Halloween grab bag.......2003-09-27

It took me about four months to finally track down a copy of this book (which is a literary journal published quarterly by Bard College). It proved well worth the time and effort.

I've been a big fan of Peter Straub's since I was totally captivated and transported by his novel GHOST STORY the summer I was 14. Peter Straub has made a name for himself over the years writing dense, deeply textured, and psychologically compelling horror novels that often deal with the dark conflicts that flow between the broken rocks of the past into the deceptively quiet flatlands of the present.

Although Straub's area of expertise is undoubtedly the novel, he's no stranger to short fiction. He's published two collections of his own shorter work, and edited a previous anthology called PETER STRAUB'S GHOSTS.

CONJUNCTIONS is definitely superior to GHOSTS, which had its moments--both good and not so good. In this latest anthology, which is consistently edgy, smart, and entertaining, Straub weaves together shorter works by some of the most talented writers working today into one impressive quilt.

CONJUNCTIONS is admittedly something of a mixed bag. The poetic musings of "serious lit" authors share the page with more plot-concerned stories from popular genre writers. I think it's all for the good, though. What you get in CONJUNCTIONS is a trick or treat pillow case stuffed with fancy rich truffles and plenty of Snickers and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. It's an interesting mixture, and you're never sure what you'll bring up next.

Of the twenty stories, only one or two are duds (the requisite black licorice-apologies to anyone who likes it.)

Stand out stories include John Crowley's wonderfully John Irving-esque "The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines," Jonathan Lethem's wickedly sharp "The Dystopianist, Thinking of His Rival, Is Interrupted by a Knock on the Door," Straub's own jazz-tinged "Little Red's Tango," and Elizabeth Hand's amazingly good "The Least Trumps."

If you like reading horror stories, if you like reading "modern lit," and you're looking for something to blur the borders nice and good, this is the book to do it.

Conjunctions 39.......2003-09-17

Conjunctions is actually a periodical anthology, but normally
doesn't, as far as I can tell, publish spec fic. 39, "The New Wave Fabulists", edited by Peter Straub, is an exception.

Straub's introduction doesn't tell one what a New Wave Fabulist is, but the stories do. The anthology features Crowley, Link, Harrison (M. John, not the other guy), Straub, Morrow, Hopkinson, Lethem, Haldeman, Mieville, Duncan, Wolfe (Gene), O'Leary, Carroll, Kessel, Fowler, Hand, Park, Gaiman, Wolfe (Gary) and Clute, the last two being essays. Most of the stories are slipstreamy, as I'd define it; in fact Gene Wolfe's
apparently traditional otherworld fantasy was the only exception. The majority are set in real world/present day; most are literary and sophisticated in diction; several, rather than traditional "character with a problem" plot structures, have alternative structures such as character sketches (Straub) and nested interlocking narratives (Link). The essays, of which I found Wolfe's more understandable, discuss the "New Wave Fabulist" movement in terms that sound like slipstream: authors who use tools from many different genres to produce something generally speculative-feeling, but conforming to few or no traditional genre standards.

NWF, slipstream, whatever it's called, it is certainly one, though not the only, cutting edge in SFF today, and I'd think that anyone really interested in professional publication as an SFF author would want to have a look at the book. Although I enjoyed a fair number of the stories (particularly the Duncan, Carroll and Mieville), I found a few of them a bit short on plot and conflict, too self-consciously literary.

Overall, this seems like an important anthology to me and I recommend it.

Interstitial fiction.......2003-08-26

While the publisher saddled Peter Straub and his collected artists with the subtitle "New Wave Fabulists", the essential element linking these diverse stories is how they assemble elements from across genres to create vivid, engaging fiction. The authors are powerful storytellers and there is hardly a disappointing work in the bunch--which is more than you can say for more anthologies with some sort of thematic bent. This is interstitial fiction at its finest. Highly recommended.

Milky.......2003-02-01

the illustrations in this book are outstanding. I saw a few of the authors included in it read their stories at New School University and I loved them all so much. The authors readings were stupendous, but I imagine reading this book silently and alone could be a lot of fun for your imagination

The Solace of Open Spaces
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Drifter's Escape

A chiseled paean to the high plains of Wyoming

Surprises

Well Written

A love affair with Wyoming

The Solace of Open Spaces
Gretel Ehrlich
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140081135

Amazon.com

"Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are. We are often like rivers: careless and forceful, timid and dangerous, lucid and muddied, eddying, gleaming, still." Whether she's reflecting on nature's teachings, divulging her experiences as a cowpuncher, or painting vivid word portraits of the people she lives and works with, Gretel Ehrlich's observations are lyrical and funny, wise and authentic. After moving from the city to a vast new state, she writes of adjusting to cowboy life, boundless open spaces, and the almost incomprehensible harshness of a Wyoming winter:

"When it's fifty below, the mercury bottoms out and jiggles there as if laughing at those of us still above ground. Once I caught myself on tiptoes, peering down into the thermometer as if there were an extension inside inscribed with higher and higher declarations of physical misery: ninety below to the power of ten and so on."

After experiencing the isolated life of a sheep herder, she writes, "Keenly observed the world is transformed. The landscape is engorged with detail, every movement on it chillingly sharp. The air between people is charged. Days unfold, bathed in their own music. Nights become hallucinatory; dreams, prescient."

Ehrlich's gift is one of subtle precision. She writes beauty into the plainest of thoughts and meaning into the simplest of ideas: "True solace is finding none, which is to say, it is everywhere." --Kathryn True

Customer Reviews:

Drifter's Escape.......2007-02-15

I have to confess that part of my enthusiasm for this volume resides in the fact that Erlich's poetic leanings summon similar images from my rural surrounds, unlikely as the thought may be of Central Australia's arid bush from Wyoming high country. Her slim volume, polished from journal observations, realises her hopes to make authentic art with parallel qualities of earth:'weather would land on it harshly; light would elucidate the most difficult truths; winds would sweep away obtuse padding'. Her hold over this reader slackens after her marriage, as if the budding sexual tension gave to her writing, her observations, a newcomer's keeness of perception. Of course these don't suddenly disappear after consummation. Something in the rythym of the construction weakens; the warp and weft between perceptions of elements, the gossip, the events, the researched historical passages that inform the present. I haven't followed Erlich's career. Annie Proulx's,'Close Range', in the sense I'd prefer, has, assuming the deft observational writing with more expanded takes on her characters that the 'solace of open space' has ellicited. The Erlich book is a tonic for jaded urban spirits and confirmation that the elemntal life can regenerate a metaphoral attitude.

A chiseled paean to the high plains of Wyoming.......2006-02-16

Outsiders (Easterners, city types) are generally disoriented by Wyoming upon first encountering it. 99% of them probably equate the place with the far side of the moon and hope they never have to return. Ehrlich is one of the remaining 1% who came to Wyoming from "outside" and fell in love with it enough to move there permanently (I put myself in the same category though I haven't moved there - yet). In this book, actually a series of short essays, she tries to capture the allure of the place for her readers. She writes about the land, of course, and the weather, but also about the people who "are strong on scruples but tenderhearted about quirky behavior." Much of her time is occupied with sheepherding, something she describes as "a slow, steady trot of keenness with no speed." Ranch life, living on land short of water, and winter, which "laminates the earth with white, then hardens the lacquer work with wind" - all come under her scrutiny. She describes a rodeo which she thinks must only make sense to a rancher. Like Wyoming itself, it's a tough though gentle book, unsentimental and honest. An excellent book.

Surprises.......2004-12-18

This little collection of prose is surprising. A reviewer who didn't care for this book mentioned that it didn't do much to develop or push its theme forward. I think that description is accurate, but misses the point: the book, like its subject matter (Wyoming, mostly, NOT Montana), defies being pushed in any direction. It has a way of imposing itself upon the reader. The vividness of phrase dominates the imagination, but the place it brings you to is an open space, where you're only supposed to linger, discovering and uncovering little surprises of detail as they arrive. It is a wonderful experience and highly recommended, though with a warning: you must be prepared to wander a bit and fall into a different rythm, with different rules, for at least a little while.

Well Written.......2004-11-22

I first read this book when i was a junior in college. It was my last block of the year. When i first though of Nature Writing i think of Transcendentalism with Thoreau and Emerson. Though this book among others changed my mind.

Ehrlich writes of living in Montana and during cattle drives. The details of life in the far west are great. The descriptions of what cow hands do with a years worth of money still, by blowing it on booze and fun it great. The book can be slow at times, yet I feel that this is deliberate in that cattle herding can be slow. In some ways the books is evenly paced. When she talks about the reasons for going to Montana to live there for a time one has to wonder if you, yourself, could do that. I know that for me the answer would be no.

This book is for anyone who likes reading about American Nature Writers.

A love affair with Wyoming.......2003-09-22

Gretel Erlich was a poet and filmmaker when she first came to Wyoming in 1976. She was so taken with everything about the place that she became a cowherd, which gave her time to write about the American West. Reading her books, however, is very much like seeing a film, for her filmmaker's eye and awareness of nuance and gesture is evident in the way she chooses her words.
In The Solace of Open Spaces, Erlich presents us with an eclectic bunch of frontier characters that she met while working as a ranch hand. Almost unaware of what's been accomplished, we readers find ourselves shedding former stereotypes of these people in exchange for seeing them for what they are: unique, quirky, interesting, inexplicable men and women. The Weather (and the word deserves that capital letter, as you'll see upon reading the book) plays as large a role as the people in Ehrlich's book.
About the title: When she arrived in Wyoming, Erlich was grieving the death of someone important to her. As she works hard at physical labor, meets new people, falls in love with the land, and sheds her past like sweat running down her back, healing from grief occurs - although she doesn't exactly say this.
Altogether, a beautiful book and a wonderful read.

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Solace of Open Spaces
Gretel Ehrlich
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OIYA04

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The Solace of Open Spaces
Gretel Ehrlich
Manufacturer: Viking
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NQFM0E

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The Solace of Open Spaces
Gretel Ehrlich
Manufacturer: Viking Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LT4E2U

Study guide for The solace of open spaces by Gretel Ehrlich

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Study guide for The solace of open spaces by Gretel Ehrlich
Janet L Jacobsen
Manufacturer: Arizona State University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00071120Y

Book Description

"The Road to Al-Qaeda" is a controversial book. Written by an Egyptian human rights lawyer, it is the first English-language account of the development of tensions between violent and non-violent factions in radical Islamist movements, from the perspective of an insider. It is also a biography of one of the world's most-wanted terrorists: Egyptian-born Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri. Widely recognized as the man who will take over the leadership of Al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden, he is also the reputed architect of the Riyadh bombings in Saudi Arabia.

The original version of this book sold widely across the Arabic world. Reproduced in translation here, with an extensive introduction from distinguished scholar Ibrahim Abu Rabi, it stands alone as an unrivalled account of the divisions within militant Islamist ideology. The author provides insight into the internal politics of Islamic Jihad, and the radicalisation of bin Laden's deputy; he examines Zawahiri's opposition to efforts by other militant Islamists to call a ceasefire with the Egyptian authorities; and he narrates the redirection of Zawahiri's activities towards the US and Israel.

As an insight into one of the key minds behind Al-Qaeda this book makes unparalleled and disturbing reading. It is an important document for anyone who seeks to understand how a minority extremist ideology came to have such an impact on world events.

Customer Reviews:

The story of Zawahiri according to Zayyat.......2005-06-14

Among various books of Islamic movements that published after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, this book might be the most controversial. The author of this book, Montasser Al-Zayyât gave a reflection about his comrade Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the second command of the contractor turned religious revivalist Osama Bin Laden. Zayyât and Zawâhirî are two Islamists who rose from the underground movement in the post 1967 era. Both Zayyât and Zawâhirî are coming from the middle class of Egypt and have gained professional education and career; Zayyât as a lawyer and Zawâhirî as a medical doctor. They are bounded as comrade in the Islamic political movement after they met firstly in 1981, the time when they were imprisoned suspected of having conspiracy of assassinating the former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. Although they did not play a part in the assassination of Sadat, they had have to spend three years in prison as the price of their involvement of the cells and their ideology of toppling Egyptian secular government. Three years time in prison is a significant phase of their life that eventually separating their practical vision; Zayyât chose to be the advocate of da'wah, a society centered movement of Islamism, while Zawâhirî chose to be a jihâd fighter, a state centered of Islamic activism.
Zayyât seems to understand of what he wrote. In the third chapter of this book, for example, Zayyât broadly analyzed the experience of Zawâhirî living in Afghanistan, the place where the ideology of jihâd was crystallized into skills, tactics, and strategies. In this book, Zayyât also differentiated two phases of the experience of Zawâhirî during his life in Afghanistan; the first is Zawâhirî's experience during jihâd against the Soviet before the 1990's; and the second is during Taliban's rule from 1996 to 2001, the time when Taliban demolished by the U.S. military. There was a vacuum period around 1992-1995 in which the Arab-Afghans like Zawâhirî had had to step out from Afghanistan. Sibghatullah Mujadadi, the interim president for the mujâhideen government of Afghanistan wanted the Arab-Afghans to go back to their home countries because their mission of wiping out Soviet's power in Afghanistan accomplished. However, this decision could not easily be accepted by the Arab-Afghans because the government of their home countries would not accept their return as free citizens. In the case of Egypt, Zawâhirî says: "Egypt had already started taking security measures against the Arab-Afghans by trying them before military courts in absentia and issuing harsh sentences, including death sentences for the elite of the Arab-Afghans, as well as sentences of life imprisonments for others (55). In this unpredicted situation, thousands veteran of Afghanistan war were in the state of uncertainty. Some of Arab-Afghans who succeed to return to their county, for example the Algerian-Afghan, because of their confidence after demolishing Soviet's power, had actively engage in attacking the Algerian government. Some others who could not even step into their countries had had to live in the foreign countries, some of them as the illegal citizens. It is in this situation that the generous help of Osama bin Laden and the strong leadership of Zawâhirî became a combination of power that highly applauded by the Arab-Afghans.
Osama bin Laden is a generous sheikh who rendered in providing a place to stay for the homeless Arab-Afgans in his military camp in Sudan. At this time, Sudan is the nirvana of the ex-mujâhideen because only in Sudan that the government were pleased to cooperate with the Islamist leaders. Thousands of the veterans of Afghanistan jihâd decided to join Osama bin Laden in Sudan after being spy on by their government. Their decision to enter Sudan was continuously followed by thousands others veterans until Taliban gained their power in Afghanistan. After Taliban took over the government of Afghanistan, Zawâhirî and Osma bin Laden returned to Afganistan and told thousands veterans to follow them. However, Afghanistan that ninety five percent of its land was controlled by Taliban was no longer a fascinating land of jihâd. Under Taliban rule, the Arab-Afghans who reentered Afghanistan were not forced to join Taliban to fight other Afghan factions. In Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden and Zawâhirî more concerned to organize the jihâd to outside of Afghanistan, rather than to fight with the other mujâhideen. At this period of time, Afghanistan really became the base of Al-Qaeda in its true meaning.
In his second phase of living in Afghanistan, Zawâhirî was more active in organizing his cadre of Islamic Jihâd to topple the Egyptian government. His friendship with the salafî contractor, Osama bin Laden, to a certain extent, had broaden his objectives and goals, from a domestic jihâd inside Egyptian border, to be a borderless international jihâd against the global enemy. It is not clear in this book how Zawâhirî became more radical and interested in a direct attack to the U.S. and its interests. Zayyât and some other experts on this issue believed that Osama was the one who brain washed Zawâhirî's mind. In this book, Zayyât commented Zawâhirî's articles in the Islamic Jihâd publication during the year of 1997 that are entitled "America and the Issue of Jihad on Jews in Cairo" and "America and the Illusion of Power." In these two articles, Zawâhirî showed his new concern to hit the U.S. regardless its strength as the only superpower on earth. Zayyât mentioned there are at least eight reasons why Zawâhirî radically changed his mind. One of the reasons, according to Zayyât, is the failure of their internal actions in Egypt. In addition to that reason, the capture of many of jihâdî members shake the Islamic Jihâd movement and finally it required alliance with the more stable organization both in term of financial and structure. Finally, Zawâhirî decided to merge the Islamic Jihâd with Osama bin Laden and they created the so-called movement "the International Islamic Front for Jihâd on the Jews and Crusaders" (64-70).
In my view, as a reader of contemporary Islamic movements, Zayyât missed several key points that are very significant to understand the setting and the idea behind the movements. Zayyât, as an insider of the Islamic movements, failed to inform his audience how the jihâd movements that is basically try to restore the ideal form of ummah as a response of modern challenge of social life, has been turned to be the so-called terrorist movements that haunted Western world. To say in the explicit words, this book is so weak in clearing up the radicalization process of the Arab-Afghans who are in the situation of culdesac after the mission of jihâd against Soviet is accomplished, but cannot go back to their normal life in their home countries, and finally find the way to continue the desire of jihâd by attacking American interests around the world. Zayyât seemed to be not interested in searching the link between the radicalization of the Islamists and the continuous repression of Arab or Muslim countries under auspices of the United States as the only super power on earth. What Zayyât wrote in this book is more about his experience of knowing Zawâhirî and his concern to respond Zawâhirî's criticisms in the book entitled "Knight Under The Prophet's Banner" against his peace initiative, rather than showing off his challenging vision of modernist Islam. It is true that in the chapter eight, Zayyât slightly revealed his modernist views by highlighting the mistakes of Zawâhirî that caused all Islamist, whether they are the member of Al-Qaeda or not, had paid the mistakes. He also criticized several conditions of his fellow Islamists such as fossilization of mind, imitation of the past, and the lack of ijtihâd. However, Zayyât's languages of criticism are nothing new to the consciousness of Muslim masses. In this pocket size book, Zayyât spent three pages to marshal the visions of the salafî intellectuals from Jamal al-Din al-Afghânî, Rashid Ridha, Hassan Al-Bana to Sayyid Qutb. However, he still unable to crystallize their ideas into a new vision that at least will give a confident to Muslim masses to wrestle with the multitude of problems of modernity and the world's advanced capitalist challenges today. Zayyât, in this period of time, seemed to understand that Islamic vision that is still using the old pattern of the early post-colonial era, such as establishing shari'a, is not a ready made-solution. At the same time, he also realized that the social conditions of Muslims that is disunited, is one of the reasons why Muslims cannot transform themselves into an ideal society.
Zayyât convinced that building peace and signing the agreement of cease-fire between Islamists and Egyptian government is the only possible way to heal the wounded Muslims today. His criticism of the use of violence by his fellow Islamists like Zawâhirî and the Islamic Jihâd's members that caused thousands loss their lives is a great effort that paved a new basic of dialog between the Islamist vision and the modern vision of society. "The type of dialog that Al-Qaeda used with the media must be avoided," he said. "So too should we abandoned the approach of bin Lâden and Zawâhirî in which the main objective is to administer as much harm to the United States as possible," he added (112). In this book, Zayyât wanted to differentiate and to distinguish in term of ideology and practical action between Al-Qaeda and other Islamists who are not interested in violence and in attacking American interests. From the whole explanation on this book, he intensely wanted to show that aim and he seemed success to do so.

Provides western readers with critically important insights.......2004-07-14

Also available in a hardcover edition (0745321763, $65.00) The Road To Al-Qaeda: The Story Of Bin Laden's Right-hand Man by Montasser Al-Zayyat is the biography of one of the world's most-wanted terrorists -- Ayman al-Zawahiri. An Egyptian, Ayman was identified as the man to take over the leadership of Al-Qaeda after the death or incapacitation of Osama bin Laden. Since the September 11 attacks, Ayman is also the reputed architect of the Riyadh bombings in Saudi Arabia. Enhanced with an extensive introduction from the distinguished Islamic scholar Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi, The Road To Al-Qaeda provides western readers with critically important insights into the tensions between violent and non-violent factions within radical Islamist movements. No contemporary Islamic Studies collection can be considered complete or comprehensive without the inclusion of The Road To Al-Qaeda.

Essential Reading.......2004-01-03

By rendering this book into English, Ahmed Fekry and Sarah Nimis have done a tremendous service for anyone seeking more insight into international terrorism than she can get from a talking head on the evening news.

Ibrahim M. Abu-Rabi3's introduction, though a bit meandering, provides useful background and presents interesting questions.

Highly recommended.

Ayman Al-Zawahiri's Knights under the Prophet's Banner: the al-Qaeda Manifesto.(Review Essay)(Book Review): An article from: Military Review
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Better to get the full version in Ayman's own words

Ayman Al-Zawahiri's Knights under the Prophet's Banner: the al-Qaeda Manifesto.(Review Essay)(Book Review): An article from: Military Review
Youssef H. Aboul-Enein
Manufacturer: U.S. Army CGSC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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The Road To Al-Qaeda: The Story of Bin Laden's Right-Hand Man (Critical Studies on Islam)

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His Own Words: Translation and Analysis of the Writings of Dr. Ayman Al Zawahiri

Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (CERI Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies)

ASIN: B000ALNXSU
Release Date: 2005-07-25

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Military Review, published by U.S. Army CGSC on January 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1365 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: Ayman Al-Zawahiri's Knights under the Prophet's Banner: the al-Qaeda Manifesto.(Review Essay)(Book Review)
Author: Youssef H. Aboul-Enein
Publication: Military Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: January 1, 2005
Publisher: U.S. Army CGSC
Volume: 85 Issue: 1 Page: 83(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

Better to get the full version in Ayman's own words.......2007-01-12

Not much more to say about that.

Book Description

Carnivores provide innumerable ecological benefits and play a unique role in preserving and maintaining ecosystem services and function, but at the same time they can create serious problems for human populations. A key question for conservation biologists and wildlife managers is how to manage the world's carnivore populations to conserve this important natural resource while mitigating harmful impacts on humans.

In People and Predators, leading scientists and researchers offer case studies of human-carnivore conflicts in a variety of landscapes, including rural, urban, and political. The book covers a diverse range of taxa, geographic regions, and conflict scenarios, with each chapter dealing with a specific facet of human-carnivore interactions and offering practical, concrete approaches to resolving the conflict under consideration. Chapters provide background on particular problems and describe how challenges have been met or what research or tools are still needed to resolve the conflicts.

People and Predators will helps readers to better understand issues of carnivore conservation in the 21st century, and provides practical tools for resolving many of the problems that stand between us and a future in which carnivores fulfill their historic ecological roles.

Customer Reviews:

A must-read book.......2004-11-05

For anyone interested in predators and people, this is a must-read book. This book has several chapters written by leading biologists that discuss the various situations predators and people have created for themselves. The research cited in this book ranges from foxes to wolves. As the human population grows, more and more habitat is lost to development. Predators, as a rule, usually have rather large home ranges (i.e., the places where they hunt, sleep, and live), and as their habitat dwindles, they are bound to encounter humans. This book is one of the first steps in addressing how we, as a species, must survive with wildlife.

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