Danger To Elizabeth - The Catholics Under Elizabeth I

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Danger To Elizabeth - The Catholics Under Elizabeth I

Manufacturer: Book Club Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000I712NO

Average customer rating:
Danger To Elizabeth - The Catholics Under Elizabeth I
Alison Plowden
Manufacturer: Book Club Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000QREKCQ

Average customer rating:

Excellent book on Elizabethan politics

Danger to Elizabeth: The Catholics under Elizabeth I
Alison Plowden
Manufacturer: Book Club Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Catholicism | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
General | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007BHR30

Book Description

In the wake of the Reformation, Europe lay deeply divided by religion. This second volume tells of the many faceted struggle between Elizabeth and the Catholics of England and the rest of Europe who, denouncing the queen as a heretic, and a usurper, threatened to overthrow her and re-establish the supremacy of Rome in all Christendom.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book on Elizabethan politics.......2000-01-16

Most books on Elizabeth spend little time putting her reign into historical context, which is why Alison Plowden's books on that time period are a must-read for those interested in Elizabeth. In Danger to Elizabeth, Plowden describes the plans and plots of the Catholics who were determined to overthrow Elizabeth and rescue England from heresy. Plowden's research is thorough and her writing style is interesting and engaging.

Book Description

Often characterized as David facing Goliath on the tennis court, at 5'9" and 150 pounds Michael Chang is used to playing with the big hitters. What he lacks in stature, he makes up for in determination. A serious contender at any Grand Slam event, his bold statement of faith in God makes him a role model we can all look up to. "What's nice," Michael says, "is that, as long as my priorities are straight, I'm able to go out with the mentality to really leave the winning and losing up to the Lord." In Holding Serve readers get a unique glimpse at Team Chang, Michael's powerful family unit that he credits with much of his success. Michael also shares the story of how he became a Christian and the central role his faith has played in his achievements.

Customer Reviews:

Terrible.......2005-07-04

I've read quite a few books in my day and this was by far the worst.
I felt like he was writing to 8 year olds.

I've missed Michael.......2005-06-11

I've missed Michael Chang since he retired from pro tennis. I always enjoyed watching him, not just because I like pro tennis, but because he was always so unabashed about his devout Christian faith.
In "Holding Serve," he talks about his childhood when money was often tight, how he and his brother Carl discovered tennis, and everything their parents did to develop Michael and Carl's talents. Michael remembers his junior tennis days when he first met Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Jim Courier.
In 1998, after years of being one of the world's top players, Michael Chang suddenly fell into a big downhill slide. He dealt with some injuries, and even when he was able-bodied, he started losing in the early rounds of several tournaments. His ranking dropped way down, and never got back up to what it was. Michael is very frank about was a frustrating time that was. It's obvious he wishes he could have won more than one grand slam title.
Michael Chang talks about his Christian beliefs and his moral values without sounding preachy.
Since retirement, I understand Michael has been busy with the Chang Family Foundation.

Great Role Model For Young Generation.......2005-04-02

I finished this book within a day. This is by far one of my favorite book. Michael was very humble and personable throughout the book. I felt like I know him so much after finish reading Holding Serve. Not knowing how much hard work it takes to become No.2 tennis player, this book brings inspiration and true understanding of the tennis world. Young tennis player will be inspired and touched by his stories.

I am also impressed by Michael's faith and his close relationship with his family. You will appreciate the role of his parents and what a sacrifice they made in order to fulfil his tennis dream.

Great book. Great job! Michael........2005-03-23

It's such a great book that I cannot wait to finish the book over the weekend, eventhough I have an exam on Monday night. I really learn a lot about Michael Chang from this autobiography -- as a person and the kind of challenges he endured and conquered in his pro years. I also learned something about the other tennis greats from his friendship with them. I am especailly touched and inspired by the Love in the Chang Team. Great job! Michael.

Inspirational!.......2005-02-17

Michael Chang is a remarkable individual! I still remember watching Michael play that incredible match against Ivan Lendl in the 89 French Open and then defeating Stefan Edberg in the final after going down two sets after winning the first! Talk about steely determination! And to win a grand slam event at age 17! Amazing! The book is a fascinating read and contary to "a readers" rather inane opinions on this review site, I felt that Michael was truly honest and forthright about his beliefs and I never felt that he was "cramming" his beliefs on anyone..I just have high respect for the fact that he stood his ground and never compromised his values..We need more role models like Michael Chang..especially in the world of sports!

Michael talks about his relationships with Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras and how they all came up in the junior ranks..Pete and Andre used to stay overnight with Michael's family on occasion when they crossed paths and Michael seemed very secure in his relationship with the two tennis greats! (I'm sure there is mutual respect among these tennis greats!!) His anecdotes about John McEnroe and many other players are quite interesting and humorous so I did not understand "a readers" previous comments about "not mentioning other players" at all..

Michael is deferential and respectful about his career in tennis and never bad mouths any of his opponents or fellow players..instead he gives a lot of them credit for his development as a professional..especially John McEnroe's demolishment of him in the French Open in '88..he learned from the experience..and even went on to state that he earned McEnroe's respect later on when he took him out for the first time at the 1992 US Open..

Michael's description of his matches and how he developed as a young tennis professional gives you a great deal of insight into all the hard work that goes into attaining the level of tennis he produced..especially in the year 1996 when he was ranked as high as No 2..I remember clearly the semi-final match he played against Andre Agassi in the '96 US Open where he took him apart in 3 straight sets..only to lose the next day to his rival..Pete Sampras..if he had won that match he would have been No 1 in the world! Although that would have been nice, Michael did not dwell on it and what makes the book an interesting read is that Michael gives you a quite a bit of insight into his world and his influences..which is what most autobiographies are designed to do...he states what he felt were the most important things in his life..his family..and that he felt truly "blessed" to have had all the opportunities he had and to be on the "world stage"..he stresses the fact that he lives by "the golden rule" and never succumbed to the temptations that being a world class tennis star can bring!

I have been a fan of Michael's since the beginning of his career and throughly enjoyed his insightful book..I highly recommend this book for tennis fans and all sports fans for that matter!

Holding Serve: Persevering on and Off the Court

Average customer rating:

Holding Serve: Persevering on and Off the Court
Michael; Yorkey, Mike Chang
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NDM6QU

Product Description

Arab women filmmakers: Who are they? What drives them? What are their experiences in a male-dominated profession? How do they function within the contexts - and constraints - of patriarchal societies? The answers are complex and sometimes surprising, as complex and surprising as the vastly different films these women direct. In this unprecedented book, Rebecca Hillauer assembles a comprehensive and penetrating look into the history of Arab womens filmmaking, as well as the political and social background of the countries - Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Algeria, among others - from which these artists emerged. In addition to the biographies, filmographies, and discussions of their most important works, lively, in-depth interviews allow us to hear from the filmmakers themselves. Collectively, these women, who hail from a wide range of professional, religious, and social backgrounds, provide a varied and vivid picture of what it means to work in creative and journalistic fields in the modern Arab world. For Hillauer, the subject of a film, its genesis, and the personal story of the artist who created it reveal far more than a particular approach to cinematography. Arab women filmmakers and their main characters (who are often semi-autobiographical) not only afford us a look at seldom-seen facets of Arab societies, they personify an alternative womens model, one that is far removed from western clichés. Broad in scope, and rich in insight, Arab Women Filmmakers is a must read for cineastes as well as students of film, feminism, and the Middle East.

Customer Reviews:

The history of Arab women's filmmaking.......2006-09-24

College-level holdings strong in film history or Middle East history will both find plenty of depth, detail and description in Encyclopedia of Arab Women Filmmakers, a survey of how these women produce films in a male-dominated profession and world. The history of Arab women's filmmaking and the political and social background of Arab nations are mingled in a blend of biographical sketches, critical film reviews, and discussions that include interviews from the filmmakers themselves.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

excellent introduction and reference for this important group of filmmakers.......2006-03-08

"Encyclopedia" connotes the comprehensiveness of the material, but not the kinds or variety nor the formatting. The material which exceeds what anyone could be looking for in this subject area and is more informative for the way it is formatted is arranged country by country. Not only are the Arab women filmmakers grouped by country, but there is an introduction to each group which is an overview of the Arab country's film industry noting the particular challenges and advances for its women filmmakers. As for additional material not ordinarily associated with an "encyclopedia," there is an interview with each of the women. And in the section on each is a filmography and also separate "film reviews" of each major film. With this formatting rather than the standard alphabetical arrangement with a reference titled an encyclopedia, the distinctive talent and accomplishments of each filmmaker is presented cogently with accompanying photographs so each one stands out with nearby references to her body of films. Not a conventional type of reference despite its title, this work on this category of filmmaker of rising interest from current international affairs as well as the long-standing special interest in women's accomplishments is really more like a text for use in courses or individual study.

Book Description

Word lovers can take the challenge any time they want, with this clever, solitary version of the popular game. It works much like a lottery ticket. Each page features one puzzle, and each puzzle has the 26 letters of the alphabet accompanied by silver circles to scratch off. Choose a letter, give it a rub, and see if it's in the puzzle, and where. Remember that these words—including Xerox copy, lazybones, and jonquil—are more likely than not to include the letters you'd generally choose last, like "z" and "q." And watch out, because six misses and you're hanged!

Customer Reviews:

Challenging!.......2006-05-31

You're probably familiar with the game Hangman, but just in case you aren't, here's how it works with two people: an individual comes up with a word or phrase while the other must guess it. At the bottom of the page are blanks representing letters. As the player guesses the letters, they are written in the appropriate spot. However, if a wrong letter is guessed, a body part is drawn on the gallows. If an entire body is drawn before the phrase is guessed, the one doing the guessing loses.

In his clever Scratch & Solve Touch Hangman #3, Mike Ward offers a neat twist on an old favorite. You know how instant lottery cards require you to scratch off the metallic finish to reveal what's underneath? That's exactly the way this book works.

For each of the 96 puzzles, there are three components:

*Silver eggs for A through Z
*A dotted-line stick figure on the gallows
*Numbered blanks at the bottom

Here's an example of how a puzzle works. For puzzle one in the Scratch & Solve Tough Hangman #3, I guess the letter "A". When I scratch off the silver egg under "A", it shows a face in profile, sticking his tongue out. This means that I have to draw in one of the six body parts because "A" is NOT a part of solution. If I had revealed six of those faces--which indicates drawing in the head, arms, torso and feet of the body on the gallows--then I would have lost! And, as it turned out, I only guessed the letter "S" on correctly on the first one...which means I got hanged!

I then tried puzzle 2. I scratch of the silver egg under "T", which reveals the numbers 1, 5, and 9. I then go to the bottom of the page and fill in the letter "T" for blanks 1, 5, and 9. Fortunately, I solved this puzzle with just 4 body parts drawn. Whew! (The answer was "trustworthy")

This little book is very portable, providing amusement and distraction just about anywhere. It's much more challenging than the regular Scratch & Solve Hangman Games so if you find that series a bit too easy, try the Tough Hangman series! Highly recommended if you love Hangman (and brain farts)!

Customer Reviews:

Content Critical.......2006-03-20

I was a little taken aback by the quality of the printed copy... we use these books at work and when I compare it to earlier orders of the publication, this one and the Style Guide look like photocopies.

Content Critical.......2006-02-17

This reader-friendly book provides a useful overview of the pertinent issues involved in Web content development. Its main argument is that traditional publishing principles should be applied to Web content development. The authors maintain that the quality and effectiveness of Web content can be ensured by using the same approach in online content as is used in print publishing. With regard to persuading the reader of the importance of quality of Web content, the book is effective. However, it falls short of its second goal which is to help the reader gain the skills to develop quality content. One of the main reasons for this shortcoming is the book's lack of depth. By addressing such a broad subject area, the authors neglected to provide the reader with any deep insights. Nonetheless, for anyone new to content development the book would be useful in providing a general idea of the all the elements involved in developing effective Web content. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is looking for in-depth information.

An outdated, repetitive book........2005-11-26

I picked up this book based on the strong reviews here. Perhaps at one time this book was more relevant than it is now, in late 2005. It is most certainly not a book for web designers or developers. It might still be useful for someone in marketing, newly assigned the task of maintaining a site, who hasn't ever thought about web content before.

The book pounds a few ideas repetitively throughout: "content is king! Long live the content editors!" But in terms of actually delivering on that message, it falls far short.

Other reviews mention the book provides "solutions" to content issues -- this is certainly not true. It barely provides a methodology for approaching content issues on the web. When he tire hits the road, the "solution" is often along the lines of "it's important to do the hard work to figure these issues out." Well, huh.

It must be noted that the production quality of this book is terrible: some pages, and graphics, were of fax quality. I'm not kidding. The entire book seems photocopied. Reading about "high quality content" through such a poorly produced book was ironic enough.

In sum: had I seen this book on a shelf and flipped through it momentarily, I most certainly would not have bought it.

I named this book ..."How to be a good web editor".......2005-09-25

Please note: English is not my mother labguage. So, my review may a bit hard to read. But I really want to share my idea.

Summary:
Good introduction for anybody who really want to understand how to be a good web editor and how to manage content to make the benefit for your business. However, this book need more example or case study to fulfill reader's need.

Overview:
Content critical generally reveals the important of content and how can we enhance the user (which author define his user as a 'reader') experience with content. I recommend anybody who interested in information architecture (IA), User experience (UX) to read this book since it explore deep into the area of content.

Good things and not really good things:
Content is quite broad terms. It is not easy to conclude every perspective about content into only one book. But author has the journalism background which is one of the most suitable career to write this book. He descrbe which kind of 'e-content' is good for 'reader' with simple language and without any IT jargon. He also have done a good job on creating the ROI calculation formular. Yet, good comparison between traditional publishing and electronic publishing. This book might be a good reference for students who attend the e-publishing class. If I have a chance to change the name of this book. I think it should be "How to be a good web editor".

Nevertheless, this book still need more case study diagram and picture to make it more easy to understand.

Who should buy this book?
If you are in e-content business already; you may not enjoy to read it because it is too general and lack of case study for you to apply it with your work. But, if you think content is very important (and critical) and you still need to learn more about e-content. This is a great introduction for you.

A Great Developer Guide.......2004-05-23

This is an excellent book that teaches about styles and contents. I find it very helpful for deciding how to provide quality information on my client Web sites. What can be improved about this book is a good discussion on RSS, the tool that get your site contents syndicated and distributed on the Web instantaneously. I also recommend "Free Prize Inside" and "101 Ways to Boost Your Web Traffic, 3rd Edition." These two books address the missing points in the book.

Amazon.com

You'd think there wouldn't be much left to say about a living icon like Muhammad Ali, yet David Remnick imbues King of the World with all the freshness and vitality this legendary fighter displayed in his prime. Beginning with the pre-Ali days of boxing and its two archetypes, Floyd Patterson (the good black heavyweight) and Sonny Liston (the bad black heavyweight), Remnick deftly sets the stage for the emergence of a heavyweight champion the likes of which the world had never seen: a three-dimensional, Technicolor showman, fighter and minister of Islam, a man who talked almost as well as he fought. But mostly Remnick's portrait is of a man who could not be confined to any existing stereotypes, inside the ring or out.

In extraordinary detail, Remnick depicts Ali as a creation of his own imagination as we follow the willful and mercurial young Cassius Clay from his boyhood and watch him hone and shape himself to a figure who would eventually command center stage in one of the most volatile decades in our history. To Remnick it seems clear that Ali's greatest accomplishment is to prove beyond a doubt that not only is it possible to challenge the implacable forces of the establishment (the noir-ish, gangster-ridden fight game and the ethos of a whole country) but, with the right combination of conviction and talent, to triumph over these forces. --Fred Haefele

Book Description

"Succeeds more than any previous book in bringing Ali into focus . . . as a starburst of energy, ego and ability whose like will never be seen again."--The Wall Street Journal

"Best Nonfiction Book of the Year"--Time

"Penetrating . . . reveal[s] details that even close followers of [Ali] might not have known. . . . An amazing story." --The New York Times

On the night in 1964 that Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) stepped into the ring with Sonny Liston, he was widely regarded as an irritating freak who danced and talked way too much. Six rounds later Ali was not only the new world heavyweight boxing champion: He was "a new kind of black man" who would shortly transform America's racial politics, its popular culture, and its notions of heroism.
No one has captured Ali--and the era that he exhilarated and sometimes infuriated--with greater vibrancy, drama, and astuteness than David Remnick, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lenin's Tomb (and editor of The New Yorker). In charting Ali's rise from the gyms of Louisville, Kentucky, to his epochal fights against Liston and Floyd Patterson, Remnick creates a canvas of unparalleled richness. He gives us empathetic portraits of wisecracking sportswriters and bone-breaking mobsters; of the baleful Liston and the haunted Patterson; of an audacious Norman Mailer and an enigmatic Malcolm X. Most of all, King of the World does justice to the speed, grace, courage, humor, and ebullience of one of the greatest athletes and irresistibly dynamic personalities of our time.

"Nearly pulse-pounding narrative power . . . an important account of a period in American social history." --Chicago Tribune

"A pleasure . . . haunting . . . so vivid that one can imagine Ali saying, 'How'd you get inside my head, boy?'" --Wilfrid Sheed, Time

Customer Reviews:

The King.......2005-11-17

Bertz / Randall

"Almighty god was with me! I want everybody to bear witness! I am the greatest! I shook up the world! I am the greatest thing that ever lived! I don't have a mark on my face, and I just upset Sonny Liston, and I just turned twenty-two years old. I must be the greatest! I showed the world! I
talk to god every day! I am the king of the world!" shouts Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) to the sporting press, after defeating Sonny Liston in 1964. This statement enraged boxing fans all over the world. Here was a twenty-two year old nobody with a big mouth, and he just defeated Sonny Liston. At the time, Liston was viewed as invincible. Liston was an experienced fighter who was known for defeating his opponents in two rounds or less. Not only did he lose the heavyweight championship to Ali, but he quit without being knocked down once. This declared Ali the king of controversy. "King of the World" by David Remnick is the story of the rise and fall of Muhammad Ali. Remnick does a fantastic job of showing us the different sides of racism. He focuses greatly on Ali's devotion to the Nation of Islam. The book showed many similarities between the Nation of Islam and the Klu Klux Klan. Remnick explained that both the Nation and the Klan were for segregation and that they both use methods of violence and terror to enforce their beliefs. After reading this book, I realized that the similarities are uncanny. Remnick's numerous references to these similarities proved to me that Remnick is a non-violent integrationist. I believe that one of the main points of the book is that segregation is wrong. The book greatly describes how the Nation of Islam had interfered with Muhammad Ali's personal life. For example, Remnick noted Ali's marriage to Sonji. He went into great detail how strong Ali's love was for Sonji, but he couldn't accept her inability to conform to his
religion. This became a problem for them and they eventually got a divorce. Remnick also noted the emotional distance between Ali and his father being caused by his decision to join the Nation of Islam. Remnick goes even further in describing the way Ali turned his back on his best friend Malcolm X. He also wanted to let the reader know that religion should never get in the way of your personal life. The book said that the only thing in Ali's life that Ali regrets is "his cruel and hasty rejection of Malcolm." Now days, Ali looks back at Malcolm X with great respect. The main point Remnick was trying to communicate with his audience was that Ali stood up for what he believed in. Not only in the boxing ring but, also with his religious and political beliefs. In 1966, Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted to fight the war in Vietnam. The government threatened to take away his heavyweight championship and throw him into a federal prison for the next five years. Ali still refused. When they asked him why he refused to fight in the Vietnam war, he replied "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Eldridge Cleaver described Ali as a "genuine revolutionary" and the "first `free' black champion to confront white America." Writer, Jill Nelson, called Ali's refusal of the draft a "supreme act of defiance." However, not everyone supported Ali's refusal of the draft. Conservative boxing fans
called him an unpatriotic bum. They thought he was hiding behind his religion because he was lazy. Remnick took a much more liberal stance on the situation. The author seemed to support Ali's decision. For many years, Muhammad Ali would be both loved and hated by boxing fans of all races. Some people believe that Ali should not have been allowed to be exempt from the war because of his religion. Others looked at his exemption as an amazing defeat. The only thing anyone could agree on was his amazing abilities in the ring. In 1997, during the summer Olympics, Muhammad Ali was invited to light the Olympic torch. In my opinion, this proved Ali to be a very patriotic man. It proved that the world had never forgotten about Ali, and it
never will. Lighting the Olympic torch is one of the highest honors any athlete could be given. "King of the World" was published in 1998. Exactly one year after he lit the Olympic torch. I think that's why this book was written when it was.
The ignition of the 1997 Olympic torch was Ali's return to the public eye. And this book was written to honor him.

Ali is crazy good.......2005-10-07

King of the World by David Remnick was one of the best books I've ever read. It is the true story of a champion and how he got there. I recommend anyone who likes stories about winning and glory, to read this book. If you also like reading about dudes getting smoked by a champ. Read this book.

Death of One of My Heroes..........2005-02-25

For me, this book should have been titled "Death of One of My Heroes," which should become self-evident if you read this entire review. I believe the book is mostly accurate, and it is a well-written book.

Remnick (the author), in my opinion, devotes too much time to Floyd Patterson and Sonny Liston. I also wish he had given more details about Ali as Ali got older and continued to box.

Without question, Muhammad Ali, in his prime, was the greatest heavyweight fighter that has ever fought.

"DEATH OF ONE OF MY HEROES": I did not realize how much Ali allowed the Nation of Islam (NOI) to influence him. Because he let the NOI influence him--yes, Ali DID have a choice!!!--Muhammad Ali: (1)lied about throwing his Olympic medal over a fence, (2)divorced his first wife, (3)broke off a friendship with Malcolm X, and (4)claimed to be a "minister" to avoid the draft. If you think the above describes a "hero," your definition of "hero" differs from mine.

The book is good. Unfortunately, it killed one of my heroes.

Buy it and read it. It is well worth the $$$.

The Titans Reigned Supreme.......2004-04-26

The Titans Reigned Supreme

Fantastic book - more than just the Ali Story -

This is one of the best-written and thought out books of the happenings amongst a small circle of the greatest heavy weights.

You get a rare insight into the lives and minds of Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay - and the awakening/becoming of Muhammad Ali

I went into this book wanting to feed my hunger for knowledge of Muhammad Ali and came out of with a craving for more Sonny Liston - I now want to know all I can about him.

Only a brief period in time is covered - but it's an in-depth look at that time and the people and the places that made up boxing and some of the world outside boxing.

This is a great book for anyone interested in these titans - for anyone interested in Patterson, Liston and Ali - for anyone interested in the history of legends.

One of the best books I've experienced - I truly felt like I was there at times - in that era - that energy of the people and the times

This is one of those books where you wish there was a part 2

muhammed ali discussed.......2003-10-13

the author is a very good writer and his style here makes this book a good read. impressive. the location of the photographs are well placed--not all in the center as in most books--but advantageously placed at the beginning of some chapters. a good read.

Book Description

Three hundred and fifty-one men were executed by British Army firing squads between September 1914 and November 1920. By far the greatest number, 266 were shot for desertion in the face of the enemy. The executions continue to haunt the history of the war, with talk today of shell shock and posthumous pardons. Using new material released from the Public Records Office and other sources, the authors reveal what really happened and place the story of these executions firmly in the context of the military, social and medical context of the period.

Customer Reviews:

WARNING! This book must be read critically.......2002-01-07

The book contains much interesting, moving and no doubt correct information about its subject. That is valuable in itself.

Corns and Hughes-Wilson don't just offer information. They also argue for a certain thesis: 'Spilled water cannot be replaced in a smashed jug' (Arab proverb), and so any idea of retrospective pardons should be strongly opposed.

The book's presentation of its thesis is so slovenly, that it would be a fine text for use for practice on a course in critical thinking. Suppose you want to form your own opinion on this controversy. Here are a few examples of the kind of obstacles Corns and Hughes-Wilson put in your way:

1 There are gratuitous sneers here and there about their opponents who advocate pardons. The reader has to be alert to separate sneer from substance.

2 In presenting one of the main pillars of their argument they rely mainly on Arab proverbs and poetic aphorisms such as 'The past is another country'. The thoughtful reader will hope to find a clearly reasoned statement of the authors' position on the tricky question of moral judgements about other times and places. But once you cut away the book's vague rhetoric on this point there is nothing left.

3 There are some whopping contradictions to be found if you keep your eyes open. For example.
The authors seem to be saying, albeit rather impressionistically, that the executions were basically OK by the standards of the time. However, the jacket of the book states that the executions were 'Controversial even at the time'.
On the issue whether executions were necessary because they discouraged mass desertion that might otherwise have occurred, sometimes the authors seem to be suggesting that this was indeed so, and in other places the opposite.

4 There is also scope for spotting important inferences from the facts which the authors unaccountably fail to draw. They state (p. 103) that 'the death penalty was used only in a minute percentage of cases', and they back this up with ample evidence. Do they conclude that those few who were executed were therefore treated unfairly - perhaps even so unfairly that they deserve a pardon? No, Corns and Hughes-Wilson don't seem to notice that this possible line of debate even exists. As a reader, you will have to spot it for yourself.

On a frivolous note, I can't resist recording that the acknowledgement at the beginning to 'our eagle-eyed copy-editor' contains both a spelling mistake and a punctuation mistake in the same sentence.

In short, recommended to two classes of reader: those who want a library of all the main works on this subject; and those who want something for a good workout of the critical thinking faculties.
Definitely not for someone who wants just one thoroughly reliable work on the subject.

Average customer rating:
Blindfold and Alone
John Hughes-Wilson
Manufacturer: CASSELL LBS (ORIO)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K7M6Y6

Average customer rating:
Blindfold and Alone
Cathryn M. Corns
Manufacturer: CASSELL LBS (ORIO)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K2U6Y8

Average customer rating:
Blindfold and Alone : British Military Executions in World War 1
C. & J. Hughes-Wilson Corns
Manufacturer: Cassell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OS57A6

Average customer rating:
Blindfold and Alone: British Military Executions in the Great War
John; Corns, Cathryn Hughes-Wilson
Manufacturer: Weidenfeld Military
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSMKTC

Average customer rating:

Grab-bag of crime stories lacks focus

A complex subject presented with the drama of a novel

good insights into the mire

Biased, outdated, inaccurate, and full of grammatical errors

Comprehensive Review of Organized Crime

The Merger : The Conglomeration of International Organized Crime
Jeffrey Robinson
Manufacturer: Overlook Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
True Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Organized Crime | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1585670308

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When telecommunications companies merge, the news is immediately analyzed by the media and government agencies. Owners of the companies' stock immediately vote on the wisdom of the move by buying or selling. But when criminal organizations merge and make their operations global, it takes years for law enforcement to figure out what happened, who was involved, and what the implications are. Ever since Italian-American mobster Lucky Luciano linked Mafia families in Sicily and the U.S., crime cartels have been finding ways to expand their operations across national borders, making those countries' policemen play an extended game of catch-up. Jeffrey Robinson is an authority on international crime, especially money laundering, and his book The Merger sometimes reads like a crime novel. It seems strange to imagine that Mexican drug traffickers would be working closely with Thai postal workers; that a billion dollars a month in drug money would be laundered from Russian gangs through Greek Cypriots and then moved on to respectable financial centers such as London and New York; that Colombian drug cartels would get kerosene--an important ingredient for making cocaine--from Turkmenistan by way of Argentina; that Eastern European criminals would claim to be Jewish so they could get Israeli passports and launder money in the Holy Land. And that's just for-profit criminality--politically and religiously motivated crime has long been international and is rapidly branching out into cyberterrorism.

Robinson concludes with a note that international drug trafficking is growing so fast it now represents 2 percent of the world's economy. However, while criminal organizations think globally, Robinson writes, most law enforcement is set up to act locally. Nations can't decide how to deal with the problem because none wants to be the first to sacrifice national sovereignty for the greater purpose of slowing crime. If this book doesn't keep you up at night, or at least raise some serious goose flesh, you're made of pretty stern stuff. --Lou Schuler

Book Description

In the spring of 1990 some twenty men of different nationalities met for the first time in a massive hotel and leisure complex called The City Club on the outskirts of Vienna. The purpose of their meeting? They told hotel management that they were members of an organization called "The Italian Association" and that the subject of their meeting was how European countries could help South American countries develop their economies in Europe....

International crime has been the top headline grabber in recent months, and this is the only book that tells the inside story that until now only top CIA, Interpol, and other global crime fighters knew. In The Merger international crime expert and author of The Laundrymen Jeffrey Robinson uncovers the intricate network of connections between such infamous organized crime rings as the Sicilian Mafiosi, the Camorra from Naples, the Ndrangheta from Calabria, the Chinese Triads, the Russian, Hungarian, and Czech Republic "maffiyas," and organized crime groups from Columbia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Vietnam--just to name a few. In this meticulously researched book, Robinson pinpoints the factors that led to these global crime cartels--digital communication, world markets, the internet--and reveals how they have changed the face of crime forever.

Praise for The Laundrymen:

"A textbook on the transformation of ill-gotten gains, usually in cash, into seemingly legal currency. . .Although the situation is portrayed as nearly hopeless, the reader is saved from despair by Robinson's wry, witty writing and the fast-paced quality of his story."--USA Today

Customer Reviews:

Grab-bag of crime stories lacks focus.......2006-09-03

An unstructured sampler of crime anecdotes does not add up to a well-developed book-length thesis.

I bought this book partly due to the reviews here on Amazon, but I was a bit disappointed. By the time I'd got halfway through, it was clear that Robinson has presented the idea of a "merger" of transnational organized crime as a catch-all category for his large supply of stories about gangsters operating in various countries.

Robinson presents many short anecdotes, laced with speculative connections to fill in the many gaps in the record of known fact. Moving from country to country, he gives thumbnail accounts of the careers of various criminals, from their obscure origins to their final capture by the beleaguered law-enforcement agencies around the world. I found the stories too short to get a good feel for each of the players, and so it became a blizzard of names for me.

What this book is not is a systematic account of the rise of transnational crime and how it operates. Rather, it sketches many different criminal operations and careers and leaves the reader to surmise how they add up to a transnational crime "system." Preoccupied with details and specifics, Robinson does not really help the reader by drawing principles and themes from the material.

I also found that Robinson's sarcastic writing style detracted from the authority of the book.

Robinson clearly has a large database of crime knowledge, and many contacts in the law-enforcement world. But he is a "short snippet" kind of writer, and the book, for me, did not feel like a single unified whole.

A complex subject presented with the drama of a novel.......2006-03-15

An outstanding look at modern international crime. Robinson has all the details and facts but puts them together in a compelling fashion that makes this book as much a page-turner as any crime novel. He has a knack for taking a complex subject and making it very clear without dumbing it down. I highly recommend this book, especially if you want to know why the "war on drugs" is failing miserably.

good insights into the mire.......2005-10-01

The Cali cartel, whose profits dwarf those of America's largest companies, have a simple mode of operating. All potential partners fill in a simple form listing the names and addresses of all their living relatives so these urbane men know whom to knock off, if they are double-crossed.

Not that the Colombian cocaine cartels are the world's only baddies. The Mohawk Warriors smuggle $1 bn worth of contraband across the American Canadian frontier every year. And, in today's age of globalized mergers, they work with all comers, from the Cali cartel and Chinese snakeheads to the Russian gangsters, who dominate this book.

Former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin is quoted as saying that "Russia is the biggest Mafia state in the world". It is certainly the most dangerous. Although Moscow, from 1991 to 1999, has witnessed thousands of contract killings, no one has ever been successfully prosecuted for any of them.

And these gangsters are headed our way in big numbers. And these Russians have some interesting friends. Marc Rich, recently pardoned by Bill Clinton, is mentioned in the book, for doing deals with the Russians and trading in conflict diamonds with the Liberians. Robinson claims that Grigory Loutchansky also donated to Clinton's coffers; he is allegedly the world's most important dealer in black-market nuclear materials. He was considered important enough to be the subject of a 1995 eleven-nation, two-day conference hosted by Interpol. Sergei Mikhailov, who has accumulated a staggering array of passports, including a diplomatic passport for Costa Rica, is probably worth another conference.

So too is the damage these people cause at all levels of society. As well as shaking down American based Russian hockey and basketball players, peddling guns, girls and gambling and putting contracts out on over zealous FBI agents, Robinson contends that Russia's gangsters are also undermining sovereign nations like Israel.

Israel's Law of Return has allowed thousands of Russian gangsters, both Jewish and non Jewish, to establish themselves in Israel. Because Israel does not extradite its citizens, it is a perfect hiding hole for these ruthless racketeers, who have a staggering war chest of $4 billion to buy political influence there.

If Robinson is to believed, the Russian mafia more or less control both the Greek and Turkish parts of Cyprus. They also seem to be well entrenched in London, New York, Geneva, Vienna and the world's other major financial centers. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies, meanwhile, struggle to catch even the small fry.

Other countries, the Caribbean ones in particular, long ago sold their souls to the international criminals, who use them to launder their billions. Still, even Dutch controlled Aruba, the world's first mafia state, never went quite as far as the Seychelles, which offered internationally recognized diplomatic passports, plus guaranteed immunity on the island from any form of extradition requested by any other nation, for a mere $10 million. There were plenty of takers, until the tiny nation was forced to withdraw its generous offer of diplomatic immunity to the world's most ruthless criminals.

Not that the Seychelles matter much. The Russian criminal gangs, the Colombians, the Mohawks and the rest of them are uniting in their drive to maximize their global profits no matter what the social cost. And, in today's globalized age, the West contributes to their excesses by buying their contraband, renting out their sex slaves and gambling in their shady casinos. And all their ill-gotten profits are used to traffic more human cargo and move more tons of heroin across our porous borders.

And then there are the nuclear bomb peddlers, another legacy of the Soviet Union's collapse. There is, as Robinson tells us, enough unaccounted-for fissile material that once belonged to the Soviet armed forces to turn Europe and the United States into a moonscape. Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and similar people have shown that there is a demand for this material.

Until we can dampen that demand, we must be prepared to live with the dismal consequences these suppliers of human misery beget. Not, by any stretch, a pleasant thought, but a realistic one nonetheless.

Biased, outdated, inaccurate, and full of grammatical errors.......2004-11-19

This book is a big disappointment. Buy this book and you will regret it. First, the writer is biased. Second, the book is outdated. Third, there are MANY things that are inaccurate (short of fiction). Also the book is full of grammatical errors.

[...] Whatever privileges they enjoy, they EARNED them through decades of suffering.

Comprehensive Review of Organized Crime.......2004-07-10

`The Merger' is the most comprehensive book on international crime.

The theme is how various gangs and mafias from different nations are cooperating versus competing. This game of cooperation enables each criminal organization to focus on a core competency to increase efficiency. These gangs are no longer disorganized but operate in ways similar to corporations, and are often more knowledgeable & advanced than the 'good guys'.

The other main focus of this book is how these same organizations are using the limitations of police jurisdiction to their advantage.

One way they utilize jurisdiction to their advantage is by meeting in one country, such as Vienna, Austria. There the Russians, Sicilians, Italians, and other gangs stage conferences discussing expansion. They intentionally commit no crime in Austria. Since no crime is committed the police cannot arrest them. They go there as businessmen and behave themselves.

Other means of using jurisdictions to their advantage is to facilitate money laundering. They register multiple shell companies in countries with strict banking privacy laws such as Panama & the Cayman Islands.

They also use Indian reservations to move drugs, contraband alcohol & cigarettes amongst other things. These Indian reservations are constantly seeking more territory supposedly to protect their land, when in truth it usually involves a while man pulling strings as to gain more territory to smuggle drugs. They then wash the proceeds through casinos, and finally launder the money in some offshore banks.

Russians extorting other Russians, Nigerians scamming Europeans & North Americans, it's all covered in this book. Learn about how one organization attempted to buy an old military submarine to smuggle drugs into the USA, meanwhile they were doing this while under surveillance.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Security Management, published by American Society for Industrial Security on October 1, 2000. The length of the article is 583 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 Merger: The Conglomeration of International Organized Crime.(Review) (book review)
Author: Michael J. Koshel
Publication: Security Management (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2000
Publisher: American Society for Industrial Security
Volume: 44 Issue: 10 Page: 106

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

Adios to the Brushland.......2007-01-14

My cousin is the author of this eloquent book. He even wrote me into the story. Aside from all of that, Arturo has seen the destruction of the Texas and especially South Texas brushland as bit by bit of it has been rootplowed to make farmland and now Colonias and subdivisions. As young adults we watched the brush piles lit and the sky look like the fires of hell as wildlife habitat was destoyed. If anyone could write this book with the soul of one who mourns destruction, it is Arturo--he lived it.

Will we be able to save our wild places?.......1999-09-07

Sr. Longoria's words transport the reader into the brushlands and into the cultural and political climate of S. Texas. He eloquently expresses what I can only feel about the many values of our wild places. A career in investigative reporting serves the author well: his explanations of why the brushlands have disappeared provide essential understanding for anyone hoping to reverse that trend. It's an exciting book, hard to put down. It is my hope that decision-makers will adopt the author's tenets on how to proceed in imparting an essential love of and respect for wild places in the hearts of our children.

We still have a chance to preserve our brushlands........1998-07-28

This book tells you how the brushlands of south Texas used to be, but there is still hope of saving it for future generations. The author tells his story in such a beautiful way that the reader can actually see the brushlands.

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