Average customer rating:
- Is it History or Story?
- brilliant and provocative
|
Augustus: Godfather of Europe
Richard Holland
Manufacturer: Sutton Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ancient
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Rome
| Ancient
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor
-
Augustus: A Novel
-
Augustus
-
Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome)
ASIN: 0750929111 |
Book Description
This is the dramatic story of the provincial outsider who came to found Europe. Richard Holland brings out to the full the extraordinary, complex nature of the young and inexperienced tyro who has remained elusive.
Customer Reviews:
Is it History or Story?.......2005-08-05
This was an enjoyable read, but it's hard to think of as either historical nor archaelogical scholarship. The narrative is filled with suppositions about what the people thought and felt. Entire conversations are retold as if as if a reporter was present to record what was said. The Notes at the end of the book don't really support statements made in the text. It seems Mr. Holland has relied on Ronald Syme's The Roman Revolution (1939) and the writings of Appian, Pultarch, Ovid, Seutonius, etc. Very little modern scholarship is referenced.
In the Preface and the last chapter "The Godfather of Europe", Mr. Holland takes takes jabs at current American foreign policy in Iraq. Analogizing that the Emperor and the American President carried the same motive to police the world. The author is constantly looking over his shoulder straining to draw comparisons between the Ancient and present day worlds. At times, the effort makes you chuckle. More often, it's just a distraction. The other thing the author does, as implied in the subtitle, is declare Augustus an ancient of the modern day mafia.
As a story based on the ancient, contemporaneous writings Augustus entertains. As history, this biography is not an important contribution to our understanding of its subject.
brilliant and provocative.......2004-10-10
Following the success of NERO, this biography of the Emperor Augustus by Richard Holland is a triumph.
I found it brilliant and provocative, rarely following in the footsteps of other biographical historians but treading a new and bold path. Holland thinks between the lines of what antiquity has left us in the form of historical records and paints a three-dimensional picture of Augustus as an elusive but daring leader, the outsider who changed the face of Europe, a man who would not look out of place amongst the politicians of today's Western governments.
Highly recommended!
Average customer rating:
- Compelling history of the roots of the modern American athle
- Telling Another Untold Story
- Explores a long negleted area of African-American history.
- A must-read for the true Horse Player
|
Great Black Jockeys
Edward Hotaling
Manufacturer: Prima Lifestyles
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
African-American & Black
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
Racing
| Horses
| Individual Sports
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Miscellaneous
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
History
| African Americans
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
African-American Studies
| Special Groups
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Black Winning Jockeys in the Kentucky Derby
-
Wink: The Incredible Life and Epic Journey of Jimmy Winkfield
ASIN: 0761514376
Release Date: 1999-01-27 |
Amazon.com
The most engrossing sports stories have a way of sneaking up on you. They explore issues much broader than competition, who won, and who lost; they are sports stories because they take place on the fields of play, but the light they shed illuminates much more than the athletic arena. On one level, The Great Black Jockeys is certainly about sports--indeed, racing was America's first national sport. But it's also about much more than that. It's an absorbing history, at times tragic, at times inspiring, of a nation in transition and the complex interrelationship between sports, society, attitudes, and race.
The overriding tragedy here is that this particular story essentially ends just after the turn of the 20th century. Before that, black riders dominated the game. In slave days, race riding could be a route to freedom. It was certainly a route to fame and a share of fortune. Whether a match race for bragging rights in the field, or a leg of the prestigious Triple Crown, black riders had at least a fair shake. Isaac Murphy, whose winning percentages have never been matched, won a trio of Kentucky Derbies. Jimmy Winkfield won back-to-back Runs for the Roses in 1901 and 1902. Yet, no black rider has piloted a winner in a major American stakes race since 1909. What happened?
By introducing us to a forgotten chapter in sports history and a host of deserving athletic legends sadly overlooked by time, Hotaling explores what did happen, and why a sport that witnessed blacks and whites competing as equals for so long at the highest levels suddenly locked the starting gate. The story Hotaling tells is as fascinating as it is painful, a story of opportunity unsaddled by prejudice and fear, and never significantly remounted again. "This is not black history," he makes clear. "It is not white history. It is American history." And like so much of American history, it's more complex than black and white. --Jeff Silverman
Book Description
More than a century before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball, black athletes were dominating America's first national sport. The sport was horse racing, and the greatest jockeys of all were slaves and the sons of slaves. Cheered by thousands of Americans in the North and South, they rode to victory in all of the major stakes, including the very first Kentucky Derby. Although their glory days ranged from the early 1700s to the turn of the 20th century, the memory of these great black jockeys was erased from history. Who were these athletes and why have their names vanished without a trace?
"This may be the most fascinating untold sports story in American history. We are lucky that it is so well told now by Mr. Hotaling in his wonderfully written book." — Charles Osgood, anchor, CBS News Sunday Morning
The Great Black Jockeys is the first book about the lives and times of the forgotten men whose extraordinary skills were a wonder to behold, men with names like "Honest Ike" Murphy, Abe Hawkins, Willie Simms, Austin Curtis, Jimmy Winkfield, and dozens more. This is also a story of a young country where whole towns turned out in cleared fields to cheer and place wagers on magnificent horses and the men who rode them, and where the greatest athletes in the land were the property of others. For fleeting moments on the racecourse black riders in colorful silks tasted the glory and freedom that slavery had denied them.
In
The Great Black Jockeys, the exploits and courage of America's earliest and best athletes are finally remembered.
Customer Reviews:
Compelling history of the roots of the modern American athle.......2004-01-09
Any person who is a serious study of sports history will find this a most compelling dialogue on the "true" evolution of the American professional athlete. It is simply the most "untold" and most compelling story in the American experience. Today's athletes - of whatever color - should read this book to get a true appreciation for the foundations of the "professional" athlete in America and the depth of character exhibited by these great athletes under the most dire conditions.
Telling Another Untold Story.......2002-11-05
I read this book because it combined Black History and horse racing. Two of my favorite subjects. The book is well organized, full of information.
The author seamlessly intertwines American History, African American History, and the history of horse racing in America. So the book keeps your interest. He also balances historical facts, with the colorful characters\stories surrounding horseracing, while elevating Black jockies to their noble place in the "sport of kings".
This book is worth the price. A great read!!
Explores a long negleted area of African-American history........1999-03-06
This book explores a negleted aspect of the African-American experience in the United States. I had always assumed the African-American heros of sport were a twentieth century phenomenon. It was an eye opener to learn that there successful African-American jockeys and trainers as early as colonial time.
I would recommend this well written book to anyone with an interest in American history
A must-read for the true Horse Player.......1999-03-05
Mr. Hotaling's latest horse-racing book is a must read for anyone who considers himself a true afficianado of the sport. It tells a story which far too many people, even serious horse players, know little about. Horse racing is unique among sports in America because it is has virtually no black presence. There are few black owners, trainers, and breeders, and very few of the most visible players in racing, the jockeys. This was not always the case. In fact, black jockeys once dominated America's oldest sport. The first winner of the Kentucky Derby was black, as was the Derby's first repeat winner and its first three-time winner. The jockey with the highest winning percentage in history was black. Hotaling gives the history of these pioneers, and in doing so gives a history of the sport. He also deals with the glaring question: why have black jockeys largely dissappeared from the sport? It is well-written and insightful, a book invaluable to those who value the history of horse racing.
Average customer rating:
|
THE GREEN HILLS OF EARTH: Delilah and the Space-Rigger; Space Jockey; The Long Watch; Gentlemen Be Seated; The Black Pits of Luna; It's Great to Be Back; We Also Walk Dogs; Ordeal in Space; Logic of Empire
Robert A. Heinlein
Manufacturer: Baen Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OA2E5A |
Average customer rating:
|
Great Black Jockeys the Lives & Times
Edward Hotaling
Manufacturer: RANDOM HOUSE @ TRADE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SHBRHU |
Average customer rating:
- I Can Draw Aliens, Spaceships and Robots
|
I Can Draw Spaceships, Aliens, and Robots (I Can Draw)
Manufacturer: Little Simon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Drawing
| Art
| Arts & Music
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Fiction
| Art
| Arts & Music
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
I Can Draw
| Nonfiction
| Series
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0689817207 |
Customer Reviews:
I Can Draw Aliens, Spaceships and Robots.......2000-05-31
As an elementary school art teacher I love to see my students pick up these books from the library to reinforce the drawing skills that I am teaching them. The step-by-step instructions teach kids how to put lines and shapes together to create these drawings and then they use the skills to create their own.
Average customer rating:
- lacks focus, but otherwise lives up to its predecessors
|
Aliens, Robots, and Spaceships
Jeff Rovin
Manufacturer: Facts on File
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Literary Theory
| History & Criticism
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
History & Criticism
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0816031134 |
Customer Reviews:
lacks focus, but otherwise lives up to its predecessors.......1999-05-17
This is Jeff Rovin's fifth encyclopedic book to discuss various characters from the wide range of American and, to a (quite) lesser extent, international popular culture, and I'm afraid that, as he chooses classifications of greater and greater range, he continually loses focus; he does well with what he offers us, as always, but his selection process seems to progressively dim. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPER-HEROES was forced to restrict some interesting international and golden age characters to brief appendices, while ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SUPER-VILLAINS could have been more all-encompassing as it picked and chose characters from throughout the century (understandable, there being so many more super-villains than super-heroes, after all); there are even more monsters, but ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MONSTERS did what it could, as did ADVENTURE HEROES, which covered a category somewhat harder to define than the preceding three. But with ALIENS ROBOTS AND SPACESHIPS, I'm afraid Mr. Rovin got too ambitious. By trying to encompass all sources, he devoted but sparse attention to most of them. Each of this book's three categories could have easily supported books of their own, especially given Mr. Rovin's habit of including various one-shot characters that have captured his interest; a book could be done on the aliens from magazines like AMAZING STORIES alone, ditto the robots in 1950s comic books or spaceships in science fiction movies. Other problems include flawed adherence to the title's restrictions (The book's not ALIENS ROBOTS SPACESHIPS TIME MACHINES PLANETS AND SO ON, after all), and repetitions from previous books (Superman is a super-hero first, and an alien second; he didn't need to be in this book.). Don't get me wrong; this book is interesting reading and a good reference book of its kind, but it doesn't quite live up to Mr. Rovin's previous efforts. He tried for too much and fell a bit short this time.
Average customer rating:
|
Aliens, Robots, and Spaceships.
Jeff. Rovin
Manufacturer: NY Facts on File, Inc. 1995.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000J5G5LE |
Average customer rating:
|
Echo No. 3 with Cassette(s)
Manufacturer: Faber & Faber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Music
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0571505856 |
Average customer rating:
|
The Offbeat King's Indian: Lesser Known Tries to Counter This Most Popular of Defences
Krzysztof Panczyk , and
Jacek Ilczuk
Manufacturer: Everyman Chess
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Chess
| Board Games
| Puzzles & Games
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Puzzles & Games
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Understanding The King's Indian
-
Play the King's Indian: A Complete Repertoire for Black in this most Dynamic of Openings
-
How to Beat 1 D4: A Sound and Ambitious Repertoire Based on the Queen's Gambit Accepted
-
Starting Out: Slav & Semi-Slav (Starting Out - Everyman Chess)
-
Strategic Chess: Mastering the Closed Game
ASIN: 1857443616 |
Book Description
In The Offbeat King's Indian renowned openings expert Krzysztof Panczyk studies unusual and less theoretical systems for White against the King's Indian, ones that are tricky and are likely to throw the King's Indian player off his or her stride early on in the game.
Average customer rating:
- Getting Yours: The Complete Guide to Govt. Money
- Getting yours
- keep your money
|
Getting Yours: The Complete Guide to Government Money, Third Edition (Getting Yours, 3rd ed)
Matthew Lesko
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
| Business Ethics
| Consolidation & Merger
| Decision-Making & Problem Solving
| Distribution & Warehouse Management
| Industrial
| Information Management
| Leadership
| Management
| Management Science
| Motivational
| Negotiating
| Operations Research
| Planning & Forecasting
| Pricing
| Production & Operations
| Project Management
| Quality Control
| Risk Assessment
| Statistics
| Strategy & Competition
| Systems & Planning
| Systems Analysis
| Teams
| Total Quality Management
| Training
General
| Personal Finance
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Raising Capital
| Small Business & Entrepreneurship
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Directories
| Catalogs & Directories
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Free Money to Change Your Life
-
Gobs and Gobs of Free Stuff
-
Free Money and Help for Women Entrepreneurs
-
Free Money® for Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs (Free Money for Small Business and Entrepreneurs)
-
The Complete Guide to Getting a Grant: How to Turn Your Ideas Into Dollars
ASIN: 0140467602 |
Customer Reviews:
Getting Yours: The Complete Guide to Govt. Money.......2003-06-03
This book might be a lot more helpful if it were updated regularly. The current--third--edition is from 1986, which is ludicrous with subject matter this volatile. The content itself is a bit too brief, but would still be very helpful if it had been done some time in the last 1-5 years.
Getting yours.......2002-03-08
This book has information on many goverment agencies, but does not have specific locations on how to get it as an individual.
keep your money.......1999-10-17
This book was not enlighting, alot of the information was out date. The phone numbers to the locations were disconected etc.
Average customer rating:
- One of My Favorite Researchers
- To shock or not to shock
- When in doubt, experiment!
- A fascinating book about a fascinating man.
- Dr. Blass's book a blast
|
The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram
Thomas Blass
Manufacturer: Perseus Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Social Scientists & Psychologists
| Professionals & Academics
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Jewish
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Holocaust
| Jewish
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Social Psychology & Interactions
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View (Perennial Classics)
-
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
-
Love At Goon Park : Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection (Science Matters)
-
Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens
-
Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century
ASIN: 0738203998
Release Date: 2004-03-16 |
Book Description
The sole and definitive biography of one of the 20th century's most influential and controversial psychologists.
The creator of the famous "Obedience Experiments," carried out at Yale in the 1960s, and originator of the "six degrees of separation" concept, Stanley Milgram was one of the most innovative scientists of our time. In this sparkling biography--the first in-depth portrait of Milgram--Thomas Blass captures the colorful personality and pioneering work of a social psychologist who profoundly altered the way we think about human nature.
Born in the Bronx in 1933, Stanley Milgram was the son of Eastern European Jews, and his powerful Obedience Experiments had obvious intellectual roots in the Holocaust. The experiments, which confirmed that "normal" people would readily inflict pain on innocent victims at the behest of an authority figure, generated a firestorm of public interest and outrage-proving, as they did, that moral beliefs were far more malleable than previously thought. But Milgram also explored other aspects of social psychology, from information overload to television violence to the notion that we live in a small world. Although he died suddenly at the height of his career, his work continues to shape the way we live and think today. Blass offers a brilliant portrait of an eccentric visionary scientist who revealed the hidden workings of our very social world.
Customer Reviews:
One of My Favorite Researchers.......2006-04-10
I admire those who ask the hard questions. I admire those who don't fall into line with easy answers. I'm glad Stanley Milgram existed and did his groundbreaking work. I'm sorry he's not still alive to be doing more of it. I'd love to see his take on the current state of affairs in our country. I first learned of Milgram as a college student who was one of a group duplicating his experiment. I didn't shock anybody and argued with the "experimenter" as the task was being explained to me. And having read this book I still proudly wear my "Question Authority" button in honor of Milgram. The Blass book is an excellent read if you're willing to entertain some uncomfortable thoughts.
To shock or not to shock.......2006-03-03
Great book, couldn't put it down. It is an excellent book to get the whole story about Milgram and his famous experiment. What great insight Milgram found out about man, but was man ready to look in the mirror? If you teach psychology, or you are just interested in psychology, and want a more in depth look at Milgram, you won't go wrong with this one. My students are enjoying this as well.
When in doubt, experiment!.......2005-03-26
Milgram seemed to share the showmanship of P.T. Barnum and ingenuity of reality show creator Mark Burnett. If Milgram were alive, he might have been a top reality show creator.
Milgram seems most notable not for the results of his experiments but for their conception and content. He hardly modified the approach used by Asch in his conformity experiments, which relied on deception, but he changed the subject to something considerably more striking. The result may have been significant, but think about it: any result would have attracted attention. Comparing the experimental situation with concentration camp situation is what first made the experiment newsworthy. If the result had been that no one or very few shocked, then news could have been generated of how much better behaved Americans are. Or if Germans also didn't shock much, it could have been claimed people nowadays are much better behaved than folks back in World War II. Given the catchy experiment, the results hardly mattered in the sense that the very description of what the experiment was doing would catch people's attention.
Which isn't necessarily bad. Milgram brought social psychology out of relative obscurity. To a good extent, he bailed out psychology in general, whose reputation had been damaged by decades of speculations without much support.
As a situationist, Milgram recognized that our social lives are quite complex. Rather than spend much time theorizing, he experimented. Don't know? Don't invent a reason, go gather facts. It's a measure of just how complex we are socially that even having gathered results, as with the "obedience" experiments, Milgram seemed at a lost to explain what was happening. Blass notes about Milgram's "Obedience to Authority book" that "Milgram's theorizing is the weakest part of the book". Milgram's feeble appeal to cybernetics contrasts sharply with his description of the experiment. Blass also notes that the kind of "obedience" Milgram studied doesn't seem at all sufficient to explain what happened during the Holocaust.
Milgram shouldn't be faulted for the problems with his theorizing. How many psychologists can theorize well? There's still an enormous amount we don't know about ourselves and the way we interact. Milgram's gift seems to have been sensing that and instead finding novel ways to help us to learn about ourselves. Even if the content and results of his experiments are someday forgotten, the spirit of bold experimentation that Milgram brought to social psychology will be of great value. Blass communicates that. So I don't know if Blass is the "undisputed expert" but the book seems well-researched and quite readable.
A fascinating book about a fascinating man. .......2004-11-24
Stanley Milgram is one of the most influential social psychologists of our time, who through his obedience studies, made some of the greatest and most enduring contributions to psychology. Through his controversial experiments, that "shocked the world" he enabled us to make some sense of the atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust. He made us look at our dark side, and began a world-discourse about why we blindly obey authority. That discourse continues today and can be found everywhere and in everything from academic journals to films, books, music, and even dog-training manuals. Not only is Milgram's work fascinating but the man himself was just as captivating.
In this superbly written biography of Milgram, Thomas Blass gives us an intimate look at the man behind the brilliance. Blass has meticulously researched Milgram's life and presented the reader with an honest, and not always complimentary, view of Stanley Milgram. I applaud Blass for his candid approach, and his balanced view of an extraordinary man. By revealing Milgram's darker side, Blass has cleverly demonstrated that we all share the same human foibles and weaknesses, and that ultimately the experimenter is no better and no worse than the subjects he uses in his experiments. We are all just humans.
With the current state of our world, I believe renewed discourse on the subject of blind obedience could not have come at a better time. Milgram's work is relevant to just about every aspect of our lives from workplace social dynamics to terrorism. Because of that, I recommend this book to everyone who shares a background in psychology and most certainly for those who do not. Blass's book is a marvelous introduction to Milgram's work and to the fascinating man himself.
Dr. Blass's book a blast.......2004-11-16
I enjoyed reading Dr. Blass's book on Stanley Milgram.
Besides growing up in the same area in the Bronx as Milgram the book is a good read and does not drag. The Author really captured the character of his subject.
Average customer rating:
|
Confederate Raider in the North Pacific: The Saga of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, 1864-65 (Washington State University Press Reprint)
Murray Cromwell Morgan
Manufacturer: Washington State University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Civil War
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Naval Operations
| Civil War
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0874221234 |
Average customer rating:
- Said on Freud: duet of Masters
|
Freud and the Non-European
Edward W. Said ,
Christopher Bollas , and
Jacqueline Rose
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Jewish
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Israel
| Middle East
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Criticism & Theory
| History & Criticism
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Consciousness & Thought
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Relations
| International
| Politics
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Political Science
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Psychoanalysis
| Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Dark Continents: Psychoanalysis and Colonialism (Post-Contemporary Interventions)
-
Reflections on Exile and Other Essays (Convergences: Inventories of the Present)
-
Power, Politics, and Culture
-
Culture and Resistance: Conversations With Edward W. Said
-
Orientalism
ASIN: 1844675114 |
Book Description
Banned by the Freud Institute in Vienna, this controversial lecture became Edward Said's final book.
Using an impressive array of material from literature, archaeology and social theory, Edward Said explores the profound implications of Freud's Moses and Monotheism for Middle-East politics today. The resulting book reveals Said's abiding interest in Freud's work and its important influence on his own.
He proposes that Freud's assumption that Moses was an Egyptian undermines any simple ascription of a pure identity, and further that identity itself cannot be thought or worked through without the recognition of the limits inherent in it. Said suggests that such an unresolved, nuanced sense of identity might, if embodied in political reality, have formed, or might still form, the basis for a new understanding between Jews and Palestinians. Instead, Israel's relentless march towards an exclusively Jewish state denies any sense of a more complex, inclusive past.
"Quite differently from the spirit of Freud's deliberately provocative reminders that Judaism's founder was a non-Jew, and that Judaism begins in the realm of Egyptian, non-Jewish monotheism, Israeli legislation countervenes, represses, and even cancels Freud's carefully maintained opening out of Jewish identity toward its non-Jewish background."
Customer Reviews:
Said on Freud: duet of Masters.......2004-06-16
Freud's life and work (as brilliantly and controversially detailed in THE ASSAULT ON TRUTH by Jeffrey Masson) is rife with problems the likes of which adds to both the kaleidoscopic complexities and the singular horrors of the 20th century unlike few in world history. But the two most powerful Pandora's boxes in Western Civilization could arguably be the ones he opened with two works: THE AETIOLOGY OF HYSTERIA (1896), which proved under no uncertain terms that virtually all adult neuroses is a product of child abuse, neglect and pedophilia (a proof he backpedaled from soon after writing due to political pressure in the psychiatric community) and MOSES AND MONOTHEISM.
We can only wonder which of the two is a greater bombshell to Western Civilization--academic and cultural. Both are routinely ignored in the disciplines they impact virtually as if they have never been written.
With FREUD AND THE NON-EUROPEAN, the Master Edward Said does not reopen the can of worms Freud opened with his reminder that the foundation of Judaism is in ancient Egyptian monotheism (in polytheistic disguise), and as such ancient Egyptian culture. He reveals the fact that it has never been closed, as he goes down but one road of the book's unrefuted implications to courageously confront the possibilities of embracing it for the political future of the Semitic people of the Middle East--Israeli and Palestinian. If the Israeli and the Palestinian are one people after all, why exactly are the fighting? How does this color the meaning of an Israeli sate that excludes them? And what does it do to the soul of both sides in the process, when Cain is essentially fighting Abel, writ large?
MOSES AND MONOTHEISM only begins to upset the foundations of Western political thought here, as Said only hints at but does not go into deeply, away from his central thesis. The fact is, Freud, with this work, opened the floodgates that separate religious and cultural history from anthropology; Judaism/Jewish history from Egyptology; and traditional anthropology from its more heterodox twin and the heretical historians of science. There are innumerable volumes of work from unsung scientists and historians, linguists and anthropologists, proving Freud's thesis in a hundred different ways both more succinctly and more academically than he did, decades and centuries before he ever seriously thought of the social implications of the subject matter. The 19th century Godfrey Higgins' ANACALYPSIS; Gerald Massey's ANCIENT EGYPT THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD and A BOOK OF THE BEGINNINGS; dozens of others in and out of the four hundred year old scientific/historical discipline known as Metrology.... These works flow not from Freud, but into the world for many, inronically, through him. They flow through the intellectual heart of Freud's Achilles-like dip into the true river of intellectual invulnerability on this topic into the work of the often maligned but essentially unrefuted C.A. Diop, like THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION; the maverick genius anthropologist from London Chris Knight, author of the amazing BLOOD RELATIONS, MENSTRUATION AND THE ORIGINS OF CULTURE; and every unearthing of sacred texts and their actual implications and contextual significance, from E.A. Wallis Budge's translation of the misnamed Egyptian BOOK OF THE DEAD and the PYRAMID TEXTS (see DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGION AND THOUGHT IN ANCIENT EGYPT, James Henry Breasted). Straight through to the NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY's refutation of the overwhelming majority of orthodox Christian tradition and historical perspective. Indeed, with the re-establishment of Ancient Egypt being essentially an African society in modern cultural thought (which is, lest we forget, in northeast Africa; not unlike the Ancient Sudan [with even older pyramids], the Dogon or ancient Ethiopia), the very concepts of *race* when referring to Semitic people becomes such a firestorm that politics as it currently exists in the region can only inevitably be understood when taking it into PSYCHOLOGICAL if not socio-economic context.
The natives had been restless on the other side of the intellectual/cultural fence long before Freud acknowledged their existence. Freud simply made the avoidance of such such an issue of integrity for the modern Western intellectual that it cannot be ignored, without the selling of the Western soul.
Edward Said was never known for ignoring anything of substance in modern culture or intellectual life. And with friends like Noam Chomsky, who excoriates the hypocrisy of modern intelligentsia with reckless abandon before eating breakfast in the morning, he does not let you down here. Whether or not you hold on to preconceived notions about the current conflict in the Middle East among Palestinians, Israelis and the rest of the world, this book, and Freud's MOSES AND MONOTHEISM will wash away your rationalizations for doing so like moss on a dry rock on the beach hit by high tide. Said tells us unquestionably, as he had done all his life, that there are some things that must be discussed and debated, if language is to have any vaule at all, and our way of life is to make any sense. And he does so, as is his nature, with elegance, lucidity and unparalleled brilliance. This is Said's intellectual Satyagraha; he is a Gandhi for our modern minds.
Average customer rating:
|
Edward W. Said. Freud and the Non-European.(Book Review): An article from: World Literature Today
David S. Gross
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| e-Docs
| Formats
| Books
ASIN: B00084BJIK
Release Date: 2005-08-01 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on September 1, 2004. The length of the article is 497 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: Edward W. Said. Freud and the Non-European.(Book Review)
Author: David S. Gross
Publication:
World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2004
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: 78
Issue: 3-4
Page: 158(1)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Average customer rating:
|
Planet in Peril: Essays in Environmental Ethics
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Ethics & Morality
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Science
| Earth Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Ethics
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Science
| Earth Sciences
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0030739039 |
Average customer rating:
|
Planet in Peril Essays in Environmental Ethics
Dale Westphal
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N7KHWG |
Average customer rating:
|
Planet In Peril: Essays In Environmental Ethics
Fred Westphal Dale Westphal
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEK4LC |
Books:
- Black Majesty The Life Of Christophe King Of Haiti
- Born To Be King : Prince William Of Wales
- Brother to the Sun King: Philippe, Duke of Orleans
- Burghley: William Cecil, Lord Burghley (Profiles in Power)
- Children of the Empire: The Victorian Haggards
- Circe: The Life of Marchioness of Londonderry
- Diana: A Portrait in Her Own Words
- Diana : An English Rose
- Diana: Su Nueva Vida Diana Her New Life
- Diana : Su Verdada Historia
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball
- Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance
- One Part Angel: A Novel
- Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
- Incredible Hulk: Planet Hulk
- Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master
- Managing Gigabytes: Compressing and Indexing Documents and Images
- Fortunes of Mitchell Kennerley, Bookman
- Joseph Wharton: Quaker Industrial Pioneer
- The yeast;: A taxonomic study,