Archduke Rudolf, Beethoven's Patron, Pupil & Friend: His Life & Music

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One of those rare athletes whose skills raise the level of his sport, Mario Lemieux, who twice led the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup, was a courageous and charismatic presence from the moment he skated onto the ice; he deposited his first NHL shot into the net, and never looked back. No defense could stop him, not even Hodgkin's disease. He forechecked just about everything that stood between him and his goals--both on and off the ice. Lemieux retired in 1997, his place in the hockey pantheon assured, and The Final Period, with its dazzling display of text and photographs, is a brilliant tribute to his career.

Customer Reviews:

A great athlete and an awesome man.......2000-01-10

I like to call this book an "Adult picture book" because of the easy read and scrapbook of great pictures. I only wish it was written a few years later so Mario could tell us about his plans to save the Pittsburgh Penguins. This is one athlete that has never been arrested, has never done drugs, has been happily married to his wife (and he has only had one wife), and he's not going to go bankrupt anytime soon. Hats off to a great athlete and an awesome man.

Read this book to find the definition of a true class act........2000-01-02

This book is the best book I've ever read on an athlete. It gives plenty of information throughout his career and really shows you what a class act Mario is. Not only is it detailed well, but the pictures are awesome. If you doubt Mario as being one of the best athletes out there, read this book. You'll see why he earned the name Super Mario.

The Pictures make you feel like if your part of the game!.......1999-06-30

GREAT PICTURES

Great photos of a great player.......1999-03-13

Mario Lemieux: The Final Period is a very nice book, mainly made up of photos of "Le Magnifique". The book has few words, but countless wonderful photographs. It features many game-action photos of Mario during his years as a Pittsburg Penguin, as well as personal photos of him and his family, and even hockey action photos of Mario before his NHL playing days. A must have for a Mario Lemieux fan.

A Must for Mario Lemieux Fans.......1999-02-04

A perfect book to remember the glory days of one of the best hockey players ever.

Book Description

In 1917, William Fox, founder of the Fox Film Corporation, sent his personal secretary, Sol Wurtzel, to California to supervise the studio's West Coast productions. Until 1923, Fox, who hated the trip west from New York, carried on an extensive mail and telegraph correspondence with his young protégé, advising him on every element of the studio's management, from how much to pay Tom Mix, to the editing needed for Theda Bara's newest picture. The letters and telegrams from those years, between "My Dear Sol," and "My Dear Mr. Fox," paint a colorful portrait of early Hollywood, from hirings and firings to the nitty-gritty of early filmmaking. Their letters reveal much about Fox's personality, as well as showing Wurtzel's development from secretary to a remarkable manager of a movie empire in its early stages. This detailed story of early Hollywood and the history of film production includes an index

Customer Reviews:

A peek into the messy inner workings of a movie studio.......2004-11-20

In 1917, William Fox hired Sol Wurtzel to run the west-coach branch of the Fox movie studios. Fox was a demanding task-master, but he hated to leave New York. He met with Wurtzel for one weekend, and then sent him off to Los Angeles. You would think that a book consisting of a bunch of business letters and telegrams would be dry and boring, but that is certainly not the case. Wurtzel immediately has to deal with employees who are stealing large amounts of film stock, an actress who skipped out of town with a salary advance, and uncooperative directors who spend the studio's money extravagantly. Over and over, Fox browbeats Wurtzel for spending too much money and making lousy films. Wurtzel fires back apologetic letters and telegrams defending himself.

One of the best things about the book is that you get to see how Wurtzel blossoms from a simple businessman to an artistic producer who really cares about his films. If you've always wondered about what went on behind-the-scenes of a silent movie studio, ignore the clunky title and pick up this book. How often to you get to read direct sources who tell things exactly how they happened 80+ years ago?

An unexpected gem!.......2001-08-18

I don't often go out on a limb and review books, but this one was just too irresistible to keep to myself.

With a long, nonfiction, reference-y title like you see above, I wasn't exactly expecting entertainment when I picked up this book. What a nice surprise!

While I'm guessing you're familiar with the name William Fox (as in the Fox Film Corporation), I'm also guessing you've never even heard the name "Sol M. Wurtzel." And why would you? After all, he was just a lowly personal assistant... or so Fox would have liked us to believe.

This book, which is a collection of the actual letters that were exchanged between Mr. Fox and his "personal assistant" (nowadays, Wurtzel would be known as CEO, or "studio head"), paint a dramatic, cartoonish, sometimes hilarious, sometimes pitiable view of what it was like to work in the film industry in 1917.

That was the year when Fox, whose office was in New York, decided he needed a presence in Los Angeles. He didn't want to travel, though, so he sent Wurtzel. Fox wasn't exactly a generous boss; although his "precious" letters were always addressed "My Dear Sol," the pretentiousness of his formal and contrived language is quickly recognizable as just that. Not far below the surface was a demanding, moody, penny-pinching, nearly un-pleasable man who needed a scapegoat to blame whenever things didn't go perfectly.

He couldn't have picked a better punching bag. Wurtzel did backflips to please his boss; always catering to his every whim, apologizing for things that weren't his fault, trying to be everything to everyone while receiving no credit and only one-third of the salary of the man he replaced.

This book again proves the idea that fact is often more interesting than fiction. The scandals, the deceit, the nepotism... pampered stars who ask for advances for their "mothers' operations" and then skip town, sons of studio owners who steal raw film... it's all here, and every piece of it is piled onto Wutzel's overburdened shoulders.

Only once is he brave enough to ask his boss for a little help; he talks about the family he hasn't been allowed to visit for three years, and the fact that Fox himself hasn't met with him the entire time he's been there. But he's quickly put in his place by the man who demands to know if his ego has "grown too big for his position."

I'm not sure if I was supposed to laugh out loud, but I did, through many parts of this book. The passive-aggressive comments (along the lines of "You've given me no other choice but to blame you for this,") along with the laughable scenarios in which Fox's New York secretary would pretend he was out of town whenever trouble arose, made this book feel like satire. But I suppose the stereotypes have to come from somewhere! I couldn't help but to picture Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit, and I kept waiting for the Ghosts of Christmas to come knocking on Fox's door.

In a sense, I suppose they did. Fox was eventually ousted from his own corporation, and Wurtzel stayed on, producing successful B movies and launching many careers.

This book, brought to publication by Wurtzel's daughter and grand-niece, is a compelling and fascinating character study. So, ignore the clunky title and read the book as the editors originally wanted it titled: "My Dear Sol."...

A surprising page-turner.......2001-06-24

Carla Winter should be highly congratulated for bringing surviving correspondance between her uncle, Hollywood mini-mogul Sol M. Wurtzel, and William Fox to the attention of silent film scholars. And McFarland deserves equal credit for publishing this series of letters, which are entertainingly annotated by (I assume) Wurtzel's late daughter, Lillian Wurtzel Semenov. In his foreword, film historian Scott Eyman expresses the wish that correspondance between the two pertaining to the later 1920s -- when Fox made several classic epics -- also had survived and I obviously agree. But if I absolutely had to chose between the two periods, I would pick the earlier and much less documented years. I actually expected a series of interesting but rather dry discussions of costs, bookings, etc. But "William Fox, Sol M. Wurtzel and the Early Fox Film Corporation" (McFarland's most cumbersome title yet?) is instead a vastly entertaining series of harangues from the penny-pinching Mr. Fox to the sometimes defenseless but at other times crafty Mr. Wurtzel. As the author of the annotations so correctly states at one point, it is no wonder that poor Sol Wurtzel spent his life afflicted with troublesome digestion and various facial tics. Anyone remotely interested in silent film ought to read this volume of letters which, amazingly enough, becomes a true page-turner where, as Harry Ritz reportedly once said, things tend to go "from bad to Wurtzel."

Book Description

Previously published as Invisible Republic, The Old, Weird America is Greil Marcus's acclaimed book on the secret music made by Bob Dylan and the Band in 1967-music that remains as seductive and baffling today as it was more than thirty years ago. "Marcus's contention is that there can be found in American folk a community as deep, as electric, as perverse and as conflicted as all America, and that the songs Dylan recorded out of the public eye, in a basement in Woodstock, are where that community as a whole gets to speak," wrote Mark Singer in The Wire. But the country mapped in this book, as Bruce Shapiro wrote in The Nation, "is not Woody Guthrie's land made for you and me...... It's what Marcus calls 'the old, weird America'"-the "playground for God, Satan, tricksters, Puritans, confidence me, illuminati, braggarts, preachers, anonymous poets of all strips," as Luc Sante put it in New York magazine. It's no wonder The Old, Weird America "reads like a thriller" (Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly); as Mary Gaitskill said in Artforum, Marcus's writing works much like music: It flies by in a comet tail."AUTHORBIO: Greil Marcus is the author of Double Trouble; Dead Elvis; Lipstick Traces; and Mystery Train. His pieces have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Artforum; Interview; The New Yorker; The New York Times; and Esquire. He lives in Berkeley, California. REVIEW: "This book is terminal, goes deeply into the subconscious and plows through that period of time like a rake. Greil Marcus has done it again."(Bob Dyl

Customer Reviews:

Pseudo-Intellectual Myth-Symbol Twaddle.......2007-08-10

Greil Marcus has somehow parlayed his college degree in the obsolete "myth-symbol" school of American Studies into a career as a philosopher of American music. In the process, he has conjured up some of the worst books ever published on rock and roll. Marcus confuses "myth" with the LSD-fuelled '60s fan dreams of musicians as shamans, elves and hobbits. Imagine Jim Morrison, Marc Bolan & Robert Plant attempting to be critics while still on the Kool Aid that produced "Prophets Seers and Sages, The Angels of the Ages", "Stairway to Heaven" and Morrison's ideas about rock concerts as Dionysian rites. Marcus fashioned "Mystery Train", his first sycophantic journey into over-stimulated ego-crazed fan-boy fantasy. Then, after spending too many nights rolling joints on the sleeves of John Wesley Harding and trying to figure out which one was Quinn The Eskimo, Marcus encountered Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music and completely lost his mind. In this horrible re-issue of "Invisible Republic" Marcus treats early American folk artists like Dock Boggs and Robert Johnson as if they were mythical beings rather than men. He then tries to turn Dylan's Basement Tapes into a natural successor to the "mystery school" of these artists. Mere words cannot express the mediocrity of Marcus's meditations. Please, if you have any soul, avoid this book. But dont let Marcus's mind-rot put you off Dock Boggs and Harry Smith's Anthology and Dylan's Basement Tapes -- Marcus does have good taste in music, he just doesn't have anything worth saying to say about it.

Greil Marcus Should Marry Bob Dylan.......2007-02-13

Greil Marcus Should Marry Bob Dylan...he's already written a long love-letter. True there are a lot of interesting musical relationships brought out in the author's discussion, but the details of the Basement Tapes are just not there. Marcus' approach is that of an ethno-musicologist, and one who is too close to his subject. Personally, the bias from the start of the book and the torturous prose were very hard to stomach. I can not recommend this book to anyone, and it will keep me away from anything else by Greil Marcus again. I only wish I could have been warned before I bought it.

Strange Paths.......2006-11-04

Taking Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes as a starting point this book wanders through the foundations of American music investigating some shadowy folk byways.

While the metaphor (actual towns populated by the characters in the songs) is a little overwrought the overall effect of the book is powerful.

I found it particularly exciting to see links to other musicians I like such as Nick Cave and Kirstin Hersh.

Fascinating and essential for any Dylan and American folk fan.......2006-08-13

(this is the updated verion of Marcus' "Invisible Republic")

In 1965, Bob Dylan played Newport with an electric band. Playing songs from the groundbreaking "Highway 61 Revisited", Dylan-- in one of the finest performances of his career-- was roundly booed by the audience and condemned by critics.

Why?

Greil Marcus' fascinating book starts with this question: why were audiences so hostile to Dylan's new material and style? Marcus' thesis is that Dylan on Highway 61 rediscovered the folk music that America had forgotten, a folk music which had been co-opted by the '30s (and subsequent) Left, a music which was much older and much, much weirder than the work of Woody Guthrie and other late '50s exemplars of the folk tradition. Audiences were in for a shock when Dylan's surreal imagery and often apolitical but weirdly resonant lyrics replaced his plainer earlier folk tunes and protest songs.

The book's former title is an allusion to Ralph Ellison's novel "The Invisible Man," whose protagonist is invisible to his fellow Americans because they choose not to see him. In the same way, the very, very weird music of Dock Boggs, Mississippi John Hurt and many others, documented with loving care by Harry Smith, the compiler of the seminal "The Anthology of American Folk Music," was invisible to mainstream audiences during the 1950s and '60s, just as the history they documented was invisible to the majority of its time. It is a countercultural history in song of the U.S., including everything from slave narratives, love ballads, ancient blues, mythical re-tellings of political events, etc. This music is much richer and more complex than the mid-twentieth century folk music familiar to Dylan fans.

Marcus illuminates the connections between Dylan's mid-60s work and the "The Anthology of American Folk Music" and shows how Dylan's leap forward-- into surrealism, wild juxtaposition, historical allusion, electric instrumentation and only elliptical allusions to politics-- was also a leap backward into the Anthology's traditions.

This is one of those books whose ideas make the head spin. Marcus writes clearly but manages to keep the imagination running on overdrive. Like Pynchon, Levi-Strauss, Murakami and Dylan himself, the work is as much a set of ideas as an invitation to connect the many dots. As well as a fascianting tour through the work of Dylan, the Band and the Anthology, this is partly an alternative history of the U.S. and a pretty incisive reminder that folk music, as Dylan once said "is pure mystery."

Reach excedes grasp.......2006-08-12

I like Greil's approach, which worked so much better in the recent "Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan At The Crossroads", of honing in on small detail to produce something profound. Maybe this book can be considered practice for the latter, because it simply didn't work here. I welcome experimental writing, but in this case the wash of minute detail combined with nonlinearity produced confusion rather than clarity. I'm afraid for me the insights are Greil's alone rather than universal. To his credit though, in the same way I'd rather see an ambitious indie movie that fails than a Hollywood blockbuster, reading this is worth a shot. I may try again some time.

Old, Weird America : The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes

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Old, Weird America : The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes
Greil Marcus
Manufacturer: Picador
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTI68A

Book Description

Maps display locations of all treasures, encounters and special items
All shop locations and offerings
Walkthroughs to help you discover the secret of Aidyn's First Mage
The story behink each playable character
Tables for items, potions, spells, skills, weapons, enemies, and more
Hundreds of hidden treasure locations
Detailed lists of every enemy and their weaknesses

Customer Reviews:

Very Helpful.......2003-06-02

Awesome strategy guide for an awesome game. Covers just enough to let you fight the bad guys, then has sections in the back that help you fight the guys. My advice: DONT USE IT IF YOU BUY IT UNLESS YOU ARE DESPERATE AND ARE KEPT UP AT NIGHT BECAUSE YOU CAN'T BEAT THE GOBLIN BOSS. The game is huge, enjoy it. Not many games are built with this kind of dedication.

Ultimate Companion.......2001-04-10

This guide is the ultimate companion to the game as it tells you about all of the chracters in the game and tells you all about the spells that you need throughout the game. The guide is also full of other usefull information that you need in order to complete the game without any trouble

Aidyn Chronicles Strategy Guide Review.......2001-03-26

This guide is very good is because it gives you all the spells you need to know, it also tells you about the characters. This guide tells you how to bring you the characters up levels faster their weaknesses and strong points. There is one thing I did find in this guide that I did not find in some others, is it tells how to search around dangerous areas and not get hurt. The reason I gave it a four star and not a five is because it does not tell everything. Such as some of the things that Nintendo Power tells you.

Aidyn Chronicles Strategy Guide Review.......2001-03-26

Customer Reviews:

An essential book.......2007-06-26

Michael Miller's Business Plans is one of the best books I've ever read. Period.

I'm an MBA student and this is the first book I highly recommend to anyone interested in any kind of business.

It's wonderfully written. Very practical examples and perfectly designed.

Buy a copy now, there is no other option of this quality.

Not my favorite book on business plans, but definitely a good read and worth your time to read.......2006-07-23

This book is well-organized and very informative. It is written for the small business owner who has not written a business plan previously and who needs one to apply for a small business loan or to be able to approach an angel investor or venture capital firm.

My favorite part of the book was Chapter 24 where the author discusses Private Placement Memorandum (PPMs). He tells us how to put one such document together after you have prepared your basic business plan. PPMs are what you need to produce if you are going to offer stock in your company to investors who are other than your family and friends.

Appendix A was great. It gives a 20-minute summary recap of the book. I recommend you read the appendix before tackling the book.

The other chapters I enjoyed reading a lot were:

Chapter 11 - Vision and Mission
Chapter 12 - Opportunity
Chapter 13 - Market Strategy
Chapter 14 - Business Strategy
Chapter 15 - Organization and Operations
Chapter 18 - Financials

Chapter 23 entitled "Use Your Business Plan" was less than I expected. In reality, a good business plan is a benchmark and roadmap for a business owner/manager to use to move the business forward. It's not simply a document to look at once in a while or to distribute to employees to motivate them as the author suggests. A business plan is a strategic plan with regards to making money. The author could have done a better job explaining this.

My overall feeling about the book when I finished it was that it dealt too much on writing in general and not enough on specifically writing a business plan. In a way, I felt as though the author was an expert on how to write research papers and in writing this book he simply re-wrote a "how-to write a research paper" book and targeted it for readers who want to prepare a business plan.

I found it odd that the author decided to explain a plan's Executive Summary (ES) when he did. An ES is the introduction to a business plan, and any knowledgeable writer knows one writes their introduction and conclusions after the main body of the document has been written. I kind of expected the author to cover the sections of the business plan in the order in which they are created, not the order in which they are presented in the plan. But that's just me. All in all, seriously consider giving this book a read if you are interested in writing a business plan for your business or startup.

Alpha Teach Yourself Business Plans in 24 Hours

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Alpha Teach Yourself Business Plans in 24 Hours
Michael Miller
Manufacturer: Alpha
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O93ZDQ

Book Description

The extraordinarily captivating memoir of the remarkable jewel thief who robbed the rich and the famous while maintaining an outwardly conventional life—an astonishing and completely true story, the like of which has never before been told . . . or lived.

Bill Mason is arguably the greatest jewel thief who ever lived. During a thirty-year career he charmed his way into the inner circles of high society and stole more than $35 million worth of fabulous jewels from such celebrities as Robert Goulet, Armand Hammer, Phyllis Diller, Bob Hope, Truman Capote, Margaux Hemingway and Johnny Weissmuller—he even hit the Mafia. Along the way he seduced a high-profile Midwest socialite into leaving her prominent industrialist husband, nearly died after being shot during a robbery, tricked both Christie’s and Sotheby’s into fencing stolen goods for him and was a fugitive for five years and the object of a nationwide manhunt. Yet despite the best efforts of law enforcement authorities from several states as well as the federal government, he spent less than three years total in prison.

Shadowy, elusive and intensely private, Mason has been the subject of many magazine and newspaper features, but no journalist has ever come close to knowing the facts. Now, in his own words and with no holds barred, he reveals everything, and the real story is far more incredible than any of the reporters, detectives or FBI agents who pursued Mason ever imagined. Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief, expertly co-written by bestselling author Lee Gruenfeld, is a unique true-crime confessional.

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" Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief is a compelling memoir that details a life of crime and a series of gutsy capers rivaling anything that Hollywood could dream up, exploits made all the more astonishing for having been pulled off single-handedly. Bill Mason, a self-described "ordinary guy" who ended up ripping off everyone from Truman Capote to Phyllis Diller to the Mob, insists he's on the straight and narrow now, but his story sure stole a good night's sleep from me. "
¿Les Standiford, author of Havana Run and Last Train to Paradise

¿I think this book's tremendous. As is always the case, real life, when properly described, is vastly more fascinating than fiction, and you need look no further for proof than Bill Mason's amazing story. "
¿Frank W. Abagnale, author of Catch Me If You Can and The Art of the Steal

" Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief is the kind of book that drives crime-fiction writers like me up a wall: No one would ever believe these amazing, compelling stories of theft and deception if they weren't sitting on the nonfiction rack. Mason tells his life story with such flair and confidence that I felt like I was dangling from a twenty-story ledge right along with him. Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief is the ultimate kind of guilty pleasure, because even though you know it's so wrong, it feels so right."
¿Eric Garcia, author of Matchstick Men

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Memories of a pathetic liar...........2007-08-09

I read this book mainly because I was involved in an important aspect of Bill Masons life, his arrest. I think the co-author did a good job of putting the events as he knew them down on paper. However much of the information was not true.. Therefore I see the book as being partially fiction.. The author Bill Mason has either a poor memory as to the facts of his arrest, or like in so many instances in his book he blames everyone else for his lack of integrity.. In a true, and honest account of his arrest, try reading Badge 149, Shots Fired, by retired Captain Gary Jones, these facts are undisputable and documented.. Overall the book of course is interesting and exciting until you factor in the lives of family and friends, and others that he harmed. I reviewed his book in a local library, not wanting to contribute to his continued lifestyle .Justice in his case is still pending, I bet his father if real proud of him..(hic).

Strong start, weak ending.......2007-07-10

The first half of this book was very entertaining. I loved the descriptions of the heists Mr. Mason pulled. The last half of the book was tedious. Mostly how he was in and out of jail.
Still a good overall read.

Some of what Bill Mason says in his book is not true........2006-11-12

Yes, Bill Mason was a professional burglar and jewel thief! I know this is true because I was one of the original Fort Lauderdale police officers who first spotted him, and then followed him for weeks, until he was eventually arrested. Mason's version of events, in his book, about how Fort Lauderdale P.D. first became aware of him, is NOT true. He would have his readers believe an informer told us about him and that's how we first became aware of him. Not true! The simple truth is Mason got careless and he became predictable. In a phone conversation, after his book was released, I even told him this. But, he still doesn't believe this. After all, this version doesn't fit the image he tries to portray of a slick professional crook who never ever made a mistake. In my own book (Badge 149 - "Shots Fired!") I devote two full chapters to Bill Mason, and his arrest. If you are interested in reading what really happened, I encourage you to read my book, instead of the fiction Bill Mason has written. Or, read both his book and mine, and then judge for yourself which one of us is more honest and credible.

The policeman's story .......2006-11-03

Buying this book about a year ago I struggled with spending money on a person who made a living stealing. It was written well and I enjoyed the action. However, I Just finish reading Badge 149 the author is the policeman who arrested him. Wow, it was definately interesting to see the other side of his jewerly heist! All the action and this time money was well spent and some dedicated to fallen policemen !!!!!!!!

Don't give this guy any more money!.......2006-08-06

OK, this book was a good and entertaining read.

However, as I read it, I couldn't believe that I had actually given *more* money to it's unethical, egotistical, unfaithful criminal of an author.

**Borrow it from your library or buy it used** to avoid allowing a horrible crook from cashing in twice on the money he stole from innocent people!

This guy steals millions of dollars from retired people (all the while blaming the VICTIMS for being so silly, they didn't lock doors, install constraining alarm systems, etc....), treats his wife like sh..t, is amazed when he actually gets arrested and more amazed when his wife actually asks for a divorce after years of stress and mental abuse (and ps he is cheating on her 7/7 24/24 and is still surprised)..... He dabbles in mafia business and drug dealing... all the while insisting he's just a "nice guy" and your typical "neighborhood Dad".

Amazing story, but avoid giving this dishonestn egocentric criminal any more money for the crimes he already committed. Don't buy this book new. Borrow it from your library or buy it used, this guy doesn't deserve anything more than he already has.

Grand Theft - Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief

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Grand Theft - Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief

Manufacturer: Random House Australia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1863254110

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CONFESSIONS OF A MASTER JEWEL THIEF

Manufacturer: Villard Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HZXLVS

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CONFESSIONS OF A MASTER JEWEL THIEF
Bill With Lee Gruenfeld Mason
Manufacturer: Villard Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PPX8ZY

Book Description

If most people have a strong impulse for self-preservation, why do individuals fight wars? The author believes the answer lies in gender relations--the way in which femininity and masculinity are defined--and the power of the military in society. She explores the link between war and gender in
South Africa during the last decade. Through interviews with victims of violence, resisters, and militarists, the author reveals that although the South African Defence Force (SADF) and the ANC's Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) reflect the myriad differences between a conventional and a guerrilla army, women
in both armies have been subject to similar processes of incorporation and exclusion. Provocative and well-written, it will be interesting for both the haunting personal accounts and the clear analysis of the issues.

Book Description

Tracing a central theme of Plato's Republic, G. R. F. Ferrari reconsiders in this study the nature and purpose of the comparison between the structure of society and that of the individual soul. In four chapters, Ferrari examines the personalities and social status of the brothers Glaucon and Adeimantus, Plato's notion of justice, coherence in Plato's description of the decline of states, and the tyrant and the philosopher king—a pair who, in their different ways, break with the terms of the city-soul analogy.

In addition to acknowledging familiar themes in the interpretation of the Republic—the sincerity of its utopianism, the justice of the philosopher's return to the Cave—Ferrari provocatively engages secondary literature by Leo Strauss, Bernard Williams, and Jonathan Lear. With admirable clarity and insight, Ferrari conveys the relation between the city and the soul and the choice between tyranny and philosophy. City and Soul in Plato's Republic will be of value to students of classics, philosophy, and political theory alike.

Customer Reviews:

very technical and very brilliant.......2006-08-11

If you want a general introduction to Plato's Republic don't buy this book. There are many books better for your purposes. This, however, is an excellently argued critique of scholarly thought on a rich, but abstruse issue in Platonic studies. If you can follow the argument (i.e. if you know Republic and or the other dialogues very well) this is book is like Ariadne's thread leading you through the maze of Republic (or is that Phaedo). You won't have trouble with Ferrari's prose, which is as fine as ever (I also reviewed "Listening for Cicadas"). Anyway, it's a great read and though I just bought this copy I will probably have to get another soon. Too much marginalia and underlining.

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City and Soul in Plato's Republic
G. R. F. Ferrari
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPQWDK

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