The Duchess of Kent: The Troubled Life of Katharine Worsley

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating and disturbing look at the Royal Family.......2000-07-14

The author's research and detail here is incredible. She presents a well-rounded and unbiased look at the Duchess of Kent, and as much as I admired the Duchess for her determination and faith, I was thoroughly disgusted by the Royal Family's cold and insensitive treatment of her. Although the book drags a little bit, I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in this subject.

Book Description

"Joe Montana:Just Another Player" is not just another Joe Montana book. Inside, Stanley Hetz takes a very special look at the early years of the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. This book reveals several unknown things about Joe Montana. Some parts are controversial. Some parts are heartwarming. If you are a fan of Joe Montana, this is definately a book that you will want to add to your collection.

Customer Reviews:

A good book.......2001-08-23

I never tire of reading this book. I would recommend it to other football fans.

Thumbs up!.......2001-02-14

Joe Montana: Just Another Player by Stanley Hetz was well written. I strongly recommend it for Joe Montana fans. I learned a lot about Joe, things I did not know. So you will learn a lot too. You have to read it!

Thumbs up!.......2001-02-13

Joe Montana: Just another Player by Stanley Hetz was well written. I strongly recommend it for Joe Montana fans. I learned a lot about him, things I did not know. And so would you, if you are a Joe Montana fan: You have to read it!

Great Book.......2000-12-18

Joe Montana was one of the greatest quarterbacks.. This book showed me more stuff that i never new about him. And the interview was just awesome don't take my word on it, I think that you should check it out for yourself.. Believe me it was a good book.

informative.......2000-12-17

book teaches a lot. 80 great pages about joe makes it worth the price. thought the bonus section about wrestling was a nice addition.

American Mania: When More Is Not Enough
Average customer rating:

The book was great... but a little drawn out

Promising but puffed

Excellent book written from a unique and powerful perspective

Misreading of his sources

the power of advertising

American Mania: When More Is Not Enough
Peter C. Whybrow
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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A Mood Apart: The Thinker's Guide to Emotion and Its Disorders

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Book Description

A doctor's bold analysis of the cultural disease that afflicts us all.

Despite an astonishing appetite for life, more and more Americans are feeling overworked and dissatisfied. In the world's most affluent nation, epidemic rates of stress, anxiety, depression, obesity, and time urgency are now grudgingly accepted as part of everyday existence—they signal the American Dream gone awry.

Peter C. Whybrow, director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA, grounds the extraordinary achievements and excessive consumption of the American nation in an understanding of the biology of the brain's reward system—offering for the first time a comprehensive and physical explanation for the addictive mania of consumerism. American Mania presents a clear and novel vantage point from which to understand the most pressing social issues of our time, while offering an informed approach to refocusing our pursuit of happiness. Drawing upon rich scientific case studies and colorful portraits, "this fascinating and important book will change the way you think about American life" (Karen Olson, Utne Reader).

Customer Reviews:

The book was great... but a little drawn out.......2007-08-31

"America is the riches country in the world but ranks only in the middle range among nations when it comes to happiness. Despite driving bigger cares, living longer than our parents in larger houses with more plumbing and with more food that we can (or should) eay, we are no happier. Our avowed national intent notwithstanding, the pursuit of happiness through material possession has proved to be illusive."

This is a quote from page 228 of the hardback edition. It summarizes the entire book rather well. I think this book is a must read for people who are heavy in debt as almost all such people are there because of an attempt to find happiness where happiness is not found. This books shows that very well. However, the reader will have to have the endurance to press through repetition and some wordy segments. I do feel that it's worth it.

Tom Carpenter, Author CWNA, CWSP, Wireless# Certification Official Study Guides.

Promising but puffed.......2006-12-30

I was drawn into reading this book as it promised to add interesting insights to a fascinating area: namely, contemporary culture and the human being's ability to keep pace with an accelerating society.
I have given a critical review, but I have also put some thought into it and would not have bothered unless I thought his ideas had potential.
The author has some worthwhile points to make in genetics, human biology, psychology, etc.
But ultimately I was left thinking about his ideas while wishing he had taken them further.

Specific aspects of his writing style frustrated his message.
He plasters his arguments with overly dramatic descriptors of modern cultural phenomena as if he is writing a press release.
"McDonald's steamrollering globalization" is typical of the sort of florid style that works to the detriment of his presentation, and he uses it throughout the book.

We should be presented with data in context. We might agree with his conclusions if we are allowed to compare apples with apples. For example, when talking about the decline of traditional jobs that offered lifetime employment, he states, "A 1999 study found that 21% of California workers had been in their jobs for more than 10 years." There is no benchmark given for this statistic (that is, how about previous years or decades? How about for other states? For the nation as a whole?). In the same paragraph he gives us another statistic about an alarming increase in bankruptcies. Supposedly this strengthens his findings of the perilous lot of the modern-day worker. I am not saying that I disagree with him. Just that if anything, it muddies rather than clarifies his argument to use these sensational statistics plucked from disparate sources and not presented in a cohesive and logical scheme. This happens all through the book. It suggests that he is trying to slant his comparisons to bolster his case, but surely if his case is good enough (and I have no reason to believe it isn't) he doesn't need to use these journalistic tactics.

That is a shame, because I do believe he has some excellent insights that could stand up to the cold hard light of day.
Perhaps if he had worked with a person having a certain statistical rigor as a collaborator/editor/critic, these weaknesses would not have diminished the impact of his message.

For me the worst aspect of the book is that he does not realize that the reader can remember. We get the same thing served up to us over and over throughout the book, as if we didn't get it the first time.

I was eager to read more of his thoughts on connections between genetics and societal patterns, or deeper analysis of the specific examples he cites so many times, or even wild speculative guesses.

He relates the sagas of a certain three Americans: a rat-race-refugee guru, a salt of the earth type, and a corporate victim. They could have been key in shedding light on the puzzle. But only Tom offers a couple of pages of suggestions, which really might have been photocopied out of a Zen Buddhist self-help manual from 1976. Peanut, the traditionalist, has no part to play in the future of America? He is only presented as an icon of "what was". Kim experienced the Mania and stepped back, for her own sanity, but what has she learned that adds to our understanding of a way forward? Their value as messengers seems limited - they are not "going anywhere".

Given his professional qualifications, I was looking for more. Perhaps a glimpse of how humans might cope in the future with the increasingly pressing challenges of modern life. It seems he is mostly a descriptive writer, however, and doesn't go into deep analysis despite the size of this book.

In a nutshell, he could have expressed the key ideas in a 10-page article.

--Murray J Og.

Excellent book written from a unique and powerful perspective.......2006-05-12

Peter Whybrow's book is well researched and offers a unique perspective on where we have arrived as culture within the last 250 years in terms of quality of life, peace, happiness and prosperity. He also explains how things have gone awry in regard to having too much of a good thing. In his argument, he draws on evolutionary biology, neurology, economics and many other resources. This book is well researched.

American Mania illustrates the personal and cultural problems that arise when our rate of technological advancement outpaces our ability to evolve. The bottom line is that mechanisms that once served us and helped us to survive become self destructive. For example, a craving for fats and sweet things was good 100,000 years ago, but not so good now when we have all kinds of food available to us all the time and lead more sedentary lifestyles.

This book is wonderful for looking the implication of all of the above within the individual and at the level of culture. It is great food for thought. It will help anyone who is looking for balance to put things in perspective and understand why we have a tendency to err in the directions that we so often do as individuals and as a society.

Misreading of his sources.......2006-04-25

I started this book with anticipation and the further I went the more disappointed I became. Whybrow makes an interesting arguement that Americans are slamming up against limits they refuse to recognize - biological limits like how much change the mind and body can absorb. He calls this the Fast Society and his argument builds upon earlier historians who noted the psychological effect of the closing of the frontier in the 1870's.

Whybrow's primary hypothesis, however, is that there is something GENETICALLY special about Americans because we are descended from restless people. He traces both innovation (good) and inability to handle limits (bad) to this genetic material.

There are two big problems with this thesis: First, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Australia, and Canada are all immigrant societies, too. For Whybrow's hypothesis to hold, they must also manifest these traits - irrespective of their political and social institutions. Whybrow does not think to ask.

Second, Whybrow quotes deTocqueville's Democracy in America at least three dozen times in defence of the special (genetically based) character of Americans. Yet deTocqueville's most passionate (and perhaps famous) chapter compares the people living on both sides of the Ohio River, in Ohio and Kentucky. Tocqueville notes that these are ethnically the very same people - often closely related, yet the two societies differed drastically with respect to innovation, industriousness, independence and initiative. He was disturbed by the slovenly habits of Kentuckians, their disdain for work, their lack of initiative or enterprise.

From this observation, deTocqueville argued that slave-owning was profoundly enervating and corrupting, even of the vast majority who owned no slaves. That Ohio and other parts of America owed their creativity and restless energy to democracy itself - and that the slave-owning south was not completely democratic, but stunted.

This is one of DeTocqueville's most famous arguments and it directly contradicts Whybrow's hypothesis. Whybrow never confronts this. After awhile I started to wonder if he really had read DeTocqueville, or whether some graduate student was supplying him with quotes.

Finally, Whybrow appears unfamiliar with previous (famous) critics of the soul-destroying aspects of American society - Whyte's Organization Man and Roszak's Where the Wasteland Ends come to mind.

the power of advertising.......2006-01-31

Whybrow looks at the affluent society of the United States. And various key properties of it. Like how many of the middle class have large debts, by spending more than they earn. Whereas the rich often have little debt, and the poor are unlikely to be able to borrow much. This low savings rate by the majority of Americans in recent years is comparable only to 1932 and 33, in the depths of the Great Depression. So why such low savings now, in a time of seeming prosperity?

This is attributed to social pressure. To keep up a lifestyle that is heavily advertised and shown as that of the wealthy. Even though, objectively, the average American is much better off than counterparts of decades ago.

Another aspect studied in the book is the increasing obesity rates of Americans. Due to fewer jobs with physical requirements. And also to food companies ramping up their servings and the flavourings of these servings. Plus schools reducing physical education classes.

Whybrow ties these and other trends together, in an impressive analysis of American trends, that is somewhat disturbing. The book can be read in part as a backhanded tribute to the efficacy of American advertising. There are other causes of the trends, as mentioned above. But advertising is a major reason.

Diagnosing a manic society: an eminent bio-behavioral scientist explains what our hectic, work-and-spend American culture has done to us and what we can ... An article from: Saturday Evening Post

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Diagnosing a manic society: an eminent bio-behavioral scientist explains what our hectic, work-and-spend American culture has done to us and what we can ... An article from: Saturday Evening Post

Manufacturer: Saturday Evening Post Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000ALUVOE
Release Date: 2005-07-25

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Saturday Evening Post, published by Saturday Evening Post Society on July 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1699 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: Diagnosing a manic society: an eminent bio-behavioral scientist explains what our hectic, work-and-spend American culture has done to us and what we can do about it.(American Mania: When More Is Not Enough)(Book Review)
Publication: Saturday Evening Post (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2005
Publisher: Saturday Evening Post Society
Volume: 277 Issue: 4 Page: 10(4)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

Computer chess programs traditionally have been subject to a tradeoff between search speed and chess knowledge. All the Right Moves presents a parallel architecture that makes this tradeoff irrelevant: using the VLSI architecture described in this book, the Hitech chess program is able to search both quickly and knowledgeably. Hitech recently won the ACM computer chess championship, and now owns a USCF rating of 2532, placing it in the top one percent of all rated U.S. chess players.

The book describes a VLSI implementation for both move generation and position evaluation. The VLSI move generator searches about 200,000 moves per second and includes all the ancillary circuitry required for it to interface cleanly with the rest of the system. The speed of the move generator is independent of the number of legal moves in a position, and the speed of the evaluation depends only logarithmically on the amount of knowledge encoded in the evaluation. In practice, this means that the amount of analysis performed by the evaluation does not slow the speed of the search.

Beyond the VLSI architecture, Ebeling also describes the other Hitech hardware and software, and presents a performance analysis of Hitech as a whole.

Hitech already has had a revolutionary effect on computer chess, the impact of which is discussed in the book's final chapter.

Contents: Introduction. Background and Related Work. The Move Generator Architecture. Position Evaluation. The Hitech System. Performance Results. Conclusion.

Carl Ebeling is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Washington, Seattle. All the Right Moves is a 1986 ACM Distinguished Dissertation.

All the right moves: a VLSI architecture for chess

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All the right moves: a VLSI architecture for chess
Carl Ebeling
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQAKLY

Getting Rich Your Own Way: Achieve All Your Financial Goals Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible
Average customer rating:

INSPIRING AND MOTIVATING! MUST READ!

Old School Planning

Helpful In It's Own Way

great book

Wealth Building advice from a man who knows.

Getting Rich Your Own Way: Achieve All Your Financial Goals Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible
Brian Tracy
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

"Save yourself ten years of hard work. Read Brian's powerful book and let him show you the shortcut to success. He'll show you the fastest way for you to get rich."
-Robert Allen bestselling author, Multiple Streams of Income

"Millions of people start with nothing and become wealthy as the result of doing certain things in a certain way, over and over again. This book by Brian Tracy shows you how you can achieve all your financial goals, starting from wherever you are today."
-Jack Canfield coauthor, Chicken Soup for the Soul(r) series and The Success Principles

"This is the only book you need to read to become wealthy! It is loaded with practical ideas and strategies to propel you onwards and upwards."
-Nido Qubein Chairman, Great Harvest Bread Company, and founder, National Speakers Association Foundation

"Another great book from Brian Tracy. Tangible, practical ideas that will make you money and make you rich!"
-Bill Bachrach President, Bachrach & Associates, Inc.

"Brian Tracy has put together a masterpiece of common sense for getting rich. If you wish a different life, commit now to different actions-read this book!"
-H. J. (Jim) Graham President and CEO, Cyber Broadcast One, Inc.

"Brian Tracy shows you how unlimited wealth starts in the mind, and how anyone can focus their time and energy to earn millions. It's the readable, riveting primer for countless new American fortunes."
-Peter Montoya CEO, Peter Montoya Inc.

Download Description

How to get rich from the author of the BusinessWeek bestseller Create Your Own Future

The strategies, techniques, and methods for achieving financial independence practiced by more than 95 percent of Americans who go from rags to riches in one generation-from the author of the BusinessWeek bestseller Create Your Own Future.

Getting Rich Your Own Way shows you how to reach your financial goals, starting from wherever you are, and in any situation. This book outlines and explains practical, proven, fast-acting processes and principles that have been used by men and women throughout America and across the world to move from financial frustration to success and affluence.

This is the most complete and comprehensive approach to wealth building ever put down in a single book. Getting Rich Your Own Way starts at the beginning and shows people how to get out of debt and start building a financial account. The reader then learns how millions of affluent people have achieved their financial goals through entrepreneurship, real estate, stock market investing, successful careers and professions, and selling. The reader learns how to start wherever he/she is, move ahead more rapidly in his/her job, and begin accumulating the financial means necessary to springboard into wealth in one generation.

Brian Tracy (Solana Beach, CA) is the Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a consulting and training organization based in Solana Beach, California. He has made more than one million dollars in seven different industries, including sales, marketing, distribution, importation, training, real estate development, and the Internet. He addresses more than 250,000 people each year on subjects such as business and personal success, sales and sales management, leadership, creativity, and personal effectiveness. Tracy is also the author of the top selling Wiley books Create Your Own Future (0-471-25107-0) and Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life (0-471-44858-3).

Customer Reviews:

INSPIRING AND MOTIVATING! MUST READ!.......2007-05-02

Brian Tracy is a truly great teacher! He patiently teaches people how to think right, to start doing things right and to start forming habits that will make them a money magnet.

I read the book and listen to the audio tapes and I can relate to the experience from being poor and broke to being rich and significant that Brian Tracy shares in his book.

There are so many things that people who live in American take for granted. The United States is the land for the free and the brave, and for those people who are willing to change, take risks, and take courageous steps to change their financial life, financial freedom is something that most people can achieve if they are not lazy!

The principals and teachings that Brian Tracy teaches are must learned skills and principals that will help many Americans to make a difference in their financial life!

This book is a great investment to buy. Thank you Brian Tracy!

Old School Planning.......2007-02-26

This book is very well written and someone with a highschool education can use the money saving concepts in their current job, to secure their future tomorrow. It's all about taking you back to the basics of retirement planning! If you think about how your parents worked, saved, retired, this book gives you the "inspiration" that you can create a nest egg in todays world, and you can retire equal or better than you lived.

Brain talks about success stories and examples of how people achieved financial security while only holding mid to low paying jobs. If you make a middle to low income, it will show you how pennys today can secure your future tomorrow!

Never think that you are below others based on your occupation. You can read how a janitor or disabled person and retire without worry when they come of age.

I hope you enjoy it, I found it inspiring!

Helpful In It's Own Way.......2007-02-02

Brian Tracey is an incredible man who started off with nothing. Several of his tapes and books are very helpful and specific. In this book many of the topics, tips, and advice given in "Getting Rich Your Own Way" are known already by those who dabble into this genre of books from time to time. But this piece by Brian Tracey does shed light on proven points, and it's a good motivational book to remind us that we're in control of our lives and should be proactive. These concepts are worth remembering and implementing. This book is helpful, informative, and encouraging. Again however, for this field of books, there isn't a lot of new information for those who've read this stuff previously. And, like many American books covering investing, financial independence, and success topics, the word "rich" is often in the title. Also note the terms "easy" and "fast" in the titles of these books. Just look at the top 100 bestsellers.

Here is one example of the numerous pieces of advice: when buying raw land consider the transportation possibilities in the future. Expanding suburbs and edge cities, highway arteries, school districts, etc.) This is common sense and can be found on the internet doing a search in 4.9 seconds.

on the up-side one topic I like is Tracy's coverage of "time perception." Studies show that there is a difference of time perception (looking ahead) among different socio-economic and professional groups. Some groups of people tend to have time horizons of about two weeks. Planning for the future is more difficult for these groups and they usually end up in difficult and/or dire circumstances as a consequence of a myopic mentality.

"Getting Rich your own Way" at times focuses on the forest, not the trees. These tid-bits of common sense can embolden the attitudes of the working and middle class so they can attempt a change or two, as they run on the "treadmill of life." Many of the upbeat and optimistic themes can help these classes in debt and motivate some to make changes, or plan better.

This book can be helpful to those who want to do positive things. One idea to save and focus on the future is to find the cheaper paperback version. :) It's now available.

great book .......2006-08-13

This is one more great book of Brian and it open your mind .

Wealth Building advice from a man who knows........2005-11-21

If you really believe that you have to be born rich or that the rich have some special benefits unavailable to you or I, think again. Brian Tracy is a perfect example. Here is a man who started off dead broke, dropped out of high school, had no skills to speak off and still achieved incredible success.

Brian Tracy started off as a dishwasher! Then he went on to straight commission door to door sales barely getting by. And Brian Tracy is the first to tell you that if he could do it, so can you.

In this book, Tracy moves away from his usual sales and motivation and into wealth building. You will learn about precious metals and other investments. You will learn how to use Brians 100 homes strategy to become a successful real estate investor. You will learn how to profitably and successfully start your own business. You will learn how to use the internet. Brian even explains how a retarded boy could become a millionaire by simply investing in savings bonds.

My favorite chapter is chapter 4-How To Start With Nothing. I let my son read this chapter and he quickly devoured the rest of the book as well. He is now exploring his options when he graduates in 2006.

Geting Rich Your Own Way is probably the best wealth book since Charles Givens wrote Wealth Without Risk and Financial Self DeFense. There is something for everybody in here. Perhaps Brians best book to date. Also recommend Rich Dad Poor Dad and Cash Flow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki.

Customer Reviews:

TAP! BY RUSTY E. FRANK.......2006-08-20

I total am ejoying this book. Being a dancer my self it is wonderful reading about all the dancers during my time. Thank you so much Mr. Frank.

get this, think about the rest later.......2001-09-25

when this book used to be out of print, legions of ambitous tap dancers - including myself - were searching used-book stores across the country to find a copy. i know some who ended up copying every single page in the lincoln center library. the reason is very simple: there is no other book on the subject that even comes close to gathering this much information on the history of tap dancing. even though historians may argue about some details, the book is usually considered the standard by all the tap pros i know and whoever reads it will have a good understanding of where the art form comes from, what the important issues are, what stages of development tap dancing went through, who the important dancers of different times and styles were, and what the characteristics of different styles and approaches in tap dance are. if you want to know about the history of tap: get this book. otherwise you will find yourself digging through the shelves of rare book stores when it is out of print again.

Great teaching tool.......2000-12-01

This is a fantastic book! In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I made my college advanced tap class read it, as well. They were truly inspired by this book and have gained a renewed since of determination as far as entering the field of "commercial entertainment" with an emphasis on tap. Each person has a truly unique account of how it was back in the day, when people actually went to "tap clubs" just like we would go to dance clubs nowadays. What an experience to see this exciting time through their eyes.

Not just for tap dancers!.......2000-01-05

This book is wonderfully written with first-hand accounts about show business during the first half of the 1900's. It is not just for tap dancers, but for anyone interested in getting a feel for the way of life during that period. The amount of information I learned about vaudeville, movie musicals, and even black history in America is much more than I expected when I picked up this book. I would highly recommend it to anyone!

Read!!!!.......1999-06-29

I just dont understand why tap dancing is disapearing it is the most intruiging type of dance i have ever taken and am still taking...hoping to go pro someday since i am only a teen. To make a long story short this book and it's amazing Gregory Hines has inspired me to go for my dreams, and to keep tap dancing alive.

Tap: The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories, 1900-1955

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Tap: The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories, 1900-1955
Rusty E. Frank
Manufacturer: W. Morrow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JWWXP4

Book Description

The studies in this book examine and illuminate the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman military institutions that supported and shaped the conduct of war in northwestern Europe in the central middle ages. Taken together they challenge received opinion on a number of issues and force a profound reconsideration of the manner in which the Normans and their adversaries, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Angevins and the Welsh, prepared for and waged war.Contributors: RICHARD ABELS, BERNARD BACHRACH, KELLY DEVRIES, JOHN FRANCE, C.M. GILLMOR, ROBERT HELMERICHS, NIELS LUND, STEPHEN MORILLO, MICHAEL PRESTWICH, FREDERICK SUPPE.Contents RICHARD ABELS, From Alfred to Harold II: The Military Failure of the Late Anglo-Saxon State; BERNARD S. BACHRACH, William Rufus's Plan for the Invasion of Aquitaine; KELLY DEVRIES, Harold Godwinson in Wales: Military Legitimacy in Late Anglo-Saxon England; JOHN FRANCE, The Normans and Crusading; C.M. GILLMORE, Aimoin's Miracula Sancti Germani and the Viking Raids on St Denis and St Germain-des-Prés; ROB HELMERICHS, 'Ad tutandos patriae fines': The Defense of Normandy, 1135; NILS LUND, Expedicio in Denmark; STEPHEN MORILLO, Milites, Knights and Samurai: Military Terminology, Comparative History, and the Problem of Translation; MICHAEL PRESTWICH, The Garrisoning of English Medieval Castles; FREDERICK SUPPE, The Persistance of Castle-Guard in the Welsh Marches and Wales: Suggestions for a Research Agenda and Methodology.

Book Description

In this classic analysis, Leo Strauss pinpoints what is original and innovative in the political philosophy of Thomas Hobbes. He argues that Hobbes's ideas arose not from tradition or science but from his own deep knowledge and experience of human nature. Tracing the development of Hobbes's moral doctrine from his early writings to his major work The Leviathan, Strauss explains contradictions in the body of Hobbes's work and discovers startling connections between Hobbes and the thought of Plato, Thucydides, Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, and Hegel.

Customer Reviews:

a note on latin.......2006-07-05

I just want to note that quotations from Latin in this book are left untranslated so if you are not familiar with this language, a scholarly reading may require additonal work on your part.

Know Your Hobbes.......2003-05-22

Leo Strauss, in his first printed work, does a superb job of distilling Hobbes essential ideas on man. By showing us the educational background of Hobbes and the philosophers he read Strauss, shows how Hobbes comes to believe that "man acts out of fear of death". The preservation of life is the primary goal of man in the "Hobbesean" world. "Vanity is the force that makes men blind, fear is the force which makes men see".

Strauss points out that Hobbes started out as a classical political philosopher who was influenced by his readings of Aristotle and Plato. Not until Hobbes was forty years old and he discovered the works of Euclid did Hobbes move away from the "humanist" view to a more "scientific" approach to political philosophy. Euclid teaches Hobbes that politics must have a philosophy; it can't just be studied through history. Hobbes criticism of Aristotle and historism was; "that the historian takes the great as his standard, while the philosopher is concerned with the right and true". Hobbes is the first to see clearly between "right" and "law" the state is founded on the "right" "law" is a mere consequence. Strauss points out that, "Hobbes becomes the first philosopher to realize that politics can be raised to the rank of science".

This book is not an easy read for the casual reader but is essential for one to understand the concept of political philosophy.

Strauss before Strauss.......2000-06-23

I read somewhere that Strauss carried this book in a water-tight container when he crossed the channel to England so that, even if the ship went down, his work would survive. However that may be, it is the rare opportunity to see Strauss genuinely struggle with a problem. The prevailing opinion, I am told, is that Hobbes' science, or the discovery of Galileo's analytic-synthetic method, was the origin of Hobbes political philosophy (the analysis of the prevailing order (state of nature), the synthesis or construction of a new order (Leviathan)). Strauss makes the convincing argument that not the scientific method, but instead Aristotelian humanism (in particular, the anthropology of the Rhetoric) was the "source" for Hobbes' Staatslehre. Central to this is a critique of aristocratism, and the aristocratic valorization of courage. Not courage but cowardice and the fear of death is the ruling passion of the Hobbesian bourgeois (if Bloom learned anything from Strauss, it was that). In particular, Hobbes borrowed from the Rhetoric the treatment of anger, in which the most asocial human passion is the desire for revenge (and justice). Strauss later repudiated (in Natural Right) the argument against Hobbes scientism, but the point was made.

Political Philosophy of Hobbes: Its Basis and Its Genesis.

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Political Philosophy of Hobbes: Its Basis and Its Genesis.
Leo Strauss
Manufacturer: Publisher Unknown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UYCBDU

The Political Philosophy of (Thomas) Hobbes: Its Basis and Its Genesis

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The Political Philosophy of (Thomas) Hobbes: Its Basis and Its Genesis
Leo Strauss
Manufacturer: The University of Chicago Press/Phoenix Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PGF81K

Customer Reviews:

Well researched, detailed and illustrated.......2003-07-29

This is a well researched, thorough, incitefull read for those interested in the Lehigh Valley. The illustrations, Cameo appearances and data tables all flow nicely and fully enhance the standard text. The narrative is complete but not complex and easy to follow for even the non science types. The history section was interesting and complete. I recommend this book to all interested parties.

The Lehigh Valley A Natural and Environmental History

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The Lehigh Valley A Natural and Environmental History
Robert/ Oplinger, Carl S. Halma
Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OR3AHE

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The Lehigh Valley: A Natural and Environmental History
Robert; Oplinger, Carl S. Halma
Manufacturer: Pennsylvania State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OR70RA

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