SOROS: The Life, Times, and Trading Secrets of the World's Greates Investor

Average customer rating:

THIS BOOK IS AWFUL

Soros was convicted of insider trading in 2002

An interesting story book, but not for trading

No many secrets to be shared....

Primer of Thought

SOROS: The Life, Times, and Trading Secrets of the World's Greates Investor
Robert Slater
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0786303611

Book Description

Since 1969, the financial world has been charting the meteoric rise of master investor and hedge fund king George Soros. The methods and tactics he has used to reach the zenith of an industry more often littered with catastrophic loss than paved with golden success have for years been Soros' most carefully guarded secret. Now, renown biographer and Time reporter Robert Slater uncovers the brillian techniques and remarkable insights that have led to the phonomenal success of this Hungarian-born investment titan--and separates the truth from the mystery and exaggerations that surround him. Also revealed: How George Soros rose from modest beginnings to become the most powerful investor in the world; Details of the United States goverment's investigation into George Soros' enourmous influence over world financial markets; George Soros' dream of bringing political reform, education, prosperity, and hope to underdeveloped nations in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and around the world through his philantropic Soros Foundation.

Customer Reviews:

THIS BOOK IS AWFUL.......2004-06-02

This book was a complete waste of money. Dr Seuss could have written better finance non-fiction.

Soros' biggest coup was his billion dollar + profit on the pound - he runs through the story in lightening speed with very little explanation or technicals of the mechanics. No insight. Very bad.

Soros was convicted of insider trading in 2002.......2004-05-24

Being a "great" investors is pretty easy if you know how to cheat. Soros was convicted in December 2002 for insider trading in Societe Generale stock.

An interesting story book, but not for trading.......2003-07-18

Although quite out of date, this is the most interesting amongst all other bibliographies of Soros I ever read. This could be attributed to that the author could not get direct info from Soros or his associates at all. Without the burden of returning any favor, the author could quote whatever and whoever (some ex Soros partners) he liked, particularly criticisms, which were the most interesting parts of the book. Other parts, like how Soros broke the Bank of England, how he identified with his Hungarian Jewish identity, how he failed to become a philospher and turned into a trader, should be good enough to satisfy most readers' curiosity on the early part (on or before 1994) of Soro's life. For those traders who want to know the trading secrets, go somewhere else.

p.s. As a trader, I still would like to quote something from the book for my fellows' reference:-

1. Page 60: What Soros understood better than most were the cause and effect relationships in the world's economies. If A happened, that B must follow, then C after that.

2. Page 83: The stock market is always wrong, so that if you copy everybody else on Wall Street, you're doomed to do poorly.

3. Page 85: In 1979, Soros renamed his fund...Quantum Fund, in tribute to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics. That principle asserts that it is impossible to predict the behavior of subatomic particples in quantum mechanics, an idea that meshed with Soros's conviction that markets were always in a state of uncertainty and flux that it was possible to make money by discounting the obvious, and betting on the unexpected.

4. Page 92: Soros always says that you shouldnt be in the market unless you are willing to take the pain.

5. Page 110: Short term volatility is greatest at turning points and diminishes as a trend becomes established.

6. Page 159: It is not whether you are right or wrong, but how much money you make when you are right and how much money you lose when you are wrong....If you have tremendous conviction on a trade you have to go for the jugular.It takes courage to be a pig. It takes courage to ride a profit with huge leverage.... When you right on something, you cant own enough.

No many secrets to be shared...........2000-07-24

The author seams try to hide the little information he was able to gather from outside the Soros's circle with a poetic writing about his rise to be a "Master of the Universe". But the fact remain that the book give only a very superficial idea about Soros and for sure do not address the big question about him: "Devil's Master of Globalization or Saint of a New Economy?"

Primer of Thought.......2000-06-01

This book helps decipher the code of a great speculator. Financiers like Soros help keep the financial and economical mkt mesh in sync. Recent news on the dismantling of his Quantum (largest hedge fund in the world) and Quota funds has many on the street bewildered about his authority, but it should be understood that Soros publicly announced about two years ago that he no longer meddled in any of the funds' investments. This is a good book that explains the why's of a worldly speculator.

Book Description

What's so bad about being married to a coach? Mary Lou Podlasiak boldly, but playfully, reveals how the "women behind the men" really feel. Whether you are dating a coaching fanatic, or have spent half of your existence married to one, the stories and insight within will no doubt change the way you feel about yourself. (Unless, of course, you are already feeling good!)

Filled with warm memories, as well as a minefield of topics, the primary focus is aimed at turning frustration into empowerment. Read about the events that have led the author, and other seasoned wives, to look beyond the annoyances and view their situations as nothing less than wonderfully life-affirming.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful tribute to assistant coaches!.......2004-07-16

This is an incredible tribute to coaches and their wives that are involved with Little League programs, junior high sports, and jay-vee teams. The author has captured perfectly the emotional turmoil endured when most people think that people involved at this level do not have any stress!

Yes, the book is halarious, but I cried tears of joy at times knowing that someone understands how involved the entire staff becomes with the kids, and the hurt that others inflict upon them thinking that they're in an easy position. Varsity coaches and their wives are not the only people who have problems! In fact, I think the rest of the staff has it worse because they never get any of the glory that the head coach gets, but the author does a beautiful job of recognizing that.

Coach Dan.......2004-05-24

I highly recommend "It's only a game..." as a soothing balm for any coach who has endured season(s)of criticism from parents, fans, school administrators, and school board members. The books tells how to handle the criticism while focusing on the real payoff for coaching: the kids. Its a "Mr. Holland's Opus" for coaches.

Been There Done That.......2004-04-29

A "must" book for every coach's wife. This book makes you realize that you are not the only one going through the trials of being a coach's wife. Being a coach's daughter and a coach's wife I thought I had heard and seen it all!!! If Mary Lou decides to write a sequel to this book I hope she interviews me-I have plenty of stories.

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WWW. What's next: e-learning: do you remember what life was like before e-mail? Do you remember when e-mail first entered your life, and how fast it emerged ... : An article from: Franchising World
Gary A. LaBranche
Manufacturer: International Franchise Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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ASIN: B0009FQBIG
Release Date: 2005-07-30

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Franchising World, published by International Franchise Association on July 1, 2002. The length of the article is 2105 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: WWW. What's next: e-learning: do you remember what life was like before e-mail? Do you remember when e-mail first entered your life, and how fast it emerged as a vital method of daily communication? Can you imagine a workday without e-mail today? (Education And Training).(Statistical Data Included)
Author: Gary A. LaBranche
Publication: Franchising World (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2002
Publisher: International Franchise Association
Volume: 34 Issue: 5 Page: 52(3)

Article Type: Statistical Data Included

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Average customer rating:

Bor-ing
Great look at the highest of techology: then, now and again.

Do You Remember Technology?
Michael Gitter , Erika Glazer , and Sylvie Anapol
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0811827720

Book Description

Remember the cell phones that weighed enough to serve double duty as a bludgeon? What about the first time you saw an Apple IIsi, or heard the THX sound check? And who could forget the inimitable hiss and whirr of an 8-track loading up? The ultranostalgic team behind Do You Remember TV? is ready to take you back on another sentimental road trip down memory lane with their latest, Do You Remember Technology? You'll find it complete with the smart-aleck sensibility, eye popping design, and trademark visual puns that sold over 100,000 copies of their first two books. In this one, we see the technological world of yesterday that has become the glamorous and successful belle of the millenium ball. Get ready to revisit the laughable roots of today's wizardry and reminisce over doohickey's of decades past when Pong was a gnarly challenge, 0.7734 viewed upside down on a calculator cracked you up, and vacations was a time when you couldn't be contacted. Do you Remember Technology? is a must have for everyone from media junkies and web slaves to those who yearn for the good old days of typewriters and rotary phones.

Customer Reviews:

Bor-ing.......2003-07-25

This is nothing but a bunch of photographs from the 70's thrown together. You can surf the web and find more interesting (and in-depth) information on everything in this book. What a waste.

Great look at the highest of techology: then, now and again........2000-07-29

I had many giggles, smirks, and even flinches looking at the pictures and quick blurbs and comparisons of the latest and greatest from then, now, and again. It's a great conversation piece to have in any techs or folks house/office. Nothing betters displays, compares, and organizes time like the "dancing baby" of today with the all mighty Radio Shack TRS-80 graphics, or the first of Star Trek to the new StarTAC. Do you remember? You might want to preserve it! Golly and Phat---it will always be neat to look at...

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Do You Remember Technology?

ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0641558147

Product Description

Remember the cell phones that weighed enough to serve double duty as a bludgeon? What about the first time you saw an Apple IIsi, or heard the THX sound check? And who could forget the inimitable hiss and whirr of an 8-track loading up? The ultranostalgic team behind Do You Remember TV? is ready to take you back on another sentimental road trip down memory lane with their latest, Do You Remember Technology? You'll find it complete with the smart-aleck sensibility, eye popping design, and trademark visual puns that sold over 100,000 copies of their first two books. In this one, we see the technological world of yesterday that has become the glamorous and successful belle of the millenium ball. Get ready to revisit the laughable roots of today's wizardry and reminisce over doohickey's of decades past-when Pong was a gnarly challenge, 0.7734 viewed upside down on a calculator cracked you up, and vacations was a time when you couldn't be contacted. Do you Remember Technology? is a must have for everyone from media junkies and web slaves to those who yearn for the good old days of typewriters and rotary phones.

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Great instructional games but very silly quizzes

Excellent Method for Total Chess Training

Multiple Choice Chess II (Everyman Chess)
Graeme Buckley
Manufacturer: Everyman Chess
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Chess | Board Games | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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Multiple Choice Chess

Test Your Chess with Daniel King

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Silman's Complete Endgame Course: From Beginner To Master

How Good Is Your Chess? (Chess)

ASIN: 1857443098

Book Description

Players can use this book to determine if they are realising their chess potential and performing to the best of their capabilities. With instructive chess games, International Master Graeme Buckley repeatedly poses the question ‘What would you do here?’ Readers are invited to step into a grandmaster’s shoes; work out all the relevant tactics and strategies of the game; and select a move out of a possible four choices. A scoring system has been devised which can assess playing strength according to the answers provided. It’s as simple as that!

*Written by an experienced chess teacher
*Each instructive game carefully selected
*A sure way to increase playing strength

Customer Reviews:

Great instructional games but very silly quizzes.......2006-09-03

This book is disappointing.

It contains 20 very instructional games, but:
1) the format chosen (4 options for every move, except where there are less legal moves) is too rigid for considering the candidate moves;
2) often the author puts silly moves among the choices, and sometimes does not include moves that appears to be valid candidates;
3) the winning side moves are ALWAYS granted the highest score. This implies that the winner of the game never made an error and never chose an inferior move, wich, of course, can not be;
4) errors and slips of the winner (and also those of the loser) are not pointed by the author.

So:
- the book has limited validity for testing your chess
- it is not adequate as an annotated games collection

For those willing to test their chess I recommend the book by Zenon Franco Ocampos - Chess Self-Improvement and also the books of Daniel King (Test Your Chess with Daniel King; How Good is Your Chess?).

addendum sept. 4, 2006:
The single star rating is a mouse slip.
My intended rate was between 2 and 3 stars.
Sorry but I am not allowed to change the initial rating

Excellent Method for Total Chess Training .......2006-02-14

Elsewhere on this site I gave a five-star review of "Multiple Choice Chess," for which the present book is the sequel. The format and content are very similar, and accordingly I give this my full recommendation, referring the shopper to the earlier review for further details. Both are wonderful training tools for club players, and I have used them myself. Only one small complaint about this volume - near the beginning there is a string of ten consecutive games where the reader takes the role of the Black pieces; it would have been nice to have some White games mixed in.

Let me add a pitch for studying game collections such as this one. Over the past few years, intensive tactical study has become the cliche of the amateur chess player. While the study of tactics is indeed important and rewarding, sometimes other worthwhile aspects of the game get shortchanged - particularly endgames, and positional play (okay, openings have never lacked attention). For those players who have become dizzy from repeatedly cranking through Reinfeld or CT-Art, here is an opportunity to integrate your new tactical vision with positional thinking in the context of complete games. The move-by-move commentary is almost like having a live Grandmaster there coaching you during a match. You'll pick up a deeper understanding and appreciation of this magnificent game. Someday, while your opponents are playing for cheap combinatorial tricks, you'll strangle them with your masterful accumulation of small advantages.

When you're done with both of these books by Buckley, get Daniel King's "Test Your Chess" for the next level of training.

Book Description

The Wizard shares the secrets of business persuasion that are taught at his renowned Academy.

Customer Reviews:

Review by Irene Watson, author of "The Sitting Swing.".......2005-11-12

What can I say? Having the opportunity to take a workshop faciliated by Roy Williams, I am enthralled with not only the presentation but how he is able to articulate the information into book form and make it fun. It's not too often you get to read a "technique" book and it's fun at the same time. Williams did it in this book.

MorRifkie.......2003-01-01

What is branding? How do people really remember you? How do you build your brand? This book gets back to the basics. There really is a magical formula. For you. For your company.

I bought this book because it was different. It disagreed with everything I had previously learned. This book can change the way you think. Forever. My mind turns in a completely new direction. Seeing things from a complete new angle. How can anybody pass up such an opportunity?

Need Help Understanding Advertising/.......2002-12-25

Perfect for the entrapreneur or business person who is trying to get a handle on advertising expenses. Tells you how to increase the effectiveness of your ad campaigns and explains how to write ads that work. It will definately help you coach your ad reps and get you thinking about what your point of sale difference may be- whatever business you're in. A must have along with the entire set!

Thought Provoking But Not A "Step By Step" Guide.......2002-12-25

This book requires the reader/entrepreneur to invest more than just time to extract true value from the book. It requires the reader to analyze, understand and then apply Mr. William's seemingly random stream of thoughts and ideas to his or her own venture. Perhaps the best description of the book is that it is an anecodotal collection of marketing concepts and essays that loosely portray the author's own creative philosophies and illuminate his thoughts about success, business and competition. Though it lacks the revelatory tenor of a Vonnegut novel it's use of extremely short "Chapters" is reminiscent of that sort of work but in a wholly non-fictional way (if that is possible).

On the upside, the short narratives allow the reader to take in small concepts at a time and then use those concepts to let the thought process wash over him. Used in that fashion, the book can be a fountainhead of inspiration.

On the downside, not everyone who reads the book can muster that type of creative energy and ability and then the book is nothing more than a collection of short stories and essays.

Magical Thinking.......2002-12-24

As a graduate of the "Wizard Academy", I can vouch for Roy Williams: he is a masterful, charismatic speaker. The dark side, though, is that Roy respects scholarship only slightly more than he respects his followers. Roy talks about brain chemistry, but has no training in medicine or psychology. He talks about quantum physics, but never graduated college. His method of self-teaching is the purchasing of many volumes that he skims in search of support (however tenuous) for conclusions he's already arrived at.

Roy is charismatic, yes, but then so are most con artists. What he preaches is pure bunk, overlaid with a good deal of pseudo-sophistication and "mysticism"! Oooh! On the other hand, if this is your cup of tea, Roy pours it better than most.

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The Odyssey Redux, by a Homer from Harlem

Bold, Eloquent and Informative

A True Cross-Section of American Society

Chasing America: Notes from a Rock 'n' Soul Integrationist
Dennis Watlington
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
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Innocent Soldier

New Boy New Boy

ASIN: 0312271891
Release Date: 2006-01-24

Book Description

Born in Harlem in 1952, Dennis Watlington has been walking a tightrope his entire life. At the age of 14, after bouncing in and out of various schools, Dennis got addicted to heroin. But instead of being another one trick pony of victimization, Dennis kicked his habit and received a scholarship to the Hotchkiss School, where he was elected president of his class. He then went to NYU, grew out his afro and became a different kind of Bleecker Street hippiepart Panther and part Walrus. Playing against type his whole life, Dennis became involved in film and theater, got addicted to crack, kicked that, and finally pulled it together to become an Emmy winning television writer. And thats just a thin, thin slice of this mans story. Chasing America shows us the best and worst that America offers to a black manfrom the Jim Crow South to boarding school life in New England to backstage at the Fillmore East to a holding cell in Bellevue Hospital.

Customer Reviews:

The Odyssey Redux, by a Homer from Harlem.......2006-07-13

They say a cat has nine lives. This cat, Dennis Watlington, has had many more. Chasing America recounts the raw, riveting odyssey of this angry, able, and ultimately angelic black youth from the depths to the heights, then to the depths, then to the heights again. Watlington's personal evolution embodies so much more than one man's rightful due from the American race revolution.

I remember Dennis. Who could forget him? We crossed paths at Hotchkiss. I was from pathetically suburban Ho-Ho-Kus. He was up--way up--from menacingly urban Harlem. Hotchkiss then was all male, almost all white, and altogether remote from the "real world". It was the '60s, an energetic, earnest time. Although an entrenched part of The Establishment, Hotchkiss wanted to do better. It wanted to integrate. The mandarin trustees of Hotchkiss were in the hunt for how, armed with good intentions.

Thanks to their implausible efforts, into our wide-well, patch-madras world dropped this hulking, seething, throbbing man-boy. As Dennis wonderfully recounts in his book, his enrollment was the brainchild of Hotchkiss Trustee Bill Brokaw, a big-time Wall Street stockbroker from Greenwich. As a reasonably successful product of inner-city youth programs, Dennis somehow caught Brokaw's eye. Brokaw first saw in Dennis what we all came to know in him: presence, depth, daring, determination, charisma, and charm.

Did Brokaw really know what he was getting? We callow schoolboys suspected a dark romantic past. But hardly did we know what Dennis confesses to being before donning the tweed jacket: street hustler, gang member, heroin addict, violent criminal. And there he was at... Hotchkiss? With an even more sinister side-kick, the sly yet soulful late Noel Velasquez! Dennis' description of the chasm between the Innocents in Lakeville and these Vulcans from the cauldron of New York is delicious to read--and remember.

After Hotchkiss (where he was elected Senior Class president!) Dennis went a way we supposed he should. Himself a living art form, he entered the world of arts as a producer, director, and (now) writer. He has done well in all three, as his Emmy award and certainly this book attest. Yet Dennis again descended into Hell, when he became a crack addict, nearly causing him to lose everything--including his iconoclastic wife Ann, the daughter of a hard-bitten Irish American cop (who became fiercely loyal to his unlikely son-in-law).

Characteristically, Dennis dug deep yet again, connecting with old friends and drawing from his formidable reserves to turn himself around. Through his many oscillations he has lived richly, if often raw. From such a life both terrific and treacherous, he learned to embrace and trust the world, and then to come humbly to terms with his own racial conscience.

As he headlines in his book, he has now in his five score years transitioned from black, to gray, to white. But don't be dismayed: this cat ain't now no pathetically suburban white-boy wannabe. Dennis Watlington offers us an authentic voice of a reflective, intelligent, once hateful, now humble fellow life traveler with a well seasoned point of view. He is one of God's rare miracles, for which I give thanks to have been graced to behold.

Bold, Eloquent and Informative.......2006-06-01

Dennis Watlington's Chasing America: Notes from a Rock 'n' Soul Integrationist is a classic memoir.

In defining and descriptive detail, Dennis Watlington shares his pain, struggles, joys and experiences in a very personable and candid nature.

You're walking with him as he walks the dark, creepy and active streets of Harlem NY during and after the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

This memoir raises the bar for such insight and storytelling.

It is a captivating look into the life of an optimist.

A True Cross-Section of American Society.......2006-04-16

While perhaps this is not the most refined of novels, Dennis Watlington is an extremety gifted writer. Without a doubt this novel is not intended to come off as refined; it is merely an honest expression of one man's determination to believe in hope and opportunity in the face of the discrimination and economic hardship associated with racism. In doing so he proves to those around him that he is in fact beneficial to society, however many ups and downs his life takes.

The value of Watlington's story resides inherently in these very ups and downs, because, unlike many rags-to-riches stories, this novel keeps making the traverse from high white society to the drug-riddled ghetto and back again. It is as though Dennis's life massages the brunt of the American social spectrum, whereas many life stories simply cut straight through it.

Perhaps I am overly partial to Dennis and this novel because he also attended my boarding school, but nonetheless this novel should be read by blacks, whites, and hispanics alike. It provides an inspiring perspective on the true definition of the modern American dream, and in this respect rivals the likes of Gatsby and the Grapes of Wrath for its honest and poignant depiction of an era.

Average customer rating:

Aegean Genesis

Another excellent entry in the Hinges of History series by Cahill

Greek History "Lite"

Sailing the Wine Dark Sea

HARD TO LISTEN TO

Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (Hinges of History)
Thomas Cahill
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Early Civilization | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
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The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (Hinges of History)

Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus

How the Irish Saved Civilization (Hinges of History)

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe

Jesus' Little Instruction Book

ASIN: 0385495544
Release Date: 2004-07-27

Book Description

In Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, his fourth volume to explore “the hinges of history,” Thomas Cahill escorts the reader on another entertaining—and historically unassailable—journey through the landmarks of art and bloodshed that defined Greek culture nearly three millennia ago.

In the city-states of Athens and Sparta and throughout the Greek islands, honors could be won in making love and war, and lives were rife with contradictions. By developing the alphabet, the Greeks empowered the reader, demystified experience, and opened the way for civil discussion and experimentation—yet they kept slaves. The glorious verses of the Iliad recount a conflict in which rage and outrage spur men to action and suggest that their “bellicose society of gleaming metals and rattling weapons” is not so very distant from more recent campaigns of “shock and awe.” And, centuries before Zorba, Greece was a land where music, dance, and freely flowing wine were essential to the high life. Granting equal time to the sacred and the profane, Cahill rivets our attention to the legacies of an ancient and enduring worldview.

Customer Reviews:

Aegean Genesis.......2007-09-23

All of the books in Thomas Cahill's Hinges of History popular history series are engaging and occasionally irreverent. Sometimes, however, a book's title premise does end up seeming just a bit smaller than the number of pages allotted to it. In "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, Why the Greeks Matter," the reverse is true. The book's covers struggle to contain the ideas within. To paraphrase Peter Benchley: You're going to need a bigger book. Cahill doesn't though. Somehow he manages to fit much of the genesis of the long journey to who we are today within the book's 304 pages of text and appendices. The reader will find philosophy, theatre, history, sculpture and rhetoric, and many other Greek roots of Western civilization, all bubbling up in Mr. Cahill's happy cauldron.

After reading Edith Hamilton's classic popular history "The Greek Way," a person could legitimately feel that he or she has learned much through Ms. Hamilton's literate and well-reasoned presentation of ancient Greek thought and deed. On the other hand, when a reader finishes "Why the Greeks Matter," he or she may feel the need to rush out and devour Homer, Aeschylus, Pindar, Sappho and Plato. That same reader may also feel a compulsion to book a flight to Greece in order to be able to look up from a guide book and see the Parthenon atop the Acropolis or to sail the wine-dark sea in a ship of any hue.

The Greeks do matter, and Mr. Cahill makes a reader want to realize that truth.

Another excellent entry in the Hinges of History series by Cahill.......2007-08-23

Thomas Cahill is doing a great service in making the basic tenets of Western European history available, readable and enjoyable. After a few decades of trying so hard to right the wrongs of centuries and thereby turning the pendulum so far back, the study of history would seem to start and end with ANYTHING BUT "dead white males" which does a disservice to everybody. Cahill would remind us of the highlights of the shared cultural history for all of us who live in the Western world, no matter where our ancestors came from.
Picking apart, as some reviewers have done, that he doesn't delve into this or that major battle or expound on the importance of the trireme...that is exactly the type of dry academic history that drives off the reader who is wants a book to be interesting and to learn something new, not to pass a test. At this Cahill is excellent. I could quibble too, having my favorite time periods or persons skimmed over, but the idea is for these 5 books, the "Hinges of History" series (How the Irish Saved Civilization, The Gifts of the Jews, The Desire of the Everlasting Hills, the Mysteries of the Middle Ages) to be light and quickly read. This book on the Greeks gives us a quick look at their civilization, its arts, plays, (Homer rates a chapter unto himself as it should be, and in fact made me want to go read the translation by Fogle he quotes from extensively)...their warfare, recreation, philosophy, finally, how they "ended", when their they were conquered first by Alexander the Great and then by Rome, and then even further culturally extinguished by their absorption into Christianity which changed the uniqueness of what they were forever, for better or worse.
The Greeks invented democracy, not so little a thing when you think about it, and utilized it, really actually utilized it, for a long time. Eventually their political sytem too devolved into tyranny, and then they were conquered by outsiders, but for a brief time in all of the long history of the past in all of the planet, there was a small city-state which came up with this unbelievable idea, and put it into action. That, alone, would make them, as a people, memorable. Yes, they had slaves, and treated women badly (no worse than most ancient cultures and many modern ones however.)
Their democracy--actually, speaking only of Athen's and it's colonies for about 200 years: "Athens the world's firsts attempt at a democracy---a Greek word meaning "rule by the people"---still stands out as the most wildly participatory government in history. Never again would such a broadly based...model be attempted. And...it worked."
(Sparta, on the other hand,was "ruled by...a council of old men, was an airless, artless,nightmare of xenophobic military preparedness, the North Korea of its day.")
The Athenians idealized beauty, invented philosophical discussion, took mathematics and medicine from the ancient Egyptians and in the case of mathematics, kept on and on with it, tying it to philosophy and turning it something no longer earthbound, no longer just for the building of monuments for dead kings.
A worthwhile book, one that would hopefully introduce some people to the Greeks, reintroduce others, and perhaps help rehabilitate them again into our cultural legacy where they belong. Without them, none of us would be as we are, and probably be the worse for it.

Greek History "Lite".......2007-08-03

Actually I was enjoying the book most of the way through. Cahill writes well, without every drab detail that most history textbooks include. My disappointment started around chapter 7 "Greco-Roman Meets Judeo-Christian" where Cahill applauds separation of church and state. Worse, he takes it a step further and jumps on the Bush-bashing bandwagon, even specifically calling out Don Rumsfeld as an imperialist and criticizing the current administration for a "dismissive" approach to the UN. Perhaps the author hadn't noticed the UN is filled with dictators and deep corruption. Sorry Mr. Cahill, you just alienated half of your fan base.

Sailing the Wine Dark Sea.......2007-07-07

When I was a boy I was given a book on classical Greece. A childs book, it celebrated the virtues of Greece and passed by some of the less-glamorous characteristics.

Mr. Cahill writes a fascinating a highly understandable book about the heritage that we, who think of ourselves as Westerners, owe to the Greeks of the classical age. I avoid the term "ancient" when I discuss the Greeks of this period, as even though they are seperated from us by 2,400 years, they are not only like us in many ways, they ARE us. Unlike earlier cultures, the contentious and divisive Greeks are our progenitors. Mr. Cahill has written an excellent narrative regarding the debt that western culture owes to the political, social, artistic, and cultural inventions of the Greeks, both good and bad, and he does so in a lively and very thoughtful way.

This is probably not a book which will provide new information to the serious scholar, however it will cause almost any reader to stop and reflect on our heritage, where it cam from, and how it evolved.

HARD TO LISTEN TO.......2007-06-06

I find that with audio, if I am not happy at the end of the first cd, I move on to the next book... This is one of those. I learned little in the first cd, didnt learn anything about why the greeks mattered - maybe he is saving the interesting stuff for the last 4 cd,s.

Sailing the Wine-dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter

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Sailing the Wine-dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter

Manufacturer: doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000EA8VA2

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Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter

Manufacturer: Books on Tape, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

Product Description

Library Edition. From the back cover: "Bestselling history writer Thomas Cahill continues his series on the roots of Western civilization with this volume about the contributions of ancient Greece to the development of contemporary culture. Tracing the origin of Greek culture in the migrations of armed Indo-European horsemen into Attica and the Peloponnesian peninsula, he follows their progress into the creation of the Greek city-states, the refinement of their machinery of war, and the flowering of intellectual and artistic culture. Cahill credits the Greeks with creating Western militarism, shaping Christianity, and giving us the intellectual foundations on which we base everything from dictionaries to filing systems. Cahill ably demonstrates the fascinating uniqueness of ancient Greek culture, but also shows its startling reincarnations in contemporary contexts." A review in The New York Times stated: "He writes in an easy, relaxed vernacular. And he enjoys himself."

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Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter
Thomas Cahill
Manufacturer: Random House Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OX9UN6

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Sailing the Wine-dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter
Thomas Cahill
Manufacturer: Tandem Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
ASIN: 141766603X

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Sailing the Wine-dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter
THOMAS CAHILL
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: 0736695729

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Exiled in the Land of the Free.......2001-05-14

Exiled in the Land of the Free provides an excellent and in depth coverage of issues extremely important to the American Indian nations within the United States. Some of the issues addressed are sovereingty, trust resposibility, and a critical look at the involvement of American Indians in the development of the USA's political system. The essays are extremely well written and quote many primary sources. It would be a very helpful tool for anyone who works in policy making decisions regarding American Indian nations.

Exiled In The Land of the Free Democracy, Indian nations, and the U.S. Constitution

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Exiled In The Land of the Free Democracy, Indian nations, and the U.S. Constitution
Oren (John Mohawk)(Vine Deloria,Jr)(Laurence Hauptman)(H.Berman) (D. Grinde, Jr.) (C.Berkey) (R. Venables) Lyons
Manufacturer: Clear Light
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0SR9W

Book Description

A new, interdisciplinary look at the practices and policies of conservation in Africa is presented in this volume. For the first time social scientists, anthropologists, and historians have been brought together with biologists, in order to illuminate previously neglected yet critically important social aspects of conservation thinking. The book is introduced by an overview of African conservation in the past, present, and future. There are sixteen papers on a wide range of topics from wildlife management to soil conservation, and from the Cape in the nineteenth century to Ethiopia in the 1980s. These collectively show that conservation must form an integral part of future policies for human development. To date, conservation has been largely the domain of the biologist, but the current ecological crisis in Africa and the failure of orthodox conservation policies demand a radical new appraisal of conventional practices. This, therefore, is essential reading for all those concerned about people and conservation in Africa.

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