Network Algorithmics,: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Designing Fast Networked Devices (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking)

Book Description

In designing a network device, you make dozens of decisions that affect the speed with which it will performsometimes for better, but sometimes for worse. Network Algorithmics provides a complete, coherent methodology for maximizing speed while meeting your other design goals.

Author George Varghese begins by laying out the implementation bottlenecks that are most often encountered at four disparate levels of implementation: protocol, OS, hardware, and architecture. He then derives 15 solid principlesranging from the commonly recognized to the groundbreakingthat are key to breaking these bottlenecks.

The rest of the book is devoted to a systematic application of these principles to bottlenecks found specifically in endnodes, interconnect devices, and specialty functions such as security and measurement that can be located anywhere along the network. This immensely practical, clearly presented information will benefit anyone involved with network implementation, as well as students who have made this work their goal.

FOR INSTRUCTORS: To obtain access to the solutions manual for this title simply register on our textbook website (textbooks.elsevier.com)and request access to the Computer Science subject area. Once approved (usually within one business day) you will be able to access all of the instructor-only materials through the "Instructor Manual" link on this book's academic web page at textbooks.elsevier.com.

· Addresses the bottlenecks found in all kinds of network devices, (data copying, control transfer, demultiplexing, timers, and more) and offers ways to break them.
· Presents techniques suitable specifically for endnodes, including Web servers.
· Presents techniques suitable specifically for interconnect devices, including routers, bridges, and gateways.
· Written as a practical guide for implementers but full of valuable insights for students, teachers, and researchers.
· Includes end-of-chapter summaries and exercises.

Download Description

Many networking books cover the protocols so that professionals have an understanding of the fundamentals of network infrastructure. This book takes a completely new approach and focuses on the needs of those who are implementing protocols in networking products as opposed to designing protocols. The book provides a set of techniques to overcome implementation bottlenecks at all networking devices (mainly servers and routers) and provides a set of principles and models to help overcome current and future networking bottlenecks. An interdisciplinary approach is used because the techniques for applying these principles come from diverse areas of computing such as architecture, operating systems, hardware design, and algorithms.

Customer Reviews:

offers 15 design principles.......2006-01-10

Varghese explains a very specialised but critical field. He presupposes on your part an already extensive knowledge of TCP/IP and its routing protocols. The book usefully offers on its inside cover 15 principles for overcoming network bottlenecks. It seems fair to say that the bulk of the book is devoted to explaining and using these ideas. Undoubtedly, other books have elucidated most of these. But maybe not as explicitly and cogently as Varghese.

One key motivator mentioned in the text is to defend against network attacks. For this, it helps to be able to quickly analyse as many IP packets as possible. Perhaps an unfortunate commentary on today's Internet, inasmuch as this will be the most important reason for some of you to get this book.

great book - a must read.......2005-04-23

This is an excellent, excellent text. Techniques and principles for building high performance distributed systems are hard to come by except through experience and talking to experts. There's a lot of knowledge in the community but this book is the first time to my knowledge that someone has collected it and presented it in a coherent framework. Even if you don't work with low level stuff, this book will help you learn to think in a "systemsy" way about high-performance designs.

excellent book.......2005-01-28

The book describes in an unique way some of the algorithmic and system implementation details of network appliances. Some of the chapters (packet classification, forwarding and traffic measurements) might be know to readers familiar with the SIGCOMM and Infocom conferences: these chapters are excellent tutorials to some very advanced networking topics and can help readers to better understand papers from the main author published at Infocom/SIGCOMM.
Its probably the best networking book I've ever read....and I read a lot.

Very readable, insightful, and much-needed book.......2005-01-07

"George Varghese has had a remarkable impact on the real world of networking with his algorithmic innovations over many years. The networking research and development community is fortunate that
he has now distilled his knowledge in this very readable, insightful, and much-needed book." -- Yukuen Lai

Network Algorithmics,: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Designing Fast Networked Devices (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking)

Average customer rating:

Network Algorithmics,: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Designing Fast Networked Devices (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking)
George Varghese
Manufacturer: Morgan Kaufmann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHCQGK

Book Description

Amarjit Kaur examines wage labor's role in economic growth and change in Southeast Asia since the mid-nineteenth century, its focus is on globalization; the old and new international division of labor and how transnational economic processes shaped and continue to shape labor systems. There are five main themes--the labor process and labor systems in plantation, mining and manufacturing production; labor migration; labor in the urban sector; labor standard - wages, working conditions and labor rights, and labor organization.

Book Description

An up-to-date, comprehensive text, covering--for the first time in one volume--what soils are, how they form and change under various conditions, and how they are classified. Presentation is modern, systematic, and accessible; it breaks down soil formation processes into fine and gross, describes effects of soil on human activities, and uses the most modern taxonomy throughout.

Book Description

The term `bioethics' was coined in 1971, just as interest in the medical humanities claimed a prominent place in medical education. Out of this interest, a substantial area of research and scholarship took shape: the philosophy of medicine. This field has been directed to the epistemological, ontological, and value-theoretical issues occasioned by medicine and the biomedical sciences. Bioethics is nested in this field and can only be fully understood in terms of the foundational issues it addresses. This collection of essays in honor of Stuart F. Spicker, one of the individuals who gave shape to the philosophy of medicine, lays out the broad scope of concerns from the philosophy of embodiment, to issues of the role of ethics consultants, to concepts of disease, equity and the meaning of history.

Book Description

Extrapolation of seismic waves from the earth's surface to any level in the subsurface plays an essential role in many advanced seismic processing schemes, such as migration, inverse scattering and redatuming. At present these schemes are based on the acoustic wave equation. This means not only that S-waves (shear waves) are ignored, but also that P-waves (compressional waves) are not handled correctly. In the seismic industry there is an important trend towards multi-component data acquisition. For processing of multi-component seismic data, ignoring S-waves can no longer be justified. Wave field extrapolation should therefore be based on the full elastic wave equation.

In this book the authors review acoustic one-way extrapolation of P-waves and introduce elastic one-way extrapolation of P- and S-waves. They demonstrate that elastic extrapolation of multi-component data, decomposed into P- and S-waves, is essentially equivalent to acoustic extrapolation of P-waves. This has the important practical consequence that elastic processing of multi-component seismic data need not be significantly more complicated than acoustic processing of single-component seismic data. This is demonstrated in the final chapters, which deal with the application of wave field extrapolation in the redatuming process of single- and multi-component seismic data.

Geophysicists, and anyone who is interested in a review of acoustic and elastic wave theory, will find this book useful. It is also a suitable textbook for graduate students and those following courses in elastic wave field extrapolation as each subject is introduced in a relatively simple manner using the scalar acoustic wave equation. In the chapters on elastic wave field extrapolation the formulation, whenever possible, is analogous to that used in the chapters on acoustic wave field extrapolation. The text is illustrated throughout and a bibliography and keyword index are provided.

Book Description

This book deals with the various thermodynamic concepts used for the analysis of nonlinear dynamical systems. The most important invariants used to characterize chaotic systems are introduced in a way that stresses the interconnections with thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Among the subjects treated are probabilistic aspects of chaotic dynamics, the symbolic dynamics technique, information measures, the maximum entropy principle, general thermodynamic relations, spin systems, fractals and multifractals, expansion rate and information loss, the topological pressure, transfer operator methods, repellers and escape. The more advanced chapters deal with the thermodynamic formalism for expanding maps, thermodynamic analysis of chaotic systems with several intensive parameters, and phase transitions in nonlinear dynamics.

Book Description

Dame Cecile Savoy's "revolting floor mop" of a Pekinese has passed away at a ripe old age. Now, the aging British actress convinces her rivals on stage and screen, Trixie and Evangeline, to support her in her hour of grief...by accompanying her to a taxidermist. But it's a cab ride straight to a cat-astrope! No sooner do the three elderly thespians enter "Stuff Yours" than they discover a dead body, a live kitty in a cage, and flames bursting from the back room. Fortunately for a rare Japanese bobtail called Cho-Cho-San, Trixie grabs the cat before fleeing the scene. But who's the victim? Who set the fire? And why was a gorgeous feline going to be stuffed? Of course, Cho-Cho-San knows more than she's letting on as the curtain goes up on foul play, murderous jealousies, and a killer who may be going to the dogs....

Customer Reviews:

I will read more by this prolific author!.......2007-03-20

I despise mysteries in which psychic pets communicate the solution to their humans. Fortunately, this isn't one of those. The cat in question is quite normal and the object of a reasonable amount of affection, but not so much as to be cloying.

The humans, on the other hand, are quite interesting. The main characters are two female actresses of a certain age who are currently between stage productions in London. When they come to the aid of a fellow actress whose favorite pet has died, they become embroiled in both her current play and a murder investigation.

While the solution to the mystery is predictable, I did enjoy this book. None of the characters are tremendously deep, but we do get some glimpses into the world of the professional theater and enjoy the characters' accumulated knowledge of it and all of the glamorous, witty, tragic, and outrageous personalities the theater produces. This book is a fast and easy read and I will read more by this prolific author. If you are looking for a lighthearted read to while away an afternoon, pick this one up.

Fun and enjoyable.......2004-02-29

When their friend's ancient dog dies, actors Trixie and Evangeline are summoned to help grieve--and help assist the dog on its way to the taxidermist who will immortalize its remains. Despite an appointment, however, no one appears to be at the taxidermist--at least no one alive. When Trixie finds a living cat, a dead man, and a fast-spreading fire, the three women flee--accidentally leaving behind the mortal remains of Fleur-de-Lys.

Getting away from a fire is one thing--getting away from murder is something else. The police soon identify the aging actresses and their driver as witnesses--or suspects. Trixie and Evangeline have to return to the scene of the crime, witness the dreadful rehersals for a reprisal of Arsenic and Old Lace, and deal with a number of unlikable and unsavory characters including their hostess's step-mother, the director, the lead man, and a friend of Evangeline who is intent on making big bucks in investment. Trixie finds herself more and more attached to the rescued cat, Cho-Cho-San, but there are plenty of other claimants for Cho-Cho's love. Still, somebody had left the living cat at the taxidermist--with instructions to have it stuffed.

Author Marian Babson does a great job developing her characters--with the blend of competition and mutual support that typifies the thespian professions. Her writing is light and enjoyable with plenty of places that left me with a big smile on my face. Mystery fans will notice that the actual solving of the mystery goes on outside of the book--the primary protagonists aren't really involved in solving the murder(s) or arson. I would have thought that this would detract from my reading pleasure but, to my surprise, it didn't. THE CAT WHO WASN'T A DOG is a fun and enjoyable novel.

This book combines two Babson delights.......2004-02-04

One of them is cats. Besides lovely Cho-Cho-San, there's a gentleman theatre cat named Garrick. The other delight is that Trixie and Evangeline, the former Hollywood Golden Age movie stars from REEL MURDER, ENCORE MURDER, and BREAK A LEG, DARLINGS!; are back.

Overbearing and obnoxious characters abound, not least Evageline herself. Loved the idea she came up with to cure one actor's lackluster performance, though. There're interesting recipes that are being tested for a cookbook for people on the road, such as how to make a nicely poached egg when you don't have a egg poacher with you. Pity the cookbook is on a tight deadline and the recipe tester is stuck with the suspects. Will it be safe to eat anything in THAT kitchen?

The strength of this book is in its wickedly diverting dialog, to use an old phrase. If you're in the mood to put up your feet and spend a cozy afternoon chortling (while giving thanks that Trixie has to deal with those people instead of you), I recommend this book.

A fast, fun read for cozy mystery lovers.......2003-08-28

This fast read is the latest of Babson's books and is a lot of fun. Don't look for any actual detection- there isn't much. Instead you get unforgettable characters, a geisha-girl cat and an evening with friends Evangaline and Trixie, actresses deluxe. Not so good as an introduction to Marian Babson but delightful for fans.

Hilarious who-done-it.......2003-08-06

Everything is quiet and settled for actresses of stage and screen, Evangeline Sinclair and Trixie Dolan until they receive a call from fellow thespian Dame Cecile Savoy. The Dame's beloved Maltese Fleur de-Lys has died after twenty years and she needs her friends around her in her time of grief. When they arrive in Brighton, driven there by their friend Eddie in his taxi, they take Fleur to the taxidermist.

When they arrive at the store, nobody seems to be in sight so they spread out looking for the owner. Trixie finds a live cat waiting to be stuffed and saves it when a fire breaks out. All four leave the scene unharmed but Eddie tells his friends he saw a dead body. A neighbor writes down the plate number of his car and the police arrest Eddie. Trixie and Evangeline stay with a friend in Brighton determined to find a way to clear Eddie. However, another dead body, found in their friend's basement, sidetracks them. In their usual befuddled manner, the duo try to fix things and end up turning things into a comedy of errors.

Marian Babson has written another witty whimsical cozy that will appeal to animal lovers and mystery readers who don't like blood and gore in their tales. The two protagonists are delightfully dotty as is the support cast, who seems to live in their own artistic realm. THE CAT WHO WASN'T A DOG is another winner by an author who can always be counted on to deliver a fine tale in this case of a tail.

Harriet Klausner

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8 PBs by Marian Babson: Please Do Feed the Cat, Nine Lives to Murder, Twelve Deaths of Christmas, Cat Who Wasn't a Dog, Cat Next Door +3 More
Marian Babson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000TF85L2

Product Description

Paperbacks

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The Cat Who Wasn't a Dog
Marian Babson
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTKA66

Book Description

It was McCoy's Marines who pulled down the statue of Saddam Hussein-the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, led by Lt. Col. Bryan P. McCoy, radio call sign: Darkside. And this is the story of their war, seen from the inside by the reporter they called Paperboy. From the build-up in Kuwait to the first push into Basra, from the briefings to the heat of battles planned or stumbled upon, San Francisco Chronicle reporter John Koopman captures the war in Iraq as it was lived, fought, and felt-the nitty-gritty as well as the guts-and-glory of it-and as he saw it firsthand from Darkside's humvee or riding with the sergeant major, the Marine infantry battalion's 'most feared, respected, loved, and hated man.'

Customer Reviews:

My comparative review.......2007-01-02

Great book! I was glued to it from the first few pages.

I found myself reading this until the sun rose in the morning it was that good. John does a great job of describing the fighting in Iraq.

My compliments to the author.

Solid reporting but a bit narrow.......2005-09-22

Writing was good but I found some typos. Wasn't much of a story here, actually, and that surprised me. Not about the battalion commander so the title misleads. It's good...but not the best around. Wanted more action, to be frank.

fun view of the grunts.......2005-09-15

This is not just a view of the BC...the entire battalion shines. Loved this view of a grunt battalion!

Just another reporter looking for a couple bucks.......2005-07-29

This book is horrible. Skip it. just get 'Generation Kill' instead.

John Koopman is right. He is no reporter as he states early in this rushed, hackneyed attempt at storytelling. Full of typos, I wonder if anyone really did proofread it.

Also, the actual reporting of action doesn't even begin until page 111. The previous 110 pages of drivel are Koopman's life. Trust me, 5 pages would have sufficed.

Poorly written, slow, and written a jarring short-sentence style, I will soon be listing it for sale here while it's still in hardback.

AVOID!!.

Koopman's War.......2005-06-26

By Major Keith F. Kopets, USMC

Sometimes, you can't judge a book by its cover. This is one of those cases. LtCol Bryan P. McCoy and the Marines of 3d Battalion, 4th Marines provide most of the material for this book, yes, but McCoy's Marines is not really about them. It is, essentially, one part memoir, three parts combat report, refracted through the lens of author John Koopman. He was on a mission to cover the war in Iraq for the San Francisco Chronicle. He met the battalion in February 2003 at Camp Ripper, Kuwait, and stayed with them north into Iraq, all the way to Firdous Square, Baghdad.

Censure was not a problem for Koopman. "I don't expect you to be a cheerleader for the Marines," McCoy told him. "That's not your job. Just be fair and accurate, that's all I ask. If we screw something up, I expect you to write about it. If it's something that needs to be fixed, a story will speed things up."

Koopman got along well with the men in the battalion. He had been a Marine himself in the late 1970s, reporting to Parris Island after high school in 1976. He was 17 years old, from a small town in Nebraska. "I was pretty naïve back then," Koopman remembers. He finished his enlistment a 21-year old sergeant at Camp Lejeune. He met his wife, Isabel, on liberty in Spain during his last deployment.

He left her and their eight-year-old son in San Francisco to report on the war. Koopman, like the Marines he covered in Iraq, felt the sting of separation. "I called home," Koopman says, on his satellite phone from Iraq:

"Isabel cried when she heard my voice. I couldn't understand it at the time. But that's how it works. When you're at home, thinking about the war or anything you've not actually experienced, the not knowing is what kills you. When you're there, and you can touch and feel the dirt, and see other people, and understand the risk and threat, it's not so bad."

That's immediacy. If you served in Iraq, you know what Koopman felt like; if you were back home with a friend or loved one in the war, you know what Koopman's wife was feeling. The family separation was another bond Koopman shared with the men of 3/4. "What I came to look forward to in the war," Koopman writes, was "the look on a Marine's face when I handed him the handset and told him to call his mom."

Koopman does not wear the reader down with metaphor or political abstraction. His writing is linear, direct, and without pretension. "The Marines went in heavy," he writes, for example. "That's their way. Nothing subtle about them. Walk in with a gun in your hand and start asking questions." At times, Koopman is profane; at times, he is funny. He is never boring. But he reminds you, though, more often than he should, that he is a journalist writing his first book. The sentence fragments are the give-away. You have to bear with them.

When it comes down to it, Koopman is faithful to what he saw and what he felt. His view of 3/4 and the war may have been through a soda straw, but the book works because he stays in his lane. He is less concerned with the larger picture or making sense out of the war than he is in simply setting to print his own observations. In his conclusion, he writes, "People ask me my opinion all the time. They think because I was in Iraq a couple of times that I have some knowledge, some answers. But I know nothing."

If McCoy himself were the reviewer, I imagine he would judge this book faithful to the guidance he gave Koopman before the war. He would probably censure Koopman, though, for the hagiographic inference of the title. But Koopman, I think, would dig in and defend. He would say that 3/4, as he saw it from the outside looking in, was a battalion that took on the personality of its commander.

Book Description

The enthralling and little-known story of the ugly, fat, paranoid, and ruthless king known as "the universal spider" for his incessant machinations. In the year Louis XI was born, just after the 100 Years' War, England still ruled much of France. Unifying the land became his idée fixe, and through Louis' wiliness, network of spies, and willingness to forge alliances when needed, he succeeded in pulling the country out of anarchy and achieving his goal.

Customer Reviews:

The founder of French modern monarchy.......2006-05-28

Louis XI is to be considered among the greatest kings of France, if not the greatest at all, because he set up the national French monarchy which was to last until Louis XVI. He created a powerful kingdom by subduing step by step the once unrulable feudal lords. And this he did mainly by the use of his cunning sagacious diplomacy rather than by the use of weapons. The "Universal Spider" actually employed the strategy of the spider, patience, diplomacy, cold blood, shrewdness and a calculating mind to win the realm from the clutches of the nobles and bound it forever to the Crown. When he succeeded to the throne in 1461 after the death of his father Charles VII, he found France in a state of turmoil. The proud and petulant lords of the Houses of Bourbon, Anjou, Armagnac, Brittany and, above all, the mighty Duke of Burgundy (whose posessions gathered not only the County and Duchy of Burgundy, but also Picardy, Artois, Flanders, Holland, Zealand, Brabant and Luxembourg) had joined in a so-called "League of the Public Weal" to overthrow him and regain their declining privileges. Before his dead, in 1483, he had crushed the nobility, their lands reverted to the Crown; he had got rid of the always threatening Charles the Rash, duke of Burgundy, and swallowed the whole Burgundian territories of France, and had avoided cunningly a second English invasion of France. By 1483 the king of France was the most powerful monarch in Europe and the richest. It was all possible due to the genius of Louis de Valois. The statesmanship of the "Universal Spider" made it possible. This books shows how, and it provides not only an accurate and very amusing lesson of the History of France, but also a valuable lesson in politics. Looks like very often the pen is mightier than the sword.

A Pre-Machiavellian Prince.......2003-10-12

The nickname "Universal Spider" was not meant as a compliment to the French King Louis XI, whose supple mind and diplomatic skills allowed him consistently to outmanouever his enemies both foreign and domestic. Kendall puts an extremely entertaining writing style to good use in relating Louis' various showdowns with the French nobility, battles with Brittany, double-dealing with the rival English Yorkists and Lancasters, and blood-feud with the Burgundian Dukes - who so spectacularly reached the end-of-the-line during Louis' reign. Those parts dealing with Anglo-French diplomacy are particuarly interesting, given the author's other works on Richard III, Edward IV and Warwick the Kingmaker.

Excellent historical account of a maligned king.............2001-06-11

In LOUIS XI THE UNIVERSAL SPIDER, biographer-historian Paul Murray Kendall says the Burgundian chronicler Molinet called Louis "the universal spider" and the sobriquet unfortunately stuck. He says Louis was further demonized by 19th Century historians and writers who failed to do their homework. Louis XI was not so much spider as he was diplomat and peace-maker in an age when men looked suspiciously on such behaviour, and combat was viewed as the honorable and noble approach to settling disputes. Louis used his head and the end result was to bring the feudal era in France to a close and help usher in the modern world.

Louis reckoned the ceaseless bickering and fighting of the nobles was destructive to the health of the countryside and the people of France. The common people of the towns and villages agreed with Louis as did the merchants and tradesmen. Louis is not remembered for winning any great battles. The major reason Louis was so successful in defeating his enemies was owing to his understanding of finance. He understood that those who fight must finance their wars and without funds, their access to armaments and mercenaries evaporates. The clever king also understood that when the countryside is destroyed an army that crawls on its belly cannot fight.

Charles VII was the father of Louis XI, that same Dauphin whom Joan the Maid of Orleans managed to have crowned. The ungrateful Charles VII did nothing to save Joan once she had been captured by the English and the Duke of Burgundy, but the six-year old boy who became Louis XI never forgot the saint and he held a lifelong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary after his encounter with her. When Louis was most pressed he prayed to the Virgin, and his monument to her at Clery still exists.

The Duke of Burgundy during Charles VII's reign was Phillip the Good, and when Louis XI ran afoul of his father, he sought shelter with Duke Phillip who sheltered him. Thus Louis spent a good part of his young manhood in the company of his dour cousin Charles the Bold who became the Duke of Burgundy on his father's death. Charles also became Louis' life-long enemy and it was Charles' man who slandered Louis by referring to him as "the universal spider."

Louis had one aspiration--to unite France in peace, and promote commerce and the general welfare of the people. Charles the Bold fancied himself another Julius Caesar--a warrior-king. Charles set about expanding his Duchy until Burgundy reached from the county of Burgundy near the Jura mountains to Flanders and Holland on the North Sea.

Louis was no warrior-king. While other lords ran around in ermine and velvet and jousted at tournaments, Louis donned the hunter's clothes and spent most days in the rural areas chasing animals with his hunting dogs and comingling with the common folk. When he wasn't hunting animals Louis collected them for his vast menagerie.

On most occasions Louis tried to make peace not war. He used his head, outwitted his enemies including the English king Edward IV, and at the end of his life left his heir Charles VIII a united France. Kendall obviously admired Louis and remarks that he was one of the most formidable human beings who ever lived.

I have been reading the series Alison Weir has been writing on the English nobility, and enjoyed reading LOUIS XI not only because I want to know more about the history of France, but because in reading about Louis XI, I was able to understand why certain exchanges, conflicts, etc. regarding Edward IV were important. If you found Alison Weir's book on the WAR OF THE ROSES intriguing, you will appreciate this book. Kendall's writing is comparable to Weir's and he has based his writing on his original research--though he is quite dependent on Commynes as are most of Louis' biographers.

I bought this book from Alibris, and I recommend you find a copy if you're interested in this period of history. I am puzzled as to why this book is out of print.

Highly recommended for 15th century aficionados!.......1999-07-08

This is a terrific and highly readable biography of a fascinating and enigmatic ruler, set in a period of great political upheaval. Anyone interested in the details of "why" and "how" things happened - not merely "what" happened - will find this book immensely interesting.

Kendall's style is gripping, but he tends to be a partisan for his subject. At times, his bias becomes a little annoying, particularly where more than one "spin" could be put on a certain course of action. The reader must be careful to make his own judgements in many places.

That said, Kendall provides a wealth of quotes from contemporary sources, and his scholarship is unquestionable. This is a great book, covering a time and place that is too little addressed in most popular histories.

Brian Wayne Wells, Esquire, reviews Louis XI.......1998-04-01

Paul Murray Kendall's "Louis XI" illuminates a seldom studied area of world history. France of the fifteenth century was a fragmented collection of duchies and fiefdoms ruled over by independent nobles. Although they were technically vassals to the French King, in reality they often ignored the King and ruled their lands pretty much as they pleased.

During his reign from 1461 until his death in 1483, Louis XI used his wits and artful negotiation to beat the militarily stronger Duke of Burgundy and the other nobles of his kingdom while at the same time fending off foreign foes, Britain and Austria.

Louis XI was a king who travelled around his kingdom on a regular basis to learn what was happening in the towns and provinces of France. He also developed a network of communications to stay in touch with even the farthest reaches of his kingdom. This network of communications earned him the nickname "the Univesal Spider."

Kendall's book brings Louis XI to life in a very exciting narrative. The book gathers and holds the reader's attention until the very end.

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The Universal Spider - The Life of Louis XI of France
Phillippe De Commynes
Manufacturer: The Folio Society; London
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000VNGEPQ

Product Description

4to - over 9 3/4" - 12" tall. 1/2 blue leather and cloth binding. 300pp, illustrated.

The Universal Spider: The Life of Louis XI of France

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The Universal Spider: The Life of Louis XI of France

Manufacturer: The Folio Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000GTG96E

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The Universal Spider: The Life of Louis XI of France
Philippe de [King Louis XI] Commynes
Manufacturer: Folio Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KTCZY0

Customer Reviews:

excellent collection.......2001-01-16

Some of the images in this book are very striking...nature as exacting and powerful...nature as connectedness, comfort, family. This book is a good read, a collection to curl up with and read several times over. Thank you!

Earth Beneath, Sky Beyond: Nature and Our Planet

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Earth Beneath, Sky Beyond: Nature and Our Planet
Whitney Scott
Manufacturer: Outrider Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8ULQ6

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