1990 Books

Unlike some other reviewers, I found little in Gottesman's book that would inform an understanding of what is presently happening in Iraq or Afghanistan. The UNTAC mandate in Cambodia didn't even qualify as a half-hearted attempt at introducing democracy, and the attempts to analogize the situations are at best strained. In fact, the history Gottesman lays out has precious little to do with nation-building of any kind (my guess is the subtitle may have been some editor's marketing ploy). Rather, I found the book to be the clear, riveting, and ultimately pitiful inside story of a decaying communist regime. For those trumpeting the planned Khmer Rouge Trials as the day-of-reckoning for Cambodia's tormentors, guess again. After reading Gottesman's book, I'll eat my Mao cap if a single suspect is charged who, as Gottesman puts it, repented of the only real crime under communism-political opposition.

Evan Gottesman's three years of field work in Cambodia with the American Bar Association Law and Democracy Project gave him an exceptionally solid base from which he launched this study of the history of the PRK and SOC regimes. His use of documents dug out of the National Archives is, as David Chandler has remarked, "masterful." His interviews with the former holders of power provide fascinating insights into the minds of key personalities seldom reached by Westerners. The epilogue is chock full of understated, reasonable, fair, and on-the-mark assessments of the reality on the ground in Cambodia today -- "Cambodian democracy often seems an abstraction...Although the methods of control have changed, the personnel governing the country remain largely the same ... (they) have accepted a new level of political discourse, but they do so only to the extent that it does not jeopardize their power." Life and work in Cambodia as a lawyer would frustrate all but the most idealistic of men. That Mr. Gottesman came away with such a patient and objective look at Cambodia says much about both his character and his intellect. This book is a must read for our new generation of "nation builders." It will allow them to bring to bear a better sense of time scale regarding their grand plans to democratize the world, clearly a task for multiple generations of good men like Evan Gottesman, not one to be attempted by one or two four-year administrations of ambitious politicians.

Mr. Gottesman paints a vivid picture of Cambodia after 1979 that is particularly relevant in this time of reconstruction and nation building in Iraq. This is on my all time top 10 books right after the Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing.

This is a fascinating telling of the politics of the PRK. The author has adroitly woven a tapestry of the give and take between the ideologically rigid Vietnamese liberators and the ideologically-opportunistic Khmer Rouge. The irony of the title is that there was no "after the Khmer Rouge:" indeed, they are still alive and well and running the PRK's successor state, which could be called the Democratic People's Republic of Royal Camobodia, an amalgam of ex-Pol Potists, Sihounoukists and genuine deomocrats.
Gottesman is to be congratulated on his shrewd observations and the skillful way he merged the ever-morphing political landscape in Phnom Penh with the relatively static, self-serving and corrupt provinical politics that tended to ignore any central dictums that reduced local prerogatives. In sum, pretty much the story of all socialist states; proclaim endless drivel ex cathedra from the capital and pray that somebody out there listens.
This is a must read for anyone interested in a little known asterisk in the cold war and anyone interested in third world politics. Foe all American ideologues eager to proclaim Iraq the next Japan, read, learn and repent!

How does someone find out about the organizational structure and the people within the Securitate (the secret security police of Romania)? Well, this book gives those details. An organization that is devoted to secrecy is opened to the public by this book.

The Securitate was used effectively and efficiently by Ceausescu to remove all opposition to his rule and to keep his citizens in line through terror and fear. Ordinary citizens sometimes knew the agents installed in their schools, at their workspaces, or at their meeting places ... but they weren't always obvious ... many never knew who was an agent or an informer ... friends, coworkers, even family.

How did normal, otherwise good people allow themselves to become a part of this repressive arm of Ceausescu's communist regime? Well, many of the answers are in this book. It discusses how the Communist Party gained support for the Securitate, how they coerced people into complying with the Securitate's demands, and even how some tried to rebel against the omnipresent Securitate.

Although the long list of names, many of whom I have never heard of before, is occasionally boring, at least I know where to find them if I ever read about one of them. This is a subject that could consume many volumes if covered in detail (there are millions of files on citizens), but this book does an excellent job in the extent of its coverage while keeping the book small enough to hold in my lap.

Unfortunately, the book is VERY hard to find. But if you can find it, you will be glad you bought it!

This is in my view the most authoritative study of the Ceausescu system to have been published since the dictator's execution in 1989. Very well written and quite fascinating. It puts more sensationalist and hastily produced works to shame.

Probabaly what drew me to the book was the knowledge that Deletant had a long association with the regime of Ceasuescu and a strong academic understanding of the system. He writes with personal candour and an eye for a good story. He also has the ability to bring large numbers of facts together with consummate ease. Probably the best researched volume on the subject.

This British author speaks fluent Romanian, married a Romanian wife, and lived in Communist Romania. The result is well-researched history, supplemented by personal experience (such as his attempts to get an emigration permit for his wife).

This easy to read work intrigues. It does this by carefully challenging the previous conclusions of the churching of America, i.e. Ahlstrom et al.

Starting with Colonial times, it reviews the quantitative analysis and the qualitative conclusions as well. It determined that much beginning from these times on has been distorted by bias and not using the best census material available.

They deduce that successful church movements base their focus on otherworldliness, starting out thus as sects which grow. The tendency however is to eventually make minor concessions to the culture, thus shifting the emphasis away from what gave them success, high tension with their culture towards lowered levels. This cyclical pattern they have found repeated over and over, the sects becoming churches thereby giving birth to new sects that revitalize the church and grow.

The pattern begins with the upstart Baptists and Methodists outgrowing the established Congregationalists, etc. Then themselves, especially the Methodists losing their dominant position to new groups.

Their conclusions are fascinating, disputing much of the established findings of scholarly American Christian history. Rather than finding the changes in churched American as attributable to sudden cultural/societal glitches, rather the authors find "a long, slow and consistent increase in religious participation form 1776 to 1926--with the rate inching up slightly after 1926 and then hovering near 60 percent. Second, they conclude that the primary factor is what they term "the sect-church process" (roughly sketched out above) in supporting the progress in America.

The future? They place confidence in humans as "rational beings, not puppets enslaved to the strings of history and always have the capacity to choose." Their surveys and literature they use suggest that American will continue to want and find or start movements which maximize otherworld rewards sufficient to inspire sacrifice.

One must remember this is sociology speaking, not theology. Theology of the best kind tells of God's unfolding plan of salvation (heilsgesitche) which will occur exactly as God has planned. True faith, belief and membership in this salvation is His doing through His church, where His Word and Sacraments are truly spoken and distributed.

In this fascinating book, the authors (both sociology professors) look at the evolution of the American religious landscape since the Revolutionary War. In their study, they discovered three trends. First of all, in frontier areas (which in 1776 still included whole swaths of the thirteen colonies) there was a larger proportion of men to women, and consequently a lower rate of church attendance. As areas became settled, the proportion of men to women decreased, and the rate of church attendance increased.

Secondly, they found that sects (religious organizations with a high level of tension with their surrounding sociocultural environment) tended to have a higher rate of growth, and a higher level of commitment than churches (religious organizations with a low level of tension with their environment). The third trend is that over time, sects transform themselves into churches, lowering their demands on members and as such lessoning their tension with their environment.

As they follow American history, they show how these trends affected the growth and/or decline of the fortunes of various churches, both Protestant and Catholic. I must admit to have been absolutely captivated by this book. Not only do the author make an excellent case for their theory, but also the book itself is compelling reading. I was especially interested in what the authors had to say about how denominations change, and what it means.

I greatly enjoyed this book, and recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the Christian church in the United States.

In this book Finke and Stark take a very analytical and careful approach to why some denominations grow and others shrink. Rather than rehashing the same ideas and theories, the perform numerical analysis of the actual percentage of Americans in each denomination, state by state, from 1776 to 1990. The results are amazing.

United Methodists: note that our church has been shrinking since _1850_ as a percentage of the American public. Basically since the circuit riders dismounted and we established seminaries.

The conclusions are frightening and will make you reevaluate "what's wrong with our church". If this book is correct, most of the solutions suggested by other books will not address the core issues.

You must read this book!!!

Even though this book was published eight years ago, it still ought to be on the book shelf of any serious student of American Christianity, and be a part of the strategic knowledge base of any denominational executive who pretends to know what it will take for his or her denominational organization to be a viable force for societal and spiritual transformation in the twenty-first century.

The 214 years of American religious history covered by this book represents the transformation from a time when as a nation most people took no part in organized religion, to a time when nearly two-thirds do. The continual founding of new religious movements during this two-century period has allowed for a freshness that could not be controlled by institutionalized religion.

The control exercised by established churchlike religious organizations in the past actually led to their decline. They could not survive in a free market religious economy. Methods of establishing control included identifying a state-endorsed church, controlling who could be ordained and serve as pastors, and having a non-congregational polity or form of governance.

While it may seem to be a contradiction, it the high expectations that religious organizations--particularly congregations--place on individual believers that results in a tenacious and growing church movement. What was true in 1776 is still true in 2000 and beyond. To discover the secrets of past and future success and vitality, purchase and read this book.

This is an outstanding account of why the Red Army collapsed, and with it the Soviet state. Odom does a great job explaining the Soviet military, its ideological underpinnings and its evolution in the 1970's and 1980's, as well as the impact of Gorbachev's reforms. Odom explains why in the end the Red Army could not pull off the coup against Gorbachev even with the support of much of the rest of the government. It had collapsed from within, and so it was powerless to stop either Gorbachev or Yelstin. If you are interested in military affairs or Russian/Soviet history, this is a book you should read.

- But still encased in ideological blinkers.

Odom gives a good overview of the Soviet military establishment, top and bottom, in the last years of the USSR, and rightly points the finger at Gorbachev at initiating its demise. His central premise - that ideology is the fulcrum by which the Red Army moved - is misplaced, and reflects the ideological battles of cold war academia in which Mr. Odom, as a military intellectual, found his own casus belli.

Judging the Soviet Army through the lens of Marxism-Leninism is like judging the Spanish Armada or Conquest of America by militant Catholicism. Such faith may be sincerely felt by the warriors flying its banner; higher laws of Truth and Justice are always necessary to motivate large numbers of men to fight, kill, and die. But if to God went the glory, to the Royal Treasury went the gold. And in shortchanging the material interests of empowerment and enrichment, the right and left legs of realpolitik upon which all states stand or fall, Mr. Odom does a disservice to his subject.

Geopolitics has always been the underlying theme of Russian military and political strategy, from Tsarist and Soviet days to the present. For if Marxist-Leninist world revolution and class struggle were the true measurement of Red Army thought, then Stalin's dialectics should have met no resistance from Soviet War Commissar Trotsky and the latter's theory of Permanent Revolution. Stalin, in fact, justified the creation of the Soviet military-industrial complex during the First Five-Year Plan not by reference to Marx or Lenin, but purely in terms of Russian history: "Russia was always beaten for its backwardness, and if we do not catch up in the next ten years with the advanced capitalist world, they will crush us." And this is exactly what nearly came to pass as scheduled. Direct experience, based upon Russia's unchanging position on the periphery of Europe and Asia, has always dictated its military course.

Proof of this was seen just last week on the Georgian border. This is a rerun of the same scenario of 1921, when a Marxist-Bolshevik Russia and a Marxist-Menshevik Georgia clashed over the latter's hostile alliances with Western powers, resolved by Georgia's "admission" into the USSR. Today, things are somewhat different. As Odom would point out, Russia now has no internationalist ideology that could justify re-annexing Georgia. But the underlying tensions between the two bodies of state remain regardless of changes in fashion.

Another point of contention with Mr. Odom is his assertion that Western defense spending in the Reagan years was "necessary" to counteract the offensive potential of the Soviet Army. In truth, it was the Western spending that was on the offensive, its strategy not to deter Soviet aggression but to lock the Soviet military-industrial complex into a war of expenditure it could not win. Surely, the Red Army would have been a formidable foe, despite all its shortcomings, and if attacked at any point of the Warsaw Pact would have rallied with everything it had. But there was never any danger of Soviet expansion beyond the borders of its World War Two conquests, and any realistic analyst knew this all the time. Afghanistan was but the painful exception to prove the rule.

The appeal of Marxism-Leninism, despite all pretentions of a Third International and all attendant ideological baggage, was always very limited. Its spread in Europe was brought by conventional, not revolutionary warfare, and its native allies were motivated by national feelings for Russia as much as revolutionary faith. The Russia-friendly attitude of Czechs, Greeks, Bulgars, and Yugoslavs during WW II was conditioned by their long history of looking to Russia as an ally against Germans and Turks. The Communist Parties of these countries grew because they were identified with Russia. This was in marked contrast to Poland or Hungary, with quite different Russian experiences.

Yet with all these caveats I've still given Mr. Odom's book four stars. He does indeed give a detailed analysis of the structure and social problems of not only the Soviet Army, but Soviet society itself in the 1980s. He is doubtless right that Gorbachev's acts of free will, not historical determinism, pulled the rug out from under the Soviet colossus. He is one of the few analysts who saw the obvious parallel between the 1991 coup plotters and the attempted Kornilov putsch of August 1917.

Yet he tries to again raise the specter of cold war by suggesting that Russia will be democratic only insofar as it restrains its search for military greatness. Aside from what this does for American claims of democracy, even before 2003, let's recall that it was the Russian "democrats" of 1917 who took up the Tsar's war, his tricolor flag, and his ideology of "Russia, One and Indivisible" - as well as his desires for the Dardanelles. If Russia still continues to behave like an empire, it will not be due to any Red residues but in the finest traditions of Russian and European statecraft.

I discovered William E. Odom when a lecture of his was shown on BookTV. His talk showed an understanding of the Russian military so informed and thorough that I had to find and read his book. I found the book even more valuable and influential on my thinking than I expected. If I had known anything of William E. Odom's work and reputation, I would have known, as I do now, that his book would be lucid, detailed, and written so that its complex subject becomes clear evn to the amateur. He sets a standard of sound historical vision and attention to fact that all of us can enjoy, admire, and follow.

How could the huge, powerful Soviet Army have vanished so quietly? William Odom, an American general, takes on this question and in the process of answering it demolishes many of the more smug conclusions drawn from the collapse of the USSR.

Odom writes of Soviet military culture with understanding, knowledge and respect. If there's a failing in the book, it's that Odom spends so little time on Soviet military adventures themselves, focusing instead on the organizational quirks of the military/industrial/ideological complex. He mentions only in passing episodes like the border war between Russia and China along the Amur, and spends only a few pages on the war in Afghanistan.

Odom's conclusion is that the Soviet military, grown sluggish and top-heavy, became the focus of Gorbachev's hatred, and could not stand up to his relentless attacks. Gorbachev comes across, in Odom's account, as an anti-Lenin, as avid in destroying the Soviet system as Lenin was in forging it.. When he managed this destructive feat, Gorbachev was astonished to find that the whole structure fell almost instantly. As Odom concludes, Gorbachev had failed to realize what even the fatuous Nicholas II knew: that the Army has always been the heart of the Russian state.

Thouasands of writers have swarmed over the carcasse of the USSR, most of them interested only in profiting from or gloating over its fall. One of its last ironies is that one of the most respectful, subtle appreciations of its life and death has come from an enemy general.

This must be one of the best travel guides I've ever read. The author apparently wrote this book based on extensive personal experience since there is a ton of information contained in the book that one would not know unless one has actually travelled to those places.

Highly recommended !

A very helpful guide for driving up or down my favorite coast in the world! Doerper takes you almost mile by mile - was particularly helpful as I drove from Sebastopol up to Menocino, heretofore undiscovered country for me. Galen Rowell's photographs have always been a treat. His death was a real loss, but at least you can tour the CA coast through his eyes in this book.

I liked this book enough to buy Doerper's corollary for the Pacific Northwest to use this year:)!

I bought this book before traveling from San Francisco down Big Sur (about halfway), and it has great coverage of the Big Sur coast, the Santa Cruz area, and San Francisco.

Costal California is more than just a guide book to the California coast. A first glance, Galen Rowell's spectacular photography, 25 full-color maps, wine labels, and historical photographs tell you that there can't be a better illustrated guide for this local. When you start to read this book, you find that it is more than just travel data. John Doerper writes, "The California coast is as much a state of mind as it is a place. Its people, and the stories and myths they have woven around this magic coast, are as captivating as the spectacular scenery." He obviously kept this thought in mind as he wrote this inspirational , entertaining, and expert guide.

Topical essay collections are often a hit or miss proposition since the essays can appear dated by the time they are re-published in collection form. Yet somehow, writing about the Middle East never seems irrelevant no matter how much time has passed. This is true of Saul Singer's new book. Singer, Jerusalem Post editorial writer and columnist has collected much of his writings for the Post between the year 1998 and the summer of 2003, particularly those concerning the war on terrorism being fought and faced by both the United States and Israel. Singer contends this is the same war and I agree with him. The essays, most of which are unsigned editorials Singer penned for the Post and a number of which are from his weekly column "Interesting Times", are arranged largely, though not totally chronologically and each one is proceeded by an introduction written by Singer this summer, before the book was published. These introductions create a cohesiveness of the essays by tying them to current conditions. For example, on many occasions, post 9/11, the Post was critical of what it saw as American equivocation on Palestinian terrorism. In a number of his introductions to editorials of this nature, Singer acknowledges where his assumptions turned out to be pre-mature or mistaken.

Taken together the book is a striking history of the major issue of Islamic fascism facing Israel and the world since Sept. 2000. Looking back at these events reminded me of many things I had forgotten. It is always useful to go back and examine events one lived through since the perspective is very different when one has knowledge of the future.

From my perspective Singer, an American who made aliyah a number of years ago, is a centrist, which is to say he would give up land to create a Palestinian state if he thought such a state would live peacefully with Israel. But like much of today's "neo-cons", Singer believes that Israel must win the war in which it is engaged just as the United States must. He is scornful of Israel and American "elite" which try to appease the terrorists. It should also be noted that Singer is a firm believer in the free market and many of his editorials have called for serious economic reform of the Israeli economy, which is still essentially socialist.

All in all this book is a must read for anyone interested in a sensible review of the events affecting the peace of Israel and the United States over the past three years. And the Jerusalem Post is a must read for anyone looking for sensible commentary on the current world scene.

Covering the Palestinian/Arab war against Israel from 1997 to the present day, a writer for the Jerusalem Post presents here a series of essays that should be mandatory reading for anyone with the remotest interest in the Middle East.

The book covers a whole series of issues relating to the so called "peace process" which cannot all be addressed within the space of a review. One of the principal issues covered in this work is the ongoing construction of the so called "security wall/fence" along the boundaries of Judea/Samaria (West Bank) etc.. The "security wall/fence" being cited in the book as really being "constructed" by the Palestinians and not by the Israelis, with an elaboration being made that the structure only came into being following the many thousands of Palestinian terrorist attacks upon Israelis. Further amplification being made that if the Palestinian leadership fulfilled their requirement under the so called "road map" in disarming and disbanding the Palestinian terrorist groups then the "security wall/fence" would be irrelevant in any case.

Further to the "peace process" itself the book describes the European Union as largely taking the Palestinian side in the conflict and that a refusal to label the Palestinians as the "aggressors" has made the conflict virtually impossible to end by providing an "inbuilt incentive" for Palestinians to restart hostilities as soon as any "talks" break down. This is discussed in some detail. Reference is made to the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas, or anyone else in authority, having given no indication whatsoever of being prepared/willing to confront Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups. The latter shown to be allowed to operate freely by the Palestinian leadership within all the Palestinian autonomous areas.

Page 136 discusses the attitude depicted within these Palestinian groups where they claim a right to "retaliate" after Israel kills what is termed as one of their "terrorist masterminds" responsible for attacking Israelis etc.. The book discusses the matter at length and describes the underlying attitude of the Palestinian terrorist groups as being of "schoolyard logic" which cries "it all started when he hit me back".

The book makes a number of comparisons between Israel's "war against terrorism" and the parallel "war against terrorism" of the US. Both are described as facing the same enemy with the same strategy. The US & Israel both also depicted in the book as being at the receiving end of what the same "jihad" & an expansionist war by militant Islam that cannot tolerate any form of non-Islamic power.

Having said that, at the beginning of the book the writer describes his first visit to the US following the September 11th terrorist attacks and goes to some length to describe his shock at a fundamental difference in the society of both nations. The book recounts astonishment at the number of US civilians at outdoor cafes and shopping malls without the presence of any noticeable security guards checking people at the entrances etc.. Something described as a far cry from Israel's stringent, ever present security measures, which are depicted as an almost unnoticed part of everyday life in the Jewish state. The shock at the lack of such measures in the US being illustrated as an "almost reckless form of freedom". The book not decrying the situation in the US but just using this as an example of how terrorism has affected two nations in a different manner at the present time, as if the respective peoples currently live in "different worlds".

This is an extremely interesting, composed, well written, incisive study into the common threats facing the US, Israel and the West, as well as an informed insight into the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Highly recommended. Thank you.

This book is a collection of many of Saul Singer's columns and editorials for the Jerusalem Post.

One might think that there would be little for him to say. After all, Israel is a small nation. What it does probably isn't very important. Even if it were to do something drastically different, such as giving away most of its land, or starting a war with a neighbor, or forming a military alliance with Syria, one might wonder why that would be interesting. Worse, Israel's options are heavily constrained: it is unlikely to do much of anything at all.

Nevertheless, there's still quite a bit of value in these articles. For one thing, while Israel's options may be limited, it's still worth trying to keep track of what is happening in the region and in the world. A second point is that much of what is written about Israel is intentionally inaccurate, misleading, or simply thoughtless. It's good to have someone around to provide some accuracy and clarity. Finally, many of the problems we see in the Levant have larger implications, and this makes what Singer writes important for everyone.

One theme of Singer's is the folly of "evenhandedness." That is, the European Union tends to support the Arabs in their war against Israel. The United States purports to be a fair and honest broker that can bring peace to both sides. Singer points out more than once that this doesn't work. A neutral approach towards ending fights favors bullies. After all, if the aggressor and the victim are to be treated equally, why not be an aggressor? And this is in fact one of the reasons that we don't have serious progress towards peace between Israel and the Arabs.

I liked the variety of subjects that Singer addressed and found his views thoughtful and interesting. I recommend his book.

I read many of the pages of this book in the Jerusalem Post where Saul Singer has both a weekly column, and often writes the editorial page. He is very insightful on the whole subject of the Terrorist war now being waged against Israel. And he understands very well the kinds of media - bias Israel continually faces. He is a very sane and balanced writer, a rationalist who builds his arguments carefully. He is also it can be seen a decent person motivated not by hatred of the ' enemy' but by a strong desire to find a way toward peace in a better Middle East. American born he too has a good insight into the political realities of the world's single superpower and of the US- Israel relationship. There is much to be learned from reading this excellent collection. And for the honest and open- minded there is a deeper understanding of the Arab - Israel conflict than is generally presented in the world's media.

Years ago I like others stumbled upon Cooking Light at the newstand. Having been a subscriber now for years I can attest that it is only one of two cooking magazines I subscribe to, read and use the recipes. This volume has many recipes I constantly use, e.g. see their Christmas dishes, the Balsamic Lamb Chops are a knockout. Also, the section on stuffed Chicken Breasts has kept me contiually slitting and stuffing with exotic mixtures.

The recipes are great - it's nice to have a year subscription compiled into one book. The only downfall to the book is that it is missing the great index provided by the magazine that groups recipes into catagories. I just pulled my "97 index from the Dec issue of Cooking Light magazine as a reference and now have the greatest cook book around.

I have only had this book two weeks and I have been cooking from it non-stop. The Cooking Light staff has brought healthy eating into the '90s and made it accessiable for everyone. The desserts and baked goods are beyond compare. Simple main dishes and wonderful treatment of vegtable side dishes abound. I love this book, it is better than any of their previous compilations to date!

I was tired of making the same old stuff every week, so I looked for a book that would also help keep down our cholesterol and fat intake. I found this book and haven't missed using it a week since I got it. It is great not only for the healthy recipes, but for how the recipes compare to fatty ones and taste even better in my opinion. They are pretty easy to make and range from cakes and goodies to detailed Italian meals. It also gives you a selection of the same dish( ie. several kinds of lasagna to choose from). Recipes are easy to find and several have enticing photos to encourage you to try them. A "must have"in the kitchen. I'm buying it, and it's predicesors, for birthday gifts for friends...they'll "eat it up".

Twenty-five years ago The New Criterion set out to challenge the orthodoxies current among the gibbering classes. Counterpoints is a collection of the journal's choicest essays and reviews dedicated to that end.

Fifty years from now this volume will be read as an indispensable primary source for the cultural history of our times. My hope is that some future historian will compile a companion volume of the most drivelsome reviews and essays published in the leading orthodox organs of the same period. To be done properly, this companion work would have to stretch back at least far enough to incorporates such forgotten capi di lavoro as The Greening of America, since the imbecilities of the last twenty-five years evolved well before The New Criterion began its work.

The editor of the proposed compilation will have to burrow laboriously into a huge midden heap of discarded intellectual trash. Happily we can dispense with such grimy and sordid sifting. This collection provides a more than adequate overview of the cultural pathologies of our times, and does so elegantly. There is not one awkward or obscure sentence in its 484 pages, and a good many gems of critical panache and wit.

Its most satisfying feature is the way it combines demolition and affirmation.

The New Criterion is the most highbrow of conservative publications and one of the most intellectually rewarding and in these pages only the best of their best is on display; for the mind this is an inspiring feast. A myriad of themes are developed but the one most ubiquitous is that western civilization is in serious decline and it is impossible to know how much further it will deteriorate. In 2007, the radicals are no longer at the gates; they have melted them down and turned them into loud speakers. They have tainted the west's intellectual inheritance with one of their many interlocking isms, and the young have been persuaded that war, slavery, and dehumanization are our main cultural achievements.

It is here, upon a blistering and torrid battlefield, that The New Criterion asserts itself. Their purpose is in keeping the immortal words of George Santayana that "the best men in all ages keep classic traditions alive." A standard motif of every issue is to rehabilitate verboten cerebrals or those who do not fit into the sound byte parameters of our society. This volume resurrects a great many figures. The title of a composition by Brooke Allen asks "Who Was Simon Raven?" but readers will no cause to echo her after once they are finished. The same can be said of other unfashionable personages like John Buchan, Leigh Fermor, Milton Avery, F.R. Leavis, and Donald Francis Tovey.

Every person and idea that the journal places into our consciousness acts as a partial antidote to the neurotoxin of political correctness, and builds an infrastructure upon which we can better understand our world. Nowadays, unfortunately, truth exists almost entirely outside the purview of the race, class, and sex Commissars infesting our universities.The New Criterion does more than commemorate and enshrine. It also counterattacks which it does in an entertaining and lethal fashion. Its artful and erudite tone does not diminish its impact. This should not surprise us as Evander Holyfield also fought like a gentleman, but woe to the fool who stepped into one of his combinations.

In these days of insane educational inflation, the most important question to ask in regards to this book is how many college courses is it worth? Five? Ten? Fifteen? I guess the answer depends on the particular university and how "engaged" their professors happen to be. When the search for truth has been abandoned and truth itself has been demoted to one of many competing "perspectives," the fruit of this journal is one of the few ways in which the young can discern veritas.

COUNTERPOINTS: The New Criterion celebrates its 25th anniversary with this collection of essays by some of the most influential critics in the English language.
The mere fact that a conservative journal of cultural criticism not only survives but thrives after 25 years should earn The New Criterion first place in the pantheon of great achievements. After all, TS Eliot's Criterion survived only 17 years in a much friendlier cultural milieu. Separating beauty from dross, right from wrong, good from evil has been the forte of TNC. This is not an easy accomplishment in a culture where "anything goes".
The monthly arrival of the journal brings anticipation, excitement, and obligation. It is not possible to read these articles without a sense that something has been amiss in one's education. Regular readers know the responsibility felt after a new edition introduces them to authors and artists and controversies which, if not unknown to the reader, were at least unappreciated. Thus the obligation...to read more, to learn more and thus savor life more fully.
Above all, this sort of criticism requires judgement...a philosophy that some things are indeed better than others and it is the former that should be promoted and the latter identified and decried. The contributors are the kind of people with whom one would want to share a glass of port: Mark Steyn, Robert Bork, David Pryce Jones, Roger Scruton, Heather MacDonald. Joseph Epstein, Theodore Dalrymple, Gertrude Himmelfarb. The best and the brightest of our time. Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball are to be congratulated for their editorship of this excellent journal. And all of us should buy this book, pull a chair up to the fire, and sip that port.

The New Criterion, Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball's journal of culture and the arts, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. To commemorate the occasion, Kramer and Kimball have put out a new anthology of essays from the magazine, Counterpoints. This is not a work of poetry, but in fulfilling Horace's dictum it is both delightful and instructive.

The aim of The New Criterion, the editors tell us in their short introduction, paraphrasing Eliot, is to "foster common concern for the highest standards of both thought and expression" and to "discharge `our common responsibility...to preserve our common culture uncontaminated by political influences.'" In an era when Western culture is constantly under attack from within by relativists and from without by recidivists, and art has descended to little more than political propaganda by other means, this mission is more important than ever. The essays chosen for inclusion in this volume distill TNC's work splendidly.

Most of the great political issues of the past quarter century are discussed in Counterpoints. Are you concerned about Islamic jihadists? Read Mark Steyn on demography and David Fromkin on Turkey. Has immigration got your goat? Roger Scruton examines Enoch Powell, the British politician whose career was lost when he riled up an early PC mob. Care to revisit the Cold War? Roger Kimball and David Prcye-Jones discuss the gulag and the West's useful idiots, respectively. Keith Windschuttle battles anti-Americanism by exposing the hypocrisy of Noam Chomsky and Mordecai Richler shows us the rest of the world's warts with Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad. The academic left is excoriated in Heather Mac Donald's examination of the Smithsonian institution and James Franklin's essay on scientific irrationalism, while Robert Bork decries the judicial power-grab in this country. And there's more.

Much more than just politics is discussed, however. The New Criterion's culture warriors also do battle on the artistic plains. The poetry of Frost, Eliot, and the New York School is considered, as well as the criticism of Yvor Winters and F.R. Leavis. The writing of Simon Raven, Paul Valery and Lord Acton is lauded while Ralph Waldo Emerson and French writer Michel Houellebecq come in for some harsh treatment. There are essays on art (though not as many as you might expect from a New Criterion anthology), music, the theater, dance, and even architecture. Theodore Dalrymple's examination of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and its possible effect on our society is a particular pleasure.

I found this collection enormously edifying, and the only very small quibble I might make is that none of James Bowman's excellent media criticism or Jay Nordlinger's writing on music found its way into the volume. Still, Counterpoints has a little something for everyone. It can be enjoyed in its entirety or taken off the bookshelf to lightly read an essay or two. Recommended.

This is quite the beautiful book! It's the diary an English girl keeps of the various plants and birds that she finds throughout the year. While this would be far more interesting to someone who knows and has an interest in the subject, it was still interesting for me to read because of the absolutely beautiful drawings she includes, as well as the poems and information about the various months.

I had some of the stationary years ago, and didn't realize until I was at a second hand booksale the other day that the artwork was from a book. What a treasure of drawings!
And how wonderful to think that someone a)saved it and b) had the courage to reprint it exactly as it was, handwriting and all. Worth it just for the artwork, plus you get a view into the world of the women of that time. Having just seen the film "Miss Potter" and how hard it was for a woman to be taken seriously as an artist in England, this book is a delight to find.

i have a reseach paper due on this book and i need to make direct quotes on it. please help! thanks.

Charlotte Mason was an educator in England in the last century, and one of her main educational methods was to have every student keep a Nature Notebook or Nature Diary---a record of the natural world as the children observed it first-hand. The student's Nature Notebooks were filled with poetry, prose, line drawings and watercolors.

"The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" is the perfect example of a fully developed Nature Diary. The author went out amid the English countryside and recorded what she observed---the flowers, trees, birds, insects.

The artistry of the drawings and watercolors in this is absolutely breathtaking. If you're looking for an introduction to the idea of Nature Diaries, or you simply enjoy a book of true grace and beauty, then this is the book for you.

Jacob Rosen, a seasoned diplomat writes a serious, but entertaining book about his experiences in the diplomatic world which takes him on assignments throughout the Arab world. A collection of short stories that at times can be very amusing and at others, quite thought provoking. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to get a better understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict throughan unreported look at the culture and every day life of Arabs and Israelis.

Hello Jacob, I loved your book. I understand now that the problems in the Middle East are not so easy to solve. But the world needs people like you, who have understanding for other meanings and believes. Your stories are short but do have a deeper meening and are somethimes very sad. I hope that a new book of you will soon be ready. I will again order it a.s.a.p. at Amazon.com.
best regards and greetings to your family.

Jacob Rosen's book is hilarious, as well as serious
in parts, giving an insight into the peoples of the
Middle East.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to
know and understand the different nations living side
by side, who do not even understand themselves!
An excellent light hearted short-story book of the
daily lives of the average person in the Middle East
and which should be read by and be on the bookshelves
of every home and book shop in the region.

Well, done Mr. Rosen for sharing your experiences
and having this book published for the world to
read.

If you want to read a book that can bring you to a deeper grasp of the Arab culture, try this one. Mr. Rosens book brings to your table a thoroughly digestable understanding of the ins and outs of Arab life.