AS

But "Herr Lilienthal" did not only provide an explanation of birdflight, he was also a powerful motivator. His brother, Gustaf, writes about Otto's unconditional dedication to his dream - spending all his finances and energy into experiments and his flying machines. If you are an engineer in search of a vision - read this book !

Otto Lilienthal was a German engineer whose passion was flight. He died on August 9, 1896, after a gliding accident the day before. Just before his death, he said, "Sacrifices must be made."

This is his book. It was read by virtually all of the original aviation pioneers. The American aviation pioneers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who [Orville] made their first successful powered flight on December 17, 1903, considered him their hero. Lilienthal studied birds closely, and from them he learned how they change the dihedral and curvature of their wings in flight, in order to conform to the conditions of the ocean of air in which they swam. The Wrights learned from him, and warped the wings of their craft in flight to bank and turn.

We are justified in calling Lilienthal the Father of Gliding Experiments--perhaps even the Father of Aviation. Next time you lift off in a jetliner, it would not be amiss if you thought of this man who literally gave his life for his dream of flight.

Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation was first published in 1891, and this, the 2001 edition, is an unabridged copy of the original, complete with Lilienthal's own diagrams and formulae, and with a Preface written in 1911 by A.W. Isenthal, who translated the original into English after Otto's death. Like the Wright brothers, Otto was assisted in his work by his brother Gustave, who died in 1933. Some of this book was written by Gustave.

This is truly a remarkable volume. It represents Lilienthal's life work and is a compilation of the results of the numerous experiments made by the brothers. Although some of Lilienthal's calculations have been improved upon since this book was written, his work was the first light to pierce the darkness of ignorance on what has since become the science of aerodynamics. Today's hang gliding enthusiasts owe him a great debt of gratitude.

The art of photography was developed in France circa 1839, and thus this book contains several photographs of Lilienthal gliding in his light, unpowered aircraft.

If you are an aviation enthusiast, of whatever age or experience, this is a book you will want to add to your library.

Joseph Pierre

It is powerful stuff and difficult to accept, but truth sometimes is.

This one is a two Volume Set - with Volume 1 starting with the nomination of Abraham Lincoln as President of the US and follows the events to the bloody three-day battle of Gettysburg, the highwater mark of the Confederacy. Volume 2 takes us from the aftermath of Gettysburg and follows the war to Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

The works are surprisingly slim considering what it covers, so this is not an in-depth look at the War Between the States. It does however give a gold mine of details. For someone looking to understand the war, its causes and the people that fought it, this is a wonderful place to start.

Highly recommended for the beginning or intermediate Civil War Buff.

Reader Caution: The images in this book would exceed an R rating if the book's content were in a motion picture.

Review: Photography and views of the human body have shifted enormously in the last 100 years. This extremely interesting book does a great job of exploring those shifts. It also conjectures forward into the world in which the combination of mastering genetics and body reshaping methods (like plastic surgery) will provide even more choice. The book will be of most interest to those who are not very familiar with the history of photography since the images and essays cover little new ground.

The essay is extremely thorough and interesting in explaining the book's themes which are:

Flesh -- the naked body to appeal to the prurient rather than the artistic

Microcosm -- microscopic images of the body's interior

Gaze -- the public part of the body, especially the face and eyes

Memory -- the aid to the mind's recollection

Icon -- the idealized body

Form -- the artistic nude

Pain -- the suffering body

Politics -- meanings and values are contested

Enquiry -- scientific investigation

Fiction -- images, dreams, and fantasies

Macrocosm -- a single human body in relation to the universe.

My favorite images in the book were mostly old favorites:

Man Ray, 1924, Violin d'Ingres;

Imogen Cunningham, 1932, Nude;

Sasha Stone, 1933, Study of the Human Body;

Leni Riefenstahl, 1936, Jesse Owens;

Edward Weston, 1936, Nude;

Louise Dahl-Wolfe, 1948, Nude in the Desert;

Gerhard Kiesling, 1952, Miners;

Don McCullen, 1969, Albino Boy in a Camp of 900 Dying Children, Biafra;

Nick Ut, 1972, Napalm Bomb Attack, Vietnam;

Lennart Nilsson, 1973, A Human Foetus at Three Months;

Hermut Newton, 1981, Sie kommen (naked and dressed), Paris;

Robert Mapplethorpe, 1982, Lisa Lyon.

I suspect that the book would have worked better if it had narrowed its focus to a single theme. Perhaps such works will follow.

Those who see their favorite photographs in this book will often be a little disappointed that their size and reproduction are a little on the smallish side and below top grade.

After you use these images and essays to capture a better sense of what the body has been all about, perhaps you could take a moment to think about what your body means to you. How can you create a more positive connection with your body? How can you draw more strength from it? How can you enjoy being at one with your body?

Draw upon images of what is . . . to create plans to build what is better for all!

The foreword gives a nice explantion of the how the book tries to capture the essense of the European exhibition, and is followed by a dozen or so pages chronicling the evolution of photographic science and human body photography through the 1900's. Mr. Ewing, who is Director of the Musée de l'Elysée in Lausanne, definitely knows his stuff; this is interesting reading.

The one hundred photos (all b/w except for a handful) are displayed in chronological order, and in much the same way as a museum would: photograph on the right-hand page; title and credit on the left. A major plus is the insightful commentary about the artists and their photographic styles which accompanies each photo credit. In keeping with the gallery presentation, thirteen themes are evidenced in this collection, the most prominent being "Expression," "Form," "Politics," "Fiction," and "Flesh."

"The Century of the Body" portrays many photographic genres: Pictorialism, Modernism, Surrealism, body art, fashion and even endoscopic photography. Noteworthy contributors include Stieglitz, Imogen Cunningham, Man Ray, Weston, Avedon and Mapplethorpe. Every image made me look a long time; none were lewd or offensive. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in photographic style, or simply . . . art.

Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in the original, esoteric forms of Christianity as a Jewish-styled version of the Hellenistic mystery-religion, as described in the book The Jesus Mysteries, by Freke and Gandy.

(I) The book opens with a piece entitled "Points of View". Here Steiner introduces the reader to "spiritual science," which investigates spiritual pheonomena the way natural scientists observe the physical world. In this book, the phenomenon to be investigated is the spiritual evolution of humankind.

(II) In "Mysteries and Mystery Wisdom", Steiner discusses the initiates and truth seekers of ancient civilizations. In each community, there were always two religions, the religion of the people and the "secret" religion. He describes rules, teachings and practices common to all these secret religions, with emphasis on the Ancient Greek Mysteries. Then he illustrates what mystics who achieved enlightenment experienced, quoting the likes of Heraclitus, Plutarch and Xenophanes.

(III) In "Greek Sages before Plato in the Light of Mystery Wisdom", Steiner delves deeper into Ancient Greek philosophy. By shedding the light of the mysteries on the writings of those who modern thinkers call the "Natural Philosophers", he reveals that these ancients studied not the physical world, but the spiritual world.

(IV) "Plato As a Mystic" is a part devoted entirely to Plato's teachings. First, Steiner describes Socrates as an initiate, drawing on the accounts in the "Phaedo", the "Timaeus", and the "Symposium". Then he takes apart a few Greek myths to show how their symbols correspond to mystery images. Finally, he introduces Philo, a Neoplatonist considered a reincarnation of Plato, to show how similar are Plato's path to cognition and Christians' path to Christ.

(V) "Mystery Wisdom and Myth" is a continuation of the previous part, with more analyses of Greek myths and philosophy. Here, Steiner also shows similarities between a parable attributed to Buddha and the Egyptian myth of Osiris.

(VI) In "Egyptian Mystery Wisdom", Steiner digs more deeply into the story of Osiris and the text of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Then he reveals the parallels in the lives of Buddha and Jesus of Nazareth, proving that Buddhism is also a mystical fact. Unlike the Osiris myth and the story of Buddha, however, the life of Jesus takes the initiations further.

(VII) "The Gospels" examines the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John not as biographies of Jesus as a man, but as myths that speak of the "Mystery of Golgotha" the way the myths of Ancient Greece speak of the Ancient Mysteries. The Mysteries of Judaism are also touched here, because it was to a Jewish initiate that the Logos descended.

(VIII) In "The Miracle of the Raising of Lazarus", Steiner shows what is so special and significant about Lazarus' rising from the dead. (There is more on this in Steiner's "The Gospel of St. John".)

(IX) In "The Apocalypse of John", Steiner uncovers the meanings of the strange symbols in Revelations: the seven churches, the seven seals, the four horsemen, the four animals, etc.

(X) "Jesus and His Historical Background" gives some information on the Essenes and the Therapeutae, who initiated Jesus of Nazareth into the Mysteries. Describing their lifestyle and beliefs, Steiner explains their role in the spiritual evolution of humankind.

(XI) "The Essence of Christianity" is where Steiner finally explains how Christianity differs from the ancient secret religions and why Christian philosophy has rightly changed the world. He also shows how the earliest Christians, and many Gnostics were able to reconcile the Mystery of Golgotha with the Ancient Mysteries.

(XII) In "Christianity and Pagan Wisdom", Steiner compares Neoplatonism, the representative vessel of pagan wisdom, and Christianity, to show why Christianity is so important in relation to the ancient Mysteries.

(XIII) The book ends with "Augustine and the Church". As St. Augustine of Hippo was a pagan who was converted to Christianity, his convictions, quoted by Steiner, are a magnificent illustration of the transition from pagan spirituality to Christian spirituality. St. Augustine set a precedent for the approach to the Christ Mystery that most Catholics follow to this day. Steiner does not judge this path as right or wrong, but does explain why the Christ event has redeemed faith in mysticism.

As most of Steiner's illustrations involve Ancient Greek initiates and early Christian mystics, a background in history and philosophy will definitely make it easier to plod through this book. Fortunately, the reader can get away with information gleaned from the outlines in "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder.

Steiner interprets the life of Chrsit as a model for the path of an initiate. As examples, he offers elegant insights into parts of the gospels which have previously left me "in the dark." Some say that Steiner's approach to the Christianity has been continued by Joseph Campbell. If you like Campbell, you'll like this book.

This book has reinvigorated Christianity for me-- by showing me how it can be interpreted like a myth. Now I can look at the gospels in a new manner, and gain new insights from them.

I think that it helps to have a little background in Greek philosophy to read this book, but I don't think that its absolutely necessary.