EH Books

This was a great resource book! Lots to see and use. Most other books dont have enough detail. This one really takes it up a notch!

It is really good because it is local based for Melbourne, Australia, not America.

This book would have been fine if it had been read by someone nearly fifty years ago. If you like fossils and fossil hunting this book would have been great. But I needed it for basically a resource for research, and it fell on the wayside miserably in that aspect. It was originally copyrighted for 1958, so the publication date on Amazon was a little misleading, no offense. The illustrations that are in it, and there are a lot, are downright pathetic, it looks like a 3 year old drew most of them. There was next to nothing on fossil floras and no descriptions of any paleoecosystems in detail. The classifications of various vertabrate groups are out of date miserably. All in all buy this book, if you're fifty years old and no nothing at all about fossils and paleontology. But if you do no some and you want to learn more, this book is a waste of time, and a waste of the green stuff if you know what I mean.

The original version of this book was published in 1958. It is a wonderful introduction to the fossil record. The book is organized by begining with the oldest fossils, and working forward through time to the most recent fossils. There are many excellent drawings and phtographs to help the reader understand not only what the living animal looked like, but what the typical fossil parts look like.

This book does not require the reader to already be a scientist in order to understand and enjoy it's contents. For the amateur fossil collector, this is a valuable reference book that will be used over, and over again.

Many important discoveries have been made in geology since 1958, and the more recent edition(s) incorporate these discoveries. Like all sciences, geology is a growing body of knowledge.

We've all heard confident claims about "multitudes" of transitional forms in the fossil record, but what have the evolutionary paleontologists been forced to admit? Are there any transitional forms at all?

"... I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. You suggest that an artist should be used to visualize such transformations, but where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it, and if I were to leave it to artistic license, would that not mislead the reader?

I wrote the text of my book four years ago. If I were to write it now, I think the book would be rather different. Gradualism is a concept I believe in, not just because of Darwin's authority, but because my understanding of genetics seems to demand it. Yet Gould and the American Museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils. As a palaeontologist myself, I am much occupied with the philosophical problems of identifying ancestral forms in the fossil record. You say that I should at least `show a photo of the fossil from which each type of organism was derived.' I will lay it on the line-there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument." --Personal letter (written 10 April 1979) from Dr. Colin Patterson, Senior Palaeontologist at the British Museum of Natural History in London, to Luther D. Sunderland; as quoted in "Darwin's Enigma" by Luther D. Sunderland, Master Books, San Diego, USA, 1984, p. 89.

"I know that, at least in paleoanthropology, data are still so sparse that theory heavily influences interpretations. Theories have, in the past, clearly reflected our current ideologies instead of the actual data." --Dr. David Pilbeam (Physical Anthropologist, Yale University, USA), "Rearranging our family tree". "Human Nature", June 1978, p. 45.

"The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution." --Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), "Is a new and general theory of evolution emerging?" "Paleobiology", vol. 6 (1), January 1980, p. 127.

"All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between major groups are characteristically abrupt." --Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), "The return of hopeful monsters". "Natural History", vol. LXXXVI (6), June-July 1977, p. 24.

"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils. Yet Darwin was so wedded to gradualism that he wagered his entire theory on a denial of this literal record:

"The geological record is extremely imperfect and this fact will to a large extent explain why we do not find interminable varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record, will rightly reject my whole theory."

Darwin's argument still persists as the favored escape of most paleontologists from the embarrassment of a record that seems to show so little of evolution. In exposing its cultural and methodological roots, I wish in no way to impugn the potential validity of gradualism (for all general views have similar roots). I wish only to point out that it was never `seen' in the rocks.

Paleontologists have paid an exorbitant price for Darwin's argument. We fancy ourselves as the only true students of life's history, yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that we never see the very process we profess to study." --Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), "Evolution's erratic pace". "Natural History", vol. LXXXVI (5), May 1977, p. 14.

So how important is the fossil record to the evolutionist?

In 1960 the point was still being made...

"Although the comparative study of living animals and plants may give very convincing circumstantial evidence, fossils provide the only historical, documentary evidence that life has evolved from simpler to more and more complex forms." --Carl O. Dunbar, Ph.D. (geology) (Professor Emeritus of Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Yale University, and formerly Assistant Editor, "American Journal of Science") in "Historical Geology", John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1960, p. 47.

But more than 20 years later, after concerted creationist exposure of the true nature of the fossil record...

"In any case, no real evolutionist, whether gradualist or punctuationist, uses the fossil record as evidence in favour of the theory of evolution as opposed to special creation." --Mark Ridley (zoologist, Oxford University), "Who doubts evolution?" "New Scientist", vol. 90, 25 June 1981, p. 831.

"Scientists who go about teaching that evolution is a fact of life are great con-men, and the story they are telling may be the greatest hoax ever. In explaining evolution, we do not have one iota of fact." --Dr. T. N. Tahmisian (Atomic Energy Commission, USA) in "The Fresno Bee", August 20, 1959. As quoted by N.J. Mitchell, "Evolution and the Emperor's New Clothes", Roydon publications, UK, 1983, title page.

Books I also strongly recommend reading are: "Bones of Contention" by Marvin Lubenow, "Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No!" by Duane Gish, "Icon of Evolution" by Jonathan Wells and "Darwin's Black Box" by Michael Behe.

Sorry for my English...

I'm reading it now and I feel that my understanding of nursing is growing from chapter to chapter. I want say thanks for autors of this book for their greate work. After reading I feel safely when I need care for clients in hospital and I just understand what I have to do and why.

The book was as advertised -- new and unmarked. The CD package had not been opened. I am very satisfied with my purchase and the savings.

The other students in my class got the next edition, and there are some changes that make this one outdated. However, I am getting by and paid only a fraction for my books of what the other students paid. If you are intellectually resourceful, it may be worth your money to buy this edition used. If you are financially resourceful, it may be worth your time to buy the current edition.

This book tries so hard to make social and cultural variances seem like scientific fact. Of course, a nursing text should discuss patient care but not as always black and white; it edges on stereotyping at times. Conversely, if physiology is mentioned, the science behind the concept is often ignored. I think this book is based on pseudo-science at times.

Perhaps, it is just my class that has confused me because the book, lecture and exams have nothing to do with each other; so, consequently, the book seems less relevant.

The procedures in the back of each chapter are helpful.

This book provides good explanations for the various processes and procedures of nursing. I really like the additional material such as the CD and the website.

I needed this book for my class and it was shipped to me within 4 days. Great response time and book was in excellent condition.

It's a biology text book, it is all I have ever dreamed it would be.

This book was a good deal because at my school they sell it for about $150. The book is hardcover and has a passcode that can be used online to study better.

it was the correct book and i got access to mybiology.com which is helping me a lot with my class. i saved over $50!

The person selling the book deliberately put the wrong information in so when I got the book a few days from my class start date, it was not the correct book. I ordered the 6th edition but she sent the 4th edition so I had to turn around and pay much more for the textbook from the school bookstore. The seller had an attitude with me, telling me I should have ordered the right book. I sent her my reciept showing what I ordered. Amazon took care of giving me a refund but I still wound up paying more to send the book back. I paid postage to get it to me as well as to send it back. It would have been better for me to just go to the bookstore and purchase it.

Came in a timely matter. Great price (could have paid over a hundred dollars for it). Was honest in description. Well packaged. Thank you so much!

I took one Art History course in my college career at Boston University and it was taught by Prof. Fred Kleiner, the author of this book. I clearly remember, over 25 years later, how wonderful and exciting Fred Kleiner's lectures in Art History were. When I go to museums I remember Prof. Kleiner's passionate, stirring descriptions of art and architecture. I was a business major, and his love for art really broke through and taught me to understand what is so wonderful about art. We also used Gardner's Art Through The Ages back in 1980, but it was before he was the author.

The book arrived in a very timely manner and it was in great condition -- no markings or bent pages. I would definitely buy from this seller again.

This book is very informative and it tries to explain so that there is not much confusion after looking it over.

I am extremely disappointed in amazon and this book. You guys delivered it over a month late.I'm not paying for amazon prime so I can receive much needed books over a month late. I had to go to my College bookstore and pay $120. You wanna know the worst part? They don't accept devolutions. So I'm extremely disappointed.

I love L'amour's western Novels. I have about forty of them. This is about an Easterner named Tom Chantry. He say's he won't carry a gun, but people warn him, 'you need to wear a gun' When Tom Chantry starts on a cattle drive with a man named french Williams and his men, he finds out he'll have to fight and wear a gun

My VERY favorite L'amour, though, is the man called noon.
I reccomend this book.

William Andrews

Tom Chantry began this story as a peaceloving man who refused to carry a gun. He inherited this belief because his own father had been gunned down when he was a boy. After his father's death, he moved to the east and that is where he grew up. As a young man, he came west to buy, drive, and ship cattle back east. He thought he would have no need for a gun, but soon became known as a coward because of his beliefs. Over time, and with much trouble, he finally realized that he needed his guns to survive in this wild country. In the end, he defeats all his enemies and gets his cattle to the railroad head. I enjoyed reading this one and encourage you to give it a try.

I didn't rate this a 5 because it didn't hold my interest the way some of the other L'Amour books have. L'Amour holds true in this book to his theme of education, peace loving (unless forced to be otherwise) and a little romance.
The book didn't pick up for me until the end.

A pleasing, unusual Western from genre master Louis L'Amour, "North To The Rails" is a fast-moving account of a cattle drive up the hard country of the American southwest, led by a man from back East who must choose between a moral code that hates guns and showing his fellow cowboys he is tough enough to live through his assignment.

"I believe a lot more can be done by reason than by guns," says the man, Tom Chantry, whose father Borden was killed by the gun (and was the subject of another L'Amour western.) Arguing against that philosophy are several nasty cowpokes, including the cunning French Williams, who schemes to take Chantry's cattle away from him even as he goes through the motions of helping him out.

That's not really a spoiler, as French is curiously upfront about what he's up to, in an amiably roundabout way. Williams is one of many welcome elements in L'Amour's 1971 novel, giving you what you expect in terms of the flavor of the Old West, but not in the expected ways.

When we first meet Tom Chantry, he's about to be dry-gulched by the nasty Talrim brothers. "This is raw country," he is told later, after he explains his policy about weapons. "The good folks are good because it's their nature, and the bad can run to meanness until someone fetches them up short."

L'Amour seems at times to be making points to modern audiences, as the early 1970s were about the time people began arguing about American firearms laws, questioning precisely those tenets of liberty and self-protection L'Amour's oeuvre espoused. For L'Amour, it's a question of circumstances. In the East, people can count on police and a code of refinement to keep them safe and unchallenged. But out West, in the years after the Civil War, there was no such civilizing insulation from life's crueler side, just the hard truth of it. Maintaining one's freedom depends on one's willingness to not only have beliefs, but fight for them, lethally if necessary.

At the same time, L'Amour presents Chantry's side of the argument with fairness, showing it not only a deeply-felt position but at times a practical one. Again, it boils down to circumstances. Chantry's story becomes one of making choices, of showing he has the right amount of "sand" to tough out the challenges before him but maintaining a sense of integrity, of living up to the ideals he rode in with.

L'Amour makes this dilemma entertaining, and at the same time sweeps you up on a good cattle drive story, one up there with "Red River" for all its shifting loyalties and plot twists. Like H. Bala pointed out in a March 2007 review, the supporting cast comes off a bit cardboard at times, not all of them producing a real payoff despite the care L'Amour puts into introducing them.

But there's a nice through-line the whole way across the novel that leads to a somewhat offbeat if satisfying end. Everything in this L'Amour novel can be described that way, offbeat but satisfying, and it provides more than the usual enjoyment you get from reading the Old West master.

I miss Louis L'Amour. I first discovered him when I was in high school in the '80s, and I remember devouring his books one after another. I remember the sadness I felt when I found out he'd passed away. Though I prefer his Sackett stories (especially William Tell, my favorite Sackett), his chronicles of the Talon and Chantry families also make excellent reading. Heck, even his non-series novels are gripping (FALLON, FIRST FAST DRAW, BENDIGO SHAFTER, FLINT, REILLY'S LUCK...and these are just the ones off the top of my head; he's got many other fine novels). The very enjoyable NORTH TO THE RAILS is a Chantry novel.

NORTH TO THE RAILS tells the story of young Tom Chantry, a businessman from New York who journeys to rugged Nevada and quickly garners a reputation for cowardice when he backs out of a gunfight. This hampers his attempts to purchase a herd of cattle as most folks in the Old West hold the quality of courage in high esteem, and no one now trusts Chantry. Tom does finally end up with steer when he makes a chancy deal with French Williams, a cattleman of canny but dubious nature. The deal is that Williams and his shifty cowhands will herd the beef if Chantry accompanies them for the duration of the cattle drive. If, at any time, Chantry falls out before the trail's end, then Williams gets every last steer for himself.

Williams doesn't waste time in testing Chantry's mettle as he comes up with challenges and obstacles for Tom. But, here's the thing: just because a man doesn't believe in killing doesn't mean he won't fight for what he believes in. And Chantry may now be from the soft and civilized East, but he was born in the wild West, and his father, who had been a respected marshall, had taught him some things...

Two things about the prolific Mr. L'Amour: he knew how to write bone-crunching action sequences which impact the reader on a primal level, and he was a master at conveying his great love for the West. Each western he wrote would inevitably offer rich and evocative passages not only about the land itself but about its people, its history, and its culture. Himself a self-made and self-taught man, he valued the quality of the hardy people who tamed the savage frontier.

Here, he effectively delineates the difference between someone who inhabits the urbane and long-settled East, where culture and civilized living had greatly tempered one's survival instincts, versus a denizen of the brutal and uncompromising West, where one's life and livelihood directly hinged on one's ability to show valor, keep one's word, and, on occasion, draw a gun. I was glued to the pages as, with every escalating predicament, L'Amour inexorably peels away layer after layer of Chantry's civilized veneer. Tom starts out adamant in his refusal to sport a gun and he holds to this for a large portion of the book, until circumstances force him to re-evaluate his philosophy. He becomes progressively seduced by the West, until, late in the book, Tom glances at a mirror and sees "...a tall, bronzed young man with wide shoulders, narrow hips, and a quietly commanding way about him." In Louis L'Amour's eyes, this is the very definition of a man of the West.

NORTH TO THE RAILS is action-packed, believe me, full of fist fights and, later, gun battles. Tom Chantry proves to be a very rootable protagonist as he is battered and wounded and bushwhacked but remains resolute. The can't miss premise (that of a perceived naive and out-of-his-depth character who actually turns out to have "sand," is resourceful, determined, and quite handy at kicking outlaw arse) hooked me in straightaway. The author, as usual, throws in a lot of nasty bad guys (there's even a female villainess) and a ton of peril down our dude's way. For the most part, L'Amour doesn't really take the time to flesh out his supporting characters so we're left with a lot of stereotypical cardboard cutouts here. He does give some much needed depth to French Williams and presents him with such an enigmatic stature that I didn't know which side he would ultimately be on. I also liked Sun Chief, though he was depicted in very broad strokes.

In my life, there are only two authors in the western genre: Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour. I've tried other authors of the "Cowboys and Injuns" ilk but have since learned to accept no substitutes. NORTH TO THE RAILS isn't even in the top tier of L'Amour's best works. Nevertheless, it can't help but entertain its readers. And, if you want to read about Tom Chantry's dad, take a peek at BORDEN CHANTRY.

Twenty years ago, I read an earlier, and much less
expensive, edition of this book. Shortly thereafter,
the book and I parted company. Too bad. I have not seen
the book since. What brings me to this webpage and what
constitutes this review is what I remember: "When you
start to think of your life in terms of a career, worry
and anxiety will be your constant partners"
(paraphrasing from memory). So true. Nonetheless,
college remains a happy memory for me, whatever the
grades I earned back then were. The secret, I think, is
having the right perspective. Inge Bell might be able
to help. At least, she's worth a try.

Another reviewer faults the book for including
Buddhism and socialism. I do remember the Buddhism. It
was my first and only exposure to that religion. I
appreciate that, though the religion is not for me.

Suggestion: look for a used copy of an EARLIER (first
or second) edition. Five stars for those editions.
Looking at those pages of the current (third) edition
visible on amazon, it appears that newly-added
coauthors Bernard McGrane and John Gunderson have added
lots and lots of words. Ugh. They probably have
doctorates in education. Three stars for it. It seems
to be not so "underground" anymore, though you might
still find it useful. Insist on Inge alone, if you can
get it.

Being a non-traditional student, I needed this years ago. This would have uncovered the mystery of College for me as a teenager and explained so much that College courses just do not offer to Freshmen. I will hand this down to my children and encourage any parent to purchase it for all High School Seniors.

This is a great book. It makes a great high school graduation gift for any kid about to go off to college. I wish I'd been able to read it before I began my undergraduate education. It points out a lot of pitfalls and potential problems that most recent high school grads are totally oblivious to in addition to reminding people there's more to living than trying to make the dean's list every semester. You need friends, you need a real life, you need to be comfortable with who you are.

This was an excellent book! I am nearing the end of my undergraduate degree now and plan to pursue a Master's degree. This book helped me to put my life and my goals into perspective. For the greater part of my life, I have become obsessed with grades and the pusuit of things to add to my resume that will ensure myself of getting into a good grad school and being awarded with a good career upon graduation. I disagree with readers who criticize Bell for being one-sided in her anti-institionalism (some say socialist) arguements. Common sense tells most students that grades are important because the reality is that our educational background and subsequent GPA help determine where we end up in life after university. The point is though that these things HELP but they are not the be-all-end-all nor should they be. It takes much more to define a person and build their character. In North American society, as young people we are constantly bombarded with the pressures of accomplishment and achievement through school and work. Of course, these are more than noble goals but when is it ever enough? This is what I see as the main point of the book and the author is sending us a warning to "stop and smell the roses" in life before we end up directionless and unfilled. Great addition to every young person's reading list!

Reading this book for the first time (I have read it many times since) I was most impacted by the chapter on grades. Bell hits the nail on the head: the entire system of grading, whether necessary for ranking students or not, does influence the way students perceive themselves. True learning happens when one is free from the quest for an A...when one is learning for the learning's sake.

This book is an excellent emotional and psychological lifesaver for any high school, college, or grad student. I love this book!

I took a year of general chemistry 25+ years ago but never needed to use it much since I pursued a career in engineering.

Recently I did an early retirement and one thing I wanted to pursue for my own interest was to learn about energy, and I decided it was not enough to just read a bunch of recent articles, I decided I needed to strenthen my background in two subjects, thermodynamics and chemistry.

Based on its reviews here on Amazon, I concluded that this particular text was likely to be the best choice of an up to date Chemistry textbook.

I have been very pleased with it. I don't have the perspective of the Chemistry tutor who is familiar with other texts and finds this one the best, but just judging it on its own merits I find it excellent.

Only very elementary math is needed but that appears to be quite sufficient to get a good grounding in Chemistry. To study Chemistry on a higher level mathematically I suspect would require a far greater investment of time that would probably only be justified if one intends to pursue Chemistry as a career, in advanced research or some such thing.

I am about through page 700 so far, but I think after getting through about 200 pages or so one has enough feel for the book to be able to make an informed assessment of the book as a whole.

The book wasn't in the best condition but it serves the purpose for my chemistry course.

This book was in perfect condition...no highlighting, no tears, no breakage...I would recommend this seller to anyone

I bought this book on March 22, 2008 and received it April 12, 08. This is unexpected. I bought another book at the same day and got it within 4 days.

I teach general chemistry as both a private tutor and as a free tutor at Purdue University. In my time, I've seen every general chemistry book known to man come across the table. Without fail, though, BLB is my reference text. Like many gen chem books it has excellent diagrams, but in addition the text is lucid, organized, well written and makes no pedagogical leaps that the reader must figure out on their own. It is easy to read and easy to understand and the material is presented in a fairly logical order (I have minor quibbles with some of it). I forsee this book becoming a classic in the future.

Collected Shorter Plays of Samuel Beckett: All That Fall, Act Without Words, Krapp's Last Tape, Cascando, Eh Joe, Footfall, Rockaby and others
After much searching I was very pleased to find this book on Amazon. I had particularly wanted this edition which includes 'Embers' to send to my son in Israel where he had been asked by a young director to translate into hebrew.
Thanks again to the seller for very prompt delivery and excellent condition of book.

This is a very fine assortment of Beckett's short dramatic works, together in one volume. Most of these are late works, and they all have that existentialist angst, not to mention the dark humor, that is the hallmark of Beckett's best late works. He worked in a variety of forms in his later works; there's a work for film, a television play, some radio works, as well as stage plays. In every instance his genius shines through. Fans of Beckett will find this volume indispensable, and anyone who has an appreciation of modern stage works will also find this a superb addition to their library.

The perfect collection of Samuel Beckett's shorter works. A resource that no home library should be without.

I have long heard the name of Samuel Beckett, along with Yeats, Bernard Shaw and Heaney as the 4 most distinguished writers of Ireland. But Beckett's plays in this book are a total disappointment!
For shoppers who are reading this review, you may disagree with my rating of this book, but you have to agree that the plays in this book can (might) only be appreciated through watching them being acted out, and not just by reading the scripts.
I don't understand the plays in this book at all, except for the very first one - All That Fall.
For those who like Eugene O'Neill and such, and not absurdity, please do not try this book.
This is definitely not worth US$15.95!
Maybe just US$1.95, for All That Fall.

It is in these short 'dramaticules' that Samuel Beckett's dark and chilling genius is at it's most intense. Beckett's plays are his most vivid depiction of the futility of human communication, and the undeniable solitude of the individual as a result.

Old age and the fruitless reminiscing that this stage of life brings, preoccupies Beckett in many of these short pieces. In 'Ohio Inpromptu' an aged character's memories are constantly stopped from wandering into nostalgia by the periodic knocking of his mirror image who sits opposite him. This struggle for or against nostalgia for the past is one that faces many of Beckett's characters. In 'Rockaby' and 'Footfalls' we see old women who have battled against life for long enough and are simply awaiting their death. They feel no longing for the past and feel no passion for a life that has failed them. In 'Krapp's Last Tape', Beckett's main character has the difficulty of simultaneously battling with his former and current self. The result is a display of disdain for the optimism and exuberance that characterises more youthful thought.

The aforementioned plays, as well as notable others such as 'The Old Tune' and 'All That Fall' fantastically exemplify Beckett's premise that we are all stuck on the pointless treadmill of life and that only death can pull us off it.

Jaroslav Pelikan is one of the most admired men and intellectual giants of the past century. This book is a charming and exciting read that investigates the images of the "Jesus of Culture".

He examines the person of Jesus of Nazareth and how he has influenced Western Culture through the past 2000 years. Some reviewers have commented that it is boring, but I beg to differ. It is thoroughly exciting and worthy of any thinkers bookshelf. As a matter of fact, I do not think you can be a cultured person without reading any of Pelikan's works.

He investigates how the historical figure of Jesus Christ was interpreted by subsequent generations. This is highly enlightening, because he relates in each chapter the common thread that unites all these people, despite the (sometimes substantial) differences they have. The early Fathers, the later Fathers, the Neo-Platonist Fathers, the Scholastic Theologians, the mystics, the globalists, are all examined and discussed in scholarly detail.

The first chapter focuses on Jesus the Rabbi and talks about how modern scholarship is helping us uncover (again) the Jesus of history. Jesus the Jew, who lived in a particular time-period and was restricted by his own cultural surroundings, a Jesus who is not so much different from us, a Jesus who helps us contextualize the beliefs Christians now take for granted.

He moves in a logical progression, following the timeline of the Church until contemporary times. All in all this book is highly recommended and I hope you buy it, because you will not regret it.

This is a very useful, well researched, largely descriptive survey of how Western culture has viewed Jesus Christ. It's not a work of theology, it's not an inspirational work--it is what it is, interesting with its limitations. There's much that Pelikan faithfully records that's nonsense, such as Thomas Jefferson's breathtakingly vain and obtuse pronouncements about what Jesus really said. There are also some staggering transitions, such as the discussion on Emerson that suddenly veers into Dostoyevsky's The Grand Inquisitor from The Brothers Karamazov (the greatest novel ever). It's worth a read, particularly in paperback, but understand that it won't bring you much closer at all to an answer to Jesus's own question, Who do men say that I am?

This was a good survey of Jesus and the impact he has had on culture. We see Jesus the rabbi, as the early Christians emphasized his Jewishness. We see Christus victor and how the cross of Christ imspired the armies of Constantine and the Roman Empire to conquer the world.

We also learn about how the humanity of Christ impacted the 5th century ecumenical councils who didn't want to see the divinity of Christ overshadow his human side.

I also enjoyed the chapter about Christ the Liberator, and how this image of Christ inspired the work of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

There is also Christ the philospher, and how his teachings inspired Erasmus, and much later, Ralph Waldo Emerson and other humanists.

There is also Christ the Monk, the One who was completely committed to a life of self-denying discipleship. This image o Christ inspired St. Benedict and Bernard of Clairveaux.

The one thing these images of Christ have in common is that to one degree or another, they can be found in scripture. I recommend this book as a good historical study of Jesus and His impact on the cultures of the world.

Over the last two thousand years man has struggled to understand the person of Jesus Christ. In this book, Master Historian, Jaroslav Pelikan, describes how various cultures have handled Jesus. It is truly a fascinating journey that taught me numerous things about Jesus, His church, and history that I did not know. Well worth reading if you are interested in this topic.

I do agree with a few other reviewers that some sections are hard to read, and that Pelikan jumps around a bit. My one critique is that the book becomes less interesting towards the last few chapters.

Despite these challenges, this book is well worth the effort. Simply put, Pelikan is a brilliant historian who possesses a depth of knowledge about this topic that few others can match.

This is not a devotional work, it is an insightful and valuable slice of intellectual history. Pelikan is a Christian, but distances himself from those he describes. I think the combination of sympathy and critical distance helps the reader have his own conversation with the persons described. Pelikan bites off more than he can chew. How can there be room in one readable, coherent and reasonably short book for Augustine and Blake, Renan and Ricci, Constantine and Gandhi? But Pelikan pulls it off pretty well, summarizing the history with interesting anecdotes, and making reasonable comments. Not all of which I think are correct, though.

"It is not sameness but kaleidescope variety that is its most conspicuous feature." Pelikan includes a great deal of evidence for both, though. Early Christians attempted to translate Jesus as "logos" to relate to Greek thinking. Modern Christians in India and China undertook a similar task of describing Jesus as the "fulfillment" of the deepest truths in those great cultures. (Work I have studied quite a bit.)

I give the book five stars, because it is brilliant, fascinating and informative. Nevertheless, Pelikan's position seems to soak up some of the subjectivm he chronicles.

It is important to distinguish between images that are arbitrary, and those that depend on a reality that can be referred to. One could write a book called "The Moon through the Centuries." But that would be a different kind of book from "Martians through the Centuries," because in the first case, we just need to look up to be corrected. Pelikan does not take sufficient account of the fact that Jesus is more like the first than the second case. Kaleidescope is a mosaic of splintered reflections. But the image whom these reflections reflected, like the moon, is still before us, in the Gospels. Pelikan tells us we are "dependant" on "oral tradition" that was "eventually deposited" in the Gospels, but in fact they were written within the lifetimes of the first Christians. Rather than "tradition," they could have relied on memory.

Pelikan does not distinguish between birds that settle in the nest as they find it, and birds that steal twigs to built their own. He weakly justifies the fantastic subjectivism that goes into revisionist historical Jesus studies. Pelikan is like a conscientious objector from the argument over what really happened. In a preface to a recent edition he admits, a bit coyly, that he doesn't buy the arguments of the "historical Jesus" crowd. Well and good: but this excellent book might be even better if the fascinating and fruitful subjectivism he chronicles were balanced with an occasional reminder that in the end, portraits are not about those who take the picture, but him whose portrait is taken.

Still, a deserved classic, and a wonderful way to look at history. Highly recommended.

Althought this is a compilation of the two volumes previously released, this is a terrific title. All kinds of important people from the Vietnam era have essays in this book. Sixty-one of them. Can't wait to reread it....

This is exactly the type of book you want to read about Vietnam - in the words of those who were there, whether soldier or reporter. It contains articles written by the media and excerpts from soldiers memoirs in chronological order from the start of the war until the fall of Saigon. (FYI - There is little here from a directly Vietnamese point of view, though there are some who write very sympathetically of their plight.)

This tome (it's over 800 pages of densely packed information and narration, but doled out in 5-10 page excerpts which make great reading) covers everything from the first days of aerial bombing (letters home from one of the first pilots over there) to the African-American experience in Vietnam, to the desolation of those involved when Saigon fell.

Because this is a compilation of actual stories from the Vietnam Conflict you could use it's wealth of information (and sources) to build a case for any position or point of view. It would be an excellent source for research on the Vietnam War, steeped with original quotes and overflowing with the genuine feelings and experiences of those who were there.

Highly Recommended.

THE VIETNAM WAR AND THE MEDIA


I am a Vietnam Veteran, a college graduate of the Vietnam Era, and a professional journalist. That should establish either some kind of credibility or culpability. The Vietnam War began when I was l7 years old, and ended when I was 30. That means my generation of draft-aged males... lived with the reality of War throughout their adolescence. I went to college in the '60s and, like most of my classmates, lived under the shadow of Vietnam for my entire college career.. Flunk out...you get Drafted. (that happened to a friend of mine at Yale. He partied too heartily and ended up as a grunt in the Mekong Delta.) As the War escalated, so did the dissent and the polarization of the country.

In l968, the following events occurred:
* The Tet Offensive;
* the Democratic National Convention in Chicago with the arrest of the Chicago Seven;
* The Mexico City Olympics black power protests;
* The assassinations of Martin Luther King and RFK;
* student demonstrations at Berkeley, Columbia, and Paris;
* And the increse in the Force Level in Vietnam approached 500,000.

That makes 1968 the most significant year in my life. That was also the year after I graduated from College, and, lacking plans for graduate school, enlisted in the Army (not out of patriotism but pragmatism: I made a deal with the devil--- I'd volunteer for three years as a Broadcast Specialist, and the Army would keep me out of The Killing Zone. When I got to Saigon, I worked for Armed Forces Radio and TV: reading news they wanted me to read (like Robin Williams' character Adrian Kronauer in "Good Morning Vietnam."

During my year in Saigon, part of my job was to attend the daily press briefings cynically referred to by the press corps as "The Five O'clock Follies." (Because they were timed to occur after the evening TV Newscasts in the States). This was long before CNN; Fox News; the Internet; and Pod-casts. The mainstream media then had a far greater role than today. When Walter Cronkite said the Vietnam War was un-winnable, it ended Lyndon Johnson's career. (Johnson later admitted he knew he was finished after watching the CBS Evening News). Vietnam was called the first Living Room War, because most Americans get their news at the dining room table. And that included escalating casualties, various atrocities like My Lai (which is kind of like the Marines in Iraq); and the rising chorus of dissent among the young.


Another disturbing parallel between Vietnam and Iraq is the arrogance, imperiousness, and hubris of the Secretaries of Defense in both Wars. Both Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld were arrogant and disdainful of the professional soldiers they commanded.
Each time they appeared before Congress and the Media, they said basically : this is the way it is. And don't confuse us with the facts. The Press, in the discordantly alliterative words of former Vice President and Convicted Felon Spiro Agnew (his real name) were "nattering nabobs of negativism" (How about: "Clueless Cheerleaders of Colonialism"?)

Had any of them taken the time to read the history of Indochina and the experience of the French ("Street Without Joy" or "Hell in a Very Small Place" by Bernard Fall; "The making of a Quagmire" by David Halberstam; "Fire in the Lake" by Francis Fitzgerald; or "The Best and the Brightest" by
David Halberstam they would have predicted the inevitable outcome of American Adventurism in Other Places. Those who ignore (or, in George Bush's Case, never learned) the lessons of History are condemned to repeat them"

--By Philip Henry
[...]

This very valuable compilation of historically important news articles and its companion (Part One) should be on the shelf of every person who wants to gain a deeper understanding of the Vietnam War. I can't review the articles contained, but know that there are many important pieces. Some of them are the Doris Kearns article on LBJ, John McCain's article on his captivity, Michael Kinsley on Kissinger and Harvard, several on the various incursions in countries neighboring Vietnam, and several on the fall of South Vietnam.

Some of the other famous inclusions are Seymour Hersh on My Lai and James Michener on Kent State, and Stewart Alsop on how the draft was implemented expressed America's Class System. There are many more.

But as I said about Part One, you will also need to read other things. This collection really only represents one side of the debate. At the time it was not as one sided as everyone remembers now. There really was support for the war in the population. Yes, it declined as time passed, but even today many feel that we lost more because we mishandled things more than because the war was wrong. However, that is neither here nor there for this collection. It is a terrific collection. My point is that you can't know the war and how it affected America without reading these articles. But you also can't know its full effects without reading more than these articles.

I say semi-definitive reportage because this brilliant compilation of news articles, magazine essays and excerpts from books is the distilled nectar from the two volume hardbound series issued earlier. While I haven't read the above-mentioned 2 volumes, I have read enough other Vietnam material to authoritatively state that this book does a more than adequate, dare I say brilliant, job of crystallizing the plethora of intertwined issues that encompassed the Vietnam war and the world stage upon which it unfolded. This book also offers some very unpleasant lessons to those of us who found our way to it due to the recent round of warfare commenced by the Bush Administration in order to save the world from Communism, ummm, I mean Terrorism.
For better or worse all of the other books I've read on the Vietnam war fall into two categories: The "Minute History of ..." and the "My personal Hell in ...." The problem with the former is that most people either don't have the patience or the desire to wade through all of the excrutiating details that went into the Vietnam war, and since any good history necessarily contains at least a majority of such unsavory bits, all of the 'good' histories of Vietnam rarely, I suspect, get finished. Plus, even when well-done the story is told with such detachment that the reader's mind often wanders while his eyes glide over the text. The problem with the latter style of narrative is that the events contained within are of such a narrow scope that no matter how powerful and well-written (see 'Rumor of a War' by Caputo, and 'A Boy's War' by Wolf, for instance), they are mere pinhole theatre. 'Reporting Vietnam' is unique, enlightening and vital because of the following factors. First, the editors chose to paint a broad canvas of the war by choosing articles that tell not only firsthand of battles, POW camp, campaigns and day to day life but also of home such as the events of and reactions to the Kent State incident, a soldier's return to "the world," and from Norman Mailer, his account of a Vietnam protest in Washington, D.C. The volume also contains extended essays upon the history of Vietnam, its social structures, the conduct of the war and politics (in both USA and in Vietnam), the living conditions and infrastructure of both South and North Vietnam, reportage on the military excursions into Laos and Cambodia, and the effect that the protracted conflict has on tribespeople, peasants, urban dwellers, etc. If one reads this book without more, he will be rewarded with page after page of top notch and fascinating writing. If one chooses to seek answers to common complaints and unspoken questions of history regarding this war, I believe that he'll find some answers. For instance, one of the most common complaints we hear from the diehards (inevitably nonparticipants?) is that we didn't win because we didn't go all out. An answer is found in the article by one of LBJ's personal secretary's on his discussions with her about the war. To wit, only the loonies seriously contemplated nuclear strikes and there was an ever-present threat that some escalation of the war would be the trigger-point for a world war with either or both the USSR and PRC. Also, we really, really were fighting all-out every time our young men and women were out there fighting (at least until the Nixon administration) and it is an insult to any who served in Vietnam to argue differently. An uspoken question never asked or answered in my presence is why didn't the South fight? The easy answer to this is that, of course the South fought, they just were overwhelmed by the Communists. The more compelling answer which this book satisfactorily demonstrates is that the social structure and politics of South Vietnam were fundamentally incapable of sustaining protracted, successful war-winning conflict due to its inherent weaknesses (an "absence of ideology, tradition or a coherent nationalism" says Peter Braestrup in one article). Finally, the question of whether we won or lost the war. To put it succinctly, however inaccurately, we won every battle we fought, North Vietnam won everywhere else. Finally, I believe that this book will lead one to the conclusion that the USA has once again set itself up for the very hard, obviously thankless and ultimately impossible task of saving the world from terrorism by sending US men and women to occupy foreign soil for these stated aims. I base my belief on the contents of 'Reporting Vietnam' which convincingly demonstrate that ultimately no war can be won by proxy, and an occupying power's efforts and accomplishments are always temporary and superficial until and unless the proxy population take to heart the aims of the intervening power's program. This was not done in South Vietnam, I doubt it is being done successfully in the Middle East.