ET Books

As one of the editors of this book, I can say that the work is inspiring because I was inspired reading these 100 poems from across time and the continent. It's a rich and hopeful message that the world is much in need of hearing. The poems are direct and sincere and speak for themselves. If you still believe in peace or are beginning to doubt, read this book.
Larry Smith

There aren't a lot of presses doing themed anthologies like Bottom Dog Press is doing themed anthologies. Come Together is another excellent example of this kind of effort -- and poems of this nature (peaceful and spiritual) are just what people need to read right now. Bottom Dog always brings together heavy hitters with lesser known writers, and the combination is simply a pleasure to read. Get this book to pick yourself up, lift your spirits, and to bring back a sense of the basic goodness in yourself and in humankind.

If you find yourself extremely frustrated in your attempt to plow through Sartre's massive BEING AND NOTHINGNESS, there is simply no better guide than Catalano's commentary. No first time reader of Sartre's book should be without this guide. Catalano does not shy away from the difficult and abstruse points of BEING AND NOTHINGNESS, but helps the reader understand Sartre's rather peculiar style of phenomenology. If one wants to understand one of the landmark works of 20th century Continental philosphy, one needs to read the original text. However, most nonacademic readers, and even most professional American philosophers, lack the crucial background to truly grasp what Sartre is attemtping to accomplish. Before reading BEING AND NOTHINGNESS, I recomend reading several of Sartre's literary works, and two shorter philosophical texts, THE TRANSCENDENCE OF THE EGO and THEORY OF THE EMOTIONS. Then expect to spend several months (at least if you have to work for a living) with Sartre's treatise. Be sure to have Catalano's book by your side. It will give you both the necessary background for understanding the text, as well as lucid commentary on some very difficult passages of Sartre's work. In the end, do not shy away from the original text. Even if you find yourself unsympathetic to Sartre's ideas and style of philosophy, I believe you will find that Sartre has some rather vivid insights about human existence.

This is the best commentary on Sartre's book I've seen. In fact, you should probably read this book before Being and Nothingness, and then tackle that forbiddingly ponderous and dense volume afterwards. Many people start, but never finish the book, and this book may help you get "over the hump" in that sense, since it'll simplify things considerably and give you a leg up on some of the more difficult points. Anyway, since this is an excellent commentary on Sartre's book, I just wanted to add a few comments myself, especially about one particular existential idea that I find odd.

I should warn you ahead of time that this is a very dark book review, just as Being and Nothingness itself can be, that being my point of departure. But a lot of it is black humor or satire and not meant to be taken seriously.

Sartre wrote in this book that "Life is a useless passion." He and other existential philosophers have maintained that life is "absurd,"--an idea that became a major tenet of existential thought.

Well, as the memory of the 20th century fades behind us, let us consider how absurd or useless life may truly be. Although existential philosophy traces its roots back to Kierkegard in the last half of the 19th century, it was the 20th century in which existentialism really came to prominence, as philosophers attempted to create a philosophy of being to cope with the devastation of a century that saw not only the greatest scientific and medical advances, but also the greatest conflagrations of mass death and destruction in man's history--and which, ironically enough--were mostly made possible by man's own new-found technological capabilities. With these awesome new powers at his command, mankind unflichingly, even enthusiastically, embarked on a new era of unabashed and uninhibited mass death and destruction unprecedented in human history.

It was indeed a century to remember, made all the more memorable by the millions of people caught in its deadly milieu. Millions died in World War I; 20 million more died during the Spanish Flu epidemic immediately afterward, and made worse by the weakened condition of state infrastructures and medical facilities after the war.

In World War II, millions more died, including 20 million dead in Russia alone either directly from war casualties or indirectly through starvation, disease, and privation. Six million Jews, 1 million Russians--and even a quarter million Gypsies--were rounded up and systematically exterminated in the death camps ("better living through chemistry"), and tens of millions more died of starvation in India because the price of rice went through the roof.

That doesn't take into consideration the myriad smaller conflicts, genocides, pogroms, famines, and other disasters in which thousands to millions of people died. Unfortunately, there was no shortage of them to grace and adorn each ill-fated decade of the 20th century, as more and more people were caught in its inimitable and seemingly inexorable machines of death.

In addition to WWI in the teens and WWII in the 40's, respectively, there was the genocide of Armenians in the 1920's (1,000,000 people dead), the Rape of Nanking (300,000 dead), the Great Purges in Russia in the 30's (3,000,000 people executed or dead in the labor camps) the Korean War in the 50's, the famines in Biafra in the 60's and Ethiopia in the 80's, and America's geopolitical debacle, the Vietnam war of the 60's and early 70's.

And there's more fun yet to come. Let's not forget the ever-lovin' Idi Amin in Uganda during the 70's (if you can say one good thing about Amin, it's that he was content to stay within his own borders and slaughter his own, instead of starting wars with everybody else, like most dictators). Africans, knowing a good thing when they see one, followed Amin with the internal massacres and tribal conflicts in Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Sudan in the 90's (to mention the most important ones), with untold millions of innocent people slaughtered, maimed, dead from disease and starvation, or displaced in refugee camps.

Lest you think I'm unjustly singling out Africa, there was the recent genocide and atrocities committed in the former Yugoslavia, the recent terrorism in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, and the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians (which has been going on for about 4,000 years--give 'em time--they'll figure out that they really hate each other eventually).

Not to mention the spectre of nuclear annihilation, which somehow, humans have managed to avoid--at least for the time being. (No doubt the human race will screw that up, too). And last but not least--we now have the spectre of mass annihilation through bioweapons. (Isn't it great being part of such a technologically advanced race? We come up with such clever and fun little toys.)

Yeah, you have to hand it to the human race. We know how to make progress. We've gone from sacrificing virgins (what genius invented that idea?) to being able to kill millions of people at a time with a single nuclear blast in only about 2,000 years. When the first two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 200,000 people (including, presumably some virgins, which made it okay, I guess) vanished in less than a second. And now we have bombs that are up to 5,000 times more powerful than these.

But getting back to my main point. Given the above, describing life as "absurd" seems pretty lame, to say the least. Sartre was even awarded a Nobel Prize in Literature. When the news of the prize came out, Life magazine called him "The wall-eyed little man who figured it all out." (Maybe Sartre should have just gotten corrective lenses for his eye problem and called it a day). But really, is this the best they can do?

Don't get me wrong, I like much of what Sartre says and I might even go so far as to say he was a brilliant philosopher, but some people have been upset by what they see as Sartre's and other existential philosophers' overly "pessimistic" view of life. Given how things have generally turned out for the human race, however, especially in the 20th century, saying life is "absurd" seems itself an absurdly naive and over-optimistic understatement, and hardly anything for people to get upset about.

Given the above, I don't think it is possible to be overly pessimistic about individual human existence, and perhaps more importantly, about the prospects for human society as a whole.

There is always the possibility (it does occasionally happen) that an individual human being will become more enlightened. You can always tell when someone has become "enlightened." His friends all start avoiding him like the plague and think he's gone totally nuts. At the social level, however, this never happens--since there are no, and never have been, any truly enlightened human societies--and probably never will be.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything (another sadistic human custom, no doubt), but I'll mention one more social criticism of contemporary society that I happen to agree with. Especially in the west, adult life is mostly concerned with the accumulation of wealth and power--neither of which, as Arthur C. Clarke once wrote--should be the main concern, much less the only concern, of full-grown, mature men. It goes without saying that a society based on such consumerist ideals will never become truly advanced or enlightened. No wonder S-F writers dream of getting off the planet--they may not know where they're going in the universe either--but they sure as hell know it's a cosmic cluster-f_ck down here.

I haven't even touched on the problem of individual crime, since I've been more concerned here with the broader social and historical issues. Suffice it to say that a society in which the mass media glorifies and makes heroes of serial murderers just to sell more magazines, newspapers, and advertising can't be all bad. After all, they'll probably make more money that way, which will be good for the stock--and in this market--that's nothing to shake a stick at.

But returning to my earlier point, failing to achieve "true enlightenment" is the least of our worries, however, because if we were even close, that in itself would be quite an achievement. If human societies were just "advanced" as opposed to truly enlightened, we'd probably be 10 times better off than we are now.

Well, we're about as far away from true enlightenment as you can get. In fact, the really tragic thing is that the human societies of the 20th century brought most of the above disasters down on themselves--tragedies which a less violent and more reasonable, socially intelligent, and responsible race would have been able to avoid. Or to put it another way, in another unfortunate and bizarre twist of human psychology, despite humans being the most intelligent and "evolved" species on the planet, it would seem we are also the only social species that is less intelligent as a group than we are individually. Or, as Mark Twain once said, "A committee is the only critter with 10 bellies and no brain."

Not that I'm a total nihilist. There is always the slim hope humans will change. I truly hope the human race will come to its senses before time runs out. It seems unlikely, however. Humans are too quarrelsome, violent, warlike, greedy, selfish, intolerant, bigotted, venal, petty, vain, neurotic, irrational, illogical, ignorant, short-sighted, and just generally vicious, mean-spirited and uncivilized a species (I could go on but one has to stop somewhere), and there just aren't enough truly good humans out there to make a difference. There are a few good people out there, I admit--but let's face it--we all know that in this life "nice guys finish last." Similarly, the lessons of human history make it abundantly clear that unless good is very, very careful, evil usually wins out.

Oh well. It's sad to say, since it's my own species I'm talking about, but the earth, and probably the universe as well, will probably be better off without us.

I realize I've painted a pretty dim, dark, and ultimately depressing view (a 3D view?) of humanity and of humanity's future prospects. I hope I am wrong. Unfortunately, the history of the human race doesn't give one much cause for optimism. If we can screw it up, the human race probably will--even our own future. After all, we've screwed up 99% of our past history--and the future is just history that hasn't happened yet.

Speaking of which, I don't want to give you the impression that there's no room for optimism in my life. In fact, I'm about the most "optimistic" guy out there--I'm just optimistic that the human race will Bite the Big One some day through its own habitual and perverse self-destructiveness and figure out some creative and fun way to wipe itself off the surface of the planet in one fell swoop. Although our history may be nothing to be proud of--I have every expectation and confidence that our ending will be a truly monumental and awe-inspiring achievement. I just hope I live long enough to see it; it would be a real bummer to miss out on humanity's glorious, universal, and final holocaust of mass death and destruction. Given humanity's talent for careening from disaster to disaster throughout its history, I'm sure it will be sooner rather than later--after all why delay the fun? Just think of the 20th century as the dress rehearsal for humanity's last curtain call.

Come to think of it, why we're called "humanity" I don't really understand. We should be called "inhumanity." "Humanity" has to be the only one-word oxymoron in the English language. (For those of you who weren't paying attention in your English class, an "oxymoron" is a rhetorical figure of speech in which incongruous or contradictory words are combined, as in "thunderous silence", or "mournful optimist," or "a just society," or "a kind and wise human being.")

I know some people will say it'll never happen--that the human race will become wise before it's too late and somehow turn back from the brink of disaster. Obviously these people have never stuck their noses inside a single history book for more than five minutes. But the ultimate problem, and the ultimate reality--is that we humans, both individually and as a species--would rather live down to our lowest impulses and desires rather than the reverse. After all, that takes genuine discipline and real moral fiber--which is no fun at all for a snarling, primitive, vicious ground monkey with a brain too big for his Johnson (among other things--such as the 40,000 nuclear missiles and bombs still in existence).

But there is always hope, and the future is as good place for our hopes to reside as any--because if there's going to be any hope for the human race, it will have to be there--since there obviously isn't any hope for humanity based on our past.

And maybe what I've said here is what Sartre and the other existentialists really meant to say? Perhaps being civilized philosophers and academic-types, they were just trying to be polite and soft-pedal it a bit.

Well, I'm not a philosopher, I'm not an academic (not anymore, anyway)--and maybe I'm not even civilized! So does that mean I'm telling it like it is?

We'll see. In the meantime, I'm sure the geopolitical gladiatorial games that is human civilization will continue to provide all the sadistic and voyeuristic "bread and circuses" action (coming to you live on the 6 o'clock news!) you could want.

Excellent for physicians or nurse practitioners who diagnose illness on a regular basis.

This book has common complain plus what to ask in addition to that complain with D/D and superficial physical diagnosis.

I couldn't ask for a better reference ~ except wishing for an update from '97 until production ceased. This book is the most complete I've seen. Individual detailed descriptions include Perthshire's ID number, and many explanatory comments. The quality of the photographs is clear, crisp, and colors are true to actual weights. Most importantly, photos are large enough to show small details. Even if you never intend to buy a paperweight, this book is fascinating, educational and beautiful. Forty pages provide general information and 155 pages describe and illustrate the paperweights. There is a hardcover version, but the quality of this softcover, with its glossy paper, is certainly all I could ever need. I highly recommend this book for experienced collectors ~ and it is essential for novices!

An absolute must have for both the novice and skilled collector of glass paperweights made from important factories. An inexpensive source of infinate knowledge about the Perthshire Paperweight company.

I think it is very sad that few Americans interested in UFO's, and related subjects, are familiar with the books written by Michael Hesemann. Both this book and "Beyond Roswell" are among the best books I have ever read. This author is not only a great researcher, but he is not afraid to "theorize" about what is going on, based on his research, and that of others. Even though he is a German, he has spent as much time in the US (especially the SW) as most American UFO researchers. He has also devoted more time listening to Native Americans about the UFO subject than most American researchers I am familiar with.
This book on crop circles gives you MANY different sides of the phenomenon to think about, especially the historic side. He even makes comparisons with Native American art (petroglyphs), Australian aboriginal art, Celtic art, etc., in an attempt to decipher the meaning of the crop circles. He has left virtually no stone unturned!
In addition, the quality of the book itself (and of the book "Beyond Roswell") is superior to anything you can purchase in this country. There are innumerable illustrations, both in color and black-and-white, the layout and organization are terrific, the paper is very thick and sturdy, and there are few typos (I only noticed two, in the Foreward to "Beyond Roswell").
So, don't miss the opportunity to buy these books!! It is sad that many bookstores are selling them as "remainders," when it is difficult to find anything matching the quality and content of these books in the US.

I have a whole library of books concerning aliens, u.f.o.'s, sightings etc. When I read this book I could not put it down and have re-read it several times !! It is one of the most interesting and informative books I have come across. The photographs are amazing !! This is one of my favorites of all the books I own and recommend it as a must read !!!

Five stars plus to this book! We bought ours on our latest Princess Cruise. I showed it to my sister (who is a culinary artist to say the last). She said this was a book she had to have - we ordered one for her. This book not only gives great instructions to make the various dishes, but superb photographs for lovely presentations. Kudos to Princess Cruises! Fabulous book! Recommend it highly.
Carmen in North Pole, Alaska

We bought this cookbook while on a Princess cruise. It has beautiful pictures of each dish in all categories. My son, who loves to cook, was so interested in it that we got him a copy for Christmas.

This book is a definite must read for every mayor, town council member, governor, and president of any city, state or country in the world. With all the disasters going on in the world, this book is a true gem in that it focuses on solutions for problems (with real case studies cited) and shows not only good ideas, but real, tangible ideas too. The toolkit for urban innovators is an excellent subtitle for this book. I am only a fraction of the way in, but I can barely put it down!

As a book concentrated on city design, it is really a good, helpful and also inspiring one. Has really good examples explaining the idea. Everything (the topics and the examples) is widespread. Really a helpful and creative book.
It is a long book with no images but the ideas keeps the reader avake and alert. When read i was alsways thinking what can i do about my city.
I really liked it.

Au lieu de nous faire dire que ? tout va ? la droite, ? c'est un plaisir de se faire convaincre que le pouvoir va ? droite, mais que nous, tout comme nos contemporains ? Cuba, nous sommes en train de pr?parer une riposte qui peut ?tre victorieuse.

L'auteur, Jack Barnes, ?tait un jeune ?tudiant universitaire aux ?tats-Unis pendant la d?faite de Washington ? la Baie des Cochons ? Cuba en 1961. Celle qui a ?crit la pr?face, Mary-Alice Waters, ?tudiait en France quelques mois plus tard. Elle y a v?cu l'impact de la r?volution alg?rienne sur la population enti?re - le Vi?t-nam de la France. Tous les deux sont devenus des communistes ? travers ces ?v?nements. Ils le sont encore.

Fidel Castro est cit?, ? On verra une r?volution victorieuse aux ?tats-Unis avant une contre-r?volution victorieuse ? Cuba. ? Et ce livre nous convainc que c'est vrai!

De fait ?a donne une id?e pourquoi Castro demeure celui qui est accueilli par des foules enthousiastes, peu importe o? il va -- visite diplomatique en R?publique dominicaine, arr?t ? New York ? l'ONU ou discours en Iran. Parce que la r?volution cubaine nous dit quelque chose sur qu'est-ce que nous pouvons faire ?galement dans nos pays -- et on aime ?a.

Les discours reproduits dans le livre t?moignent d'une confiance in?branlable dans la capacit? du monde ordinaire de faire des choses extraordinaires. C'est une confiance certainement forg?e initialement par un contact avec le peuple qui, ? l'?poque, savait ? peine lire et ?crire, mais qui a fait agenouiller Washington. Mais, de toute ?vidence, cette confiance a ?t? renforc?e par les actions des travailleurs et des jeunes sur le sol nord-am?ricain. ?a me donne le go?t de faire la m?me chose.

" Cuba et la revolution americaine a venir ". La question qui vient immediatement en tete est : quand? La semaine des quatre jeudis?

Dans ce livre, l'auteur, Jack Barnes explique l'impact de la revolution cubaine sur sa generation au tout debut des annees 60. Il decrit comment les travailleurs et les jeunes Cubains ont transforme sa perspective politique. Comment, a leur contact quotidien dans le cadre d'une brigade de solidarite, il a appris a les conna?tre, a les respecter et a les apprecier.

Mais encore plus que cela, il a appris comment la revolution cubaine n'est pas unique. Comment ce que les Cubains ont accompli - une revolution socialiste - peut, et doit, se faire aux Etats-Unis. Il fait le point sur le lien entre les luttes aux Etats-Unis pour les droits des travailleurs, des Noirs et des femmes et la revolution cubaine a ce moment-la et aujourd'hui.

Mary-Alice Waters, dans sa preface, apporte une autre dimension en decrivant son experience en France a cette epoque et l'impact de la revolution algerienne en Europe et dans les Ameriques. Pour elle, c'est la revolution en Algerie qui l'a amenee a mieux comprendre celle a Cuba et a voir l'importance des luttes menees aux Etats-Unis contre l'exploitation.

Fascinant, ce livre ne donne pas de recettes et ne fait pas de predictions sur quand et comment la revolution va se faire aux Etats-Unis. C'est une explication concrete du monde d'aujourd'hui, des classes sociales en jeu et du role de la revolution cubaine dans la lutte pour le socialisme a l'echelle internationale. Le livre nous fait mieux comprendre la citation de Fidel Castro sur la derniere de couverture : " Il y aura une revolution victorieuse aux Etats-Unis avant d'avoir une contrerevolution a Cuba ".


While this book is not always available on Amazon, it is always available from BooksfromPathfinder, an Amazon Z store that you can get to by clicking on New and Used further up this page!

This 8 volume set covers all cultural treasures of Korea with scholarly articles and vivid pictures. All kind of libraries should have this volumes in their collection. A wonderful publication. See the book review of CHOICE.

This 8 volume publication is a complete collection of cultural treasures of Korea. It is comprehensive and scholarly with vivid full color photos for each item. Recommended for any libraries and indivisuals who are interested in Korean culuture.

Raymond Williams discusses how the idea of "culture" and "society" evolved in England when two forces (democracy, industrialism) were undermining traditional notions of both. Williams is a Marxist and it is clear that his analysis of Burke, Coleridge, Mill, Carlyle, Newman, Arnold etc... is directed by Marx's theory of class relationships. The book, therefore, is both an analysis and an argument.

The analysis/argument is that democracy and industrialism broke down old relationships and initiated new ones. While this shift was occuring a new kind of writer was born: the cultural critic. The major theme of this book is the evolution of the word "culture" . Before the period in question (1780-1950) the word "culture" was used to describe art and literature but beginning with Burke and Coleridge the word begins to be used to refer to a "whole way of life". Coleridge makes the key distinction between "civilization" and "culture". Coleridge uses the word "civilization" to describe the "general progress of society" and he uses the word "culture" to express a standard of perfection independent of the progress of society that could be used "not merely to influence society but to judge it." Coleridge envisioned a class of men or "clerisy" whose sole task would be to tend to the cultivation of society. The great fear in the minds of nineteenth-century educated Englishman was that democracy would lead to a dumming down of public life and that what society really needed was some class of educated individuals(Coleridge) or some heroic individual (Carlyle) to insure the continued cultivation of society.
Raymond Williams is writing from a working-class perspective but he is a working-class kid who also happened to attend Cambridge. Writing from this unique perspective allows him to identify with both the great cultural thinkers of the past and with the "masses" that they feared. Coleridge and Carlyle felt that the masses were incapable of governing themselves and contributing to the continued cultivation of society(a notion that continues to inform much of modern conservastism). Williams suggests that it is a mistake to think of men as "masses" and that for society to grow it must remain open, and that society must encourage individual effort from all segments of society while continuing to value and cultivate a collective way of life. Exactly how society is to do this is explained only in vague platitudes.

The best and strongest part of the book is the early portion that examines the definition of "culture" as opposed to "society". The argument gets fuzzy around the time of Matthew Arnold who could not quite decide just what constitutes "culture". In the nineteenth-century "culture" is tied to religious tradition in the minds of Burke, Coleridge, Carlyle and Newman. Beginning with Arnold, however, cultural critics attempt to define "culture" without reference to religion. This proves to be difficult as "culture" describes not only all the best that has been thought but also refers to a body of values that have been passed down and religious institutions are just as powerful, if not moreso, than economic institutions. It is at this point when one begins to question the materialist approach to history.

In his conclusion Williams discusses democracy as if it were the natural substitute for religion or even a new kind of religion. He is not altogether successful and for me the concluding chapters were much less satisfying as cultural history than were the early chapters. This does not take away from the exceptional clarity of those early chapters.

The book is an excellent study of what it means to live in a world in transition and how difficult it is to properly define a "common culture" in a world that regularly undergoes cultural shifts. Society struggles on between two cultural ideologies; between the religious conservatives and the liberal-democrat reformers. In the best portion of Culture and Society Williams describes how J.S. Mill tried to find some way of melding the two ideologies into one.

Williams examines the development of the English novel (and the language itself) as a means to socio-political criticism. The section on the Romantic Period is excellent, as are the sections on Eliot and Orwell. This isn't your typical "critical theory" work: Williams doesn't use the ridiculous theoretical schemes often found in the field. Also, while his analysis is ultimately radical left, Williams remains undogmatic and clear-headed throughout (also a rarity), attributable in part I think to his working class background (this is really one of the themes of the work itself - upper middle-class liberalism and "radicalism" versus working-class radicalism).

Don't be put off by the claim that this is a "materialist analysis." Yes, he describes the creation of the author as the result of an economic/social process, but this isn't the main thrust of the work.

If nothing else, read this book for Williams's sensitivity to the origins and meanings of the "keywords" of the English language.