Opening

Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Opening Battles edited by Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel from the editorial staff of "The Century Magazine." This is volume one of a four volume set, being for the most part contributions by Union and Confederate officers, based upon "The Century War Series."

This lead off volume begins with a realistic view of Washington,D.C. on the eve of the war as the preparation for war in the North and South begins. There is an excellent account of the fall of Fort Sumter along with detailed accounts of the operations in Virginia. This book is NOT limited to just ground action, but has naval battles and conflicts along the island waterways.

What I found to be interesting aside from the eyewitness accounts, were the excellent maps and engravings. This series was originally conceived in 1883 and is refered to as source material in other writings about the Civil War.

Grant, Bauregard, Longstreet and Sherman are just a few of the stories and accounts represented in this volume as the opening battles begin and the pages of history were forever changed. Written by the men who fought these battles makes this book very interesting as we read these accounts you begin to feel all of the emotions that bring to bear on these men as war becomes a reality where death and wounding become all too common.

We read about battles in Missouri, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, South and North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas as the war heats up and the opening slavos begin.

The four volumes of the famous Battles and Leaders series constitute one of the essential collections of Civil War source material and the next step up for the casual and interested reader of Civil War literature. It includes lavishly illustrated (photographs, sketches, maps) accounts of the battles by the men who fought them, the great generals, the staff officers and other observers. Nothing is omitted and the price is unbelievably low for books of this sort. The only caveat is that accounts are sometimes self-serving, especially when written by a losing general. Nonetheless things balance out and I doubt if anyone will ever regret buying the set.

Anyone who does not stay on the main line as white against the Sicilian deserves to be punished, and this is the book that will show you how to do just that. Black is assured an advantage against c3, Nc3, and even f4 systems, but you have to know how to do it. Its not the greatest opening book I've read, but its the best for anti-sicilian systems. Everything you need is right here, but since its out of print, you better get it while you still can. If a publisher is reading this, how about coming out with a second edition?

This book is a must for anyone who wishes to use the Sicilian as a weapon against e4. I play the Najdorf and Dragon variations of the Sicilian as black and I get annoyed when my opponent cops out of an open Sicilian with Anti-Sicilian moves such as 2.c3 or 2.Nc3. This book by Joe Gallagher is the answer to such weak cop outs! The book is written by a leading expert on the Sicilian and certainly makes the player with the white pieces suffer. Buy this book and white will never have a chance!

From an initial background of Daoist philosophy, this book first suggests that what we experience as our world reduces neither materially to atoms alone nor, spiritually, solely to idea. Its ontological status is proposed to be "inascertainable."

And its home is language, poiesis. Yet language is understood not simply as anthropocentric communication of a from-to sort between egos. Language is also the unpurposed, nonutilitarian patterns, rhythms, processes and cycles of nature, of cosmos, of the wild within and around us--and in and as our children. The (pre subject/object)liberation of these from a from-to, and from a "business deal mentality" is the emergence of renewed humanocosmic "worlding."

In the setting of this irreducible (cosmo)poiesis of which we are simultaneously parts and participant wholes, epiphenomena, condition and context, we endow the universe with, as we bespeak and embody, its/our (undivided) meaning. And meaning emerges as a new dimension of the self-organizing that reduces to none of its parts, be they mental, material or otherwise.

A tasty blend of autobiography, straightforward exposition, lyricism, political broadside and complex,sometimes dense, discursive development, this excitingly intelligent work is in the end reminiscent of the metadisciplinary prose and scholarly thoughtfulness of renaissance thinkers whose poetics, feelings, politics, epistemics, polemics and even visionary noetics are not separated.

In attempting, in its form and its content, a nondualized interpretation of, and interaction with/as, the world, this work centers on the chapter-themes of: business (and a critique of the accounting mentality via Jean Gebser), childrearing (and the value of both wilderness humanism and compassionate intelligence following Edith Cobb), ecohumanism (in a very Thomas Berry "spontaneities of the earth," vein), and higher education--as viewed in light of what Burneko calls "the global noetic repertoire."

Throughout are developed arguments and references both ancient, and postmodern, ranging from those of John Scotus Eriugena concerning the God-is-not-a what kind of via negativa, to Daoist and Greek notions of the sage as the hinge or pivot whose (no)mind turns with all prospects in their ever varying co-emergence to, yet again, the ideas of contemporary systems theoretical insights, those of Jantsch, or Bateson, for examples, pertaining to what Teilhard, in turn, has called "the building of the earth." These in turn are integrated with such postmodern ideas as those of Ulmer and Derrida. Overall, the underlying theme is of the implications of a hermeneutic, even a conversational (as contrasted with a substantialist), ontology.

This book will be invaluable and provocative to anyone interested in critique and interpretation of religious, sociopolitical, educational, and environmental issues and in nondualism, intercultural and interdisciplinary philosophical hermeneutics and the structures of consciousness.

Strewn throughout, finally, are allusions both pop and recondite, wordlore drawn from deconstructionist and Daoist rhetorics, humor, gentle ironies and hardball challenges, personal anecdotes (some of glowing warmth), multicultural puns and references, and the breadth of genuine learning and thinking in the sevice of what the author early on (too?) optimistically calls "the end of the beginning of mature consciousness on earth."

Not to be missed by serious readers, especially those with an interest in Chinese/nonwestern philosophy, in varieties of religious and of nondualist and process thinking, and in the vigorously and expansively argued prospects of a genuine--not merely ornamental--transformation of consciousness/culture: particularly with regard to its imposing utilitarian, commodificationist and objectivist demands.

This was such an exciting read.

It's accessible philosophy, wide-ranging in its scope and in-depth. Original ideas, witty observations, ancient themes.

Modern intellectual discourse is much benefitted by this book's appearance.

I think this book is great it gave me the knowledge, skills, and the ability to start a business with my father, something I've wanted to since our family's last business was sold in 1976 !

Good Luck to anyone who buys this book much success!!!

I think this book is great it gave me the knowledge, skills, and the ability to start a business with my father, something I've wanted to since our family's last business was sold in 1976 !

Good Luck to anyone who buys this book much success!!!

This book by Kaufman is the best repertoire book I have seen. It provides a comprehensive repertoire for white and black. It makes its points though illustrative games, but there are wonderful strategic explanations too. This is a rare and wonderful book, that is packed with great chess openeing stuff!

Kaufman's approach in this repertoire book is to recommend strategically sound variations for white and black that have a GM following, perform better than par in practice but which are not the first choices of theory. The rationale for his choices outlined in the Introduction is very compelling and far superior to Berliner's "System" (with its axes to grind) and Shereshevsky's 'Conveyor' repertoire (which was designed for Soviet-era kids with a chance of becoming greats as opposed to plateauing club players like me). Kaufman quotes over 200 recent games or game fragments by 2400+ players using succinct but clear annotations. He favors Silman-esque evaluations in terms of the significant positional features over plus/equals signs, so this is incidentally a good middlegame strategy manual. (The role of the 2 bishops is particularly stressed.) My only regret is that I can't keep the repertoire to myself, as everyone will start playing these lines. -- Oh, and those are: for White, Spanish Exchange, Sicilian Bb5, French Tarrasch, C-K Advance, etc.; and as Black, Spanish Berlin, QGD Semi-Slav (Moscow, not Botvinnik, and a positional Bd6 defense to the Meran). A final and interesting point: the recommendations are validated with but not dominated by computer-checked analysis. As an expert in computer chess, Kaufman is uniquely well qualified to provide this kind of human-machine symbiotic analysis. Even if you don't like the sound of some of these lines, give it a chance: The book is a labor of love, not a "Win as White/Black with..." potboiler.

This book introduced me to studying fuseki.

I liked it at that time because I could use some of the ideas in a fuseki I could understand, that would be somewhat flexible and keep things simple. After that I've got more interested in studying fuseki.

It's not a dictionary, and is not worth "memorizing". It is interesting to see how each stone develops the game in a given direction.

When I read it I was about IGS 9k*

In this book Kato Masao analizes in detail the Chinese fuseki. This is the first fuseki I've learned: the basic ideas are quite easy to grasp and it allows Black to make a vast zone of influence that White will have to invade, creating a fight where Black can take the advantage. There are few josekis in this book but they are analized in depth - something more useful and interesting than an overview of lots of josekis.

This book should be required reading for all healthcare providers and used in educational settings to teach leadership principles. Quick easy reading yet fun to return to every now and then.

This is a great resource for gaining new perspectives on overcoming the limits of hierarchy in the workplace. I found the content compelling and useful in re-evaluating ways to pursue healthy relationships in the turbulent healthcare workplace. The wisdom from the field stories brought the content alive and revealed how real people are changeing their workplaces for the better through relationship work.

I highly reccommend this book to anyone in need of inspiration and new ways of thinking about relationships or partnerhip in the workplace.

Peter Wells is my favorite openings author. I can think of no one else who combines thoroughness, explanatory text, complete games, and relevant variations so well. Even in the densest theoretical parts of the complexities of the semi-slav, Wells retains the subject matter as a comprehendbale discussion or lecture. Never, is this merely a dry text or data dump. His ebooks are always long, too; he never skimps or hurries to finish a work; you will find the same thoroughness at page 300 as page 15. He emphasizes recurrent themes, but this is no beginner text. This is one of my favorite books, and it should be sought after and obtained by any 1. d4 player or black semi-slav player, because, despite the fact that is nine years old, it is an ageless and wonderful book.

This is another great openings work by Wells. I have used this in conjunction with the Semi-Slav book by Sadler. This book is more of an eopic treatise, and Sadler's has more of the conversational tone. Not to say that this book is dry though. This book combines the "tree" type variations analysis with complete games, providing, in my opinion, the best type of opening work. This is a must-have for Semi-Slav fans. I had little clue before getting this book exactly how wild and agrressive the semi-slav is. I love it!

This is an extremely nice opening book. I only wish someone would take on the job of updating it - this one was published in 1992.

The book is still excellent for a number of reasons. I recommend that you buy it if you can find a copy - it is currently out of print.

As the title suggests, the focus is on the critical or main lines of each major opening system. The physical size of the book makes it very convenient to carry along to a tournament.

The depth of the book is less than say, Modern Chess Openings, or Nunn's Chess Openings, but as I said the lines covered are the really critical "must know" variations.

Frankly, with the advent of computer databases, this type of "readers digest" approach to the opening variations makes much more sense. This book could be used to really understand the meat of an opening system. Once the particular system of interest is learned by following the main lines, the reader could later do more intensive research using the computer database.

In this way the two approaches compliment each other and the reader beneftis from the best of both worlds.

I truly believe that this book is quite useful to own, even though it was copyrighted nearly 10 years ago. Many of the main line openings shown are still very playable.

An over-the-board tournament competitor could do quite nicely using this as a study guide. A correspondance chess player would be more likely to need the added depth and up-to-date lines of Nunn's Chess Openings.

The lines chosen by the authors to review in this book were ideal, since they eliminated excessive and unneeded information. The lines were also original, but contemporary and critical in the openings chosen. The book is one that a serious chess player would benefit from owning and using to his or her advantage. The format of this book is very nice and easy to understand. I would highly recommend this book.

Revelation is like a dream where nothing is without meaning, yet everything is taken from images seemingly incongruous, disconnected among themselves. As in facing a mosaique with the pieces still spread in a casual manner, so man must face the mysteries of faith: with confidence and constance, devotion and awareness. I believe this is one of Kushner's messages: the author is surely one of the masters of "liberal" Judaism, and he hands out to his readers this precious anthology. In a delicate balance between tradition and modernism, between common sense and the respect for values, Rabbi Kushner presents a model of contemporaneous approach to Judaism, where the need for divulging and integration in society does not mean relinquishing the depths of meditation on man's and the world's great themes. "Close your eyes and listen. This is the voice of your Self."

I had never read anything by Lawrence Kushner before, but had heard some of his commentaries on National Public Radio. Recently a friend gave me this book as a birthday present.

What an absolute pleasure it has been to read! Each essay is usually only a few pages long so it is an easy book to find time to read.

He is a great writer, with a wonderful sense of humor, but he delivers some amazingly creative insight and makes you look at your world and what you believe in in a completely fresh new way.

I would highly recommend this book since it is a sampler of his best writings, with a mix of new and previously published material. You will not be disappointed, this is a wonderful read and a great gift.