european

With that book, George H. Stein has done a great historical work. His conclusions about the Waffen SS are still valuable to this day, even if there are some small errors, generally concerning the military history of some foreign units (ie the 13 SS "handschar", the 14 SS Galizien or the 33 rd SS "Charlemagne").
I must admit that, this well documented book with a large amount of german official documents, gave me a good comprehension about this branch of the german armed forces.
Stein is right when he writes that the vast majority of Waffen SS soldiers weren't compromised in the genocide toward the european jews and, he is also right when he considers that many european 'volunteers' didn't fought for hitler's regime but rather for their homeland.

Probably the most valuable contribution of this book is the list of non-German nationalities represented in the SS, along with the approximate numbers of each nationality thus represented. Irrespective of whether or not all these units were directly involved in anti-Jewish "aktions", they all contributed to the Holocaust by furthering the German war effort and prolonging German rule over Europe. With all of the bad rap Poles get for being almost as anti-Semitic as the Nazi Germans, you would expect that there would be more Poles in the SS than any other non-German nationality. Surprise! There was not a single Polish SS unit in existence! (Though there may have been a few Polish individuals in other SS units, and then mostly Poles of German extraction (Volksdeutsche) as well as those of mixed Polish-German ancestry). Nor is it true that the Germans did not seek Polish collaborators: Early in the war Germans tried to get Polish volunteers as auxilliary staff for the concentration camps, and got not a single applicant. So the Germans could forget about recruiting ethnic Poles for the SS. Although there certainly were "little league" anti-Semites among the Poles, the "big league" anti-Semites were the other European nationalities who supplied volunteers for the SS. It is high time that Holocaust films and popular-level Holocaust educational materials get off the Poles' case and tell it like it ACTUALLY was.

This literary work provides a comprehensive yet concise historical narrative of the Waffen SS - the elite Nazi militarized wing of the vast Armed Forces of Germany. When on the offensive, the Waffen SS spearheaded Nazi Germany's military victories. Subsequently, in Germany's years of defeat, the idealogical fanatics of the Waffen SS fought to the bloody and bitter end to defend their Fuhrer and Fatherland. One dominant fact emerges overall from George Stein's book; and that is the fact of the existence of the thorough military professionalism of the Waffen SS and its soldiers and officers.

11 Year Old Refugee is a stab at culture and cultural ignorance. What we end up believing is that outsiders are unwelcome and that everybody should stay to their own place. But freedom is the essential message from this book, whether it exists and how we play on the idea.

I long to see the realist page on other cultures and Bogdan Tiganov looks like being the author to shine a light. There is little sign of a tortured individual, but more of a sign of a real individual. If this is the way poetry is going then I want to be a part of it.

11 Year Old Refugee by gifted writer Bogdan Tiganov is a very moving and heartfelt collection of poetry about people dealing with life under touch circumstances written with profound clarity of reality from the childhood years through young adult. A Must Read Book about a young man's thoughts, and ambitions as he grows towards manhood. A Book You Will Not Want To Miss!

Caution: This book contains some coarse and vulgar words that will offend some people.

This slim volume is a series of poems that capture the perspective of a young man growing up as a refugee. The poetry begins with the universal, and gradually exposes a viewpoint that has been shaped by being a refugee. If you are like me, you will get a sense of how our experiences separate us . . . and come to a better understanding of our mutual humanity.

Here's an example of the universal from "Younger":

"In school where we fought and cried/I climbed on somebody's back/And smiled."

Soon even the family portraits take on a political tone as in "Grandpa":

"Lost his land to communists./He's got it back now:/Politicians only think of themselves."

The poems express a strong sense of the life force as in "Evening rain":

"As spring carries on past summer/The state the shield is in/Blind action springs up with witticism."

That "might makes right" has made a deep impression as in "Strength":

"I like watching you beat me,/Sadomasochist, Latin leapfrog under my nose./. . . Sincerity, runs down like blood in the family,/I'd love to beat you clever."

A sad kind of pessimism also suffuses the work as in "Deja vu":

"Another war./Another famine,/A rescuer and strict liberation."

"Seen this before./Been here before/To this field, in this dream,/When we're dead keen."

The poem that haunted me the most was "I had no childhood":

"I had no childhood./It passed me by before/I could say hello, so sudden."

Religion is addressed and found wanting in "Human":

"Well, father, I believe God/Responsible for all wars,/Pain of the needy/The imperfection of life."

"It's acceptable to sin, it's human,/The cycle goes on, I think, . . . Alone and afraid, I feel hollow and dying."

Ultimately, he finds solace in the natural world as in "The world":

"Destruction is the mistaken attitude./You turn up burning and drowning/Your own paradise."

Life hands each of us different challenges to handle. Expressing those challenges through poetry and a reaffirmation of goodness and beauty, Bogdan Tiganov has a great deal to say to each of us. Enjoy his message!

Find the goodness from which all else springs!

This is an excellent example of why A. Lobo Antunes should win the Nobel Prize. The book is built around a once healthy family with a very peculiar group of members. Each one will give you is view of the family in is strange vision of the world. Amazing book.

The author is a MD shrink And we feel that very well on the way he draws his characters on this book. Very well written. One of the Nobel prize nominees this year, last year and next year. Until he finally wons it.

One of the best contemporary portuguese novelists! The reading of this book, or any other of the same author for that matter, is both compelling and envolving! For those who are strangers to portuguese fiction I strongly recommend this book.

Friends of mine in Mexico City who know Marquez say that Marques worships Mutis. They're both Colombians living in Mexico City, but they're the comparison ends. Mutis to me is Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene and Jean-Louis Ferdinand Celine rolled into one. With a little Sartre for seasoning.

I really wish more of his work would be translated, but I enjoy Mutis so much I'm tempted to just bite the bullet and read his work in Spanish even though it would take me 20 times as long.

Maqroll and Bashur are two of the greatest literary characters to come by in a very long time.

Viva el Gaviero!!

It's very hard to put this book down. Mutis resembles no one writing today, his prose is immaculate and his stories indescribable. He is one of a kind. This is a treasure; one only wishes there were more.

This may be the most beautifully written, wise, and fun book I have ever read. Maqroll is the perfect companion: he goes everywhere, knows many remarkable and delightful people in every spot, and speaks with wisdom, joy, and sadness all at once.
Each sentence is a gem: taken together, they create a world that transports the reader into a world of adventure, danger, love, friendship, and insight.
Imagine Cervantes mixed with Pynchon, with a little Groucho Marx thrown in: this is a work to savor and Maqroll is a wise and loving guide to a world of breath-taking beauty, where each day holds new treasures.
This is the closest thing to a perfect book I have come across. It is a true classic, as readers of Spanish literature have known for some years.

Compared to his early, tortured writing this collection of later pieces is warm and funny. Not to say that Cioran has dropped his nihilistic stance, but a laconic, slightly more personal and witty voice predominates. My favourite book from Cioran.

Suspicious words are necessarily those that would try to qualify Cioran's life and works. Contradiction in the act of writing and thinking is one of Cioran's accepted facts.

His name should be futility, what an elegant, lush and ethical futility.

I miss you Emil... so much!

Each has his own ratio of universal fear embodying soul and mind. We cannot escape otherwise but deepening ourselves in it as much as each of us can. Thus, the fear gets tired of itself and this is what Cioran teaches us. Never avoiding the fear. Face it!

... this book simply has to be the authoritative (perhaps even definitive?) history of early 19th-century American architecture. Beyond content, the volume is very attractively gotten up. How could Yale offer a volume with this many photos for that price? Finally, I very much like this book's trim size (8.25 x 10.25 inches), I'm impressed that Yale somehow produced it to lay open flatly on almost any page, and I relish the book's fine heft--the feel of it in my hands. All the way around, an incredible accomplishment for both the author and the press. Congratulations!

Emphasizing intellectual and cultural ties to British style and taste, W. Barksdale Maynard examines Architecture in the United States, 1800-1850, and discovers, in a revisionist manner that the progress of public and private building design in that age of American innocence wasn't simply about national fervor and a desire to create distance from Europe. In particular, the author ties the ubiquitous Greek Revival manner to international esthetic currents. With well-written and cogent text and 200 illustrations (50 in color) taken from contemporary prints and photographs, this handsome volume will remind readers of what was gained and lost in the establishment of an American architecture.

I really enjoyed reading Maynard's book. The 200-plus illustrations are beautiful, many of them never reproduced before. It is the first book in many years to survey this period in American building, and I found it extremely readable and useful. I'm sure students will be reading it in their courses, but general readers too will find it highly accessible. Lots of the buildings shown have been demolished, so it gives a great sense of what no longer exists. Philadelphia is treated in detail, which was especially interesting to me. This is as much a cultural history as a history of architecture, and that's what makes this such an outstanding book.

This book is a beautiful edition, and serves the purpose of explaining sybolism in art quite nicely. There is, though, one flaw: Most of the large color plates are spread across the spine of the book. This is not a problem for most, but as an art student, studying the paintings with 15% lost in the spine is a problem.

Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen have done their research in examining paintings throughout time and have created two extraordinary volumes that invite us into the Art Appreciation Theater of an honored university of learning. Their biographies are strangely missing from these books: we can only surmise that these two fine art historians have spent countless hours in the museums of the world. The fruit of their labor is a world of revealed details secreted within the masterpieces we 'thought' we knew.
The technique: Introduce a complete painting, give a thorough background about the time in which it was created and the artist who created it, and then from isolated windows, fill the remaining pages about that painting with details that not only address the painter's technique but also make commentary on the social mores, theological and philosophical concepts often at odds with the casual audience perceptual skills, and in general open vistas of enjoyment and insight to even the most experienced viewer. The Hagens have managed to gossip a bit, chide and joke a bit, and in the end offer us insights into exactly 'what great paintings say!.'
Most of the paintings scrutinized are the large panoramas of, for example, Rembrandt ('The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp', 'Balshazzar's Feast'), Rubens ('The Love Garden' with the foggy details of Venus milking her breats as fountains!) van Eyck ('Adoration of the Lamb') Poussin, Goya, etc. In addition to famous masters, the Hagens bring to light such lesser known greats as Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz, a "Netherlandish master," Johannes Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, and Ilya Repin to mention only a few.
One of the marvels of this collection is the consummate attention paid Courbet's 1855 "The Studio" which depicts a painter at easel, his model, the commissioners of the painting, royalty and peasants - all painted with adoring detail. It definitely is a statement of the artist's political standpoint!
Technically the books are rich in color, creatively designed and close to color-correct. There is much to be enjoyed here and even more to advance the understanding and appreciation of art. A true gift!

I bought this book hoping that it will explain to me why some painters are so highly regarded and other copy caps are not. Book basically goes over mostly Renocence pictures and tell the story behind each painting either what it depicts in terms of symbolism or history behind it or resons and financing behind it. It is a combination History book and paintings. It tells yo that for example Boticelli's Birth of Venus is first in Ronecance for nudity but it does not tell me why her feet is crooked, why anybody else who probably did similar paintings at the same time did not get this much fame. That is what I was looking and could not find. Still looking for the right book but this book by itself is very good for the purpose of its design.

The sixth Martin Beck novel. The crime this time around is the brutal murder of a decorated police officer in his hospital bed. Beck (now divorced from his shrewish wife) and his partner Kollberg, are on the case again.

This is the best novel in the series, masterfully interweaving the virtues of Beck's patient, methodical style of detection with a damning indictment of the pointless brutality and general incompetence of modern law enforcement. The point of the book, made in a variety of ways, is that law enforcement needs better cops, not bigger guns. Excellent as both a crime thriller and social commentary.

And don't miss the cliffhanger ending.

Unfortunately, it's out of print, and hard to find. Beg, borrow, or steal a copy, and read it.

"The Abomidable Man" is one of the better entries in the ten "Martin Beck" mysteries by the husband-and-wife team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. It features the unforgettable characters of Martin Beck, Leonard Kollberg, and their colleagues at the newly nationalized Swedish Police Force as a particularly brutal murder of a police officer in a hospital is investigated. With few clues, Beck and his colleagues eventually solve the case, but are overtaken by events in the sort of bleak existential denouement that characterizes this unmatched series of crime stories. The authors use the police procedural as a prism through which to look at society, and their liberal outlook seems innocent and quaint given the passage of time. Search your local used bookstores and garage sales for any entries in this series (not too uncommon in paperback) and let's hope that Black Lizard rereleases the whole series. NOTE: This book was made into an outstanding Swedis! ! h film called "The Man on the Roof", available on video at certain outlets.

Another spellbinding Martin Beck mystery that invites the reader into the world of the Swedish police in the 70's. The characters are memorable, the plot is very believable, it's an excellent piece of mystery fiction.

Here are some responses of undergrads at a liberal arts college in a seminar on contemporary art-
Student 1:
1. The book was interesting and well developed...it moved at a steady pace
and was consistent.
2. Hopkins used too many difficult words that weren't familiar and he was
unclear as to the main objective in some of his chapters.
3. In some areas of the book, Hopkins only touched on some of the artists
who seemed important and went too into depth on a few others. He needed to

keep that aspect of the book consistent...the rest was well done.

Student 2:
Hopkins used many examples of Contemporary Art that were very relative to the concepts he explained. While they helped me to understand his ideas, some of his writing was very difficult to understand. He was wordy and used many uncommon terms making reading slow and hard to comprehend. This would be an excellent book for those who are in the advanced stages of learning about Contemporary Art.

Student 3:

Hopkins does a wonderful job of providing ample examples for the reader.
However, he does not do a very good job of explaining the examples without
creating some confusion. Hopkin's also uses a vocabulary that is too
advanced for the undergraduate reader that this book is intended for.

Student 4:
Hopkins used some very interesting examples to try and create a new way of looking at the transition from modern to post-modern art. I think that the book is mislabled as a beginner book, since from the start the author assumes that we have a strong basic knowledge of art history. To be fair the issue he is talking about in this book is so complex that writing an introduction is a very difficult task, I think that Hopkins did a good job.

Student 5:
-The book takes a different view on 20th century art, and helps put things
in a historic context.
-The book is difficult to understand at times, and seems to be at a higher
than introductory level.
-Some of the references to works are vague, and they are hard to connect to
the photos.

i really enjoy reading the Oxford History of Art books. all of them are very informative and easy to read. i go to art school and these are the books are what we use as text books, so i highly recomend it !

I have - for professional reasons - read several introductions to contemporary art written in the late 90s, and this is by far the best. Hopkins does not only have a great knowledge on the field but he is also good at writing about it, and furthermore he is up to date with the latest scholary researches on the field without being academic in his way of formulating it.

I recommend this for students and scholars as well as for the just interested. No matter who you are, you will definitely know much more about contemporary art than before, and have a lot of good color reproductions of the works as well.

A roof over our head is a need just as the air that we breathe, the food that we consume, & the water that we drink. As human gradually evolves & that our mind is getting more complex, a house doesn't serve the need simply but it also has become a form of expression, a display of the occupants' personality &/or their wealth, bringing into fruition an ideal or an -ism, &/or a culmination of both. Irrespective of which countries we're going to, & what cultures we immerse ourselves into, we still need a house to go home to. And the "House Book" delves into the residential end of architecture scale by showing us all range of houses that transcend boundaries, dollar value, time. I view this book as a collage of 500 houses. I wish certain iconic houses could be discussed further with provision of additional pictures but what we are provided with are simply pictures taken from the most potent angles, which supposedly do the most justice to the houses. Having said that, I would opt the strengths & weaknesses are exposed & they are to be judged by their own merits but then, the size of the book would have been increased quite significantly & so does the cost of owning the book. Still, this is an exceptional book with high grade quality pictures, good summary, good end notes for us to delve into a particular style, particular countries. At the end of the book, there is also an index of further information regarding houses that are available for public viewing. Overall, a very well-done book & it is featured permanently & prominently on my coffee table. Highly recommended

A great collection of 500 houses, from huts in thirdworld countries, to historic castles and palaces and estates and chateaus, to modern architecture, done by 500 architects. This is a visuals-only book. It does not have much information about the buildings or the architects, but it makes up for the lack of text with the large, vibrant photos, which is what the book is all about. This book is a trade-off - it has more homes and architects than any other book out there, but it also has very little information, since with 500 architects, that only leaves one per page.

Fun to look through and mentally design the dream estate of my retirement years...and to learn about a lot of architects I'd never heard of.

Why ....O....Why is this book so cheap???!!??? It's so wonderfully done. Each designer gets exactly one page (even Frank Lloyd Wright). One beautiful photograph(and thank [goodness] not too many words), then on to the next,500 in all; an incredibly diverse view of the different ways that "Home" is accomplished, with suggestions in fine print of other entries that might interest you if you like this one. Every book I've ever bought even close to this quality really hurt me at the checkout counter....but this one is [PRICE]..!!?? Perhaps it's the ugly cover photograph of bricks. Who knows, but inside is one of the most incredible and inspiring collections of images I've seen in a long time...kind of like "Shelter" without the excess verbage. Years ago, my sister cut thousands of small photographs out of years of National Geographic and laminated them into an incredible montage that covered the entire wall surface that separated the kitchen from the dining room. Colors, textures and images provided us with endless amusement. I'm ordering 2 extra copies of this book to chop up. No [kidding], I'm not associated with this book in any way, I'm just an economy minded Architect that can spot an incredible buy.