Amazon.com
In the spring of 1988, Boston Globe reporters Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill set out to write the story of two infamous brothers from the insular Irish enclave of South Boston: Jim "Whitey" Bulger and his younger brother Billy. Whitey was the city's most powerful gangster and a living legend--tough, cunning, without conscience, and above all, smart. Billy, president of the state Senate, was a political heavyweight in Massachusetts. These facts alone make for an intriguing story, but as Lehr and O'Neill found out, this was only the beginning.
John Connolly, a rising FBI agent and fellow "Southie," had known the Bulgers since boyhood when Whitey rescued him from a playground fight. After investigating organized crime in New York, Connolly was reassigned to the bureau's Boston office in 1975, and was determined to make a name for himself by relying on his old connections. He succeeded in a big way by lining up Whitey as an FBI informant in an effort to bring down the Italian Mafia--a major coup for both the FBI and Connolly. In exchange, Bulger received protection. Though heavily involved in extortion, intimidation, assassination, and drug trafficking, Connolly's "good bad guy" did not receive so much as a traffic infraction for over 20 years. In time, however, the deal changed, and information began flowing the other direction, with Bulger manipulating Connolly and a small group of corrupt FBI agents to further his nefarious network. The criminals and the lawmen eventually became virtually indistinguishable.
Black Mass expertly details the twists and turns of this complex story, painting a vivid portrait of Boston's underbelly and its inclusive political machine, as well as exposing one of the worst scandals in FBI history. It's also an examination of loyalty--to family, home, and heritage--and "a cautionary tale about the abuse of power that goes unchecked." As a final favor, Connolly tipped off Bulger that he was to be indicted on racketeering charges in 1995, allowing him time to go on the lam (he's reported to have access to secret bank accounts across the country). He was added to the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted List" in 1999. --Sharon M. Brown
Book Description
John Connoly and James "Whitey" Bulger grew up together on the streets of South Boston. Decades later, in the mid 1970's, they would meet again. By then, Connolly was a major figure in the FBI's Boston office and Whitey had become godfather of the Irish Mob. What happened next -- a dirty deal to being down the Italian mob in exchange for protection for Bulger -- would spiral out of control, leading to murders, drug dealing, racketeering indictments, and, ultimately, the biggest informant scandal in the history of the FBI.
Compellingly told by two Boston Globe reporters who were on the case from the beginning, Black Mass is at once a riveting crime story, a cautionary tale about the abuse of power, and a penetrating look at Boston and its Irish population.
Customer Reviews:
Perfect.......2007-03-14
This item was exactly what i ordered in the exact condition that i ordered it in. Would definitly do business with seller again! Thank you
The First Book.......2007-02-23
This book was the first book to be written on the Bulger/FBI scandal. For those who don't know; James "Whitey" Bulger ran Bostons Irish mafia for almost 20 years. He also was a Top Echelon Informant for the FBI. As such, they let him get away with all types of crimes, including murder. Making matters worse, his younger brother Billy was the Senate president of the Mass. state Senate. Another brother, Jackie, was a juvenile court judge. This family took corruption to new heights. Eventually they fell. Whitey is now one of the top 10 fugitives. This book by two Boston Globe reporters, details the Bulger brothers, their history, Boston politics, and how they all came together. This is a good book. The only problems are because it was written in 1998-1999, some things have changed ( For example, Bulgers partner in crime, Steven Flemi, has pleaded guilty to several murders, and is doing life without parole ). Also, there wasn't enough written about the Top Echelon Informant program and all the problems with it. I'd recomend getting 2 other books along with this to get a complete picture. 1 is Dangerous Alliances by Ralph Ranelli; the other is The Brothers Bulger by Howie Carr. All 3 books should give you a complete view of this scandal.
Frightening account of corruption.......2006-10-20
Black Mass is an unbelievable account of the illicit relationship between two Irish mobsters from South Boston (Whitey Bulger and Stevie Flemmi) and their FBI handlers (John Connolly and John Morris).
The book begins with background on South Boston and the "us against them" mentality of the residents. As a young boy, John Connolly looked up to and admired Whitey Bulger, a local gangster, and left an indelible impression on Connolly one day when Bulger rescued Connolly from a fight. Years later, when Connolly was assigned to the Boston FBI office, he sought out Bulger to turn him into an informant, hoping to make a name for himself. Bulger's younger brother was president of the state senate and Whitey by this time was head of the Irish mob in Boston, both highly regarded in their own circles.
Though Connolly may have begun the relationship with good intentions, it very quickly turned corrupt, and the information Bulger supplied Connolly was self-serving, and Connolly, never having grown out of his idolization of Bulger, did all he could to keep Whitey's record clean. The Irish and Italian mafias had a tenuous relationship, so for Bulgur, informing on his competition got them out of his way, and as long as he worked with the FBI, he was untouchable. Bulger's partner in crime, Stevie Flemmi, as it turned out, had been an informant for several years before Bulger. Rather than the FBI handling them, Bulger and Flemmi cultivated a bond with Connolly and Morris to ensure that they could do anything without fear of punishment. Reports were made up, lost, or taken; phone calls from other law enforcement agencies were ignored; Bulger and Flemmi's importance was inflated; and they were always one step ahead of a sting. Under the protection of the FBI, Bulger and Flemmi were involved in racketeering, gun running, drugs, and over a dozen murders - and got away with it.
What amazes me is that supposedly Connolly and Morris only benefited by $7000 during the two decades that Bulger and Flemmi were informants. Initially I believe that Connolly just wanted notoriety, but he is also flamboyant and likes living the high life, which it appears he did.
Eventually Morris' conscience bothered him enough to start talking, but it still took several years before Bulger, Flemmi, Connolly and Morris were indicted. Connolly warned Bulger, enabling him to escape. Flemmi, on the other hand, still thought that Morris would tell the court that this was all a mistake, and get Flemmi off as he had done for so many years.
As far as I know, Bulger is still a fugative and on the 10 Most Wanted List. I hope that regulations are now being followed to ensure FBI handlers are accountable for their action or inaction, and that the chain of command is aware of what the agents are doing. This was a well-written and engrossing story.
Incredible Book.......2006-08-19
I've had an interest in Boston and the organized crime around Boston for a while. I've actually had a big interest in the mafia in general. This is a great book with a lot of information that is very useful in understanding how corruption in the system allows organized crime to become more powerful and almost unstoppable.
More to come??.......2006-08-05
One might ask after reading this excellent book whether 2 kids,say brothers, were groomed to follow in the Bulger's footsteps but perhaps something went awry??
I know of 2 brothers from Massachusetts. Both were raised in state care during Bulger's reign. The older brother went into the army and a couple years later the younger was being harassed by activities a man who bore the same name in the same town, as if the younger brother had another identity created and which was made to look bad to hurt him in the identity confusion following. It is speculated the older brother set up the younger brother, both from Woburn,Mass and that the older brother after a name change went into FBI service at his younger brother's constant expense.Wherever the younger brother went the older followed and bad thingsalways happened to the younger as a result. There is a lot that went on but it looks as a duplicate of the Bulger's good guy/bad guy pairing for controlling different levels of influence was going on.
Book Description
Though strange bedfellows, America's liberals and radical Muslims stand on suspiciously similar ground in refusing to condemn Islamic terrorism, in criticizing America and the West, and in opposing efforts to export capitalism and democracy. As a former Leftist radical, Horowitz is perfectly placed to diagnose, and denounce, the hypocrisy and danger of the American Left.
Customer Reviews:
Deeply Disappointed.......2007-08-09
I read his very well-written autobiography last summer, and was highly impressed with his erudition and reasonableness. Thinking he's an interesting writer, it is a quite shocking letdown to see this book even in print; it should have stayed as a thought in his head. Perhaps I was taken in by what may actually have been an act, a cleverly designed portrayal of a critically minded man with an intellectual journey but, in actuality, the same ideologue he was when he helped flack for Stalinist Russia. Maybe, and maybe not. What is certain is that this particular book is nothing more than a hysterical diatribe with little basis in fact, if any. I'll give it two stars to be charitable, since I pity this guy.
Exposes the left's love affair with radical Islam.......2007-03-14
At one time the left loved the Soviet Union and embraced its wickedness now the times have changed and now as Ann Coulter says that radical Islam is hip and awfully fashionable among the left. Horowitz points out once again that politics makes for strange bed fellows. In this case the left has done nothing that is surprising. It can't be said often enough that the left has an agenda. The agenda is to take down America with any means possible. Listen to what Tim Robbins said just recently, "North Korea has a right to have nuclear power and nuclear bombs, does America think that they are the only ones who gets to blow people up?." I mean is that guy out of his mind or what? Then when asked what he thinks what America should do if Iran got nuclear bombs, he states sarcastically "well I guess we should go over there and kill as many women and children as we can." Wow, what a true visionary. Is this guy an idiot or what? This is how utterly insane and evil the left is. I am not saying that Tim Robbins is an evil person. I am not saying that he is not either. I don't know the man but I am pointing out just like Horowitz that there is an unholy alliance by the left with that which is evil. Let's look at the record. The New York Times ran an article on its front two pages about Abu Graib for almost a year and the dispicable media with the exception of Fox ran the story into the ground as Horowitz points out. The "NEWS" agencies ran the beheadings of Americans for only as long as they had to which amounted to about 2 days on the average, yes occssionally they will bring it up from time to time because they do want to make money and even the New York Times knows that it has to sell papers. So they will throw America some crumbs once in awhile.
But this what makes the left in this country so darn evil, is that they will allign themselves with the likes of Osama Bin Laden, Chavez, Castro and tell anyone who disagrees with them that they are clueless trailer trash. This is the truth.
Once again David Horrowitz hits it right on the head by pointing out that the no other country will ever destroy us but that we will if the left is allowed to continue to go unchecked. Face it the majority of people in this country are not leftist nut jobs and this book points out that so much or our policy is determined by those who want so bad to undermine our fine traditions.
Five stars. Horowitz is a gifted writer and spells out the unholy alliance that the left has with radical Islam and would sell out America in a heart beat, they would have every conservative hung or burned at the stake and partial birth abortion on demand or forced.
By the way Pauzer just go ahead and cut and paste your comments. Let me see somehow I have to think that he word "generalization" is going to be slipped in there somewhere and the question "is this a review?"
Excellent book, tells the truth and once again leaves the liberals out in the cold wondering who do we go to to further wreck America?
GREAT BOOK.......2006-12-18
Well written and brutally honest. The media and the Democrats are launching the LARGEST PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN ever in the history of the United States. They have undermined the Soldier's fighting for OUR FREEDOM. The real war has not even started yet and the left wingers in this Country are THE ENEMY WITHIN and a danger to National Security of the USA. They hide their treason behind dissent. They (The Democrats) go to Europe and Arab Nations bad mouthing THEIR OWN COUNTRY during wartime and they should be jailed upon their return, sentenced and then executed for treason.
The left does not see a threat.......2006-11-10
Very few know the left as does David Horowitz. From his early days writing for Ramparts and his association with such entities as the Black Panthers, he has been schooled in the rhetoric and the thinking of the left. According to Horowitz, the left is anti-American and would like America to lose the war against Radical Islam. In addition, Howowitz asserts that the left is guilty of moral equivalency and are apologists for terrorists and any thugs who call themselves "progressives." Students of history are well aware that the far left as well as the far right have had no problem killing people for their respective cause. Horowitz makes the point that today, the left hides behind the banners of "fairness", "equality", "friend of the little guy", "peace", etc. and do not appear dangerous to most folks. Horowitz may well change your mind. Excellent read. Also look at Horowitz's earlier work, "Left Illusions."
Fascinating Analysis of Leftist Goals.......2006-08-14
A former 1960s radical, Horowitz is well-acquainted with the Leftist mindset. In this book, he strives to explain the modern alliance between left wing progressivists and radical Islamofascists. He argues that this alliance is based on a common desire to destroy Western capitalism. Leftist sympathy with Islamofascist ideas makes no sense from an intellectual point of view, given that countries ruled by radical Islamists are among the most racist, sexist, theocratic states in the world today. However, Leftists have recognized that they can benefit politically from destructive terrorist attacks on the Western world. A West under attack can be made to turn on its leaders in fear and desperation (as they did in Spain after the Madrid train bombings). Only once people reject current government structures can the Left execute its anti-capitalist revolution and build a new reality that mirrors the Leftist view of utopia. The complete and utter idealogical hypocrisy of the Islamofascist-Leftist alliance is distressing, but as Horowitz reminds us, Leftists radicals truly believe the ends justify the means.
Book Description
FOREWORD BY NORMAN MAILER
Engagingly written, this is a comprehensive but popular history of the occult background and roots of the Nazi movement, showing how the ideas of a vast international network of late 19th- and early 20th century occult groups influenced Nazi ideology, from Madame Blavatsky and Aleister Crowley to the Thule Gesellschaft, the Order of the Golden Dawn, the Order of the Eastern Temple, and the pseudoscientific expeditions to Iceland and Tibet of the Ancestral Heritage Research and Teaching Society. Nazi appropriation of the occult was a strange mixture of astrology, freemasonry, racism rooted in occultism, and popular European folklore. It also traces the Nazi movements as they continued their activities after the war or "morphed" into neo-Nazi, skinhead, and satanic groups, such as the Christian Identity and White Aryan Resistance movements.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent research!.......2007-07-06
Although I could go on and on, like the other reviewers, I'll try to keep this short. Peter Levenda did extensive research for this book, and its obvious looking at the bibliography. There was a lot going on in the world before and during WWII, and this book really opened my eyes as to how many significant events were inspired by the occult and superstitions. I always viewed historical texts focused on this particular time frame as very dry and dull, but this book really got down and dirty with the alterior motives behind all the strategy that took place during those years.
This book was NOT an easy read, however... but it was well worth the effort to stay focused. There was no filler material like most books have - each sentence and paragraph was full of information and detail, so if you drift off into thought about what you just read, you'll miss something important.
I just wish I could buy it in hardback.
Horrible research and poorly formulated arguments.......2007-04-29
As other reviewer have mentioned, Levenda contradicts his own conclusions and arguments in this book; arguments formed by poor research and untrustworthy sources.
It's at least as bad as "Spear of Destiny" if not worse, due to the greater amount of verifiable, solid sources available.
You have to be VERY gullible to take this book seriously!.......2007-01-26
Unholy Alliance has to be the stupidest book written about so called "Nazi occultism" since Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft. The author of this book is either insane, a huckster trying to make a buck or a covert ADL agent. It reads like he did his research for this book by watching one of those silly A & E "Nazi occult" documentaries, reading public ADL or SPLC "intelligence" reports designed to scare little old Jewish ladies into thinking the Nazis are coming back if they don't send in a large donation, and then tying the ends by just making a bunch of stuff up.
I mean I really don't know where to start with this one. For one there is absolutely no evidence that Hitler was a Satanist, Odinist or any type of practicing occultist. Levenda can't seem to figure out what the Nazis as a whole are either. In one brush of the stroke he says they are worshippers of Odin, Thor, etc, then in the next he says they were trying to recreate the Christian Knights Templar and the Jesuit Order through the SS!
He also makes the nutty and totally baseless claim that a South American religious cult made up of people of German ancestry are Nazi war criminals who escaped after WW2 and are secretly pulling the strings of the various South American governments behind the scenes. News Flash! There was no connection between the people at ""Colonia Dignidad" and Nazism. Just because you are German and live in South America does not mean you are a "Nazi war criminal" fleeing justice. There were huge amounts of Germans living in South America long before WW2, there have been and still are whole German communities there and 99.999% of the Germans who went to South America after WW2 did so to escape what was going to be a very nasty place to live for many years to come, not because Simon Wiesenthal was hot on their heels. As far as "escaped Nazis" having anything to do with installing these murderous crackpot right wing dictators that popped up at various times in South America its totally baseless and delusional. I think you might look to a Jewish man named Kissinger if you want to know how those regimes came about.
As if all of this wasn't enough I actually heard Levenda on a talk radio show claiming that "Nazi skinheads" were running a multi-million dollar drug smuggling empire as a joint operation with Al-Queda! Ha ha ha! If you believe that you will believe anything.
If you want to read a sane book on Nazis and the occult check out The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
Fascinating, but I'm not sure I believe him........2006-08-31
The bulk of this book is an absorbing study of Nazi occultism. Levenda contends that this was not an eccentricity dabbled in by a few of the high command but was in fact central to fascism. In his research he read reams of documents from the Nazi era in various archives, piles of bureaucratic letters, newspaper clippings, reports and other things, so he has gone directly to the source. In addition to his extensive research of a fascinating subject, he has a wry humor and very readable style.
The problem comes when he tries to convince the reader that there is still a worldwide Nazi occult conspiracy which could break out and start wreaking havoc any day. He documents the escapes and probable present whereabouts of various Nazi war criminals, but his attempts to show that they are secretly pulling the strings behind, for example, various small racist groups in Europe and America are unconvincing. His own accounts of meeting with some of these groups suggest that they are mere random collections of nutbars.
He discusses the Manson murders at length, apparently believing that because the Manson gang was racist and subscribed to a bizarre cosmology, their crimes support his theory of a lingering Nazi occult conspiracy, but he is unable to show any kind of connection to the Manson gang and, well, anything. In addition, late in the book he talks about some subjects that I know something about, and I caught quite a few mistakes, and as a former true crime buff, one of them was about the Manson murders. Levenda tries to bolster the racism-occultism connection by stating that Manson girl Susan Atkins was a member of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan. No doubt this was asserted in numerous sensationalist newspaper articles, but one would expect a man who spent untold hours reading Nazi-era bureaucratic red tape to check his facts better than that. The connection between Atkins and LaVey is far more tenuous. Before she met Manson, she worked as a stripper. Once, her strip club decided to do a sort of horror theme show and had it choreographed by a local occultist named Anton LaVey. LaVey had not yet founded the Church of Satan, and in his youth had been a musician playing accompaniment for strippers, and so probably still had plenty of friends in the striptease industry. In her autobiography, Atkins, who became a born-again Christian in prison, claims that when they met LaVey gave her the creeps. The creepy feeling didn't stop her from playing her part in his horror strip skit, that of a vampire, a detail the newspapers would pounce on with relish after the murders. That was the extent of their association. She was never a member of the CoS. That I can catch him in a few mistakes which he could easily have better verified makes me wonder how seriously I can take the rest of his research, which is largely in languages I don't speak and buried in vaults that would take untold hours to dig through.
Another warning signal is Levenda's claims of anti-intellectual bias coupled with assertions that most Americans are not intellectual enough to suit Levenda. He spends several pages moaning about how ignorant Americans are about World War II and the Holocaust. At one point he says, if I may paraphrase, "According to a recent study, an appalling percentage of Americans have never heard of the Holocaust." Apparently the percentage wasn't as appalling as he wishes, or one imagines he would have shared the figure with us. In any case, I am frankly skeptical of his assertions. Maybe it's just that I don't spend much time talking to idiots, but I've yet to encounter an American who wasn't actually pretty knowledgeable about the whole thing. One feels he is talking through his hat so that he can make himself seem smarter by comparison with all those duffers who don't know what he does.
At one point, he complains that "all" governments, of every stripe, distrust intellectuals. According to him, in China intellectuals are suspected of being capitalists and in America intellectuals are suspected of being communists. Well, I'm an intellectual and I'm afraid I've just never seen any evidence of this institutional distrust of intellectuals he bemoans. This is the kind of thing people who think society isn't deferring to them enough whine about. Ironically, if the erudite Nazi occultists in his book are any indication, distrusting intellectuals is probably a very good idea.
Levenda says: "And those Americans for whom intellectual and cultural sophistication held certain attractions that could not be matched by Iowa corn country square dances or homespun Bible Belt homilies found themselves having more in common with the Hollywood image of the typical SS officer than with the type of American GI portrayed by, say, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne or Henry Fonda. As a certain, subtextual cultural identification with the SS began to take place among our basically intelligent but incompetently educated American youth it would not be long before political identification would occur... with unfortunate consequences."
The problem is, he never gets around to telling us what these "unfortunate consequences" are. He talks at length about contemporary occultists, who are often exceptionally intelligent people, but doesn't even attempt to argue that they are racist or violent or in any other way dangerous. The racist groups he met with in his research sound by his own account like very stupid people. He basically suggests that sophisticated people might be inspired by classic war movies to adopt Nazism without being able to cite even one example of one who did.
And he's jumping to all sorts of unwarranted conclusions. For one thing, there are plenty of movies that portray elegant people in a positive light. Maybe not those being made nowadays, but thanks to AMC and TCM, and the BBC, hundreds of such movies are readily available.
Now, my own amusements tend toward classic jazz, German expressionism, and classic novels. I've just started to take an interest in the great works of ancient Greece. In short, I'm one of those he talks about who might "culturally identify" with the suave S.S. officer of movies. And yet, oddly enough I can't feel the disdain he assures me I should for "Iowa corn country square dances or homespun Bible Belt homilies". Indeed, one of my personal maxims, which I have verified many times through brutal experience, is that people who dislike country music are rarely to be trusted. I admire these things. My refined education allows me to see the value in them the more keenly. Those people I know who turn up their noses at "Iowa corn country square dances or homespun Bible Belt homilies" are the stupid, uncultivated, unwashed masses, the kind who believe uncritically the slanted news the MSM dishes out and will voluntarily watch Beavis and Butthead.
Besides which, um, "Iowa corn country square dances or homespun Bible Belt homilies" are not really all that prevalent today. I live in the Bible Belt, surrounded by rural communities, descended on both sides from farmers, and I don't see that much of these things. Levenda accuses most Americans of getting their ideas about Nazism from "the movies", but apparently he gets his ideas of rural America from "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Doc Hollywood" (a movie whose portrayal of the rural South had the rural North Carolina audience I watched it with in stitches). Americans are hardly stuck with a choice between square dances and fascism.
One Side of Darkness.......2006-07-06
Peter Levenda's book on the history of Nazi Involvement with the occult is interesting and informative, but sadly lacking in balance. He presents significant detail and insightful analysis relative to the occult foundation of the Nazi ideology and, in so doing, rightly depicts something which is fundamentally evil. Levenda goes on quite rightly to illustrate that the Nazi ideology is not dead, but has been aided and abetted in its survival by certain elements of the American intelligence and scientific communities. But in elaborating this profound evil, he utterly fails to mention the other evils with which Nazism was at times in contention and at times in conformity. Because of this, we cannot, in good faith, give the book an unqualified recommendation. Nonetheless, it is interesting, well written, and, though quite biased, worth reading.
An excellent example of Levenda's lack of balance is in the author's depiction of Samuel Untermyer. Levenda describes this man as a satanist and an initiate of the Golden Dawn. While this is all well and good, Levenda fails to mention that it was this same Untermyer who, in 1933, declared "holy war" on Hitler's Germany on behalf of International Jewry, this declaration being carried on a natonal radio broadcast in an era when all important announcements were thus made. There is something truly detestable about an author who would style himself a historian and yet leave out such an important detail.
Nonetheless, we would encourage interested students to pick up and to read Levenda's otherwise important and well written book. It contains much that is worthwhile relative to the very significant occult foundations of the hideous Nazi ideology. For providing this very important information, we are very grateful to the author and applaud, in particular, his very readable and enjoyable sense of style.
Book Description
In an America that increasingly turns its back on the teachings of science, the worlds of religion and medicine have grown disconcertingly close. A majority of Americans now see prayer and other religious activities as a substitute for well-researched methods of curing disease. Many ask, "So, what's the problem with prayer?" By taking a hard look at the scientific evidence. Richard Sloan believes there is no proven curative power to prayer and that the use of it as a medical treatment underminds effective patient care.
In Blind Faith, Sloan exposes the questionable research practicies and unfounded claims made by ethical scientists who manipulate scientific data and research results to support their claim of effective mystical intervention in healing. Sloan begins by looking at how good science works and what it's founded on. He then discusses the faulty methodology employed by those trumpeting the role of prayer in healing and implicates a gullible media in the propogation of bad science. He looks at ethical and clinical concerns of the debate and the ultimate trivialization of religion that results. As the Christian right turns its back on science, medicine, seems to be its next target. Sloan lays bare the faults of these assertions in a book sure to make headlines.
Customer Reviews:
Very Effective Critique.......2007-07-25
This clear and well organized book is aimed at a general audience. Sloan takes aim at the idea that aspects of religious participation (or more vaguely, spirituality) have concrete health benefits. This idea has led some enthusiasts to push for some melding of religion and medical practice. Sloan reviews carefully the actual data claimed to support these assertions. He does so in a clear style, providing basic information about what constitutes convincing data. He shows clearly that the evidence for putative health benefits of religion is quite slender and there is little to justify substantial changes in medical practice. Sloan then turns to a number of other issues, including both practical and theoretical barriers to introducing religious issues into practice. Sloan argues well that any major change in physician-patient relations is likely to impair other aspects of practice because of time constraints and that it is unlikely that medical education can really provide physicians with the requisite knowledge. The theoretical barriers are a series of ethical issues which really constitute some major problems. Unlike some other reviewers, I felt these sections are quite well done. Sloan has a good grasp of the realities and complexities of medical practice. Sloan is, I think, fair to those he criticizes and this book constitutes a very effective critique.
Definitive summary of research.......2007-06-01
This is the definitive book on religion and medicine: they are different and do not mix very well. Most of the research on the effect of religious activity on health has been sloppy, and the results have been negative. Neither going to church nor prayer will guarantee better health or longer life.
Physicians have neither the time, nor the expertise to counsel patients on questions of religion, or meaning, or spirituality. For this there are other experts,-- ministers, priests, chaplains, etc. -- trained in the ministry and theology, as well as in counseling.
This is a very good book. It is especially solid on science and medical research, explaining what conclusions can realistically be drawn and what can not be drawn from the existing research, but also what is possible to research at all.
Enjoyable Read.......2007-03-12
I agree with points made by reviewers below, especially the criticism of Sloan's last two chapters in which he suggests that religion deserves a free pass from scientific inquiry. Christianity, for example, has been proven "false" on many points from the sciences of biology, archaeology, and history. Should archaeologists not try to prove or disprove the sometimes outrageous claims of the Bible followed by billions? Are archaeology and critical history not "science"?
Besides this, I would add one comment. I work as an RN and have met many, many doctors, both young and old. As a whole, physicians are the most irreverent group of people I've ever met! I chuckled even picturing the doctors I know getting "spiritual" with their patients (and, keep in mind, I live in Oklahoma, the Bible Belt if ever there was a place). Nurses and other auxillary staff also tend to be an undevout crowd as well. So, perhaps Sloan is making a proverbial mountain out of a molehill. It's telling that Sloan returns over and over again to the same few doctors in his book -- because, in reality, there is no groundswell towards an "Alliance of Religion and Medicine." There's no need to lose sleep over this issue.
Still, Sloan's work is appreciated because I have heard (and maybe even said in the past) that there is "strong evidence supporting the health benefits of religion." Now, I can no longer say that.
Science and Faith are Simply Not the Same Thing.......2007-02-02
There was a time when the Church decided to take on the science of physics. They decided that the earth was the center of the universe and sentenced Galileo to life under house arrest for saying otherwise. Having lost that battle, it now seems that religion has decided to take on biology and medicine. ==Since our time is a bit more scientific than was Galileo's time, thr arguments from the religious are often framed in the words of science, specifically research papers that purport to show proofs that the religious views are correct.
In this book Dr. Sloan (Professor of Medicine, Columbia) looks at some of the studies that have come out saying things like church goers live longer (perhaps those in the process of dying are too sick to go to church), the power of prayer, the power of crystals and so on. He also laments the lack of understanding about basic scientific principles and views among people who have gone through our educational system. And then there's the 'UN'intelligent design folk who are trying to force the adoption of their religious based ideas into out schools.
With the right wing fanatics in the Muslim world, and the Christian right trying to take over this country, it makes you wonder what's happening to the world.
Religion & Medicine.......2007-01-23
Fast read, non-technical. Good overview on how to evaluate the quality of studies, medical journal reviews, and the process of scientific experimentation. The third section of the book seemed to bog down and become more "opinion-based" rather than fact- or statistically-based.
Customer Reviews:
Second Book in the Series.......2007-01-24
Susanna Gregory is the pseudonym of a Cambridge academic who was previously a coroner's officer. Her series of mediaeval mysteries have gained a formidable following. This book is the second in the series and introduces the physician Matthew Bartholomew to the reader. There are now a number of books in the series and they are always eagerly awaited by the author's fans.
Besides practising medicine Matthew is also a teacher at a Cambridge University and his sometimes unorthodox treatment of his patients draws accusations of heresy from his more traditional, but less skilled colleagues.
The year is 1350 and we have moved on two years (A Plague on Both Your Houses). The people of Cambridge are struggling to overcome the effect of the Black Death. The countryside is overrun with bands of outlaws and the high death rate of the plague has taken many of the priests and monks and left their parishioners vulnerable to the many cults that are circulating in the wake of the plague.
At Michaelhouse Matthew Bartholomew has got the urgent job of training new physicians to replace those lost to the Black Death, but when the body of a friar is found in massive chest that houses the university's store of precious documents Matthew is called away from his teaching duties to investigate the strange death . . .
Witches brew.......2006-07-13
This is the second in the Matthew Bartholomew series, set in 14th century England, in the university city of Cambridge. Matthew would much rather be working at his profession of teaching medicine to his students but, once again, he is called upon by the heads of college to assist them in solving a spate of murders, which have occurred in the recent weeks. Three of the town's prostitutes have been found with their throats slashed, which doesn't seem to overly worry the Sheriff, but when the body of a friar is found, poisoned and stuffed into a chest in the belfry of a church, and again the Sherriff does nothing, The Master of the university asks the help of Matthew and his friend, Brother Michael in investigating further. The plot does tend to get a bit muddled as they uncover evidence of satanic covens and unholy practices, terrified locals and fanatical monks crying "heresy" at every turn when Matthew teaches the art of surgical operations, but it's an interesting read with interesting examples of the horrors of 14th century life with its lack of hygiene and stinking streets and rivers. Perhaps it was a case of the survival of the fittest of the species after the plague which decimated half of Europe!
Another enjoyable book from Ms. Gregory.......2005-12-26
Ms. Gregory's has created an interesting 14th Century physician protagonist would rather be teaching and attending to his patients rather than conducting investigations. With strong supporting characters and rich historical detail, this is another very good book in a well done series. The stories are just a bit overlong and the plot overcomplicated, but it all works together well. I recommend reading the series in order, and I do recommend reading the series.
Readable but no Ellis Peters.......2004-02-02
Ellis Peter's crown is still safe. Susanna Gregory can write a credable medieval mystery but she still has a long way to go before she can hope to challenge the undisputed mistress of medieval whodunnits.
The book is quite readable, certainly better than the mediocre Sister Fidelma mysteries by Peter Tremayne, with their revisionist vision of a gender-neutral Celtic Church (OK, maybe not as blatantly--Platonically?--misogynistic as the Catholic Church but no women's paradise either) but the book is about 50 pages too long to be truly engrossing. I found myself resisting the urge to skip ahead a few pages to see if anything had actually happened. Now, Ellis Peter's books are hardly action-packed but she could write and you wanted to read her character developments and descriptions! However, with Gregory, there is so much contemporary language creeping in and so many disconcerting historical errors, that you just want her to get on with the plot and stop trying to pretend she can write! For example, and this error is so egregious as to be almost unbelievable, abandoned churches are not battleships. They are not "decommissioned," they are "deconsecrated."
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
So, pick it up cheap but don't expect Ellis Peters.
An excellent series.......2003-01-29
This is an excellent series which really brings the medieval world of Cambridge to life. I've read all the books that have been published in the states and I recommend them highly to anyone who enjoys their history spiced with a bit of mystery.
Customer Reviews:
Pulp research..........2004-04-20
While I found this book slightly entertaining and the subject itself bouyant enough to support volumes of this kind of literature I'm afraid I found the aim of the thesis weak and uncompelling.
Levenda often juxtaposed Hitler with individuals involved in the early German/English occult movements of the 19th and 20th century without EVER clearly providing documented proof of their ACTUAL influence on Hitler as an individual or even as a hidden shadow policy behind the Nazis as a political force. If anything, those occultists close to Hitler often came to a bad end. Hanussen for example.
Are we to believe that Levenda could actually guess what Hitler was motivated by and thinking about in 1939 without this documentation? Lets not even mention all the secondary sources that were used to formulate many of his assertions.
I was so unimpressed with Levenda's approach in fact, that I found myself questioning even the smallest of his assertions from complete lack of trust in the author's bias. He seems to have gone into the research already knowing the answer, and after all that's not research, that's thesis padding. This book might as well have been written by Charles Berlitz for all its credibility.
Lots of smoke, very little fire. I think it would have been a much more satisfying book without all the conjecturing that was rampant throughout and in that case may have ended as a very short book.
Read it anyway though, since it does have some interesting tidbits, just don't take it as the definitive book on Nazi occultism since he draws very few empiric connections between the two camps beyond anecdotal similarities...
People Must Know!.......2001-02-28
I have read Mr. Levenda's book several times. It is my "Bible" in regard to the occult background of the Third Reich. I am sure that any book that presents a side of history that some people would rather hide (modern Theosophists, Wiccans, New Agers, etc.) is likely to be controversial. However, Levenda has presented vast documentation of the roots of Nazism as a "cult" as well as a political movement. I agree with the previous reviewer that this information should be taught in schools alongside dates, battles, and the usual "stuff."
Interesting yet personally biased.......2000-04-06
With Unholy Alliance, Mr. Levenda chronicles how esoteric andoccult books as well as organizations influenced Hitler and the ThirdReich in their relentless quest to create an elite, Aryan superrace.While the material is exhaustingly detailed and concise,Peter's leftism tends to rear it's ugly head one too many times.For example, while he villifies Hitler for being the monster that he was,people like Mao and Che Guevera are painted as heroes in addition to his sympathy for the Communist ideology.Indeed, one is at times almost reminded of Noam Chomsky when Peter criticizes U.S intervention in Latin America even though the U.S was their to help rather than hinder. At best, Peter Levenda is an occult expert who really doesn't tell you anything that a true occultist would already know. At worst, he sounds just like another whining leftist who's upset that Communism has been battled and defeated all over the world by right wing groups.
An Instant Classic.......1999-12-08
This book documents the connections between a number of occult belief systems and their influence on Nazi ideology. It also traces the Nazi movement's activities as they continued their activities after the war. Anyone who is interested in what is going on beneath the veneer of modern media needs to read this book.
A "must" for the serious student of Nazi occultism!.......1999-06-13
This is an excellent book, with good notes and documentation. With this and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke's books, one gets a chilling, detailed look at occultism in Nazism. This one of a very few books in the English language to deal with this question in a scholarly manner, and should be in every school, university, and public library.
I wish that the author had cited the location of certain items/documentation that he'd consulted in the National Archives, most notably the 8+ page segment on runes. But this shouldn't take away at all from the impact of this book. I was particularly interested in the SS survival in South America.... doubtless, there are survivals elsewhere in the world.
I recommend this book most highly to the serious student of the Nazi world.
Average customer rating:
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Unholy Alliance: A Global Deception
Bonnie Meyer
Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
UFOs | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
UFOs | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0595428851 |
Book Description
An unholy alliance was signed between the negative aliens and the secret world government in Europe in 1572 and with the US in 1946. The secret governments knew with whom they were dealing but were not aware they were being deceived.
- Humans traded for alien technology
- Alien-provided technology used for manufacturing diseases
- Underground and underwater alien bases, and tunnel systems
- Global satellite and electronic surveillance
- Earth changes and weather manipulation
- US government has built UFOs
- Global impact of personal choices
Average customer rating:
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Unholy Alliance: Stalin's Pact With Hitler
Geoffrey K. Roberts
Manufacturer: Indiana Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | Germany | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | World War II | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Russia | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0253351170 |
Books:
- C Is for Corpse (Kinsey Millhone Mysteries)
- CCTV for Security Professionals
- Counter Culture: The Allure of Mini-Mannequins
- Dark Assassin: A William Monk Novel (William Monk Novels)
- Deception Point
- Deja Review: USMLE Step 2 Essentials (Total Recall Series)
- Distillation Operation
- Double Down: Reflections on Gambling and Loss
- Easy Orchids: The Fail-Safe Guide to Growing Orchids Indoors
- Evil Harvest
Books Index
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