Book Description
Against the Wall By Rhyannon Byrd She's a good girl ready for her turn to be bad. He's a hard-ass set on resisting the inevitable. When temptation lives just around the corner, who knows what wicked wonders will result? Shea Dresden doesn't need her PhD to know she's more brains than bod-too much bookworm, too little bada-bing!-but this is getting ridiculous. Her sexy nextdoor neighbor, the sinfully irresistible Ryan McCall, has been going out of his way to ignore her for months now. She's flirted, asked him out, done everything but beg-and still come up empty-handed. Tired of waiting for what she wants, Shea hatches a scheme to snag the stubborn ATF agent once and for all. It's the perfect plan, and she's willing to do anything to make it work. But when her little strategy backfires, Shea finds she's being rescued instead of ravished. And she still wants her mind-shattering night of sexual ecstasy. What's a desperate woman to do? Rock his world, of course! Shea's not about to take another no, especially when she's already got the sexy stud in her bedroom. She may have to swallow her pride to get what she wants-but by the end of the night, it's Ryan who's paying all the lip service. Ryan McCall's been burned before, and he knows better than to play with fire. Too bad the shy little scholar living right nextdoor affects him like gasoline on an open flame. He's done his best to stay the hell away from her, but once he gets that first taste, he knows he's in some serious trouble. Shea may be looking for wild times between the sheets, but Ryan soon finds he's ready to convince her to take a chance on a bad boy like himself-forever
Customer Reviews:
Just too much sex.......2007-08-31
This was the first book I read of Rhyannon Byrd and I'm not sure if I would get another of her books. If you want lots of sex, sex, and more sex then I guess this book is for you but after a while I just started flipping through the pages to get towards the end. I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SAYING THIS ( and I like erotic fiction) BUT IT WAS TOO MUCH SEX! They were like the energizer bunny. they just kept going and going and going. It started out promising. I liked the characters, the plot was good. The author had me smiling but when the two main characters got together, the sex was non stop to me and then it just when downhill for me. After a while, I was banging my head against the wall.
Against the Wall.......2007-08-12
Hot!Hot!Hot! From the first page to the very last...I was flushing, gasping, and yes, squirming for more. The scenes & chemistry between Shea & Ryan practically singed my eyeballs...This was the first time I'd ever read anything by Rhyannon Byrd...and I can't wait to catch up and read EVERYTHING she's ever published! If alpha-males do it for you even a LITTLE BIT...get this book!! I promise you won't be disappointed. After reading this INCREDIBLY erotic romance...a few others I ordered & received at the same time, actually paled in comparison. This one is DEFINITELY going on my keeper shelf!!
Love Ms. Bryd's writing .......2007-06-25
Rhyannon Byrd writes some scorchingly delicious heroes! Ryan is no exception. If you're looking for a burn up the pages hot romance with memorable characters, you've come to the right author.
Trite, predictable, yet unbelievable.......2007-06-15
The characters were rather ridiculous, the story unmemorable, and I skipped through a lot of the book because it was so ludicrous. The sex scenes were good, but the rest needed a lot more work.
my second book by this author,won't be my last..........2006-11-06
I just loved the first book I read "asking for it",so I bought the next "against the wall",both books are realy great but personally I prefer the first.it's an erotic romance that'll make you hot..can't wait to read more for this author.
Book Description
Readers anxious about civil liberties under George W. Bush will find fodder for fears-and suggestions for activism-in The COINTELPRO Papers. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall's expose of America's political police force, the FBI, reveals the steel fist undergirding "compassionate conservatism's" velvet glove. Using original FBI memos, the authors provide extensive analysis of the agency's treatment of the left, from the Communist Party in the 1950s to the Central America solidarity movement in the 1980s. The authors' new introduction posits likely trajectories for domestic repression.
Ward Churchill is author of From a Native Son. Jim Vander Wall is co-author of Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement, with Ward Churchill.
Customer Reviews:
Wild Book, Strange Author.......2007-02-22
This is an interesting book by an even more interesting author. In fact, the actions of the author tend to make me doubt the whole idea of the book.
First the book. This is a reprint of a book first issued in 1990 that proports to show a whole series of documents obtained from the FBI. They show that the FBI went to great lengths, some of them illegal to seek evidence against, and bring scorn against numerous left wing organiztions such as the Communist Party, the Black Panthers, the American Indian Movement and others.
In addition to the reprinted portion of the book, Mr. Churchill has written a new preface that makes further allegations against the FBI, particularily in regard to Waco.
Now the author. Some reviews have indicated that he is a fake, having basically made up a lot of what he says. Without repeating all of the material here, Mr. Churchill claims (in this book) to be an Indian. The Indian tribes of which he claims to be amember say he is not. Disciplinary hearings against him at the University of Colorado have recommended his being terminated as a professor.
Do a search on Google and Wikipedia for more information and make up your own mind.
COINTELPRO papers review.......2007-01-10
This is a detailed review of available FBI documents relating to subversive and dissident groups as defined in the wake of the McCarren / Mccarthyism era and deemed a threat to the US interest. Alarming material shows how the FBI framed and planted "evidence" in order to control and destroy elements in a supposed free society. A good read for a political and intelligence analysts in the ever changing and modern world.
Very good but much is left out!.......2006-11-29
This book reproduces and analyzes cointelpro documents acquired through the FOIA. It is funny how the United States government expects its citizens to obey its laws but yet it goes out of its way to target, harass and persecute people who are not breaking any laws themselves. Which is made even worse when the government is often breaking the very laws they are supposed to uphold in the process.
There are individual chapters in this on black nationalist groups, socialist and communist groups, the American Indian Movement and other left wing oriented organizations. Another plus to The Cointelpro Papers is if you are involved in political activism this book can help you identify tactics that may be used against you or the group you are involved with.
The biggest fault this book has is Churchill is one of these leftists that believes in the psychotic delusion that the US Government is some sort of pro-white/white supremacist entity. Ha ha! Yeah thats why they have made MLK into some sort of holy figure, they have created affirmative action and allow mass immigration to displace white (and black) Americans in the work place. He also more or less ignores the illegal tactics employed against the KKK in the south where they sent a virtual army of FBI agents into southern states when the Klan was resisting integration. Undercover FBI agents were responsible for the murder of the pregnant wife of a Klansman named Kathy Ainsworth not to mention undercover agents perpetrated or instigated much of the violent acts attributed to the Klan. Why wasn't this brought up in this book?!?! While there were many wrongs committed against left wing and non-white political activists the fact that Churchill ignores what was done with the Klan, and in later years with militia groups, as well as white nationalist (and environmental) groups to this very day shows that Churchill has a blatant anti-white agenda and keeps what is a good book, from being great.
ministry of love.......2005-07-02
In The COINTELPRO Papers, Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall chronicle decades of disruptive and secretive attacks by the FBI on those with whom they do not feel ideologically aligned¡Xnamely, those who are a threat in any way to capitalism or to the current power structures within the United States and abroad. The authors contend that the FBI has launched seemingly countless attacks upon peaceful and law-abiding organizations and their members for no reason other than their philosophical deviance from the political mindset of the American status quo. The authors chronicle case after case after case of the FBI engaging in illegal and unsettling practices and activities in their ongoing efforts to discredit any organization or individual espousing radical or alternative socio-economic views.
Every allegation made by the authors is backed up by copies of original FBI documents and memos chronicling the activities of our nation¡¦s ¡§political police¡¨ in the words of the agents themselves, lest the authors should be accused of ridiculous and unfounded accusations (as conservative apologists and spinners of propaganda are so apt to maintain¡Xan issue addressed in the introduction to the text). The points argued in this book lend tremendous credibility to a radical elitist stance on American politics¡Xin that they shine light on the terrible extremes to which conservative authorities will go to eliminate any expression of political opposition.x
In this book, Churchill and Vander Wall focus heavily on the ¡§COINTELPRO¡¨ (COunterINTELligence PROgrams) operations launched both officially and unofficially against organizations such as the Communist Party, USA (CP, USA), Socialist Workers Party (SWP), the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, the Black Liberation Movement¡Xparticularly the Black Panther Party (BPP), the ¡§New Left¡¨¡Xparticularly the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and the American Indian Movement (AIM). The authors focus special attention on the tactics utilized by the FBI during their official COINTELPRO era, which was from the mid-1950¡¦s to 1971, and demonstrate that regardless of whether or not the acronym is still in use, the FBI has never abandoned those tactics¡Xif anything, their COINTELPRO-style tactics have only escalated over the years.
And what are COINTELPRO-style tactics exactly? The most frequently used of those tactics (officially authorized, documented, and bragged about by J. Edgar Hoover himself as well as many other FBI agents throughout the history of the bureau) include the intensification of confusion and dissatisfaction amongst members of targeted organizations through the use of disinformation campaigns (often launched through the cooperation of ¡§friendly¡¨ media, ¡§anonymous¡¨ letters, and the circulation and anonymous mailing of FBI generated political cartoons and fliers purporting to have been generated by members of whichever organizations the bureau sought to divide), the hiring and training of ¡§provocateurs¡¨¡Xpeople hired by the bureau to join targeted organizations and encourage division amongst members through the raising and exaggeration of controversial issues, and to inspire violence on the part of members in response to harassment campaigns launched by the FBI against them¡Xin many documented cases actual acts of terrorism were conceived of by the FBI and the plans for such acts as bombings and assassinations were brought by the provocateurs to those members of an organization they felt were most prone to violence¡Xall of this in an effort to generate fear of such organizations in the hearts of the status quo.
Also amongst the tactics frequently indulged in by the FBI are ¡§frame-ups¡¨¡Xmany officially admitted, documented, and declassified and readily available for study through the Freedom of Information Act¡Xin which Federal agents conspired to imprison targeted individuals through the use of falsified evidence and perjured testimony, as well as (one of their more disturbing techniques) efforts to pit violent organizations against peaceful organizations in the hopes that the violent would neutralize the peaceful. One example (of many presented in the book) is that of the FBI attempting to pit the Mafia against the Communist Party, USA through anonymous letters and plays upon newspaper articles, contending that the communists intended to get the ¡§thugs¡¨ out of their unions and clean up the sweatshops which the Mafia was known for running. The bureau hoped that the Mafia would put out ¡§hits¡¨ on key leaders of the Communist Party, and in one memo makes favorable references to the fact that since their campaign started communist offices had suffered bombings, a ¡§typical hoodlum technique.¡¨
A truly ¡§successful¡¨ example of this same technique as utilized against the Black Panther Party (who were overwhelmingly peaceful despite many efforts by the bureau to inspire them to violence) is that of the FBI sending an anonymous letter, attributed to the Panthers, to the violence prone United Slaves. The letter ¡§revealed¡¨ a fictional plot by the BPP to assassinate US head Ron Karenga. On January 17, 1969, that letter bore fruit in the form of the shooting deaths of two BPP leaders by three members of the US in a classroom at UCLA. The great ¡§success¡¨ of this letter is that with it the FBI was able to pit two Black Liberation organizations against each other, thus neutralizing their effective pursuits of their own causes while significantly weakening the efforts of the others: the winners¡Xthe FBI and the status quo, the losers¡XBlack Liberation as a whole.
Also, not entirely uncommon behavior on part of the FBI is the effort to push targeted individuals to take their own lives through blackmail. One particularly disturbing, though unsuccessful, example of this is the case of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After utilizing mass-media propaganda campaigns pertaining to Dr. King¡¦s supposed ¡§communist influences¡¨ and sexual proclivities, as well as a harassment campaign by the IRS, FBI audio technician John Matter compiled an audio tape of Dr. King allegedly engaged in ¡§orgiastic¡¨ trysts with prostitutes. The FBI then mailed this tape to Dr. King along with an anonymous letter ¡§informing King that the audio material would be released to the media unless he committed suicide prior to bestowal of the Nobel Prize.¡¨ They had hoped that in the wake of all the stress and under the fear of such press Dr. King would follow the advice and take his own life. He didn¡¦t, and the tape was subsequently rejected by Benjamin Bradlee of Newsweek. Perhaps it was too flimsy and too poor in taste for even ¡§friendly¡¨ media.
The authors also fly through case after case of ¡§punitive prosecution¡¨ orchestrated by the FBI against targeted individuals¡Xthe point of the prosecution having never been to even imprison, only to keep those they viewed as threats preoccupied with their own legal struggles. During many FBI sweeps in which some of those punitively prosecuted were arrested, it was not uncommon for the agents to completely trash the offices and equipment belonging to the organizations for which those people worked. In one raid on Black Panther offices, police even ¡§destroyed bulk food the Panthers were distributing free to ghetto children.¡¨
In their operations against organizations such as SDS and AIM, the FBI utilized all of the same aforementioned tactics¡Xeven after 1971, the year in which COINTELPRO had been officially terminated. The cases chronicled and the supporting FBI documents are downright overwhelming, alarming, and sickening. I¡¦ll leave the descriptions of such cases to the authors, who (unfortunately) maintain that even they have hardly scratched the surface in exposing the conservative terrorism perpetrated by the FBI on the American people.
In the concluding chapter of this book, Churchill and Vander Wall illustrate the advent of the word ¡§terrorism¡¨ and its use since 1972 to justify ongoing COINTELPRO efforts on the part of the FBI, though the acronym has been dropped the tactics and the secrecy are all still in place. Though the FBI is no longer fighting ¡§communism¡¨ and has instead found a new enemy in ¡§terrorism,¡¨ the American people are no safer now from their dishonesty and oppressive tactics than they have been since the official formation of
COINTELPRO. As an American, who hears the word ¡§terror¡¨ thrown around by politicians and law enforcement officers on a daily basis, and who has unfortunately found himself aware of such alarming facts as ¡§at present, the U.S. enjoys the dubious distinction of having a greater proportion of its population incarcerated than any western industrialized country,¡¨ I do have to wonder how exactly we¡¦re going to spread ¡§freedom and democracy¡¨ to the rest of the world when history reveals we¡¦ve always been afraid of freedom and democracy here.
The facts and quotes about the modern day prison system in this country and its expanding usage of sensory deprivation techniques designed to cause the psychological breakdown of political detainees sounded so Orwellian that I¡¦m sure even George Orwell would be shocked. In the FBI we¡¦ve found our ¡§Thought Police¡¨ and in our prison system we¡¦ve found our ¡§Ministry of Love.¡¨ And in our own hearts, it seems, we¡¦re too terrified to react. Perhaps Big Brother is already watching us all.
Sometimes Desert Is Better Than the Meal.......2003-05-06
Ward Churchil and Jim Vander Wall have done an outstanding and meticulous job in assembling and explaining the FBI's secret war on dissent in America, no wonder America is plagued with criminals, the supposed "good guys" are all out on black bag jobs committing their own crimes!!
Since it is a well known historical fact that J. Edgar Hoover, America's semen stained supercop, was blackmailed by the mafia into silence, it stands to reason that he would need a new enemy to focus the attention of the American people. What better enemy than home grown political dissenters who would destroy the genteel American order--white men first.
The book focuses upon the FBI's most notorious episodes--the COINTELPRO efforts against the Communist Party USA, Socialist Workers Party, the New Left, the American Indian Movement and the Black Panthers as demonstrative proof of the Bureau's efforts to undermine and destroy the constitutional rights of all Americans.
It is, for me, the concluding chapter that ties everything together and offers some real life solutions to the peristent cancer that is the FBI. From 1956 to the "offical end" of COINTELPRO in 1971, the FBI committed:
* 2,218 separate actions.
*2,305 admitted warrantless telephone taps.
*697 "bugs against domestic political targets."
*57,486 CIA mail intercepts.
"During the various Congressional committee investigations, the Bureau carefully hid the facts of its involvement in the 1969 Hampton-Clark assassinations. Simultaneously, it was covering up its criminal witholding of exculpatory evidence in the murder trial of LA Panther leader Geronimo Pratt." page 303.
At the end, the authors offer the inescapable conclusion that priority number one is for the left to develop a strategy to come to grips with the FBI and the escalating power of "law enforcement" as well as the implications and consequences of the merging of the U.S. military and the domestic law enforcement appartus.
Churchill and Vander Wall have written an excellent book which recounts history and warns us of the impending scenario we face by ignoring the increased power of the FBI, the US military and law enforcement in general.
Average customer rating:
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Against a Brick Wall
T. Weldon Garrett
Manufacturer: Writers Club Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 059522072X |
Book Description
Gregory McGregor grew up on the tough streets of New York where his cronies were criminals. Once a vibrant student, he becomes a truant. But, with help, he turns his life around and becomes a successful businessman in the world of high finance. Then corporate intrigue, lust, and deception teach McGregor a lesson that even the streets couldn't teach him.
Robert Page is the business executive who recruits McGregor. To stay on top, Page is willing to pay any price, including selling McGregor out, but is he willing to pay the ultimate price?
Shelly Walker is a woman on the fast track to corporate America's executive suite. She knows what she wants and she knows how to get it. And despite McGregor's girlfriend, she wants him.
Patrick Donovan is a cunning, conniving, and ruthless businessman around whom nobody is safe. To Donovan, aspiring to the executive office is a game and he plays the game well—until he meets McGregor. Now, only time will tell who will be the victor in this corporate game of intrigue and deception.
Customer Reviews:
Cutthroat..........2004-09-07
Despite the overwhelming odds he faced growing up on the streets of New York, Gregory McGregor went on to become college graduate, and to secure an internship with a highly prestigious firm as an investment banker. Little does he know, he was only hired to fill a "color quotient." Even though he works hard to prove himself, he is still not respected as he should be. When he is promoted to manager, his situation gets worse instead of better. Will Gregory discover the secrets of the company, and if so, will he take steps to correct them, no matter what the cost?
When I read the synopsis of AGAINST A BRICK WALL, I expected high drama from the very first page to the last. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Instead, it was a long, rambling story of one man's attempt to make his mark in corporate America, and the injustices he faced. The action doesn't happen until the very end of the book, which left me very unfulfilled. It did not end as I hoped it would. I do, however, feel that with a little less attention to scene detail, and more attention focused on developing a gripping plot, Garrett has the ability to become a good mystery writer.
Reviewed by Renee Williams
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Average customer rating:
- OOP Banksy
- Great little review of Banksy's work
- Buy it now and change your mind
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Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall
Banksy
Manufacturer: Weapons of Mass Distraction
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Cut It Out
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Wall and Piece
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Street Logos
ASIN: 0954170407 |
Book Description
The first incendiary collection of stencils and graffiti from Banksy, presented and bound in a handy pocket sized high quality format. Rarely have art and politics been put to such fine,and overtly public, use. Mix the irony and juxtaposition of John Yates with the beauty of the finest aerosol art, and you'll have some idea of how good this really is. The reproductions are interspersed with an excellent array of quotes, statements, letters and a beginners guide to painting with stencils. Very, very good.
Customer Reviews:
OOP Banksy .......2007-07-07
This little book is fantastic. It's pretty short but packed. Definitely pick it up if you find it for a decent price and are interested in street art/Banksy. I bought mine here about 2 years ago for maybe $20 and now I see it's selling for $200 here and going for $100 on eBay at the moment. Madness! Guess I should have picked up more..
Great little review of Banksy's work.......2007-01-05
This book is a wonderful and witty review of Bansky's work written by the artist himself. I also highly recommend "Cut It Out." Both books are somewhat hard to find, but can be purchased here on Amazon or for reasonable prices at another great design book website, You Work for Them. Bansky's hardcover book, "Wall and Piece" is another must have. Cheers!
Buy it now and change your mind.......2003-05-14
I dont want to say too much because the art speaks for itself. Forcing the viewer to quit looking at their feet and observe the world around them. Don't accept what you see. BUY IT NOW AND CHANGE YOUR MIND!!
Book Description
TIME ON THE INSIDE will bring an awareness of Why So Many Women Are Going To Prison and What Goes On Inside If You're One Of Them --Why the Penal System promotes comfortability rather than rehabilitation--Why inmate deaths occur often--Why it's important for society to care about prisoner's rights and compassion and How Life can be renewed while in and after prison.
Customer Reviews:
The Most Realistic Book Ever Written By A Female Inmate in California .......2007-05-14
If you want your daughters to stay out of a life of crime, then buy this book and highlight all the pages where Marshall details what it's really like to endure a body cavity search in a room filled with other inmates and male prison guards. Or what it means to have a toilet in the middle of a cell, with no privacy at all. There's nothing f--ing glamorous about getting locked up.
English Majors Beware!!!.......2007-05-08
When I ran across this book, I rushed to order it because I was so excited! Here was someone presenting a first-hand account of the physical, emotional, and sexual abuses that take place "behind the walls" of women's correctional facilities and I could barely wade my way through the grammatical errors and run-on sentences. It makes sense that the author also published the book because no self-respecting publishing company would generate such an editorial nightmare! The errors, unfortunately, overshadow the content of the book.
On the Inside.......2006-07-11
Unless you have actually experienced being behind bars, you do not truly know nor understand the daily interactions of prison life. This "Insider's View" of a Maximum Security Women's Prison delves into the life of author Donna Ann Smith-Marshall as she rehashes the almost beastly way she was treated on the inside. What should have been rehabilitation ended up being cruel-like punishment.
Being a hardworking professional, Mrs. Smith-Marshall managed to get herself in trouble and leave her young children virtually motherless while she paid for her crime. Undergoing a lengthy process, she was finally on the "inside." Being ridiculed with embarrassing searches of her body and verbally abused by emotionless guards, she realized that her life would never be the same. While watching others go through emotion after emotion, she soon could not keep hers in check and fell prey to the ideals and options of prison life.
Admittingly Mrs. Smith-Marshall understands that she must pay for her mistakes, she wants us as readers to understand and stand up for women dealing with life on the inside. Though I liked the concept of the book, it felt more like a biography and not the novel that I was looking for.
Reviewed by: LaDonna
Book Description
Legendarily 2,200 years old and 4,300 miles long, the Great Wall of China seems to make an overwhelmingly confident physical statement about the country it spans: about China’s age-old sense of itself being an advanced civilization anxious to draw a clear line between itself and the “barbarians” at its borders. But behind the wall’s intimidating exterior—and the myths that have built up around it—is a complex history that has both defined and undermined China. Author Julia Lovell has written a new and important history of the Great Wall that guides the reader through the conquests and cataclysms of the Chinese empire, from the second millennium BC to the present day.
In recent years, the Wall has become an ever more potent symbol of Chinese nationalism, of a determination to resist foreign domination. But how successful was the Wall in reality, and what was its real purpose? Was it a precursor, albeit on a huge scale, of the Berlin Wall—a barrier designed to keep its population in as much as undesirables out? Lovell looks behind the modern mythology of the Great Wall, uncovering a three-thousand-year history far more fragmented and less illustrious than its crowds of visitors imagine today. The story of the Wall winds through that of the Chinese state and the frontier policy that defined it, through the lives of the millions of individuals who supported, criticized, built, and attacked it.
Customer Reviews:
Lovell against China.......2007-03-11
I rate low the way Julia Lovell write this book: Its seems a revenge against 'China'. You can tell facts, and you can tell facts with anger. I'm a reader of Chinese History. All what Julia Lovell said you can find in History Books, but... the personal taste must be put aside, I think. It's seems a campaign, a crusade against "those who they think they are!!!" Sorry my English is not good enough in order to explain myself in a better way.
Interesting opinions but tough to get through at times ............2007-01-08
I picked up this book from a clearance pile after Christmas. The research is extensive and the interpretations and views interesting. At times, the author is repetitive in trying to make her point, which makes it a little difficult to read. Overall, the tone of writing gives me this image of a strict British teacher with a ramrod-straight spine talking down her nose and lightly tapping a ruler on her palm ....
One Wall Among Many.......2006-09-09
This book could serve an engaging text for a course in Chinese history. It describes the evolution of that great country tied to its most recognized symbol both as a construction and a thought. Lovell, a teacher of Chinese history and literature at Cambridge handles anecdotes as well as Tom Wolfe. Her prose is so engaging it cries out for colored maps showing different dynasties walls in different colors along with pictures of some of the individuals she describes. The great wall, which is a series of walls spread over a long distance, was intended to wall out the barbarians. Like the Maginot line it was not successful. The Great Wall did not keep Genghis Khan and his successors out. But it had an effect upon the Chinese psyche over much of that country's history. It is a metaphor for China's historical, social and economic isolation.
That the Chinese thought themselves protected, but were walled in, is evident from the British trade mission launched in 1792. Evidently the British were running a trade deficit owing to enormous purchases of tea. George III sent diplomats with extensive gifts on a year long voyage to present their credentials to the Emperor. He received them with a great deal of reserve. Two weeks later the Emperor responded that his country had not "the slightest need of your country's manufacturers." What made the response even more insulting was that it was composed six weeks before the diplomats were shown in. Seventy years later, during the Opium War, the presents were discovered untouched in a stable.
Lovell challenges the perceived singularity of Chinese culture by describing the various walls built from the Warring States period through the Ming dynasty, a period of over 1500 years and the cultural differences during those times. She also asserts that while the wall is long, it is mostly made of mud and not very great. Genghis and his hoard, and later the Manchu's, passed through it with relative ease, testifying to the statement attributed to Genghis that: "the strength of walls depends on the courage of those who guard them." Hundreds of miles long the wall is now mostly rubble, except, of course, for the tourist sections, such as that President Nixon visited. This is in contrast to the various Chinese city walls dating as early as the third millennium B.C. which are now being excavated.
While the long wall is a symbol of the unity of China over millennia, that unity is mostly fiction. So is the assertion that it can be seen from the moon. The walls were built to bar the nomads, the barbarians and the hoards from the North. The Chinese were assumed to be on the defensive. However, while the walls existed, China colonized much of the area south of the Yangtze and the Tibetan plateau.
As Lovell moves from the Shang to the present, she brings to life the builders and destroyers (including nature) of the wall and the economic causes of the ebb and flow of expansion and defense. She writes that her book "has tried to provide a history of the Chinese world view to reveal its successes and failures, to explain an attitude to the outside world that can seem (and, indeed, often is) puzzling, contradictory and strident, and that shows no sign of evanescing in the face of globalization, the Internet and America's world crusade for freedom and democracy." In many ways she has succeeded. This is a captivating book, well written with a mixture of scholarship and accomplished story telling. However, one is left, especially after reading the description of modern life in China in Oracle Bones, with the impression that the world view of the Chinese is changing much faster than Lovell realizes. And that the most recent wall that China has constructed, the one to bar access to portions of the internet, will suffer the same fate as the Great Wall.
Six good chapters.......2006-09-03
Do not be put off by the middle of this book. The good analysis of Chinese society is done in the three front and three back chapters. Don't feel guilty if you skip over the middle, it is all about ancient history, and the author herself writes on page 27 that the history of China as the "Chinese Nation" started only about 100 years ago.
Julia Lovell makes a strong case that China will never stop building walls --- "...the pull between enclosure and openess will continue." (page 348)
I subjectively subtract one star for the probably excellent padding in the middle of this book.
The Great Wall: China Against the World.......2006-08-25
The author's review of the Chinese Emperors' wall building programs reveal much of the history of early China that is unknown to most Westerners. Our visit to a section of the wall gives the impression that other sections are similar. The book is Chinese history well written, well presented and most worthwhile.
Book Description
For those wondering how Bill Clinton could pardon white-collar fugitive Marc Rich but not Native American leader Leonard Peltier, important clues can be found in this classic study of the FBI's COINTELPRO (Counterintelligence Program). Agents of Repression includes an incisive historical account of the FBI siege of Wounded Knee, and reveals the viciousness of COINTELPRO campaigns targeting the Black Liberation movement. The authors' new introduction examines the legacies of the Panthers and AIM, and shows how the FBI still presents a threat to those committed to fundamental social change.
Ward Churchill is author of From a Native Son. Jim Vander Wall is co-author of The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States, with Ward Churchill.
Customer Reviews:
Don't Worry About The Government.......2006-11-12
The reissue of Agents of Repression is not only based on the historical significance of the book, but also the concerns expressed by co-author Ward Churchill in his lectures and writings about the direction of this nation with the advent of the Department of Homeland Security and legislative measures that have trampled over the Bill of Rights.
The book was published in 1988 based on the then ongoing litigation by some government officials against an author and publisher who had a work published concerning the illegal repression of AIM.
Agents of Repression is basically split into four sections; a history of the FBI, the government's war against the Black Panther Party, a lengthy exploration of AIM and the steps taken by a variety of government departments to destroy the grass-roots movement and how nothing has changed in the 1980s.
For readers who have explored these issues through other forums, it is an outstanding history. Readers who may be researching this era for the first time, I highly recommend the book since it takes larger topics and breaks them down into succinct chapters.
Churchill became the punching bag for the lightweight talking-heads on cable "news" shows more than a year ago due to comments he made in an academic setting concerning 9/11.
I urge a potential book-buyer to disregard that rhetoric and disinformation campaign waged against the co-author Churchill and consider that perhaps the payback for truly believing in civil rights means the attempt to silence him.
The suppression of domestic dissent by the FBI.......2003-07-16
This book maintains that the primary purpose of the FBI, from its inception and at least through to the late 1980s when Agents of Repression was first published, was to repress political groups and individuals who posed a threat to the status quo. The text is accompanied by heavy documentation and I was often reminded of the writing style of Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman. The focus here, however, is on the domestic crimes of the government. Churchell and Vander Wall show that the FBI was willing to use massive illegal force (including assasination) to repress political enemies and serve the interests of those in power. This is an excellent eye-opener to the true nature of the Bureau and the harsh crimes visited upon the American Indian Movement, the Black Panther Party and others such as the Puerto Rican Independence Movement. One is left wondering what activities the FBI has engaged in since the '80s and especially since 9/11. The best book I've read in some time.
Book Description
The story of the Black Panther Party's Pyrrhic Victory
Curtis J. Austin chronicles how violence brought about the founding of the Black Panther Party in 1966 by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, dominated its policies, and brought about the party's destruction as one member after another—Eldridge Cleaver, Fred Hampton, Alex Rackley—left the party, was killed, or was imprisoned. Austin shows how the party's early emphasis in the 1960s on self-defense, though sorely needed in black communities at the time, left it open to mischaracterization, infiltration, and devastation by local, state, and federal police forces and government agencies. Austin carefully highlights the internal tension between advocates of a more radical position than the Panthers took, who insisted on military confrontation with the state and those, such as Newton and David Hilliard, who believed in making community organizing and alliance building their first priorities.
Austin interviewed a number of party members who had heretofore remained silent. With the help of these stories, Austin is able to put the violent history of the party in perspective and show that the "survival" programs such as the Free Breakfast for Children program and Free Health Clinics helped the black communities they served to recognize their own bases of power and ability to save themselves.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating, Engaging & Provoking..........2007-03-24
This book provides an important look at the Black Panther Party in all of its complexities. Although the main focus is on violence in the creation and deterioration of the BPP, the book has a wealth of historical information about the time period as a whole. As someone who has only a limited education on the Black Panther Party and the Black Power movement, I found this book to be a major contribution to my knowledge base, understanding and awareness. Austin gives insight into the climate of the nation prior to the founding of the party, so it was easy for me to see why the Black Panther Party was initially needed in the local community and why it later gained national popularity. As the book unfolded, it also became easy to see why the party had failures in some areas...
This book has truly been invaluable in my understanding of not just black history, but also of American history. I would not only recommend this book to those who wanted to increase their historical knowledge---I would recommend the book to anybody who is looking for an engaging read. This book is an absolute page-turner! It is filled with story after story detailing the rise and fall of the BPP, which includes anything from day-to-day life as a Panther and armed defense against police attacks to the COINTELPRO operation and government infiltration. Although I started the book slowly because of my busy schedule, I became increasingly engrossed as it went on---the more I read of the book, the less I wanted to put it down!
Book Description
When financial consultant Keith Schooley took a job with one of the largest, most respected securities firms on Wall Street, he had high hopes for a successful career. He was proud to work for a company of such high integrity as Merrill Lynch. It didn’t take long, however, for Schooley to realize Merrill Lynch’s well-cultivated reputation was not based on what went on behind the facade. Merrill Lynch: The Cost Could Be Fatal—My War Against Wall Street’s Giant is Schooley’s detailed account of the disturbing incidents that eventually led him to a courtroom battle with the behemoth firm.
Customer Reviews:
Lite read, mis-leading title........2007-05-15
Book was personal about certain managers at ML. Very common for industry. No earth shattering cases. Just routine sales management for whole industry.
A Factual Expose of the Dark Side of a Brokerage Firm.......2006-01-01
I found this book to expose the truth about the management of the firms that sell investment securities to the general public. Hopefully books like this will help to educate investors and the State and Federal governments about how things really work at the major Wall Street securities dealers. This was a great read for any individual interested in the arbitration process that is used to protect the broker/dealers from accountability for their actions.
admire Keith's courage to fight against ML by himself.......2005-02-07
After read his book, I really admire Keith's courage to fight against Merrill Lynch by himself. It tooks him a lot of time, energy, money to fight for his believing. I was a Merrill Lynch empolyee as financial advisor and was wrongfully terminated. After read this book, I was filled with the courage to fight against the giant firm. Email me at YYYY1234YYYY1234@yahoo.com.
A Securities Industry Whistleblower's Profile in Courage.......2004-11-10
This book is a profile in courage of how a private attorney general suffered great personal costs while attempting to uncover corporate wrongdoing in order to serve the public interest. Keith Schooley's well-written book is an odyssey of his struggles with Merrill Lynch management that took him on a journey through nearly every regulatory agency, a blue-ribbon arbitration panel, and finally the Tenth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Mr. Schooley describes in detail how the "powerful and mighty" play the game inside and outside of a court of law, including unethical and perhaps illegal activities. It is a powerful story of the personal costs of whistleblowing and doing the right thing as well as an insider's guide to the world of the securities industry. This book provides insights into institutions such as the Wall Street security moguls, regulatory agencies, arbitration, and the court system.
In view of the current climate of corporate scandals - Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom, Adelphia, and others - Schooley's book is an important one that offers a hard and disturbing look at Wall Street's largest securities firm. As a former employee of Merrill Lynch, Schooley gives a backstage view at what goes on behind the impression-managed frontstage. The public relations voice of corporate America differs significantly from the reality. Mr. Schooley documents a pattern of problems at the firm ranging from brokers to senior management, and suggests that the problems could be even be traced to the board of directors.
This is a book that should be read by not only Merrill Lynch clients, but all investors. Law students and lawyers interested in employment law, securities law, and tort law would also find it a valuable case study of corporate wrongdoing. Finally, undergraduate students interested a career in the securities interest will learn about the perils of the securities industry from this insider's guide.
Michael L. Rustad
Thomas F. Lambert Jr. Professor of Law
Suffolk University Law School
Boston, Massachusetts
"The Insider" it is not.......2004-11-10
This is the kind of self-aggrendizing drivel you should expect in a self published book. I guess no one else was interested in publishing the story.
The author worked in a tiny offie in a backwater town and took it upon himself to contact "senior management" in wiritng. I bet he is writing to Bush about the war in Iraq as we speak. I'm sure he will be self-publishing a new book very soon about how Bush ignored his concerns and tried to get his day in international court in The Hague.
Save your money and by a book from an author who didn't have to pay to get it published.
Books:
- All About Us
- Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You (Spiderwick Chronicles)
- Body Heat (The Simply Series, Book 4)
- Boy Meets Girl: Say Hello to Courtship
- Carving the Human Figure: Studies in Wood and Stone
- Dancing in the Shadows of the Moon
- Dare to Dream and Work to Win
- Dead and Dateless: A Novel of Vampire Love (Dead End Dating, Book 2)
- Devil's Acolyte (Knights Templar series)
- Devil's Due (Silhouette Bombshell)
Books Index
Books Home
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Waiting For It
Blackmailed
Midnight Man (Midnight Series, Book 1)
Midnight Run (Midnight Series, Book 2)
Cops and Cowboys
