Book Description
Filled with sex and violence--in and out of time and space--the three books of The Illuminatus are only partly works of the imagination. They tackle all the coverups of our time--from who really shot the Kennedys to why there's a pyramid on a one-dollar bill.
Book Description
Despite an ostensibly conservative Republican president and republican control of Congress, government is bigger and more intrusive than ever. That is not by accident; it is the conscious aim of a new brand of conservatism that seeks, not to reduce the size of government, but to use big government for conservative ends. This book shows how the Bush administration, Congress, and large parts of the Republican Party and the conservative movement have abandoned traditional conservative ideals and embraced the idea of big government.
Customer Reviews:
The Title Says It All.......2007-04-19
Indeed it does. In case anyone has not noticed, the Republican controlled Congress and Executive have turned the federal government into a power-grabbing, free-spending machine. It is the complete opposite of Goldwater's conscience and Reagan's government-the problem. The book dryly lists the endless details that bear testament to this claim. After recovering from your nap while reading this, you will find yourself longing for someone to write an interesting book telling how in the heavens this came about. By what right does this corrupt generation of politicians call themselves conservatives? Can this dysfunctional government be fixed?
GOP goes astray.......2007-04-18
Republicans have traditionally favored seeking state, local, or private sector solutions to problems, while Democrats tended to favor a larger role for the federal government. Despite considerable growth in federal programs over time, voters were at least offered a lower taxes/ less government alternative.
In recent years, elements of the Republican Party (neoconservatives, religious right, supply siders, etc.) have adopted a more expansive view of what the federal government should be doing. This goes a long way towards explaining why federal spending has grown faster (real annual growth of 4.9% per year) on George W. Bush's watch than under any president since Lyndon B. Johnson. Tanner decries the emergence of big-government (or compassionate) conservatism from several standpoints.
* However well meaning some of the new initiatives may be, such as a prescription drug benefit for Medicare and the "no child left behind" program, they are also wasteful if not counterproductive. Worse, the government's "entitlement" programs (principally Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) are unsustainable, and no efforts are being made to put these programs on a sounder footing. Some people may find Tanner's proposals for cutting back on the goodies unpalatable, but they are specific, well supported, and deserving of careful consideration.
*The Republican Party lost Congress in 2006 at least partly due to fiscal laxity, and it will not regain traction without returning to its small government principles. "If [the American people] come to believe that the choice is between liberal Democrats who will give them lots of things and big-government conservatives who will give them a little bit less," says Tanner, "they will choose the liberal Democrats."
*Although the banner of fiscal conservatism could be taken up by a third party, Tanner does not see this happening. Even "if the Libertarian Party - or another third party - were to develop a credible small-government platform, campaign finance laws and ballot access barriers make it virtually impossible for a third party to be competitive."
Which leaves us with these questions: Can the Republicans find themselves again? If not, who will speak against the endless and ultimately ruinous growth in government spending?
It opened my eyes.......2007-03-21
Mr. Tanner's book makes so much sense. A lot has changed in our country and it is really refreshing to have writing of this clarity about what has been going on. He was able to identify trends within Republican Party policy that have resulted in some pretty strange legislation. I recommend this book. It helped me understand initiatives that have been put in place that came from the Right while espousing views traditionally held by the Left!
The looming battle for the soul of the Republican Party.......2007-03-10
"Leviathan on The Right" is the opening salvo in the internecine battle within the Republican Party. For believers of limited government who have wondered where the GOP went wrong, Michael D. Tanner chronicles how the vision of the likes of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan have been usurped by segments of the GOP have insisted on expanding government. Why? Tanner outlines the various strains of conservative thought (In perhaps the best way I have ever seen the differences explained by any other author who has touched on this theme) that have influenced the GOP that a small government, budget-cutting agenda is not just politically unpalatable, but counterproductive to cementing political power. Neoconservatives, "national greatness" conservatives, the religious right and others have become the dominant voice during the Bush administration and by doing so have set us on the road to a fiscal nightmare that will leave our country poorer and limit our personal liberties.
Tanner's book does not touch on foreign policy but focuses on the rise in domestic spending on ever expanding entitlement programs (The disgraceful Medicare Prescription Benefit rightfully gets lambasted), educational mandates (No Child Left Behind effectively created a national school board), corporate welfare, farm subsidies and slabs of unnecessary pork. By highlighting the abandonment of federalism and the enumerated powers set in our Constitution, can anyone doubt that the policies best left to state and local governments are sapping our ability to effectively fund the protection of our country from those that mean to do us harm?
As a Cato Institute scholar, you can expect that Tanner's solutions to many problems have a libertarian bent that seeks to maximize personal liberty, employ free market solutions and eventually deregulate, decentralize and put a sizeable dent in the scope of the federal government. Many of Tanner's suggestions, particularly those concerning entitlement programs, are not only good approaches to solving the crisis, but may very well be the only way to solve them. His approach to healthcare, however, is one topic in which his viewpoint I find to be lacking. For example, although individual mandates requiring people to purchase health insurance is nearly impossible to enforce at best and unconstitutional at worst, it may be the only sensible way to start alleviating the cost we are all burdened with as the number of the uninsured creeps ever higher.
Ultimately, the Revolution of 1994 started to collapse as soon as Congressional Republicans started believing big government should suit conservative ends, regardless of how intrusive, expensive or dubious the proposition. If the 2006 election is any indication, the Republican Party severely needs some soul searching. 2008 may not be any better. But as Mr. Tanner reminds us, Barry Goldwater's loss in 1964 was the harbinger of a once great movement. Perhaps a similiar fate will allow for the resurrection of it.
Essential for any college-level political science discussion of modern American trends........2007-03-06
Conservatives in the Republican Party have lots to debate these days: they've lost control of Congress and their platforms are being called into question. Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution analyzes the concept and origins of big-government conservatism and its growth over the decades, offering a critique of its foundations and policies and gathering evidence to support the convention that conservatives need to return to their small-government roots. Essential for any college-level political science discussion of modern American trends.
Average customer rating:
- Written thoroughly.
- DO NOT BUY THIS CLASSIC IN THIS EDITION!!!!
- What to do with Modern World
- Book for High School
- A classic in political philosophy
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Leviathan (Penguin Classics)
Thomas Hobbes , and
C. B. MacPherson
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
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ASIN: 0140431950 |
Book Description
Hobbes' Leviathan is arguably the greatest piece of political philosophy written in the English language. Since its first publication, Richard Tuck's edition of Leviathan has been recognized as the single most accurate and authoritative text, and for this revised edition Professor Tuck has provided a much-amplified and expanded introduction. Other vital study aids include an extensive guide to further reading, a note on textual matters, a chronology of important events and brief biographies of important persons mentioned in Hobbes' text.
Download Description
Thomas Hobbes wrote this definitive thesis on how to establish a manageable government. "Leviathan" is a treatise similar to Machiavelli's approach to the jurisdiction allowed to independent countries. Hobbes believed that the first principle of human conduct is self-interest, and this behavior is the base element of social confrontation. In order to maintain peace and uphold the law, a sovereign is needed to guard the people's safety and punish anyone who breaks the regulations. The sovereign is one power, not a division of controlling elements. The commonwealth he commands can only be built by force or agreement. When the government has such power, the individual citizen can allocate his time and energy to serving the needs of his family and satisfying the requirements of a good administration. This same system also allows the privilege of self-defense but not aggression. Hobbes surmised the God's natural law is an education of rational enlightenment which influences all situations. Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.
Customer Reviews:
Written thoroughly........2007-08-23
Hobbes is a master of rhetoric and builds up a convincing arguement that you have to spot early on in order to not be pulled into his flawed statements. Human beings cannot be pigeonholed and I would not choose Stalin and communism over a democratic society even if we were in a state of chaos. And no, I do not think it's such a tragedy that there are no notes. Think for yourself. Come up with your own notes, not someone else's.
DO NOT BUY THIS CLASSIC IN THIS EDITION!!!!.......2007-05-26
This is not a review of the work itself.
One comment only: surprisingly enough, the editor of this volume, the 'world renowned' Richard Tuck DOES NOT PROVIDE NOTES, please pay attention: the book was originally published in 1651 (or something) but nevertheless the so called Hobbes scholar does not provide scholarly notes... and this is supposed to be a 'student's edition'... ha ha
Shame on you, Mr. Tuck!
What to do with Modern World.......2007-02-18
This huge work is the foundation of classical liberalism; it is the basis for Locke, for Smith, and all economic neo-liberalists all the way up to the current period. Written during the English Reformation, Hobbes was confronted with the problem of absolute individualism; he begins this work of political theory with a demolishment of objective truth swift enough to impress any post-modernist. He then proceeds to demonstrate the logical conclusion of man in a state of nature, and compels the modern world to enter into his social contract, or Leviathan out of necessity and fear. It is tempting to write off Hobbes as a cynic, but who can deny that much of what motivates individuals in the modern world is simply a fear to maintain survival and acceptance. It is the driving force of modern societies in terms of economic competition, and inter-national conflicts. Hobbes was a thinker of true depth and insight, though his ideas are so commonly ingrained in modern society that it is difficult to see why they were revolutionary when they were composed.
Book for High School.......2007-01-13
My stepson needed this book for class and he really enjoyed it.
A classic in political philosophy.......2007-01-02
Three essential hallmarks of the Hobbesian system are important: the war of each against all, the role of human rationality in ending this; the use of knowledge/science as a basis for societal engineering. His view of the state of nature--that time before government and the state existed--is unsurprising when one understands that he was born in the year of the erstwhile invasion by the Spanish Armada (1588) and lived through civil turmoil and revolution in England throughout his life.
Hobbes begins with a view of human life that would be inconceivable to the Greeks--life in a state of nature, the time before government, laws, and the state existed. In this state, humans are equal. In terms of physical prowess, of course, some are stronger than others. However, the weakest, through guile, can still kill the strongest. In that sense, there is equality. Without the power of government to keep people in check, though, we find quarrels routinely breaking out. The motives are threefold: self-gain, safety, and reputation (or glory). The result is horrible, and here follows perhaps the single most well known statement penned by Hobbes: "Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in a condition which is called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man. . . .In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continual feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short."
However, the fear and terror of the state of nature can be escaped. Humans are, after all, according to Hobbes, capable of reason. Individual reason leads people to realize that they must do something to escape ". . .Feare of Death; Desire of such things as are necessary to commodious living; and a Hope by their Industry to obtain them." Furthermore, human reason allows individuals to understand laws of nature. This is defined by Hobbes as ". . .a Precept, or general Rule, found out by Reason, by which a man is forbidden to do, that, which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same." To preserve life, and the fruits of industry that might be gained by peace, human reason lets people realize that only by giving up some of their freedoms, liberties, rights in order to establish a system that will end perpetual war of each against all. The mechanism for this is the "social contract," by which people in the state of nature covenant with one another to form a powerful government, so powerful that it can suppress individuals' efforts to seek self-advantage as under the state of nature. A "Leviathan" is needed.
However, if the state ceases to protect people's lives, the contract can be voided; revolution is an acceptable option for the citizenry then. However, the price is terrible, for with the dissolution of the state, people are plunged back into the nightmare of the state of nature. They would have to re-enact a contract to escape the ravages of the perpetual war.
Key points in Hobbes: the focus is on the individual rather than society, hence this is an individualistic system; human reason is considered to be central to attaining peace and harmony; humans can perceive the essence of natural laws through the powers of their reason; by contracting with one another, the people can control their destinies and produce an environment which they find more commodious for living fruitfully. An important early work in the development of Modern thinking and liberal political thought. A must read work for those interested in Western political philosophy.
Book Description
Welcome to a new strange world.
In a dazzling work of graphic fiction, a surreal journey through a wonderland eerily like real life, The Book of Leviathan chronicles an infant's investigations into life's great mysteries. Endowed with a preternatural interest in metaphysics and philosophy, yet as confused as any innocent by the vagaries of adult behavior, little Levi bears the added burden of living in a world that can literally change at the stroke of a pen.
Aided by a wise pet ("Cat") and a favorite toy ("Bunny"), Levi encounters a frothing ectoplasmic Hegel and a woefully off-the-mark Freud. In less heady adventures, Levi contemplates why his parents disappear at night (and whether he is wholeheartedly pleased when they return each morning); the regrettable liberties taken with the English language; and the relationship between Bennetton and Pablo Neruda.
Peter Blegvad's Book of Leviathan assembles the cream from Levi and Cat's adventures, published in The Independent on Sunday newspaper in the twilight years of the old Millennium. Blegvad's darkly humorous work has been described by Matt Groening as "one of the weirdest things I've ever stared at."Quirky and referential, dark and droll by turn, it follows the faceless baby Levi's journeys into and out of the world. They are escapes, but as some sage once observed, only a jailer would consider the term "escapist" pejorative.
Customer Reviews:
Thrilling!.......2007-07-12
Absolutely one of the best books I've ever read. Blegvad's ability to blend charm, wit, and depth is genius. I bought copies for friends.
can i give less than one star?.......2007-03-05
finishing this short book was about as enjoyable as having teeth pulled. what a chore to wade through this very unfunny thing. if you read this and wonder why you don't get the humor in it; don't worry, there is nothing to get. it is void of humor. what we have here is something for the pretensious who want to think that they are hip. the author of this cartoon is trying sooooooooo hard to be hip that it becomes painful. yuck!
A WONDERFUL JOURNEY INTO STRANGENESS..........2004-07-08
I've been aware of the depth and breadth of the mind of Peter Blegvad for many years now, through his musical endeavors (with Slapp Happy, as well as his solo work) - his creations have always been stimulating, bringing with them smiles and incentives for further thought and intellectual and contemplative explorations. I had heard about his comic strip `Leviathan' (which appeared regularly in THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY in Britain), but until I purchased a copy of this collection, I had never actually experienced it firsthand. I'm sorry I waited so long - this is a treasure.
Matt Groening (creator of `The Simpsons' and `Life in Hell') is widely recognized as a purveyor of twisted and useful reflections of real life, is quoted on the back of this volume: `Peter Blegvad's comic strip is one of the greatest, weirdest things I've ever stared at.' I heartily concur. Blegvad combines his senses of humor and irony with his intellectual strengths and his amazing artistic abilities into `Leviathan', giving his readers an opportunity to take one of the wildest rides they're liable to experience. The episodes in this book range from purely humorous takes on a baby's view of the world he inhabits to visual illustrations of puns to hallucinogenic explorations of the conscious and subconscious to sublime meditations on everything from the most seemingly insignificant daily occurrences to the meaning of life and death. Quite a range, right? Blegvad pulls it off beautifully. Perhaps I'm a little prejudiced by already being a huge fan of his music, but none of his outings collected here come across as shallow or pretentious in any way. The subtleties are many, the layers of wit are as innumerable as those in a chunk of mica - each reading reveals something missed the time before.
Leviathan himself - `Levi', as he is called - is a visual as well as a philosophical enigma. He's drawn without facial features, which allows the reader to project his/her own personality/outlook more readily onto the narrator. His parents and his older sister appear in some episodes, but for the most part he's accompanied and guided through the mazes of life (in all its dimensions) by the family cat, who gently imparts wisdom while at times openly expressing amazement that humans manage to survive without caretakers. The artist's hand appears from time to time, allowing him to more directly interact with the characters and events depicted in the strip - and on a couple of occasions, the characters themselves make attempts to escape the bounds of the graphic territory.
I read this book in a couple of sittings - but I've revisited it often and at great length and leisure, with new rewards each time. In his introduction, Rafi Zabor admits that he has encountered a few `intelligent, literate, artistically sophisticated people' who just don't get it - and I suppose that's inevitable in any artistic undertaking. It resonated within me at the deepest level - I can't recommend it highly enough.
Fantastical Absurdity on Paper.......2003-09-19
Dep!*
*(WOWZA!!)
I was sold when I heard Matt Groening's review, but if that's not enough for ya here's my own...
I read this book in one sitting--how often can you call a comic anthology a "page-turner"? Levi is a literal tabula rasa, Cat is the perfect nonhuman-but-more-adult companion, and let us all stop a moment and ask ourselves... what IS the opposite of bunny?
Confused yet?
This book is a strange "Being John Malkovich" escape into the brilliant mind of Peter Blegvad, who I hope to be seeing much more from in the near future. It stimulates the mind, rewards the intellect, and may even teach you a thing or two. Blegvad somehow weaves together philosophy, literature, myth, and the innocence of childhood in a corrupt world, wrapped in wordplay and inserted into a comic medium it continually makes fun of.
"Leviathan" reminds me of Groening's "Life in Hell," but "Leviathan" is much more, with so much intellectual and visual appeal it leaves Groening's cartoon far behind. Plus, Leviathan plays upon so many levels I'm sure I'll get something new out of each reading.
Occasionally the punning gets a little too blatant, but it's always forgiven before the end of the next comic.
Don't pass this one up. Your brain deserves it!
clever and funny.......2003-08-28
so many puns, so many references and allusions ... i think this book can be used as an indicator for how well-informed we are: the heartier we laugh at it the smarter we can consider ourselves
Amazon.com
Usually, crime writers who give birth to protagonists deserving of future series want to feature those characters as prominently as possible in subsequent installments. Not so Boris Akunin, who succeeds his celebrated first novel about daring 19th-century Russian sleuth Erast Fandorin, The Winter Queen, with the less inventive Murder on the Leviathan, in which the now former Moscow investigator competes for center stage with a swell-headed French police commissioner, a crafty adventuress boasting more than her fair share of aliases, and a luxurious steamship that appears fated for deliberate destruction in the Indian Ocean.
Following the 1878 murders of British aristocrat Lord Littleby and his servants on Paris's fashionable Rue de Grenelle, Gustave Gauche, "Investigator for Especially Important Crimes," boards the double-engined, six-masted Leviathan on its maiden voyage from England to India. He's on the lookout for first-class passengers missing their specially made gold whale badges--one of which Littleby had yanked from his attacker before he died. However, this trap fails: several travelers are badgeless, and still others make equally good candidates for Littleby's slayer, including a demented baronet, a dubious Japanese army officer, a pregnant and loquacious Swiss banker's wife, and a suave Russian diplomat headed for Japan. That last is of course Fandorin, still recovering two years later from the events related in The Winter Queen. Like a lesser Hercule Poirot, "papa" Gauche grills these suspects, all of whom harbor secrets, and occasionally lays blame for Paris's "crime of the century" before one or another of them--only to have the hyper-perceptive Fandorin deflate his arguments. It takes many leagues of ocean, several more deaths, and a superfluity of overlong recollections by the shipmates before a solution to this twisted case emerges from the facts of Littleby's killing and the concurrent theft of a valuable Indian artifact from his mansion.
Like the best Golden Age nautical mysteries, Murder on the Leviathan finds its drama in the escalating tensions between a small circle of too-tight-quartered passengers, and draws its humor from their over-mannered behavior and individual eccentricities. Trouble is, Akunin (the pseudonym of Russian philologist Grigory Chkhartishvili) doesn't exceed expectations of what can be done within those traditions. --J. Kingston Pierce
Book Description
Paris, 1878: Eccentric antiquarian Lord Littleby and his ten servants are found murdered in Littleby’s mansion on the rue de Grenelle, and a priceless Indian shawl is missing. Police commissioner “Papa” Gauche recovers only one piece of evidence from the crime scene: a golden key shaped like a whale. Gauche soon deduces that the key is in fact a ticket of passage for the Leviathan, a gigantic steamship soon to depart Southampton on its maiden voyage to Calcutta. The murderer must be among its passengers.
In Cairo, the ship is boarded by a young Russian diplomat with a shock of white hair—none other than Erast Fandorin, the celebrated detective of Boris Akunin’s
The Winter Queen. The sleuth joins forces with Gauche to determine which of ten unticketed passengers on the Leviathan is the rue de Grenelle killer.
Tipping his hat to Agatha Christie, Akunin assembles a colorful cast of suspects—including a secretive Japanese doctor, a professor who specializes in rare Indian artifacts, a pregnant Swiss woman, and an English aristocrat with an appetite for collecting Asian treasures—all of whom are con?ned together until the crime is solved. As the Leviathan steams toward Calcutta, will Fandorin be able to out-investigate Gauche and discover who the killer is, even as the ship’s passengers are murdered, one by one?
Already an international sensation, Boris Akunin’s latest page-turner transports the reader back to the glamorous, dangerous past in a richly atmospheric tale of suspense on the high seas.
From the Hardcover edition.
Download Description
Paris, 1878. Eccentric antiquarian Lord Littleby and his ten servants are found murdered in Littleby's mansion on the rue de Grenelle, and a priceless Indian shawl is missing. Police commissioner "Papa" Gauche recovers only one piece of evidence from the crime scene: a golden key shaped like a whale. Gauche soon deduces that the key is in fact a ticket of passage for the Leviathan, a gigantic steamship soon to depart Southampton on its maiden voyage to Calcutta. The murderer must be among its passengers.
In Cairo, the ship is boarded by a young Russian diplomat with a shock of white hair—none other than Erast Fandorin, the celebrated detective of Boris Akunin's The Winter Queen. The sleuth joins forces with Gauche to determine which of ten unticketed passengers on the Leviathan is the rue de Grenelle killer.
Tipping his hat to Agatha Christie, Akunin assembles a colorful cast of suspects—including a secretive Japanese doctor, a professor who specializes in rare Indian artifacts, a pregnant Swiss woman, and an English aristocrat with an appetite for collecting Asian treasures—all of whom are confined together until the crime is solved. As the Leviathan steams toward Calcutta, will Fandorin be able to out-investigate Gauche and discover who the killer is, even as the ship's passengers are murdered, one by one?
Already an international sensation, Boris Akunin's latest page-turner transports the reader back to the glamorous, dangerous past in a richly atmospheric tale of suspense on the high seas.
Customer Reviews:
The Russian Version of 'Murder on the Orient Express'.......2007-07-11
This is the second of Boris Akunin's Erast Fandorin murder mysteries (though it's the third volume he wrote). The two great things about it (beside the story) are that it's by Akunin and translated by Andrew Bromfield. Akunin includes some wonderful background and historical information that Bromfield does a marvelous job at keeping the feeling from the original Russian.
All of the story occurs aboard the maiden voyage of the Leviathan (think of a super-luxury Titanic with sails) as it travels from France to Asia. There are stops at both ends of the Suez Canal and on both coasts of India at which time there are always some important 'action'. It's very close to being done tongue-and-cheek, and sometimes it's hard to tell who are the clowns, heros and buffoons. The French Detective Inspector (who is the main investigator) is a cross between Hercule Poirot and Inspector Closeau, and there are all the standard people for this type of story (think of a Humphrey Bogart, 'Sam Spade' movie).
The story itself is told through the eyes of the participants, they tell the story through both their background information and how and what they see the other characters doing. It's a very nice instrument that brings about a better understanding as to what the cultural impacts are and how the 'mores' of the era are reflected in members of the different nationalities that are traveling on the boat. The story itself is very clever and will keep you guessing as to who is the 'main' villian, who are the accomplises and who are the dupes.
Fandorin unweaves a very tangled web.......2007-03-09
I can only assume that the original book was just as good as the translated version - but, nonetheless, it is a very enjoyable read. It is well written, with enough clues to keep you involved and guessing. You may be able to figure out the 'right' villans as you travel this literary journey, but you won't be sure until the end, and even then, you might have a surprise or two. I've read all of the translated Fandorin books and although this wasn't my favorite, it was quite enjoyable. I anxiously await the next one. You will, too.
Workmanlike Pastiche Fails to Satisfy.......2006-11-16
Russian author Akunin's 10+ books featuring 19th-century sleuth Erast Fandorin are hugely popular in his native Russia, and have been gradually appearing in English translation. A few years ago I read the first in the series (The Winter Queen), and didn't see what the fuss was about -- it was a pretty basic penny dreadful. I missed the second book (The Turkish Gambit), but here picked up the trail of Fandorin on board luxury liner making its maiden voyage from France to Japan in the spring of 1878.
The book starts by introducing a French police detective who's in charge of investigating the murder of ten people in connection with the theft of a fabulous Indian gold statue. In a rather clumsy plot device, one of the victims grasps a distinctive gold lapel-pin in his cold clenched fist. This is a pin given to designate first-class passengers on the maiden voyage of the all mod cons vessel "The Leviathan." So, the detective joins the ship and has the passengers who don't have their gold pin assigned to his dining room/salon. The story then unfolds over the following month at sea, as he attempts to uncover the culprit. Actually, this is one of the problems of the book -- the detective doesn't actually do any detecting. His main approach is to sit back and wait for the killer to reveal himself.
If this sounds a lot like one of those classic Agatha Christie stories, set over a stormy weekend at an isolated country house, or perhaps Murder on the Orient Express, well, that's pretty much exactly what this is a poor imitation of. Only instead of a condescending Belgian detective, it's a condescending French detective, and we've moved from the rails to the sea. The cast of suspects is the usual outsize bunch (and of course each has something to hide!), about as well sketched out as the characters from the Clue boardgame. The story shifts perspective a fair amount, as we get portions of it from the mouths, minds, letters, and journals of each. This method of storytelling doesn't serve Akunin well, however. His hero Fandorin is present, and certainly plays a crucial role, but never emerges as the protagonist -- he's lost in a sea of poorly conceived caricatures. Indeed, the author's treatment of the various nationalities (French, German, British, Japanese) is chock full of chauvinism which is clearly intended to highlight the Fandorin's own fine Russian qualities. It's not really insulting so much as just vaguely childish.
There are a few nice pieces of humor, and one or two of the plot's twists and turns are clever, but for the most part, this is a very tiresome voyage. Ultimately, it's not a very interesting mystery and the best that can be said of it is that it's a workmanlike pastiche.
Erast goes on a cruise.......2006-10-29
I absolutely love the Erast Fandorin series, at least the four I've been able to read while I wait for the others to be translated. All four of the books are different from each other in literary style though, this one most markedly. Erast is almost a minor character is this one since the story is relayed by different characters in turn.
In 1878 Lord Littleby's house in Paris is robbed of a golden statue wrapped in a scarf. The Lord is violently killed, but the servants myseriously died while all sitting round a table together without any signs of violence. Paris is shocked and mystified. Inspector Gauche traces the killer to the cruise liner Leviathan and determines it must be one of 12 people. He arranges for the 12 to be constant dining companions and as the liner makes it's way to India he begins to investigate. Erast comes on board later and also becomes a suspect. The story unfolds as the ship steams from port to port and as the guests begin being first robbed then murdered. This convoluted mystery is told in turns by the dining room guests themselves. Some have compared this novel to Agatha Christie which is why it may feel slightly different in flavor from the other mysteries, but nevertheless it was an entrancing and wonderful read.
I can't speak highly enough of this series. I read a lot, probably three to four books a week over the last thirty years, and I enjoy many different genres. It is hard to declare that something is "The Best" when there are so many good books out there, but these books are so good that they may deserve that title. Let's just say Erast Fandorin is one my favorite to date, and certainly the most pleasant surprise ofr me in 2006.
Fun + literary.......2006-09-21
When I was young, I devoured Agatha Christie mysteries one summer. Later, I went to graduate school and got wise to postmodern literary and linguistic theory and now savor the Erast Fandorin series!
If you've read any of the others in the series (which you need *not* to enjoy any one of them stand-alone), you know that they each have a slightly different take on the mystery/thriller genre. This one reminds me very much of Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express" and "And Then There Were None." But the shifting points of narrative view are really Akunin's own addition, and a very entertaining one.
"Leviathan" is a very satisfying "light read," but it also bears up under a little deeper, intellectually playful read, if that kind of thing floats your boat! And while I'm not schooled in Russian language, I have the feeling that the translation here is pretty terrific, too.
Book Description
In the aftermath of the English Civil War, as people were groping for new forms of political order, Robert Boyle built an air-pump to do experiments. Does the story of Roundheads and Restoration have something to do with the origins of experimental science? Schaffer and Shapin believed it does.
Focusing on the debates between Boyle and his archcritic Thomas Hobbes over the air-pump, the authors proposed that "solutions to the problem of knowledge are solutions to the problem of social order." Both Boyle and Hobbes were looking for ways of establishing knowledge that did not decay into ad hominem attacks and political division. Boyle proposed the experiment as cure. He argued that facts should be manufactured by machines like the air-pump so that gentlemen could witness the experiments and produce knowledge that everyone agreed on. Hobbes, by contrast, looked for natural law and viewed experiments as the artificial, unreliable products of an exclusive guild.
The new approaches taken in Leviathan and the Air-Pump have been enormously influential on historical studies of science. Shapin and Schaffer found a moment of scientific revolution and showed how key scientific givens--facts, interpretations, experiment, truth--were fundamental to a new political order. Shapin and Schaffer were also innovative in their ethnographic approach. Attempting to understand the work habits, rituals, and social structures of a remote, unfamiliar group, they argued that politics were tied up in what scientists did, rather than what they said.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting analysis,but has an acknowledged pro-Hobbes bias.......1999-01-04
The authors begin their review of the 17th-century Hobbes-Boyle controversy by declaring their intent to take a strongly pro-Hobbes stance, so it is not surprising that they end by concluding that "Hobbes was right". (About what, is not clear.)
Their stated reason for adapting this biased perspective is that the opposite view (that Hobbes was wrong) has been so thoroughly documented that not much new could be added. Only by adopting a "charitable" view of Hobbes, and a critical view of his opponents, could they make a significant new contribution. In other words, they wanted to make a splash, not a ripple.
Their bias is expressed by selective omission of information unfavorable to Hobbes. For example, in Hobbes's "Dialogus Physicus", his fallacious solution of the cube-duplication problem has been deleted, without mentioning that it was fallacious. Also, the reader is not informed that a "Torricelli apparatus" and a "mercury barometer" are functionally identical; the height of the mercury column varies with weather conditions. This variability was a problem for Hobbes, but not for Boyle. But it is not mentioned, except in connection with a suggestion that the experimentalists may have fudged their data.
Also, the authors should have noted that Hobbes's a-priori rationalist philosophy is not a viable alternative to experimentalism, because it is based on an elementary logical fallacy: you cannot make up definitions and postulates arbitrarily AND claim that deductions from them give certainty about the real world.
Book Description
For many years scholars have sought to explain why the European states that emerged in the period before the French Revolution developed along such different lines. Why did some states become absolutist and others constitutionalist? What enabled some to develop bureaucratic administrative systems, while others remained dependent upon patrimonial practices? This book presents a new theory of state-building in medieval and early modern Europe. Ertman argues that two factors--local government and sustained geo-military competition--can explain most of the variation found across the continent.
Customer Reviews:
As much valuabe as it is biased .......2007-08-12
This treatise is a neo-Weberian study in Political Sociology about the historical genesis of the rational-bureaucratic national state in Western Europe, which the author sees as stemming from the need to overcome the "privatized" nature of Early Feudal States for the sake of improved military efficiency - such a goal having, however, the disadvantage of putting the need for ready cash before sound governance.
The main point in Professor Ertman's comparative analysis is that, such as it appears, the genesis of a truly modern State (mostly in Britain, Prussia and Sweden) was more or less the result of historic contingency than of a general ideological movement towards bureaucratic efficiency, as the same ideological cluster (that of the absolute, "legibus solutus" ruler) tended to produce very different results in different places.
The author, as it is, tends to follow Weber's Rightwing Hegelian view of the (Bourgeois-cum-Bureaucratic) State as a form of the Absolute, and therefore to idealize its overall rationality, and therefore implicitly to downplay the amount of irrational "survivals" present in our modern states. But then I cannot blame an author for having an ideology other than mine, and I must say that Thomas Ertman has built his case in a very forceful and erudite manner.
Illuminating and solid.......2004-02-20
This book contains a great historical analysis of the building up of nation-states, from the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire unitl the French Revolution. Ertman classifies the upcoming states into four different types of regime and origins: patrimonialist absolutism (Spain, France, Portugal and the Italian states); bureaucratic absolutism (Denmark and the German states); patrimonialist constitutionalism (Hungary and Poland); and bureaucratic constitutionalism (Sweden and Great Britain).
Ertman defines as determining factors of the type of regime: 1) the timing in the emergence of geopolitical pressures, which forced states to recruit and finance armies (the earlier, the more patrimonialist); 2) the kind of local government, centralized or participative; 3) the kind of assembly or parliament, territorial or estamental; and 4) the existence or not of large-scale state-building efforts during the Middle Ages.
This is a deep book about how the nation-state came to exist the way we know it. It is a fundamental tool to understand where this political form of organization comes from, especially now that both local and multinational forces are putting it into question as to its future. Ertman describes with precision the forces that shaped the nation-state, and now it would be very interesting to read someone who has an explanation for the forces that are seemingly tearing it apart.
The ascendancy of "bureaucratic constitutionalism".......2000-10-29
In the begging of the period known as "Early Modern Europe" the new sovereign states of the continent found themselfes competing for supremacy.In the years before the French revolution, the British Kingdom will prove to be the most effective of all.The author takes as back in the Middle Ages to explain why different types of regimes were developed in Europe and who are the three factors that influenced their development. The book is a very interesting one,the author's bibliography is quite impressive,but its special subject makes it very difficult for someone that is not accustomed to European history to follow the basic assumptions.In each step,it is essential to know the real facts in order to understand what is going on.One small deficiency is that the case of the Netherlans is never mentioned,not even in the very good introduction where all European states are seperated into four groups after they are analyzed.
Book Description
Few topics are as timely as the growth of government. To understand why government has grown, Robert Higgs asserts, one must understand how it has grown. This book offers a coherent, multi-causal explanation, guided by a novel analytical framework firmly grounded in historical evidence. More than a study of trends in governmental spending, taxation, and employment, Crisis and Leviathan is a thorough analysis of the actual occasions when and the specific means by which Big Government developed in the United States. Naming names and highlighting the actions of significant individuals, Higgs examines how twentieth-century national emergencies--mainly wars, depressions, and labor disturbances--have prompted federal officials to take over previously private rights and activities. When the crises passed, a residue of new governmental powers remained. Even more significantly, each great crisis and the subsequent governmental measures have gone hand in hand with reinforcing shifts in public beliefs and attitudes toward the government's proper role in American life. Integrating the contributions of scholars in diverse disciplines, including history, law, political philosophy, and the social sciences, Crisis and Leviathan makes compelling reading for all those who seek to understand the transformation of America's political economy over the past century.
Customer Reviews:
First rate.......2007-04-05
Crisis and Leviathan is a hard hitting and imaginative book about the growth of government in the United States throughout the 20th Century. It is this book which has made Higgs into a modern intellectual giant of classical liberalism/libertarianism amongst the likes of Richard Epstein, Murray Rothbard, James Buchanan, Douglas North, Paul Craig Roberts, Walter Block and Hans Hermann-Hoppe.
Robert Higgs' Crisis and Leviathan is a lucid and scholarly tract with painstakingly researched references, footnoted and jam packed with nuggets of analysis which may modern historians pass by without a second thought. The reason for this can be easily pointed out. During the 20th century the dominance of functionalist in sociology has swayed many historians to embrace the growth of government as an outcome of civilized society. Therefore they tend to think of the growth of government as an exogenous factor; as if it magically appears out of thin air.
Unlike the previous reviewer, I don't think that Higgs' book is just another rehashing of libertarian theory or ideology (If it were we may ask - is this a rewriting of the Libertarian Manifesto by Rothbard or Capitalism and Freedom by Friedman; my answer would be hardly). Higgs is hardly unimaginative; in fact he is a creative thinker with a penchant for understanding history while incorporating economic theory. Anyone who would question this would profit by actually spending some time reading the theoretical section of this book instead of skimming it. Here Higgs demonstrates within a few pages a technically sound method of understanding and interpreting facts of historical value. No one is questioning the originality (Weber or Spencer thought it up before him, for example - do we need to mention Schumpeter, who is mentioned extensively) of his argument, only its application to the growth of government in the United States during the 20th century. (1st - that is the thesis of this book. 2nd - If you don't believe that government did grow - then you need a few more history lessons.)
Higgs, unlike the many of his modern conservative contemporaries, thankfully disdains war and like Robert Nisbet carefully shows why the `will-to-power' is so attractive to conservatives who are in a position to abuse it. From this vantage point it is easy to envision Higgs scorn for the dominant ideology, one which has lead to the rise of what he calls participatory fascism. He points out decisively and consistently that each successive crisis during the 20th century has begat questions by the `public' of how the government can and ought to fix the problem and ultimately "do something" to fix it.
Under the wave of new legislation, property rights by regulation are eroded concurrently so that its ownership is no longer de facto, yet still de jure. Higgs employs Schumpeter's analysis contained in `Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy' to formulate a similar conclusion to what C. Wright Mills' called (who was not a libertarian; neither was Schumpeter for that matter - it is truly amazing that someone can be a Marxist and a scholar or a Neo-Con and a scholar, but when it comes to being a libertarian and a scholar, then your intentions are no longer pure) totalitarian democracy in his famous `Sociological Imagination.' Although Higgs focus tends to gravitate towards the welfare/warfare state, rather than the gradual socialism of Schumpeter.
Higgs does tend to gloss over some historical details or the periods without crisis. While some may claim that this is inconsistent or incoherent, his reasoning doesn't seem off base to me. Its difficulty lies in the functionalist progressivism, which is more reactionary than revolutionary.
Although many assertions appear to be sweeping to some, his references are well documented and scholarly. Again, this frees him from being bogged down by anything other than the question which is pertinent to his thesis. Higgs, although selective, tastefully intertwines his historical accounts while showing how his theoretical model works. Interestingly enough, the answer that he comes up with is that ideology drives history. Again, this may be nothing new to an astute scholar; but is certainly path breaking for those who are stuck in the never-never land of pure materialism, like so many in the economics profession.
In fact, this is not an escape hatch, but a demonstration of how history used to be understood. What ultimately drives the plans of man is an ideological vision of the world, not merely the interplay of things. This was the error of many neo-classical economists, who desperately wanted to show that men were mere profit maximizers or the economic man; which has little or no way to explain the appearance of Marxism, for instance.
If his book is a polemic, then there is no question his ideological pedigree. Fortunately, unlike so many other recent scholars, he is not hiding it. After all, it is truly unfortunate that most modern scholars feel it necessary to conceal their political and philosophical origins in order to give them a false air of objectivity. (In fact, Higgs quotes Mises, as a hardcore libertarian, within the first page of the book.) This may be a reason to attack his core ideas, but I found that Higgs was no pure ideologue.
If anything, his more recent books, like `Depression, War and Cold War' are considerably more radical.
Government as the source of all evils..........2006-07-09
This book is somewhat intriguing. It is indeed an authoritative scholarly account of the growth of government in the United States, and for that reason only well worth reading. However, there is a pervading subtext of libertarian conspiracy theory about governmental power in the book that leaves the reader wondering if the author might not be masquerading a scholarly endeavour (that in itself is very rewarding) in order to suggest that government is the incarnation of evil. The fundamental truth which is developed here, that there is a permanent and necessary contradiction between the development of governmental power and individual liberty is unsophisticated, not to say outright crude. In addition, the author's thesis that after each crisis resulting in the growth of governmental capacities and power the government (always conceptualized as a large undifferentiated whole in the book) tends to rationalize its subsequent business in order not to loose what it just gained is not a discovery of the highest order. This is the rule in every institutional setting, whether corporate or bureaucratic, we know that since Max Weber's work on bureaucracy, without the libertarian hogwash.
Well researched classic.......2003-06-08
This book is a well researched classic on the horrors of the state. Tediously footnoted and well organized, the book offers the concept of the "ratchet effect"- government taking advantage of (sometimes creating) "crisis" as an excuse to dramatically increase government power, and fails to reverse this after the so called emergency passes. Higgs succeeds at proving his hypothesis beyond any doubt with history backed by many, many sources and does this in a way that is both readable and academic. In today's world, few books could be a more relevant warning about government
More significant now than ever.......2003-05-28
Robert Higgs presents an interesting and painfully obvious thesis: that government takes advantage of crises in order to grow larger, but then never shrinks to its previous size once the crisis has ended. As a case study, Higgs analyzes the growth of Big Government in the United States - a horrendous story of the degradation of constitutional values and the seemingly inevitable growth of the Leviathan State.
The book is more significant now than ever, since its publication in the 1980s. Government has grown substantially, especially the various "wars" on drugs and terror that have greatly increased the size of government and US government involvement in several aspects of domestic life and foreign affairs.
The scholarship is particularly good - mountains of empirical evidence, all relevant to his thesis, are well documented and presented concisely in this book. The book is straightforward and easy to understand; it should be accessible to economists and intelligent non-economists alike. If you've wanted to understand how government insidiously (or naturally) becomes larger regardless of constitutional constraints, read this book. It might fill you with rage, but maybe you can put that rage to good use. Are the ideas of limited government destined to be considered a failure in the far future, or can leviathan be chained down? If this is all government is about, in the United States or anywhere, do we really want a government at all?
Read this book. Libertarians will consider it a great read and invaluable intellectual ammunition; everyone else should read it, if for nothing else, to better understand the nature of the beast.
The hogs of war.......2001-11-16
As of this writing the president of the United States is prosecuting a war* with admirable objectives. But at what cost to American society?
Within weeks of the initiation of the U.S. effort the administration has announced steps that will curtail the civil liberties of citizens and visitors alike, even circumventing the right to proper trial. There appears to be a good chance that U.S. citizens will be required to carry so-called national ID cards.
Higgs explains why this should come as no suprise since war is the grand historical excuse offered by politicians to increase their powers and diminish those of their subjects, whatever the merits of their original objectives. This is one of the essential books in the literature of liberty, and it could not be more pertinent as a siren and antidote to the threat to freedom posed by ever-larger government.
*The war I referred to was against the Taliban, not the subsequent Iraq debacle.
Books:
- The Layguide: How to Seduce Women More Beautiful Than You Ever Dreamed Possible No Matter What You Look Like or How Much You Make
- The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror
- The Mammoth Book of More Historical Whodunnits (Mammoth Book of)
- The Martian Child: A Novel About A Single Father Adopting A Son
- The Meat Buyers Guide : Meat, Lamb, Veal, Pork and Poultry
- The Road
- The Road Not Taken and Other Poems (Dover Thrift Editions)
- The Road to Disunion: Volume I: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854 (Road to Disunion Vol. 1)
- The Road to Disunion, Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant 1854-1861
- The Sandman Book of Dreams
Books Index
Books Home
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- Communicating Globally: Intercultural Communication and International Business
Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy: "The Universe Next Door", "The Trick Top Hat", & "The Homing Pigeons"
Prometheus Rising
Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You and Your World
Cosmic Trigger I : Final Secret of the Illuminati (Cosmic Trigger)
The Book of the SubGenius : The Sacred Teachings of J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs
