The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern

Customer Reviews:

Art history for everyone.......2007-10-07

This is a valuable companion to the standard college text for the art history student. It is short yet complete, and makes art history entirely accessible. It is clearly written, entertaining, and is a great overview for the novice or serious student of art history.

Learn with your children.......2007-09-01

This book was purchased for my son for school, but I purchased two to refresh my memory. It is a wonderful book.

Art Education Student.......2007-08-16

I am preparing to take the Art education part of the GACE exam. Not only is ths book a must but all of my professors encourage us to study it. The color photos are perfect and you could not buy anything better.

Great summary.......2007-05-13

This book points out the specifics of different art movements in a brief and informative fashion. Don't expect in-depth analysis of specific works, but you will get a run-down of the important names and pieces from significant periods in Art History. This book helped me go from a 4 to a 5 in A.P. Art History practice tests. I highly recommend it for the price!

The Annotated Mona Lisa.......2007-05-07

Excellent book for AP Art History review. I have used it in my classroom for eight years with great results!

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Average customer rating:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
History: Fiction or Science? Astronomical methods as applied to chronology. Ptolemy's Almagest. Chronology III
Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America: Lost History And Legends, Unearthed And Explored
Before the Pharaohs: Egypt's Mysterious Prehistory
They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies

ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Minimus Pupil's Book: Starting out in Latin (Cambridge Latin Texts)

Average customer rating:

A little frustrating
Good for schools and homeschools
Excellent Resource - BUT you must have the audio for pronunciation (more)
Long live Minimus
Great for beginners

Minimus Pupil's Book: Starting out in Latin (Cambridge Latin Texts)
Barbara Bell
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Minimus Audio CD
Minimus Teacher's Resource Book: Starting out in Latin (Cambridge Latin Texts)
Minimus Secundus Pupil's Book: Moving on in Latin
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ASIN: 0521659604

Book Description

This elementary Latin course for 7-10 year olds combines a basic introduction to the Latin language with material on the history and culture of Roman Britain. Highly illustrated, the book contains a mixture of stories and myths, grammar explanations and exercises, and background cultural information. Pupils are drawn into the material as they read about the lives of a family living in a community at Vindolanda; the adventures of the children and the family cat and mouse provide interest throughout. As well as offering a lively introduction to Latin and classical studies, Minimus also has cross-curricular relevance. The material on the community at Vindolanda can be used to supplement studies of the Romans at KS2. The grammatical content helps to develop language awareness, and provides a solid foundation from which learners can progress to further English or foreign language studies. The Teacher's Resource Book provides support, particularly for non-Classicists. It includes teaching guidelines, English translations of the Latin passages, and additional background information, plus photocopiable worksheets.

Customer Reviews:

A little frustrating.......2007-09-23

We do not "homeschool" but I wanted to use this book to teach my daughter Latin as a supplement to what she's learning in school. So far I have found it to be frustrating. Mostly because all the words are not defined. I have been having her translate the cartoons but she is not able to do it completely because of the lack of definitions. It would also be helpful to have a comprehensive glossary at the end. I have a Latin dictionary but it's not terribly helpful. For instance, they introduce "est" but none of the tenses. So along comes "erit" and I'm not sure how they're supposed to know that that is the future tense and means "is going to be"? And "erit" is not in the Latin dictionary. I am now going to have to sit down and write up a spreadsheet with definitions of all the words.

The mouse is cute and I like the addition of Roman culture and history.

Good for schools and homeschools.......2007-08-23

This is an excellent alternative to Prima Latina and Latina Christiana. It is engaging and fun without being gimmicky. I have taught Latin using a variety of texts for over 10 years-- this is the perfect textbook for elementary school students or homeschoolers looking for a solid introduction to Latin language and ancient culture. This book is also perfect for students studying the ancient Mediterranean (perhaps using Story of the World or another such text). It has much useful and fascinating information on daily life in the ancient world.

The teacher's manual that accompanies this book is fraught with ideas for projects and classroom activities.

Excellent Resource - BUT you must have the audio for pronunciation (more).......2007-07-04

This is very entertaining, very versatile -- there are so many activities to be used for reinforcement that one truly will not be able to do them all. Even though I had Latin in High School, I had to purchase the audio CD - I found it to be the missing component to the kids' enjoying their lessons thoroughly. The Audio is an enormous help -- easy to understand and a practical learning aid. I also used photos off the internet of present day Vindolanda which gaves the kids an excellent perspective of the area about which they are learning. Because of the great versatility of the series and the many ways to branch out and make the lessons interesting, relevant AND still have your students learn Latin, I would definitely recommend this series AND the audio component.

Long live Minimus.......2007-05-14

This book is a very entertaining way to introduce basic latin for young and inquisitive minds. I liked the humerous stories coupled with the classic mythology.

Now I look for latin words in everyday life with a lot more awareness than before. Long live minimus!

Great for beginners.......2007-02-17

My husband reads this book to our toddler and both enjoy the simple words and concepts. It's perfect for little ones or beginners.

Average customer rating:

Must read
Required Reading
Revisionist Garbage
one of the best school histories available

The American School 1642 - 2000
Joel Spring
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0072322748

Book Description

This point-of-view, comprehensive, up-to-date history of American education is designed to stimulate critical analysis and critical thinking. It offers decidedly alternative interpretations of each historical period. It has an emphasis on the role of multiculturalism and cultural domination in shaping US schools, on schools as one of many institutions that manage the distribution of ideas in society, on racism as a central issue in US history and US educational history, and on economic issues as an important factor in understanding the evolution of US schools.

Customer Reviews:

Must read.......2003-09-20

I'm using this book right now for a required class in educational foundation. It was a little slow to grab me at first, but now that I've gotten into I found it's quite helpful and provides a good base of knowledge for anyone who's either going into teaching or is already in education. I think the people who criticize this book are generally closed-minded and likely not big fans of the public school system, anyway.

Required Reading.......2003-03-18

Spring's history is comprehensive, thoughtful, and fair. He sees the strengths and weaknesses in our schooling history. I do require this book in my Foundations of Education class and find it invaluable.

Revisionist Garbage.......2002-09-30

Spring opens Chapter 5 of this book with a paragraph in which he likens President Andrew Jackson to Adolf Hitler. The rest of this book is written in a similar vein. For page after outrageous page, Spring vituperates the evils of the Founding Fathers without a shred of historical perspective. How this book ever made it into print astonishes me. How some universities use this as a text for History of American Education is even more astonishing. Please don't buy this book, even if you are asked to do so.

one of the best school histories available.......2001-10-28

I like Joel Spring's approach of viewing the history of American schools through the lens of deculturation and multi-culturalism. He tells the story of an American school system that has been used as an instrument of decultutaration to "americanize" various ethnic groups (native american, asian american, african american, german american, hispanic american) and religious groups (irish catholics).

Amazon.com

Harold Bloom's urgency in How to Read and Why may have much to do with his age. He brackets his combative, inspiring manual with the news that he is nearing 70 and hasn't time for the mediocre. (One doubts that he ever did.) Nor will he countenance such fashionable notions as the death of the author or abide "the vagaries of our current counter-Puritanism" let alone "ideological cheerleading." Successively exploring the short story, poetry, the novel, and drama, Bloom illuminates both the how and why of his title and points us in all the right directions: toward the Romantics because they "startle us out of our sleep-of-death into a more capacious sense of life"; toward Austen, James, Proust; toward Thomas Mann, Toni Morrison, and Cormac McCarthy; toward Cervantes and Shakespeare (but of course!), Ibsen and Oscar Wilde.

How should we read? Slowly, with love, openness, and with our inner ear cocked. Then we should reread, reread, reread, and do so aloud as often as possible. "As a boy of eight," he tells us, "I would walk about chanting Housman's and William Blake's lyrics to myself, and I still do, less frequently yet with undiminished fervor." And why should we engage in this apparently solitary activity? To increase our wit and imagination, our sense of intimacy--in short, our entire consciousness--and also to heal our pain. "Until you become yourself," Bloom avers, "what benefit can you be to others." So much for reading as an escape from the self!

Still, many of this volume's pleasures may indeed be selfish. The author is at his best when he is thinking aloud and anew, and his material offers him--and therefore us--endless opportunities for discovery. Bloom cherishes poetry because it is "a prophetic mode" and fiction for its wisdom. Intriguingly, he fears more for the fate of the latter: "Novels require more readers than poems do, a statement so odd that it puzzles me, even as I agree with it." We must, he adjures, crusade against its possible extinction and read novels "in the coming years of the third millennium, as they were read in the eighteenth and nineteenth century: for aesthetic pleasure and for spiritual insight."

Bloom is never heavy, since his vision quest contains a healthy love of irony--Jedediah Purdy, take note: "Strip irony away from reading, and it loses at once all discipline and all surprise." And this supreme critic makes us want to equal his reading prowess because he writes as well as he reads; his epigrams are equal to his opinions. He is also a master allusionist and quoter. His section on Hedda Gabler is preceded by three extraordinary statements, two from Ibsen, who insists, "There must be a troll in what I write." Who would not want to proceed? Of course, Bloom can also accomplish his goal by sheer obstinacy. As far as he is concerned, Don Quixote may have been the first novel but it remains to this day the best one. Is he perhaps tweaking us into reading this gigantic masterwork by such bald overstatement? Bloom knows full well that a prophet should stop at nothing to get his belief and love across, and throughout How to Read and Why he is as unstinting as the visionary company he adores. --Kerry Fried

Book Description

Information is endlessly available to us; where shall wisdom be found?" is the crucial question with which renowned literary critic Harold Bloom begins this impassioned book on the pleasures and benefits of reading well. For more than forty years, Bloom has transformed college students into lifelong readers with his unrivaled love for literature. Now, at a time when faster and easier electronic media threatens to eclipse the practice of reading, Bloom draws on his experience as critic, teacher, and prolific reader to plumb the great books for their sustaining wisdom.

Shedding all polemic, Bloom addresses the solitary reader, who, he urges, should read for the purest of all reasons: to discover and augment the self. His ultimate faith in the restorative power of literature resonates on every page of this infinitely rewarding and important book.

Customer Reviews:

Close, but not quite right........2007-03-05

... we all know children in today's grade schools are moving farther away from books and a whole lot closer to My Space for their reading pleasures. Bloom wrote this book to address this and one other concern, that being that universities aren't any healthier for us than My Space when it comes to reading, and reading the right way. Bloom says to read deeply, often, and for yourself without studying the how's and why's using this or that theory of criticism that we're taught in university. I can't agree more after having done a masters degree in English literature. I hated reading after graduating and it took me years to get back into reading for my own true pleasure. For that reason, I like this book. That being said, I think Bloom misses the mark somewhat on what we should read. I've read a lot of the books on his list (Western Canon my bum) and I have to say, many of them are about as interesting, engaging, and exciting as reading as those same My Space pages I mentioned earlier. There is a lot of good literature out there that isn't Shakespeare, Milton, Melville, Emerson, etc. All the good writers aren't dead, Mr Bloom. He's right about the problem but fixing it isn't going to happen by prescribing my fourteen year old a healthy dose of Ibsen, Milton and Emily Dickinson, though everyone could use a taste of Calvino once in a while.
I read somewhere that Bloom said something 'mean' about Stephen King's writing. I don't read King, but at least if my kid is reading that, she's not on the computer all day long. I wonder what Bloom thinks of JK Rowling.

Difficult Book with Some excellent Literary Summaries.......2006-10-11

After reading Harold Bloom's The Western Canon, I was interested in what this author had to say about the how and why of reading the major western literary classics. The author makes the following points; "WHY" to read, 1) to strengthen the self. Reading is a selfish act, to improve oneself as opposed to improving your neighbor or neighborhood "HOW" to read, 2) clear the mind of all the factional, and political ideas of the current time period when the reader is seeking the universality of the spirit. 3) the recovery of the ironic .
The author judges the works by looking for the unique way that certain universal human traits are treated in great works of western literature. The author explains the concept of reading by practicing "overhearing". The concept was lost upon this reader. This reader felt like he
missed some of the foundation terms and principals of the book. From the text one can tell the author has dedicated hours to reading and re-reading the classics. Harold Bloom is a Yale professor with many awards to his credit. I appreciated the quick synopsis of the text or selected poem to bring out themes and thoughts I would have otherwise missed., All in all, the author's concepts are difficult to fully absorb, but his summary of literary works has to spark some interest in some area of the literary classics.

So-So.......2006-09-16

Literary critic should have titled this little guide `What to Read and Why,' seeing as he devotes only a few paragraphs to why reading might be valuable. That said, Bloom is a terrifyingly accomplished reader, but he isn't much of a thinker or a critic in the way Benjamin or Derrida were. Bloom's incessant propensity to judge all literature from the `how is this compared to Shakespeare' lens is foolish and lacking in any insight. At times his criticism seems almost amateurish and rushed. He doesn't seem to be a very good reader of Hemingway, for instance. At the outset of a review of `Hills Like White Elephants,' Bloom writes that "Hemingway's personal mystique-his bravura poses as warrior, big-game hunter, bullfighter, and boxer-is irrelevant to `Hills Like White Elephants' as its male protagonist's insistence that `You know that I love you'" (47). Yet later in Bloom's review, he writes [on `The Snows of Kilimanjaro']: The irony is at Hemingway's expense, insofar as Harry prophesies the Hemingway who, nineteen days shor of his sixty-second birthday, turned a double-barreled shotgun on himself" (49). Bloom seems to have reversed tactics here. Never the less, Bloom is an undeniably great reader of poetry; in this volume he tells you all about his personal favorites: Stevens, Whitman, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, etc. Kind of fun, but far from great criticism.

Bloom: To Know How Is To Know Why.......2006-02-12

For those who purchase Harold Bloom's HOW TO READ AND WHY, they probably expect a companion piece to HOW TO READ A BOOK by Mortimer Adler. With Adler, there is truth in advertising; his focus is indeed on the how. He emphasizes the more traditional skills of main idea, inference, conclusion, and details, all of which must be used to come to terms with the author. Bloom, however, starts where Adler leaves off. Bloom assumes that the reader knows how to meld his mind with that of the author. His focus on the how is really quite simple: the reader should read slowly, reread often and aloud, and allow his own ears to hear and overhear what words of wisdom fall from the lips of literature's most immortal characters. When Hamlet laments the common fate of man in any of his seven soliloquies, Bloom urges the reader to do more than just read; the reader should become Hamlet and speak as the troubled Dane does. It is only when the reader intones along with Hamlet, as opposed to passively listening to Olivier or Brannagh, that this reader becomes Hamlet and insinuates himself into a world of irony that Bloom relentlessly insists forms the philosophical underpinning of Shakespeare's moral vision. The great poems deserve no less. Bloom claims that poetry, like drama, is best appreciated in solitude and when spoken aloud by the reader.

The why of reading is also uncomplicated. The purpose of reading immortal literature, to Bloom, has little to do with ideology or any other attempt to view that work through a critical lens of one 'ism' or another. The why of reading is more personal, more selfish than that. The reader reads to improve himself, to become a better person. The wisdom that infuses any classical piece of writing is useful only insofar as it contributes to the moral growth of the reader. Since most of Bloom's book resembles a digressive tour through a sampling of his favorite works and authors, the novice reader might walk away with the idea that HOW TO READ AND WHY is little more than a folksy rehash of Intro to Lit 101. The truth is more illusive. In his discourses, Bloom does more than simply analyze what makes one character act the way that he does. Bloom humanizes that character by taking that character's words, thoughts, and deeds and making them his own. To become that character, then, in Bloom's vision quest, is, in Adler's terms, to come to terms with that author. The metamorphosis of self is a process of slow accretion, possibly granting that each tick on the clock of rereading brings the reader ever closer to union with the author. The end, of course, to Bloom, to Adler, to anyone who wishes to know and grow is to witness the birth of a new reader, one who is infinitely wiser and happier than his predecessor.

Literacy Guide.......2005-08-19

Bloom's title could not help but appeal to a typical Language Arts teacher in a typical high school. I am facing a school with a history of poor literacy skills in a district with a similiar history. Most literacy programs use a 5th and 6th grade approach with high school students who have scored at that level, and wonder why they are not very successful. Bloom writes for adults, and his approach could well undergird an introduction to remedial readers in high school.

Average customer rating:

The Cold War by Mike Sewell

The Cold War
Mike Sewell
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad, Vol. 2: Since 1896

ASIN: 0521798086

Book Description

Mike Sewell examines both the complex historiography surrounding the Cold War as well as the historical events and issues themselves. Topics covered include the origins of the Cold War, its globalization through events in Europe and Asia and culminating in the Cuban Missle Crisis, the period of detente that followed before futher escalation of tensions, aand the end of the Cold War in the 1980's. Includes documents, sources and questions to analyze key issues.

Customer Reviews:

The Cold War by Mike Sewell.......2007-01-12

An excellent introduction text for the CIE A - level History course. It provides a good over all account for most topic areas of the syllabus.

Ahlan wa Sahlan: Functional Modern Standard Arabic for Beginners: 10-CD Audio Program (Yale Language Series)

Average customer rating:

for a solid understanding of Arabic
They needed an editor
Mediocre
Imcomplete
Better books in terms of happiness level

Ahlan wa Sahlan: Functional Modern Standard Arabic for Beginners: 10-CD Audio Program (Yale Language Series)
Mahdi Alosh , and Mahdi M. Alosh
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: CD-ROM

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Arabic in a Flash Volume 1 (Tuttle Flash Cards)
Alif Baa: Introduction to Arabic Letters and Sounds
Arabic-English Dictionary: The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic
Easy Arabic Grammar
The Arabic Alphabet: How to Read & Write It

ASIN: 0300058594

Book Description

This textbook is intended to teach Modern Standard Arabic at the university level to speakers of English. The text presents Modern Standard Arabic functionally, but also instructs the student by way of an engaging storyline that presents Arabic culture in a contemporary setting. Designed for use in the classroom, the text would also work very well for the self-learner. Alosh uses state of the art language acquisition theory.

Customer Reviews:

for a solid understanding of Arabic.......2007-04-03

I have been tutoring Arabic for 5 years (thearabictutor@gmail.com) & this is the best book I found to be the text book for my students. My students love my lessons & this book is a big part of the good experience.

it does not run over the material, it goes with you step by step, I do not know how Arabic would be learnt without a teacher, it is not like studying French if you know English..the difference starts in the Alphabet (writing & pronunciation) & grows more in grammar. So if you are looking for a gimmick book that will teach you to say parrot's "good morning" & "good night" & "have a nice day" then this is not the book...this is a serious, carefully planned, aiming at well-educated level of understanding & ability to handle this beautiful poetic language.

for those who says it won't help you learn on your own: Arabic is one of the hardest languages to learn, & it is an Afro-Asiatic language so if your 1st language is Indu-European then do not blame the book, & the book is not full of misspelling, probably you were not understanding the language enough to know what you are reading!

for those who do not like the book because of politics: the book is not political, it is a language book, but of course it will call Palestine by its native people given name & by the name Arab call it because it is teaching you Arabic in context! in this book you will follow some Arab students correspondances with their family & friends, & it will give you a background of the culture.

They needed an editor.......2007-03-30

This is a terrible book. As the other reviewers have said, it's filled with typos, misspellings (in Arabic!), and is completely disorganized. The resolution of the pictures is so bad the pages look photocopied. Most importantly though, it's impossible to learn on your own. You need a teacher's help deciphering what they're talking about. And do you really need to know the word for differential calculus? I'm suprised Yale University Press put out something of such low quality.

Mediocre.......2006-08-04

As other reviewers have pointed out, this book is generally mediocre. It teaches you think in a piece-meal, unsystematic fashion...which oftentimes can be a good thing, but here proves to be disorienting and uninstructive. Not only that, but as others have pointed out, at every step it pushes a dopey, anti-Israel political agenda. This book is a joke, botch intellectually and politically.

You can, of course, learn something from it, but avoid it if possible.

Imcomplete.......2006-07-24

The CD's which are required as a part of our class are not part of this book as they would be if ordered through the university bookstore.

Better books in terms of happiness level.......2005-12-20

Uningaging. Not for self study. Heavy to the point of being inconvenient to bring home on most days when my backpack is heavy to start with, which has discouraged me from studying as much as I would like. Not fabulous in my opinion. Doesn't make me a happy lil Arabic student.

Reading Course in Homeric Greek: Book One (revised)

Average customer rating:

The best entry into Epic Greek language
A most welcome 2006 edition of a classic text!
An enlightening pleasure
volume 1 now available again (at long last!)
Useful if you already know some Greek

Reading Course in Homeric Greek: Book One (revised)
Raymond V. Schoder , Vincent C. Horrigan , and Leslie Collins Edwards
Manufacturer: Focus Publishing/R. Pullins Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners
Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect
Homeric Vocabularies: Greek and English Word List for the Study of Homer
Beginning Greek With Homer
Transition to Attic Greek

ASIN: 1585101753
Release Date: 2004-12-16

Book Description

This text is a revised edition of the well respected text by Frs. Schroder Horrigan. A Reading Course in Homeric Greek, Book One, provides an introduction to Greek language as found in the Greek of Homer. Covering 120 lessons, readings from Homer begin after the first 10 lessons in the book. Honor work, appendices, and vocabularies are included. Volume II is due later in 2005.

Customer Reviews:

The best entry into Epic Greek language.......2007-01-08

If you want to read ancient texts in Greek, the best way, now pleasantly-surprisingly feasible with this book, is to start in Homer (however many individuals you believe actually composed the works under that name). I say this for two reasons:

1. Literarily, Homer's works function in almost all ancient Greek and Roman literature in the same way that the King James Bible and Shakespeare's works function in English literature.

2. Linguistically, it's always easier to go forward in time through linguistic changes than to go backward. English speakers today have to work at first to get the right feel for Shakespeare's English, and even the later ancient Greeks (after the time of Alexander the Great) depended on their scholars to explain "difficult" parts of Homer's language for them.

This textbook is good. It rewards you with frequent, and real, accomplishment at each step. However, if you're a complete beginner in Greek who has never "declined" nouns and adjectives in any other language, you'll get much better results by taking a class based on this book or else by meeting frequently with a qualified private tutor. If you are comfortable declining nouns, and you are able to teach yourself a language efficiently, you can profitably work through this book on your own.

A most welcome 2006 edition of a classic text!.......2006-09-17

This excellent 3rd edition, including some well-chosen revisions and supplements, retains all the advantages of Schoder and Horrigan's measured approach while improving typography and readability, expanding the (extra-Homer) readings, and speaking more clearly to the preparation-deprived student of our time (earlier editions pretty much took for granted conceptual understanding of grammar and syntax). The book's pace is excellent and so is its well-phased introduction of new concepts as the student progresses. Self-correcting exercises are also included for the first time. Selections from the Odyssey begin halfway through the book, after the student has acquired sufficient knowledge and cultural background to appreciate them.
Highly recommended. I hope that Collins Edwards, the reviser, is even now working on Book 2, last republished (2nd edition) in 1986.

An enlightening pleasure.......2006-08-05

"A Reading Course in Homeric Greek" is a wonderfully-written text, filled with warmth and wisdom. This is a key to the genetic code of Western Civilization!

volume 1 now available again (at long last!).......2005-02-02

update: The publisher has made the first eighty pages (which go up to the middle of Chapter 24) of this book available as a free sample to download, on their website "pullins dot com." So you can order the book now and start studying today with the free sample while you wait for your hard copy to arrive.

Useful if you already know some Greek.......2004-07-23

As others have mentioned, you need book 1 first. It took me about a year to track it down, but I did find eventually.

The strong point of this book is that there are a lot of exercises. Your vocabulary really gets a good work-out.

On the down-side, the book was written assuming that students would have a teacher, so important things like the difference between the aorist and the imperfect are handled in only one paragraph.

The other issue I have is that a lot of the exercises are drawn from the New Testament, which is Koine Greek, and translated into the Homeric dialect. This is a bit like a Latin course giving quotes from Dante translated into classical Latin--sure, it can be done, but it makes more sense to use the original language. (Other exercises are drawn from Plato, Aristotle, et al, also not Homeric, but not as distant as Koine)

Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary

Average customer rating:

A straight-forward introduction to art criticism

Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary
Terry Barrett
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Interpreting Art : Reflecting, Wondering, and Responding
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ASIN: 076741165X

Book Description

Designed as a supplementary text, this book helps students of art and art history better understand contemporary art by engaging them in the study of criticism and the practice of critically considering contemporary forms of art.

Customer Reviews:

A straight-forward introduction to art criticism.......2001-03-06

A wonderful book. Boy, i was dragged through galleries and museums by my parents throughout the 60's and 70's, seeing things I thought interesting, some beautiful, some scary, some outright nonsensical. I never got to understand nothing, though I felt the impact of "the better stuff". Mr. Barrett does a wonderful job in being sincere and easy to understand as he, with impressively up-to-date examples, puts forth the meaning behind those formulae of formalism, modernism, post-modernism and the like. He carefully introduces techniques of criticism which are acknowledged as "best practices", but always underlines that other avenues will take us to excellence, too. I definitely appreciate what he covers under the "feminism" and "multiculturism" headlines, cos when we get to see it, we rarely have the nomenclatura to understand it properly. This is not just a book for someone who in earnest wants to make a living off "criticizing art", but for anyone young (in mind) enough to set out on the adventure to enjoy, understand and recommend contemporary art with some kind of vision for the betterment of mankind. The art, Mr. Barrett tells us, is all there - it's now up to us to make something with it.

Average customer rating:

A tedious assemblage of utter rubbish.
Delivers exactly what it says!
great for art theorists and paper writing!
Very good book on theories of contemporary art

Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985
Simon Leung
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Themes in Contemporary Art (Art of the Twentieth Century)
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Relational Aesthetics

ASIN: 0631228675

Book Description

Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985 is a groundbreaking anthology that captures the essence and the edge of the contemporary art scene. Focusing on key theoretical and aesthetic issues in contemporary art in cultural, historical, and socio-political contexts, including media, architecture, postmodernism, multiculturalism, identity politics, censorship, AIDS, postcolonialism, globalization, technology, and spectatorship, this volume brings together a broad selection of important contributions that map out the role that critical theory has played in contemporary art.This anthology mixes established and emergent art voices, including scholars, curators, critics, and artists. Interdisciplinary in approach and drawing on a wide variety of sources, Theory in Contemporary Art since 1985 brings together scholarly essays, artists ' statements, and art reproductions to capture the vibrancy and dissonance that defines today 's art scene.

Customer Reviews:

A tedious assemblage of utter rubbish........2007-06-04

On the back cover of this book it states, "... this book is a groundbreaking anthology...". This is absurd. One of the basic tenets of this book is that "aesthetics...have been submitted to a rethinking that challenges the criteria under which modern art was judged." It may have been submitted - but let there be no doubt - amongst reasonable intelligent people (outside of academe) it has most certainly not been accepted. Aesthetics means something. No matter how much it may have been submitted to a "rethinking", it has not been redefined by anyone since 1985. This entire book is little more than a collection of wishful thinking and meaningless intellectual aggrandizements about objects of the recent dark age in the history of "art". Most of the essays fail at face value because they attempt to elevate the banal to the level of aesthetic practice. Much of the "art" talked about in this book is not aesthetic by any means. Much of the "art" referred to in this entire book is nothing more than pageant or the practice of cognitive expression and there are no number of essays that can deny this fact. One cannot equate the era of attitude with anything resembling art. To miss this point and to go on and compose utter nonsense at great length, as if the emperor had any clothes, is intellectually dishonest. Art has historically provided a dimension of experience above and beyond that which can be explained by pseudo intellectual theories and the intellectual hokum that makes up the majority of this book. Art is not for contemplation by the mind. This collection of essays is a tedious assemblage of utter rubbish. I urge intelligent people concerned about aesthetics to consider the essays in this book as nothing other than an anthology of challenge to real meaning. That which our junk culture has produced since 1985 is not a worthy subject for academic exploration as art. It is absurd to develop theories about phenomena that are not art and call them theories about art. Now, if this book were called Theories in Contemporary Kitsch since 1985 - and it didn't matter how much blather was written about it - that would be another matter.

Delivers exactly what it says!.......2006-11-10

Honestly there isn't much to say about this book. If you have ever wondered what happened to art after "modernism," this is the book to read. It's a must for any contemporary artist--contemporary as in present, not in the art sense, which would cut off around Warhol. This book can also be used to prove to anyone who thinks art doesn't require thinking that it requires quite a bit more thinking than they would expect.

If you find reading a normal book challenging, this isn't the book for you. Many of the ideas will escape you unless you have a good working knowledge of the concepts behind postmodern theory, such as semiotics and psychoanalytic theory (especially Freud and Lacan). I would recommend Visual Culture: The Reader (edited by Evans and Hall) to provide a basis for this background info.

great for art theorists and paper writing!.......2005-12-06

This book contains several essential essays for anyone studying contemporary art theory. It is an extremely theoretical book, not to be undertaken lightly. It would help if you had a basic background in some theoretical discourse.
As a graduate student, I have used it in several of my theory classes, and it has proven to be extremely helpful in writing papers.

Very good book on theories of contemporary art.......2005-10-09

I am an honor student in Visual Art at UVIC. This is my text book!

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