Book Description
In this, his first major book, Mark Steyn--probably the most widely read, and wittiest, columnist in the English-speaking world--takes on the great poison of the twenty-first century: the anti-Americanism that fuels both Old Europe and radical Islam. America, Steyn argues, will have to stand alone. The world will be divided between America and the rest; and for our sake America had better win.
Customer Reviews:
Unfortunately True.......2007-10-14
Every single American should read this book! He explains exactly how the Muslims are conquering the world. More wives = more babies = more Muslims = more terrorism. This is a religion that should nor even exist in the 21st century. They are commanded to murder everyone that refuses to convert to Islam. Most Americans do not understand that the greatest threat to the future of the world (especially America) is the Muslim religion.
America Alone.......2007-10-11
Every person in the USA should read this book. Today in the Dallas Morning news(10/10/07)there is an editorial by Anne Applebaum verifing one of the facts stated it this book. Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is under death threat because of her comments about the mistreatment of women in the Dutch Muslin community had to move to the US because the Dutch say it is too expensive to protect her and she will not shut up. No free speech for her. Mohammed Bouyeri murdered the Dutch writer, Theo Van Gohg, because he made a film about the oppression of Muslim women.
Funny, but also an important message........2007-10-11
While I cannot say that anybody reading this should have more kids just out of the guilt this book might give you, it is an important message about the sad effects of low birthrates. Mark Steyn has a quick wit and funny tone that is clearly not politically correct (good for him). Anybody who enjoys a good laugh or is concerned about terrorism should read this.
A Must-Read!.......2007-10-10
This book was every bit as good as I had heard. I've always enjoyed Mark Steyn, but hadn't gotten a chance to read this yet because I had a stack of books in front of it. That's my loss, because this was one of the most profound and eye-opening books I've ever read. To be honest, I pay pretty close attention to this conflict we find ourselves in, so most of the individual facts in this book weren't exactly foreign to me. But Steyn pulls all this together and presents it in such a concise, clear and entertaining way that I was able to put the pieces together in a way I hadn't even imagined. His demographic data alone is shocking, and should make every person in Europe and Canada sit up and take serious note - I'll be paying very close attention to what happens over the next few years "across the pond", as they say, for how goes Europe, so will eventually go America. I plan to buy several more copies of this book and hand them out to friends and family. I highly suggest it.
Excelent book. Really crunches the numbers like no other book........2007-10-05
This book really lays out the problems with hard numbers and facts in a way I have never seen and is easy to understand. I recomend this book to anyone who is worried about the muslim issue. People in Europe better read it asap!
Amazon.com
Film Directing Shot by Shot offers a good introduction to the rudiments of film production. Steven D. Katz walks his readers through the various stages of moviemaking, advising them at every turn to visualize the films they wish to produce. Katz believes that one of the chief tasks of filmmaking is to negotiate between our three-dimensional reality and the two-dimensionality of the screen. He covers the number of technical options filmmakers can use to create a satisfying flow of shots, a continuity that will make sense to viewers and aptly tell the film's story. Katz provides in-depth coverage of production design, storyboarding, spatial connections, editing, scene staging, depth of frame, camera angles, point of view, and the various types of stable compositions and moving camera shots.
Book Description
A complete catalogue of motion picture techniques for filmmakers. It concentrates on the 'storytelling' school of filmmaking, utilizing the work of the great stylists who established the versatile vocabulary of technique that has dominated the movies
since 1915. This graphic approach includes comparisons of style by interpreting a 'model script', created for the book, in storyboard form.
Customer Reviews:
Chicken scratches vs. Detailed Storyboards.......2007-08-19
I have used this book numerous times for my teachings in which students go through the process of making a short film with certain limitations being imposed. It is part of a process that I call "fast filmmaking". I like the examples that Katz presents, specifically that it is not the quality of the drawing, but how the drawing communicates the director's vision to the rest of the crew. I will usually have a student "explain" their storyboard to the class, and it is amazing how a few chicken scratches can give as much details as a fully detailed storyboard. Kudos to Katz for explaining the creative aspect of directing, and Michael Weise Productions for publishing these types of books.
of moderate interest to readers of video magazines.......2007-08-13
as a long-time reader of videographer's magazines, I didn't find much of interest in this book. If I were new to the trade, I'd probably have found it more useful. For that reason, I gave it a rather high rating of 4 stars
Mind-opening, even if you aren't interested in directing.......2007-06-30
I've worked in the graphics design business for years, but more recently I've grown interested in working with video, primarily shorts and documentary work. I was looking for a book that could help teach me the "language" of motion and visual storytelling, and this book fit the bill. In fact, I found it to be incredibly inspiring as a student of art in general. It's extremely well-written, chock full of practical examples, and contains numerous time-worn techniques as well as cutting-edge experimentation. One funny thing: since it was written a few years before the desktop digital video revolution began, it talks about some of the difficult aspects of shooting which are now in many ways moot. But it's good to hear about the history of the craft.
If you have any interest in all in shooting, directing, or producing any kind of motion picture, show, or short, you'll definitely want to buy this book. However, be forewarned: you'll never be able to watch movies the same way again. You'll begin to pick up all the subtle nuances of filmmaking without even realizing it, so don't feel bad if you have to force yourself to re-engage with the actual story as you're watching!
Useful, pleasurable.......2007-05-07
I'm a college student, not at film school, who makes videos as a serious hobby. I thought this book was much better than other titles in the same market, because it's so specific. Instead of telling you what anyone with common sense knows, like "keep continuity" and "composition can affect the mood of a scene," this film lays it all out in detail. I recommend this for everyone who wants to improve. Even if you're not particularly interested in storyboarding, you'll learn how to think about your sequences in advance much better.
Learning the Rules Before You Break Them.......2007-01-13
Even though many of the great filmmakers may have not utilized storyboards, every one of them has pre-visualized their films.
Pre-visualization is the essence of what it means to be a director. A director can only be effective if he/she properly prepares for each scene. Even if one does not have every shot precisely planned out, they will still have an idea of the look and the flow of the process.
There are certainly many people who feel directing should be intuitive, that there should be no structure to the process or else creativity is stifled. This is a valid point from the perspective of the artist.
What is wonderful about this book is that it gives extensive insight into WHY one should cover a scene in a certain way. Directing as a profession requires a certain amount of preparation and PROOF that you have a handle on the film. Producers want reassurance that you have a vision worth pouring tens of millions of dollars into. Armed with the ability to properly express yourself in regard to your vision, you will have a much easier time convincing others to follow you.
So, in the end, if you are interested in studying the language of film and the methodology behind classic film composition and editing, then this book and the accompanying Film Directing: Cinematic Motion are essential.
Book Description
From the best-selling author of Black Hawk Down comes a riveting, definitive chronicle of the Iran hostage crisis, America’s first battle with militant Islam. On November 4, 1979, a group of radical Islamist students, inspired by the revolutionary Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They took fifty-two Americans hostage, and kept nearly all of them hostage for 444 days. In Guests of the Ayatollah, Mark Bowden tells this sweeping story through the eyes of the hostages, the soldiers in a new special forces unit sent to free them, their radical, naïve captors, and the diplomats working to end the crisis. Bowden takes us inside the hostages’ cells and inside the Oval Office for meetings with President Carter and his exhausted team. We travel to international capitals where shadowy figures held clandestine negotiations, and to the deserts of Iran, where a courageous, desperate attempt to rescue the hostages exploded into tragic failure. Bowden dedicated five years to this research, including numerous trips to Iran and countless interviews with those involved on both sides. Guests of the Ayatollah is a detailed, brilliantly re-created, and suspenseful account of a crisis that gripped and ultimately changed the world.
Customer Reviews:
The First "War On Terror" (or should have been)........2007-09-28
This book provides an excellent explanation of the crisis, which partly cost Jimmy Carter the election and where America should have conducted its first "War On Terror" (perhaps, that would have dealt with the current "president" of Iran and the others with him sooner, rather than later, and he wouldn't have come to the U.S.). True, the U.S. shouldn't have let the Shah in, but it wasn't right for the "students", including the current "president" of Iran to take people hostage. I applaud all those who stood up to these thugs, and Bowden gives great detail. He also provides excellent notes and descriptions of what happened to the hostages, after their release. I have my own thoughts about what should have happened, after our people arrived safely in the U.S., but I won't go into them here. Suffice it to say that if anyone wants to understand why we are having the troubles we are with Iran, read this. I wouldn't have wanted to have been in former President Carter's position. I think it was a betrayal, after what the hostages went through, that the U.S., in the succeeding administration, did "deals" with these people, and admitting this "terrorist thug" [Ahmenejad] into our country recently; a former hostage taker, but this is an example how our political system works. [Sometimes, we're our own worst enemy.] Anyway, an important book.
War on Terror.......2007-09-20
The author is correct in his use of the term "inapt" for the phrase "war on terror." It was indeed inapt prior to 9/11 and certainly was not in use in 1979. But it's appropriate use since 9/11 means that finally after nearly 30 years we are taking the threat seriously and have finally begun to wage this necessary war.
Good book, heavily biased.......2007-09-14
An excellent blow by blow account of the Iranian hostage crisis. Bowden's bias knocks a star off. He basically sides with the hostage takers--describing them as just a bunch of goofy misguided kids engaged in mere horseplay. The hostages weren't tortued and beaten that bad, and plus they "mistakenly" referred to their captors as "ragheads." How ignorant! Perhaps Bowden thinks they should have stayed there a little longer just to make up for such transgressions?
In an attempt to make Jimmy Carter look competent, he wisely spends little time on the President's futile attempts to resolve the crisis--keeping the focus on the hostages themselves. But it's still a factual account--and the facts don't lie; Carter was a horrible negotiator. It was only a year into the crisis he figured out what "contingency" meant. Bowden's sly parallel of Ronald Reagan with the Ayatollah at the end of the book is also not lost.
Well-written and thought-provoking.......2007-09-06
What more could there be to say about a crisis that happened a quarter century ago? As it turns out, there are some very important things to say about it, and Mark Bowden's masterful history of that crisis says them.
First, this is an absolutely first-rate "you are there" account of what the American hostages went through as Iran descended into chaos and near madness after the ouster of the shah. You will literally feel their anger, fear, and depression, and you will feel their pride when they can defy or denigrate their captors, even fleetingly. However, you will feel the smugness and religious certainty of their captors, too. Make no mistake: Bowden clearly sees the American diplomats as victims of an outrageous act; there is no moral relativity here.
Second, the book is thought-provoking in ways I didn't expect. The ostensible trigger for the crisis was the decision by the US to admit the shah to this country for treatment of the cancer that would eventually kill him. However, that decision was sold to President Carter by his Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, who in turn was sold on it by Henry Kissinger and David Rockefeller. As the years roll on, it's interesting how many disastrous US foreign policy decisions come back to Kissinger.
Further, the CIA was no better then at understanding and predicting events in the Islamic world than they are now. Shortly before the crisis erupted, the agency reported that the religious radicals would soon be relegated to the background there, so the US could deal with an emerging secular state with confidence. In reality, the country degenerated into a hurricane of religious nuttiness that soon swept aside all of the secular leaders. Quite literally, no one at all was really in charge of anything in Iran, and that's the reason the crisis dragged on for over a year.
This brings us to the role of President Carter. Nearly everyone felt at the time that he was too weak and vacillating to resolve the crisis. Not so; he tirelessly attempted to find a way to deal with the situation, but every attempt failed when the connection at the Iranian end fell apart. No one could have done much more, which is why presidential candidate Ronald Reagan continually criticized Carter, but never offered a word of explanation about what he would do.
The failed rescue attempt was blamed on Carter, too, but as Bowden makes clear, it had little chance of succeeding, mostly because the equipment available at the time was inadequate, and the situation was impossible. Even if Delta Force had made it to Tehran, it's likely that most or all of the hostages and rescuers would have died in the operation. Carter and the troops deserve credit for daring the attempt, even in the face of near-certain failure.
This book is must reading as the authoritative account of the first battle in the war with the "Islamofascists." And it's worth reading as a rich account of the courage that the hostages and their would-be rescuers displayed in very trying circumstances.
Excellent telling of the Iran Hostage Crisis.......2007-07-10
For those interested in history and especially the history of the relationship between Iran and the U.S., this book is essential. This book is well written, fine storytelling, and appropriately detailed without belaboring the point. Probably the best one source history of the hostage crisis. Some may find it a little too charitable to President Carter, but it appears to be a fair portrayal.
Amazon.com
A precise, understated gem of a first novel, Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor Was Divine tells one Japanese American family's story of internment in a Utah enemy alien camp during World War II. We never learn the names of the young boy and girl who were forced to leave their Berkeley home in 1942 and spend over three years in a dusty, barren desert camp with their mother. Occasional, heavily censored letters arrive from their father, who had been taken from their house in his slippers by the FBI one night and was being held in New Mexico, his fate uncertain. But even after the war, when they have been reunited and are putting their stripped, vandalized house back together, the family can never regain its pre-war happiness. Broken by circumstance and prejudice, they will continue to pay, in large and small ways, for the shape of their eyes. When the Emperor Was Divine is written in deceptively tranquil prose, a distillation of injustice, anger, and poetry; a notable debut. --Regina Marler
Book Description
Julie Otsuka’s commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. With crystalline intensity and precision, Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination—both physical and emotional—of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each flawlessly executed from a different point of view—the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in the desert encampment; the family’s return to their home; and the bitter release of the father after more than four years in captivity—she has created a small tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. Spare, intimate, arrestingly understated, When the Emperor Was Divine is a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson for our times. It heralds the arrival of a singularly gifted new novelist.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Racist.......2007-10-05
This book can be insulting. For example, the author talks about the Chinese like they are animals, and talks about how poor the Chinese are. This book is SOOO boring. The author stretches out information that was not needed to make the book longer, and that just made this book so useless. There is no point in reading this book.
Totally disappointing. Barely indepth about the camps at all........2007-07-18
I have a deep interest in WWII internment camps, have visited one on a pilgrimage and also visited a Japantown museum. Although a work of fiction, I was very interested in reading this to gain another perspective. Especially as the author is Japanese American, it could be a truly credible story. However, this book was a total disappointment.
I noticed a deliberate lack of details. For example, I've seen pictures of many evacuees gathered near the trains, preparing to depart for their unknown destination and unknown future. Standing next to their 1 suitcase of belongings and whatever else they could carry with them. They had to sell/leave behind their lives, jobs, business, homes, belongings, friends, school, etc. Racism, injustice, sadness, confusion, anger, anxiety... I can only imagine such overwhelming emotions.
This dramatic scene sets the stage for the beginning of the camps but is written in JUST 2 sentences. Basically: the girl & mother woke up, went to the meeting area, put on their ID #'s, grabbed their suitcase, boarded the bus to go. The train moved slowly. Where are the details and emotions??? Where are the thousands of other people? It sounded as if the family was by themselves and they were magically transported to the moving train.
A search of the author reveals her deliberate lack of details is to "universalize" the "ethnic" experience. Why??? Would you universalize the experience of Jewish concentration camps or Muslims in post 9/11? By doing so, you mislead the readers about actual events and downplay the harsh reality of their inhumane experiences. That's really offending to those who were interned. Almost as bad Michelle Malkin denying the camps ever happened.
I was appalled when she described the boy's first impression of camp life, p49. "For it was true, they all looked alike. Black hair. Slanted eyes. High cheekbones. Thick glasses. Thin lips...The little yellow man." Even if this is a fiction book from a boy's point of view in the 1940's, I would never expect a JA to write like that, about her own ethnicity even. Nothing could be further from the truth. Would you say that a room full of blonde-haired, blue-eyed, big-nosed, bushy-browed, pale-skinned Caucasians all look the same? Sadly, she only emphasizes false stereotypes.
Ironically, she wastes WAY too much efforts describing details of non-important things. E.g. p41, she spends nearly a whole page detailing how the boy and girl draw a picture of the father.
Curiously, the back of the book credits only 5 books. An interview mentioned she read oral history collections & secondary source books. How about interviewing living internees? How about visiting actual camp ruins? How about visiting the last 3 Japantowns in the U.S., which have museums and tons of JA camp resources? Oh wait, she doesn't need to do any indepth pointless research because she omits all details anyways.
I felt as if this book only made it very apparent about her lack of knowledge about the camps and her own ethnic Japanese background.
I really don't understand her purpose in writing this book. She would have been MUCH better off writing a book about a minority family in the 1950's and which has nothing to do with WWII JA camps. Why write this kind of historical novel, just to leave out all the important details? Do not read this book if you are expecting any understanding of the camps.
Fantastic!.......2007-05-09
I really enjoyed this book. She writes the book in 3rd person and it really adds to the sense of invisibility of the family. The book is reflective in nature in that we are told what happens and how it feels to the characters as opposed to experiencing them as they happen. I found this book very thought provoking and timely.
Seems to be a lot like another book- to much so.......2007-03-18
As an elementary school teacher I read a book entitled, "Journey to Topaz". It was a fabulous book. As I began to read "The Emperor was Divine" I got the strange feeling I'd read it before. I am almost certain the author of "The Emperor was Divine" has too. There are way to many similiarities. I suppose it is entirely possible that they lived an almost identical life as it's a big world. Based on copywrite "Journey to Topaz" was written first. I enjoyed it more-perhaps because the characters were far better developed and the storyline was original. It makes me wonder?
sansei1.......2006-09-18
I had mixed feelings about this book before I read it. The title is NOT how most JA immigrants felt about the emperor of Japan. There was generally no love lost. Most, like my grandparents, left because of poverty, conscription, alienation, and to look for better oportunites in America, lika a lot of other immigrants. While reading the book, I give her kudos for her ability to describe events visually well. BUT...there are many problems with this book. There is this sterility in the manner in which she describes events.She can manage to paint a visually stunning picture with her words but there is no substance. Her characters seem as if she studied them from a textbook. A Nisei (second generation) young girl would NEVER talk in the manner in which she writes, to an elder!!! Its almost like she had Dakota Fanning in mind for this character. And the father character, an Issei (first generation)....Issei's used to swallow their pain. The Issei are known for their stoic strength and "gaman", quiet strength amidst adversity. I felt isulted by his mental confession in the book. I went to see the author at a local library and she did confess she NEVER interviewed ANY living internees. My god...they are dying off and she doesn't interview them? She said she wanted a more "pure" viewpoint. She said she did study books for her historical references. Indeed, there are some references in the book which I'm not quite sure if it is plagiarism, like in the description of the flies bothering her characters and then when they put up screens, it gets better. See Mine Okubo's book Citizen 13660, which Otsuka does reference. That scene is in there. I can see where the sterility feeling I got came from---if she only studied books and didn't get a feel for the emotional aspect that is buried in a lot of interness...she only did her homework half-baked.There are SO many heartbreaking stories that are dying and being buried with the internees. She confessed she didn't really listen when her parents and grandparents talked about it and they would shut up when she'd come around. But she said she didn't really ask them either, only marginally later. What IS her interest here? A book bestseller to be touted among the Asian community? I didn't really get from her interviewed she cared deeply for what happened, it was just a good base for her story. My parents told me everything and I am grateful. I am insulted by this book. It is like looking at a painting of a pretty scene but the artist who created didn't really care about anything but rendering a pretty scene. I was fairly disgusted by the time I left the interview from the library.
She's a grad of Columbia? She needs to study more. This is a great book if you think Snow Falling on Cedars is wonderful.
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
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Similar Items:
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History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
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History: Fiction or Science? Astronomical methods as applied to chronology. Ptolemy's Almagest. Chronology III
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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.
Average customer rating:
- Long Wait for an Excellent Book
- A beautiful exhibition
- Glitter and Doom
- Beautiful catalog for
- You can't go wrong with German Expressionism
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Glitter and Doom: German Portraits from the 1920s (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications)
Sabine Rewald ,
Ian Buruma , and
Matthias Eberle
Manufacturer: Metropolitan Museum of Art
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ASIN: 0300117884 |
Book Description
In the 1920s Germany was in the grip of social and political turmoil: its citizens were disillusioned by defeat in World War I, the failure of revolution, the disintegration of their social system, and inflation of rampant proportions. Curiously, as this important book shows, these years of upheaval were also a time of creative ferment and innovative accomplishment in literature, theater, film, and art.
Glitter and Doom
is the first publication to focus exclusively on portraits dating from the short-lived Weimar Republic. It features forty paintings and sixty drawings by key artists, including Otto Dix, Max Beckmann, and George Grosz. Their works epitomize Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), in particular the branch of that new form of realism called Verism, which took as its subject contemporary phenomena such as war, social problems, and moral decay. Subjects of their incisive portraits are the artists’ own contemporaries: actors, poets, prostitutes, and profiteers, as well as doctors, lawyers, businessmen, and other respectable citizens. The accompanying texts reveal how these portraits hold up a mirror to the glittering, vital, doomed society that was obliterated when Hitler came to power.
Customer Reviews:
Long Wait for an Excellent Book.......2007-05-12
Finally an excellent review of what the first World War did to German culture and psyche. This book lays it all out. Hitler was a logical consequence. Unfortunately the Western world did not pay enough attention to these portentious signs. The book has beautiful color reproductions, great detailed commentary on each artist featured and enaough historical commentary to make it all plausible.
A beautiful exhibition.......2007-04-08
This is the catalogue for a beautiful exhibition held at the Met last year. The paintings reproduced here are among the best examples of the New Objectivity, a movement that was able to depict the atmosphere, the soul, the world of the Weimar Republic, that brief time span when pre-war Germany enjoyed freedom in the arts and in the minds. These gripping paintings show how ultimately doomed that world was and how the artists were the first to sense the tragic developments that were to succeed it. The front cover, a detail of one of Christian Schad's best known paintings, is a perfect illustration of a society that seems to have enjoyed life knowing that death would come too soon, with the end of that joyful and poetic decadence that was the Berlin of the 1920's.
Glitter and Doom.......2007-03-22
Twice viewed the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum here in New York. German art in the 20s is raw, obscene and decadent. A raucus reflection on hard times there. They had just suffered WW1, in the midst of fascism, insane inflation, etc.
Highlight: Otto Dix is a wild artist, forever a favorite now. Also a DaDa artist.
I am a frequent art museum visitor. Therefore, in my opinion, this catalogue did the show great justice which is not aways the case.
Beautiful catalog for.......2007-03-08
The BEST museum show I have seen in a long time. Sabine Rewald is a truly great curator, the book is smart and well designed, great color reproductions.
You can't go wrong with German Expressionism.......2007-01-29
How can you say "no" to Otto Dix?? Well...you can't! The actual exhibit at the Met was good (although I thought it'd be bigger) and relatively informative, but the book gets into depths the exhibit couldn't. Ideally you should see the exhibit and thoroughly read the book. You can't quite get the experience of seeing the works within the book, and you can't exactly get the knowledge of just reading the little blurbs that are glued beside each piece in the exhibit.
The book explores the themes of German life before the world turned on itself and the second world war exploded. For the money it's worth the dive into the celebrated, vastly entertaining, stunningly morbid and little studied area of German Expressionism. It's not too late...go out and there and see the exhibit. And then buy the book, since that's what the Met would like you to do.
Book Description
"Bernays' honest and practical manual provides much insight into some of the most powerful and influential institutions of contemporary industrial state capitalist democracies."-Noam Chomsky
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country."-Edward Bernays, Propaganda
A seminal and controversial figure in the history of political thought and public relations, Edward Bernays (1891–1995), pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which he famously dubbed "engineering of consent." During World War I, he was an integral part of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a powerful propaganda apparatus that was mobilized to package, advertise and sell the war to the American people as one that would "Make the World Safe for Democracy." The CPI would become the blueprint in which marketing strategies for future wars would be based upon.
Bernays applied the techniques he had learned in the CPI and, incorporating some of the ideas of Walter Lipmann, became an outspoken proponent of propaganda as a tool for democratic and corporate manipulation of the population. His 1928 bombshell Propaganda lays out his eerily prescient vision for using propaganda to regiment the collective mind in a variety of areas, including government, politics, art, science and education. To read this book today is to frightfully comprehend what our contemporary institutions of government and business have become in regards to organized manipulation of the masses.
This is the first reprint of Propaganda in over 30 years and features an introduction by Mark Crispin Miller, author of The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant - but he already knew that.......2007-10-04
Edward bernays laying the groundwork for the control of population via descrete means. Enjoy BEING the product, TV watchers!
Insightful and Essential.......2007-01-30
A master of his craft, in "Propaganda" Edward Bernays splendidly advocates the art he defines as the "consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group." (p.52). Some may recoil from his assertions that propaganda is necessary to give order to a chaotic world and that in a democracy an intelligent minority must "regiment and guide the masses" ... "to clear understanding and intelligent action." (p.127 & 128)
As refreshing today as when he wrote eighty years ago, Bernays explains that, contrary to what many believe, propaganda is not confined to corporate advertising, but is indispensable to political parties, special interest groups, news media, and some government agencies. Indeed, today's global warming "crisis" would cease to exist without it.
Bernays declares propagandists should maintain certain principles including refusing clients believed to be dishonest, products that are fraudulent, and not engaging in deceit or outright lying. Though severely criticized for establishing the successful cigarette advertising campaigns for tobacco companies, he demonstrated his integrity by dropping the companies as clients when he became convinced of the strong association between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer. Unfortunately, many modern practitioners are not as scrupulous.
This concise book is compelling for those who dare to think on their own rather than being told by an elite few what to think and how to act.
Conceptually Brilliant.......2006-11-28
From the creator of public relations, Edward Bernays describes how he discovered to manipulate and engineer the consent of public opinion. This book is a conceptual model for governments, corporations, and lobbying firms to show the principles behind swaying public thought and opinion and controlling the masses. As the nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays was able to learn from the master of psychoanalysis and through his many opportunities working for various of the United States largest corporations.
This book was incredibly useful and informational. I would recommend it to anyone interested in swaying opinion or being able to identify it in advertising, news, or public figures. Edward Bernays is the utmost authority on the subject so much so that even the Germans in the Nazi political party used this book to spread their policy beliefs. This book is still relevant today in a world of spin.
Edward Bernays runs through the psychology of developing public opinion and runs through several different areas where it could be applied from government to being implimented in the education system. Regardless of the brilliance this book contains, it still was written as though a lay-person was the intended audience. I would highly definitely recommend this book.
Very Revealing Expose of Present Day Government.......2006-11-04
This book clearly shows how those in power think of the every day citizen. Bernays provided a "peek" into the world of propaganda where what you eat, drink, watch, and drive is really managed to the extent that you do not really know what is going on. In additioin the attitudes that brought this about are clearly explained.
If you want a primmer on how the elite looks at you, check this out.
Propaganda and the manufacture of consent!.......2006-09-10
Bernays, the Guru of prapaganda who pioneered the technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion which he named "engineered consent," has written an iteresting book on this topic that might be worth reviewing. His book has superficially tackled the propaganda techniques, and gave the reader a taste of the mass manipulation machine.
However, I found the cover page to be the most profound and enlightening. It contains Bernays' views which reflect the reality and the condition of the masses or the bewildered herd (as called by Walter Lippmann, another propagandist), as well as the genuine elitist view on the stupidity of the people. Here are some examples from the cover page: "Only through the active energy of the intelligent few can the public at large become aware and act upon new ideas." "A presidential candidate may be drafted in response to overwhelming popular demand, but it is well known that his name may be decided upon by half a dozen men sitting around a table in a hotel room." "Democracy is administered by the intelligent minority who know how to regiment and guide the masses."
This book might be an eye opening reading for the oblivious person.
Average customer rating:
- First the review, then the polemic...
- great book - bad print
- A Searing Anti-War Tale.
- A Great Anti War Sttatement
- Required Reading
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Johnny Got His Gun
Dalton Trumbo
Manufacturer: Bantam
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0553274325
Release Date: 1984-03-01 |
Book Description
This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered--not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives...This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome...but so is war.
Winner of the National Book Award
Customer Reviews:
First the review, then the polemic..........2007-10-05
The review: this is a great book. Undoubtedly five star-worthy. If I were a left-wing English professor (that may be a pleonasm), I'd assign it to all my captive undergraduates. Trumbo has created a page-turning, emotionally-affecting novel that permeates the reader, and indues him with horror and empathy toward the fate of the protagonist.
Artistically, the book is triumphant. The narrative progresses in a fluid, readable, stream-of-consciousness that reflects exactly what I imagine a disembodied intellect would experience in such circumstances. Joe Bonham becomes a real human being, not a contrived figment of some agenda-driven leftist's imagination. (Even if that was indeed the political intent...the sheer talent of Trumbo surmounts what could have devolved into a grotesque morality-play.)
I cannot for the life of me comprehend why this book is not on the MLA 100, especially when that list is populated by such duds as On the Road, and Wide Sargasso Sea. (To mention only two.)
The polemic: Trumbo had an agenda, no question. Even though Joe Bonham becomes his own character, incipient-Communist Trumbo at times ventriloquizes too ardently.
He (Trumbo) rails against jingoism, patriotism, nationalism, sloganeering, etc., and declares that "little guys" should simply refuse to fight in all wars. He questions why men should fight for abstractions such as "liberty" or "democracy," which, Trumbo asserts, are meaningless platitudes. (I wonder what George Orwell, who volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War for precisely such a reason, and took a bullet to the throat, would have said in response.)
I agree that war is evil...and, to quote Orwell, sometimes it is the lesser evil. Joe Bonham was drafted, and coerced into fighting people he had no quarrel with. I agree that being forced to go to war is wrong...yet I think that descendants of American slaves are glad that the rolls were called in the North, the ranks filled with conscripts, and the Confederacy defeated.
I also think that a lot of people--including Trumbo himself--are glad that men were sent unwillingly to war in order to defeat Hitler.
Yes, some wars--perhaps most--are ludicrous and insane, demonstrating how far the human species is from achieving civilization. But not all. Trumbo does not allow for this distinction; his pacifism is absolute and resolute, and he uses an astoundingly specious argument on page 151 in order to advance his blanket position. Better to live a slave than die fighting for "freedom," according to him.
(Ironically, Trumbo experienced a profound tergiversation during WWII, when he helped suppress his own book, and refused to lobby for a negotiated peace with the Axis Powers. Of course, Vietnam helped him arrive back at his original moorings.)
However, even though the book doesn't make its political case, the artistic level of the presentation and the always-relevant subject matter ensure that it will remain read for the foreseeable future...at least until human beings decide to resolve conflicts without killing each other.
great book - bad print.......2007-09-09
I was struggling to read this book until I compared it to another paperback. The type is so blurry it makes it very hard to read. Maybe this is a really old copy? Get a copy somewhere else, and look at it first.
A Searing Anti-War Tale........2007-04-12
'Johnny Got His Gun' leaves an awful, foul, and tainted taste in your mouth. That said, this is a book that screams to be read in this day and age as it was during any other time of war. Trumbo truly shows the horror that the aftermath of any war can leave behind. He asks the question of what is victory? I can answer that for him:
Victory is a mirage. A dream. A word we use to shove aside the piles of skulls and rotting flesh that it took to obtain this 'victory'. Upwards of ten million people were killed the world over during The Great War. Tell me, was there any victor? The French Empire suffered 1.3 million dead. Germany suffered 1.7 million dead. Victory is an illusion. Dead is dead.
The most notable component in Trumbo's stlye is the complete lack of punctuation in his novel. It is a very effective literary device he uses to disorient the reader, and it works quite well. At first it is very distracting, but over time you come to admire the courage Trumbo had to release a novel written in such an unconventional manner.
Many stories are told simultaneously, all involving the character of Joe Bonham, during the course of the tale. However, we read them the way that the paralyzed and demolished Joe recalls them: randomly. Stories weave in and out of themselves as Joe wanes in and out of consciousness. The narrative is very unique and you never can tell the chronology of Joe's life.
I honestly cannot say enough about this book. It really put things in prespective for me, especially in these uncertain times we live in. It just seems that we, this world, is on the brink of something very big... and all we need is a spark.
I offer you one guarantee and one warning. The guarantee: Buy this book and you will never forget it. It will open your eyes no matter how hard you try and clasp them shut. The warning: This novel is truth. Truth is scary. You will not be the same after reading this.
A Great Anti War Sttatement .......2007-04-01
Johnny Got His Gun is the most powerful anti-war novel taht I have ever read. It should be reuqired reading for all high school students. the fact that Dalton Trumbo was blacklsited in the 1950's is a tribute to how great this novel is.
In this society, anyone who expresses a strong viewpoint against war and violence is censured. That is what happened to Dalton Trumbo.
Required Reading.......2007-02-22
This book, which was once banned in the US, should be required reading in high school, and mandatory reading for anyone running for public office. It is particularly relevant today as we deal (or fail to deal) with casualties of our military actions.
Book Description
Jasper Johns (b. 1930) is one of the most significant figures in the history of postwar art. His work from 1955 to 1965 was pivotal, exercising an enormous impact on the subsequent development of pop, minimalism, and conceptual art in the United States and Europe. This is the first publication to approach Johns’s work of this ten-year period through a thematic framework. It examines the artist's interest in the condition of painting as a medium, a practice, and an instrument of encoded meaning through several interrelated motifs: the target, the “device,” the naming of colors, and the imprint of the body.
In this handsome book, leading scholars, a conservator, and a contemporary artist consider Johns’s activity in this critical decade and discuss many of his iconic paintings, such as
Target with Four Faces (1955),
Diver (1962),
Periscope (
Hart Crane) (1963), and
Arrive-Depart (1963). Their new critical and historical perspectives are grounded in an unusually close visual and material analysis of Johns's work.
Customer Reviews:
Top-quality illustrations.......2007-04-08
Published to accompany an exhibition held at the National Gallery in Washington (and later at the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland) and concentrating on the pivotal decade 1955-1965 when Johns produced his most famous works, this catalogue is worth it mainly because of the quality of the illustrations. So much has been written on Johns's art that it is sometimes refreshing to be able to pause in front of his works and just enjoy them for their pure pictorial quality (color, texture...). This book enables you to do just that. Then if you want to read the text, you will find it well written, clever (especially at the end of the book, where paintings are analysed and interpreted one by one and in detail), sometimes a bit far-fetched, but just like everything else I know which has dealt with Johns's art (see Chrichton, Varnedoe,etc...).
An equisite, full-color, thoughtful read . . . but.......2007-04-03
This book is gorgeous in its color, close-ups, and perspectives on Mr. Johns, but perhaps "Mr. Johns's temper" would flair when he realizes throughout the book he'd find "Mr. Johns' temper." Perhaps a global spell-check changed everything reflecting Mr. Johns's last name, but gee-wiz what a horrible annoyance. I was stunned this would happen through the auspices of the National Gallery in Washington. Perhaps President Bush had a night job editing this text while reading his 60 books a year?
Targets, Flags, and More.......2007-03-18
An excellent and broad-spectrum catalog of an exhibit based on a seminal decade, 1955-1965, in Jasper Johns' career. Writers analyze diverse aspects of these early years of Johns' career that established him as one of the great figures in modern art and stimulated much in art created by others. I especially enjoyed the essays by artist and critic Robert Morris and conservation expert Carol Mancusi-Ungaro. Excellent reproductions of the works shown in the exhibit.
Book Description
The United States Marine Corps has long enjoyed the reputation of being America's premiere fighting force. Whenever crisis looms one hears the familiar chorus, Send in the Marines. How was this reputation first earned? Many would argue that the Marine Corps stepped up and took its place alongside America's other armed forces in 1918 at Chateau Thierry and Belleau Wood. So fierce was the 4th Marine Brigade in combat that the overwhelmed German defenders dubbed them Teufulhunden, literally Devil Dogs.
Customer Reviews:
An essential and wonderful book.......2002-11-04
Here is a wonderfully detailed and moving book. It satisfies the serious scholar in its overwhelming details, and yet carries the `human thread' to show the true wonder of what these marines did. My grandfather was with the 6th Marines at Belleau Wood and I guarantee he would have loved and respected this book.
Great Book.......2000-08-31
This book is excellent. All the other reviews are dead on accurate.
Just to add something different to the discussion...
I would have given it five stars but for one thing. Occasionally the detail overwhelmed the writing and story telling aspect lagged. Just every so often it started to read like an after-action report. Don't let this put you off, just don't plan on being able to read parts of it right before bed time.
Top Notch Reading.......2000-03-09
With so few great titles on the American experience in the Great War this book is a must read. It reads very well and spares no small detail. It gives you a "leather-necks" view of the the war in France.
Excellant.......1999-07-01
I support the Leatherneck review and am tempted to rate it 5 stars. It is refreshing to read not only the USMC WW1 history but the authors considered opinions on the battles and personalities involved.
Outstanding - a landmark work.......1999-06-24
From Leatherneck Magazine - March, 1999
The rich thread of tradition has woven itself throughout the tapestry of Marine Corps history. From these threads, Marines of today uphold the standards of service and sacrifice of the past as the proud inheritors of this heritage. Of all the eras of Marine Corps history, arguably the most romantic and colorful would be the involvement of the Marines in the First World War. The Marine Corps of today is still flavored by the traditions and experiences of those years. Words such as Devil Dog and Foxhole still permeate the language of our Marines and students from The Basic School have adopted Belleau Wood and travel over regularly to assist in the maintenance of this hallowed ground, the only wholly-owned American battlefield on foreign soil. By the same token, this has remained one of the least explored eras throughout the history of the Marines.
Certainly, the classics of Asprey's "At Belleau Wood" and Stallings' "Doughboys" stand forth as valuable contributions to the understanding of that history. However, no one has published a comprehensive examination of the actions and service of the 4th "Marine" Brigade until now.
It is with a clear love and empathy for this subject that former Marine, George Clark undertook the monumentous task of shifting through and composing the far-flung resources of documentation into a concise and readable history of the Fourth "Marine" Brigade and it's service from formation until disbandment.
Clark's work, drawn from 25 years of research into the subject, captures the color and character, as well as the facts and figures, of the Marine Brigade as no previous work. Based on contemporaneous unit histories, Marine diaries, personal letters, as well as official documents and correspondence, this book blows open the door and illuminates the incredible story of ordinary men, who, under extraordinary circumstances, left a legacy of valor courage and sacrifice unsurpassed to this day.
Highly detailed and filled with fascinating insights, "Devil Dogs" takes no prisoners. It tells the unvarnished tale of the largely volunteer force, leavened by a strong cadre of seasoned Officers and NCOs, who formed the nucleus of the 2nd Division (Regulars) of the infant American Expeditionary Force. The author offers interesting and thought-provoking opinions of the success and failure of the various Officers who led the Marines in combat in France and makes no apology for ruffling a few feathers along the way.
A rollicking, fun book to read, Clark takes the reader along from the stateside clashes with Pershing and the Army bureaucracy to training in France and through the battles of Belleau Wood, Soissons, St. Mihiel, Blanc Mont and Meuse-Argonne. Chapters also cover the history of Marines in the Occupation of Germany and explore the little known history of the Marines in the Composite Regiment of the AEF - Pershing's Showpiece.
Though not for those wishing a "quick" synopsis of Marine involvement in the Great War, "Devil Dogs" is a must for any student of Marine History or for those wishing to get the full picture of this most colorful era. Clark's work justifiably joins Asprey and Stallings as a modern classic of the American experience in the Great War. With valuable lessons for today's military, it stands as a true picture of the success by leadership, unmatched valor and pure guts, against a seasoned and battle-tested foe.
Patrick Mooney
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- Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
- Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
- Bound for Oregon
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- Jaded Tasks: Brass Plates, Black Ops & Big Oil-The Blood Politics of George Bush & Co.
- Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudi, Miro, Dali
- Cooperative Occupational Education and Work Experience in the Curriculum
- Escape from Freedom
- History: Fiction or Science
- Jolie Blon's Bounce
- Anatomy of a Typeface
- Blueprint Small: Creative Ways to Live with Less
- Physarum polycephalum;: Object of research in cell biology
The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion
Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years
While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within
The Politically Incorrect Guide(tm) to Islam (and the Crusades) (Politically Incorrect Guides)
The Face of the Tiger
