Book Description
This book presents the reader with the real story behind the popular Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas".
Customer Reviews:
every CHRISTIAN should have this book!.......2007-01-13
This book is the awesomely beautiful TRUE story of what the title truly meant -and means! I think this book should be read by every Christian and especially every child. SUPER!
This book is based on a lie.......2004-09-02
The account of the origin of The Twelve Days of Christmas presented in this book is simply untrue. None of the truths that were supposedly taught by this carol were ever suppressed by the Church of England. Snopes.com has a good article about this particular urban legend. As a Christian I find it painfully embarrassing that lies like this are being circulated not only via email (which is bad enough), but now even in print.
Setting the Record Straight.......2002-12-25
Yes, it was illegal to be a Catholic, ordered by King Henry VIII following the imprisonment of Queen Anne. It has been illegal to be Catholic/Christian in more than one country at more than one time. There have been many symbols over the years to practice Christianity in secret as there are today in the Middle East. What a terrific education for today's Christians and/or Catholics to not take Christianity for granted.
This book is a wonderful lesson in religious tolerance.
great illustration, definitely misleading.......2002-12-17
lovely illustrations, and good childrens book & ideas, but the basis of the story is an "urban legend".
This book is misleading..........2000-12-08
I have read this book, done some research, and have found that there is no basis for this meaning of the song. It supposedly was sung by Catholics at the time to celebrate their faith in disguse, but nothing related in the book could reveal the person to be Catholic, even if you knew the "hidden meaning". Also, it was never specifically illegal to be Catholic in England, although for a time it was unwise. Just wanted to set the record straight.
Book Description
unspeakable crimes.
undeniable proof.
unattainable justice.
"A gripping account of one of the darkest secrets of World War II: the systematic torture and vivisection of American pilots by Japanese scientists for biological warfare research. Almost sixty years after the fact, revisionists continue to deny these horrors, but The Fallen provides indisputable evidence that Japan had indeed subjected American POWs to live medical experiments–such as mutilating their organs, draining their blood, and pumping seawater into their veins. The postwar decision by the U.S. government to protect Japan’s Josef Mengele—like criminals is almost as shocking as the atrocities themselves."
–Iris Chang, the New York Times bestselling author of The Rape of Nanking and The Chinese in America
"A riveting and horrifying tale. Landas’s meticulous and imaginative detective work reconstructs a long-buried investigation that implicates not just a few rogue soldiers but Japanese scientists, professors, and politicians, abetted by an American cover-up at the highest levels. An important book that fills a gap in the story of World War II. The best part of the story is the courage of a lone American flier, loyal to his comrades even in the face of torture, whose ordeal unfolds with vivid immediacy."
–Philip Gerard, author of Secret Soldiers
Customer Reviews:
Americanhistorybuff.......2005-10-07
Well written story of a little known episode on American history - war crimes committed by the Japanese on prisoners or war. Author Marc Landas' research is well documented and the story easily read. The book reveals the unbelievable atrocities against our soldiers as well as what many would consider a "pass" to some of those who were responsible. The desire by the Allies to build a friendship with Japan led to some cover-ups and early clemency for some of the perpetrators.
Terrible Crimes, Irrefutable Evidence, No Justice.......2005-08-26
In the waning months of World War II, the American B-29 bomber attacks on Japanese cities grew in intensity. In this book, author Marc Landas takes the reader on a journey that started with a B-29 raid in May, 1945, and ended with consequences that no one could have ever imagined.
The pilot of one of the B-29s on that fateful raid was Marvin Watkins. Along with his crew of nine other men, they were returning to their base when they were attacked by Japanese fighters. Suffering fatal damage, Watkins ordered his crew to bail out while he stayed at the controls of the plane. One by one, the men bailed out. But as it turned out, their worst fears were just beginning, for after being captured by the Japanese Kempei Tai, they faced horrors unimaginable to most people.
The surviving eight men from Watkins' B-29, along with thirty-nine other American POWS, were either beheaded by the Japanese, or, in the case of Watkins' crew, subjected to inhumane and fatal medical experiments. On three different occasions, the beheadings occured, and on one of the occasions, the war had already ended. The men who were used for the medical experiments had seawater pumped into their veins as well as having lungs, stomachs, and livers removed. They were alive but unconscious the entire time; they ultimately died.
In November, 1945, the Americans, acting on a tip from an informant about the downing of Watkins' plane, began an investigation into the possibility of Japanese atrocities being committed against the American POWs. Over the course of the next 2+ years, the investigation turned up allegations of behheadings and medical experiments. Many Japanese were indicted and a trial began in 1948. Through the meticulous work of the American investigators and prosecutors, several Japanese officers were found guilty of murder and handed sentences ranging from death by hanging to several years of hard labor. However, due to the rising threat of the Soviet Union and China, the Americans realized that an allied Japan would help stem the flow of Communism in the region. In a move that left me as a reader dumfounded, the Americans gave all of the convicted Japanese officers clemency in the name of establishing friendly relations between the United States and Japan.
I found this to be a very eye-opening book. It is inconcievable to me how the Japanese, who were found guilty at trial, were allowed to get off scott-free, while the American POWs were murdered at the hands of these same Japanese officers. As for the book itself, the author does an extraordinary job of describing the downing of the B-29, as well as the beheadings and the other atrocities committed by the Japanese. People who think the United States was barbaric in using the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki should read this book and learn what real barbarism was.
Good Story, Could Have Been Told Better.......2005-01-08
The Fallen, by Marc Landas, is the story of what happened to the crew of B-29 after it was shot down over Kyushu on its way back from a mission. The only survivor, Lieutenant Watkins ended up in Tokyo, a prisoner of the dreaded Japanese secret police. The remaining crew members were either beheaded by the army, taken to a hospital where they were used as guinea pigs for medical experiments, and one took his own life rather than surrender to a mob. The bulk of the book deals with the post-war investigation into these atrocities and the trial that took place afterwards. The author also touches upon the implications of the Cold War and how these affected the investigations, trials, sentences, and ultimate commutation of sentences of many Japanese war criminals. Although this is a very touching and interesting story, it could have been told in a much better manner. First of all, there were numerous typographical errors throughout the book. The first one found is enough to send any WWII buff running, "The Pacific War officially drew to a close on September 2, 1948." However, don't let that deter you because the book is worth reading. Second of all, there are sections of the book that are tough to get through. These mostly deal with the trial. The sections pertaining to Lieutenant Watkins and his fellow airmen are an easy and interesting read. With these shortcomings in mind, I still recommend this book if for no other reason then to honor these brave men.
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Encyclopedia of Mexico : History, Society & Culture (2 Volume Set)
Michael Werner
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1884964311 |
Book Description
The Encyclopedia of Mexico presents a processual view of Mexican history, society and culture from ancient civilizations to the present day. The primary emphasis is on broad historiographic issues, although the encyclopedia includes many supplementary entries on people and specific events. The encyclopedia provides students, academics, librarians and the general reader with convenient access to basic bibliographic and factual data on specific events and broad processes in Mexican history. It promotes scholarly dialogue across disciplinary and national borders and provides a useful component for multi-disciplinary courses on Mexico. This two-volume encyclopedia contains some 600 entries and represents a collaborative effort that has involved more than 350 leading scholars from around the world.
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Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Volume 2: Government, Society, and Culture in the Roman Empire (Rome, the Greek World, and the East)
Fergus Millar
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Rome the Greek World, and the East: Volume 1: The Roman Republic and the Augustan Revolution
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Rome, the Greek World, and the East: Volume 3: The Greek World, the Jews, and the East (Rome, the Greek World, and the East)
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A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief under Theodosius II (408-450) (Sather Classical Lectures)
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Mosaics as History: The Near East from Late Antiquity to Islam (Revealing Antiquity)
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Emperor in the Roman World
ASIN: 0807828521
Release Date: 2003-12-06 |
Book Description
Fergus Millar is one of the most influential contemporary historians of the ancient world. His essays and books, above all The Emperor in the Roman World and The Roman Near East, have transformed our understanding of the communal culture and civil government of the Greco-Roman world. This second volume of the three-volume collection of Millar's published essays draws together twenty of his classic pieces on the government, society, and culture of the Roman Empire (some of them published in inaccessible journals). Every article in Volume 2 addresses the themes of how the Roman Empire worked in practice and what it was like to live under Roman rule. As in the first volume of the collection, English translations of the extended Greek and Latin passages in the original articles make Millar's essays accessible to readers who do not read these languages.
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Western Societies: A Documentary History, Volume 1
Brian Tierney
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0070648441 |
Book Description
These volumes present a collection of primary source materials from the earliest times to the present intended for use in college courses in Western Civilization. An outstanding feature of the book is the wide variety of source materials included—readings from literary classics, letters, biographies, chronicles, diaries, philosophic and scientific writings, government records. Women’s history is emphasized throughout.
Book Description
This second volume examines the religion and structure of Islamic society. Bernard Lewis draws on a broad range of Islamic literature, including books on religious sects, politics and economics, philosophy and science, travel, biography and literary works, and even bureaucratic records from such disparate sources as the postal service and the judiciary. Comprehensive and cogently translated, these documents bring into sharp focus aspects of a world long neglected by Western historians.
Customer Reviews:
What early Muslims said about themselves.......2007-07-16
This old reader -- published in 1974 as volume two of a set; volume one on history and battles, is out of print -- gains in interest with each passing explosion.
Muslim apologists detest Bernard Lewis (see the review of this volume by "A reader" for confirmation). Among the traditionalists, this is understandable. But the self-described moderates and modernizers dislike him just as much, not realizing what this says about the flimsiness of their modern mask.
What Muslims of so many opinions hate about Lewis is that he applies critical historical and linguistic methods to their myths. This threatens to be as corrosive of some of those myths as the same method was of Christianity, monarchism and any number of other myths where western scholars have used it.
Of all Lewis' books, "Islam" should be the most acceptable to them, since it consists almost entirely of translations, with very little -- insufficient, in my opinion -- commentary.
Most of these ancient documents were in Arabic, with a few in Turkish and Persian and a couple in Hebrew.
Lewis comments that the remains of written records from the early centuries of Islam are comparatively scanty, and what do exist have not been systematically collected and translated, unlike the huge compendiums of Greek and Latin.
It is impossible not to be impressed by the energy invested in spreading the doctrines of Mohammad so far and wide in the early years. Or not to marvel at how, within less than two centuries, the theologians managed to shut down further discussion. Christianity, by contrast, was just beginning to fight its doctrinal battles when it was 200 years old.
Plus, the Muslims had simultaneously to devise practical rules for government, whereas Christianity eventually just took over a functioning government and bureaucracy. Thus, the section on business is one of the longest in the book.
How this was done can be traced in the first two sections on religion and on "heresy and revolt." (In strict doctrine, as Lewis notes, Islam does not allow for heresy. In practice, it does.)
The remaining sections give a glimpse into how life was lived, whether in accordance with or in disregard for religion. There is travel literature; a very interesting section on Arab racism, which would appeal to any Nazi; something about relations between the sexes (almost entirely from the man's viewpoint); slavery.
Nothing about art and little about literature. There are only a few scraps of poetry, which is a bit of a surprise, since poetry is regarded by the Arabs as their supreme art, and it was also highly respected by Turks and Persians.
The last section is perhaps the most interesting. It includes selections from Arab and Persian joke books. These amount (sometimes) to a wry commentary on the doctrines exposed in the earlier sections. Reading them is rather like studying Russian jokes in the Communist era to learn what the masses really thought.
Among the insights I found in these extracts:
Female genital mutilation was, at this period, regarded by Arabs as an odd, alien custom of the Bujjas, an African people. (The Bujjas also excised young men's nipples, a practice not adopted by Muslims.)
Avicenna, the "great" Arab philosopher so admired by Christian Europe, was a self-proclaimed ignoramus.
Ibn Batutta, the much-admired traveler, was a raving Jew-hater and proud of it.
"The Arabs . . . never had a king who could . . . control their fools."
Well measured and critical response.......2003-06-07
This is not Bernard Lewis's best work, but it still retains the unbiased, scholarly yet readable style of his previous efforts. He is unflinching - which upsets many zealots - in his analysis and lacking in apologist platitudes, but without honesty, there can be no literature.
I hope he continues to document Middle Eastern history uneffected by political and religous fundamentalism. The literature of history needs him.
Bernard Lewis is a racist, anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab writer.......2003-02-09
Bernard Lewis is a racist, anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab writer. I do not recommend any of his work. I find his work to be not accurate, and offensive.
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Cold War Culture and Society (The Cold War, Volume 5)
Lori Bogle
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Library Binding
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ASIN: 0815332424 |
Book Description
This collection of reprinted articles and essays, written by scholars of history, political science, international relations, sociology, and cultural studies, brings together information on the Cold War from a wide range of international journals. It is a useful resource for students of contemporary history and society. From the extensive critical literature, the editor has chosen articles that convey the sharpest understanding of the conflict and organized them in a five-volume collection according to major historical issues of the Cold War: its origins, security policies, hot wars, espionage, and its impact on U.S. society. The Cold War collection shows how the conflict defined the international political landscape of the second half of the twentieth century, shaping the domestic and foreign policy agendas of nations and leaving no region of the world free from the conflict waged between the superpowers. But it also makes clear how the Cold War was always more than political and military decisions. From the beginning, it influenced culture, art, education, media, and society in intimate ways. Its legacy today is profound and lasting.
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Europe, Sport, World: Shaping Global Societies (The European Sports History Review, Volume 3)
J. A. Mangan
Manufacturer: Frank Cass
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0714651478 |
Book Description
In the 19th century, Europe exported its politics, goods, ideas, customs - and not least, its sports, to the rest of the world. This imperialism began a process of cultural diffusion in which sport became a cultural bond, moral metaphor and political symbol. It was a two-way process, for as soon as the world beyond Europe became known to the Europeans, sports from other parts of the world entered Europe. The sports of Europe and the United States were imitated and assimilated and became symbols of national and cosmopolitan identity. This work examines the national and international importance of sport and its role in shaping post-millennium global culture.
Customer Reviews:
Full of information, but poorly put together.......2000-04-01
This book was a requirment for my honors World History class and neither I, my class, nor my teacher enjoyed reading it. This book does have several positive factors though. It is full of information, dates, and facts. It also features very useful timelines, and excerps from important documents of whatever period is in question. But while these things are good...the bad outnumber them.
It is said that chronology is a historian's secret weapon. The biggest problem in this book is the lack of chronology. The various sections in this book (or what use to be different volumes) are all categorized by civilization and not by time. Since primarily used in a World History class, though, it is hard and downright confusing sometimes to create a mental timeline while reading. Instead there are overlapping dates and the text will hop around chronologically. While when I used this book it was mandatory, if anyone is simply looking for a reference for something, I reccomend you find another book.
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Early American Scientific Instruments and Their Makers
Silvio A. Bedini
Manufacturer: Landmark Enterprises
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0910845301 |
Book Description
A systematic study of the scientific instruments used in the United States during its colonial beginnings.
Development of the sciences in the American Colonies was critically dependent upon the available tools-scientific instruments- and the people who made and used them. These tools may be separated into two groups. The first consists of philosophical instruments and teaching apparatus used for educational purposes and experimentation. The second group includes the so called ''mathematical instruments" of practical use, which were employed by mathematical practitioners and laymen alike for the mensural and nautical needs of the Colonies. This book is about the second but lesser known group.
Bedini has divided the major portion of the book into three parts- The Mathematical Practitioners, Instruments of Metal, and Instruments of Wood. Among the practitioners you find the Rittenhouse brothers, Ellicott, Biddle, Bailey, and Banneker. The book contains a substantial section on wooden instruments and describes sixteen makers.
The appendix material is an invaluable source for those who have an interest in instrument collection and study. Among the appendices is a list of surviving wooden compasses, and both an alphabetical and geographical list of instrument makers.
This is the second printing of the book. The first printing, limited to only a few thousand copies, was sold out soon after its publication by the Smithsonian Institution in 1964. With the dramatically increased interest in scientific instruments, this new printing, with some revisions and updating, is most welcome.
Product Description
Original rust cloth HC with gilt lettering.
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