Customer Reviews:
I liked it! No pulitzer but entertaining.......2007-06-01
Not a bad effort as sports stars biographies go. I think it was a worthy purchase. Obviously Romo had an incredible work ethic and it was quite uplifting at times to read about the lenghts he went to to maintain his peak performance. I worry about his health for the remainder of his life though. Good read and if you like contact sports, you will understand his devotion. I'm 43, still consider myself young and play madden because I can't do the real thing! Go Romo!
Romo is great.......2007-05-09
An excellent history of human fears and greatness , in the best sport of the world.
Fresh Insight.......2007-01-06
Having been addicted to football since the age of 4 when I would watch Sunday NFL with my father, this book gave me fresh insight into a sport I have loved for more than 40 years. Given the fact that most autobiographies will present the subject in a moderatively positive light, I did get a better perspective on the inside of the game and what pressures these warriors experience - whether real, perceived, or self-imposed. I often get stares from men when they see me reading this book at the gym...I guess women aren't supposed to be that "into" pro-football, but after 40 plus years of it...what can I say. Its a good read
Romo - fun book........2007-01-03
Good book. Lots of interesting focus on the fitness fads.
Love His Attitude.......2006-12-09
this guy knew what he wanted out of life. he stay working and working towards his dreams. not a lot of people like him now a days. he didn't keep none of the things to help him get better to himself. he spent his own money to even help his teammates also. he wanted to win and be the best of the best. a dirty game i love also. to survive it, he got dirtier than the next player.
Book Description
The My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968 and the court martial of Lt. William Calley a year and a half later are among the bleakest episodes in American history and continue to provide a volatile focus for debates about the Vietnam War. Other books have exposed the facts surrounding the incident; Facing My Lai now examines its haunting legacy through a unique exchange of contemporary viewpoints.
This powerful book emerges from a stellar gathering of historians, military professionals, writers, mental health experts, and Vietnamese and American war veterans convened to memorialize the tragedy. The cast of prominent speakers included journalists Seymour Hersh and David Halberstam, novelist Tim O'Brien, psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, military prosecutor William Eckhardt, and veterans Hugh Thompson and Ron Ridenhour--the two true heroes in the My Lai story. David Anderson's reflective recasting of their presentations creates an impassioned chorus of voices that demonstrates why this tragedy remains one of the key emblems of the American experience in Vietnam.
These authors address many of the troubling questions that still persist about My Lai. Why had it been identified as a Viet Cong stronghold? What orders were the troops actually given? Why didn't someone stop the slaughter? But these questions are asked again in the hope that they might lead to a better understanding of what My Lai means for us now.
As these authors show, our nation is still trying to come to grips with the bitter legacies of the Vietnam War. A grim window into the darker side of American history (like the massacre at Wounded Knee), My Lai reminds us of humanity's baffling capacity for attrocity within the crucible of war. Facing My Lai does not allow us to forget or hide from such horrors, but it also seeks to heal the deep wounds inflicted by the war. Its unflinching look at the past ultimately leads us away from darkness and towards a more enlightened understanding of a war that in many ways is not over yet.
This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.
Customer Reviews:
mislead.......2000-07-14
I found the book to be a surprize i thought the book was for educational use only that should answer one reviewer question four hours in My Lai is a better reading book i feel
My Lai: A Failure of Command, NOT a Typical Event........1999-01-14
I served two full Infantry tours in Vietnam as a Rifle Company Commander, Battalion staff officer and MACV advisor. I am proud of the American soldiers who served with me, both under my command and otherwise. In my experience, there is no doubt that My Lai was an aberration. The men who committed the atrocities at My Lai were common criminals and murderers who should have been convicted and hanged. They were in no way acting like the vast majority of American soldiers in Vietnam. Most soldiers and marines went to Vietnam as ordered by proper military authority, performed our duty in very difficult -- and different -- ground combat, returned home and resumed productive lives. "Facing My Lai" rehashes the old leftist, anti-war themes of the Vietnam vet as a victim, haunted by the nasty things he did while there (like shooting down women and children at every opportunity), while suffering from the effects of PTSD and Agent Orange. That is exactly the image that most Vietnam vets have been trying to counteract ever since it was invented by the anti-war left in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I am somewhat surprised that good people like Harry Summers and Hugh Thompson would be included with the likes of Jay Lifton, the anti-war leader who invented and perfected the concepts of Post-Vietnam Syndrome and PTSD, in an attempt to make Vietnam vets feel guilty about their service and to blame all their failings in life on their Vietnam experience.
If the reader really wants to know how most infantrymen -- and other military personnel -- performed in Vietnam and adjusted to life after their tour(s) there, I recommend two books: "Stolen Valor" by B.G. Burkett, and my book, "Platoon: Bravo Company." You owe it to those who actually fought the war to get it right!
Facing My Lai fails to address the root cause........1998-08-03
I don't know why, but I am not surpassed in reading FACING MY LAI, edited by David L. Anderson, that after 25 years not too many people, including the contributors understand why My Lai happened. Furthermore it is no surprise, that the poet and the novelist were the two contributors, who understood two fundamentals: The first is that each man is responsible for his own actions and the second is that amends must be made, if there is to be healing. Ridenhour still wants to blame the top brass and the system, as if the average American doesn't know that it is wrong to kill babies. Nowhere in the book does anyone look into the role of fundamental religions setting the stage for the massacre. After all the communists were atheists who were "the servants of Satan." I heard these sermons during the war, as did most Americans. Why was Thompson the hero, where were the others that could have stopped the massacre in the beginning? I venture to say that they were in! Canada or in U.S. prisons for refusing to serve. Racism, was another subject, which should have been discussed in depth. Neither was it discussed why we send Nazi criminals back to Europe for trial while we let these murderers walk free in the US, when they are wanted in Vietnam for war crimes?
In short the book fails to get at the root cause of the massacre. Most of the contributors want to pass the buck. On the 30 annual observation of the massacre, I was on my way to My Lai when I friend told me not to go there because they all died. He then arranged for me to go to a neighborhood in HoChiMinh City where many families from Quang Ngai had resettled after the war. I observed the anniversary with a family that had survived the war. They told me that a massacre of village was not common place during the war, but the shooting of farmers in their fields was common place.
If you are looking for the root causes of the massacre you will not find it in this book.
Book Description
The rise of China as a great power is one of the most important developments in the twenty-first century. But despite dramatic economic progress, China's prospects remain uncertain. In a book sure to provoke debate, Minxin Pei examines the sustainability of the Chinese Communist Party's reform strategy--pursuing pro-market economic policies under one-party rule.
Pei casts doubt on three central explanations for why China's strategy works: sustained economic development will lead to political liberalization and democratization; gradualist economic transition is a strategy superior to the "shock therapy" prescribed for the former Soviet Union; and a neo-authoritarian developmental state is essential to economic take-off. Pei argues that because the Communist Party must retain significant economic control to ensure its political survival, gradualism will ultimately fail.
The lack of democratic reforms in China has led to pervasive corruption and a breakdown in political accountability. What has emerged is a decentralized predatory state in which local party bosses have effectively privatized the state's authority. Collusive corruption is widespread and governance is deteriorating. Instead of evolving toward a full market economy, China is trapped in partial economic and political reforms.
Combining powerful insights with empirical research, China's Trapped Transition offers a provocative assessment of China's future as a great power.
Customer Reviews:
highly intelligent in-depth analysis.......2007-09-04
I am not a political scientist, economist or expert on China, and I found this book quite clear and understandable. It is a highly intelligent, in-depth and convincing analysis of China as a dysfunctional, 'predatory' state. It is highly unlikely it will evolve in positive directions of increasing democracy. While it may collapse, the future may instead be that of a corrupt, stagnating failed state which exports its problems to the rest of the world - failure to control drugs, arms sales to dangerous regimes, aids, illegal immigration, etc etc. An important antidote to all the self-serving business propaganda on China's economic miracle.
An Unscholarly Book.......2007-07-06
While the writing in this book is quite smooth, it by no means is a scholarly work (though in the guise of scholarship). The author picks and uses data and evidence that only fits his/her own political/ideological (rather than theoretical) framework, and ignores those that have been well researched and documented. In addition, most works--theoretical or empirical--cited this book is quite obsolete (except those from the internet, which tended to be superficial), even though more up-to-date and important scholarly works were already available in the body of the literature. For example, well before the book was published, there were already new, major findings about Chinese people's support for the government and democratization, and their political participation in both rural and urban settings. But the author totally ignored these new findings, probably because these findings were not very convenient to his/her political/ideological framework. More disappointingly, the book is full of the ideology/emotion-charged, groundless, and arbitrary statements (or beliefs) that you should never see in scholarly works. In short, this book has decisively departed from scholarly or scientific inquiry.
A Great Resource.......2006-12-07
Pei is well known is his field for writing about the political divide between the CCP and the Chinese people. This book does an excellent job in covering the realities of the economic and political situations within China. The vast majority of the book is actually quite an easy read, but the beginning of the book can be challenging for those that aren't use to conceptual models (hence 4 stars).
I highly recommend that those interested in China read this book. While I do not agree with specific points, Pei's general ideas are sound and provide lots to think about. China's government (read the CCP) must withdraw from the market if the economic reforms laid down by Deng Xiaoping are to continue and be successful. However, as Pei points out, by withdrawing from the markets, the CCP will lose a lot of its hard power.
Academic's trapped mentality: The limits of linear ideology.......2006-07-06
Reading this book is almost like reading "China's democratic future" all over again. It is all too familiar how normative idealism ruins positive analysis in these two books. The difference is: this one is disguised by more theoretical tools, the other one was an outright shout for a democratic China.
Democracy is a beautiful linear process that can be attributed to "growth determinism". Once the per capita income reaches $1000, then just "smile, you are on candid camera". The development theory is summarized by Pei as all about how growth determines democratization, and the evidence of growth not causing democracy is easily dismissed by seeing it as a short term phenomenon (rising prosperity makes political monopoly more valueable). If this logic is valid, one can also argue that the state's decentralized corrupted "grabbing hand" can also be a short term phenomenon for the long term reform. It's all about your starting point of analysis.
The pre-determined linear ideology of Pei leads to another glaring flaw: he fails to analyze the cause of democracy, as if what appears to be a correlation between growth and democracy is the causation. Douglass North is frequently quoted in this book, yet the major feat of North is: he starts with the cause of economic growth, not a linear ideology from the "prison of one culture". Given this, the discussion of gradual reform and shock therapy is a "fake issue" and a major distraction. More important, "trapped transition" is more a normative tautology than a useful analytical concept. When Pei wears a pair of dark glasses with an idealistic picture in mind, what else can he see except problems? What else can readers experience except his troubled mentality in dealing with China's achievements and problems (the whole book simply boils down to an ad hoc pattern of "on the one hand...on the other hand...")? As for the critical question on "why China is doing great if everything is really so dark?" Pei brushed aside the challenge with only a few paragraphs of guessing work. If one uses John Rawls' "justice principles" for the reality in the US, he can also argue what we see is a "trapped democracy" which is "for the few people, from the few people, and by the few people". And he can also get a reviewer to hail "trapped democracy" as a new concept for the satisfaction of self-congratulation.
Put it simply, when the target of analysis is totally Chinese, Pei is still obsessed with "Leninism" and the cold war ideology. As a Chinese, he didn't even talk about Chinese culture; as a US educated, he failed to start from the realistic perspective of "public choice" (rather than use it selectively to support his normative conclusion). If social scientists are all moral scientists, you think all research can still be fun?
It is really sad to see another serious Chinese scholar again fell into the one culture linear ideological trap. Assuming this book starts with the cause and reason of democracy, with the employment of available theories and a peaceful mind of multi-culturalism, we might see more fruitful results. One quick example is to analyze how each reform approach is actually structured by the contextual reality and how the state evolves and functions as a grabbing hand or a helping hand (instead of asserting gradual reform leads to a predatory state, which is nothing more than an ad hoc analysis); Other questions can be asked include: Are those "copy and paste" democracy (Taiwan, Mexico, the Philippines, India) and "plug and play" democracy (Iraq) actually doing well in economic growth and government cleanness? What is really beyond the simple installation of democracy? Will culture fail in "making democracy work"? What is behind the actual enforcement of democratic institutions?
The development of cognitive science and cultural psychology may be helpful for being self-conscious of the intellectual thinking trap, but the reality of research sociology may not be really in accord with a more sensible research direction. I wish I am wrong on this.
A book for those who actually know the ABCs of China.......2006-05-03
For those who's never been to China or lived there, this book might be a little out of their scope. Afterall, the only things you hear in the news are how if Walmart were a country, it'd be China's 7th biggest trading partner, or how Intel is building their fabs in China (away from Shanghai towards inland to further reduce cost). For those people, go read on how China will take over the world economically by the middle of this century and believe what you want.
For those who Does have any clue about China's political system is keenly aware that the entire Chinese economy is still tied into the political system, and that is just a time bomb waiting to explode. If the CCP were to collapse, half of the country's wealth will be exported and rest will go down with the defunct banking system. This book digs into the depth of the current geo-political situation, and is so accurate that the People's Congress is taking note and implementing changes (albeit slowly) previously pointed out by the author. If you want to know the REAL story behind the Chinese economic system and where it'll truely head in the next several decades, this is THE book to read. Not some "economic model that projects blah, blah, blah and threaten's US's position in the world," where the author is totally cluelss of all fundamentals of the Chinese economy other than published economic numbers.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Pacific Affairs, published by Thomson Gale on December 22, 2006. The length of the article is 734 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: China's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy.(Book review)
Author: Scott Kennedy
Publication:
Pacific Affairs (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 79
Issue: 4
Page: 669(2)
Article Type: Book review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
The third volume concludes the Crown & Covenant series with a new, high-intensity adventure. Set in 17th century Scotland, in the midst of the brutal persecutions of King Charles II of England, Rebel's Keep picks up the historical thread just before the devastating defeat of the Covenanters at Bothwell Brig in 1679. Brothers Duncan and Angus team up again to stand for the Covenanter's cause and fight the king's injustice. Forced finally to flee to America, they must leave behind their beloved homeland.
Customer Reviews:
We Hardily Recommend this Book (Todd & Terri - KnowledgeQuestMaps.com).......2006-02-24
We started reading Duncan's War by Douglas Bond together as a family sometime during the fall. We became so excited about the story that we had to put the children under strict orders not to touch the book during the day, but they had to wait until family reading hour. "No Peeking!" was the command they would hear when their hand would reach slyly for the book on the end table.
Duncan's War is followed by The King's Arrow and then finally Rebel's Keep. This series, called the Crown and Covenant, follows the lives of the M'Kethe family during 17th Century Scotland as they endured brutal persecution at the hand of King James and King Charles. Those that remained loyal to King Jesus called themselves the Scottish Covenanters. This is the story of those who must wrestle with honoring God and applying His word while living amidst a government that is trying to obliterate Christianity.
As a reader, I was particularly struck with what I would do if I were in this situation with my own family. While reading these stories, I had to grapple with the scriptures as I put myself in their shoes. As a father and a Christian, I want to honor God and obey His word above all else. And yet I desire desperately to protect my children from all outside harm. In the story, the children watch their father's actions as he attempts to obey King Jesus above all others, and while they do not fully understand them at the time, they come to appreciate them more fully later as they grow and mature. The father never compromises his integrity in the midst of war. He clearly keeps the perspective that this life on earth is not the only one we live for. There is one to come. How we live and die here will show Whom it is we honor. This is how I want to live. I want to set a strong example for my children as I live out God's word even during difficult times. While reading these stories, I was struck once again that how we live in this life has implications in the next. We are to live for the Audience of One.
Book Description
An ideal pocket guide to over 180 species of bird found throughout Scotland. Each species is illustrated in full colour with a comprehensive description, plus the bird's English, Latin and Gaelic names. For ease of use the birds are grouped together by the type of habitat in which they can be found, including gardens, farmland, woodland, freshwater, heath and hills, and coasts. A places to visit section details over 70 of the best sites for bird-watching, complete with directions to them and what to expect to see when you get there.
Book Description
In June of 1874, while out riding through Estes Park, Colorado with a friend, Nugent was shot and killed by Griff Evans. Case closed.
Professor David McIntyre is not most people. When McIntyre finds evidence that Nugent wrote a manuscript soon before his death, he starts to wonder about what it contained. And if it still exists.
Convinced the manuscript will shed light on the murder, McIntyre finds himself combing Colorado and Scotland in search of the misplaced manuscript, and tangled in the dealings of a crooked antiques dealer, a family with secrets to keep, and angry townspeople.
Average customer rating:
- Companion Product.
- Impressive
- A very detailled historical research
|
A SEPARATE LITTLE WAR: The Banff Coastal Command Strike Wing Versus the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe 1944-1945
Andrew Bird
Manufacturer: Grub Street
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Norway
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Scotland
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| England
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ireland
| Europe
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Aviation
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Strategy
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World War II
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Europe
| World War II
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Aviation
| Transportation
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1904010431 |
Book Description
Every day for nine months from September 1944 to the end of the war, young British, Commonwealth and Norwegian airmen flew from Banff aerodrome in northern Scotland in their Mosquitoes and Beaufighters to target the German U-Boats, merchantmen and freighters plying along the coast and in the fjords and leads of southwest Norway, encountering the Luftwaffe and flakships every step of the way.
This Scottish strike wing fought in some of the bitterest and bloodiest attacks of the war, all at very low level and at close quarters. Their contribution to winning the war was crucial and while the cost in precious lives and equipment was in the same proportion as Bomber Command, they inflicted far greater damage to the enemy in relation to their losses.
With Group Captain The Hon. Max Aitken, DSO DFC as station commander, Banff was eventually to become the base for a total of six Mosquito squadrons (including 235, 248 and 143), together with B Flight of the elite 333 Norwegian Squadron, and would team up on missions with the nearby Dallachy Beaufighter strike wing (404 RCAF, 455 RAAF, 489 RNZAF and 144 Squadrons).
A Separate Little War, then, is a well researched and detailed history of a microcosm of Coastal Command. Supported by many photographs, maps and charts, the vast majority never published before, the author has drawn on the personal accounts of, amongst others, British and Norwegian pilots, ground crew and civilians which augment the official sources, to give a compelling, accurate and fascinating depiction of an aerodrome at war.
It is a subject which will be of great interest and value to the general reader and to those students of the Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, RAF and former Commonwealth Air Forces, the Polish Air Force and of maritime air operations during World War Two.?
Customer Reviews:
Companion Product........2004-09-23
A video produced by the Royal Air Force Museum "The Mosquito" may be of interest to readers of "A Separate Little War". The final 8 or so minutes of the film features a shipping strike by one or more units from a northern base attacking targets obviously in the fijords of Norway.
The entire video is 45 minutes long and in black and white.
Check this site for availability; I got mine from a supplier in Canada (where over 1,000 Mossies were made).
Impressive.......2004-03-08
This book is the culmination of a great deal of research by the author and the results of his work are very evident.
Another reviewer has suggested that the narrative is not very exciting and I am inclined to agree but the purpose of the book is not necessarily to entertain but rather to present a record of an important adjunct to the main and much more widely documented military activity towards the end of the war.
Presenting the amount of material contained within these pages in the concise manner adopted by the author does exclude much of the literary "padding" which might otherwise have been used to make a more engaging read but I found the book at once interesting, compelling and poignant with the contributions from survivors of both sides of the conflict to be very human.
I enjoyed it and recommend it.
A very detailled historical research.......2003-11-15
The book is an excellent and very detailled history of the operations flown by the Banff and Dallachy wings from 09/44 to the end of WWII.
The amount of research made is quite impressive, with a lot of first hand accounts.
But the way its written doesn't make it very exciting.
Book Description
12 folded panels, laminated, features over 125 color illustrations
Average customer rating:
|
Greenshanks
Nethersole-Thompson
Manufacturer: Harrell Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Ornithology
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0931130026 |
Average customer rating:
|
Audubon in Edinburgh: The Scottish Associates of James John Audubon
John Chalmers
Manufacturer: National Museums Of Scotland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Artists, Architects & Photographers
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Birdwatching
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1901663795 |
Book Description
This biography concentrates on a major turning point in Audubon's life
Average customer rating:
|
Automobile Association Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe (AA Illustrated Reference Books)
Joyce Oates
Manufacturer: Automobile Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Reference
| Subjects
| Books
| Almanacs & Yearbooks
| Atlases & Maps
| Audiobooks
| Books on CD
| Books on Cassette
| Business Skills
| Careers
| Catalogs & Directories
| Consumer Guides
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Education
| Encyclopedias
| Etiquette
| Foreign Languages
| Fun Facts
| Genealogy
| General
| Job Hunting
| Large Print
| Law
| Publishing & Books
| Quotations
| Spanish-Language Reference
| Study Guides
| Test Prep Central
| Words & Language
| Writing
Birdwatching
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
| Excursion Guides
| Field Guides
| General
Ornithology
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0749517670 |
Average customer rating:
|
The Avian Influenza H5n1 in Wild Birds Scotland Amendment Order 2006: Scottish Instruments 237 2006
Manufacturer: Stationery Office
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
Health Law
| Family & Health Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
Medical Law & Legislation
| Family & Health Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
Health Law
| Family & Health Law
| Law
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Medical Law & Legislation
| Family & Health Law
| Law
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0110704118 |
Books:
- Searching for the Sound: My Life with the Grateful Dead
- She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana
- Shooter: The Autobiography of the Top-Ranked Marine Sniper
- So Far and Yet So Near: Stories of Americans Abroad
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X : As Told to Alex Haley
- The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home
- The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas
- The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis, A Personal Biography
- The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
- The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Love in Black and White: A Memoir of Race, Religion, and Romance
- Healing From Family Rifts : Ten Steps to Finding Peace After Being Cut Off From a Family Member
- Batman Animated
- Deer Park
- Generation T: 108 Ways to Transform a T-Shirt
- Evolution
- Full Throttle: The Life and Fast Times of Curtis Turner
- The Joy of Life: The Idyllic in French Art, circa 1900
- Discovering Wild Plants: Alaska, Western Canada, the Northwest
- Plantsman in Nepal
Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big
Next Man Up : A Year Behind the Lines in Today's NFL
LT: Over the Edge: Tackling Quarterbacks, Drugs, and a World Beyond Football
I've Got Things To Do With My Life: Pat Tillman And The Making Of An American Hero
Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports
