Customer Reviews:
A Life of Contradictions.......2005-06-14
This is book is written in the format of a novel, but with Bernadette's actual words. This was a very satisfying hagiography, because it gave, I feel, a realistic portrait of Bernadette. Often, saints' biographies tend to make the saint out as more angelic than human.The author, for the most part, avoids this annoying habit.There are also many interesting photos, which add to the feeling of the "authenitic" Bernadette.
In sum, I would definitely reccommend this book for anyone truly interested in the life, words, and spirit of the peasant girl from Lourdes who was graced with the presence of the "the Immaculate Conception".
Customer Reviews:
Great book on St. Bernadette.......2007-02-23
I loved this book. It was written so well that you actually get a good idea of the personality and life of the saint. Most books written on the saints omit the little things that aren't deemd "saintly", but this author did a good job at getting at the personality of St. Bernadette while explaining her life as well.
Highly recommended.
Thorough but more sentimental than objective.......2003-01-11
This was a fine work written by an obviously devoted priest about the life of the enigmatic Bernadette. He covers all of the bases, from birth to beatification, but tends to downplay the realism of her family's moral falures and flaws. The generally-held notion that Bernadette's parents were a bit on the drunken-but-lovable side does not detract from Bernadette's grace and bearing. In fact, for me, it makes Bernadette and her experience shine ever the more brightly. But, this book was written long ago, when unsavory realities were far more "brushed under the table" than they are in this day, even in biographies. What saves the book from being a devotional piece is the attention to detail and loads of great quotes and information. The book is almost worth it just for the photos of Bernadette alone. I don't believe you can judge a person by their appearance, for the good or for the bad, but if Bernadette Soubirous' face doesn't transmit an underlying, supernatural graciousness, then no face on this earth ever has done so. All in all, a fine "life's work" that this good priest should now be proud of...in heaven with his beloved Bernadette.
Thorough and engaging.......2002-03-08
The problem with being a noted visionary is that one may be so associated with the related devotion that little of one's own "true life" story is explored. Trochu's work is a treat for those who wish to know the true Bernadette - not merely the holy card image.
Trochu's biography is extensive, engaging, and honest. He lets the reader see Bernadette's genuine faith and devotion (and struggles, with community and hierarchy), without descending into hagiography. It is a fascinating, very "fleshed out" picture, dispelling myths (such as the "happy shepherdess"), and giving one a thorough picture of Bernadette's strong, simple personality, tenacity, and family and religious life.
Saint Bernadette Soubirous is a MUST read and MUST have.......2000-02-28
Finally after many years I have had the wonderful fortune of spending time with the Blessed St. Bernadette. This 'ignorant' miller's daughter suffered so much in the flesh and was so persecuted at first for her strong faith by the older more educated people who just didn't understand that the reason the Blessed Mother would appear to her, a mere uneducated child, was because Mary herself was a pure simple girl also. To read about Bernadette is to live and walk in her path of holiness. This is by far the best account I have found of her life and the events that happened at Lourdes. This book is truly a blessing for those that believe in the communion of saints. May we all find inspiration in the life of Bernadette to lead a life of prayer and penance, penance, penance.
Book Description
"A monumental achievement." (The New York Times Book Review)
The SS was the terror of Europe. Swearing eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler, it infiltrated every aspect of German life and was responsible for the deaths of millions. This gripping history recounts the strange and, at times, absurd true story of Hitler's SS. It exposes an organization that was not directed by some devilishly efficient system but was the product of accident, inevitability, and the random convergence of criminals, social climbers, and romantics. Above all, this eye-opening book describes in fascinating detail the chaotic political conditions that allowed the SS-despite rivalries and bizarre conditions-to assume and exercise unaccountable power.
Customer Reviews:
Lifts The Veil Of A Carefully Cultivated Hollywood Myth.......2007-09-23
Heinze Höhne spins a masterful tale of the organizational quagmire that was Nazi Germany's SS. In so doing, he punches a huge hole in the Hollywood-developed myth which usually portrayed them as evil, highly-organized and efficient automatons in films like The Eagle Has Landed. Even worse, whole generations have grown up believing such poppycock as "true history" and that Heinrich Himmler was the second, most powerful man in the regime.
Well, evil they certainly were. But organized and efficient? Not hardly. Nor was "Reichheini" [the unflattering nickname pinned on Himmler by a host of Nazi Party members and SS leaders] as overwhelmingly powerful an individual as he appears in movies and novels.
Not only was he and his "claptrap racial superiority theories" [the words of one highly-placed Nazi] more often than not ignored, but several senior SD [security branch] officers were either openly critical ["He had power but in practice he made no use of it in Germany; he and his power were a pricked balloon" - Otto Ohlendorf], or simply disobeyed his orders.
One example of this was Dr. Werner Best, his man in occupied Denmark. Under orders to round up all of that country's 6,500 Jews for removal to the camps, he simply arrange for their escape to neighbouring, neutral Sweden. He then sent a note to Berlin which said "1. Anti-Jewish action in Denmark carried out without incident .... 2. As of today Denmark can be regarded as free of Jews."
Himmler had even less control over his vaunted, fighting arm, the Waffen-SS, as top generals like Sepp Dietrich, Paul Hausser, Wilhelm Bittrich, and "Panzer" Meyer paid him no attention whatsoever.
Fully indexed with several photos of people like Dietrich, Heydrich, Himmler, and marching columns of SS, as well as the death camps, it also contains a detailed fold-out organizational chart of the structure of the SS in 1944.
Fascinating insight, this book, first published in 1966 in Germany, is sure to raise more than a few eyebrows among those of you who grew up believing the Hollywood version.
This book is quite an achievement.......2007-08-16
In this quasi encyclopedic book the author brings alive the SS and the men that ran that organization. I did learn more about Himmler's and Heydrich's character in this book than in their respective biographies. This learned effort by Mr. Höhne combines scholarship with anecdotes and historical "trivia". This book will shed light on most readers about the organizational structure, mission and the legacy of horror that the SS left at its wake. Upon reading this book it was impressed on me the importance of checking budding dictatorships at their outset.
The Best, Most Thorough Account of the SS.......2007-07-06
This is a splendid book! Hohne has really spent time delving into this bizarre Order, and the result is nothing short of impressive. The most fascinating thing to come out of this was how unorganized the Third Reich was. I grew up thinking the SS was the bastion of ruthless efficiency carried out by the Third Reich war machine, but the author shows us the truth behind it all. Of course the SS soldiers themselves were ruthless, efficient, and everything you've been brought up to believe - but the top brass and politicos of the Order were nothing more than petty, squabbling bureaucrats, looking for anything to get in good with the Fuhrer. The triumph of this book, as I see it, is the combination of the two. You are shown the SS of legend and the SS of reality.
It is always fascinating, and although there are some dull pages dedicated to numbers, facts, figures, etc, the pace quickly picks up and you are never left wanting for interesting material. I read this as a college student because I wanted to know more about the SS and the Third Reich in general. It solved all my problems and dispelled a lot of rumors as well. (One such being how the SS used to work with the major Zionist movements in trying to EXPORT the Jews to Israel instead of killing them. Also fascinating is the Teutonic Knight element injected into the Order - they really thought they were the reincarnation of these old Knights! Lots more...)
In short, the book is long but does not drag for more than a few pages at a time. It's very well written and fascinating - and if you have ever wondered about the SS as one of the most notorious groups in history you'll love this book. Pick it up, it's a great read.
Changed my view of the Third Reich.......2007-06-16
This book exploded some of the myths that I had come to accept as a given on the Nazi regime. I believed that the Nazi regime was a well oiled machine that ran more efficiently than any other in the world. Then I come to find out that the regime worked on nothing more than a cult of personality and that personality's ability to foster rivalries between competing forces on the lower rungs of power. It's amazing to me that in this chaotic atmosphere this regime was able to make the trains run on time let alone reconstitute the most powerful and technologically advanced army in the world.
This was also the most comprehensive look at the SS I have read as of yet. The author goes through the organization with a fine tooth comb to really give one a good look into this eclectic organization. The author goes through the reasons why some would join the SS for the credibility and standing membership gives the individual within the Nazi regime. Many professionals joined this organization so that they would be able to advance in their careers within the framework of the regime even though they were philosophically opposed to the organization. This of course does not go for every member. Himmler also had philosophical and practical problems between keeping his organization "pure" and raising enlistment numbers within the SS so he could gain more power and influence.
The book does a very good job describing what was happening during the regimes final days. Himmler's pipe dreams of leading the SS to the battlefield to save the German army to his belief that he could take over and negotiate terms with the allies and not be held to account for the horrible crimes committed under his authority. As the regime collapsed around its leading figures, they continued to exist in a world that was divorced from reality. Whether it was Goering's art and fine wine collections or his drug habit, Hitler's reliance on the miracle weapon or Himmler's unfounded belief in his military prowess, the leadership of the Third Reich was rarely in touch with reality. Even as Hitler's ability to actually command any part of Germany, Himmler could still not bring himself to act against the fuehrer.
This book was such a great find for me that I hope others may read this work also. There are rather few reviews for this work even though I believe it should be an essential read for anyone who wants to understand this era history. It is big but don't let the size intimidate you because this is one book that rewards the effort put into it.
A comprehensive and frighteningly detailed history.......2006-12-11
This is a huge book in a number of respects, not merely for the density of its 600 pages. It posits a number of interesting theories/takes on the rise of the SS, and I particularly liked the details about the sometimes-overlooked Reinhard Heydrich, who - fortunately for him - was killed half-way through the war. The sheer mundaneness of butchers like Himmler and Eichmann is positively eery, and although we all have horrible visions of the atrocities and most of us have seen Schindler's List, the systematic cataloguing by the authors of the mathematical progression from pseudo-masonic movement (as the SS was) to mass-murder seems scarily logical - small-steps, softly-softly, they-won't notice...this is a book you can dip into whenever you want to feel really, really uncomfortable...
Average customer rating:
- Excellent History
- Truth behind the Death's Head.
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Order of Death's Head
Heinz Hohne
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 0345258827
Release Date: 1977-09-12 |
Customer Reviews:
Excellent History.......2004-02-16
In many ways, the demonization of the 3rd Reich's arch-villains has been a mistake. The travesty is that people always assume there is "us" and "them" and "they" are always the monsters. "We can't possibly have it in us to do these horrible things." The sad case is most are accomplices either by their apathy, ambition, or some other mundane aspect.
Whether Hohne desired to or not, he hammers this point home. With painstaking detail using first-hand accounts, interviews, diaries, letters and other documentation Hohne crafts an in-depth portrait of Nazi Germany, the SS, and the men involved. Most weren't insane or sadists. To this list I would add even Himmler, Eichmann, Muller, Heydrich and others. Eichmann wasn't even an anti-Semite. Sadly, I don't think he saw anything other than numbers as any efficient bureaucrat would. This book clearly demonstrates how easily normal people were compromised by their own small decisions to become monsters. Action A desensitized them to B and the road to Hell was made in baby steps.
Hohne makes his case that Nazi Germany wasn't a monolithic State but a jungle. The illusion of a central authority, even Hitler as such, is a myth. By documenting how various depts. wax and wane along with their respective spheres of influence and maddening overlap of responsibilities, Hohne shatters the monolithic image of the Nazi State. State powers grew unchecked by law, international pressure, or civic duty. Fascist intellectuals had stated that their State was beyond Law. This is what happened when a State had no checks.
It was a power grab in a madhouse. Various State organs were run as fiefdoms by ambitious men with Hitler in the center as a lion tamer. At any moment one fo those lions could, and would, have eaten him. All the way down the chain, everyone ran their little empires and sought to increase them. The image of Hitler I have after reading this is from the old Doors song "rider on the storm." He played one powerful potentate off against another to maintain his position. Hitler was the penultimate politician.
The book reads well, though dry statistics can occasionally bore. The large "cast of characters" creates difficulty in remembering who did what when esp since individuals frequently wore more than one hat. Trying to remember various shifting State entities is difficult. Hohne does an excellent job of documenting the shifting spheres of influence among the horde of departments in Nazi Germany, but you will often find yourself backtracking. Familiarize yourself with the Appendices to reduce confusion. In the end, the read is exceptional and well worth it.
Goriness and sensationalism are kept to a minimum. The real horror is how, step-by-step, normal people were roped into insanity and how absolutely easy it was. There never was (or is) any great evil conspiracy. Nazi-ism's rise is best expressed inadvertently by Carl Sandberg when he wrote "the fog comes on little cat feet." Those who treasure human & civil rights, liberty and justice should read this book.
Truth behind the Death's Head........2000-11-10
This book was gruesome. It showed the truth of Hitlers operation to get rid of the Jews. It tells about how Hitlers army could not kill women and children, so they had a backup army which were trained to kill women and children. This books get very specific when they tell about how some infants were killed. One would throw the baby in the air, and the other would try to catch it the end of the knife. And if any one flinched, they would get beat, or possibly even killed. As gruesome and graphic this story is... It tells the horrible truth of what happened during the "Final Solution."
Average customer rating:
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The Order of the Death's Head
Heinz Hohne
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: 0345345045
Release Date: 1986-12-12 |
Customer Reviews:
A thorough presentation.......2000-05-03
Heinz Hohne's book "The Order of the Death's Head" chronicles the history of the National Socialist movement from its very start. The book is thorough in its presentation of material, even describing minor players in the movement. Hohne nearly makes the reader's head spin when he goes into minute detail concerning the political workings of the National Socialist movement. He mentions much information of with most are unaware, such as the rifts between the various party members. A great book for one who wants to gain insight in the National Socialist German Worker's Party.
Average customer rating:
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The Order of the Death's Head
Manufacturer: Ballantine
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 0345023994 |
Book Description
Must we fight terrorism with terror, match assassination with assassination, and torture with torture? Must we sacrifice civil liberty to protect public safety?
In the age of terrorism, the temptations of ruthlessness can be overwhelming. But we are pulled in the other direction too by the anxiety that a violent response to violence makes us morally indistinguishable from our enemies. There is perhaps no greater political challenge today than trying to win the war against terror without losing our democratic souls. Michael Ignatieff confronts this challenge head-on, with the combination of hard-headed idealism, historical sensitivity, and political judgment that has made him one of the most influential voices in international affairs today.
Ignatieff argues that we must not shrink from the use of violence--that far from undermining liberal democracy, force can be necessary for its survival. But its use must be measured, not a program of torture and revenge. And we must not fool ourselves that whatever we do in the name of freedom and democracy is good. We may need to kill to fight the greater evil of terrorism, but we must never pretend that doing so is anything better than a lesser evil.
In making this case, Ignatieff traces the modern history of terrorism and counter-terrorism, from the nihilists of Czarist Russia and the militias of Weimar Germany to the IRA and the unprecedented menace of Al Qaeda, with its suicidal agents bent on mass destruction. He shows how the most potent response to terror has been force, decisive and direct, but--just as important--restrained. The public scrutiny and political ethics that motivate restraint also give democracy its strongest weapon: the moral power to endure when the furies of vengeance and hatred are spent.
The book is based on the Gifford Lectures delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 2003.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant.......2007-05-25
I've only read a few sections out of his book, and now I am determined to invest a few days out of my upcoming break to read his entire book. The man is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. The book, by all means, sheds light on matters that have most people in the dark. Definitely a worth while read.
Worth Reading.......2007-02-22
This is a well written book. Its basic theme is that democratic societies may have to, from time to time, suspend certain rights and freedom in order to deal with threats to their citizens or their very existance. The key presented is that these suspensions be limited by their scope in time and ultimately subject to review by the judiciary, democratic process, the public and the press.
The subject of torture comes up but what I found most interesting was the discussion of how we might have to react to the threat of nuclear or biomedical terrorism. As the cost of these technologies comes down it becomes more possible for society to be threatened by small groups or radical nations acting directly or anonymously through surrogates who would not be deterred by the threat of mutual self destruction.
Overall the message is that these are ethical issues that we must, even imperfectly, need to work out. Ignatieff's book does a good job of laying out directions of discourse. We may not get it right and we may have to even choose to do wrong for the greater good but the fact that we struggle with the question makes us a better society.
Overrated.......2006-08-13
This book seems to be about an interesting topic, namely what ethics ought we adopt if we are faced with threats of terror?
Ignatieff asks "What lesser evils may a society commit when it believes it faces the greater evil of its own destruction?" And he says this "question must not only be asked. It must be answered."
I disagree. I think Ignatieff displays an enormous amount of shallow thinking in this book. I think his question is not that good, need not be asked, and need not be answered.
What we ought to be interested in is the question of what rational people ought to expect people like us to do when faced with threats of terror. It's a slightly different question, although I admit that Ignatieff does deal with it to some extent. By "people like us," I mean just about any group or nation, rational or irrational.
Ignatieff wanders on, describing various threats to people and governments as well as the reactions to these threats. In many cases, the threats were overrated, making the reaction look overly intense. Ignatieff makes the point that at the time, the severity of each threat was not easy to determine.
The author says that "when civil libertarians try to explain why their own governments adopt repressive measures, they often blame unscrupulous politicians exploiting terrorism to pursue their own agendas. This fails to explain why politicians often get away with it." This makes a good point, but it does not go far enough. The public often agrees with the politicians, but why? Do such policies merely fit public agendas or are they in some sense the best options? Ignatieff is not good at answering this.
Ignatieff also says that terrorism generally works as an ancillary tactic, a "shortcut" to the proper (although uncertain) strategy of peaceful political mobilization. And he gives some examples of this. One is the Arab use of terror against Israel, which has not caused an Israeli surrender, has not caused Israelis to stop debating what to do, has not caused Israelis to abandon asking about the ethics of what they are doing, but has caused Israelis to fight back in a fairly united manner. This also makes a good point but does not go far enough. We need to see just how severe the threat is (destroying Israel, getting rid of human rights for Middle Eastern Jews, and so on) to appreciate what Israelis are up against and to see if the strategy of peaceful political mobilization would have much chance. But Ignatieff does not get into this either.
The author discusses the terrorist argument that "the weak must have the right to fight dirty; otherwise the strong will always win." Of course, this is nonsense. The strong can't possibly win a fight to oppress others in a fair world without using violence. And even if the strong do use violence against those who fight "clean," they will lose their share of wars. Ignatieff did not think about this enough.
At one point, Ignatieff says there are six kinds of terrorism!
1) Terror aimed at the overthrow of a state
2) Terror aimed at the promotion of a single cause
3) Terror aimed at the overthrow of a colonial regime
4) Separatist terror
5) Anti-occupation terror
6) Terror against a global power
He later adds nihilistic terrorism as pretty much a separate category. But I am not sure I like these categories very much. The Ku Klux Klan, while it might get put into one of these groups (say 2 or 4), is simply a racist terrorist organization. It should be described as such, but the author ignores it. The Stern Gang, an organization Ignatieff alludes to, certainly could be put in almost any of these categories, but in fact its most important goal was to get immigration permits for Jews! That's basically a group that wanted to obtain a specific human right; to lump it with all sorts of other "causes" is not very helpful.
Ignatieff says it is possible to justify armed struggle in defense of self-determination only if the group's just claims have been met by violence, if the refusal to meet the claims is systematic, enduring, and unlikely to change, if the claims are fundamental to the survival of the group, and if the struggle observes the laws of war and the rule of civilian immunity. I'm not so sure I agree. By the way, I think Israel's claim to self-determination comes pretty close to meeting these requirements. Yes, as the author says, there were (pre-state) incidents such as the King David hotel and Deir Yassin, but I think these may well meet these criteria as well. Perhaps we ought to call the Irgun members "freedom fighters," not terrorists. By the way, Ignatieff comes up with a truly silly statement about Arab and Israeli claims to land being equal. That is nonsense. Arab land is Arab. Israeli land is Israeli. Disputed land is disputed. In none of these regions are all claims equivalent, morally or otherwise.
Now, is terrorism often directed not only at an oppressor but at one's own people? Does it spur others to join you? Can it get others to attack one's whole society, forcing some neutrals to side with you? Does it involve a war against "collaborators" in one's society who oppose you, and does it suppress political dissent in your own population? Yes, and Ignatieff says so. Should one negotiate with terrorists (or with supposedly peaceful supporters of terrorist goals)? Are there really serious differences between freedom fighters and terrorists? The author discusses these questions as well.
This is an interesting book, but I think it needs considerably more thought and work.
Time will tell.......2005-04-19
Michael Ignatieff is a Canadian academic currently working at Harvard in the US. Among his past claims to fame were an argument in favour of Canada participating in the US-led attack on Iraq (on the pretext of its possession of weapons of mass destruction), and, more recently, an argument in favour of Canada's participation in North American anti-ballistic missile defence (on the scientifically-unfounded pretext that it is feasible). His track record on matters of life and death, and on the spending of billions of dollars, leaves a lot to be desired.
Similarly, in The Lesser Evil, Ignatieff is quick to come to the conclusion that we should be ready to sacrifice some of our civil liberties in order to combat terrorism. While young Canadians are to be expected to travel to the Middle East to get themselves slaughtered in the desert for a meaningless war, Canadians here at home are expected to surrender their hard-earned human rights to fight Canada's non-existent enemies.
Luckily for Canadians, we have other intellectuals, such as Naomi Klein and John Ralston Saul, for whom life and human rights are a lot more than the mere concepts they are for Mr. Ignatieff. Neither Canadians nor Europeans are buying into this Manichean, bloodthirsty discourse. The fact that the right-wing National Post is touting Mr. Ignatieff as prime ministerial material sums his views up as well as anything that could be written here.
Canadians who think that the current American government is leading that country to disaster, and who are interested in a more humane appraisal of the current situation which harbours some realistic hope for the future, should consult Jeremy Rifkin's The European Dream, and leave over-rated apologists such as Mr. Ignatieff to their ivory towers.
Excellent book.......2005-01-03
This is an excellent, short book that expertly tackles the problem of individual-rights based democracy versus majority-rights based democracy, and argues towards the existence of a middle ground that can assure a semblence of security without destroying the rule of law that a liberal democracy rests on.
The recognization that some suspensions are necessary, but that they MUST be regarded as 'lesser evils' is a compelling argument from this respected human rights scholar. The book convincingly lays forth its arguments, and critically dissects both the position of the civil libertarian and that of the security state.
It has certainly changed my outlook on the 'war on terror', and the parable of Ulysees is the most graphic image I retained from the book and is useful. Hopefully, leaders in the United States and other liberal democracies will read this book and take some of the lessons (arguments?) to heart.
Average customer rating:
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The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror.(Book Review) : An article from: Ethics & International Affairs
Jedediah Purdy
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
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ASIN: B000CNCDMS
Release Date: 2005-11-29 |
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Ethics & International Affairs, published by Thomson Gale on October 1, 2005. The length of the article is 1271 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: The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror.(Book Review)
Author: Jedediah Purdy
Publication:
Ethics & International Affairs (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 19
Issue: 2
Page: 115(3)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Institute on Religion and Public Life on March 1, 2005. The length of the article is 2006 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: The right wrongs.(Book Review)
Author: James Turner Johnson
Publication:
First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Refereed)
Date: March 1, 2005
Publisher: Institute on Religion and Public Life
Issue: 151
Page: 44(4)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment is a unique guide to environmental thinking through the ages. Joy Palmer has assembled a team of over twenty expert contributors to summarize and analyze the thinking of fifty diverse and stimulating figures from all over the world and from ancient times to the present. Among those included are philosophers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau, activists such as Chico Mendes, literary giants such as Virgil, and major religious figures such as Gotama (The Buddha). Lucid, scholarly and informative, these fifty essays offer a fascinating overview of mankind's view and understanding of the physical world.
Download Description
A team of over twenty expert contributors summarise and analyse the thinking of fifty diverse and stimulating figures from all over the world and from ancient times to the present day.
Customer Reviews:
Ridiculous and has too many frauds.......2006-12-14
I'm an agronomist and I like to read books.
This book is weak.In fact, when someone lent this trash-book, I didn't even ended it.
When the part about the brazilian Chico Mendes came, I decided not to continous.This book claims that Chico Mendes was a good man.Even respecting the life and being against Chico Mendes' murder, I must tell you that Chico Mendes did nothing good, for Brazil or any of his followers.The real thing who Chico Mendes and all of so called "environmentalists" gave to Acre's souls and in fact all brazilian people was and is: poverty, corruption, recession and frauds.
Ecologism or environmentalim is nothing more than a new name for eugenics.
This book is ridiculous puting good people and rogue people, in the same basket of the godless religion of environmentalism.
To preserve the so called "Nature" replaced the will to preserve, the so called "Race".The prejudices and goals of eugenics in the past are the same as ecology today.Even the "phillantropic" american foundations of eugenics and ecology are the same:Rockefeller, MacArthur, Kellogg, Carnegie,etc. are now gaving massive fortunes to ecologists, such as they were giving massive amount of money to eugenicists some decades ago.
Eugenics = ecology ; To preserve the "race" = To preserve the "nature".
Rockefeller = Rockfeller ;Carnegie = Carnegie ; Kellogg = Kellogg.
History of environmental thinking.......2003-10-02
Book is an anthology on environmental thinking with biographical essays from ancient to present period throughout the world.
Fifty essays,covering 50 personalities ,begins with the quotations which beautifully expresses the environmental thinking.
Various personalities are from religion as Buddha;spiritual as St.Francis Assisi;philosopher as Rousseau,Heidegger;environmental philosopher as Rachael carson,John Muir;environmental activist as Chica Mendes;economist as Karl Marx,E.F.Schumacher;literary persons as Gothe,Wordsworth,Rabindranath Tagore;and person as Gandhi,M.K. and Nobel peace prize winner as Albert Schweitzer.
Buddha said 'How astonishing it is,that man should be so evil as to break a branch of the tree,after eating his fills."
Martin Heideggar quoted,'Man is not the lord of being,man is the shephard of being."
E.F.Schumacher,an ecological economist wrote in his book'small is beautiful' as follows "fight against pollution cannot be successful if the patterns of production and consumption continue to be of scale,a complexity,and a degree of violence,which,as is becoming more and more apparent,donot fit into the laws of universe,to which man is just as much subject as the rest of creation."
Environmental thought through the ages.......2001-01-30
A useful addition to the Routledge key thinkers series and a very helpful guide for students in various types of 'environmental studies'.
Clearly, any choice of 'key thinkers' in any area will be partial and provisional. However, Palmer has done a good job of offering a broad selection, from religious founders to philosophers to writers to scientists to activists. The compilers are also well chosen, experts by and large. For instance J. Baird Callicott and Holmes Rolston III appear both as 'key thinkers' and as contributors.
A particular strength of this collection of biographical essays is that is covers a much wider historical scope than many of the standard readers in environmental studies. Thus it goes some way towards setting more recent thinkers in their historical context. Also very helpful are the bibliographies appearing with each entry of the individual's 'major writings' and of recommended 'further reading'.
A book of this sort succeeds if it gently makes readers aware of what they do not know, arouses their interest, makes them keen to explore further. While many of the subjects described here were already known to me, there are many others about whom I am now looking forward to learning more. In short, success.
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- Bismarck and the German Empire
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- But He Was Good to His Mother : The Lives and Crimes of Jewish Gangsters
- Cave in the Snow: Tenzin Palmo's Quest for Enlightenment
- Collected Letters, 1944-1967
- Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda
- Con Thien: The Hill of Angels
- Confessions of a Kamikaze Cowboy: A True Story of Discovery, Acting, Health, Illness, Recovery And Life
- Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS (P.S.)
Books Index
Books Home
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A Holy Life: The Writings of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes
St. Bernadette Soubirous: 1844-1879
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The Incorruptibles: A Study of the Incorruption of the Bodies of Various Catholic Saints and Beati
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