Theory of History in Ortega Y Gasset: "The Dawn of Historical Reason"

Average customer rating:

Interesting but misguided

As irritating as it is fascinating

Incoherent, garbled and convoluted

Rating Based On My Limited Background

More confusing than interesting

1603: The Death of Queen Elizabeth I, the Return of the Black Plague, the Rise of Shakespeare, Piracy, Witchcraft, and the Birth of the Stuart Era
Christopher Lee
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
17th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Western | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Elizabeth's London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London

Dr. Johnson's London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Education

1215: The Year of Magna Carta

After Elizabeth: The Rise of James of Scotland and the Struggle for the Throne of England

New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485-1603 (Penguin History of Britain)

ASIN: 0312321392

Book Description

1603 was the year that Queen Elizabeth I, the last of the Tudors, died. Her cousin, Robert Carey, immediately rode like a demon to Scotland to take the news to James VI. The cataclysmic time of the Stuarts had come and the son of Mary Queen of Scots left Edinburgh for London to claim his throne as James I of England.

Diaries and notes written in 1603 describe how a resurgence of the plague killed nearly 40,000 people. Priests blamed the sins of the people for the pestilence, witches were strangled and burned and plotters strung up on gate tops. But not all was gloom and violence. From a ship's log we learn of the first precious cargoes of pepper arriving from the East Indies after the establishment of a new spice route; Sharkespeare was finishing Othello and Ben Jonson wrote furiously to please a nation thirsting for entertainment.

1603 was one of the most important and interesting years in British history. Christopher Lee, acclaimed author of This Sceptred Isle, unfolds its story from first-hand accounts and original documents to mirror the seminal year in which Britain moved from Tudor medievalism towards the wars, republicanism and regicide that lay ahead.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting but misguided.......2006-04-16

I found Christopher Lee's 1603 to be a somewhat of an interesting if not misguided effort to present what life and events were like back in 1603. There's a lot of information in this book which proves to be interesting but they are poorly organized and presented. The author appears to throw them in without much explanations as if he wishes to showed off his primary sources.

As the previous reviewer mentioned, there were also many childish errors in this book. Errors that a book published in 2003 should not be making because of new information that came out during the past 40 years. But what strike me the most was Chapter 17 when the author - who for some strange reason, switched over to Japanese history of 1603 and started to write about the struggles there. I don't see the relationship but what I read were host of errors and misunderstanding of Japanese history that was almost insulting to read. (For example: "Shogun Hideyoshi"?? What Japanese child of 10 would make such an error? That is like some one writing "President Elizabeth I"!!) Its pretty clear that neither the author or the editor of this book knows little about Japanese history. But that chapter alone proves to be the reflection of the book itself, sloppy, ill-written and poorly researched.

I would recommended the book After Elizabeth by Leanda de Lisle which covers the same period and does it with a more professional flair.

As irritating as it is fascinating.......2005-01-03

This is what the title says: A book about the year 1603. A reader who expects an in-depth explanation of the machinations surrounding the succession of Elizabeth I by James I will be disappointed. Any discussion of this interesting subject remains extremely superficial.

The strength of Lee's work is his attempt to convey to his public what it must have been to live in 1603. This is supported by long quotations from publications of the period, and these are both enlightening and amusing. His rather rambling style of writing is well suited to conveying a period atmosphere.

The big weakness is in the careless way in which the author swims through the surrounding history. At times he throws in references to people and events without bothering to explain who and what to the reader, as if he wants to show off his erudition by being impenetrable. At other times he demonstrates rather crass ignorance for a historian of the period, by messing up the titles of the Cecil family, uncritically repeating gratuitous slander about the Earl of Bothwell, or echoing tyhe schoolboy's book version of the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In a book like this, such errors cannot be excused.

The result is the written equivalent of a custome drama with an unitelligible plot. It is a series of scenes, each conveying a certain atmosphere, but not integrated together in a story. The book fails to convince the reader that is a coherent unit, and in fact it also fails to convince the reader that the author has a good understanding of his own chosen subject.

Incoherent, garbled and convoluted.......2004-08-09

Lee scatters material across the pages with little regard for the book he's writing and its title, and no thought whatsoever for the supposed structure of the book. At any point, he is likely to digress into a confused and confusing family history of a minor player in the saga for no detectable reason. Not the slightest attempt has been made to edit his rambling style or apply rules of grammar, punctuation, or consistency. The result is a book that is actually unreadable, with its only saving grace being the generous quoting of contemporary sources.

At times, Lee patronizes his readers: carefully explaining to us that mobile telephones didn't exist in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, for example, and repeatedly emphasising this sort of nonsense. At other times, he breezily assumes we possess arcane knowledge about the tangled family histories of English political dynasties that no lay reader of any nationality or background would be casually acquainted with.

Despite the powerful simplicity of its title and the seeming clarity of its purported subject, "1603" has no raison d'etre, no sense of itself or what Lee is trying to achieve. "This is not the place for a biography of James I", Lee tells us a quarter-way through, after discussing James's childhood, education and upbringing at some discursive length and before continuing through his young adulthood, marriage and accession to the English throne. What the book *is* the place for, Lee has no idea.

Rating Based On My Limited Background.......2004-07-27

The year 1603 was a busy year in England, and author Christopher Lee has provided us with a rather in-depth account of the happenings that took place. Beginning with the death of Queen Elizabeth I which brought the rise of James VI of Scotland who became King James I of England, Lee brings the reader through other events that were taking place during this time, namely the return of the plague which reared its ugly head periodically to wipe out thousands of people, piracy on the seas, William Shakespeare and his plays, and witchcraft which already at that time was an old superstition. Almost half of the book's 356 pages deal with the death of Queen Elizabeth and the rise of King James. My background in this subject matter is negligible, so I base my rating on the interest this book had for me. I found difficulty with the diaries and notes that the author uses to quote from due to the way the people expressed themselves. If you have a better background in this subject matter than I do, you probably will enjoy the book more than I did. If your background is like mine, you may want to read it, but not purchase it.

More confusing than interesting.......2004-06-11

Popular history dedicated to a single year often proves a very successful approach. It allows the author to make complementary explorations of developments in various areas, be those geographies, cultures, and/or ideas. (John Wills' "1688: A Global History" was a particularly successful example of the genre.) Christopher Lee's book about 1603 - limited mostly to Great Britain - is not so successful.

The audience for this book will be largely those already familiar with British history, geography, and current idiom. I thought I had a reasonably good grasp of the genealogy of the British kings and queens leading up to 1603; my grasp loosened considerably after reading Lee's attempt to clarify the lineages. My alienation was reinforced by the frequency of phrases such as "as we know" and "of course" when the author deals with facts that non-British readers are unlikely to know or to treat as a matter of course. ("Lady Jane Grey ... was, of course, Warwick's own daughter-in-law.") And isn't the author overly fond of the rhetorical question? (Examples abound, such as: "The Jesuits?" and "What of James in all this?")

Lee's main organizing principle is that of proving that 1603 was an important year in history. Although he cites one historian with an opposing view, the question strikes me as neither controversial nor deep. And without that, the text, like the subtitle, proves to be just a stringing together of topics. Some of these topics are compelling, but too many aren't. A chapter on piracy works. One on King James' coronation is interminably dull.

There are numerous historical nuggets and oddities to be mined here. But the excavation effort proved too strenuous for this reader.

Book Description

Today's most pressing environmental problems are planetary in scope, confounding the political will of any one nation. How can we solve them?

Global Environmental Governance offers the essential information, theory, and practical insight needed to tackle this critical challenge. It examines ten major environmental threats-climate disruption, biodiversity loss, acid rain, ozone depletion, deforestation, desertification, freshwater degradation and shortages, marine fisheries decline, toxic pollutants, and excess nitrogen-and explores how they can be addressed through treaties, governance regimes, and new forms of international cooperation.

Written by Gus Speth, one of the architects of the international environmental movement, and accomplished political scientist Peter M. Haas, Global Environmental Governance tells the story of how the community of nations, nongovernmental organizations, scientists, and multinational corporations have in recent decades created an unprecedented set of laws and institutions intended to help solve large-scale environmental problems. The book critically examines the serious shortcomings of current efforts and the underlying reasons why disturbing trends persist. It presents key concepts in international law and regime formation in simple, accessible language, and describes the current institutional landscape as well as lessons learned and new directions needed in international governance. Global Environmental Governance is a concise guide, with lists of key terms, study questions, and other features designed to help readers think about and understand the concepts discussed.

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays (Clarendon Paperbacks)

Average customer rating:

This is an excellent book, but it's not for beginners.

Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays (Clarendon Paperbacks)

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Law | Subjects | Books

Ethics & Morality | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Political | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0198235526

Book Description

This volume presents twelve original essays by contemporary natural law theorists and their critics. Natural law theory is enjoying a revival of interest today in a variety of disciplines, including law, philosophy, political science, and theology and religious studies. These essays offer readers a sense of the lively contemporary debate among natural law theorists of different schools, as well as between natual law theorists and their critics.

Customer Reviews:

This is an excellent book, but it's not for beginners........1997-12-03

This collection of essays by prominent natural law philosophers is excellent; however, as a grad student in philosophy, I found this book to be a challenge. It assumes that the reader already has a good foundation in natural law.

Intervention, Terrorism, and Torture: Contemporary Challenges to Just War Theory (AMINTAPHIL: The Philosophical Foundations of Law and Justice)

Average customer rating:

Intervention, Terrorism, and Torture: Contemporary Challenges to Just War Theory (AMINTAPHIL: The Philosophical Foundations of Law and Justice)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Ethics & Morality | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Political | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Terrorism | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1402046774

Book Description

Just war theory is the traditional approach taken to questions of the morality of war, but war today is far from traditional. War has been deeply affected in recent years by a variety of social and technological developments in areas such as international terrorism, campaigns of genocide and ethnic cleansing, the global human rights movement, economic globalization, and military technology. This book asks whether just war theory is adequate to the challenges these developments pose. Just war theory provides rules for determining when it is justified to fight a war. But some have argued that the nature of contemporary war makes these rules obsolete. For example, genocidal and aggressive regimes may require the use of military force that is not strictly in self-defense, as just war theory requires. In addition, the theory provides rules for determining what the limits are on justified conduct in war. But the random violence of terrorism and the deliberately inflicted violence of torture seem endemic to our age, yet take us beyond the limits set by these rules of conduct in war. By carefully examining the phenomena of intervention, terrorism, and torture from a number of different perspectives, the essays in this book explore this set of issues with insight and clarity.

Mathematics (Contemporary's Foundations)

Average customer rating:

Mathematics (Contemporary's Foundations)
Susan Echaore-McDavid , and Susan Echaore-Yoon
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Contemporary's Foundation series provides thorough coverage of basic skills at reading levels 4-6 Gives students meaningful contexts for learning. Make materials easy to understand. Provide students with the opportunity to create essay answers and practice the steps of the writing process.Post-tests assess skills proficiency upon completing each books. Evaluation Charts target and prescribe areas for needed practice. Thorough coverage of the writing process, analyzing the essay, writing the essay, and mechanics.

Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation (Foundations of Contemporary Environmental Studies Series)

Average customer rating:

Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation (Foundations of Contemporary Environmental Studies Series)
Oswald J. Schmitz
Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Environmental Science | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Conservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Ecology | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

General | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1597260487

Book Description

Meeting today’s environmental challenges requires a new way of thinking about the intricate dependencies between humans and nature. Ecology and Ecosystem Conservation provides students and other readers with a basic understanding of the fundamental principles of ecological science and their applications, offering an essential overview of the way ecology can be used to devise strategies to conserve the health and functioning of ecosystems. The book begins by exploring the need for ecological science in understanding current environmental issues and briefly discussing what ecology is and isn’t. Subsequent chapters address critical issues in conservation and show how ecological science can be applied to them. The book explores questions such as:

• What is the role of ecological science in decision making?
• What factors govern the assembly of ecosystems and determine
their response to various stressors?
• How does Earth’s climate system function and determine the
distribution of life on Earth?
• What factors control the size of populations?
• How does fragmentation of the landscape affect the persistence
of species on the landscape?
• How does biological diversity influence ecosystem processes?

The book closes with a final chapter that addresses the need not only to understand ecological science, but to put that science into an ecosystem conservation ethics perspective.

Varieties of Things: Foundations of Contemporary Metaphysics (Contemporary Philosophy)

Average customer rating:

Varieties of Things: Foundations of Contemporary Metaphysics (Contemporary Philosophy)
Cynthia Macdonald
Manufacturer: Blackwell Publishing Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Metaphysics | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Political | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0631186956

Book Description

Varieties of Things: Foundations of Contemporary Metaphysics explores the fundamental ontological categories of things; things that we encounter in everyday life, such as material substances, persons, events and universals.The author begins with a thorough and accessible discussion of the nature and aims of metaphysics. She then goes on to develop tools that can be used to engage in metaphysical thinking about the basic varieties of things.The book both surveys existing accounts of the natures of these kinds of things, and argues for unique original positions of its own. The arguments support a systematically anti-reductionist view of the basic ontological categories.

Conceptual Foundations of Materials: A standard model for ground- and excited-state properties (Contemporary Concepts of Condensed Matter Science)

Average customer rating:

Conceptual Foundations of Materials: A standard model for ground- and excited-state properties (Contemporary Concepts of Condensed Matter Science)

Manufacturer: Elsevier Science
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Physics | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Computers | Science & Technology | Teens | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Engineering | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Professional & Technical | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Science | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0444509763

Book Description

The goal of this Volume "Conceptual Foundations of Materials: A standard model for ground- and excited-state properties" is to present the fundamentals of electronic structure theory that are central to the understanding and prediction of materials phenomena and properties. The emphasis is on foundations and concepts. The Sections are designed to offer a broad and comprehensive perspective of the field. They cover the basic aspects of modern electronic structure approaches and highlight their applications to the structural (ground state, vibrational, dynamic and thermodynamic, etc.) and electronic (spectroscopic, dielectric, magnetic, transport, etc.) properties of real materials including solids, clusters, liquids, and nanostructure materials. This framework also forms a basis for studies of emergent properties arising from low-energy electron correlations and interactions such as the quantum Hall effects, superconductivity, and other cooperative phenomena.

Although some of the basics and models for solids were developed in the early part of the last century by figures such as Bloch, Pauli, Fermi, and Slater, the field of electronic structure theory went through a phenomenal growth during the past two decades, leading to new concepts, understandings, and predictive capabilities for determining the ground- and excited-state properties of real, complex materials from first principles. For example, theory can now be used to predict the existence and properties of materials not previously realized in nature or in the laboratory. Computer experiments can be performed to examine the behavior of individual atoms in a particular process, to analyze the importance of different mechanisms, or just to see what happen if one varies the interactions and parameters in the simulation. Also, with ab initio calculations, one can determine from first principles important interaction parameters which are needed in model studies of complex processes or highly correlated systems. Each time a new material or a novel form of a material is discovered, electronic structure theory inevitably plays a fundamental role in unraveling its properties.

· Provides the foundations of the field of condensed matter physics
· An excellent supplementary text for classes on condensed matter physics/solid state physics
· Volume covers current work at the forefront
· Presentations are accessible to nonspecialists, with focus on underlying fundamentals

Into the Future: The Foundations of Library and Information Services in the Post-Industrial Era, Second Edition (Contemporary Studies in Information Management, Policy, and Services)

Average customer rating:

Into the Future: The Foundations of Library and Information Services in the Post-Industrial Era, Second Edition (Contemporary Studies in Information Management, Policy, and Services)
Michael H. Harris , Pamela C. Harris , and Stan A. Hannah
Manufacturer: Ablex Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1567503551

Natural Law and Contemporary Public Policy

Average customer rating:

Natural Law and Contemporary Public Policy

Manufacturer: Georgetown University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Public Affairs & Administration | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Public Policy | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Surveys | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Environmental & Natural Resources Law | Law | Subjects | Books

General | Law | Subjects | Books

Natural Law | Perspectives on Law | Law | Subjects | Books

Philosophy | Law | Subjects | Books

Environmental & Natural Resources Law | Law | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0878406921

Average customer rating:

British Politics (Palgrave Foundations)
Robert Leach , Bill Coxall , and Lynton Robins
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Practical Politics | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Developments in British Politics 8

ASIN: 1403949220
Release Date: 2006-05-25

Book Description

The fifth edition of this leading book has been comprehensively updated, and provides a concise but definitive introduction to British politics and government. With a well-presented text including a number of illustrations, charts, and comparative boxes, the book also includes coverage of the 2005 General Election.

Customer Reviews:

The NEPA's origins, goals, implementation, & more.......2002-04-11

The National Environmental Policy Act: Judicial Misconstruction, Legislative Indifference, & Executive Neglect by Matthew J. Lindstrom (Assistant Professor, Political Science Department and Environmental Studies Program, Siena College, Loudonville, New York) and Zachary A. Smith (Professor, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona) is a detailed and scholarly analysis of the ramifications of The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) federal law signed by President Nixon more than thirty years ago. Individual chapters of this definitive treatise address NEPA's origins, goals, implementation, and how modern-day courts have vastly limited its powers with possibly detrimental effects upon America's environment. Strongly recommended for professional and academic environmental studies reference collections, The National Environmental Policy Act is a thorough and accessible study for anyone looking to learn more about the nature of the NEPA law and its effect upon the United States from its inception down to the present day.

The Last Word on NEPA.......2002-02-28

"A real tour de force!"

The National Environmental Policy Act: Judicial Misconstruction, Legislative Indifference, & Executive Neglect (Environmental History Series)

Average customer rating:

The National Environmental Policy Act: Judicial Misconstruction, Legislative Indifference, & Executive Neglect (Environmental History Series)
Matthew J. Lindstrom
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUEEPK

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books