Amazon.com
Dower's premise in War without Mercy is a startling one: Though Western allies were clearly headed for victory, pure racism fueled the continuation and intensification of hostilities in the Pacific theater during the final year of World War II, a period that saw as many casualties as in the first five years of the conflict combined. Dower doesn't reach this disturbing conclusion lightly. He combed through piles of propaganda films, news articles, military documents, cartoons--even entries in academic journals in researching this book. Though his case is strong, Dower minimizes other factors, such as the protracted negotiations between the West and the Japanese.
Book Description
Now in paperback, War Without Mercy has been hailed by the New York Times as "one of the most original and important books to be written about the war between Japan and the United States." In this monumental history, Professor John Dower reveals a hidden, explosive dimension of the Pacific War -- race -- while writing what John Toland has called "a landmark book...a powerful, moving, and even-handed history that is sorely needed in both America and Japan."
Drawing on American and Japanese songs, slogans, cartoons, propaganda films, secret reports, and a wealth of other documents of the time, Dower opens up a whole new way of looking at that bitter struggle of four and a half decades ago and its ramifications in our lives today. As Edwin O. Reischauer, former ambassador to Japan, has pointed out, this book offers "a lesson that the postwar generations need most...with eloquence, crushing detail, and power."
Customer Reviews:
A Look At Selves and Others.......2006-08-22
This is a thought-provoking treatise about the hate and racism found in all peoples of the world. It causes one to take stock of what is, and what was in a very violent and trying time. Both the Japanese and the Americans, among others, propagandized their populations to get them to hate "the enemy." This book looks at the techniques and substance used by both sides in the Pacific War of 1931 to 1945 and how it affected the attitudes of each toward the other.
I recommend this as a good read for anyone who is interested in the Pacific conflict and what was used to fan the antagonists into the fury that brough about, fought, and ended the bloody Pacific War.
A book to set you thinking about the present.......2006-08-03
War Without Mercy is not a comprehensive history of the Pacific War; if that's what you want, look elsewhere. Neither is it an "apologist's" account of the American conduct of the war, as some reviewers have suggested. If your mindset is "the Japanese deserved to suffer," don't read this book. If, however, you are interested in how racial stereotypes--views of the enemy as subhuman, primitive, childlike, animalistic, and so on--play a role in wartime, then read Dower's scholarly, engaging account of how the Americans thought about the Japanese and how the Japanese thought about the Americans. Dower never minimizes the atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese as they set about conquering other Asian countries and building their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, but he provides a brand new perspective on why the Allies despised the Japanese as a people far more than they did the Germans. Not only will this book help you to understand how the dehumanization of the enemy makes possible the devastation of civilian populations, it will also make you think about the stereotypes of the enemy we encounter every day as the U.S. continues to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Race and power in the Pacific War.......2006-07-21
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian John Dower begins "War Without Mercy" with an amusing account of his inspiration for the book: While working on a history of postwar Japan, Dower wrote a sentence noting how quickly and easily the virulent race hatred of the war years dissipated during the American occupation. Of course, he then had to include another sentence explaining the racial aspects of the war itself, which quickly became a paragraph, then a section, then a chapter, and finally this book, "War Without Mercy". The original history of postwar Japan, meanwhile, sat unfinished on a shelf.
The main criticism of "War Without Mercy" given by other reviewers is that it is too narrow to serve as a comprehensive history of the war -- in particular that it tries to explain the entire conflict only through race and does not devote enough attention to Japanese atrocities and war crimes. This criticism unfortunately misses the point of Dower's book: he is studying racism itself, but for some reason many of his critics seem to think he is trying to use it to explain all and sundry. "War Without Mercy" is not and makes no pretense of being a book about the Pacific War in general or even about atrocities and war crimes themselves. Instead it started as a mere tangent in a larger work and focuses on racial aspects of the war between Japan and the United States, especially the images each side used to describe the other and the war itself, along with some study of how they evolved after the fighting stopped.
As a history of race and power in the Pacific War, "War Without Mercy" is superb: well-organized, clearly written and offering interesting insights. It is divided into four sections, the first of which establishes the importance of the subject by showing how it contributed to the unique ferocity of the war in the Pacific: "Race hate fed atrocities, and atrocities in turn fanned the fires of race hate" (11). The second section studies American images of their Asian enemy, as apes, primitives, children, and 'little yellow savages', and of the war itself as a racial war between white and colored, while the third does the same for the Japanese side. Although the Japanese portrayed Europeans and Americans as decadent, impure, and downright demonic, they viewed their Asian neighbors in much the same contemptuous way as did Western imperialists. The final section explores the transition from war to peace, and the ways in which images and symbols were transformed: the apes became pets and the children became students, while on the other side the western demons shared their secret knowledge. At the same time, the negative images used during the war were transferred to the Soviet Union and (especially) Maoist China.
Meticulously documented, "War Without Mercy" reveals many fascinating aspects of the Pacific War commonly overlooked in more comprehensive studies. I was especially interested to read about contemporary concerns that American rhetoric of racial war would drive Chiang Kai-shek into an alliance with the Japanese (166-169), and that such language caused fully 18% of African-Americans to express "pro-Japanese inclinations" in a confidential poll conducted by black interviewers (174). "War Without Mercy" isn't a comprehensive history of the Pacific War, nor is it for everybody. It is, however, the best explanation I have seen of the merciless nature of the war itself and the psychology of the societies involved. If you have even the slightest interest in that subject, "War Without Mercy" will not disappoint.
The racism of imperialism, America's racist war in the Pacific.......2005-09-16
Dower's book unearth's a major missing or rather hidden peace of the history of the United States: how the Pacific War against Japan was prosecuted openly, publicly as a racist war with a totally different policy and deeper atrocities than was waged against Germany and its European allies. Of course, attempting to balance the study, Dower also points to how racist attitudes toward other Asian peoples were propogated to justifty Japanese imperialism's brutal exploitation of the areas it conquered. All of this emphasizes how racism is really a fundamental aspect of the modern imperialist order, not some aberration left from another time.
What is sensational here is the documenting not only of the racist explanation of the war by the United States and Britain, but his detailing of atrocities carried out against the Japanese by the US and its allies in the Pacific. Indeed, the general explanation of the Pacific war, not as a war for democracy, but as a war to maintain the supremacy of the "White race" was such a strong part of popular, political, and even academic discourse that experts on Asia like novelist Pearl Buck and Chinese/American author Lin Yuitang, believed the US was headed for a confrontation with all non-white peoples in Asia and Africa, not just Japan.
Worse, Dower documents the many atrocities carried out against Japanese civilians and prisoners during the war. While much is made of Japanese soldiers fighting to the death, Dower explains one reason for this is that US and British troops rarely took Japanese prisoners during most of the war. He notes not only where Japanese troops slaughtered without quarter, but a public--as in on the cover of Life magazine as what a soldier boy sends his girl friend home--trade in Japanese sculls and golden teeth from Japanese soldiers--sometimes taken out before the soldiers were dead--blossomed in the early years of the war. Dower quotes one US general who said he wished such atrocities were not carried out, as it stiffened resistance by Japanese soldiers and civilians.
Dower also points to the racist justification that the Japanese used to justify their exploitation of their Asian conquests. It is interesting how he shows their debt to European racist ideology. This seems to be the way nations justify the domination of weaker, less-developed nations, a requirement of the imperialist order, whatever the race of the dominant powers.
Dower's section on the United States provides a quick, but very useful, explanation of the development of racist attitudes in the West in general and the United States in particular. He notes what many forget, the key role that Thomas Jefferson played in launching the pseudo-science of racism, that Blacks and other inferior "races" were less human, lower species than the white Europeans.
This is quick summary of a very serious book that delves deeply into iconography and the structures of racism in imperialist society in general.
Beyond Subjectivity.......2005-08-17
John Dower wrote WAR WITHOUT MERCY: RACE AND POWER IN THE PACIFIC WAR over 20 years ago. During that time, World War II was already 40 years in the past, and the Reagan years welcomed the patriotic fervor of WWII. Retrospection and commemoration takes into account an event with its good and bad elements. It is usually the bad that is left unspoken. According to Dower, he wants to present the racial hate that existed during World War II. He presents two distinctions of racial hate, one involving US portrayal, and two, how the Japanese saw themselves. This is an important distinction in order to understand their purpose and their intentions.
WAR WITHOUT MERCY examines the intense strategy that was executed in order to bring the enemy down. In this case, World War II and the Japanese military. The strategy had been psychological warfare in the form of the propaganda war machine. This method had not been new. Dating back to World War I, the US government used the same tactic against the German army, portraying them as brutal, almost animal-like monsters pillaging the European landscape, and eating any human alive. Though, this is exaggeration, the political cartoons as well as war posters and postcards portrayed the enemy in this way. World War II was no different. Yes, the illustrations that John Dower studies and elaborately discusses were racially stereotypical and hateful during their inception. However, he strongly emphasizes that this context of the war has been neglected, and his job was to present the evidence, and to place them in the context of their time and place. If one looked at the larger context in terms of hierarchical and authoritarian thinking, there is the distinct of race and power that are inseparable (xi).
The overall debate surrounding Dower's study is that he possesses a somewhat subjective point of view resulting in bias of his subject matter. When it comes to preserving the status quo or the well-known narrative of history, it is controversial to re-create or revise history. With the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of V-J Day, bias and unequal exposure of the conflicts that occurred during the Pacific theater of the war are present. World War II involved two distinct conflicts that involved different geographical boundaries and two different oceans - the Pacific and the Atlantic. For some reason, it is only now that the horrors of the Pacific are now getting their due in order to present a more complete picture of a war that has been considered the "good war."
Dower's examination of race within a historical context is important in order to bring an understanding of why it existed. WAR WITHOUT MERCY will continue to be criticized for its bias. This is one reason why it should be recommended reading for anyone interested in the subject of race or US history.
Amazon.com
Respected AIDS and cancer specialist Jerome Groopman, M.D., discussed the convergence of illness and spirituality in his first book, The Measure of Our Days. In Second Opinions: Stories of Intuition and Choice in the Changing World of Medicine, he shifts his focus to the ways intuition informs his medical decisions and enhances the quality of his patient relationships (even giving him an edge when examining a patient on referral). In eight chapters that vividly recount cases whose outcomes hinge as much on the doctor's gut feeling and empathy as on his expertise, Groopman eschews the impersonal and know-it-all role of the doctor, describing instead dire cases in which careful consideration of both the emotional and medical issues positively impacted his approach to treatment.
"A clinical compass is built not only from the doctor's medical knowledge but also from joining his intuition with that of his patient," Groopman writes. "This melding of minds occurs when the physician probes not only his patient's body but also his spirit." This uniquely integrated compass is the guide that determines the safest, least traumatic treatment for people who are in advanced stages of illness or whose diagnoses are clinical conundrums. Of the eight stories here, there's Isabella, who was diagnosed with asthma but actually has acute leukemia; Peter, whose sickness is an enigma although he's clearly dying of a vicious lung-tissue disorder; and Alex, who will die from bone marrow failure unless its exact cause is identified. Groopman's narrative nimbly relates all the details of his patients' battles as well as the professional and emotional steps he takes when facing a medical challenge. In most cases, he has been sought out to provide a second opinion of the patient's diagnosis and proposed treatment. More often than not, the original diagnosis was inaccurate and Groopman's meticulous and insightful examinations yield findings that mean the difference between life and death.
Second Opinions is a thoughtful, riveting book and a compelling tribute to the efficacy of medical care when handled responsibly and with empathy. It is also a cautionary collection of stories that reveal oversights inevitable in the health-care industry's rush to maximize efficiency, and as such it teaches an important lesson about the patient's role in ensuring a high quality of care. While Groopman runs the risk of seeming self-congratulatory, he proves himself a trustworthy advocate of patient empowerment and his sincere, articulate portrayal of intuition's subtle force will be inspirational for anyone confronting illness. --Rebecca Wright
Book Description
Anxious about the prognosis, lost in a blur of technical jargon, and fatigued from worry or pain, people who are ill are easily overwhelmed by treatment choices. Told through eight gripping clinical dramas, Second Opinions reveals the forces at play in making critical medical decisions. Dr. Jerome Groopman illuminates the world of medicine where knowledge is imperfect, no therapy is without risks, and no outcome is fully predictable. He portrays moments of astute diagnosis and misguided perception, of lifesaving triumphs and shattering failures.
These real-life lessons prepare us to navigate the uncertain terrain of illness, and enable us to balance intuition and information, and thereby make the best possible decisions about our health and future.
Customer Reviews:
Whom to trust . . ........2004-12-01
This thought provoking and often disturbing book should come with a warning. It will make you question the judgment of your doctor if you or someone you know is ever faced with diagnosis and treatment of a life-threatening illness. Medical science and technology continue to make great strides forward, but following each of the case histories related by Dr. Groopman in this book, you realize how tenuous is the judgment of individual doctors who must advise patients and lead them to decisions affecting their health.
Reason, in the delivery of health care, is balanced against intuition, and intuition can take many forms, including doubt, egoism, professional jealousy, impatience, resistance, and anger, all of which appear at one time or another in the stories Groopman tells. Or, as one of his patients says, intuition is reason operating below the level of awareness. Making life-saving decisions is, we realize, a matter of expert guess work, and if there's a lesson here it's that the best guess work comes from intimate knowledge of the patient, which the cost-saving constraints of managed health care often prohibit.
I recommend this book for anyone wondering how much trust to put in the medical profession. A well trained and experienced doctor can still make the difference between life and death, but Groopman shows how patients need to play an active role in decisions about their own health, and that often involves seeking a second opinion and making a choice between incompatible courses of action.
Engrossing medical stories.......2001-07-24
Yes, Dr. Groopman does have a rather elevated opinion of himself, and yes, this book serves admirably as self-promotion, but, so what? Dr. Groopman's inability to assume a socially correct humility may be annoying and distracting to some, but I found it amusing and almost endearing. He wants so much to please and be that delight of mothers everywhere, "my son, the doctor," that it is impossible for him to show himself in an unflattering light. Even when he volunteers his mistakes, one has the sense that he is a larger person for having done so!
Well, I can think of worse styles, and anyway, what is important about this book is not the author's self-perception, but the light he sheds on the practice of medicine for the reader, and that light is considerable. He has a fine gift for telling a story and he writes in a clear and vivid manner that is easy to read, and we are thoroughly engrossed . Furthermore, the moral of most of the very interesting stories he presents here from his practice, is that the physician's first responsibility is to the patient, not to his ego, not to his career, not to the HMOs, and not even to his fellow physicians.
I was particularly impressed with Dr. Groopman's ability to criticize those physicians who let their egos and their pride come before their patients. He wasn't afraid to show how doctors who do not put the welfare of their patients first can cause pain and suffering and even death. Most doctors would never come close to being as critical of their peers as Groopman is here. I don't know whether he has an inordinate amount of courage, or a particularly thick skin, but I do know that many doctors will not be pleased with what he has revealed in these pages about the competence of some physicians, and he will pay a price for that.
Also impressive was Dr. Groopman's unflinching willingness to share with the reader not just his clinical experience, but his personal experience as well. In the first chapter, "Our Firstborn Son," he and his wife, who is also a doctor, become worried parents who take their sick son to the emergency room of a hospital, feeling as vulnerable and helpless as any other parents would, especially when they become concerned that the doctor on call is misdiagnosing their son's illness. In a later chapter he shares the story of his Grandfather Max who suffered from Alzheimer's disease in a way that made him uncontrollably violent. Most significant, though, is the story he tells about himself in the prologue. It is disarming in the sense that he too is guilty of pride and suffers most painfully for it. Once a marathon runner, he ends up crippled for a year, and to this day has a chronic debility that limits his mobility, all because he thought he knew better than the doctors who were treating him. It was a great and painful lesson for a young physician, the kind of lesson that molds us to better appreciate our limits and to empathize with the suffering of others, the kind of lesson that shapes a great physician.
So, I don't believe Dr. Groopman is ensconced in any ivory tower. He is a physician that is intimately involved in the welfare of his patients (and in his research), a man who understands the suffering patients go through first hand, and is sympathetic and, most important, knowledgeable and skillful. He is also a very good writer. I would be delighted to be so lucky as to have Dr. Groopman as my personal physician.
Dr. Gideon, I presume.......2000-12-02
I've enjoyed Dr. Groopman's essays in the New Yorker and so was happy to learn about this book, which I found to be a highly compelling and instructive read. Groopman is no Tolstoy, but he writes with precision, clarity, compassion and great understanding about people struggling for their lives, usually against cancer, and the peculiarly intimate role a good doctor plays in that struggle.
Of course, one of the unifying threads of the book is also the potentially life-threatening role a bad doctor can play in that struggle -- thus the need for second opinions and the difficulty many patients have in demanding them. Groopman is usually the good doctor here, saving his patients from the misguided diagnoses of others. But he doesn't entirely spare himself his sins. He forcefully highlights the way a doctor's inexperience, fatigue, ego, or momentary inattentiveness can have potentially fatal consequences. His deep experience as both clinician and researcher give the stories real authority.
What really struck me, though, was how such a collection of case studies is like a fictional short story collection only more satisfying for the fact that these are classic beginning, middle and end stories that are in fact true. As important, Groopman begins with one of his own family's stories, which effectively draws you in to his own life. That's important because this is ultimately a portrait of the kind of super smart and caring physician we'd all like to have when facing a crisis.
Gideon's Crossing owes a lot to this book, having already built a couple of episodes around case studies found here. The ultimate compliment, I guess, is that Groopman has created a vision powerful enough to deserve Andre Braugher.
Beautifully written.......2000-10-12
I'm somewhat amazed by the comments of the other reader reviewers (though less so by the self-identified physician, who seems to me to be suffering from sour grapes more than anything else in referring to Groopman's "ivory tower"). I found this books to be gripping and thought-provoking--as moving in its way as Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilyich" or Chekhov's "Ward Six," two other classics of doctor-patient relationships). Groopman writes with passion, precision, and elegance. Only incidental to me was his powerful rhetorical point--urging all of us to be as proactive as he in taking active, questioning roles in our own health. Perhaps the physician-reviewer is put off by the fact that Groopman does not seem to subscribe to the "omerta" of too many in the medical profession, but places the patient first, even though he is a committed researcher. I also recommend Groopman's earlier book, "The Measure of Our Days" and the edited volume, "AIDS Doctors: An Oral History," which gives voice to Groopman and many other brave warriors of the hospitals.
More of the same.......2000-09-13
With so many mass market books for layment written by medical doctors, it really is necessary to choose between those who are merely writing about their own practices and they problems they encounter (whether medically, morally or ethically) and those who are also wonderful writers, who use their own experiences to paint a broader picture of the human condition. I find Groopman very much in the former category (good doctor, mediocre writer) and people like Sachs and Nuland in the latter. Also, there is an elitism in Groopman's tales that is off-putting.
Book Description
A world-renowned physician traces the rise of the medical-industrial complex that has made a disaster of our healthcare system--and tells us incisively what we need to do to change it.
The U.S. healthcare system is failing. It is run like a business, increasingly focused on generating income for insurers and providers rather than providing care for patients. It is supported by investors and private markets seeking to grow revenue and resist regulation, thus contributing to higher costs and lessened public accountability. Meanwhile, forty-six million Americans are without insurance. Health care expenditures are rising at a rate of 7 percent a year, three times the rate of inflation.
Dr. Arnold Relman is one of the most respected physicians and healthcare advocates in our country. This book, based on sixty years' experience in medicine, is a clarion call not just to politicans and patients but to the medical profession to evolve a new structure for healthcare, based on voluntary private contracts between individuals and not-for-profit, multi-specialty groups of physicians. Physicians would be paid mainly by salaries and would submit no bills for their services. All health care facilities would be not-for-profit. The savings from reduced administrative overhead and the elimination of billing fraud would be enormous. Healthcare may be our greatest national problem, but the provocative, sensible arguments in this book will provide a catalyst for change.
Customer Reviews:
Best Recent Book on Health Care Policy.......2007-08-22
This book is very persuasive and informative.
It is lucid with 200 short, well written pages.
It is full of facts and statistics and in spite of this it is very clear.
The arguments in it are extremely persuasive.
It is indispensable to read this book if one wants to understand the reasons we are in such a mess in health care and the optimal solution for the mess. Read it, you will be pleased and enlighten.
Best book on healthcare policy.......2007-06-23
I work currently as a consultant and entrepreneur in healthcare. Although my professional focus is specifically on electronic medical records and similar clinical information technology, I have read widely and done research in many aspects of healthcare and healthcare policy. Two other outstanding books which provide somewhat different perspectives. one written in the 1970s and one in the 1980s, but fully relevant today, are Who Shall Live? by an eminent economist, Victor Fuchs and The Social Transformation of American Medicine by an equally eminent sociologist, Paul Starr. I highly recommend both to anyone who reads Dr. Relman's book. There are many other good to excellent books on healthcare policy or specific aspects of healthcare financing and delivery.
Dr. Relman's book provides an excellent summary and analysis of the current healthcare "system" in the USA and recommends specific, fundamental changes to how the system is financed and how care is delivered. His background as a practicing physician, author, professor and medical journal editor in addition to his native intelligence and compassion for people stand him in excellent stead to write this book. Dr. Relman analyzes succinctly and clearly the various aspects of the healthcare "industry", then recommends changes to the "system". He correctly identifies and criticizes the universally negative role of the commercialization of healthcare in its various manifestations: for-profit hospitals, for-profit health insurers, procedure-based reimbursement for physicians and so on. His recommended solution is for a single payment and single insurance system that is funded primarily through federal taxes and administered by a centralized federal government entity. He recommends the establishment of a federal agency along the lines of the SEC or the Federal Reserve System to oversee healthcare policy and healthcare delivery. He proposes that physicians work as salaried employees of multi-specialty practices. He dedicates a chapter to analyzing and discussing the Canadian healthcare system. He correctly characterizes the Canadian system as a good model - in most ways - for the USA.
The book is opportune and most likely was published now because healthcare policy is a key issue at least for Democratic contenders for the Presidential election in 2008. Dr. Relman's proposals for reform are materially superior to the plans proposed by all candidates with the possible exception of Dennis Kucinich who co-authored a bill (H.R. 676) a few years ago that has some of the same features as Dr. Relman's proposal.
There is so much misinformation deliberately disseminated by all the beneficiaries of our current poorly-functioning system - ranging from the AMA to large drug companies to private insurers to large for-profit hospital chains - that it is very helpful to have a relatively short, well-written book that accurately describes the current system and makes comprehensive, intelligent recommendations for changes to it.
Level-headed analysis.......2007-06-15
I think of this book in two parts, the first of which is analysis of how America's healthcare system became so inadequate yet so very expensive, and the second, the author's policy recommendations.
I've read a few books on this topic (including Critical Condition) and this is by far the best researched and level-headed. The author writes analytically by basing his assertions on numbers and throughout the book avoids being sensationalist. If you want to read one book about how the US healthcare system got to where it is now, this is it.
As for policy recommendations (which some other books don't even have), his recommendations are not necessarily the best, but then again any ideas for real reform are going to be controversial. At the least, they are thought-provoking.
Book Description
Were Americans the heroic liberators of Nazi concentration camp victims in 1945, or were they knowing and apathetic bystanders to unspeakable brutality and annihilation for a dozen years? Historians have long debated what the United States knew about Hitler’s gruesome Final Solution, when they knew it, and whether they should have intervened sooner. Wrapping historical narrative around 60 primary sources — including news clippings, speeches, letters, magazine articles, and government reports — Abzug chronicles the unfolding events in Nazi Germany while tracing the resurgence of anti-Semitism and tightening immigration policies in the United States. He relies on the American journalistic sources through which U.S. citizens read about events in Europe to provide students a real context to understand Americans’ horror when they realized that the reports of the Holocaust were not exaggerations or fabrications. An epilogue examines the complexity of historical interpretations and moral judgments that have evolved since 1945. Useful apparatus includes photographs, a chronology, questions for consideration, a bibliography, and an index.
Book Description
Written in Q&A Format, A Gynecologist's Second Opinion answers all the questions that patients actually have but that most doctors often don't have the time or the patience to answer. It addresses women's concerns while providing the facts needed to get appropriate care. The book was written with the idea that a woman should be a partner with her doctor in her health care, and the more information and understanding she had, the better off she would be.
Presented with the stories of women who have actually had these experiences, this authoritative guide provides detailed information on fibroids, ovarian cysts, hysterectomy and the many alternatives to hysterectomy, common bladder problems, contraceptive options, endometriosis, pelvic pain, ovarian cancer screening tests, abnormal pap smears and cervical cancer, menstrual bleeding problems, pre-operative and post-operative instructions and concerns and more. There are diagrams to make the anatomy and possible surgical procedures clear and understandable.
Numerous treatment options and alternatives for each gynecological problem are described, as well an overview of the type of diagnostic tests required to make a definitive diagnosis. With completely up-to-date information on the latest surgical procedures, drugs, and tests, this must-have reference will find its place on every woman's bookshelf.
Customer Reviews:
Most "accessible" book on female issues I've found.......2007-06-22
I've read a LOT of books on women's health - seems they are often written too casually by laypeople (with lots of anecdotes that may or may not be true). The ones written by doctors are often too long and too technical. This book bridged the gap perfectly! The Dr answered not only many questions I had, but many questions I didn't know I needed to ask. I was at first disappointed that my library system didn't carry this book -- but after I bought it from amazon.com, I was glad I had. I was surprised to find it an interesting read: definitely a keeper!
Covers various female problems, diagnosis, and treatment. .......2005-01-02
A very useful book. It discusses various gynecological problems and bladder problems, diagnosis, and treatment options. Unlike many books on the subject, this book includes newer treatment options, for example, totally laproscopic hysterectomy techniques that can preserve the cervix, and allow faster recovery. Discusses the risks of various options; even includes a few statistics.
An owner's manual for your female parts.......2004-07-09
I love this book. Its like having an owners manual for your female parts. It was easy to read and covered all the problems a woman faces with their reproductive system. I bought lots of books when facing a hysterectomy, and this book was clear and to the point without scaring me to death. It will stay on my shelf because it covers common problems like fibroids, embolization, ovarian cysts, abnormal bleeding, common bladder problems, hysterectomy options. Its written clearly and helped me talk to my Dr.
Good information, clearly presented.......2003-09-18
I bought this book several years ago, and it remains a favorite recommendation for others. Information is presented clearly and is easily understandable. Furthermore, Dr. Parker has a website that you can visit to reinforce the information in the book and contact information if anything needs clarification.
A must have for women and ob/gyns alike!
New Edition.......2003-04-16
The second edition of this book is now available with entirely updated information about fibroids, embolization, ovarian cysts, abnormal bleeding, new techniques for endometrial ablation, laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy and many other alternatives to hysterectomy. A new chapter about contraception and another about common bladder problems have been added to the updated information about other common problems such as abnormal pap smears, endometriosis and pelvic pain. When you order this book, be sure to ask for the new, SECOND edition. We think you will find it an invaluable resource.
Customer Reviews:
The first authoritative review of the medical literature.......2005-07-07
I reduced my lipids from sky-high to normal by following McDougall's advice. It is comical to see other reviewers trashing the book and claiming that starch makes you fat. It is processed foods devoid of fiber and high in animal content that make fat. I met McDougall in person and the man is thin as a reed. So am I (now).
I went to my university library to check McDougall's claim (in 1986) that the story on cholesterol had been known for 20 years already. I checked out a medical research book entitled 'Cholesterol'. All of the information McDougall cited on cholesterol is in that book, written in the 1960's. This is one of the oldest medical stories in the USA and the Atkins fanatics are still trying to start a meat religion. The best conclusion is that Atkins collapsed and died of congestive heart failure while obese and his family covered it up claiming he fell accidentally and then got pumped with fluid in the hospital. No, sorry. The Atkins propaganda machine may be going strong but the diet will kill you.
A bit long in the tooth, but a great book.......2001-07-26
Its a 15 year old book. And of course Dr. McDougall has written many other newer books on similar subject matter. Even so, it would sure be nice if he would revise this one. A real classic.
Detailed information on how diet affects your health.......2001-06-29
This is an extraordinarily good book that explains in detail how the standard American diet causes most of the major chronic diseases that people suffer from today, and also explains what you can do about it. Each chapter focuses on a different disease. Dr. McDougall explains how the standard medical approach treats only the symptoms, but not the causes, of such chronic diseases. He then demonstrates (with extensive references to the scientific literature) how a low-fat diet based primarily on vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes can help to prevent and/or cure these diseases. This book was published in 1986, but it remains both valid and useful today. (Indeed, it seems like every day another scientific study is published demonstrating the importance of eating a mostly plant-based diet.) The only slight drawback is that the book does not give much information about the practical implementation of the eating plan. (For readers interested in such information, I would recommend "The McDougall Plan" and "The McDougall Program: 12 Days to Dynamic Health.")
Strarch=triglycerides=insulin=fat.......1999-05-26
McDougall must be the most egocentric, pompous MD I've ever read. His diet NEVER fails, only YOU fail at it.
Guide to taking responsibility for your health.......1998-10-02
I have referred this book to friends for over ten years, and have bought many copies over the years to give to friends with severe health problems. I applaud Dr. McDougall's work in, and emphasis on, preventive medicine. He shows a person how to take control of their own health. You don't have to be sick. You don't have to be a victim of genetics or the victim of the pathology-based symptom-treating medical community. I loaned the book to a friend a number of years ago when he was experiencing chest pains and was scheduled for angioplasty. He declined the angioplasty, changed his diet, and has not had chest pains again. He then loaned it to a friend who had had a massive heart attack - his friend changed his lifestyle, too. I wish Dr. McDougall would revise and update the book to include his writings on other health problems that can be treated with a change in lifestyle - e.g., depression and multiple sclerosis.
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Churchill and Finland: A Study in Anticommunism and Geopolitics
M. Ruotsila
Manufacturer: Routledge
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 Finland
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ASIN: 0415349710 |
Book Description
This book examines the intertwined dynamics of Churchill's anticommunist and geopolitical thought. It looks at the ways in which he attempted to use Finland as both tool and ally in the anticommunist projects of the twentieth century. Finland appeared a staunch ally in Churchill's recurring efforts to destroy or negate international communism, but the broader concerns of geopolitics and Great Power diplomacy complicated what might have been a simple task of teaming up with like-minded Finns. The resulting tensions are explored and explained in this study of comparative anticommunism based on Churchill's private papers and on additional British, Finnish and American documents.
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An Obsession with Anne Frank: Meyer Levin and the Diary
Lawrence Graver
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Similar Items:
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Obsession
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The Stolen Legacy of Anne Frank: Meyer Levin, Lillian Hellman, and the Staging of the Diary
ASIN: 0520212207 |
Amazon.com
An Obsession with Anne Frank: Meyer Levin and the Diary, by Lawrence Graver, is a work of disciplined, erudite storytelling about Meyer Levin's messy, passionate obsession with The Diary of Anne Frank. Levin, an American novelist and journalist, was among the figures instrumental in publishing and publicizing The Diary of Anne Frank in the United States. His 1952 review of the Diary in The New York Times raved, "Anne Frank's voice becomes the voice of six million vanished Jewish souls." Thanks in no small part to Levin's work, his proclamation came true: Anne Frank became one of the most famous figures in the world, an icon of the devastation of the Holocaust. Levin, by contrast, descended into a paralyzing and terminal despair when his attempts to become a central guardian of Anne Frank's legacy were rebuffed by Anne's father, Otto Frank. Most dramatically, Levin fought a bitter court battle when he felt he was cheated out of the opportunity to adapt Anne Frank's book for the stage, and was replaced by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, a more famous, more optimistic, and non-Jewish team of playwrights. Graver describes Levin's obsession with detailed attention to the role of popular culture in defining Jewish identity, and the ways that Anne Frank was and is still being politicized by Jews and gentiles around the world. In his characteristically spare, lucid style, Graver writes in the final chapter that "[Levin's] history testifies to the enormous difficulty, if not the impossibility, of finding an authentic way to bear witness to the Holocaust in a society governed by money, popular taste, media hype, democratic optimism, and a susceptibility to easy consolation." --Michael Joseph Gross
Book Description
Anne Frank's Diary has been acclaimed throughout the world as an indelible portrait of a gifted girl and as a remarkable document of the Holocaust. For Meyer Levin, the respected writer who helped bring the Diary to an American audience, the Jewish girl's moving story became a thirty-year obsession that altered his life and brought him heartbreaking sorrow.
Lawrence Graver's fascinating account of Meyer Levin's ordeal is a story within a story. What began as a warm collaboration between Levin and Anne's father, Otto Frank, turned into a notorious dispute that lasted several decades and included litigation and public scandal. Behind this story is another: one man's struggle with himself--as a Jew and as a writer--in postwar America. Looming over both stories is the shadow of the Holocaust and its persistent, complex presence in our lives.
Graver's book is based on hundreds of unpublished documents and on interviews with some of the Levin-Frank controversy's major participants. It illuminates important areas of American culture: publishing, law, religion, politics, and the popular media. The "Red Scare," anti-McCarthyism, and the commercial imperatives of Broadway are all players in this book, along with the assimilationist mood among many Jews and the simplistic pieties of American society in the 1950s.
Graver also examines the different and often conflicting ways that people the world over, Jewish and Gentile, wanted Anne Frank and her much-loved book to be represented. That her afterlife has in extraordinary ways taken on the shape and implications of myth makes Graver's story--and Meyer Levin's--even more compelling.
Customer Reviews:
Whose Anne Frank?.......2000-05-05
Lawrence Graver's thorough investigation of the controversy surrounding Anne Frank and the play based on her diary is as intense as a page-turning mystery novel. Graver weaves the tale of bringing Anne Frank's world-famous diary to the stage, and casts an overlooked player in a major role. Meyer Levin, a Jewish writer relatively well-known in the 1950s, and one of the most successful Jewish writers to write about Jewish themes at that time, was the first to review Anne Frank's diary in the States. In fact, he was instrumental in getting the diary published, and he forged a friendship with Otto Frank. The friendship turned sour as Levin fought for rights to compose the stage script for 1955's "The Diary of Anne Frank." In a legal battle that lasted thirty years, Levin vs. Frank lost Levin his rights to the script he felt best represented Anne--and her Jewishness. Frank and Doubleday sided with the well-known Hacketts--who would win a Pulitzer for their then-loved, now-criticized Everyman version of Anne's diary--and staged the play to rave reviews around the world. Levin took his script to Israel, fighting legal battles in court even to stage it there. Graver does an excellent job of exposing the story and the personalities of all its characters, including Lillian Helman. But Graver rightly shies away from demonizing Levin and canonizing Frank, or vice versa. His loyalty is first to accuracy, and an account that could easily become polarized by a mission to perpetuate the saintliness of Anne Frank and her family comes off as more complex and, ultimately, more informative.
Book Description
In an iconoclastic and controversial new study, Norman G. Finkelstein moves from an interrogation of the place the Holocaust has come to occupy in American culture to a disturbing examination of recent Holocaust compensation agreements. It was not until the Arab-Israeli War of 1967, when Israel's evident strength brought it into line with US foreign policy, that memory of the Holocaust began to acquire the exceptional prominence it enjoys today. Leaders of America's Jewish community were delighted that Israel was now deemed a major strategic asset and, Finkelstein contends, exploited the Holocaust to enhance this newfound status. Their subsequent interpretations of the tragedy are often at variance with actual historical events and are employed to deflect any criticism of Israel and its supporters. Recalling Holocaust fraudsters such as Jerzy Kosinski and Binjamin Wilkomirski, as well as the demagogic constructions of writers like Daniel Goldhagen, Finkelstein contends that the main danger posed to the memory of Nazism's victims comes not from the distortions of Holocaust deniers but from prominent, self-proclaimed guardians of Holocaust memory. Drawing on a wealth of untapped sources, he exposes the double shakedown of European countries as well as legitimate Jewish claimants, and concludes that the Holocaust industry has become an outright extortion racket. Thoroughly researched and closely argued, The Holocaust Industry is all the more disturbing and powerful because the issues it deals with are so rarely discussed.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant!.......2007-10-02
I have nothing but the greatest admiration for someone who holds truth at such high esteem that he / she is willing to pour all of their mind and soul into uncovering it, and subsequently risk everything attributable to them in our physical world, proclaiming it for the benefit of his / her fellow man. Professor Finkelstein does this in the most objective and proficient way. The Holocaust Industry is a wonderfully insightful book on this very important topic. I think the fact that its critics only dismiss without substantiation speaks volumes...
Some unpleasant truths that make for a thought provoking read .......2007-09-22
I have read many books on the Nazi Holocaust and had a growing personal discomfort about the manner in which the non-Jewish element was increasingly marginalised (I must admit that I had a similar feeling when I started learning about the numbers of Asian non-POWS who had been killed in building the Death Railway in Burma in WWII, a feature that is ignored in most books of that event). This feeling was added to when I visited the Holocaust Museum in Washington. Now in this book I have some basis for understanding my discomfort though for reasons I had not envisaged.
Finkelstein's book delivers a very hard hitting analysis of how the Holocaust has been increasingly suborned to a mixture of Jewish American political and religious personal interests and the Israeli pursuit of garnering US support post the 1967 Six Days War, covering key events up to the current day. At times he has a very personal and edgy emotional style in dealing with counter arguments but given the personal abuse and attacks he has suffered from such groups, this adds to the drama of the story he tells. His analysis of the abuses engineered under the Swiss "Nazi Gold" claims alone is worth the price of this book in my mind.
Read and you will not be unmoved even if you disagree certain points.
Yes, Yes, and Yes.......2007-08-19
The title of my review reflects what I kept saying to myself when reading this book. It is only with bravery of people like Mr. Finkelstein that we can overcome injustices in the world. We all know that Jews died in what was named the holocaust. While all the deaths of innocent people should be remembered, how come there isnt a mention of all the other people who died in that same holocaust besides the famous 6 million. Is Jewish blood more valuable then the blood of Non Jewish Russians? 2 to 3 Million Soviet POWs died during the holocaust and 57 percent of them died of starvation, mistreatment, or executions.
Another thing that was addressed is the influence of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin Al-Husayni. His role was been blown out of proportion by Zionists in order to justify the repression of the Arabs in Palestine. No matter what role this Mufti had, is it fair to make a whole people suffer for the actions of one man. There are currently 4.9 million Palestinian refugees scattered around the Middle East who should be living comfortbaly in their homes in Palestine. Collective punishment happens everyday in the occupied territories. Houses are destroyed along with the systematic destruction of roads, bridges, power and water plants, ports, airports, and the whole civilian economy of the Palestinians. It is a tragedy that these people have been robbed of their land, but through the occupation, they have been robbed of what little dignity they have left. Any human being who goes through suffering and humiliation will reach a point where death is more favorable to life. I suggest you read Breaking Ranks: Refusing to Serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and hear the story from Israeli soldiers.
Finkelstein blows 'em away!.......2007-07-11
What a fascinating book. Martin Indyk would hate this book. Barbi Weinberg would hate this book. Deborah Lipstadt would hate this book! And, Dennis Ross would prefer that this book not exist. So would Stuart Eizenstat. If you haven't read it yet, do so now!
Everyone should read this unique book!.......2007-06-21
This book is great. The author had tremendous courage to write such a unique book, and he is clearly an honest and sincere fellow to examine such things so close to home (being the son of holocaust survivors). Finkelstein blows the lid off the whole Holocaust deal. Its not denying it at all, its just that 5-6 million Jews who died in concentration camps along with gypsies, communists, gays, and invalids does not justify Israel and Jewish organizations to get away with murder (literally) in the occupied lands of Israel nor to extort money from all kinds of European organizations falsely. While we all feel bad for those who perished, we might also feel bad for the 55 million people who died in WWII, or the millions who died in Cambodia, Vietnam, or Africa. The idea I came to realize from this book was that in a way it was a sin against those Jews who died, to use their memory to pander for money and deflect attention away from war crimes on a daily basis in Israel. I was surprised to learn that much of the money gotten for holocaust victims and survivors instead is diverted to Israel and Jewish groups rather than the victims and their families. And while Jews are successfully suing people for artwork or lost bank accounts from the 1930's and 1940's, no Palestinian is allowed to sue over land lost in the 1940's to the present day. So I think everyone should read this, to see the Holocaust in the proper perspective as a terrible human tragedy, but not something to be tarnished by misuse of its memory.
Customer Reviews:
Hypocricy Revealed.......2006-08-21
This book should be required reading for all jounalism college majors who intend to "tell the whole truth." If the present doesn't reveal the truth then history will.
Ms. Lipstadt did an incredible job of researching and tying together huge numbers of old newspaper articles and putting them together to tell the whole story chonologically and coherently. She showed the hypocricy of the press in calling for "something" to be done (after they could no longer deny atrocities were happening) then fomenting opposition to allowing anymore refugees into this country. They could have cited, "there are almost half a million immigration visas available, bring them in."
She also shows the hypocricy of the British press who also called for "something" to be done, then when the war was over and surviving Jews were trying to get into British Mandate Palestine, there was no cry from the press, "We didn't do anything then, but now we should not hinder them in immigrating to their homeland." Of all nations, the Brits are the most culpable because they had control over The Land, and instead of allowing walking miracles to start new lives, they hindered them with all their might,preventing surviving Jews from coming in before and during the war, then sending them to Cyprus after the war; shooting them down as they tried to swim ashore after their ships had been fired upon sunk, and the French sent those survivors on "The Exodus," back to camps in Germany. With every cell in my body I want to cry out, "How could you??"
Thank you, Ms. Lipstadt for gathering painful information and putting it into such a gripping account.
A prodigiously researched indictment of indifference.......2001-08-15
This is a very good read. The book tells the story as to how the press in the USA covered the Holocaust. In doing so it explodes a lot of myths concerning the alleged lack of knowledge about what was happening to the Jews. Newspaper after newspaper from The New York Times on down had articles about the persecutions and murders. Yet they were never emphasized properly and were often relegated to the back pages. Rarely did they ever make the front pages. It was almost as if the nation preferred not to know. Many factors contributed to this; anit-Semitism, isolationism, American skepticism. The American government also contributed to down playing the news. The three most prominent villains in this were: Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long ( anativist), Assistant Secrteary of War John J. McCloy (who said that if the USA bombed Auschwitz the nazis would be "even more vindictive") and Congressman Sol F. Bloom who headed the House Foreign Affairs Committee (and was referred to by Stephen Wise as "the State Departments House Jew"). There were reporters who did their jobs well who constantly emphasized that anti-Semitism was a "raison d'etre" of National Socialism however they were in the minority. This book along with David S. Wyman's "The Abandonment of the Jews" are the two best books on the subject. William D. Rubinstein's "The Myth of Rescue" is a poorly written book that contradicts itself over and over again and is a book for peopel who think that FDR could do no wrong.
Great book delving into American press during the holocaust.......1998-06-18
This book gives great insight into the way in which the American press treated the holocaust. While often overlooked, the press handled the holocaust in a manner that many Americans would be ashamed of today. This book is unique in that no other book i know of has delved as deeply into this area. In addition, Dr. Lipstadt is a truely unique and knowledgable expert on the holocaust.
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