Average customer rating:
- Good Stuff, but Nothing New
- 1001 excuses for becoming or being a vegetarian
- Life Changing
- This Book Will Change How You Think About Your Food!!!!!!
- If you care about the world around you, this book will change your life.
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The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World
Manufacturer: Conari Press
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Accessories:
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Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor
ASIN: 1573247022 |
Book Description
Here, the man who started the "food revolution" with the million-plus-selling Diet for a New America, boldly posits that, collectively, our personal diet can save ourselves and the world. If, according to chaos theory, the beating of a butterfly's wing can cause a hurricane in another part of the world, try this out for chaotic cause and effect: monarch butterflies are dying in droves due to genetically-engineered corn growing in the Midwest. There is also a direct correlation between the Big Mac in your hand and the mile-wide river now running across the North Pole. Learn the truth about foods we are eating that are, in Robbins' words, "unsafe on any plate."
Customer Reviews:
Good Stuff, but Nothing New.......2007-10-08
This is a good book, interesting, even if, at times, it sounds a bit preachy. For someone new to the subjects discussed, this will probably have some eye opening spots, but for anyone who has been concerned about their health, the planet's health, and the way our diet affects the two, there is really no new information presented here.
1001 excuses for becoming or being a vegetarian.......2007-10-03
- If you haven't heard about genetically modified crops (GMO) - yes this book has some information.
- If you did not know what factory farms do to your average supermarket meat - yes this book has some information.
There are books with better information on these topics however.
The focus of this book seems to be "why you should be a vegetarian and eat organic non-GMO veggies" but there seems to be no mention of hydrogenated oils, refined sugar, bleached flour or high fructose corn syrup. Reducing or removing these from your diet can make a huge difference in your health as well.
This and other vegetarian books don't really take into consideration diets that include meats from animals that are raised properly, just those meats available in most supermarkets. To me this is key. I was vegetarian for... maybe around a year. I was not happy, I was not healthy. I've also known people who were once vegetarian who have become healthier by eating at least small amounts of organic meats (and in some cases a fair amount of meat.)
I personally accept that there are some people who need LESS meat than others, I wish the vegetarian community would accept that some people need more meat than others.
There ARE vital nutrients available in meat.
Think grass fed cows, chickens that actually get to roam decent sized areas of land and eat bugs, wild fish that swim free in the oceans... Meat free of antibiotics, growth hormones, and pesticides. Also slaughtered in a quick and humane way instead of cut apart alive.
I wouldn't have had such a problem with it if vegetarianism hadn't been the main focus of the book. If I wanted a book on vegetarianism, I would have picked up a book on vegetarianism.
I would bet that the majority of the statistics in this book did not do studies on people who ate quality meat instead of meat raised on factory farms pumped full or hormones and antibiotics and fed crap.
If you are a vegetarian already or part of PETA, you will probably love this book.
I was however extremely disappointed.
Life Changing.......2007-05-16
This is one of those books that changed my life so much that I feel bad for people who have not read it.
This book will remain, for all time, the best $10 I have EVER spent.
This Book Will Change How You Think About Your Food!!!!!!.......2007-05-13
This is an incredibly well researched book, and will change forever the way you relate to food. After reading this book I will NEVER put another bite of non-organic meat or dairy in mouth EVER. And my appetite for meat in general is pretty diminished. What you will read in this book is so important, it should be taught in schools. It should be mandatory reading for everyone. This is not an "anti-meat" book, it simply lifts the veil on "factory farming" and Big Agriculture for the general public to get an idea of what our supposed "farms" are up to in this country, and it is truly disturbing. Not only are there moral injustices happening that you would not believe possible, but the health implications of what is going on should make everyone with any sense in their brain stop eating meat unless they know where it comes from. What this book gives us that the original "Diet for a New America" did not is more information on genetic engineering, and the ever-increasing efforts of industry to get bigger, faster, cheaper...at what price?! Be an informed citizen and consumer! Read this book! Read this book, and then make up your mind. I guarantee you will never feel the same about food.
If you care about the world around you, this book will change your life........2007-05-10
Every once in a while, I come across a book that impacts the way that I think. This is one of those books.
Book Description
More mushrooms, less pollution! Yes, you heard right: growing more mushrooms may be the best thing we can do to save the environment. Microscopic cells called "mycelium"—the fruit of which are mushrooms —recycle carbon, nitrogen, and other essential elements as they break down plant and animal debris in the creation of rich new soil. What fungi expert Paul Stamets has discovered is that mycelium also breaks down hydrocarbons —the base structure in many pollutants. So, for instance, when soil contaminated with diesel oil is inoculated with strains of oyster mushroom mycelia, the soil loses its toxicity in just eight weeks. In MYCELIUM RUNNING, Stamets discusses this revolutionary trend in mushroom cultivation and provides tips for choosing the appropriate species of fungi for various environmental purposes.
Customer Reviews:
Mushrooms saving the world?.......2007-10-10
The title suggests that mushrooms can solve the world's problems, and that sounds a little hard to believe. But fact is that the authors put so much knowledge about the growing habits of mushrooms in this book that it can indeed be used to solve problems. For example, the authors mention recovery of burnt areas as well as the absorption of spilled oil.
The book on the whole is impressive and full of knowledge, as wel as beautifully illustrated. Anyone considering to grow mushrooms should read it; and practitioners of permaculture are certainly advised to get this book.
we can save the world.......2007-09-11
This book is so fascinating, if u even have the slightest interest in mushrooms, or any type of fungi then this is the book to get. Paul stamets answers any question anyone would ever have about fungi, and who would have thought that mushrooms, play such an important role in mother nature. You will be stunned by the information in this book. So if u want a good read with lots of facts and lots of very interesting information then this is the book for you.
Should be Required Reading.......2007-07-16
This book is incredible. If more people read this book, there could be an ecological revolution.
The reader will not go a page in this book without a "What?? No Way!!" kind of moment. I found myself laughing simply at how amazingly effective and important mushrooms can be.
Mushrooms can help save the world. "Mycelium Running" should be a high school textbook.
Mushrooms can be interesting........2007-03-24
I took my last science course about 40 years ago and had forgotten how interesting science can be. This book is not light reading and some people will probably not get past the first few pages but I really enjoyed it. I found tons of new information on mushrooms in spite of the fact that I studied mushrooms in college (until my father decided science was not for girls and convinced me to go to Law School. Yep, those were the good old days.) You will enjoy it as long as you take into account that it is a scientific book, perfect for geeks.
Mushrooms as spirit teachers.......2007-01-10
Stamets is THE authority on the power of mushrooms and all the amazing things they can do. From cleaning up toxic oil spills to providing nourishment Stamets clearly writes with passion. I love it and have shared the book with many others, many of whom were blown away!
Book Description
Nodding to popular culture, history, science, and literature, a passionate and persuasive case is made for removing our ageist blinders and seeing old age as a developmental stage of life.
Customer Reviews:
Good conclusion supported by long arguement.......2007-08-23
As I read through Thomas' book, I was struck by two things. First that he has offered a new way of looking at the human life span by creating new 'ages' that describe our lives far better than simply childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. I applaud this introduction. The second aspect that struck me was the enormous amount of support he included in the book. While I became impatient with it, I realized it was because he was writing to someone who had already realized why the human race purposefully includes a period of physical lessening that is essential for the general survival. The wisdom that becomes apparent during this time is the key. However, the book is obviously also written for those who need help in understanding this. So, while it is long, the final conclusions are worthwhile.
Demonstration of the foolishness of our ways .......2007-07-31
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for Reader Views (7/07)
While we search for the fountain of youth in a jar, needle or scalpel, we overlook the secret powers of growing older. "Youth accustoms us to running ever faster and jumping ever higher, and the prospect of change in the opposite direction fills us with a cold dread." We are unprepared for the things age presents. We do not want to adapt to changes in our body. As we age, our muscles weaken and we must learn to adjust, not just once, but many times. Senior adults do not report as much depression as youth, possibly because they do learn to adapt to changes in their body and circumstances.
Geriatrician William H. Thomas, M.D., discusses many aspects of aging, including eldercare. Thomas champions the elderly, insisting on respect. The thought of living/dying in a nursing home is frightening for most people and yet it looks inevitable to them. Thomas offers viable alternatives such as a Green House. A Green House cultivates a warm, inviting place for seniors to live. Elders are encouraged to be self-sufficient.
"What Are Old People For?," by William H. Thomas, M.D., is a timely book. This is an aging society. The information presented is simple, easy-to-read, and needed. Thomas demonstrates his great understanding and respect for elderhood. He offers hope and optimism. This book confronts the myths of aging. Thomas encourages humans to embrace all stages of life, not just youth. He encourages readers to become more conscious of the contributions that elders make. This book should be read by everybody!
Must read if you plan on getting older.......2007-05-28
This book opened my eyes to misconceptions I've had about 'old people' and what's good for them. If you have aging parents or will become the aging parent I highly recommend this book. At what age do you plan on giving up control of your life to someone else? I don't plan on it. But at some point the privilege could be taken from you by your 'well meaning' children. Read this book. Talk to your kids. Talk to your parents and grandparents. No one should be stripped of the dignity of living a life long loved by their kids or family members who think they know what's best for us without our input. I myself look forward to being an 'elder' someday and still being able to choose a way of living that works for me.
Open Mind .......2007-02-01
I found this book extrememly helpful in opening my mind to a new way of looking at aging not only for society in general, but my own! I was left with positive feelings about the future. That is exciting! The book made a great gift for several of my aging friends. Definitely worth reading!
Author's Note.......2007-02-01
The first sentence of Dr. Spock's "Baby And Child Care" does a good job of summarizing my attitude toward aging and longevity: "Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do." We are immersed in a shimmering sea of conflicting ideas and attitudes about aging and it is not surpirsing that people's feelings about aging can be complicated and conflicting. It is for this reason that I have done my best to stake out a "Common Sense" approach to thinking about the impact aging is likely ot have on our society and how that influence can be turned to the advantage of people of all ages.
This book derives its central argument from recent progress made in the fields of biology, mythology, sociology, and philosophy, but its heart belongs to the simplest observations of the way we live now. I recognize that some experts will find fault with some of its specifics. As a devout generalist, I believe that the truth of an important argument can be sustained even when fault can be found with certain of its specifics and I hope that you will agree.
It has been said that people are not interested in books about aging but, in fact, people are always interested in learning more about matters that concern their lives and well-being. The questions that revolve around aging and our longevity increasingly rise to that level. Issues related to aging define some of the most important risks and opportunities that confront our society. We live in an exciting time. There is a new old age waiting to be discovered, ready to be explored. Aging and the aged are not, as so often supposed, the cause of our problems--they are and have always been the source of the answers we need. Our longevity is ready freed from the shackles of prejudice and fear. It can and it will save our world.
Book Description
Which cultural values, beliefs, and attitudes best promote democracy, social justice, and prosperity? How can we use the forces that shape cultural change, such as religion, child-rearing practices, education, and political leadership, to promote these values in the Third World--and for underachieving minorities in the First World? In this book, Lawrence E. Harrison offers intriguing answers to these questions, in a valuable follow-up to his acclaimed Culture Matters. Drawing on a three-year research project that explored the cultural values of dozens of nations--from Botswana, Sweden, and India to China, Egypt, and Chile--Harrison offers a provocative look at values around the globe, revealing how each nation's culture has propelled or retarded their political and economic progress. The book presents 25 factors that operate very differently in cultures prone to progress and those that resist it, including one's influence over destiny, the importance attached to education, the extent to which people identify with and trust others, and the role of women in society. Harrison pulls no punches, and many of his findings will be controversial. He argues, for example, that Protestantism, Confucianism, and Judaism have been more successful in promoting progress than Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Islam. Harrison rejects the Bush administration's doctrine that "the values of freedom are right and true for every person, in every society." Thus nations like Iraq and Afghanistan--where illiteracy, particularly among women, and mistrust are high and traditions of cooperation and compromise are scant--are likely to resist democracy. Most important, the book outlines a series of practical guidelines that developing nations and lagging minority groups can use to enhance their political, social, and economic well-being. Contradicting the arguments of multiculturalists, this book contends that when it comes to promoting human progress, some cultures are clearly more effective than others. It convincingly shows which values, beliefs, and attitudes work and how we can foster them.
Customer Reviews:
A Companion Read To GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL.......2007-08-28
If you like books that offer explanations for humankind's big questions, this book attemps such. Depending on how much stock you put in Harrison's well-conceived and sufficiently supported (in my opinion) thoery, it can be construed to either add to or take precedence over Diamond's GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL. I think together these books help to explain the world's current political situation (mess). Unlike Diamond's "geography is fate" analysis, much can be accomplished politically to correct Harrison's "culture is fate" explanation. Culture relativists, hackneyed liberals, and Bushian neo-cons will all take offense - that in itself may be sufficient reason to read it. The writing and editing could have been better, but because there were many contributors this is somewhat excusable.
Our burden.......2007-07-14
Harrison's mind strikes me as one still anchored in colonialism, albeit, a new, hip, updated version. It would do us all well to first read Rudyard Kipling's poem, The White Man's Burden (1899) before we dive into Mr. Harrison's book; the real purpose of which, I suspect, is to save the dark-skinned "Half-devil and half-child" heathens from themselves.
Reality is the cure for ideology........2006-11-12
I must say that reading this book was a quantum leap from the last several political books that I've read, which were written by pundits. This book is a bit dry at times, but it contains real reasearch about reality.
The "take home lesson" I got out of reading this book is:
First, "Freedom and Democracy" isn't for every nation because a nation, or culture, must have certain values internalized before freedom or democracy can work. This is a rebuke to ideologues on the "right" who think that we can superimpose our style of government on any nation out there.
However, this book is also a stinging rebuttal of the leftist who believes that John Lennon's "Imagine" expressed the ideal for humanity. "Imagine no religion..." No, we really can't afford to "imagine no religion" because it seems that decentralized Christianity (Protestantism) gave the world the most "progressive" culture that has even been. And, we can't "Imagine no possessions" because it is the possibility of home ownership that gives people a stake in their society.
Finally, this book delivers a body blow to "multiculturalism". Some cultures are sick, and this book explains how they can get better.
I could go on, but my point is that an exhaustive study has been completed that ties culture to "progress", and it's probably not what anyone who is narcissistically attached to a particular political ideology wants to hear. However, it is in this book, which I would recommend to anyone interested in politics and culture.
Foreign Policy Makers Must Read!.......2006-08-15
Professor Harrison's book is a well researched, timely and necessary study of why some cultures do better than others and how outside forces may or may not affect change when desired. The cases described within are necessary background for decisions being made today,and I sincerely hope our policymakers will study them. This book is a perfect complement to the Jared Diamond thesis and one should not be read without the other. A pivotal book for our times.
For political scientists and sociologists, not economists.......2006-07-08
I found this book to be too diffuse in its coverage to be of much use to me. It tries to cover 25 cultural factors for many situations and is generally lacking in quantitative analysis. I found it hard to see how the various cultural factors are related, and what their importance is in specific situations. Thus I believe that political scientists and sociologists will find the book of greater value than economists. Perhaps it tries to do too much at one time.
The Spring 2006 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives has a symposium of articles on cultural economics, and I found David Landes' article on the development of China and Europe over the last millennium, and the economic analysis of a few cultural factors like "trust" by Guiso et al to be of greater interest to me as an economist because of their specific and quantitative nature. Since Kahneman and Tversky did their pioneering work, a whole new field of cultural or psychological economics has been opened and it may take many years before we have a comprehensive economics based on people as they are and not on "economic man." Certainly "culture matters", but it is too soon for an economic synthesis of the field.
Product Description
Written by an author whose expertise grew from an extensive counseling practice as well as personal experience. The Fertile Female offers a hope-filled view of reproductive difficulties, with a deeper understanding of the often-confusing messages of mind-body and alternative medicine. With an engaging mix of passion and humor the book initiates a public debate on the politics of infertility and its effect on our health care system. Includes practice exercises and a section on dietary recommendations, complete with recipes.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful Book.......2007-06-18
If I could only buy one book to help me through my struggles with infertility - it would be this book. Julia's focus is on the mental and spiritual aspects of conceiving. She offers wisdom that comes from her own experience. She is light years ahead of other fertility practioners. I used her book as a guide through my own journey with trying to conceive.
I married 2 months shy of my 40th birthday. We started trying to conceive on our honeymoon. I became pregnant 3 times. All 3 pregnancies ended in miscarriage. I found Julia's first book 'Inconceivable' after my 1st miscarriage. I eventually attended her workshop in Woodstock and purchased her 2nd book -'Fertile Female'. I loved her 1st book, but this book was like medicine for my soul. I really needed a book that dealt with the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of trying to conceive. A few months after reading her 2nd book, (and 8 months after attending her workshop) I conceived my baby. I am 37 weeks pregnant. I turned 44 in May and this will be our 1st child. Her book gave me the tools and the belief that birthing a healthy baby IS POSSIBLE. I love her work and believe that her approach to infertility issues makes so much sense.
A must have book!.......2007-05-01
Words cannot adequately explain how I feel about Julia Indichova's latest book, the Fertile Female. It has become a permanent fixture on my nightstand. I find that it contains wonderful advice not only for those trying to conceive but for anyone who would like to birth an idea, a creation or just a better life for themselves. I became a true Julia Indichova fan after having read her first book, Inconceivable, too many times to count promptly following my "diagnosis" of premature ovarian failure. That first book gave me hope and courage to face the task I had at hand -- improving the quality of my life despite the dire predictions -- which served me immensely upon becoming pregnant a few months later. Now facing life with a toddler, I have found the Fertile Female wonderfully empowering as it contains the general message that one can improve one's life not only despite a difficulty but because of the difficulty. The Fertile Female is an amazing collection of all of Ms. Indichova's "tools" on how we can change ourselves not only by what we do physically to our bodies but also by how we think as well; in other words, the "tools" teach you how to live life in a productive and fulfulling manner. Bottom line, I cannot recommend this book enough!
This book changed my life - I'm Pregnant!!!.......2007-04-25
I can't say enough about Julia Indichova, her workshop, THIS WONDERFUL BOOK, and also her first book: Inconceivable: A Woman's Triumph over Despair and Statistics!! My husband and I tried to conceive for over 2.5 years. After 10 months of trying on our own, we met with fertility experts. After several rounds of fertility treatments (including multiple rounds of INVITRO) we were pretty much told that egg donor was our best option. We even met with an adoption counselor last week. The process took such a toll on us. We were beaten down. Then, something led me to Julia's website: FertileHeart.com There I found her first book (Inconceiveable), which led me to attend one of her workshops and ultimately to read her latest book (The Fertile Female). I am a true believer!! I attended Julia's workshop (where she reviews all of the techniques from her book) in Woodstock, NY on April 1st, 2007. I left there so uplifted and revived. My husband and really felt that we could have a biological child. I was so happy that following week, during my OVULATION, and I KNOW that it made a difference. I stand her today PREGNANT!!!! Following the workshop and reading her book, I practiced Julia's techniques on a daily basis. So did my husband. I literally got pregnant that following week!! It truly works! Julia is brilliant. She has developed an easy to follow plan that revives you and helps you in all aspects of your life. I can't say enough! I want to scream to all of the doctors who saw me as a statistic.... I AM PREGNANT!!!! YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK and follow Julia's techniques! Our dreams have come true. I will continue to use Julia's techniques throughtout my pregnancy and for the rest of my life. Stop reading all of those boring, hard-to-follow technical books and stop listening to all the gloom and doom...THIS IS A MUST READ! I purchased over 20 fertility books by so called experts that were hard to follow. This book was so enjoyable to read (Julia has an awesome sense of humor), easy to follow...and magically...it worked! It can for you too! I also recommend going to fertileheart.com and getting Julia's imagery CD and the best thing would be, after reading this book, attend her workshop! Remember, we are all amazing humans who have the power to make our dreams come true! Listen to your heart, find out what it is you want and believe it will happen. I am living proof! PS - I have purchased over 100 books from Amazon and have NEVER felt compelled to do a review before this! Best Wishes! [...]
Unique and powerful approach to infertility, a must-read.......2007-04-19
In the midst of my own struggle with infertility, I luckily came across Julia Indichova's first book, Inconceivable. Her story of hope touched me like no other and allowed me to discover the author's support circles, workshops and website community which I have found to be an invaluable resource on this difficult journey. I highly recommend her second book, The Fertile Female to anyone, male or female, who is struggling with infertility. This book provides hands-on techniques for practicing what Julia calls her "Fertile Heart" tools. Incorporating these tools into my daily life has transformed me mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. While there are many tools regarding diet, exercise and relaxation, the most valuable and unique tools are the mind-body imagery and body talk tools. Deep within each of us who travel on this confusing, often scary journey through infertility, there exists a powerful and magnificent life force that is yearning to be heard. We can tap into this force more easily by listening to our bodies and connecting with our true self. The Fertile Heart tools exist to help us to this, and I am so grateful to have found them. Inconceivable: A Woman's Triumph over Despair and Statistics
It works!.......2007-04-18
Reading Julia's first book INCONCEIVABLE was a breakthrough. She lives in a higher world and yet she is down to earth and accessible communicating emotions, creativity and fertility. In THE FERTILE FEMALE, she shares her wisdom about taking any challenge and difficulty that shows up in our paths as a gift brought to us to enhance our lives and make this a better world. Besides, she conceives a variety of tools that helped her, and many other women, including me, to overcome "infertility", be it physical, emotional, social or creative. One of my favorite chapters, called "The Authority Invested in You", advocates one's faith and trust in oneself by learning how to listen to your heart, to listen to yourself, instead of listening to all the external voices telling us that we are just a statistic number. Highly inspirational and practical book since it offers exercises and tools to travel with during your journey. Try it. It works.
Book Description
The Simplest Path, Step One: Free Your Mind delineates, in one slim volume, a complete system for achieving personal spiritual awakening, along with a straightforward, no-nonsense plan individuals and groups so enlightened can follow to awaken Humanity en masse and positively transform the world. This book contains keys to awakening. Awakening from our personal dream shatters the solid "box" of limitation memes have built around our lives, and frees us to fluidly craft our personalities, environments, relationships, careers, etc. as an artist paints a landscape or a sculptor teases form from formless clay. All of us awakening together from the shared dream of the planet will mark the birth of our species out of our current global nightmare of decline into a limitless future literally beyond our present ability to imagine, even in our "wildest dreams," indeed.
Customer Reviews:
Way Beyond "Socrates Revisited".......2007-08-22
After reading the commentary attached to the one star rating given by the young man from Texas, I feel compelled to step forward in defense of this very fine book. With only one exception, every point made in that negative review is simply wrong. Just not factually correct. The reviewer identifies himself as a young man (... "to my young mind"), and since all of his other Amazon reviews are of TV episodes on DVD, video games and rock music CDs I take him at his word. Well, I am an "old man," closing in on my sixty-third birthday, and I came to Mr. Casspriano's book after six decades of life experience, the last three of those decades a zealous practitioner of Zen Buddhism. I say this not to "brag," but simply to qualify myself as a reviewer before beginning.
I'll start where the one star reviewer closed his argument, with his statement that the simplest path reduces to two Socratic concepts: "Admit that you don't know anything" and "know yourself."
The first part is nominally true (the exception). Like Zen Buddhism, a central tenet of the simplest path is working to release the false notion we all hold that we know ourselves, other people, the world around us. But identifying and releasing our attachments to our illusions is a life's work, not some brash "I don't know nothin'!" as the young Texan seems to imply. Under normal circumstances, we go about our daily lives with no idea we are deluded about anything, as Maya (the illusion of the phenomenal world around and even inside us) is so convincing that most of us never even think to question its validity. Casspriano did not invent the notion of human beings being trapped in illusion, as this truth was known to the timeless authors of the Hindu Vedas and is central to all schools of Buddhism (not just Zen). But his scientific/spiritual exploration of the mechanism by which Maya ensnares our minds and can, with effort, be overcome is among the best "plain English" explanations of this process I have read. There is no "inscrutable mystery" in the simplest path (a criticism that has been accurately leveled toward Zen Buddhism, as a lot of Eastern thought truly does come off as "inscrutable" when translated into English and/or the metaphors of Western culture). Casspriano lays out in no-nonsense American English exactly what our brains are doing when they create the illusion we mistake for reality, then shows the reader in the same clear terms how to train his or her brain to break free of illusion and taste reality as-it-is. In just 216 pages, that is no mean feat. After thirty years of Zen practice and numerous kensho experiences (of varying depths and intensities), I can say from personal experience that Casspriano is correct. Enlightenment comes as the fruit of a long, incremental process of retraining the mind to touch reality in a new way, and the process described in the simplest path is the same as that followed in Zen practice, especially Rienzi Zen koan study (I'll have more to say about this in a later paragraph). Casspriano's approach and language is very different from traditional Zen (more "scientific," and no sitting meditation is required), which I think would appeal to Americans and other Westerners seeking to experience "awakening" without necessarily committing themselves to a religion like Buddhism, but the internal mental/spiritual process and final destination are the same.
"Know yourself," on the other hand, is not in this book at all, at least not in the way the young reviewer, or Socrates for that matter, uses the phrase. As in Buddhism, Casspriano takes pains to demonstrate that "self" is as much of an illusion as our misapprehension of the phenomenal world, and is a byproduct of exactly the same mind process that creates outer Maya. A core teaching of Buddhism is that our "self," our personality/ego, is nothing more than an aggregation of outside influences that cluster together in our minds like shiny stones gathered into a pile, and which we mistake not only for something "real," but tragically, for our essential selves. Yet this "pile" has nothing really to do with who we are at all. Buddhism teaches "no-self." Belief in the illusion of a unique and independent "self" is our greatest obstacle to enlightenment. Wasting time and energy getting to "know yourself" in the Western sense is foreign to Eastern thought. Casspriano again does a great job of translating the Buddhist concept of "no-self" into Western scientific/spiritual terminology. He shows the process by which our ego/personality aggregate "piles up," as well as how to take the pile down, stone by stone. Enlightenment is what the pile was covering up, and so it naturally appears as soon as the pile is removed - but oh how we cling to our personal pile of stones! "Self" is what we must trade for enlightenment, what must be surrendered, and Casspriano returns to this truth many times in the simplest path. My point is that the one star reviewer's reduction of the simplest path to "know yourself" has no basis at all in the actual book.
As to the book being "gimmicky": Yes, the words "The Simplest Path" recur frequently throughout the book, but not in reference to the book itself (at least that's not how I took it), but rather to the system of understanding the mind and working toward "awakening" Casspriano is describing - and it is a complete system that deserves to be considered as a whole, on its own. At times the repetition does have a feel of "branding" in the commercial sense, so I understand where the reviewer may have taken his impression. But the simplest path, while resonant with Zen Buddhism (and apparently, according to Casspriano, with the Toltec philosophy espoused by Carlos Castaneda, of which I have no personal knowledge, so I'll have to take the author's word for that) is far enough different that it needs its own "name" to set it apart from other schools of similar but not identical thought. The reviewer's criticism is like saying that every use of the term "Zen" in a book called "Zen Buddhism" should be taken as a reference to the book, and not to the larger practice of Zen Buddhism as a spiritual discipline that the book is describing. Casspriano's point in repeatedly linking The Simplest Path, Zen Buddhism and Toltec Shamanism throughout the book, at least as I understood it, is to highlight these three spiritual practices as related reliable paths through a dark forest of illusion, a forest in which many apparent (and more popular) paths, including most (all?) religious beliefs, actively vie to mislead travelers toward deeper ensnarement in the dream, rather than leading them toward "awakening."
I want to say a word about koan study in Rienzi Zen and how it relates to the simplest path. Koans are those quirky Zen sayings and stories like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?" or "what was your original face before you (or your parents) were born?" that have no rational answer, and which Zen students turn and turn in their minds like the tumblers of a combination lock until their imprisoned psyches "explode" in a "super-rational" experience of reality beyond the illusion ("irrational" would be the wrong term, as that implies "nonsense"). That "super-rational" vision of reality is called "kensho." I have experienced it myself, more than once in my lifetime. I have come to think of Casspriano's "Key Questions" in the second half of the simplest path, especially the later seven of the ten, as "cultural koans" designed to trigger "collective kensho" for the whole human race at once. Like "what is the sound of one hand clapping?", unflinching consideration of the value of human life, of how our beliefs about the future shape the present, of the true origin and destiny of life on Earth, etc., especially as seen through the lens of Casspriano's "Key Question Technique," reveals that none of these questions have rational answers, yet all require our active and immediate response. Successful resolution of these larger riddles that impact everyone will require us all to eventually "explode" into reality, together, in a "super-rational" way. We'll have to break through the illusion and wake up together, as one (which has been the goal of Mahayana Buddhism, of which Zen is a sect, since around 200 BCE). That is the "Planetary Awakening" addressed in this book, and I believe Casspriano's "Key Questions" are a concrete step in that direction. I'm glad I spent my fifteen dollars.
This is my "old man" take on the simplest path, having encountered it after 30 years of Zen Buddhist practice (I'm not veering off my chosen path here, just bowing respectfully in passing toward Casspriano's). From a Buddhist perspective, the simplest path is true Dharma, though I do not get the impression from reading his book that Vincent Casspriano is himself a Buddhist or a follower of any religion. That to my mind makes his book all the more interesting.
True, but gimmicky.......2007-08-09
Casspriano's book is scientifically and philosophically sound as best as my young mind can tell, but I don't recommend this book. Its scattered with numerous pages of advertising about how his "program" works and how it compares to other religions and spiritual movements. Why must this author physically write out "The Simplest Path" in reference to his book every other page, and talk about his second volume? Perhaps because he's not out for pure truth, but for our money.
All this book comes down to after you strip away the nonsense is two things. First, admit that you don't truly know anything. Second, know yourself. Do those two things (they essentially both mean to question EVERYTHING), and you'll have Casspriano's "Planetary Awakening," with 15 bucks still in your pocket. And you'll be following the fundamental truths already said by Socrates.. so do yourself a favor and pick up Plato's "Apology" and read up on the Socratic dialogue on how to live a good life. And don't stop there, because you can't be sure he's right.
And I have 10 bucks that says these other couple of reviews were written by the book publisher. In any case, ignore the hype.
A Unique and Inspiring Wake-up Call.......2007-05-15
This is one of the most clear-headed books I've read in years on the subject of real, nitty gritty, get your hands dirty spiritual development (as opposed to the fru fru New Age variety). So much of what passes for "spirituality" in our time amounts to some author, celebrity, priest, philosopher or self-appointed guru telling us what to "believe," sight unseen, if we want to reach heaven, attain enlightenment, achieve "ascension," etc. Casspriano takes an at times startling opposite approach. For Casspriano, such unquestioned/unquestionable beliefs are not only NOT the path to spiritual awakening, they represent the chief obstacle blocking our realization of higher consciousness. And it's not just religious beliefs ("faith") he's talking about, but all our beliefs about reality, especially those that enclose our thinking in "boxes" that limit our freedom to find solutions to real-world threats like Peak Oil, overpopulation, Global Warming, etc. Though much of the book focuses on individual enlightenment, for Casspriano, these larger planetary issues are "spiritual," as well. Whether the issue is our personal inability to find happiness or Humanity's collective rush toward physical extinction, the cause is the same - our wrong-headed beliefs about what's real. The solution is the same, as well - continuous, deep questioning. Using Richard Dawkins' concept of "memes" as a central metaphor, Casspriano first breaks down the basic process of belief, showing the mechanism in our brains by which beliefs misdirect and control our psyches, then he walks the reader through an exploration of a series of ten "anti-meme questions" aimed at breaking down the walls of our mental "boxes" and setting our minds free. With each question, he supplies an exercise designed to allow the reader to attain a personal taste of reality "beyond the box," especially as flavored by that chapter's "Key Question." For the most part, this formula works very well (with a few rare moments of over-exuberance on the author's part, as already described in other reviews, though as a card carrying vegan environmentalist, I can't say I particularly minded), delivering a cumulative series of death-blows to some of the most basic "pillars" of our present human consensus reality. Beyond the walls those pillars supported lies real reality, where we are all interconnected and interdependent, and, in Casspriano's view, mutually destined for greatness, if we can just wake up and grab the reins of our runaway culture in time. This is not a book for spiritual "feel gooders" seeking soft assurances that they're perfect just they way they are and everything's going to be all right, no matter what. This is a wake up call, a tool kit and a concrete action plan for becoming individually enlightened and collectively saving the world, all rolled up into one. That, I think, is a cause well-worthy of exuberance.
Challenge Consensus Reality!.......2007-05-10
This is a thoughtful book that addresses how we may go about developing a process to question our everyday consensus reality. I suppose if I have learned anything in 49 years of life, it is that all personal and social problems stem from our fundamental views on the nature of reality itself. Vincent Casspriano uses the concept of a "meme" as a fundamental unit of ideas, assumptions, etc. that often block our understanding of reality itself. One such meme, for example, may be that we have to "fight for our freedom" or the world's a "fearful" place and hence, we have to be ready to kill to protect ourselves. I suppose you could also use the word "paradigm" here as well, but the essential point of this book is that we "unconsciously" function in our life with many limited points of view that block our ability to solve problems on both a personal and a social basis.
While Vince Casspriano is to be congradulated for producing a book that presents both a methodology and a motivation for personal transformation, there are a few pitfalls here that the potential reader should be aware of before tackling this material. The author has some rather strong views on fossil fuel consumption, meet consumption, and the role of humans in the cycle of procreation. While I generally agree with his analysis on fossil fuel consumtion and meat consumption (as I have viewed large tracks of deforrested grazing land in developing countries), these viewpoints can distract the reader from the essential point here which is to rigourously question consensus reality. Since I am single, and have no motivation to have children, I definitely disagree with his views on the necessity of human procreation on this planet, but here again, it is important to extract the essential meaning rather than get caught in the specific political/social debates that these issues may spawn.
If you are serious about personal transformation with the potential for changing our global consciousness, than this book can be an invaluable tool. I do agree with the Author that a world population of "high functioning" people can resolve every planetary problem we face today. As we systematically question our consensus reality, we will see our problems in new ways, and with this new perspective, problems can often be quickly resolved or transcended.
A Simple Cure For What's "Eating Us".......2006-11-13
I considered titling this review, "Stop Whining, Wake Up and Get Busy Saving the World," but decided "Eating Us" would be more attention-grabbing - which matters because I believe Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" is an important book, and I want to do whatever I can to draw your attention to it. Pick the title you like best. Both very fittingly describe what you will find within the pages of this remarkable new release from New Paradigm Press.
I have selected three short quotations to explore in this review that I think best summarize Casspriano's overall message:
From Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":
"Right now, this very moment, you are asleep... Even if you are reading these words in broad daylight - sitting at your desk or beside the kitchen table, your feet firmly planted on the floor, eyes open, senses alert, feeling the weight of this book in your hands as sounds of life rise and fall rhythmically around you - you are deeply asleep, and dreaming furiously"
Now, the idea that Humans are sleeping, and must therefore "awaken," is by no means unique to Casspriano's "Simplest Path" spiritual system, being the root observation underlying pretty much all Eastern religion, and a lot of Western Occultism and New Age metaphysics, as well. In fairness, Casspriano makes no claim to this as an original insight, openly supporting his assessment of the human predicament with quotations taken from Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. He then flows seamlessly into a list of complementary illustrations from the secular realms of Quantum Physics, brain/consciousness research, and most to-the-point, the study of memes and memetics, ala Evolutionary Biologist and world's best-known cheerleader for scientific atheism, Richard Dawkins.
If you've never heard of memes or memetics, a quick Google of those terms will reveal hundreds of serious, information-rich websites devoted to this now thirty-year old science. In a nutshell, a "meme" is a sort of contagious thought-form that spreads between people by way of imitation. Obvious memes in our environment include advertising jingles, fads and fashions, etc. Casspriano somewhat radically extends the concept to include just about everything that makes up the contents of our individual brains and shared human culture. While he resists redefining the word "meme" wholesale, he decidedly expands its definition to make memes and "memeplexes" (what you get when a number of memes band together into an organic, relational unit, like a religion or cultural or political movement) the basic, fundamental building blocks of everything we habitually label "real..."
And then he demonstrates, in at times excruciating detail, the complete emptiness of the "apparent-reality" that is a byproduct of memetic activity in our brains. What we call "real" is not real at all. It's an illusion spun up by our memes. And our memes are not original to us. They are "viral invaders" assailing our minds from without. Worse - and, while even this thought is not wholly unique to Casspriano, he certainly gives it his own very effective spin - memes are by no means mere passive beliefs or simple "harmless ideas." They are, Casspriano believes, actively predatory psychic parasites whose survival depends on our buying into the illusions they create in our minds. Think of illusion (Samsara, Maya, etc.) as a web we're caught in. Memes are the spider. We are the fly. Gotcha.
One thing I like very much about Casspriano's book is that he never asks us to take anything on faith, least of all this rather ugly depiction of the human psychic/spiritual condition. He not only challenges readers to test his hypothesis firsthand in order to experience what is real and true for ourselves, he spends a large chunk of the book outlining specific exercises anyone can do to escape memetic interference and personally experience reality as-it-is. The exercises in Part II of the book are powerful medicine... But this is a digression, so let me return to the point.
Memes are the spider, and we are the fly. A better metaphor might be that memes are the farmer, and we are the cow. Domesticated and docile, we allow memes to milk us daily, to extract from our minds the potent human psychic energy which, if reclaimed by us and put to proper human use, would quickly and positively transform our lives and our world. This transformation is awakening, ascension, enlightenment, metanoia, the Buddha-like change of consciousness most religions and spiritual systems on Earth hint at, but few ever actually deliver to followers. In this analysis, Casspriano's "Simplest Path" is very much in line with Gurdjieff's "Fourth Way," Carlos Castaneda's Toltec sorcery, and a few other well known spiritual practices inhabiting a somewhat darker, though perhaps more realistic corner of the New Age. But unlike most of those other systems, Casspriano's prescription for escaping illusion and awakening to reality is remarkably, well... simple.
From Chapter Three, "Waking Up":
"The simple truth is that we are sleeping because we lack sufficient energy to wake up."
And later in the same chapter:
"The real work that brings about awakening, rather than merely granting the external appearance of "being spiritual," while actually embroiling us ever more deeply in the dream, is a rigorous, daily commitment to the identification and elimination of every self-serving belief from which our personal dream-lives are constructed."
For "belief" in the quotation above, read "meme/memeplex." Casspriano certainly does, treating the terms as largely interchangeable. In the end, this genuinely simple - at least in the sense of being uncomplicated and pragmatic - spiritual practice amounts to discovering reality as-it-actually-is less by searching for a glimpse beyond the illusion, than by systematically withdrawing our participation in, and identification with, the dream. When we disentangle our psyches from memetic illusion, only reality remains. We don't have to chase it; to a meme-free mind, reality just appears. This is "Satori" in Zen Buddhism. This is "stopping the world" in the Toltec sorcery of Castaneda and others. Casspriano's genius lies in his talent for exposing the core mechanism behind such complex and often inscrutable spiritual systems, and for putting into plain language clear instructions for unraveling the dream and achieving personal awakening. The virus-like process by which memes take over and control our human minds, as described by Casspriano is, to my mind, very complicated (but well worth struggling through). What is genuinely simple about "The Simplest Path," however, is Casspriano's prescription for breaking those bonds, once you've made the effort to understand how they are created and maintained. For Casspriano, remaining a victim of spiritual sleep and energetic exploitation by memes is a complex activity in which we unconsciously invest enormous amounts of psychic energy every day of our lives. Awakening is the product of a simple act of withdrawing that investment, which automatically re-energizes of our minds and lives. Or as Casspriano cleverly phrases it when closing Chapter Three, "Waking Up":
"Unweave the tapestry of the dream, and awakening happens."
Anyone can do this. Spiritual awakening, in Casspriano's view, may be hard work, but it is not complicated work. The path to enlightenment is really rather shockingly simple. Fall out of love with the dream. Reclaim your psychic energy. Wake up to reality.
The ten "Key Questions" Casspriano explores in the second section of the book are designed to put the theory laid out in Part I to practical and immediate use. Essentially, I think Casspriano sees these ten issues - why we treat enlightenment as an "airy-fairy" ideal instead of a measurable transformation of brain functioning, the excuses we make for avoiding personal responsibility and integrity along the lines of Castaneda's "impeccability," the fallacy of belief in a "separate self," etc. - as pillars of both our personal and collective human dreams. They are by no means an exhaustive listing of the memes twisting our minds. But they are primary keystones on which layers upon layers of the grand illusion are built. Topple these ten baseline pillars and the larger structure crumbles.
Casspriano explores some "Keys" more successfully than others. One downside to the book is that, especially in the "Keys," Casspriano's own memetic prejudices shine at times rather glaringly through, as when, in his discussion of the American "What Would Jesus Do?" religious fad, he characterizes the Evangelical Christian purveyors of WWJD as, "ultra-conservative, right wing ideologues." Even should the reader personally agree with such pronouncements, its hard to resist thinking, "Hey Vince! Your memes are showing!" But where he nails his point, Casspriano's prose can be downright inspiring, as with the "Key" cosmological study "Is Earth the Center of the Universe?," which explores the gap between what we know, scientifically, about the Universe and what our daily choices and behavior says we really believe, about the cosmos and about ourselves. His closing "Key" "Are We Alone?" so poetically frames the true stakes of our global human predicament - species survival VS extinction - that its hard to imagine anyone keeping their gaze glued squarely to their own self-involved navel in the wake of reading it. Of course we are not alone. There are six and a half billion of us on Planet Earth, and whether we awaken to what's best in us or follow our darkest drives over History's cliff into oblivion, we do so as one. One planet, one fate.
This notion of "oneness" and of a common, intertwined human spiritual and biological destiny is a core theme in The Simplest Path, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND that sets it apart from any spiritual book in recent memory. My final quotation from the book returns us to the opening lines of Chapter One, "The Boxes We Dream In":
"We are all aware of the challenges facing us as we enter together into the 21st Century:
· World oil supplies are running out.
· Global warming is transforming the Earth into a steamy greenhouse.
· Even as our technology connects the world, ideological extremism, terrorism and militarism divide us as never before.
· Headlines bombard us with news of war, famine, pestilence and death until we feel overwhelmed and unable to respond.
· Time is running out..."
Vincent Casspriano, Jr.'s "The Simplest Path to Personal and Planetary Transformation, Step One: FREE YOUR MIND" does not offer easy escape from these very pressing real-world human ills, but rather, a down to Earth, workable prescription for their cure. Yes, we must awaken as individuals, and, rest assured, "The Simplest Path" shows spiritual seekers exactly how to do that. But a prime message of "The Simplest Path" is that, for personal awakening to have meaning, it must occur within the context of a complete re-visioning of global culture, and a mass wrenching away of the wheel of History from the control of viral memes, that we might create a common cosmic human destiny worthy of our highest potential as a species.
Now that's a meme worth feeding.
Book Description
The long-awaited story of the science, the business, the politics, the intrigue behind the scenes of the most ferocious competition in the history of modern science—the race to map the human genome.
On May 10, 1998, biologist Craig Venter, director of the Institute for Genomic Research, announced that he was forming a private company that within three years would unravel the complete genetic code of human life—seven years before the projected finish of the U.S. government’s Human Genome Project. Venter hoped that by decoding the genome ahead of schedule, he would speed up the pace of biomedical research and save the lives of thousands of people. He also hoped to become very famous and very rich. Calling his company Celera (from the Latin for “speed”), he assembled a small group of scientists in an empty building in Rockville, Maryland, and set to work.
At the same time, the leaders of the government program, under the direction of Francis Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, began to mobilize an unexpectedly unified effort to beat Venter to the prize—knowledge that had the potential to revolutionize medicine and society.
The stage was set for one of the most thrilling—and important—dramas in the history of science. The Genome War is the definitive account of that drama—the race for the greatest prize biology has had to offer, told by a writer with exclusive access to Venter’s operation from start to finish. It is also the story of how one man’s ambition created a scientific Camelot where, for a moment, it seemed that the competing interests of pure science and commercial profit might be gloriously reconciled—and the national repercussions that resulted when that dream went awry.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Scientific journalism at it's best.......2007-07-24
I picked up this book because I realized that I knew next to nothing about the human genome--one of the most significant scientific accomplishments of the century. Shreeve's explanation of what it is and why it matters while describing the dramatic intellectual, technical and commercial competition between the academic community and private venture capitalists--most notably Craig Ventor-- is spellbinding. The most painless way to familiarize yourself with recent human genome research. An outstandiing read.
Hard to put down!.......2005-10-15
You don't need to be a scientist to be captivated by this book. This is a riveting story of the intersection of vision, ego, politics and the battle between commercial interests and publicly funded efforts to do nothing less than lay the foundation for the technology that will likely define this century.
This is not a dry chronicle of the scientific methods, technological and computational breakthroughs that made this great accomplishment possible. Rather, Shreeve manages to guide the layman through the intricacies of all of the above, while never loosing site of the more interesting story of the personalities and interactions among the key players in this story. There are lessons here for anyone - integrity, vision, politics, business, perception and the law of unintended consequences.
The best book I've read this year.
A fascinating and exciting journey!.......2005-09-08
Firstly, I haven't even finished this book at the time of my writing this review, but I could no longer wait to comment on it.
The distinguished feature of this book is its style of writing. It is incredibly simple and straight forward, without any unncessary twist of language or logic. Although this is a depiction of the whole story behind the Human Genome Project, it reads like an epic tale of a breathtaking journey.
James Shreeve gives a close account of all the events that led up to sequencing of human genome, including politics, science, business, legal matters and personal relations. What's more, is that a lay reader who understands nothing about gene or molecular biology can learn a whole lot of things he didn't know before. While the book is not technical in biological and other scientific explanations, it is sufficient to explain to the lay reader about genes, their importance as well as their pharamaceutical value.
This book, like other reviewers have mentioned, is truly hard to put down. Highly recommended to everyone!!
Stunning! Superlative! Exciting!.......2005-07-18
I could not put this book down. This is an engrossingly written glimpse into the people, politics and science of the Human Genome project(s). Extraordinarily well done. Uplifting.
Exciting. At times depressing. Full of real people at war with real problems and real results.
Unveiling the meaning of life.......2005-07-02
This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the future of science, medicine, and technology. Though I have been intrigued with the human genome project and the mapping of other life forms, I had never understood the process or knew the key players in the epic search to do so. James Shreeves' masterful account of this landmark achievement brings the complex and compelling venture into sharp focus. His narrative includes not only colorful and insightful quotes from those involved on all levels, but also offers cogent explanations of the technical and scientific issues in breakthrough biological data-processing that will eventually change all our lives.
Book Description
Fermenting Revolution delivers an empowering message about how individuals can change the world through the simple act of having a beer. It is also the first book to view all of the important trends in human history as fundamentally revolving around beer.
Globalization pitches the corporate worldview that is essentially selfish, rewarding the few while demeaning the many and devastating nature, against the sustainability movement that calls for cooperation, the protection and celebration of nature and the nurturing of equitable communities. Beer exemplifies the struggle. This book:
- Traces the path of brewing from a women-led, home-based craft to corporate industry;
- Describes how craft breweries and home-brewing are forging stronger communities;
- Explains how corporate mega-breweries are saving the world by pioneering industrial ecology; and
- Profiles the most inspiring and radical breweries, brewers and beer drinkers that are making the world a better place to live.
The return to beer as a way of life is communal, convivial, democratic, healthful, and natural. The American beer renaissance champions ecologically sustainable production, and is helping to create thriving community places. After reading Fermenting Revolution, mere beer drinkers will become "beer activists," ready to fight corporate-rule by simply meeting their neighbors for a pint at the local brewpub -- saving the world one beer at a time.
Customer Reviews:
An actionable history of beer in society; Drink for Thought........2007-01-09
Mr. O'Brien has brought together vital information for those who are seeking to think about as well as better appreciate this noble beverage.
Goes well beyond the works of Michael Jackson or the single facet beer history books books in my collection.
A call to action with ramifications on your view of business ethics, community and trade.
"The Beer Jockey" of Kansas City- Jim Quinn
A fine survey of corporate and non-corporate powers and divisions makes for involving reading........2006-12-11
Humor, history, and business savvy blends with a beer activist history so it's hard to peg this title for any one section - it's featured here because its strength is a coverage of the sustainability movement's values and business interactions, which documents beer marketing, the evolution and growing strength of microbreweries, and their interactions with local communities. A fine survey of corporate and non-corporate powers and divisions makes for involving reading.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Grab a pint and grab this book........2006-11-15
Part history, part manifesto, and a lot of fun. This book is one of the most informative yet enjoyable non-fiction that I have read in a while. O'Brien provides lots of good facts and figures about good ol' beer that you can use to surprise and impress friends and family. This is also a practical guide to living more sustainably by enjoying a pint or two from your local brewpub. Moreover, the book is well written and easy to read.
Book Description
The rousing, fascinating story of the rowdy political convention that produced the unlikeliest of candidates and thereby had the unanticipated result of saving the world from fascism
There were four strong contenders when the Republican party met in June of 1940 in Philadelphia to nominate its candidate for president: the crusading young attorney and rising Republican star Tom Dewey, solid members of the Republican establishment Robert Taft and Arthur Vandenberg, and dark horse Wendell Willkie, utilities executive, favorite of the literati and only very recently even a Republican. The leading Republican candidates campaigned as isolationists. The charismatic Willkie, newcomer and upstager, was a liberal interventionist, just as anti-Hitler as FDR. After five days of floor rallies, telegrams from across the country, multiple ballots, rousing speeches, backroom deals, terrifying international news, and, most of all, the relentless chanting of"We Want Willkie" from the gallery, Willkie walked away with the nomination.
The story of how this happened-and of how essential his nomination would prove in allowing FDR to save Britain and prepare this country for entry into World War II-is all told in Charles Peters' Five Days in Philadelphia. As Peters shows, these five action-packed days and their improbable outcome were as important as the Battle of Britain in defeating the Nazis.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting look at a man who defied his own party.......2007-09-15
This book provides an interesting account of the republican convention of 1940 and the effects it had on the country. The main contest in 1940 for the republicans was between Dewey, Robert Taft and Wendell Willkie who was a democrat turned republican in the final hours to seize the nomination. Dewey to an extent an Taft to an extreme represented the isolationist part of the republican party. This book takes the reader through the convention and the twists and turns that led to the nomination of Wilkie over Taft. This book provides a scattered analysis at times of the events that followed the Philadelphia convention. This is a great update to those people who have not heard of Wilkie and these events. The book provides a very good political analysis of the time and for those interested in convention history it does tell and interesting story. I wish there had been more related to how the votes switched but at times the book jumped around and skipped over details. Overall a solid book and a great addition to the historical political landscape of America.
Don't laugh. I found this book to be a real page turner. .......2007-08-29
The time frame for these historic event could not have been more compelling, the Repubican National convention of 1940. The lights had just gone out across Europe. France had surrendered. All that was left of the old world's free people was Great Britain. We didn't really give a damn. The Repubicans didn't, that much is certain. Many Democrats didn't either, except for the one that really counted... FDR. But he's a minor player in this story. The US was still nearly a year & a half from making this war truly a world war.
FDR, Churchill, Eisenhower etc. are credited with winning the war. Little notice is paid to a man who helped make their jobs easier pre-war, Wendell Willkie. He helped keep England alive. He stood out & stood up in the party of isolationism. He out foxed & out manuvered stronger canidates like Gov. Dewey, Senators Vandenberg & Taft. He's the only internationalist & non office holder of the potential nominees. Yet he was able to pack the convention & secure the nomination on the sixth ballot. He was closer to FDR on most of the issues of the the day, Lend Lease, extension of the the draft & war preparedness. This put the GOP at quite a diadvantage during the fall campaign. The whole story is humanized by the author, a young boy from New Jersey with an activist father who was a Democrat. Day by day activities in Philadelphia during the convention & mood of the the country are covered & makes for engrossing reading.
Stretched History with a Republican Womanizing Twist.......2006-04-12
Charles Peters tells a great tale, and it is a treat to read prose by one so gifted in the English language and so precise in his meaning. Well researched with a remarkable sense of grammatical timing, the book is an interesting piece of history that will become a mainstay for college students of American Political History. As politics, however, it leaves untold the story of exactly why the Dewey and Taft campaigns so misjudged the Willkie forces at the convention. As I read the jacket synopsis and internal photo captions, I began to expect to read that Franklin Roosevelt had undermined the Republican National Convention to install Wendell Willkie as a friendly nominee! Willkie's politics are no more a focus of this book than his womanizing, which, because of its long term nature, would be more of a story today than perhaps even Bill Clinton's. And while I like Willkie a lot after reading about him, I think the case for making a hero of his pro-defense stance is overdone.
While Willkie took a position that was unpopular with the isolationist Main Street Right Wing of the Republican Party, it is not a logical conclusion that he did so with patriotism in mind or that he fell on his sword for America. Now IF it could be shown that pre-CIA or pre-NSA operatives undermined the pro-Hitler isolationst elements of the Republican Party, THAT would be a story indeed. Or if it could be shown that Willkie, a Democrat until 1939, was a National Security operative to ensure that freedom was defended in the Hitlerian world. Perhaps Charles Peters is suggesting these possibilities for further study in the decades ahead. You do wonder why Willkie won the nomination in the face of two other strong candidates who more closely reflected the isolationist, peace-loving members of their own party.
It's a good story that is more history with personal rememberances than politics itself. Wendell Willkie would not be welcome in the Republican Party of today.
Where is Willkie today, when we need him?.......2006-02-12
This provides an excellent picture of presidential politics just before our entry into World War II. Somehow, Wendell Willkie rose in the Republican party to challenge a crafty and popular president and although he lost the election he helped to turn the country in the right direction.
Roosevelt was concerned with providing aid to Britain, and instituting a draft while we were not at war. Despite the knee-jerk reaction of the Republican leadership, which was dogmatic, myopic, and just plain stupid, Willkie supported the President's foreign policy goals, and his support allowed these measures to be instituted through a reluctant Republican congress.
One of the more surprising occurrences then, when looked at from today's political world, was how much conscience mattered. Many of the Democratic politicians were opposed to some part of Roosevelt's program. Some agreed with him on the draft, but did not think he should have a third term, some were in favor of the draft, but not in help to England. Roosevelt embraced all of these people as advisors, and even named a number of Republicans to his cabinet. It is unimaginable that the current President would tolerate different opinions in his political circle. At that time, conscience moved Roosevelt's advisors to say what they believed was in the best interest of the country, not just mouth an official line of thought and conduct.
The know-nothings of the Republican leadership, namely Taft and Dewey, would have prevented the draft, and would have forbidden any aid to Britain, and apparently were prepared to negotiate with Germany to keep us out of war. It was miraculous that Willkie, who pretty much agreed with Roosevelt's foreign policy, and who was a businessman, never elected to public office, was able to keep the Republicans from sabotaging Roosevelt's policies. If he had not, one could only imagine the results . . a German takeover of Britain, and an eventual war of survival with the USA, which could very well have led to the end of our society as we know it.
The modern Republicans have not changed very much. While there may be an occasional voice for sanity, in foreign and domestic policy, by and large, they follow along the party line seemingly unable to provide independent thought in the interest of the country. Their bringing us to war in Iraq before destroying the Islamists who have attacked us is one instance, and uncontrolled deficits are another, and doing nothing to control dependence on foreign oil is yet another. Where is Willkie when we need him?
Personal memoir combined with political history - interesting tactic.......2005-11-30
Charles Peters has primarily given us in his book Five Days in Philadelphia, the story of the Republican convention of 1940. In addition to recounting the convention, leading to the nomination of Wendell Wilkie as the GOP candidate for the Presidency, Peters also gives us some background information on the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt and how Willkie allowed FDR to continue down the path of arming America and her allies for war.
Peters makes the argument that had any of the other prime candidates for the nomination been successful in their quest (i.e. Robert Taft or Arthur Vandenberg), such critical foreign policy manuevers as the destroyer deal of 1940 or the Lend-Lease act of 1941 would not have come to be, since the Republicans would have used these as a political weapons to attack the internationist (or interventionist) policies of the incumbant Democratic administration.
In reality, most of the book is spent on Wendell Wilkie - an interesting fellow that many people know little about. There is little, if any, doubt that his involvement in American politics played a large role in FDR's plans to send arms to Britain, or to quash many of the isolationist feelings that would have prevented the first peacetime draft in America's history. Despite this interesting man, the book just doesn't quite live up to its title - it comes pretty close, but after reading the book I am not quite convinced that the convention freed FDR to continue down the most interventionist path. Instead, I think that Wendell Wilkie, after the convention, allowed Roosevelt to take those steps he saw as necessary to try to keep America out of war and provide for her defense as much as possible.
Customer Reviews:
friggin nuggins.......2004-06-07
smoke bud
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i am god
peace out
funk beans!
Wonderful World of Hemp!.......2002-10-05
I believe that this book is a wonderful resource in learning the truth and facts about hemp. You wouldn't believe everything that this plant can do for you and the planet. If you find this to be wrong because of what you heard, try reading this and you will learn the truth,and will wonder why the government has been keeping this plant illegal even with all of its resourses that it has for us to use. I have learned a lot from this guy and I really would like to thank him for all his dedication and efforts to making it legal! Also try his video too! Very Useful!!!!
The View of Scholars.......2002-08-08
Historians strongly disagree with this book's claim to be an "authoritative historical" work: there is very little 'history' here. As a researcher myself, I would make the following brief comments on a mere handful of the book's distortions to serve as examples: 1) There was no accusation of cannabis possession or other drug usage in the trial of Joan of Arc: the transcript of that trial is one of those which I myself have translated from the original manuscripts, and no such charge is listed anywhere in either set of articles against her (not in the initial 70 articles nor in the final 12), nor was it ever mentioned in the course of the trial; the author simply made that up. There was never any suggestion that she used cannabis to produce her "voices": instead, her judges claimed (in Article XI of the final set) that the beings which she identified as angels and saints might be fallen angels instead.
2) The oft-cited claim that the presence of "unique" THC receptors is evidence of some sort of crucial link between human evolution and pot usage shows a profound misunderstanding of the way such receptors work: they do not typically bind only with a single "unique" substance, and in fact the receptors with which THC interacts (CB1, CB2, and an interaction with the opiate receptor which is still under study) were designed for chemicals in the body (anandamide and 2-arachidonoyl-glycerol); the opiate receptor was designed to react to endorphins and similar chemicals in the body. Just as certain drugs happen to bind with the opiate receptor due to a chance similarity in molecular structure, THC binds with CB1 because its structure happens to be just close enough to "fit". Arsenic and other poisons happen to interact with certain sites in the body for the same reason; presumably, we will now have to deal with the claim that the body was designed to consume arsenic, too.
3) Medieval books were expensive because they had to be painstakingly hand-written (and later, printed using a clumsy and laborious process), not because of any ban against paper, hemp-based or otherwise. This should hardly need to be said.
4) While the author is correct in saying that the ancient Scythians (for example) did use a cannabis-based substance, there seems to be a persistent attempt to add other ancient cultures to the list by deliberate distortion of the context (such as misinterpreting certain Hebrew words in order to claim that early Jews and Christians were using cannabis, too).
5) In another obvious gaffe, the book tries to claim that the Bible (of all things) supports pot usage by deliberately misinterpreting certain English translations (such as the one which uses an archaic definition of the word "herb" to translate Hebrew words such as "zara'on", which means "vegetable"), or by taking out of context Paul's comments about Jewish dietary laws (which banned certain meats, such as pork, which were common in the Greek-speaking world in which Paul was trying to win converts; hence the statement that any "creature" or "animal" ("ktisma" in the Greek version of the original manuscripts) is valid for consumption. Marijuana is not an "animal", although I've literally seen people try to argue that it somehow qualifies as such in order to support the author's views on this particular subject). A similar argument is invoked when dealing with a passage preaching against the outlawing of foods, with smoked marijuana suddenly being reclassified as a "food" in this case so the claim can be made that the Bible is hostile to current drug laws, all the while ignoring the passages which specifically forbid people to be under the influence of any such substance. The list can go on.
It's hard to know what to say in summary to a book like this: as many scholars have pointed out, it's little more than fiction and fluff, and certainly does not qualify as "history" in any sense of the term.
Smoke Herb.......2002-04-08
This guy speaks the truth. Before reading forget all prior knowledge to hemp and marijuana. You are in for an enlighting experience. So sit back, take a toke, and be prepared to learn. :)
The Emperor is Jack Herer!.......2001-11-20
Well, shall we say this is not really very authoritative? I picked up this book hoping to learn something. I have adult children who smoke M and I wanted to be able to agree or disagree based on objective research. I cannot draw any conclusions from this book. The book certainly gives no answers to any objective thinker. It is entirely biased. He gives very poor citing. A careful analysis of the book indicates Mr. Herer believes the entire world is involved in a conspiracy. The result is a propaganda like tar and feathering of all his enemies including religion. I was particularly offended by Mr. Hererýs interpretations of history. I found his history to be so suspect that it completely undermined any credibility he had.
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