Ancient Books - Page 3

A Sand County Almanac

Aldo Leopold

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 75 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Leaving a light footprint on the good earth 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I re-read Leopold's Sand County Almanac every couple of years or so. It's not just a beautifully poetic celebration of the land. Its defense of a new sense of moral responsibility to the environment, spelled out in the book's "The Land Ethic," is a bracing tonic against the modern temptation to take the biosphere for granted. In these days of global warming, fossil fuel depletion, and escalating degradation of the land, water, and atmosphere, Leopold's 60-year-old plea for a new environmental ethic is both prophetic and urgently immediate.

In "The Land Ethic," Leopold argues for a new understanding of the moral community. Earlier ethical models focused on interpersonal and social relationships between humans. But given the interconnectedness of all members of the biosphere, we need to extend the moral community to include earth, sky, water, and all species--the biota. At least since the dawn of the modern age, human have tended to prize the biota only in terms of what we could get out of it. It had a purely economic, utilitarian value. But this way of thinking has resulted in environmental (not to mention economic and political) crisis.

What we must do now, argues Leopold, is to recognize our "vital" relationship to the biota, acknowledging that the well-being of our species is intimately connected to the well-being of the whole. This calls for a new standard of valuation that runs counter to the older, economic model. "Quit thinking about decent land-use as solely an economic problem," writes Leopold. "Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient." And if we do that, he concludes, we'll adopt the following ethical principle: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise" (p. 262). And part of what this means is that humans should strive to leave relatively light footprints on the earth, because the lighter our impact, the more likely the biota can successfully readjust to maintain integrity, stability, and beauty.

Good, important advice.

Editorial Review:

First published in 1949 and praised in The New York Times Book Review as "a trenchant book, full of vigor and bite," A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.

As the forerunner to such important books as Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, and Robert Finch's The Primal Place, this classic work remains as relevant today as it was nearly sixty years ago.

Cinematic Storytelling: The 100 Most Powerful Film Conventions Every Filmmaker Must Know

Jennifer Van Sijll

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Flawed format. Wait for DVD! 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I certainly agree with the existing reviews regarding content, and have nothing to add in this regard.
HOWEVER, there are two problems:
1. The book measures 7 1/2" tall and 11" wide. This makes it hard to hold and fits poorly on the reference bookshelf where it belongs.
2. The book mentions an upcoming DVD. This would a MUCH better format than book.
This book tries to illustrate various cinimatographic points with still shots from exemplary movies. Sometimes these still shots cannot illustrate the point adequately, while a video clip would be TREMENDOUS at illustrating the point. (For example: various transitions: How in the heck can you illustrate transitions with still photos?!)
WAIT FOR THE DVD. It should be TREMENDOUS,and well worth the purchase.

happy with my purchase 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

there was no unpleasant surprise with my purchase. the book came a day or two later than was promised, but other than that, all was as i expected!! :)

Editorial Review:

What the industry's most succcessful writers and directors have in common is that they have mastered the cinematic conventions specific to the medium.

Plato Republic (Focus Philosophical Library)

Plato

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 91 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Rhetoric 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Most people know this book by title, not by content. I must admit reading this book is not for the faint at heart. Rhetorics will be thrown in your face as if it is common language and some sense of historical background on the Greeks may help as well.

But this shouldn't hold you back from reading this classic piece, all 450 pages of it. It is not so much the result of all thinking, but the process of thinking itself which makes this a great book. Known as one of the greatest Greek philosiphers of all-time you can get a taste of his way of thinking and the time he was living in.

If you have any interest in history and philosophy you'll love this book.

Editorial Review:

Based on the latest and most authoritative edition of the Republic available, this careful translation provides the groundwork by which students can come to their own understanding of this seminal work of Western thought, as is appropriate for courses in core curriculum which emphasize students dealing directly with Great Books. Other useful features include a chapter-by-chapter outline of principal speakers and summary of the content, Stephanus numbers, boldface type to indicate the entrance of a new speaker into the discussion, footnotes, and glossary of key terms with cross references for the text

How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It

Arthur Herman

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Total reviews: 83 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Who formed the first modern nation?
Who created the first literate society?
Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism?
The Scots.

Mention of Scotland and the Scots usually conjures up images of kilts, bagpipes, Scotch whisky, and golf. But as historian and author Arthur Herman demonstrates, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland earned the respect of the rest of the world for its crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics—contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since.

Arthur Herman has charted a fascinating journey across the centuries of Scottish history. He lucidly summarizes the ideas, discoveries, and achievements that made this small country facing on the North Atlantic an inspiration and driving force in world history. Here is the untold story of how John Knox and the Church of Scotland laid the foundation for our modern idea of democracy; how the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; and how thousands of Scottish immigrants left their homes to create the American frontier, the Australian outback, and the British Empire in India and Hong Kong.

How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William “Braveheart” Wallace to James Bond.

Victorian historian John Anthony Froude once proclaimed, “No people so few in number have scored so deep a mark in the world’s history as the Scots have done.” And no one who has taken this incredible historical trek, from the Highland glens and the factories and slums of Glasgow to the California Gold Rush and the search for the source of the Nile, will ever view Scotland and the Scots—or the modern West—in the same way again. For this is a story not just about Scotland: it is an exciting account of the origins of the modern world and its consequences.

“The point of this book is that being Scottish turns out to be more than just a matter of nationality or place of origin or clan or even culture. It is also a state of mind, a way of viewing the world and our place in it. . . . This is the story of how the Scots created the basic idea of modernity. It will show how that idea transformed their own culture and society in the eighteenth century, and how they carried it with them wherever they went. Obviously, the Scots did not do everything by themselves: other nations—Germans, French, English, Italians, Russians, and many others—have their place in the making of the modern world. But it is the Scots more than anyone else who have created the lens through which we see the final product. When we gaze out on a contemporary world shaped by technology, capitalism, and modern democracy, and struggle to find our place as individuals in it, we are in effect viewing the world as the Scots did. . . . The story of Scotland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is one of hard-earned triumph and heart-rending tragedy, spilled blood and ruined lives, as well as of great achievement.”
—FROM THE PREFACE

Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World

Mark Kurlansky

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 115 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Mark Kurlansky has created a truly enjoyable, historical narrative of a fish that has influenced many aspects of world history. Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, is a book that any food connoisseur, history buff, fisherman, or someone simply interested in fish, will appreciate.

The book's main strength is the integration of facets of history to support the idea of cod's impact on the world. Within are discussed the influences of cod on wars, discovery, settlement, technology, gastronomy, and the effects of the dwindling cod stock.

The tragic story epitomized by cod is masterfully told by Kurlansky. Until recently, the mindset of society made it impossible to fathom that such a prolific organism could ever be depleted. The book exposes a poignant message about the increasing problem of overexploitation of resources, which I believe was the author's inspiration.

The only weakness of Cod is that there is so much history included in this relatively small book that it is somewhat overwhelming. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and have recommended it to others. After digesting Cod, one realizes that the codfish not only influenced diets and economies, but helped steer the course of world history.

Editorial Review:

"A loving eulogy not only to a fish, but to the people whose lives have been shaped by the habits of the fish, and whose way of life is now at an end."--New York "Newsday." Unabridged. 7 CDs.

The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return (The Earth Chronicles)

Zecharia Sitchin

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Total reviews: 42 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Why is it that our current twenty-first century A.D. is so similar to the twenty-first century B.C.?
Is history destined to repeat itself? Will biblical prophecies come true, and if so, when?

It has been more than three decades since Zecharia Sitchin's trailblazing book The 12th Planet brought to life the Sumerian civilization and its record of the Anunnaki—the extraterrestrials who fashioned man and gave mankind civilization and religion. In this new volume, Sitchin shows that the End is anchored in the events of the Beginning, and once you learn of this Beginning, it is possible to foretell the Future.

In The End of Days, a masterwork that required thirty years of additional research, Sitchin presents compelling new evidence that the Past is the Future—that mankind and its planet Earth are subject to a predetermined cyclical Celestial Time.

In an age when religious fanaticism and a clash of civilizations raise the specter of a nuclear Armageddon, Zecharia Sitchin shatters perceptions and uses history to reveal what is to come at The End of Days.

The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

Samuel P. Huntington

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Total reviews: 242 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Confirmed predictions 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

First published in 1996, this scholarly discussion of future international relations has been a classic from the beginning and will remain so for decades to come. From among the seven most important civilizations the author selected three, which may collide in conflict. Thus, in Moslem eyes Western culture is decadent in various ways and therefore utterly unacceptable. The current resurgence of the Islamic civilization is seen as an evolution no less significant than the Reformation or Marxism, demanding society's complete overhaul, renewal and purification, a movement whose impact on history will grow as the Moslem population will soon represent thirty percent of humanity. At the same time, Islam is seen as the least tolerant of religions, as it promotes peace inside their ranks but hostility toward the infidels outside.
Similarly, in East Asia, the Confucian civilization adheres to commandments like order, discipline, hard work and abstemiousness, where the individual subordinates to the needs of the community. Alien to them is what they call the West's sanctifying of human rights. Whereas we in the West expect our value system soon to become universal, the Confucian world is convinced that "the Anglo-Saxon module is not working" and that their own standards must of necessity apply to the rest of humanity. Here, again, the impact of such convictions will be immense as the center of gravity of economic power is rapidly shifting from the West to the East.
Out of such discordance, there arise economic and political contentions and military ones cannot be ruled out. Huntington believes possible conflicts could arise from a contest between Western arrogance, Islamic intolerance and Sinic assertiveness. The spark igniting material strife, however, will most likely be generated by more prosaic crises such as the youth bulge among the unemployed, terrorism, rivalry in the search of resources such as oil, and the pervasiveness of weapons of mass destruction among those who suffer and rebel.
The main message carried forth from this study is that any military clash in the future will most likely oppose not nations but rather civilizations in what he aptly calls fault-line wars. He points to the danger that such inter-civilizational feuds will be uncompromising and almost impossible to halt.
Huntington advises the reader that cultural universalism, so engrained in the mind of the West, is ill advised and that especially includes the American tendency to be "a nanny if not even a bully" in other civilizations. We must, he says, renounce universalism of values, and instead accept diversity and seek commonalities.
Since these thoughts were first published, much has been confirmed. The power shift toward East Asia is rapidly progressing. Fault-line conflicts in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Chechnya and the Balkans have resisted or defied peacemaking efforts. Our promotion of democracy, civil rights, and individualism has been rejected elsewhere in favor of soft authoritarianism. Most importantly, perhaps, is the West's failure to observe the "abstention rule", that is, for one civilization to abstain from invading the lands of another.
Every prospective world leader should read this book at least once.

Editorial Review:

Predicting greater future conflicts between Western and non-Western cultures, a political study argues for greater understanding of non-Western civilizations and offers strategies for maximizing Western influence. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe (P.S.)

Laurence Bergreen

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Total reviews: 115 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

very exciting - couldn't put it down 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

this is one of the most exciting adventure/discovery books i've ever read. it was a page-turner from beginning to end.

fascinating history 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a fascinating read, full of details (politics of the time, how ships operate, torture, sexual mores of various tribes around the world, etc.). The story of the first voyage around the world is so amazingly dramatic one would say "too far fetched" if it were fiction. Every page is so rich with detail that you want to just slow down as you read. The only slight flaw is that the characters do not come quite as alive as I would have liked. But everything else about this book is so good, it's well worth reading.

Editorial Review:

Ferdinand Magellan's daring circumnavigation of the globe in the sixteenth century was a three-year odyssey filled with sex, violence, and amazing adventure. Now in Over the Edge of the World, prize-winning biographer and journalist Laurence Bergreen entwines a variety of candid, firsthand accounts, bringing to life this groundbreaking and majestic tale of discovery that changed both the way explorers would henceforth navigate the oceans and history itself.

Mythology

Edith Hamilton, Aphrodite Trust, Apollo Trust

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Total reviews: 80 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

the gold standard 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Hamilton is definitely the gold standard for retelling these glorious, ancient myths. Her style is engaging and the structure of the book makes it very easy to keep track of such ridiculously branched family trees. This is much more than just a reference book...it's more like a giant Greek fairytale book.

MYTHOLOGY by Edith Hamilton 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Mythology is classicist Edith Hamilton's book on Greek, Roman and Norse mythology, illustrated by Steele Savage (no kidding). The bulk of the work is devoted to the Greek, and the Norse is mentioned only in passing. Myths are arranged thematically, not chronologically (except for the initial creation), which is disruptive to the flow of the work.

Hamilton does several things well. First, she gives history on the authors from whom these stories have descended, and differentiates between their styles. Second, she gives good insight into the character of the people of the time as well as into the character of the mythological figures. She obviously knows the material and cares about it.

Mythology reads like a history book. Many stories get wrapped up too quickly, and quite a few are told too simplistically. Many details are left out. The writing is juvenile at times, and paragraph flow is occasionally an issue. This is almost a Cliff's Notes on mythology. Ultimately, Hamilton makes most of these myths boring. Others, with too many details cut out, the reader will find hard to get into.

Mythology has some good things to offer, but on the whole, this is an inferior way to enjoy the myths. This book may be useful to some as a quick-reference guide, but that's about it.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

Editorial Review:

A keystone of our culture is the body of myth and legend of the ancient Western world--stories of gods and heroes that have inspired human creativity since time immemorial. Hamilton's renowned classic brings this legacy to life anew, with impeccably accurate and accessible retellings of eternally spellbinding tales.

Travels with Herodotus (Vintage International)

Ryszard Kapuscinski

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the renowned journalist comes this intimate account of his years in the field, traveling for the first time beyond the Iron Curtain to India, China, Ethiopia, and other exotic locales.

In the 1950s, Ryszard Kapuscinski finished university in Poland and became a foreign correspondent, hoping to go abroad – perhaps to Czechoslovakia. Instead, he was sent to India – the first stop on a decades-long tour of the world that took Kapuscinski from Iran to El Salvador, from Angola to Armenia. Revisiting his memories of traveling the globe with a copy of Herodotus' Histories in tow, Kapuscinski describes his awakening to the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of new environments, and how the words of the Greek historiographer helped shape his own view of an increasingly globalized world. Written with supreme eloquence and a constant eye to the global undercurrents that have shaped the last half-century, Travels with Herodotus is an exceptional chronicle of one man's journey across continents.