Erickson paints a picture of a spoiled but sympathetic Antoinette, more historically accurate than the popular misconception of an insensitive elitist.

As always, Erickson writes entertaining non-fiction. This appears to be out of print at the moment, but grab it and any other Erickson titles as fast as you can.

"To the Scaffild" meant "To the Guillotine". It is a brilliant account of French revolution, with two heroines, one Lady Liberty and the other its victim Marie Antoinette. Oxford American Dictionary defines guillotine as "a machine with a heavy blade used for beheading criminals in France". criminals? Luois XVI and his unfortunate wife Marie- Antoinette were definetely not criminals To the Scaffold", of course meant "to the guillotine". It is a brilliant account of French revolution. They were the unluckiest royal couple in all of history to get engulfed in a maelstrom of events beyond their control. They were of noble hearts and displayed tremendous courage against severe odds and went to the guillotine with heads high. The famine, bad weather, bankrupt treasury, countless corrupt officials at Versailles, and a inept, brooding Louis in charge. He was weak, lacked leadership and looked to his wife for advise. Antoinette was smart, intelligent but did not know how to govern. She did spend lavishly, foolishly and may have been the true culprit in bringing down the monarchy. But hey, that's what queens are supposed to do. She was so young, innocent, unaware of the treachery at Versailles. She had to learn on the job with no help from the dauphin, who was clumsy, shy, impotent and of weak mind. They were doomed.

Louis always believed that the revolutionaries were a minority and people at large loved him and all would be well in the end. Later on as events unfolded they reasoned Austria and Prussia would come to their rescue. That was their undoing, as Parisiners would never let foreigners invade their beloved city and annihilate them. They had to get rid of Louis. His old confidant, a black smith, betrayd him as the national guard found incriminating evidence of plots against the revolution, hidden in a safe. They marched him to guillotine.

Innuendoes, rumors did Antoinette in as she was always hated by the populace.... She was called [the] worst names, accused of incest, deprived of her children, and was sentenced to die on trumped of charges of treason.

The revolution germinated the day Louis XIV, the sun king, uttered the words, "Le Etas, Ce' moi". Ultimately his great great grand son paid the price. If other countries had intervened in time in the late 1790, the slaughter could have been averted. There would have been no Napolean, the whole history of the world would have been completely different. Edmund Burke so aptly said at that time "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing".

Great Read. Highly recommend it for all history buffs.

"To the Scaffold" was one of the first biographies that I read on Marie Antoinette, and I must say that it was also one of the most enjoyable.

Erickson thoroughly covers Marie Antoinette's life from her youth in Austria to her last tumultuous days. As well, there are little additions about life in Versailles, and on the Paris streets.

One definite asset that this biography possesses is that one does not need much prior information about the Revolution to understand it. Different political ideologies, thoughts, and actions are carefully explained, yet the general flow of the book generally does not sway too far from Antoinette. This biography was also enjoyable to read because of the numerous (and sometimes amusing) quotations used, as well as the in-depth account of Antoinette's last days.

The only noticeable fault that I found was the tendency of the author to take sides. For example, it is said (with evidence provided in the footnotes) that Marie Antoinette and Fersen most definitely had an affair. This is, in my opinion, still a debatable topic.

Nonetheless, I highly recommend this biography to everyone. Novices to the revolution will find it an invaluable starting point, and the more knowledgeable will greatly enjoy the quotations and first-hand accounts recorded.

One of the better Nancy Drew notebooks I've read. I liked the ending when Nacy wrote down in her blue notebook about what she had learnt in the case. But a lot of the Nancy Drew notebooks I've read end with no one directly responsible for the case. I usually like it that way, but I feel that I want a culprit in this story.

Would you ever want to face a challenge to see who the best was? Well, Nancy Drew does. Jason Hutchins, one of the three pests in the class, thinks he can beat Nancy in solving a mystery. Nancy Drew has lost her special blue notebook that she writes all her clues in. No way! Nancy is the best detective in Carl Sandburg Elementary. Jason is not going to solve a mystery before Nancy..... or is he! 0 Read this book to find out who wins the challenge in Nancy Drew Notebooks, the Best Detective by: Carolyn Keene.

When Nancy looses her blue notbook, a boy named Jason chalenges her to see who can find it first. He said that whoever found it first was the best detective.

Evil in Amsterdam is probably my favorite Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mystery. I have read it five or six times now and I never get tired of it. My favorite thing about the book is that you it is so intriguing to ponder who the culprit is. I also loved how the two mysteries tied into one. In some of the books a very poor job of tying the two mysteries together is done and in this one it was woven beautifully. I also thought that the role of Ot in the story was extremely pivotal in solving the mystery, especially at the end. I would recommend this book to not only someone who loves Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys but to anyone who loves a good mystery.

I read this book months ago. It was the first one I ever read but it is one of the best. In the beginning Nancy and George are on vacation in Amsterdam to visit one of Georges' friends. They meet up with Frank and Joe who are there to investigate a robbery from the 1940's. They are searching for a load of gold bullion stolen by the Nazis. It has lots of unexpected happenings but is VERY good! I reccommend this to anyone who likes mysteries.

This is definately one of Carolyn Keenes best mysterys yet!! Nancy Drew and George Fayne are in Amsterdam for George's friend Merissa's wedding. But when they get there they find that Merissa is missing! Meanwhile, Frank and Joe Hardy are in Amsterdam also. They are looking for a cache of missing gold that was stolen a long time ago... by Nazi soldiers! Could the cases be connected? And can the amazing detectives find the answers before it is too late? Go to the nearest book store and find out!!!!

It's a good book. But it needs some preminary work before read this book.

The theory of games is now pervasive in the fields of economics, financial modeling, logistics, operations research, network engineering, and population biology. As such a background in game theory is an absolute necessity if one is to deal with problems in these areas. This book is an advanced treatment of game theory, and presupposes the reader already has had some exposure to the subject. There is an excellent set of exercises at the end of each chapter, and so the book can be used as a textbook or for self-study.

After an elementary example of a game in the introduction to motivate the subject, the authors begin in Part I of the book with the subject of static games with complete information. Strategic-form games are defined, along with dominated strategies, and the important concept of Nash equilibrium, the latter being introduced to deal with games that are not solvable by iterated strict dominance. For those with a background in elementary functional analysis, the authors prove that finite strategic-form game has a mixed-strategy equilibrium and prove that the Nash-Equilibrium has a closed graph. The concept of Nash equilibrium is extended to the concept of a correlated equilibrium, wherein each player can send another a private signal before they choose their strategy.

In Part II, the authors discuss dynamic games with complete information. Examples of these kinds of games include a sequential version of the battle of the sexes game, and a sequential version of matching pennies. The authors discuss subgame-perfect equilibria, wherein an n-tuple of strategies constitute Nash equilibria in every subgame. The Stackelberg model of duopoly is discussed along with the repeated Prisoner"s dilemna, the latter being an example of backward induction in finitely repeated games. A kind of generalization of the principle of optimality in dynamic programming is used to analyze perfect public equilibria via a tool called self-generation.

In Part III of the book, the authors discuss static games of incomplete information. Examples are discussed including Bayesian games, where at least one player is uncertain about another player"s payoff function, and first-price and second-price auctions. In first-price auctions, each player submits a sealed bid and the one with the highest bid obtains the item; in second-price auctions each player submits a sealed bid but the player submitting the highest bid gets to purchase the item for a cost given by the player with the second highest bid. The authors explain in detail the dominant strategies for these types of auctions. Bargaining with two-sided incomplete information is discussed and the optimal amount of trade is found from the linear equilibrium of the Chatterjee-Samuelson double action.

In Part IV, dynamic games of incomplete information are discussed by the authors. Examples that they discuss include signaling games such as the two-period reputation game, and Spence"s education game. Signaling is widely used by firms and organizations in spite of it being somewhat costly to do so. For example a public company may be trying to convince investors that it represents high returns. The authors show how to obtain sequential perfect Bayes equilibrium in these and other scenarios. The authors also discuss reputation effects in games, with an example being the chain-store game. The general case of single long-run players with reputation effects is treated in detail. Bargaining with sequential buyers is also discussed with examples given for one-sided asymmetric information and mechanism design.

The last part of the book discussed miscellaneous topics in game theory, including strategic stability, more discussion on signaling, finite strategic-form games, and supermodular games. The treatment is more complicated mathematically with emphasis on proving existence theorems for Nash equilibria and pure-strategy equilibria. The notion of a Markov perfect equilibrium is employed to discuss situations where the past has a direct influence on current opportunities. This brings in the fascinating subject of stochastic games, wherein current payoffs depend on the state of the game and on current actions, with the state evolving according to a Markov process. These are generalized to continuous time, leading to the famous differential games. Game theory under "common knowledge" is also discussed, with examples given of the "dirty face" games.

Some omissions in the book, which would have of course increased the size of the book substantially, include mathematical modeling of poker and other card games. These are complicated games in which to analyze, but they have taken on considerable importance in the casino industry in recent years.

This is a definitive reference text. It is not a self-study course in game theory, nor even a useful introduction. It functions best as a brush-up source, or a reference on equilibrium refinements, for those who already know the basics, and can work with a fairly technical presentation. It's very good especially on screening games and Bayesian-type information games.

For a more intuitive introduction to game theory, try a short little book by David Kreps called "Game Theory and Economic Modeling.".

When a pearl is stolen from a local jeweler named Mr.Moto, Nacy Drew is asked to locate the item and bring it back. Her case leads her to Japan where she stays with relatives of Mr.Moto.

Nancy goes through perilous situations just to find the pearl. She disguises herself as a Tokyo girla and starts picking up clues. Will Nancy be able to solve the mystery or is it too complex?

The book was okay in it's own sense. But I think there should have been more to the story. Such as near the end where they find the thieves. The whole thing going on there should have been expalined more. It left me out in the dark a little. For some reason I just felt somthing was missing. Although the setting in Japan was quite interesting.

I reccomend this book to Nancy Drew fans because it is the last one of the original(this is not the original book though) series.

This is a great Nancy Drew, but not the best. As reviews show Nancy Drew books may be old but are still being printed and are selling strong. The kids at my school lirbary race to see who gets to the Nancy Drew section first. I like Carolyn Keene because she doesn't write freaky mysteries, she writes ones that are real sounding and don't keep you up at night.

"This book is all th@ and a bag of chips because it portrays N.D. @ her best! Yeah Nancy! U go gurl! Check it!

I feel that Nancy and Micheal make a very good pair. There is so much chemistry between them. Bess has a secret admirer in this one.she desparetly needs a diversion anyways after all she has gone through.. Bess's admirer turns out to be a singer.

In the spotlight is one of my favorite books out of all the Nancy Drew on campus books that I have read.If you would have to pick one of the on Campus books it would be Nancy Drew in the spotlight and if you ever do read it I hope you enjoy it because I sure did. I do wish that Nancy and Ned would get back togegher. But Nancy and Micheal are a pretty good pair.

Of all the Nancy Drew on Campus books, this is one of my favorites. I really wish Nancy and Ned would get back together, but, her co-star on the new newspaper is just as good. Though at first Nancy thinks she hates him, by the end you'll find that she begins to like him. I really enjoyes this book and would reccemend it to anyone who loves Nancy Drew!

This review concerns the original 1935 edition. Nancy wins a piece of land in northern Canada in a radio contest and almost immediately people are trying to buy the land from her. Could it be valuable? Determined to see the land for herself, Nancy, along with her friends Bess and George, set out for the remote wilderness of northern Canada. Along the way the three girls meet an authoress who tells them a sad story of how she was kept apart from her first love many years ago. Upon arriving at her land, Nancy finds that a ruthless group of swindlers is trying to steal her land from her. How Nancy reunites the authoress with her first love and outsmarts the group of swindlers makes for a rather interesting story. This really isn't a mystery story, it's more of an adventure; however, it is quite an exciting book. The story grabs your attention very quickly and there is plenty of action. The northern Canadian setting is used very effectively. The end of the book was very good, as it displays two of Nancy's best qualities, her courage and her willingness to sacrifice something that is hers to help someone else. Unfortunately, this edition is not the one found in new book stores; however, if you ever find it at a used book store, buy it, you won't be disappointed with it.

I think you should read this book. Carolyn Keene has made this book exciting with a little bit of history along with it. This is a great book!

Nancy Drew in The Message in the Hollow Oak is very interesting and was fun to read about. I thought it was very interesting to see in her point of view on how to solve her mysteries. She has a very creative mind.
I thought that Nancy was interesting because she always knows what to do when everyone else is stuck. She tends to always find a way to solve her mystery and help other people that are also part of it. Nancy and her friends may at some times get in a little mischief, but always, no matter how bad the situation, find different ways to get out of it. It also occurs to me that in this book, they never have gotten in any illegal problems, but had to phone the police a couple of times to keep Nancy safe. One thing that I also like is that she thinks of things that I would have never thought of before and it helps me just in case I might need something to solve, but not as intense.
The Message in the Hollow Oak is a great book for young and older readers. They're not scary, and not too boring. it's just the right thing. It was a great book to me and will be to you if you read it.

if you like mysteries this is an okay book. not keene"s greatest.

I think the plot was absolutely awsome! The thing about following Jake Comstock's trail was pretty nifty. And I never would've guessed who was behind it all. It was the first one I ever bought, and it's a great edition for anyone's library.

This was the first Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys Book I have read. The story really kept you guessing, and brought out some major intelligence on the parts of both the brothers and Nancy. I highly suggest this book for all those who like either Nancy Drew, or Frank and Joe, or both.

This review concerns the original 1953 edition as well as the revised 1974 edition. Both books tell a similar story. Nancy is given a horse charm bracelet as a gift; however, one of the charms is missing. There is also a story connected with the bracelet that says that it was presented to a circus performer by a queen who loved horses. The circus performer later had to reluctantly sell the bracelet, but refused to give her true identity and she is in desperate need of help. Later, Nancy goes to the circus and meets a young girl, Lolita, who has a horse charm similar to the ones on Nancy's bracelet. The girl's parents were trapeze artists, but died many years before and she is now being raised by the cruel ringmaster of the circus and his wife. Many people in the circus believe that Lolita's mother may actually still be alive. Nancy is determined to find the truth and hopefully free Lolita from her cruel guardians. Most of this book is pretty good, the mystery is rather interesting and there is quite a bit of action. However, the ending of the book is not good. Everything happens much to quickly, there is little action and it takes all of one sentence for the criminals to be captured. For the most part this is a good book, it just has a bad ending.

I started reading the Nancy Drew Series when I was 5. The book Ringmasters Secret was one of my faves because I liked how Nancy's aunt bought Nancy a replica of the horse charm bracelet, that belonged to Lola (, Lolita's mother,) and was supposed to be handed down to Lolita; but Kroon took away the original 100% gold bracelet, and sold it to a jewelry store.

This book is a very interesting story. It is a combination of realty and fantasy. Some people can really relate to this book.
I enjoyed this book very much because it was so different from all the other books I have read. I also read this book because it was a real eye catching mystery.
My favoriate character was Nancy Drew because she was the main detective. She had solved many mysteries and was kind and extremly modest.
The best part of the book was when Nancy joined the circus. The reason why it was my the best part was because she had only been stunt riding for a little time and she was doing a wonderful job in the circus.
The ending was ironic because you would never thought that the two characters would ever meet again.

i really liked this nancy drew and hardy boys super mystery. it was intriuging and suspenseful. i especially liked the ending of it because it was hard to guess who the culprit of the crime was. joe and frank's mystery was not as good as nancy's in the story though. which is okay because a lot of times their mystery is a lot more suspenseful. as for the romance aspect a different guy other then frank liked nancy and i really want nancy and frank to hook up so i was disappointed but overall it was a smashing book.

When Nancy Drew goes undercover at the FBI Academy to protect a trainee, she has no idea that Frank and Joe Hardy are there as well. Nancy has been asked to be a 'guardian angel' for Judy Noll, the senator's daughter. An unknown assasin has already tried to kill Judy once, and the FBI needs some help. Soon after she arrives, Nancy meets Frank and Joe, who are also posing as trainees. They are working 'to expose a corrupt FBI agent in an industrial espionage scheme.' All is normal at first. Then Judy's roomate, Erin, is found murdered on a jogging trail. The hypothesis is that the killer mistaked her for Judy. Nancy decides that the only way she can save Judy is to pretend to be Judy. Set herself up as the target. Both girls look alike. Then Nancy stumbles upon a dark secret which changes the whole situation. The question isn't "Who wants Judy murdered?" but it's "Who wants Erin killed?"

Meanwhile, Frank and Joe are on their own assignment. Though I personally think Nancy's part is the more exciting one, F and J have big parts in the book as well. A good mystery for anyone, with a special twist at the end. I loved Spies and Lies! It's one of my favorite Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys books!

This is an excellent book which happens to be the first one of the series which I read.It led to my reading each and every book of that series.Nancy Drew & Frank and Joe are undercover there.Nancy- hired by special agent Burr,to act as a bodyguard to Judy Noll but ends up solving the case as you guess.Frank & Joe-undercover too hired by the Network to solve the case of the watchdog which they do. The book's great.It's super thrilling all right.There's murder,there's suspence and everything a good book needs.Though it needs some romance