This new dictionary of the Napoleonic era is roughly comparable to that written by David Chandler. Pope has previously written Hornblower's Navy, as well as historical dictionaries of the First and Second World Wars and of the Third Reich. Pope describes his purpose in writing this dictionary as an attempt "to lay out the basic shape and structure of the wars, using dictionary format and rigorous cross-referencing to enable a balance between overview and detail, highlighting the many links between that particularly exciting slice of the past and our present." (p. 10)

The Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars is divided into four sections. The first, the "Introduction," provides a brief narrative overview of the background and events of the era that Pope defines as 1792 to 1815. The second section is the dictionary itself, which includes more than 1000 entries, ranging in length from a single sentence for "Sappers" to seven pages for "Bonaparte, Napoleon". The book covers the War of 1812 and conflicts fought elsewhere, as well as the European conflict. The third section is a thirteen page "Chronology of the Wars 1792-1815." Finally, a collection of thirty maps is included which range from a political map of Europe in 1812 to a map showing the opening positions of the battle of Borodino. The author states that the maps are "primarily intended to help the reader navigate around those places discussed in the entries, and are therefore most concerned with naming and marking locations."

As in any undertaking of this sort the author must steer a precarious course between detailing minutiae and painting the era in too broad strokes. Specialists in the era will likely always be disappointed as to the space devoted or slant given to a particular subject. The book, as the title implies, confines itself mainly to military aspects, with non-military topics receiving, naturally, less attention.

Three drawbacks with Pope's Dictionary are a lack of references or bibliography, a lack of an index and a lack of illustrations. At first glance one would question the need for an index, but if readers want to know about Plancenoit they will be at a loss. They might look under "Waterloo, Battle of," if they were knowledgeable enough to know to look there, but even then they would not know what other entries to search under. I tried to find some information on the Spanish prison camp on the islet of Cabrera and was unable to locate any entries that mentioned the "death camp" where 9,000 to 16,000 French prisoners were detained (of which only a third survived). I checked under "Cabrera," "Dupont," "Bailen," "Prisoners of War," etc. all to no avail. Is there an entry somewhere in the book on the camp at Cabrera? There's no way to know. Bibliographic references under at least the longer entries would both give the casual reader additional sources of information and also give a more well-read user an idea of what sources the author used to write that entry. No pictures illustrating either portraits of individuals mentioned nor of concepts covered are included. A reader would have to look elsewhere if the wished to know what a mortar looked like, what a hussar wore or to see the difference between a brigantine and a frigate.

Not an essential book if you already own Chandler's Dictionary, especially considering the price. Facts on File, the publisher, produces books mainly for the library trade, therefore I'd recommend trying to get your local library to purchase it.

Hospital and physician payment systems are very important today and its importance is increasing every day. Using DRG and other methods of connecting payment with services is a must in the healthcare system in a new millenium. The book is focused on the United States and gives good examples of the developement of payment systems in various states. It's a little outdated today and it's quite expensive but overall a very useful insight into the use of DRG and payment systems in USA in real practice.

Mr. Atkins managed to produce a very interesting fact book. The great "thesis" of the book is that we can consider Latin America a region by itself. Although this is not a very important "finding", it is my guide book to International Relations in Latin America - it talks about every international organization created in the region, political or economical, and covers each one's history. If that's what you're looking for, then don't hesitate.

this book is about certain profecies of this pope. Was writer in 1935 and the publication was in 1975. I loss this book and that was buyed in Venezuela. I don't remember the editorial,but I think is Editorial Planeta. The name of book in spanish is "Las Profecías del papa Juan xxiii"

It's interesting to observe how dry academic language can take the juiciest gossip, the most outrageous of unfounded rumors, and the most gruesome tales of betrayal, debauchery, and degeneration and turn it into a tedious labor requiring considerable concentration just to keep track of the action.

Weakened by unimaginative writing, this tome is primarily of interest for its wealth of genealogical detail. It includes stories of the popes from the tenth century to the nineteenth, but there has to be a more readable source for that material.

This is a remarkable book-very odd in its way-a swashbuckler with hardly a dead man in sight. Pope seems to have challenged himself to imagine a string of seven actions which spill hardly a drop of blood and gore. A particularly telling scene, I think, is the night attempt to blow up a French 3rd rate in harbor: you see a mighty flash and are deafened, then...next chapter. Avast there, what happened, really? The emphasis is on the astonishing ingenuity of Ramage and his men to anticipate, out think, manipulate, and outmaneuver his enemies time and again during the second part of his independent cruise in the Mediterranean (a true continuation indeed of "The Ramage Touch"). Ramage comes up with one wiley ruse de guerre after another to humble and discomfit the French. Just think of the potentialities if you could get your hands on the new French semaphore towers ashore.... It takes extraordinary luck, very stupid or drunk enemies, and an inventive author to pull the capers off in an entertaining fashion. It's amazing to how much deviltry and destruction Pope can put Ramage in one book. The seamen enjoy the cruise enough to make good jokes, too.

In the course of the story we get to learn more about the types of Mediterranean winds, provisioning a landing party, muffling oars, how signalling worked, "nipping" the anchor cable, and how to "fish' a broken spar, plus gun powder and how to fuse it. Apparently it is beneath our dignity to count up the prize money Ramage and crew will rake in if they can successfully bring their captures back to Gibralter.

The entrapment plot on which this book is hung echoes the scenario of an earlier story, "Ramage's Diamond." Pope is particularly obvious this time hiding plot elements, like mere destinations, from us. Not only does Pope not tell us (OK), but Ramage doesn't tell his officers on not one but two of the dangerous missions he has cooked up in his vulnerable head! That's dereliction of duty. Unlike in Kent's Bolitho series, there's almost no crew turnover in these stories, certainly not in the core cast of characters, still alive and in the same crew from that intiial romp on the beach to save the queen in Tuscany! While Ramage's fame spreads rapidly, officers he has trained do not. Inspiring leadership plays a part (it's no wonder the whole crew re-ups in the next book). Three maps cover the early locales in the story. The usual elegant typography is here, with better proofing than in the Bolitho series also from McBooks. On the end papers is news of their reprinting of three (3) more nautical series, by Donachie, Stuart, and Parkinson. Hurrah!

Jennifer Jane Pope's writing is racy and the story compelling. This book is a time travel story that takes a plucky modern heroine and plunges her into the clutches of a Victorian aristocrat who is a villian of the old school. You boo and hiss him throughout the whole book. Teena Thyme is tied up, beaten, and humiliated. Despite her yearning to be free and all her valiant efforts, she remains a prisoner until ...well, I wont give away the plot. If the characters are a bit one-dimensional, they are vivid and lively, and remain in your head long after the book has finished. If I have a criticism, it is that the ending is left unfinished, leaving the reader to wait until the next volume is published until he/she finds out what happens next. That apart, it is a good read and I recommend it.

This book was helpful in some aspects. It gave some
advice on how to transition to being a stay at home mom. In addition, it gave scriptural references which for me were uplifing and encouraging. However, the authors repeatedly made me feel as though it was totally "ungodly" if you work outside the home to make ends meet. That, for me, was the only negative aspect.

Much better than other books.

This anti-Catholic screed is based on raw ignorance. The Catholic Church permits many other kinds of natural family planning than the rhythm method. The Pontifical Biblical commission never voted in favor of women's ordination. The anecdotal "incidents" cited by Manning are suspect. The alleged speakers (no documentation provided) all speak in Manning's distinctive voice.

Please be forewarned: Joanna Manning is an ex-Catholic who is a member of Catholics for a Free Choice and other anti-Catholic orgranizations.

"The rigor and vitality of the best of the Catholic intellectual tradition had always attracted me," Joanna Manning writes in the opening chapter. She brings the same rigor to the problem of the self-contradiction at the heart of the contemporary Church, where human rights and dignity are maintained rhetorically, while women are accorded a separate-but-equal status which, as the author shows time and again, implies that women enjoy less than human rights while being subjected to de-humanizing conditions and restrictions, in marriage as well as in vocation.

In the same chapter she recounts the anguish of an African woman in the Cameroon explaining " 'You know how Africans love children, and we would never reject any of them. But we don't want to have so many. We want a better life for our children, but we can't even clothe and educate them. Yet we are desperate, because the Church tells us that we can only use the rhythm method. It doesn't work, but we don't know how to argue with the priests.'...I had spoken and written about the injustice, the lack of credibility, and the health risks which are the result of the Vatican's intransigent opposition to contraception. Never before had I heard such a direct statement of the pain of poor families, especially women, when faced with the autocracy of the Church. I knew then that my decision to defend women's rights wihtin the Church, whatever the cost, ahd been the right one...As a white Canadian woman, I do not have to face the struggle for survival, which is a daily reality for most women in two-thirds of the world. I have also enjoyed unique opportunities in my life to become theologically educated and literate in the language of the Church. I can read Latin, and I am in a position to 'argue with the priests.' But with this privilege comes the responsibility to struggle against injustice."

Some of the concrete examples of the tragedies and absurdities include the beatification of Elisabetta Canori Mora, who jeopardized her own life and her children's in what moral theology would recognize as an overscrupulous interpretation of the sacrament of marriage; a young Canadian student, also a lector, inspired by a social justice encyclical, whose parish pastor screamed that she was possessed for 'criticizing the Church' by suggesting that bequest money be used to start a homeless shelter; the fact that the Pontifical Biblical Commission, having studied the question of ordaining women at Paul VI's instruction, found that the New Testament could not of itself support the exclusion, and that the Commission supported women's ordination by a 12 to 5 vote.

Her love for the Church is evident, as is her strong disapproval of the abuse of reason to claim divine origin for irrational stereotypes imposed by clerical fiat under the guise of infallible authority. Grounding all is her argument that "to accommodate a theological position based on genitalia rather than one based on the Genesis account of male and female both made in the image of God, Pope John Paul II and those who aagree with him have been forced to distort othe doctrines of the Catholic Church. These include what theologians call christology, or teachings on the nature of Jesus; soteriology, which describes the work and redemptive mission of Jesus; the resurrection of Jesus; and ecclesiology, or the nature of the Church and in particular, the sacrament of baptism."

Perhaps her remaining faithful to the Church despite rampant clerical abuse will be seen as heroic as Elisabetta Canori Mora's.

Joanna Manning presents in a logical and well-thought-out manner how those who "lead" the Catholic church have systematically (and illogically) kept women "in their place." Nothing I could say in my comments would say it any better than Manning does throughout her book. She is not bitter or angry, and with her historical perspective, well-documented, she is easy to follow.

Those of us who truly believed that the Vatican Council II would bring about positive change and an evolution of new respect for all of the People of God have watched as officials attempted to "put the toothpaste back into the tube," at least regarding the true definition of "Human Rights." Manning is hopeful that these current times (i.e., these very hard and challenging times in the church) will pass and the legacy of John Paul II will not be viewed in a favorable light. For those of us who are hanging on by a thread of slim hope, Manning reminds us that the Church is not the Vatican. This book is a bright light. You won't want to read this only one time, but the first time will be the most exhilarating. Highly recommended for women and men, Catholic or not. Would love to see it discussed in parishes throughout the U.S.