I've read both this book and the Jenny, but I can't really say why. The quality of the prose is uninspired (although I guess I like its snappiness) and I have the uncomfortable feeling the author believes his own conspiracy theories. All-in-all however, I think I'll read his next one - maybe I'll find out why I like them!

Mr. Bernstein does a great job bringing to life the interactions among the Wright Brothers, Boss Kettering, and John Patterson in turn of the century Dayton, Ohio. Did you know John Patterson (founder of National Cash Register)invented the canned sales pitch and direct mail marketing? And the way the book covers the five year period it took the Wright Brothers to concur flight is spellbinding. I have purchased five copies of this book to give to various friends, all of whom loved it.

This book represents a good historic insight to hotels and their development in the worlds regions. As an hotel industry professional, I find the details of yesteryear a delight recorded in this well planned and illustrated volume. The book shows a slight bias toward the English tradition but as Elaine has clearly researched some of Englands older towns and cities, it is charming to see how grand the home market was. The selection of the international hotels misses many of those hotels that I would consider of the Grand genre but that gives Elaine a reason to write the next volume.

There was not much to do with the painting of murals included in this book at all. The title is rather misleading. If, however, you are interested in beautiful illusions in sculpture and decorating, this would be the perfect place.

As a summer outing, we decided to take the 3 hour bus tour around Grand Island. We have lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for 8 years and have been on Grand Island, but not to this extent. Grand Island Story by Castle was on the bus and my daughter and I started reading it and bought it afterwards. We were told parts of it were not absolutely true, but all in all the book held our interest. I would recommmend it to anyone interested in the history of the Munising area.

Phelan's biography of Terence V. Powderly, along with his previous works on William Green and John Mitchell, places him in the premiere rank of labor biographers. His task in GRAND MASTER WORKMAN is to present a revised and much more favorable view of Powderly and his fourteen year (1879-1893) tenure as head of the Knights of Labor. Phelan targets the generations of American labor historians, particularly Norman Ware and Philip S. Foner, who dismissed Powderly and the Knights as a last gap of the utopian traditions of the antebellum years which were unsuited to the economic realities of the Gilded Age. This argument was specifically the case in regard to the rise of the rival and ultimately successful American Federation of Labor (AFL) with its more apolitical craft unionism. Powderly himself was charged with, among other things, being sensitive, vain, naive, and arrogant. Recent studies of the Knights, especially on the local level, have transformed the view of the Knights into that of an authentic working-class organization with a convincing critique of industrial capitalism. Unfortunately, the view of Powderly had not been transformed, until now. Phelan's Powderly is not a pusillanimous utopian but a worthy if somewhat flawed hero who articulated the collective progressive vision of the working masses in the face of the oppression and inhumanity of the industrial capitalist system and its leaders which eventually crushed the Knights. Phelan uses the voluminous archival papers of Powderly, on deposit at The Catholic University of America and available on microfilm, to present Powderly in his own words. The liberal use of quotes, such as Powderly's opinion of his former protege and personal Judas, John William Hayes, as a "Skunk" and a "Pimple," are a special treat and a great insight into Powderly's personality. Although the focus was on labor, Phelan could have written more on Powderly's later career as a government official, first as Commissioner-General of Immigration, 1897-1902, then as Chief of the Division of Information of the Bureau of Immigration, 1907-1921, and Commissioner of Conciliation of the Deparment of Labor, 1921 until his death on 24 June 1924. It was during this time that Powderly became a bosom friend and correspondent of the great labor advocate, 'Mother' Mary Harris Jones, the celebrated 'Miners' Angel.' In conclusion, Phelan's GRAND MASTER WORKMAN is the most definitive and balanced account of Powderly's years in the Knights of Labor but a more complete and detailed biography encompassing the rest of his career is still needed. END END

With the publication of Elpeleg's excellent biography, Hajj Amin al-Husayni is now the subject of six biographies in the English alone, as well as several in other languages. Why so much attention to a seemingly minor and failed figure now repudiated by his own people? Because, as Elpeleg shows, Hajj Amin established many of the basics of Palestinian nationalism which endure to this day-from the adoption of the 1916 Sharifian banner of as the Palestinian flag to the inveterate anti-Semitic tone of Palestinian politics. Elpeleg credits him, "more than any other figure," with turning a local conflict into a major regional crisis. More: Hajj Amin determined the lines of Palestinian politics that endure decades after his influence eroded: "There is almost nothing in the PLO doctrine, or in the national charters of the Palestine National Council, which had not already been conceived and given expression by Haj Amin." Despite his profound importance, the man is neglected by his heirs today, embarrassed as they are by his overt extremism, his failure, and his smell of evil (he joined the Nazi cause and succeeded in preventing Jews from escaping the Nazi death machine). Still, along with Yasir Arafat, he remains one of the two outstanding figures of Palestinian nationalism; thanks to Elpeleg's meticulous, comprehensive, and fast-moving account, we have a real sense who this figure was and how it was that he did uniquely much to poison relations between Jews and Muslims in Palestine.

Middle East Quarterly, June 1994

Beatrice Bruteau tells us about a possible new social order based on the change from the current domination paradigm to a future communion paradigm.
In the domination paradigm, individuals are more like objects identified by a number of attributes with which they tend to identify themselves and which make them different from other individuals.
In the communion paradigm, persons are made in the image of the Trinity. They are indescribable subjects, who continuously give and share their life with others and live by the life of the whole.
As far as I am concerned, I think that the most enlightening idea she puts forward in order to help us understand this fundamental change is the shift from the particle metaphor to the field metaphor.
In the domination paradigm, she compares individuals to particles that tend to live an autonomous type of life, where they fight or ignore one another, or sometimes associate, but always remain external to each other.
In the communion paradigm, she compares persons to fields, in the sense of interacting patterns of energy. This image makes it easier to understand the mutual indwelling of persons, which she claims to be the basis of the new communion paradigm.
When you add to this, the fact that she identifies this radiated energy with pure unmotivated creative love, you have a lot to meditate in order to tune your own mind to this radically new way of thinking ourselves and our world.

A Grand Passion was a very good book. As a dancer myself I found it very believing and interesting. I have read this book five times and all of those times I enjoyed it even more. I thought that the author did a very good job of putting three generations of a families history of dance and love together. I highly reccomend this book because it is very interesting and believable.

The Grand Prix Attack is an attacking line against the Sicilian. Mr Lane explains all the main lines with complete games and enough detail to play it with confidence. There are times when Black has good chances and these are covered fairly.
A good introduction to this dangerous chess opening.