By the title and the chapter names of this book, I expected it to be set in a more Tolkien setting. This book starts out in what I believe to be 20th century South America. When you first read it, you expect a sort of Indiana Jones storyline. Boy does that change in a hurry. I won't spoil the whole story but I will say this, the imagery is fantastic. I was able to picture vividly, so much of what Merritt describes in this book. I will also say that for me, this book went very quicly. Though not a simple book, it is easy to read. What I mean to say is, you can immerse yourself in this title and find yourself finishing it very quickly. I highly recommend it.

Originally published in hardback as "Their Finest Hour", now bearing its original UK title. Not a formal history as such, but an effort to convey the flow and feel of the times. R. Collier has written a number of good WWII history books and this too is very well written. P. Kaplan has been the artistic mind behind a series of books of this type and format (see note). The book includes many photographs both from 1940 and as the sites, people and artifacts appeared when the book was first published (1988+/-), Sidebars have bits of poetry, songs, and passages from memoirs. (Note: in the same format are: "One Last Look", Little Friends", "Round the Clock", "Wolfpack", Convoy", "Fighter Pilot", and "Bombers". The first three are also excellent, the middle two very good, the last two fair.)

Published in the States as "Their Finest Hour". This is an enjoyable and evocative presentation of the Battle of Britain. The text, pictures and sidebars work well together. Great addition to an excellent series.

Collier's second collection is the most somber of the four total collections he's put out to date. This book is about loss- what we lose along the way, sometimes without realizing we've lost anything, as we plod our way through the mazes and intricacies of life. I deeply admire this fine collection, even though it is my least favorite (as an entire collection) of all of Collier's collections. This book is about consolation, too. How do we come to realize what we lose along the way, grieve the losses, and console ourselves with what we're left with? Clearly, it can be done. Collier helps us do it in "The Folded Heart."

An early poem called "Skimming," sets the tone. It shows us a teenage boy speaker, who only knows his neighbors by the sounds they make in their swimming pool at night, and by the dead things he finds floating in the pool when he cleans it. The poem ends exquisitely by concluding, in effect, that it was all "nothing more / than blue shadow on blue shadow."

Isn't that a sad truth? Isn't it beautiful and healing to pay attention to it? And to grieve it?

Other favorite poems of mine in the book include "North Corridor," which is a powerfully compressed series of tercets about the physical perils of life and childhood, and how we're invariably drawn to them, and "Feedback," which is a glorious transportation of an adolescent soul through a process of self-discovery, and a celebration of relatively youthful innocence.

The book ends with "The Cave," which is a brilliantly rendered kaleidescope of thoughts and images, all about our tendency to seek perfection, our obsession to seek perfection, even in things and events that are long past, and therefore obviously imperfect. How does it change us when we judge ourselves, people close to us, or other people, places, and things, against an obviously hopeless and exasperating standard of perfection? Why do we consistently do it?

This book is very somber, powerful, and marvelous in its depth, all at once. I highly recommend it.

"The French and Indian War: 1660-1763" obviously covers much more than the few years during which the English and French fought over the division of the North American continent. In this four volume in "The Drama of American History" series authors Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier trace how England's other rivals for control of America were eliminated over this period until the only source of conflict left would be between the British and their own colonials. The authors point out, and I concur, that this period between the establishment of the first colonies (i.e., Plymouth and Jamestown) and the fight for independence, is the most neglected period of American history. This series offers a fairly unique approach to American history by focusing on "core content" rather than a blizzard of names and dates. From this book students will get a good sense of not only what happened but why as England eliminated its competition.

Consequently, this volume offers up six chapters focusing on key issues. The first three chapters of the volume are devoted to the first central theme regarding the struggle between the European powers for control of the North American continent: (1) The European Colonies in the Late Seventeenth Century establishes which parts of North American were controlled (or at least claimed) by European powers and which of these early colonies were actually starting to prosper in the New World; (2) The Dutch and the English in America focuses on how the English eliminated the Dutch and Swedes from the equation; and (3) The Spanish Retreat traces how geographical considerations and contentment with their enormous holdings in elsewhere in the New World stopped the Spanish from expanding their holdings in North America beyond Florida. The Colliers underscore the importance of this by postulating a Latin America that might have begun at the southern border of Virginia.

The chapters in the second half of the volume look a the second central theme, the maturing of the colonies as they turned from outposts of Europe into lands with their own society and culture: (4) Pennsylvania on the Delaware River looks at the colony founded by William Penn as an exemplar colony that gives young readers an idea of how colonies began to grow and prosper; (5) The French and the English in North America studies how by the start of the 18th century only two European nations were contesting for control of North America east of the Mississippi River. But while the English were interested in settling the continent (and the colonies continued to grow and prosper), the French saw it more as a source of products such as timber and fur; and (6) The French and Indian War begins with George Washington's pivotal role in starting this war between European powers in America. Although he participated in two defeats at Fort Necessity and Fort Duquesne, Washington became a military hero to the Colonials. The Colliers detail the course of the war, including the key battle on the Plains of Abraham, and conclude the volume with the short-term effects of the war regarding the new division of the continent between the British and French.

Ultimately the French and Indian War is the key stepping stone to the American Revolution because it was the efforts of the British Parliament to tax the colonials to help pay for both that war and future military efforts in the New World that outraged the sensibilities of Americans. That outraged eventually translated into first the movement and then the war for American independence. As with the other volumes in this excellent series, "The French and Indian War: 1660-1763" keeps the focus on the key chain of events that define the history of this period. The result is that young readers (as well as their teachers) will have a clear sense of the logic, if not the inevitability, of what happened during this time period. The book is illustrated with historical etchings and paintings, as well as contemporary color photographs of historical rennactors and historic buildings. These illustrations help to underscore one of the main threads of this volume, which is the way in which the colonies were becoming more prosperous, which affected their self-image as being the equal of those living in England. As we shall see in the next volume, "The American Revolution: 1763-1783," this belief will run rather contrary to how the English viewed the colonists.

The relationship of Frederick Nietzsche's philosophy to Sigmund Freud's psychiatric concepts has long been an object of interest for students and practitioners of psychoanalysis. In Freud And Nietzsche, educator, historian and philosopher Paul-Laurent Assoun methodically reconstructs Freud's encounter with Nietzsche, his personal interpretations and the contribution of Nietzsche's champions. Assoun articulately examines the thematic similarities that appear on the surface to reveal close affinities between the two theorists. The analogies between the theories and writings of these two influential and original thinkers are fascinating, informative, and a vital part of critical theory which continues to be actively discussed in regard to critical theory to this very day. Ably translated into English by Richard L. Collier. Jr., Paul-Laurent Assoun's Freud And Nietzsche is a significant and highly recommended contribution to the study of Freud, Nietzsche, and psychoanalysis.

Since 1911, the Robert J. Collier Trophy has been awarded annually to individuals and organizations, for "the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America, with respect to improving the performance, efficiency, and safety of air or space vehicles, the value of which has been thoroughly demonstrated by actual use during the preceding year." Since 1929, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), have received the trophy twenty times.

This book, originally publishing by NASA, as NASA Special Publication 4219 (NASA SP-4219), is a collection of essays by sixteen different authors, covering all twenty Collier trophy awards that either NASA or NACA has received. The book also examines the evolution in the award process from awarding specific individuals to awarding large groups of people. The first five chapters cover the five awards that NACA won. These awards focused on specific research topics and individuals and included such topics as supersonic and transonic flow, drag, and one engineering topic for airplane wing de-icing. The remaining chapters examine NASA contributions to aerospace. As one would expect most of the awards were given to the manned space flight projects such as Mercury, Apollo (5), Skylab and the Shuttle (4); however, the Voyager robotic space probe, the LANDSAT Earth resources satellite, the X-15 and the advanced turbo-prop project also received this honor.

Since each chapter in the book covers a specific topic and time period, itis in essence a mini-book, so it is therefore possible to read this book is several short increments without missing any of the significant points. This format allows the reader, especially those who may not have a technical background, to digest the topics quite easy. Furthermore, I should point out that each of these chapters is written by some of the leading aerospace historians.

I only have one very small complaint about the book. That is, since sixteen authors wrote this book, sometimes the transition between chapters and references to other chapters is not very smooth. This, however, is a very minor problem, and does not take away from this wonderful book.

This book keeps the readers enthralled from the beginning of the story till the last page. The main character goes by many names and changes many identities, which keeps you in suspense. This is a great historical and intriguing mystery, set in the time of Napolean. Collier, is a wonderful English writer, that has brought history into a masterpiece of art. This book is a page turner, leading its readers throughout the night until the book is completed. Its readers will be asking for more. If you want to read a great intriguing and satifying book next to a warm fire, then you must get The Gamester!

The signal to noise ratio in the discussion of Globalization makes it hard to sort out what is really going on. Much of the discussion comes from anecdotal evidence or from a particular point of view. Of course, it is impossible to be completely objective about anything, but since the mission of the World Bank, the publishers of this study, is "a world free of poverty" it's point of view at least attempts to not view globalization from the perspective of any particular nation or group and to represent different views.

The result is a strongly documented case for the beneficial effects of our increasingly globalized world. This books is a good reference books with facts about the distribution of income, poverty rates throughout the world, changes in GDP over time and other things that are frequently misrepresented by anti-globalization folks.

The book covers many things that are in books like The Lexus and the Olive Tree, A Future Perfect and so on about how the legal and social structure affect investment and growth. This book references the original studies and is a good starting point for research.

It also points out that the forces towards globalization, better communication, transportation and financial markets can easily be stopped in their tracks by trade wars as happened in the 1930's so educating oneself about the benefits of an integrated world economy can help make sure we do not have a repeat of the Great Depression.

Continuing his very successful (critcally at least I have no idea how well it sold, though the book trumpets that it's an "international best seller") Helliconia series about a planet with a two thousand year long revolution and two hundred year seasons (give or take), he expands and clarifies all the stuff that happened in the first book, which you don't even need to read to understand. So much time has passed since the first book that everything that happened is mostly the stuff of distorted legend if they even remember it at all. This time around he chooses to focus on one group of people over a period of maybe ten years or so instead of the massive scope of the first book and he proves he can pull off both with ease. Court intrigue, suspense, the slow heating of the planet amidst the politics of the planet, it's all there. And just so you remember that Aldiss is a science-fiction writer, he expands on the notion of Earth watching the planet and shows that they'll have more of a role in the series than you would expect. All in all, incredibly detailed planetbuilding by someone not normally known for that sort of stuff, this is the type of book that people label a "classic" and for good reason. Everything works, even the plot technique of showing us the aftermath of something and then bouncing back in the narrative to show us what happened before (and they passing it at some point, it can get confusing if you're not paying attention) works. Even with the heat and whatnot, Helliconia becomes a place you want to live. I know I do. Criminally this book is out of print, something that should be recitified by someone (listening publishers, this series should not only be available in Britian!) but if you ever find it used, snap it up, it might be hard to find but definitely worth the time spent searching for it.