This is a terrific and highly readable biography of a fascinating and enigmatic ruler, set in a period of great political upheaval. Anyone interested in the details of "why" and "how" things happened - not merely "what" happened - will find this book immensely interesting.

Kendall's style is gripping, but he tends to be a partisan for his subject. At times, his bias becomes a little annoying, particularly where more than one "spin" could be put on a certain course of action. The reader must be careful to make his own judgements in many places.

That said, Kendall provides a wealth of quotes from contemporary sources, and his scholarship is unquestionable. This is a great book, covering a time and place that is too little addressed in most popular histories.

In LOUIS XI THE UNIVERSAL SPIDER, biographer-historian Paul Murray Kendall says the Burgundian chronicler Molinet called Louis "the universal spider" and the sobriquet unfortunately stuck. He says Louis was further demonized by 19th Century historians and writers who failed to do their homework. Louis XI was not so much spider as he was diplomat and peace-maker in an age when men looked suspiciously on such behaviour, and combat was viewed as the honorable and noble approach to settling disputes. Louis used his head and the end result was to bring the feudal era in France to a close and help usher in the modern world.

Louis reckoned the ceaseless bickering and fighting of the nobles was destructive to the health of the countryside and the people of France. The common people of the towns and villages agreed with Louis as did the merchants and tradesmen. Louis is not remembered for winning any great battles. The major reason Louis was so successful in defeating his enemies was owing to his understanding of finance. He understood that those who fight must finance their wars and without funds, their access to armaments and mercenaries evaporates. The clever king also understood that when the countryside is destroyed an army that crawls on its belly cannot fight.

Charles VII was the father of Louis XI, that same Dauphin whom Joan the Maid of Orleans managed to have crowned. The ungrateful Charles VII did nothing to save Joan once she had been captured by the English and the Duke of Burgundy, but the six-year old boy who became Louis XI never forgot the saint and he held a lifelong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary after his encounter with her. When Louis was most pressed he prayed to the Virgin, and his monument to her at Clery still exists.

The Duke of Burgundy during Charles VII's reign was Phillip the Good, and when Louis XI ran afoul of his father, he sought shelter with Duke Phillip who sheltered him. Thus Louis spent a good part of his young manhood in the company of his dour cousin Charles the Bold who became the Duke of Burgundy on his father's death. Charles also became Louis' life-long enemy and it was Charles' man who slandered Louis by referring to him as "the universal spider."

Louis had one aspiration--to unite France in peace, and promote commerce and the general welfare of the people. Charles the Bold fancied himself another Julius Caesar--a warrior-king. Charles set about expanding his Duchy until Burgundy reached from the county of Burgundy near the Jura mountains to Flanders and Holland on the North Sea.

Louis was no warrior-king. While other lords ran around in ermine and velvet and jousted at tournaments, Louis donned the hunter's clothes and spent most days in the rural areas chasing animals with his hunting dogs and comingling with the common folk. When he wasn't hunting animals Louis collected them for his vast menagerie.

On most occasions Louis tried to make peace not war. He used his head, outwitted his enemies including the English king Edward IV, and at the end of his life left his heir Charles VIII a united France. Kendall obviously admired Louis and remarks that he was one of the most formidable human beings who ever lived.

I have been reading the series Alison Weir has been writing on the English nobility, and enjoyed reading LOUIS XI not only because I want to know more about the history of France, but because in reading about Louis XI, I was able to understand why certain exchanges, conflicts, etc. regarding Edward IV were important. If you found Alison Weir's book on the WAR OF THE ROSES intriguing, you will appreciate this book. Kendall's writing is comparable to Weir's and he has based his writing on his original research--though he is quite dependent on Commynes as are most of Louis' biographers.

I bought this book from Alibris, and I recommend you find a copy if you're interested in this period of history. I am puzzled as to why this book is out of print.

Paul Murray Kendall's "Louis XI" illuminates a seldom studied area of world history. France of the fifteenth century was a fragmented collection of duchies and fiefdoms ruled over by independent nobles. Although they were technically vassals to the French King, in reality they often ignored the King and ruled their lands pretty much as they pleased.

During his reign from 1461 until his death in 1483, Louis XI used his wits and artful negotiation to beat the militarily stronger Duke of Burgundy and the other nobles of his kingdom while at the same time fending off foreign foes, Britain and Austria.

Louis XI was a king who travelled around his kingdom on a regular basis to learn what was happening in the towns and provinces of France. He also developed a network of communications to stay in touch with even the farthest reaches of his kingdom. This network of communications earned him the nickname "the Univesal Spider."

Kendall's book brings Louis XI to life in a very exciting narrative. The book gathers and holds the reader's attention until the very end.

Bonnie Hamre's "A LADY'S QUEST" has great sexual tension but 'finishes' (& I use the term loosely) just when things get real interesting.....Dougal MacDonald, Duke of Sutherland rushed to London to make the lovely & newly-unattached widow Antonia his mistress. Determined to remain single, Antonia needs to find a completely satisfying lover in order to resist the Duke's charms.

Some scenes were kinda dragging & I also expected a lot more than was delivered in Alice Gaines's "A SPINNER'S DREAM".....Novice priestess of the goddess Dendra, Kareth sa-Damil was exiled to her forest cottage when the escaped churl Thiele burst in on her solitude. Grateful for her help in evading the slave hunters, Thiele thanks her his way--as the recipient of his considerable talents of a love slave.

My personal favorite, Jeanie LeGendre's "THE GIFT," is highly romantic yet positively scorching! Alessandra is the unwilling 'gift' bestowed upon Sultan Soliman. Determined to prove her unsuitability as an houri, she challenges him to 3 nights of erotic resistance.

Ivy Landon's "THE PROPOSAL" is rather shocking & kinky.....CEO Craig Logan is determined to bring his company president Tracey Vennet to a sexual climax! His plan includes a 'spanking' game of dominance/submission.

Don't miss the rest of the "Secrets" series: volumes 2, 3, 4, etc...You won't be disappointed!

Wow! I was tracking down Bonnie Hamre's works and fell in love with the Secrets anthologies. They are provocative, heat-provoking fantasies and I enjoyed them all, but I rooted for the duke of Sutherland who wants Antonia, and he wants her now. I laughed at the idea of meeting as antagonists by night and as masked lovers during the afternoon... hot hot hot! Or am I giving too much away?

This book was exactly what I was looking for. Sensual and imaginative, the author's characters had me 'there' with them, my heart beating and my breath coming fast, as I became enveloped in the story. Never tawdry or cheap, this hot romance left me craving more. The settings of different time periods and places, made it even more interesting. I can't wait to read Volume 2.

While I felt "The Gammage Cup" was a far better book than its sequel, I nevertheless enjoyed finding "The Whisper of Glocken" lurking on a library shelf. The Minnipins' world is a colorful, well-detailed world to visit, and there's no shortage of eccentric characters. The main theme of the story is not as clear here: where "The Gammage Cup" had a clear message about the value of retaining one's individuality in the face of stultifying tradition, "The Whisper of Glocken" is less focused. The theme of the story seems to be, however, what exactly is the nature of heroism? What constitutes a hero? And who decides whether one has achieved hero status or not?

Glocken, the idealistic bell-ringer for the village of Water Gap, spends his days reading and dreaming of the glorious exploits of the five Outlaw-Heroes of Slipper-on-the-Water (familiar to readers of "The Gammage Cup" as the eccentric Muggles, Mingy, Curley Green, Gummy, and Walter the Earl) while he waits for the chance to prove himself a hero. When disaster does come to the Land Between the Mountains, in the form of a strange flooding that causes the Watercress River to reverse direction, Glocken finds himself sent off on a quest to restore the river's natural flow, along with a jumble of quirky characters: Scumble the timid sluice-keeper, self-righteous Gam Lutie, reclusive Crustabread, and warmhearted Silky--by no means hero material in Glocken's judgemental eyes. On his part, he is determined to prove himself a worthy successor to the Outlaw-Heroes, even if he has to share his quest with these misfits.

Heroism turns out to be more painful, confusing--and downright hard to recognize when it shows up--than Glocken reckons. Nor are the Outlaw-Heroes what he expects when he finally reaches Slipper-on-the-Water: the exotic Curley Green is sweet but flutterheaded, Mingy the Fearless is a world-class grouch; Muggles the Wise is disorganized and thinks in proverbs. Yet over the course of the book, Glocken's oddly-assorted companions prove themselves to be as resourceful, strong-hearted, and thoroughly eccentric as their predecessors the Outlaw-Heroes. Even Glocken, disillusioned by his meeting with the living legends, rises to the challenge in retrieving the long-lost Whisper of Glocken (a mysterious bell that once belonged to Glocken's ancestor of the same name, lost when the Minnipins left the Land Outside to settle the Watercress) and restoring the river's course.

While "The Whisper of Glocken" does not match the depth and brilliance of "The Gammage Cup", it is nonethless a good read and a welcome return to the Minnipins' world. Especially enjoyable are Glocken's first impressions of "The Gammage Cup"'s main characters--he doesn't recognize his heroes when he meets them--and the strange world Glocken encounters in the Land Beyond the Mountains. All the main characters have their own particular quirks, whether it's the way Scumble always smells of fish oil or the fact that Crustabread speaks so infrequently that his voice always creaks before he says anything.

Summary: Not "The Gammage Cup," but definitely worth the time taken to read it.

This is adventure book. If you haven't read "The Gammage Cup" then read that one first. If you have read the first book in the series then please take careful note that the main characters of the last book aren't the main one's here. You are introduced to completely new characters but at least the old characters are still in the book. It is filled with excitement and adventure and I guarentee you will love it.

I think that the fantasy book, The Whisper of Glocken, was a good book because it had a nice, adventurous atmoshpere. There were a veriety of diffrent character personalities. This book is a nice end to the two books in the Minnipins series. One of the nice things about this book was that all of the characters had a savior-part, so you take part in each of their piont of views. I also enjoyed the diffrent creatures Kendall has sprouted from her imagination. The Diggers, egg-shaped plants and many others show what a brilliant imagination Kendall has. I suggest this book for ages 7 & up. I should think that it would be a classic amoung fantasy lovers.

Soulen's work is a nice introduction to the issue of supersessionism from someone who disagrees with this doctrine. The best part of this work is his categorization of the three main types of supersessionism: (1) punitive (Israel is rejected because of disobedience); (2) economic (Israel's special role has expired with the coming of the church); and (3) structural (the Hebrew Scriptures are ignored).
Soulen also does a good job of showing how theologians such as Kant and Schleiermacher have contributed to the view that God is forever done with national Israel.
The reader should be aware that this book is mostly historical and philosophical. It does not grapple with keys texts such as Matthew 21:43; Galatians 6:16; and 1 Peter 2:9-10. Thus, someone looking for a biblical examination of supersessionism will need to look elsewhere. Still, for an overall introduction to supersessionism from a historical point of view, this is a good book to get.

I agree with Dr. Soulen completely on his assessment of the problem. Supersession is simply incorrect doctrine. I agree with all of his analysis of the latent problems that exist in supersessionist doctrine. I am completely in favor of unifying the content of all of the Scriptures, Old and New Testament.

I disagree strongly with Dr. Soulen's new interpretive scheme that accomplishes these goals, however. I do believe there is a way to unify the Scriptures, and to reconcile Old and New Testament, Law and Grace, Israel and the Church. But Dr. Soulen believes it is necessary to see God _primarily_ as consummator rather than redeemer, while I would propose that the secret to unifying the scriptures is to see him as the revelator.

Anyway, the field is complex and would be difficult to cover in a short review. The following two quotes from the concluding chapter of Dr. Soulen's book will have to suffice to illustrate the implications of his approach:

Page 172:

"The church is commissioned to make disciples of all the nations... It has no comparable commission to seek the "conversion" of the Jewish people. This is especially true of the gentile church. Nothing in the Apostolic Witness [the New Testament] remotely suggests the validity of a gentile-Christian mission to non-Christian Jews. Christians should not hide or minimize their faith in conversation with Jews. But the church, above all in its gentile portion, should cease organized mission efforts among the Jewish people. Instead the church of the Gentiles should seek to live before the Jewish people in such a way that Israel can reasonably infer that here the nations of the world truly worhip the God of Israel and in this way manifest the truth of its gospel. (see Rom 11:13-14)."

Page 175:

"The unity of the Christian canon is not best unlocked by insisting that everything in the Bible points toward Jesus Christ... Without doubt everything turns on Christ, but not everything concerns Christ."

I am trying to be fair in extracting enough of the above passages to show that Dr. Soulen is not completely one-sided. If I had left out some of those sentences, of course the passages would have seemed more extreme.

Nevertheless, I disagree with Dr. Soulen on these specific points and several others. I do believe that the unity of the Scriptures is best unlocked by showing how everything points toward Jesus Christ. I believe the Scriptures document the gradual revelation of the nature of God, for his own glory. I believe that Hebrews 1:1-4 states that Jesus is the final Word of revelation of God's character.

I think it is possible to see the Scriptures this way and still avoid the problems that Dr. Soulen (correctly) decries, those of triumphalism and latent gnosticism.

Despite our disagreement, the motivation segment of this book is right-on, and I am glad that Dr. Soulen has exposed these problems as well as he did. I hope this can be the beginning of further discussion of ways to resolve these issues.

We use the phrase "Judeo-Christian" constantly, implying that there is a common faith tradition between the Christians and the Jews. But the history of biblical interpretation by Christians has usually relegated the Jewish contribution to the past, treating the Old Testament as a kind of prologue -- an old testament -- which has been superseded by the truth -- the new testament. Dr. Soulen points out the tragic error in this approach. The book is neither liberal nor conservative, not fundamentalist or deconstructionist. It is a confident and hopeful basis for Christians to understand their faith and their Bible while still recognizing the ongoing reality and necessity of God's covenant with the Jews.

RT Kendall does a good job of showing the importance of the Holy Spirit's work in the life of the believer. He shows clearly the importance of not only being filled with the Spirit but also the importance of those special annointings, outpourings of the Holy Spirit. Non-charismatics will reject this book as a Baptist gone bad but I am of the opinion that Kendall has become a Baptist who has found the truth of the Holy Spirit.

The "Anointing" provides a meaningful discussion on that vital component that makes our gifts empowered by God. The biblical illustration that Kendall uses of Saul, Samuel, and David to show yesterday, today's, and tomorrow's anointing is extremely good. The book provides a excellent framework for one to evaluate where they are in reference to what God is doing today. It also provides a platform for churches and denominations to detirmine whether they are in the mainstream of God's will. While the author's emphasis seems to be on the dynamic (charismatic) aspect, he does close the work with an appeal to remain balanced in the Word (rational, dogmatic, intellectual) and Spirit (expressive, experiential, miraculous).

This isn't a book like you would excpect. It was very good! It was well written. I really enjoyed it. It really showed good information on American Authors. It gives you a lot of information about these authors. I recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about American literature and authors.

This is a well written account of the day to day life of the men involved in the Civil War. I think it is much more interesting than the Red Badge of Courage.

Personally, I was amazed at the wealth of information cramped into the 300 pages of this book. I can definitely say that, after reading the collection of essays, I have gained a better understanding of what it is like to live both as an African-American and as a homosexual (I am a gay Caucasian) in America today. The book calls itself an "unprecedented undertaking", and frankly, I couldn't agree more. It was essentially written to provide a platform for debate between the leading minds of the African-American and gay communities on the two volatile topics that often divide them: racism and homophobia. It includes a wide variety of essays written by well-known historians, political analysts, activists, writers, and philosophers. The topics adressed include high-profile hate crimes against blacks and gays, racism in gay/lesbian rights organizations, homophobia in the black church, the spread of HIV from the gay community to the black community, and stereotypes in books and films. One of my favorite essays in this book is called "Whosoever Is Welcome Here: An Interview with Reverend Edwin C. Sanders III" by Gary David Comstock. Through Comstock, Sanders shares the strugges of his predominently-black Metropolitan church in fighting homophobia. His ministry is centered on the words of John, which say "whosoever believes... shall have eternal life." I will admit that I didn't find every essay interesting, but what I did find was that there is a large quantity of information in this book that would be extremely helpful to students writing research papers. But even if you're not writing a research paper, I'd still recommend the book, as it puts a wonderful perspective on the challenges of living in two, sometimes conflicting, minority groups.

With the Christian right actively working to drum up support among black ministers, this book is extremely important. Brandt and his contributors want to bridge the gap between blacks and gays. They also make it obvious that the two groups are not mutually exclusive, that black gays and lesbians have an especially difficult row to hoe in this country.

This is a very good book for graduate-level courses. It is especially useful if the student took an elementary level Bayesian Statistics/Econometrics course. The organization of the chapters are different from most other books. Chapters contain between 40 and 60 "little sections," where a section can be one paragraph long. It is easy to understand what is fundamental and what is peripheral while reading the book.
However, it has a considerable number of errata. It is quite difficult to understand why the author have not prepared a list of errata and corrections. The errors are generally not conceptual, but usually mathematical typos. They also exist in some problems, which first make you think they are unsolvable. It can take some time to figure out where the error is. Moreover, errors also exist in some solutions inside chapters. The best thing the authour would do is to prepare a list of corrections on his website (this is done by many authors in the field such as Peter Lee).

I found this book to be my constant reference.
Like Tonny's narative style and the part on NIG Priors!
Contains valuable contributions by the author
hard to find elsewhere.

Highly recommended!

In an age when one is quick to act, our causes often loss energy, no matter how important the issues at hand are. Be prepared and be ready for the changes that need to be made. Read this once or twice and always keep it handy. I often review it after meetings or when I need to think of a way to empower the people.

This book is based on the organizing model of the Midwest Center for Labor research, but could be useful in any type of organizing -- from citizen's groups to national policy campaigns. The book takes you through a step-by-step organizing model that helps you to define your goals, choose an issue and think of strategies and tactics for accomplishing your goals. It contains many worksheets that would be useful for group decision-making processes. Unlike most organizing manuals, this one is clear, concise, and very helpful

Kendall presents here what is basically a common-sense introduction to the use of Strong's Concordance. Look up the word in the Concordance, get the word's number, look it up in the dictionary. Pretty simple, really. Unfortunately, though, he acts as if the root of a word is the same as the definition; this is not quite true. Getting the root does help with a deeper understanding, but it's not the "true" definition of the word. A few of the examples (ref. John 1:1) are also flawed, as he throws in his own explanation (along the lines "but of course that's not what it means because of X"). The coupons in the back are a nice value, though.

If you've never done even the most cursory etymology, this book might be useful for about five minutes. Otherwise, it might not be worth your money.

So, you have purchased a Strong's and you want to know how to use it. Strong's is thick enough to warrant a little how-to manual. And this book fills the need nicely.

It goes into the basics of working with Strong's--how to do word searches as well as some other techniques that will greatly benefit your study time.

Remember, for any Bible tool, the better you know how to use it, the better that tool will serve you. Just a few dollars spent on learning how to use Strong's now will pay off in spades down the road.

Since this book is so affordable, do yourself a favor and get this book. And then use your Strong's with confidence.

Robert P. Kendall's book, Getting The Most From Your New Strong's Exhausive Bible Concordance, allows for the beginning bible student to look up words back the the hebrew, greek, and chaldea. This book gives you step-by-step instruction on how to look up words back to its original language. It allows the reader how to understand and how to insert it into the passage they are reading. The book is only 54 pages long, and it goes from easy to hard word translations ( I shouldn't say hard just requires more digging and thought). If you have the desire to learn more from God's word and have recently bought a Strong's Concordance or just thinking about it, then purchase this book. It is short, to the point, and enhances your bible studys. So if you are interest in in depth knowledge of God's word, through the use of Strong's concordance then dig through your change jar and buy this book.