Patsy and the Declaration is an historical fiction novel set in Philadelphia during the summer of 1776. The main character is Patsy Black, a twelve year old girl who is the daughter of the local tavern and inn owner. One afternoon, Patsy meets a red-haired stranger. As a result of his pecular behavior, Patsy comes to the conclusion that he is a British spy. That same day, the local blacksmith's shop is set on fire. Patsy is convinced the fire is the work of a British spy and is determined to find him. Patsy and the Declaration provides a fairly even balance between historical fact and fiction, especially concerning the atmosphere of Philadelpia during this time period. It clearly describes how confusing and scary these events would be to a child. The main character, Patsy, and the secondary characters tend to be flat, static charcters. Patsy does not seem to change muich from from the beginning to the end. She does not learn any new lessons, except that people who seem to be friends may really be an enemy. However, this concept was not emphasized much in the book. The plot of the story seems more important than the actual characters. The story is told in limited third person. The reader knows what Patsy is thinking and sees most of the events through her eyes. Consequently, the reader is kept in suspense, along with Patsy, about who the real arsonist is. If the reader had known from the beginning, the story would not have been very interesting.

This book is about two girls, Barbara and Patsy, who live in Philadelphia during the American Revolution. They try to find out who burned down the blacksmith shop. Is it the mysterious red-haired stranger?

"The Slaves of Liberty" is a well written, and well researched book. The author goes to great lengths to document sources and this will be of great help to others researching their family. I do take issue with the author's simplistic statements concerning the start of the Civil War. However, I still found this to be a must read.

This book is well written, well documented. Even if you are not researching your slave ancestry, you will find references to slaveholders and other residents in the Amite County, Mississippi area. It's a small book for the price, but I found it well worth it for adding rich detail to my family history research out of Amite County.

In my opinion I personally think that Cook had valid and explanational points, but they were bios and somewhat more of someone else's thinking than of his own.

Excellent reference for advanced high school or college level courses.

The professor Bellavista was retired from many years, but he is still working on his peripatetic philosopher activity. The book is the report of amusing and coloured talks in his old house in the heart of Naples about life, Naples, love and history of the humanity. After this book the author has directed a very funny movie (already an italian cult) and a pictures book.

The professor Bellavista was retired from many years, but he is still working on his peripatetic philosopher activity. The book is the report of amusing and coloured talks in his old house in the heart of Naples about life, Naples, love and history of the humanity. After this book the author has directed a very funny movie (already an italian cult) and a pictures book.

Boaz has assembled a very fine collection of essays regarding liberty and the failings of modern societies to create a world in which we can live as free men. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in libertarian (or for that matter free market or conservative) political thought.

Just to tone down my entheusiasm a bit, though, I would add that many of the essays may seem a little elementary to someone who has been reading libertarian publications for a long time. But on the whole, this is a solid, highly readable work full of ammunition for your libertarian debating arsenal.

This book is a collection of some of the best speeches, public policy reports, and articles published by The Cato Institute in its twenty five years of existence. It has been edited by David Boaz, executive vp of Cato and author and editor of several other books regarding libertarianism. Cato is a public policy institute headquartered in DC that promotes limited government, free markets, peaceful coexistence and a return to the rule of law as envisioned by our founders, especially Madison and Jefferson. While this political philsophy is generally known as libertarianism, it is more correctly labeled the dominance of civil rather than political society. As a disclaimer, this reviewer has been a member of the Board of Directors of Cato for fifteen years and regards David Boaz as a friend; however, those who know me will vouch that I have been an vocal critic of Cato on those occasions where I have disagreed with its policy positions. Therefore, despite my position, I believe that my review provides a useful summary of this book.

The editor provides an introduction which attempts to summarize the changes in the political landscape over the past quarter century and concludes that classical liberalism is on the ascendancy after a century of many failed experiments in statism.The book is then divided into nine topics with several selections for each topic - these are Ideas and Consequences (3 articles), Economic Growth (3 articles), The Welfare State (5), The Regulatory State (4), A World In Transition (11), Foreign Affairs (4), Trade And international Finance (4), Law And Liberty (8), and Democracy And Culture (8). Read in order, which few readers will probably do due to both time constaints and lack of interest in some of the topics, the book provides both a wonderful retrospective on the changes in the political debate over the past twenty five years and also serves as a comprehensive overview of the relevance of these ideas today. The authors include such well known figures as Milton Friedman, Alan Greenspan, an interview with F.A. Hayek, Dick Armey, Lord Peter Bauer, Jose Pinera and Antonin Scalia, but regardless of the fame of the author all pieces are both enlightening and intellectually stimulating. P.J O'Rourke's brief comments at the dedication of Cato's current headquarters, titled "THe Right To Do As You Please And Take The Consequences" even adds some trenchant and well directed wit to the collection. The longest piece is only fourteen pages and several are only three pages in lenghth, so while some of the topics are difficult if the ideas are new to the reader any can be digested in a single session.

It is impossible to chose a few favorites, although I thought the strongest topic was the collection regarding law and liberty; perhaps that is only due to my intense interest in the area and my belief that a return to the Constitutional protections of life, liberty and property are essential to our continued freedom. And I do strongly recommend that everyone read the article by Scalia (as a judge on the Court of Appeals) and the brilliant critique and reply by Ricahard Epstein. For some added flavor, some of the other articles include "The Case For US Stategic Independence" (Ted Carpenter), "Myths Of Individualism" (Tom Palmer), "Are Libertarians Anti-Government" (David Boaz), and "Enviro-Capitalism Vs. Enviro-Statism" (Terry Anderson and Donald Leal).

In conclusion, this book is for anyone who cares about the advancement of liberty and wants to sharpen their understanding of the topics which it covers. If you want to understand these ideas, whether to argue for or against them, there is no comparable collection that covers them so succinctly and states them so well by their most ardent proponents. N.B., the book is 460 pages long, not the 250 indicated in the description, and all the material is worthwhile but it is a long read that has to be accomplished gradually.

With his usual brilliance and mastery of detail, Whelan examines the history of Catholics and Radicalism from 1760-1830. Very interesting material on the growth of middlemen, the complex nature of the United Irishmen's organization and politics, and the memory and meaning of 1798. Very useful book; highly recommended.

Prof. Whelan has done a superlative work. This is an important and readable contribution to Irish historical studies. It also is an intelligent rebuttal of the pro-imperialist revisionist historians. A must read!

I have not read it yet, but since Dr. Lence was my first political science professor, I'll give it an initial rating of 4 stars with the option of upgrading. Amazingly, I did not obtain a degree in political science, but my current residence in South Carolina and fondness for Dr. Lence's professorial style compelled me to purchase this book. I must be living in a Twilight Zone episode because I just cleaned out my closet and looked through my old poli sci notebook from 1989. Right there on the final exam, the last question, was Dr. Lence's hint that this book would come out in 1992. If you ever get to meet Dr. Lence, just ask him about his "bucket of marbles" theory. A true scholar of American government.

John Calhoun, the revered Son of South Carolina, was the South's pre-eminent advocate of ordered liberty in the nineteenth century. His two most important contributions, Disquisition on Government and Discourse on the Government and Constitution of the United States, are both included in this fine release by Liberty Fund. These two alone are worth the price of the book, and should be required reading for any student of American political philosophy. With the twelve speeches and papers included as well, they give a good overall picture of the man who spawned so much controversy by advocating nullification while sitting as Vice President of the U.S. Some have hailed his theory of the concurrent majority as the only truly original American contribution to political theory. This is surely one of my top ten books to go on the list of any thoughtful American reader.

When I bought this book I was a beginning programmer setting out to learn C# and .NET. Liberty states in the book that beginners "may find some of it [the material in the book] tough going" but I took a chance and jumped out in the deep end and began reading it.

Even though this is an extremely well written book (that I now highly appreciate) Liberty was right. I only made it to the middle of chapter 4 before I realized that the pace was too fast.

Luckily I got hold of (and was rescued by) Michelsen's great book C# Primer Plus (on its nearly 1000 pages it teaches C#, OOP and programming basics from the very ground up). I found that the two books greatly supported each other because C# Primer Plus could fill in all my blanks while reading through Liberty's book. Moreover what C# Primer Plus was lacking in terms of .NET stuff (it doesn't touch ADO.NET, Windows Forms etc.) was presented by Programming C# in a now understandable and enjoyable form.

Programming C# is a work by a highly motivated writer in top form and can be enjoyed by anybody who makes sure that the basics are adequately covered.

The key purpose of a tutorial is to teach you the language, and in this case to then show you how to use the language to build applications. The topic of .NET is very large, but Liberty provides an excellent explanation of every significant aspect of C# specifically, and then he applies it to creating applications and using the .NET Framework.

This book is divided into four parts (three in the book and then one on his web site).

Part I is a solid, comprehensive, well written tutorial in the language. He covers it all, but he does so in a way that is clear and understandable. Advanced concepts like delegates are explained carefully and illustrated with meaningful examples.

Part II is a brief introduciton to programming with C#. He covers ASP.NET (which he covers in more detail in his ASP book), Windows Forms (is there a book on this coming?) ADO.NET and Web Services. The latter two are introduced here but expanded on in his ASP.NET book.

Part III goes beyond the language to show how C# is used with the .NET Framework, and this part alone is worth the cost of the book.

C++ and Java programmers will find part I easy going, C and VB programmers will work harder. Part II is just an overview, and part III is simply terrific.

The final part is the extensive support Liberty provides on his web site. Not only does he offer a FAQ and errata, but he has a link to a discussion group where he answers questions about the book!

Finally, the writing is excellent, the examples terrific and the overall quality of this book superb. O'Reilly continues to produce excellent books and this is no exception.

I highly recommend this book, unless you have no prior programming experience at all, in which case you might prefer to start with his other book, Learning C#.

This is a great book for learning C#. The first part is an excellent tutorial in the language, just right for experienced C, C++ and Java programmers and for advanced VB6 programmers.

The second part introduces how to use the language to create .net programs. This is a bit superficial, but his goal was only to provide an introduction, and it is a very good introduction. For more detail on really building advanced applications you will need an additional book (like his book on ASP.NET).

The third part of Programming C# goes into advanced topics you won't easily find elsewhere, with excellent coverage of (for example) threading, remoting, reflection, streams and so forth.

Liberty writes well, his examples are terrific, and he makes complex material easily understandable. Further, he supports his book on his web site where he provides not only source code but a discussion center where you can ask questions.

I highly recommend this excellent tutorial.

This book is a real disappointment. To StarCraft fans and not. I happen to be a StarCraft fan and this book has no real dramatic point it, except near the end, but who couldn't see that! If you don't understand the game though. This is a great item to help whats happening in the game!

For everyone who has played the game, this book makes you smile reminding you of Raynor or Kerrigan. Also, the BASIC idea behind the story is not bad. That's why I gave it three stars.

On the other hand, this ain't no Asimov! The story lacks skilled character development as well as well written twists and turns. Although the ideas ARE there, the execution is not breath taking. As I've said before, reading the book makes you smile, but that's mainly due to your imagination, and not due to powerful descriptive images nor due to story development that keeps you on the edge.

For the smiles, I give it 3.5 stars, but for the actual writing, I give it 2.

I might be too harsh though. All that stuff being said, Jeff Grubb does flesh out our beloved characters, a little deeper and further than the game does. Not enough, but deeper.

I had high expectations for the book since the game is so good ;)

Since it's not expensive, if you've played Starcraft and love the game, read it. If you haven't played Starcraft, don't buy it.
Just don't set your expectations too high.

It seems Jeff Grubb did a lot of research to get this book set up. Surprisingly to me, he knew how to describe everything from ships to weapons in the way that you could visualize the actual item. If you never played Starcraft itself, this book was a wake-up call-a book that would tell people: "Gee, this is a game? I can't believe I haven't played this". Since the entire book focused mainly on the Terran Campaign of the original game, and the use of descriptions was required to avoid it from becomming too textbook and boring, I was impressed by the way Grubb expanded on the missions; a sort of view of what you didn't play. Then there were the passages before the chapter,all comming from "the Liberty Manifesto", which made me wonder; did Grubb get this great description from imagination or did he piece together the ideas of other works? It is just that good! Describing the characters and their actions was also very much impressive. Kerrigan and Raynor's description immediatly rang a bell in my head and for those who never was introduced to these people in the game it gave them a good idea of what they may look like. General Duke immediatly came in as the villian while in this series' second installment it took a while to guess if he was good or bad. As the main idea of the book is the journey of a reporter from a Confederate loyalist to a rebel, the transition came well. I was surprised at how Grubb pieced together ideas that made you say to yourself: "oh, now I understand why this mission led to this one", or "yea, this all makes sense now, I remmeber that. Wow, this quote brings back memories". The scenes of battle were written really well too, as Grubb described all the vehicles and creatures-Zerg, Terran, and Protoss-as if he was actually looking at them. Detail apparently was important to him. Battle was created to the point that you could hear the creak of the Arclite Siege Tank moving its shock cannon, or hear the Zerg hydralisks moving about. Mainly though, this book-other than its sequel-led to the events of the expansion game: Brood War. The conclusion was very nicely created, as well as added a bit of thought to the very end. Altogether though, I would deffinetly give this book to anyone that is into sci-fi games or is a Starcraft fan-since this book alone is a must have to any fan interested in what really happened before the fall of the Terran Confederacy in the Koprulu Sector.

This book never comes to grip with the essence of Islam: conquest through Jihad of lands peopled by non-Muslims, followed by one of three outcomes for those people: 1) death 2) immediate conversion 3) the imposition of the status of dhimmi, at first held to apply only to Christians and Jews, and later, out of expediency, to Zoroastrians and even Hindus (who otherwise were killed outright). The status of "dhimmi" was not one of "tolerance" in the Western sense, but rather one of deliberate humiliation (not just the payment of the jizyah, or head tax, but also the manner of its payment, need to be understood), and degradation, including but not limited to financial, legal, social, and political disabilities, which over time led the formerly non-Muslim populations to wither, as people were expelled, or left, or both communities and individuals were unable to bear up under their humiliating dhimmi status and over time converted. The failure of this book to explain precisely what "dhimmitude" means fatally vitiates the entire enterprise, and calls into question the author's authority. For there can be only two possibilities. Either he really is unaware of the treatment of non-Muslims under Muslim rule, over vast territories, and 1300 years, and does not understand how irrelevant is the post-Enlightenment idea of "tolerance" to the fixed Muslim position vis-a-vis non-Muslims,in which case he cannot be trusted as a scholar, or he knows perfectly well how non-Muslims were treated (in Muslim theory and practice) but wishes to engage in some dreamily distracting talk that deliberately conflates Western ideas of "tolerance" with the very different Muslim notions, in Qur'an and hadith and sira, as codified in the shari'a. Non-Muslims cannot afford to be mislead in this manner any longer, no matter how attractively presented0.

This book should be a great favorite among the unwary and the gullible; of course it will be praised by Muslims who are willing to accept essentially minor quibbles with their faith as long as it is presented as a religion of "tolerance," and the far more damning problems, involving central tenets of Islam that are deeply rooted in what is, and must be (as the word of God) essentially immutable, are deliberately omitted. El Fadl's attempt to overlook, to confuse, to explain away, to misstate, and to wrap the whole undertaking up in pieties and a rhetorical display of false moderation makes this book one more addition to, and not a deviation from, the growing library of Muslim apologetics that have nothing to do with serious scholarship, or with any attempt to confront the problem Islamic tenets present head-on, so that they may be brought out into the open. Only thus can any kind of reformation, unlikely as it is, can even remotely be considered. This kind of apologetics, masquerading as the "brave" statements of someone who has actually dared to defy the putative "extremists," are themselves part of the problem.

Is Islam a religion of peace and tolerance or an evil intolerant religion? Are Muslims the oppressors or the oppressed? Does Osama bin Laden and his likes represent a minority or a majority of Muslims? Who created Osama bin Laden and who is really responsible for terrorism: Qura'nic verses, Saudi Wahabbi teachings, the impoverishment of the Islamic educational system and the growing religious illiteracy of the Muslim masses, American politics, Western double standards, the economic and political failure of corrupt regimens ruling the Muslim countries and relying on their military forces to stay in power, the Arab -Israeli conflict, or what? What can be done to avoid further terror? Is Bush's"War on terror" the solution? Who needs to change their ways, America or the Arab Muslim world or both? What kind of reform is needed, theological, political, economic or social?

This post-9/11 book is a feast for the mind. In a mostly unbiased approach 12 authors freely and constructively debate the reasons behind 9/11 AND solutions to avoid future mayhem. What makes this book very interesting and uniquely insightful is that the authors come from different backgrounds: Americans, Arabs, Asians, Muslims and non-Muslims, conservatives and liberals, professors (Islamic studies, Islamic law, humanities, history, philosophy), writers, editors, journalists, a political analyst and a social anthropologist. They naturally offer quite differing points of view and so the reader is given a chance to expand his/her vision, to analyze and conclude. This book deserves to be widely read because it is an honest attempt to clarify a very complex situation and to search for the real culprits of 9/11. We need books, like this one, that give insight and try to unify, unfortunately many of the best selling 9/11 books are those that are extremely biased, that they divide, foster ethnic discrimination and spread hatred (for example: The Rage and The Pride by Oriana Fallaci and Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions About the World's Fastest Growing Faith by Robert Spencer).

The writing style differs from one author to another, ranging from simply and clearly written to dry and somewhat academic, from the controlled intellectual to the quick-tempered passionate! Overall however, the book is a quick and easy read.

Why not five stars? (1) The book is too brief; the many concepts discussed could've been expanded and more background could've been included. (2) The view of right- wing is not represented and would've added yet another dimension and completed the panoramic view of the book. However, many 9/11 books are right-wing in a way, and this point of view is somewhat well known (3) The title of the book is the title of the first essay; this book is about reasons behind 9/11 and not only about the place of tolerance in Islam, so the title does not fully represent the book. (4) Moreover, the unattractive cover has nothing to do with either the title or the book.

Fadl is one of the premeir scholars of Islam in the West. This short volume presents an argument by Fadl about the tolerant nature of Islam, and contains the reactions of other scholars, both positive and negative. Fadl's own view is one that has to be understood by Muslims and Non-Muslims alike as he contends that the current face of Islam is an anethma to what traditional Islamic values held, and this can all be rooted to the puritannical movements which grew out of imperialism in Islamic lands.

Again, I reccomend this to any one interested in learning Islam. I would especially reccomend this to Muslims, who need to listen to what Dr. Fadl is saying.