This is one of the best biographies that I have ever read.David Jordan has given us an ex- cellent account of the life of one of the civil war's finest Generals.Unfortunately to paraphrase Shelby Foote Hancock has not been as '' Well-advertised as certain other Generals. Hope- fully this fine book as well as the movie '' Gettysburg'' will change that. Almost as fascinating as Hancock's civil war exploits were his postwar activities.He remained in the Army. He tried to treat both ex-confeder- ates and Indians fairly, In 1880 He was the Demo- cratic Presidential nominee, And lost a close election to a certifiable crook. In conclusion Winfield Scott Hancock lived a life that personified Honor, Character and dignity. And David Jordan tells his story beautifully.I reccomend this book not only to civil war buffs, But to anyone looking for a truly moral example.

It is a quirk of fate that the man most responsible for the Union victory at Gettsburg is unknown to most Americans.
Phil Sheridan called him "Hancock the superb", and the man so well fitted the appellation that it stuck forever. A splendid professional soldier and sterling personality, Hancock was involved in all the military activities of his time, from the Mexican War through the great Railroad Strike of 1877, performing nearly flawlessly and garnering the respect and affection of practically everyone he met. He was so well regarded that he almost beat Garfiend for the U.S. presidency, losing only because of political machinations of corrupt New York politicians.
Hancock's story is beautifully researched and well told here by an author who understands not only the man but also the times through which he moved. As a bonus, Jordan has the rare ability to bring to life military tactics and battlefield maneuvers, giving a remarkably clear vision of Civil War battles.
Highly recommended for the Civil War buff, student of military history, and as exemplary biography.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

I heartily agree with the above reviews. Jordan has written a masterpiece, extensively researched and extremely well written. The author's admiration for Hancock is obvious, but understandable: the reader - if he/she had not known it before - soon comes to realize that Hancock was an extraordinary soldier and person....My two complaints: that the book did not cover the Civil War in more depth (but that would have required many more pages in an already lengthy work); and that the more personal side of Hancock was not revealed more fully (but, then again, Hancock's wife burned all of Hancock's correspondence after writing her own book on her husband).....On the whole, Jordan treated Hancock and others - including Hancock's rivals - very fairly, something rarely done in such research-intensive biographies......I highly recommend the book.

While this book is an interesting read, most of this author's conclusions are either flawed or completely wrong. The watchers were neither human nor harbingers of civilization. For anyone who has studied this subject to any degree, and know what they're looking for, the ancient sources are filled with references to the nephilim and the watchers. In these works they are not portrayed as enlightened beings. They were war mongering powerseekers, both vengeful and cruel. Their offspring the nephilim were no less evil, they were marauding pillagers, cannibals and rapists to boot. They are hardly fit to be called sentient beings let alone "cilivizers". The Judeao-Christian sources are some of the few that tell of their true origin. The books of Enoch and the book of Genesis called them the Sons Of God because they were originally angelic beings prior to their fall. All the angels in the Bible, the Pseudepigrapha and the apocrypha are always described as male. My question for this author would be: If the watchers were just another race of advanced humans; where were the Daughters of God? Were they at home cooking while the sons cohabitated with the daughters of men? No, the watchers were spirit beings that became physical and this is exactly how they are described in the book of Enoch and in all the patristic writings. Why else would the watchers have reacted to women in the way they did unless they were completely new to fleshly desires and to the sight of human women.
The advanced human hypothesis does not explain their physical differences either. It is important that anyone who studies this subject seriously to know the truth of the matter and this author doesn't provide it. I give this book three stars for the authors effort and the use of unique sources, though it probably deserves a lower number. Some more accurate books are available by other authors such as Chuck Missler and Steve Quayle, but it's probably better to go to the sources themselves.

Overall, this is a well researched book. I suppose one might call this genre "investigative mythology". I particularly found memorable his assertion that St. Augustine thought the Book of Enoch was too old and thus should be excluded from canonical texts. What kept this book from getting a fifth star were several weaknesses. For example, the author's next-to-last chapter was essentially a non-academic emotional diatribe against organized religion. Additionally, his conjecture about the findings of large malformed human skulls being proof of another and superior race is essentially that, merely conjecture. Modern DNA analysis might sort out whether these are congenital malformations as a result of incestuous inbreeding or a subspecies of Homo sapiens. However, his efforts at bringing together various and disparate mythologies into a cohesive hypothesis about a lost and oft maligned race is quite entertaining and provocative. Still, I highly recommed it for your home library.

This Book is among the best 10 books written of all time in my opinion. Why? Because not only is the thesis of evidence step by step made carefuly by author Andrew Collins that Angels are real, but his research is quite relative to modern and Ancient Culture. He made me feel as if he were an angel to lead the reader and I literally walked in the foot steps of the Biblical Patriarch Enoch as he really saw the events LIVE. This Book is a most excellent companion to the Gnostic Book of Enoch with new eyes and understanding to read. The Scholarship of Andrew Collins is 2nd to none. He belongs in the ranks of Barbara G. Walker, Robert Graves, Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung and Sir Laurence Gardner as a major contributor to divine connections to our own divine history. Andrew Collins has no time for fiction and tells it like it is. The field of Mythology research is now more enriched in revelation for the average reader. This Book is enough to create a solid foundation in ones personal religious beliefs in way never conceived before. Andrew Collins has proven that at one time "Heaven" was a place on Earth and perhaps some day when enough people read this book, then again Heaven on Earth will be here again only if this becomes required reading in the High Schools Colleges of tomorrow.

It's too bad that updated editions of "Lords of Poverty" were never published; indeed, even this edition was out of print for several years before this reprint edition. Hancock's writing style here may be a sustained rant, but it nevertheless provides a great deal of useful information and tears down many of the misconceptions most Americans or Europeans may have about the international aid industry. Particularly interesting is his criticism of the various UN agencies and, especially, the World Bank and the IMF - whose projects all too often do more harm than good (if they do any good at all). Perhaps the most disturbing aspect exposed in this book is still quite valid today: that taxpayers in the big donor countries like the U.S., Germany, Japan, the U.K. etc. are footing the bill for many disastrous projects worldwide that make the lives of impoverished populations even worse and often destroy in the environment in the process. "Lords of Poverty" may be dated, but it's still well worth the read.

Lords of Poverty presents a very coherent argument, backed up by lots of specific experiences *and* data. It is by no means sensationalistic.

People (such as myself) who have grown up overseas, and have moved in expatriate circles have encountered many examples of abuses and stupidity in the name of `development`. It is widely known and acknowledged that this is a serious problem. But Mr. Hancock has gone beyond giving a handful of anecdotes as examples of what is typical: he has investigated the entire infrastructure supporting this corruption and stupidity. He gets to the heart of the problem and exposes it, rather than just showing a few symptoms. I highly recommend this book. It is intelligently written, for the intelligent reader. Yes it may have a tone of anger at times, but it would be heartless not to be angry at the way in which the peoples of less developed nations are abused and used to make `aid` workers rich.

Furthermore, solutions *are* given, at least if you *look* for them. The author points out that smaller independent aid organizations--generally grassroots community or church-based groups--*are* effective. They are not without faults, of course, but nothing of the magnitude that typifies the large government run agencies.

While I have not worked with large government run agencies, I do know of a professor here at U of M who has worked for them, who admitted to a close friend of mine that the claims of this book are true.

Read the book and see for yourself if the argument stand up. And if you still doubt it, do some investigation. What you'll find will amaze you.

This book is getting a little dated now, but remains a classic critique of the international aid business. Using colourful anecdotes and solid stats, Graham Hancock convincingly demonstrates how the IMF, World Bank and other international aid/development agencies effectively worsen Third World poverty. What they do is transfer wealth from the poor to the rich in donor and recipient countries alike. In the 1st world, taxes of mainly not-particularly-rich people finance these international organizations, whose administrators often lead lives of incredible luxury. In the 3rd world, money from the organizations helps to sustain corrupt regimes and swell the bank accounts of their leaders, while in many cases the money eventually has to be repaid with interest by taxes which again tend to come mainly from the poor, thereby creating an extra burden for the people it was supposed in theory to help. Meanwhile the projects financed by the money are often wholly irrelevant to the needs of the recipient country, e.g. expressways in countries where only a rich minority own cars, and often the infrastructure is built by companies from the donor country (tied aid) and proceeds to fall to pieces long before the debt incurred has been paid off. This book caused a fair bit of controversy when first published, but was soon forgotten. It's been business as usual for the IMF etc ever since. Meanwhile Graham Hancock got so depressed with uncovering corruption in big aid agencies that he abandoned the field entirely and switched to writing all those speculative books about lost cities of the gods etc. -- yep, it's the very same Graham Hancock in case you're wondering.

I don't know what the reviewer 'a reader' from august is thinking - perhaps he just adds that particular comment to every religious book he can find. This sermon collection is theologically very, very far from the 700 club mentality. I don't think Pat Robertson would let women preach this way, least ways not lesbian women, and especially not Jewish women. This collection has some wonderful, wonderful gems of sermons, especially by the Jewish women, and Annie Ruth Powell, Lundblat, and some others. It also has some sermons that are fairly weak in terms of logic, relevancy, use of Scripture, or ability to speak to people (although they must have spoken to someone). I don't see God living in some of these sermons, nor the liberating truth of God's message coming through - even for these 'inclusive' women, their theology can be quite narrow and exclusive. But, the majority of the sermons are well-done, and all the sermons are important to read for anyone who wants to know what is happening in the theological world of liberal Christianity (which is absolutely not the Murdoch and Robertson world), since the liberal Christian world gets very little media play. If you are sickened by televangelists, male-dominated churches, anti-gay bigotry in the church, etc., you should read these. And if you believe have no place in the pulpit, you especially should read these and take them to heart, because God speaks quite eloquently and forcefully through these pages, and it is important to realize that the Spirit can, does, and will work through whoever it chooses, not just men.

Our women's church school class uses this text and loves it. Each of us in the group choose a sermon she likes and leads the group in discussion after we all read it. Because the selections are short but pithy, they are quick reads and yet they provoke lots of illuminating discussion about our faith, our feelings, and our gender.

This collection is a perfect gift for anyone of any religion who is on any sort of spiritual quest - or should be!

Anyway, I would like to tell you something else. I just received my papers. I hope you remember my and your comments about Hancock's "Romaivi." I will use Latin letters here for the sake of legibility. To refresh your memory, according to Hancock, the Byzantines called themselves "Romaivi" - which is absurd. The ancient Greek "Romaioi" (pronounced [ro'ma'yo'i], today [ro'me'i]) is the plural of Romaios ([ro'ma'yos], today [ro'me'os]) which means "a male Roman person" and comes from the Greek (or Hellenic, if you prefer) word for Rome - "Roma." The Byzantines called themselves Romans - that is, "Romaioi" and not "Romaivi." To distinguish between Romans and Byzantines, in Modern Greek the word "latinikos" (Latin) is broadly used to define "Roman" as an adjective. I am all too well aware of everything you commented about the origin of the word "Rumelia" and do not need to consult Dr. Erdinc or anyone about the matter. It indeed comes from those "Romaios" and "Roma" - not from "Romaivi" or any such nonsense of a word. The invented word "Romaivi" cited by Hancock, like the many other mistakes he makes in an attempt to show knowledge in everything, ruins his otherwise very informative and interesting book, thus (maybe undeservedly) casting a shadow of doubt on the other more "central" points that he makes. Therefore, I would suggest to you in good faith not to use this edition of his book or use it only with extreme caution. That is the point I wanted to make.

An absolutely indispensable book if you are interested in Romani culture. It gives a great explanation of how gaujos (Non-Romani) should present questions, and gives answers to those questions without ever conflicting with Romanipen.

This is a must-read book for anyone who is interested in not only the Romani people but also in the roles they have played in history. So much of their story is not known or not understood and this book deals with it in such an honest and straight forward way. It discusses and tackles the issues faced by the Romani people but does it in a way that doesn't point fingers or make excuses. Of the few books that actually deal with this topic, most of them are slanted to one side or the other. Hancock's book gives out the informattion for anyone who wants to read it. His personal insight is so helpful, as most of the other authors writing on this topic are non-Romani. This is such an important book, especially for someone interested in specific genres of history like the Holocaust or Middle Ages that it should definitely be on recommended reading lists. Of course you don't need to be a historian just to find this book insightful and interesting. I think everyone should read this book.

Although a slight improvement over
part two the entire series still
suffers from sluggish pacing.

This book was such a great read after I picked it up from a local used bookstore. The transition from Calix Stay's prequel ("Faragon Fairingay") was really smooth and kept the storyline fresh. The main heroes are still the famous trio of the Bear, Dwarf, and Otter, who are trying to cross the river called Calix Stay, for safety. They must guard an important relic with their lives from the destructive minions of the Dark Queen, Dorini, and the only way they can do that is reach the Meadows of the Sun across the Calix Stay. On their way they are hindered by enemies and eventually wind up in an ancient underground realm where they'll find both, allies and enemies that will determine the success of the trio in their endeavors to protect the fate of Atlanton Earth from the Dark Queen. I loved this book, and it was a really easy read (as a matter of fact, it was the shortest book in the series.) I love the cover art as much as the story inside. Though this book has it's really depressing moments, I have faith that Bear, Dwarf, and Otter will some way find a way to win out against the vile Dark Queen... And that we shall find out in the fourth and final book of the series, "Squaring the Circle".

Volume Three takes the heroes through capture and tragic escape, to a meeting with new friends and a mystical journey underground. Keeps up the pace and holds interest.

If only CourseBuilder were as reliable as FLASH to create eLearning components. CourseBuilder isn't exactly the most stable platform in the world.

While I have purchased another book on CourseBuilder, this one is far more comprehensive. It teaches you how to use all of the features of CourseBuilder in a easy to read fashion, using practical examples. It also helps you to learn how to customize CourseBuilder interactions so that you can use them in real eLearning situations.

This is a fun book that should help your youngster develop an interest in American History. It is easy to read an has great illustratiions. You will not be disappointed with this purchase. Look for others by the same author.

It is a good biography of his life. It shows good times and bad times and what happened when and little odds and ends that happened in his life. It has good stuff in it.

I found this book to be very informative - it gave me the insight to understand problems that STILL exist in this poor (and destined to stay poor) county. It is a sad commentary on human relations and the abuses of power and influence. I believe John McCowan was a hate monger that did much to divide and destroy the county. When given opportunities to recognize common intrests and bring people together for a common good - He chose to divide and isolate them (I believe for his own benefit). Unfortunately, that mentality seems still to be alive and well in the local government. Mr McCowan squandered a great opportunity to improve conditions for everyone because...he could not let go of the past. If we are to survive in this world - we have no choice but to be "good neighbors" and recognize our differences. We are all different (Thank GOD) BUT we are all the same ! If the answers to human survival were a technoloical, finincial or scientific solution they could be more easily resolved. However, the REAL solution to our problems is much more difficult and complex. The solution is within you and me. I don't know about you but...That's scares me! I enjoyed the book.

The author's stodgy narrative style takes
all the magic out of this fantasy.

After I picked up Faragon Fairingay up at the bookstore, I was very happy to find how well it picked up right where the mayhem in the previous book (Greyfax Grimwald) left off. This book doesn't let up the awesome plot and story line that the series began with in the first book. Now, in Faragon Fairingay, the main trio, the Bear, Dwarf, and Otter, set off once again. They leave the safe confines of the enchanted palace of Cypher on Atlanton Earth under the guidance of a young wizard named Faragon Fairingay. Their goal is to protect the Arkenchest, which has the power to defeat the destructive Dark Queen, Dorini. The three companions must cross the boundary River between Atlanton Earth and the Meadows of the Sun called Calix Stay to bring the Arkenchest to safety from the evils of Dorini. However, along the way through treacherous plains and forests long before they can consider themselves safe. With the aid of Faragon Fairingay's magical workings, the three companions attempt to brave Dorini's dark armies and fearsome creatures to protect the Arkenchest. The odds are growing against the good guys and their time is running short. In conclusion, the book was awesome and it left me in suspense for the third follow-up in the series (Calix Stay), and it gave me a greater appreciation for the struggles that the trio had to endure in their quest to protect the fate of Atlanton Earth. My only beef with it was the fact that this book (like the rest in the series) seem underappreciated and they're out of print too, so they're probably hard to come by. Though, the search for them is totally worth it :)

Excellent way to begin a new! If you read the first one you will not be disappointed by the second! Once again Dwarf, Otter, and Bear unite and begin yet another journey! An absolute must have and a definite love to any fantasy lovers heart!