In 1945, teenagers were visible as individuals but not as a group. The subculture would come later, with rock and roll, Elvis, and portable radios. Meanwhile there was a depression to work through and a big war to win. Small wonder that kids of that era passed quickly from adolescence to adulthood with hardly time for a coke along the way. The Amboy Dukes is a milestone youth novel of that era. Though not as self-consciously literary as its middle-class competitor Catcher in the Rye, Dukes vividly dramatizes urban despair in a crowded working-class precinct of New York City, and its effect on the Jewish youth gangs spawned there. It was then and remains a classically gritty tale of modern America.

Because Shulman portrays the sexual escapades and pot smoking in candid fashion, it's easy for critics to stigmatize Dukes as a trashy novel. That however neglects the many dimensions to the book, including some very fine writing by the author. Instead, I take it as an honest depiction of what Shulman knew and chose to set out in unusually forceful and unpatronizing terms. Coveted by teenagers of the time for its daring assault on censorship, the language and events may seem tame compared with today's non-existent standards. Yet Shulman's characters and their dramatic narrative remain as fresh and timely as ever, the murder of the teacher standing, in retrospect, as an opening shot in the youth rebellion to come. Substitute Latino or Black for the Jewish Dukes, add a level of drug trafficking, and the story (including the awful conditions that spawned them) remains essentially unchanged from then to now.

Also, author Shulman goes into vivid detail describing the youth fashions and moral behavior of the day, or what kids then considered 'cool'. More important, however, is his sharply drawn slice of class realities, as experienced by pivotal characters Frank Goldberg and his 11-year old sister Alice. Their two wrenching tours through the tonier parts of the city are among the book's memorable highlights. In fact, it is the easily overlooked Alice, and not the more melodramatic gangbangers, who remains the book's most pivotal and sympathetic character. For it is she who's being propelled into a new post-war era with all the sadness and growing sense of entrapment that bedevils the working poor. It is through her youthful enthusiasm slowly succumbing to despair that the book touches a universal chord, as we experience with her the poignancy of a crushing loss of hope. It is here, far from the prurience and rawness of the rest of the book, that Shulman achieves his finest, most revealing moments. I like to think that in the coming years, low-interest loans, Levittowns, and other now much derided assisstance programs redeemed at least some of her innocent dreams. (There's also a glimpse in these passages of the rational basis of consumerism.)

Because of its questionable content, The Amboy Dukes continues to lead an underground existence, overshadowed by the more respectable and refined Catcher in the Rye. But the fact that it has survived the years and continues to be published is testament to a lasting value as social commentary.Though currently out of print, Shulman's book is far more than a teen novel. It is a permanent record of artistic achievement deserving of literary respect, cultural interest, and a continued readership. Pick it up.

This is an excellent Atlas of basic and advanced laparoscopic techniques. It combines the knowledge of several experts with easy to follow diagrams to give the reader a good understanding of the various procedures. Highly recommended.

This book is so incredible. All Duke fans HAVE to have this one! The pictures are amazing and the game summaries help to keep that great Duke season fresh on the brain. With the 98-99 team soon to win their NCAA title, it makes this book all the more special!! If you don't buy it, you are a fool!

This book is a must for all event riders! The photos are excellent

Helps consumers make the best choices for long-term care, from protecting assets to understanding Medicare, Medicaid and other benefit programs.

Like most of Janet Backhouse's work, this is an excellent, concise study of a particular manuscript in the collection of the British Library.

This particular manuscript is a 15th c. book of hours, commissioned from a Parisian workshop by John, Duke of Bedford.

The text reads easily. Ms. Backhouse covers a short history of the Duke, to place the book in context, and follows with a modestly comprehensive study of the book as an art object.

The book contains around 60 plates, some in black and white, some in color. There are about as many full page illustrations as there are text pages, so the book makes a very suitable visual reference for book artists wanting to illuminate in the style of the Bedford Master.

All in all, a very nice, short study of a justifiably famous medieval manuscript.

The Belles Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry Prince of France has 32 illuminations with matching discriptions of each. Each manuscript is brilant small paintings and ranked among the great masterpieces of the Middle Ages. This hardcover is about 0.5"x6"x9", with a hardcover sleeve that slips over top of the book.

Bold Entrepreneur: A Life Of James B. Duke by Robert F. Duren (Emeritus Professor of History, Duke University) is the scholarly biography of the prominent businessman who created the globe-spanning British-American Tobacco Company at the turn of the twentieth century. Robert Duke's labors, loves, and legacy are all deftly chartered in this meticulously researched and impeccably presented portrait, which unflinchingly presents the good with the bad.

The first Medieval literature I read was The Art of Courtly Love. The second book was Christine's The Book of the Duke of True Lovers. She subverts all the tenets given for courtly love to show its faults. She is requested to write the story of the Duke and she uses this opportunity to warn women and let them know the are better things to do than become involved in courtly love. Not a major milestone today, but for a period in time when few people were educated (and unheard of for women) Christine brilliantly uses her postion to her advantage!

This book covers the period between when Calvinism first made it's move as a distinctive form of religious discontent and follows it, in a series of excellent essays, through to the period of it's solidification and uncontested leadership of the Protestant international movement. Readable and informative. One of the best books on the subject in print.