This sounds like THE CRISIS by the American novelist Winston Churchill; surely not THE WORLD CRISIS by Winston Spencer Churchill. R. Langworth Editor FINEST HOUR Churchill Center www.winstonchurghill.org

Hundred year-old books often make for difficult reading, and this is no exception, but the story at the heart of it is one that you probably haven't heard before - especially if you went to elementary school in the North. On the surface it's a sentimental Civil War romance novel: Northern boy with an abolitionist mentor meets Southern girl from old, aristocratic, slaveholding Virginia family in antebellum St. Louis Missouri. Get beyond it.
Get deeper into it though and we meet Ulysses Grant, not as a General but as a failed businessman. We meet Sherman before he got his stripes. We meet Abraham Lincoln during the period of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and the author takes the time and respects his readers' intelligence enough to get into the philosophical and rhetorical merits of Lincoln's debating techniques and the Republican Party's platform. The title of the books is drawn from a question put by Lincoln to Douglas at their Fairfield, Illinois debate. In developing his thesis on the Civil War, the author goes into great detail to explain how a desire for Liberty drove a wave of German immigrants to American shores in the mid-1800s where, as war approached, they displayed pro-Union sympathies. The author's thesis itself is that the American Civil War was not an indigenous event but was rather an chapter in an ongoing struggle between factions of the Anglo-Saxon race, a struggle between Cavaliers and Puritans going back to the days of King Charles I.
All-in-all, a book that opens the eyes to different ways of thinkin'. Readers looking for expressions of true equality of the freedmen or non Anglo-Saxon Europeans will not find these.

This account of the Civil War was written by the American author Winston Churchill, whose poularity at the turn of the century was apparently enough that a young englishman though it necessary to add his middle initial "S" to his name. This book is set in St Louis, covering the period from 1852 to 1865. By today's standards in politically INcorrect as all get-out. But is still an interesting look at the Civil War and a look at turn-of-the-century America's view of the conflict and its protagonists.

This book provides an economic analysis of traffic in urban America. Using data from major cities, the researchers try to uncover the problems with our current urban transportation networks and offer economically sound solutions. Among the problems noted are congestion from suburban traffic and poorly used heavy rail systems. Among the solutions proposed are new rail networks and a time-sensitive toll on all urban highways. The only point that disappointed me was the analysis the purpose of travel and how it was interlaced with the ideas for solutions, but otherwise this was a good text. The reader should be warned that this is a specialized economic report, not written on the popular level. Undergraduate and graduate seminars could find this book very useful for discussion or as a basis for further study.

I think this is a good book if you are looking for models to improve urban transportation in United States. When I bought it I expected to get something wide: something that could be useful outside USA, but the book is more specific, but still a good book. It is very economic and econometric.

While "Built for Speed" is an excellent book on NASCAR for the younger or new fan to the sport, many hardcore and older fans will find the book a sore dissapointment.

Vintage photos are placed strategically throughout the book (Richard Petty's 1975 Dodge racing at Riverside among them). Surprisngly, I found that many of the newer pictures seemed to have poor picture clarity in comparison to the older.

One of the books subtitles describes it as the "Ultimate Guide to Stock Car Racetracks". At best, it is average. Information regarding the races tend to be in-accurate (the 1986 Napa 500? Not quite. The Atlanta Journal sponsered the race through 1990, Hardee's for just one year, and Hooters took it until Napa took primary sponsorship in the mid-1990s.), however information regarding prelimnaries of most tracks, and early days provide a nice touch.

I gave "Built for Speed" 3 stars. It's certainly not the worst, but I've seen better.

Bob Latford, a man who worked behind the scenes for over 50 years in NASCAR racing, has published a book on the series' tracks as of May, 1999. Latford's career started as a program vendor at the beach course at Daytona and led him to the position of NASCAR's PR director, with numerous additional jobs and duties along the way to his recent retirement.

An admitted aficionado of history of all kinds, Latford lived through the entire first half of NASCAR's history and brings it to life for his readers.

Some reviewers have griped about the names assigned to races, but in following NASCAR tradition (policy?) Latford uses the current name of an event, regardless of what it was then.

If you're a newbie to the sport, or a hardened journalist (in which case you probably know Latford personally) this is a valuable addition to your collection.

As for the rating of only four stars, I don't think I've ever seen the "perfect" book....

Rose does a good job of providing a one volume biography of Churchill. However, it was obvious to me that he was neither as familiar with Churchill as Martin Gilbert nor as talented a writer as Manchester. His strength is in his objectivity which yields a fair view of the giant.

I am a great fan of Churchill and am always expanding my collection of books about and by the great man. I purchased this book shortly after its publication. I was impressed by Rose's crisp narrative and ability to describe the salient points of Churchill's life. He is able to do this in one volume - not easy to do when the offical biography runs 8 volumes! The only negative about this work is the length to which Rose goes to remain as impartial as possible. I say this is a negative because oftentimes there is much enjoyment to be gotten by reading a book about Churchill where the author's bias is clear. (Since most Churchill biographies are written by obvious admirers - like the yet incomplete William Manchester series; or evident detractors like Charmley.) This work is, sometimes painfully, without bias. This attribute makes "Churchill: The Unruly Giant" a fine introductory work for any reader wanting to learn more about Churchill; and form their own opinion on the greatest man of the 20th Century.

This book concludes Churchill's four-volume history of England and to a lesser extent, the U.S. (and to a much lesser extent, Canada, South Africa and Australia).

Although generally good, at times Churchill's pro-English biases shine through. In a way, the whole set seems to be the story of a country growing up and the end is kind of a happy arrival in adulthood. It is interesting to read an "outsider's" view of American history, however.

I had been meaning to read this book for a number of years. It has sat in my book shelf collecting dust. The pity is that I did not read it sooner.

Churchill provides a lively and readable account of the great democracies of the 19 th Century. He starts with the years following the Napoleonic Wars and concludes with the Boer War. In between, he covers the American Civil War in some detail as well as progress in the other English speaking nations of Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. He also touches on other issues in Europe, particularly the rise of Germany under Bismarck.

I can thoroughly recommend this book to the reader of general history. It has whetted my appetite to go back and read the earlier volumes. If they should be half as good as this one, it will be a pleasant journey.

If you have read one of these books then you have read them all! Doing research for a forthcoming book on human sexuality, I had chosen to read some 2 books of this series.
It is a shame that publisher and editor decided to format the stories into trite verbal displays of sex, and sex, and actually more or less meaningless sex. You get the picture!
Occasionally one catches a glimpse of what had undoubtedly been, at some initial stage, a gist of originality and personal human encounter. Granted that some editing has to take place, in this case the shortcomings on parade are entirely those of the editing writer, not the individual experiences.
These are supposed to be true stories - no doubt the kernel of the stories are - but having to read for the umptiest time about 'Spaniel eyes' and other overused descriptive terms in most of the stories, one wonders how much has been invented and how much is true encounter.
On the whole the stories would have benefitted from being left more raw, closer to their original telling, less manipulated and manicured.
Peaking from underneath this overly heavy sexual gloss and veneer is at (rare) times a true human emotion of what it means to explore objects of desire and what it means to author and reader alike being part in that exploration of individuality, will and desire.

In this pioneering book, marines write in their own words, no-holds-barred, about their true sexual experiences. These are men who are (or were) serving in the military and who often, because of fear of persecution, have to use pen-names. Contains about 20 in-depth stories on what really goes on behind barracks walls and inside ships when the military brass isn't snooping.

Is this book an organizational history of the Salvation Army? Is it about the Army as an urban religious phenomenon? Is it about the Army's use of the methods of popular entertainment in order to draw attention, converts, and public support? Is it about the power of women within the Salvation Army? Is it a discussion of how the public perception of the Army (and the women in it)changed between 1880 and 1940?

"Red Hot and Righteous" tries to be all of these and more, but unfortunately it doesn't work. As a popular history, this is pleasant enough reading, but as a scholarly work it is maddeningly diffuse. Winston's thesis is ill-defined, she fails to address the existing literature on the Salvation Army, and she has no evident theoretical approach. While she addresses the power women had within the Salvation Army, as a feminist history "Red Hot and Righteous" lacks teeth because Winston turns her focus elsewhere rather than fully developing her discussion of women's roles.

Winston also uses a very limited range of sources. When presenting the Army's side of the story she leans very heavily on the 'American War Cry'--the Army's own paper. The 'AWC' was sold to the general public to raise funds, and it was thus intended to present the Army and its activities in the best possible light. For an outsider's view of the Salvation Army she relies overwhelmingly on one newspaper--the 'New York Times.' What about ethnic newspapers? What about papers that found their audience primarily among the poor and working class? What did the people the Army aimed its evangelical and charitable activities at think of these predominantly middle-class do-gooders?

Winston writes very well, and she gives the Salvation Army the respectful treatment it deserves. But as an academic work, "Red Hot and Righteous" fails to gel. By narrowing her argument and focusing on a specific issue--women's roles and leadership within the Army, the use of popular culture as an evangelical tool, changing depictions of Salvation Army women in books and popular entertainment--and expanding the types of sources used, Winston could have broken new ground. Unfortunately, she keeps stabbing her spade with too little force in too many different places, and as a result she only raises a bit of dust. While I would still recommend this book for a general readership, as a scholar I found it unfocused and ultimately unsatisfying.

I thought this back was very interesting. It presents the history of the Salvation Army from its inception in England in the nineteenth century through a good part of the twentieth century. Its focus is on the female leadership. It is interesting to note that though men are mentioned in the text, they are only briefly so. You learn a lot about the Booth women and their role in the Army but little about what their husbands where doing. It is a positive perspective of the movement and the ways in which it has helped Americans both here and abroad during the World Wars.

Not a very good reference. Too confusing for a beginner and too weak for a more advanced user. The book is strongly biased toward Paint Shop Pro and the Windows platform. It mentions Photoshop occasionally and has a almost useless chapter for Macintosh users. If you have children and Paint Shop Pro it might be of some interest.

What I like is the way the author presents the options you have and points out the differences. For example, which photo editing software is right for you? You are given enough details about the options available to be comfortable in your decision. We often buy the wrong thing only because we don't have enough information to make an intelligent decision. You'll find plenty of details on configuring your scanner, scanning techniques, saving, basic photo enhancements, special effects, OCR, business uses, web design and family fun. There is even an Appendix to help out Mac users.

This is an interesting book. It appears that Pieper is a German Thomist who has written a general interest book on Scholasticism. He identifies 529 as the turning point from Hellenism to Scholasticism, or the Middle Ages. That is nearly the date that Augustine died, 525, and the date that Cassiodorus headed for the hills. It is also the epoch of Boethius, who had one foot is both eras. The primary access to Aristotle during this time was the Peri Hermenia and Categories, thus entailing a focus on language and logic. Only with the introduction of Aristotle around 1215 do we get the revival of Averroism and Aquinas. More treatment of logical issues and ontological questions would be welcomed, as Pieper concentrates primarily on theological questions. Evenso, this is a once over very lightly treatment of medieval philosophy that is well written and intelligently conceived.

Written prior to the recent interest in medieval studies, this book still gives a fine introduction to the era, and explains the significance not only of the great Scholastics, but also of lesser known figures like Cassiodorus, Pseudo-Dionysius, John of Salisbury, and Siger of Brabant. Both the fundamental problematic of the Scholastic--to unite the deliverances of faith and reason, in accordance with the motto "Credo ut intelligam"--and the attempts of different philosophers to carry out this project are detailed and explained clearly and in simple language. This book does not, however, discuss philosophical problems in any detail, and can only serve as a general introduction. Still, its brevity, clarity, and self-contained approach make it a good starting place for the philosopher interested in this topic.

I was disappointed to discover that RISKOptimizer software included with this book was just a 10-day trial version. After that, you have to buy the $700 license for the software. For books like this, obviously aimed to a large extent at business students, it seems much more logical to include a reduced capacity version with a perpetual license, as other similar books do.

The first impression from the book was great. There are really good examples of different optimization problems - product mix, manpower allocation etc. However, missing example files from the chapters on option pricing have ruined this good impression. Without the example files (that are supposed to be on the accompanying CD) the chapters loose a good portion of their value, as the historical data are missing, which is hard to recreate and check if you understand the material right. Another bad experience with the book is the fact that CD that came with the first book that I received was damaged and completely unusable. Thanks to the Amazon.com, they sent me the second copy of the book with a new CD free of charge. But the facts are that if you buy the book, you cannot be sure that the CD is usable, and if it is, then some of the example files will be missing. In my opinion, for the price they charge for the book, you could expect a little bit more quality.

Anyone in operations will find something of value in this book. There is a good variety of problems, and good explanations of how to solve them. The book is accompanied with Palisade.com's Risk Optimizer software. Be sure to check their web site; they post updates to software, and they seem like a pretty good company to deal with, as well.

With his various books and software, Dr Winston really helps the business manager leverage his productivity.