The French under the Duc de Luxambourg and others mainatin the largest and most aggressive army in Europe. These are the years when France seeks to create a greater hedgemony. Population and ecomonic growth has blessed France since it was largely spared the devastations of the 30 Years War earlier in the Century. Now under their highly autocratic monarch, Louis XIV (The Sun King), they seek to dominate Europe. They have impressive resources to do this. Vaubin is the genius of siege-craft. Under his brilliant direction one Dutch fortress after another falls as the French armies advance deeper into the Spanish Netherlands and the Low Countries. Only the dogged determination of William is there to stop them. Each year another major Dutch or Spanish Netherlands fortress falls, but William holds out long enough to wear the French down. Louis begins to tire of the tangled web of Dutch fortifications and William's determination to keep a field army together. The French become interested in bullying the German principlaities instead. William is given a repreive and through various loosely worded treaties which the French constantly keep changing, he manages to save the Dutch Republic. For this alone William deserves to be known as the George Washington of the Low countries.

But fate has a larger story for Dutch William. Through marriage to Princess Mary, the protestant daughter of King James II, William has a direct claim on the English crown. This is brought into play when the English parliament seeks to remove James for his pro-Catholic and auto-cratic ways in 1688. The Glorious Revolution as it is known in England brings William and Mary bloodlessly to the English crown and forever changes
Anglo-Dutch history. William now has a new lease on life and can bring the larger resources of England into his greater conflict againt the dominations of Louis XIV. The Nine Years War will see William first campaigning in Ireland to defeat James II at the famous battle of the Boyne in 1690. This watershed moment in Irish History is little understood today despite numerous pictures of the event hanging in many Irish pubs around the world! William will then return to the Continent and continue the struggle against the French. The battles of Stenkirk (1692) and Landan (1693) are largely inconclusive but prove Williams increasing abilities of generalship over Louis XIV's armies. The siege of Numur (1695) is Williams crowning military achievement. He here manages to beseige and take a fortress designed by the great Vaubin. The myth of French invincibility in this period is finally broken. France, exhausted under Louis's harsh domestic and foreign policies must seek peace for the time being.

William continues as joint monarch of England and the Netherlands. The English will see themselves established as a leading maritime and commerical power, while the Dutch will beigin their descent into non-entity. Yet, for all that William does for the English he is not generally liked by them and is regarded derisively as "Dutch" William. The Dutch will tend to have an indifferent attitude toward him in their history.

Williams place in history covers the histories of two nations (England and Holland) and his influence extends beyond into Ireland, the Spanish Netherlands, Germany and even France. Louis XIV, despite numerous attempts to assassinate him, comes to respect William. The Dutch and English will have mixed feelings, and to the Irish he will become a distant almost mythical figure. There is no doubt that his legacy was the salvation of Europe from a French universal monarchy under Louis XIV. Dutch William may be largely forgotten today, but his struggles helped to shape modern Europe.

This book, while extensive on William' life, is at times tedious. The author's discussion of the complicated court politics and dynastic claims of the period was at times quite confusing. His descriptions of English politics is equally hard to follow. The author can not totally be blamed for this as the dyanstic politics in the 17th century were extremely confusing. The author writes with evident admiration for his subject, and seems to truly admire William almost to the point of excess. While not a great Biography in terms of style and writing, the subject and the historical period are fascinating.
Until a better and more recent work on William III comes out I would strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in the military politics and dynastic history of the 17th Century.

First published in 1979, Wrestlin' Jacob offers important insights into the intersection of black and white religious history in the South. Erskine Clarke provides two arenas -- one urban and one rural -- that show what happened when white ministers tried to bring black slaves into the fold of Christianity. Clarke illustrates how the good intentions -- and vain illusions -- of the white preachers, coupled with the degradation and cultural strength of the slaves, played a significant role in the development of black churches in the South. From 1833 to 1847, Reverend Charles Colcock Jones served as an itinerant minister to slaves on the rice and cotton plantations in Liberty County, Georgia. The aim of Jones, and of the largely Puritan-descended slave owners, was to harvest not only good Christians but also obedient and hard-working slaves. At the same time, similar efforts were under way in cosmopolitan Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston permitted blacks to worship only under the supervision of whites, and partially as a result, whites and blacks worshiped together in ways that would be unheard of later in the segregated South. Clarke examines not only the white ministers' motivations in their missionary work but also the slaves' reasons for becoming a part of the church. He addresses the important issue of the continuity of African traditions with the religious life of slaves and provide a significant introduction to the larger issues of slavery and religion in the South.

I can only guess that other reviewers are VERY new to programming to state that this author is not clear. As for humor and entertainment... if you are honestly expecting a programming language book to contain humor and be entertaining you should seriously consider whether you are in the right profession!!! This IS a great book, and DOES explain all that a begining programmer should require.

Please realise that it is NOT compiler specifec. It does not matter whether you are programming on Linux, Mac, Dos, Windows, XWindows, Palm Piolot or your latest digital watch!! If you have a C++ compiler and need to know the basics of the language get this book.

1) The first 9 chapters are fairly straightforward and flow pretty well for a beginning programmer, but after that point the flow of learning is interrupted by an odd sequence of chapters and a dramatic decrease in the amount of explanation for example listings in the book.

2) Example listings often utilize new syntax that is not discussed or explained sufficiently, leaving the student thoroughly confused. Sometimes there is no mention of new syntax at all, leaving the student to wonder if it is tied to the current concept being presented or is irrelevant.

3) Complex concepts are not explained thoroughly enough for new programmers to understand it without going to other sources for information.

4) A good textbook will test the student's understanding by requiring them to apply the concepts that have been presented, and to build upon previous topics. Unfortunately, there are not enough exercises at the end of each chapter (especially ones dealing with complex topics) to allow the student to master the topic or to fully explore the current programming subjects.

5) There are many locations in the book where irrelevant topics are introduced with sketchy detail - sometimes even including an example listing -- then the student is told to wait until it is covered more thoroughly later. These topics are sometimes not covered until several chapters later (when it becomes relevant to the topic at hand).

6) Even the latest printing (4th) of the book still contains a large number of errors that are not listed in the errata sheet (available from the author's Web site).

7) New programmers often appreciate reviewing the d! efinitions they've covered, but there is no glossary in the book to assist in learning the new terminology.

8) I find it doubtful that most new programmers will be able to learn C++ very well in 21 days, as the book's title suggests.

Beginning programmers who purchase this book should be aware that they will probably need other references available to clarify certain complex topics that are introduced in the book. I would be much more pleased if the book included more thorough explanations (with accompanying examples, of course) in the latter half of the material and the chapters were re-sequenced.

My wife, on the other hand, has had zero programming experience or training. She has worked more than half way through the book (often covering 2 "days" in a few hours) and now has a decent knowledge of the contents of those chapters. Certainly, no book will ever replace actually DOING stuff over and over... but you can't know what to do until you have seen it in action. This book provides that.

The examples they use are simple when possible and complex when necessary. There is a nice format to this book in that there is a review section at the end of each chapter ("day") and then questions allowing you to actually create/debug code - with the answers in the back. Most of the time... if not close to all of the time... she was able to get those answers right on the first attempt.

I believe that, between the two of us with our vastly different experience and knowledge levels, we have found a book that covered both of our needs very well. Will it cover everything? No book can. Will it solve every little quirk you could ever have as a programmer? If you expect a book to do that, you shouldn't be a programmer in the first place. Will this book give you many tools - ranging from basic to advanced - with which you can become a serious C++ programmer? I believe it will.

Make no mistake, C++ is a very complex language and a person could spend his or her whole programming life learning different ways to solve problems with it. What I like about Jesse Liberty's approach is that he assumes no prior programming experience. He does a good job of explaining the basics and providing examples to work on.

Another thing to consider is that different people learn in different ways, and J.L. has written another book called "C++ from Scratch". It takes the approach of diving into the middle of a programming problem with an experienced programmer and learning from doing. I have both books and they both have taught me a lot.

With something as complex as C++, no one book can teach you everything. From my perspective, if you're a relative new comer to programming or new to the C++ language this is a great book.

This book isn't going to tell you how to hate your ex, nor do I believe it was her intention to suggest you should use hate as a way to get past such a painful period. She simply voices a lot of the things people can feel while being on the receiving end of a breakup and seeing it in print, with such wicked wit behind it, can be VERY therapeutic.

It even prompted me to do some writing of my own, to fill in the parts I thought were missing from her book! :) At some points she goes a bit off topic and this is what prevented me from giving it 5 stars. Overall this is a great book and one I highly recommend to those who have experienced the pain of heartbreak.

All of us have had crummy relationships; all of us probably want to hire our ex- to clean our houses with toothbrushes. "Ms. Liberty" wrote the book about it. I know there are several "Mitchells" out there who should be blushing every time someone reads this!

Like all Anna Pigeon novels, this moves slowly. It does take quite a while for the bones of the mystery to appear but Anna Pigeon is such a likeable heroine and Barr such a good writer that the book never seems to drag. At times, Barr's stream-of-conciousness style of writing can be hard to follow but overall the novel is a fun read.

The suspense plot kept my interest and gave me plenty of thrills
even as I enjoyed the gentler suspense of the sub-plot of Anna's ailing sister. I'm delighted to have discovered Nevada Barr's works.

Sean Hannity has lighted his candle with this book. Many of us have hungered for a book like this for a long time--a reasonable voice that explains our conservatism
in plain language that anyone can understand, and that exposes the fallacies inherent in the liberal political view.

Hannity points out that American liberals are not evil or anti-American, only misled and mistaken in their goals and policies.

His book is endorsed, on the back cover, by such conservative stalwarts as William J. Bennett, Rush Limbaugh, Dr.James C.Dobson and Newt Gingrich. The book
is also endorsed by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who says of it:

"LET FREEDOM RING is a cogent plea for the moral clarity and courage needed to defeat the militant terrorism that imperils our civilization. Hannity minces no
words, and is at once provocative and thought provoking. He should be read by supporters and opponents alike, and those interested in the debate over the future

direction of free societies."

Quite an endorsement, coming from a political head of another sovereign nation. Mr. Netanyahu understands both the common enemy and the stakes involved,
having spent his adult life fighting them.

A few short months ago, before the holocaust of last September, some of the harsh things about liberalism that Hannity says might have seemed like reckless
exaggeration; however, since that date Americans have awakened to the reality that the greatest threat against us, and our greatest enemy is not, as Albert Gore
stated in his book, Earth in the Balance, the "growing concentration of carbon dioxide now circling the earth." Nor is it American families and workers exercising
their freedom by driving their automobiles, trucks and SUVs. Rather, as September 11th, 2001, has shown us, there are more immediate concerns than the fate of
the Spotted Owl.

According to Hannity, protecting our air, land, and water from pollution is certainly important, but protecting our homeland from crazed, rabid, suicidal terrorists who
hate us not for anything we've done but simply for what we are, and who clap their hands and dance with joy at the news that they've killed 3,000 innocent men,
women and children simply because they are Americans, is of more immediate importance.

It is hard to argue with that sentiment.

In this book, Hannity goes to great length to explain the deficiencies and incongruities of the liberal philosophy, and looks at some of the great mistakes made by the
last liberal administration--such as refusing an offer by Sudan to turn over Osama bin Laden in 1996, not once but several
times.

This is a truly important book. For conservatives, it is "preaching to the choir" although it will be informative, and to those of the liberal persuasion it will be anathema,
and if they deign to give it any notice, it will likely be a vindictive rant. But, if there is anyone left with an open mind it should be of interest.

As for me, I am frankly part of the choir.

Joseph Pierre