First of all, this is not a Mormon-propaganda book. It is a scholarly work, a study of law. It is an account of the legal proceedings that took place as a result of the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith at Carthage, Illinois in June of 1844. This book makes no attempt to convert anyone to Mormonism--in fact it doesn't even focus on the Smiths. Instead, it critically examines the trial of five men accused of participating in the murder of these two men.

I cannot praise this book enough for its objectivity. The authors remain completely aloof from bias, and focus instead on an analysis of the trial. One should not read this book with the intent of learning every detail about the Smiths' murder. For those interested in knowing about the legal proceedings that followed their deaths, however, this book will be a valuable tool.

This book is an invaluable resource--it unearths many facts and circumstances that I have not encountered anywhere else, and manages to make sense of just what happened inside the Carthage jail on that fateful summer day. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Mormon history.

The footnotes in this book are extensive and as insightful as the contents. The legal actions and procedings surrounding the trial are given attentive details. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to know more about Mormon history, American legal history, or history of the 1840's in Illinois.

I found this book to be thoroughly researched and documented. Oaks and Hill have written this book in a way that the reader can understand the legal process of the trial of the alleged assassins of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith. With many footnotes to back up their research, Oaks and Hill have effectively given the reader a clear picture of the events that led to the assassination of Joseph and Hyrum and the subsequent trial, without getting too carried away with "legalese" language. My complements to the authors on this excellent book!

I recommend this book to anyone who has interest in Trial Law, as well as Mormon History.

Stanley Rosen says nihilism is the position that obtains when all speech becomes like silence- once all values become justifiable they also become meaningless. Wittgenstein and Heidegger represent the two movements in modern philosophy that Rosen accuses of rejecting the authority of words.

The first part of the book brings out the similarities between fundamental ontology and ordinary language philosophy. Rosen shows that common to both is the misguided attempted to create themselves ex-nihilo while the major difference lies in their use of tools - one group uses sledgehammers while the other makes due with a nail file. Rosen then goes on to defend classical philosophy against Heidegger's charge that Plato dehumanized and devalued human existence- thus bring nihilism to the west.

Stanley Rosen does a exceedingly good job of showing how existentialism reduces to the very thing it tries to escape -- in the end the master becomes defined by his slave--

Stanley Rosen says nihilism is the position that obtains when all speech becomes like silence- once all values become justifiable they also become meaningless. Wittgenstein and Heidegger represent the two movements in modern philosophy that Rosen accuses of rejecting the authority of words.

The first part of the book brings out the similarities between fundamental ontology and ordinary language philosophy. Rosen shows that common to both is the misguided attempted to create themselves ex-nihilo while the major difference lies in their use of tools - one group uses sledgehammers while the other makes due with a nail file. Rosen then goes on to defend classical philosophy against Heidegger's charge that Plato dehumanized and devalued human existence- thus bring nihilism to the west.

Stanley Rosen does a exceedingly good job of showing how existentialism reduces to the very thing it tries to escape -- in the end the master becomes defined by his slave--

Rosen says at one point that he set out to fill the gaping hole in Strauss's platonism, the entire absence of an ontology, or as Rosen calls, a technical philosophical doctrine. If for Strauss the ideas are "fantastic, not to say incredible," Rosen rejoins: and nothing you say changes that. Rosen is thus determined recover a true Plato, the philosophical plato, and with the help of Heidegger's Wiederholung of the gigantomachia, but explicitly against Heidegger. The project is thus to save Strauss from Heidegger by using Heidegger against himself to fill in the esoteric but hollow core of Straussian platonism. Capisce? That is the project of Nihilism, and Rosen never shys away from confronting Heidegger head-on. Yet Rosen, to his detriment, never learned one important lesson from Strauss: the depths are contained in the surface, and only in the surface, of things. For Strauss that meant, to my mind, that philosophy is always political because it can never be technical. Rosen's 'ordinary language metaphysics' is sensible enough, but Rosen himself (despite what he says) is deeply impatient with politics (and philosophy) precisely because he fails to see that politics is the surface that contains the depths.

Roger Scruton is on of the truely inspired philosophers of our time. His breadth of learning is indeed staggering, and his ability to comment on a wide range of "human artifacts", (music, philosophy, politics) with humility and insight is as breathtaking as it is illuminating. This work on Aethetics spans the full range of what we (should?) consider humanity's attmpt to objectify its inner life in outward forms that give those less talanted, ideas and contexts to accomodate their highest aspirations. His work is among the best that rebuts the modern view that all such things are irredemiably "subjective" - a characterizaation that robs great works of art of their universal appeal and applicability, as well as their ability to lift us, however momentarily, above what Hegel called this life ("the highway of dispair") so that we can glimpse the finer aspects of our nature. Roger Scruton is to be congratulated for giving us hope that the Aesthetic spirit in humanity can triumph over the the mundane.

Although over forty years old, history students and teachers alike will find the descriptions, logic, and objectivity engaging. Nine chapters cover Carthaginian history and culture thoroughly. A very informal outline follows:
I. History of Carthage (brief overview)
II. The City of Carthage (strategic position, structures and architecture)
III. Society: the ruling classes (Priests, nobles, aristocracy)
IV. People, Industry, and the Social Problem
V. Everyday Life (Dress, Jewelry, food, family life, customs)
VI. Traders and Commerce (Explanation and history of economic competition between Carthage and the restof the Mediterranean world)
VII. Diplomacy, Army, and Navy
VIII. Great Expeditions (Exploration)
IX. Conclusion
Documentation is thorough and the footnotes worth reading. At 263 pages, the book is well worth the price.

In The Laughter of Carthage Moorcock takes his riotiously unreliable narrator from Civil War Russia and post-war France to America, the Ku Klux Klan (which, of course, he joins), corrupt Washington politicians, stunt flyers, gangsters, engineers, Hollywood and a lot more in between. This is a wonderfully readable series, a War and Peace for our own times, without doubt, and part of a sequence which must form one of the great Anglophone novels. This novel has never been in paperback in the US and Jerusalem Commands, perhaps even better than this, has never appeared at all. We are still waiting for The Vengeance of Rome which, by all accounts, Mr Moorcock has finished but is still polishing! If it is as good as I hope, we will have a great masterpiece on our hands!

Mr. Davis has written one of the most thought provoking books on Aristotle's Poetics to date. And while the reader learns the true meaning behind Aristotle's words, they also come to understand man's connection with imitation and how imitation leads us to poetry. A beautiful book for the layman and philosophy student/teacher alike.

This was Swann's last published novel, and the only one to ever be released in hardcover. It is the story of Aeneas, wandering hero of Troy, and Queen Dido of Carthage. It features folk from the prehuman era: dwarves, nerieds, and demigods. This novel, by far, was Swann's very best.

"Sun Inventions / Perfumes of Carthage" brings together two novellas by Teresa Porzecanski, a talented Jewish writer from Uruguay. "Sun" has been translated into English by Johnny Payne, and "Perfumes" has been translated by Phyllis Silverstein. Ilan Stavans provides the introduction to this two-in-one volume.

"Sun Inventions" is the story of a female academic and her family situation. The stronger (and longer) of the two novellas is "Perfumes." This is an engrossing multigenerational saga about a Jewish family that emigrates from the Syrian city of Aleppo to Uruguay. The family story takes place against the backdrop of a Uruguayan revolutionary movement of the 1930s. With its colorful, conflicted characters and problematic relationships, "Perfumes" has a Faulkneresque flavor.

The title of "Perfumes" refers to the perfume shop run by one of the novella's principal characters. In this novella Porzecanski explores such issues as racial conflict, propaganda, oral tradition, Jewish ethics, and the power of sensory cues to trigger memories and visions. "Perfumes" is a fascinating and rewarding text that effectively blends tragic and comic elements. If you are interested in Jewish studies, Latin American literature, or contemporary fiction, check out this volume.

Girar is a quite heterodox critic, and his trademark, mimetic desire (that is the fact that we desire something by imitating someone else who also desire it either directly (our best friend's girlfriend) or indirectly (social stereotypes that make desirable a certain type of woman or a specific product), provides a unique reading of the work of the bard. The book is based on the thesis that Shakespeare had conciousness of mimetic desire and that his plays show a representation of it as part of their plot. Girard focuses on many plays and on the sonnets and his reading is fascinating. Probably some will find his analysis repetitiva and determinist. However, the fact that mimetic desire is quite unlike any other theory applied to the bard creates very interesting readings of character development and plot in the plays, as well as one of the most convincing theories on the sonnets I have ever read. When combined with Bloom's Shakespeare and Greenblatt's Shakespearean Negotiations, the reading of Shakespeare becomes an excellent exercise of literary pleasure and a stimulating intellectual experience.

Although the style is a little rough around the edges, the novel is still readable. The greatest strength is the characters, especially Sophon. She has a great combination of intelligence and self-esteem, and all her actions are motivated towards protecting important values, most notably, her son Himilco. Story has a lot of good historical detail and gives a sharp realism to life in this ancient world without holding back the narrative drive. The story moves along, and by halfway through I was thoroughly caught up in learning the fate of the characters. What happens to Carthage is a true horror. But Richard Hardy's ending is very moving and inspirational. If you are sick of reading about lawyers and serial killers--or if you just like a good historical novel--this one is worth a look.

I like reading about a woman in the role traditionally protrayed by a man. The characters came alive; I could really "see" them. My husband took the book from me and I had to wait until he was done to finish. We both enjoyed it. Also bought another copy for a friend who is a history buff and he had great things to say about it

Actually my wife has completed the book and really liked it, but said she'd have liked the battle scenes to be shorter. I'm still reading it