As several other reviewers have noted, this book was published in 1966 and so it doesn't contain any recent history. Nonetheless, it's an excellent introduction to NY from it's founding in the early 1600s to the 1960s.

I disagree with the reviewer who said that there are no colorful characters in this narrative and that the narrative is boring -- I found the book full of interesting characters (politicians like Boss Tweed, reporters such as William Randolph Hearst, and influential people like John Jacob Astor). Moreover, I found the narrative engaging enough to make it difficult to put down at times.

My only complaint is that the editing job is shabby. Not so much with typos or grammatical errors, but the sentence structure and the narrative flow is a bit awkward at times. Every now and again, Ellis will switch gears without any warning or explanation. It gets a bit frustrating.

Also, there are NO maps in this book. I used 4 different contemporary maps -- 2 for Manhattan/Queens, 1 for Brooklyn, 1 US map (for references to Boston, DC, and the south). At a minimum, you'll need a Manhattan street map and a NY state map to accompany your reading.

A great book by noted American Diarist, E. R. Ellis, shows the humble birth of New York to the the great city it came to be. Not one to hide the seedy part of New York's past, he also includes the historical figures which made it great. If you don't know the origins of Knickerbocker, Bronx or Brooklyn, you will find them in these pages. Written in good narrative, it sounds more like a story then a history.

This is an excellent work for any student of New York City.
It recites the history dating back to the 1600s and marching
forward. The thrust of the book is good. The author attempts
to tell the long history of the city throughout some key
periods of the American experience. This book would be
very useful to any student writing a book report on the
City of New York. There are so many facts recited that a
few may be in error. The work is a "must read" for students
of government, history, world culture, city planning and a
host of other academic specializations.

The authors had a way of inflating what they're capable of writing. It reads just like any other so so old texts. Much of the academic discussions can be found in most other finance books. Beyond that, real business insight? Forget about it. You learn much more by watching evening news.

This book is outdated. The coverage was mostly corporate finance, not investment banking. In addition, I heard and confirmed that the materials covered in this book are close to 100 percent identical to another book by the same authors under slightly different title. A big disappointment.

This book is a good though outdated overview of the investment banking business. I would also strongly recommend instead or in addition
the Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking.... The Vault guide includes more
detailed overviews of all the departments and functions of an investment
bank including corporate finance, M&A, sales, trading, private client
services, credit, etc. If you are a job seeker in investment banking
also try the Vault Guide to Finance Interviews, which contains actual
investment banking finance interview questions and answers and which I
found to be enormously valuable in my Wall Street job search.

Dr. Ellis has done it again! (I must not be spiteful or digressfrom the contents of this book or I will be breaking the guidelines ofAmazon.com). So I will just state the truth instead. Ellis has claimed RET for himself and Dr. Beck. Well, it was created by Dr. Low in 1937. Jack Trimpey invented RR as an alternative to alcohol with "The Small Book". Using cognitive- behavioral principles. Ellis wrote the intro. Then he coveted RR with this book. If you are an athiest, agnostic, and NOT a falling down drunk, give Jack's book, Rational Recovery, a try. I don't think it was a very kind thing for this man to do. I did read this book. And it does seem incredibly simple-minded in the extreme. While Jack acknowledges a mid-brian "thirst for the alcoholic which can be talked back to, Ellis is sticking totally to the A-B-C method for alcholism. The examples he gives are really funny. The client states that he had no thought about drinking. Then the RET therapist interrogates the client! "You must have had some thoughts". Finally, the client backs down and says "Yes! Yes! Alright! I did say something to myself I guess." Therapist: "Like wanting to drink?" "yes, yes, I must have said something to myself when I saw the liquor store! " This is called "therapeutic aggression" where the therapist aggressively forces the client to fit into the therapist's paradighm of the universe. The entire book is loaded with cases like this!

Jack's book is much better for people who are not going down the drain. The wording of this book is very bad. As if Ellis wrote it on the subway to one of his singing lectures. If you are a falling down drunk, go to A.A. A Rational-Emotive Therapist told me that she has had "good luck" with her clients going to Alchoholics Anonymous! And she just thinks the world of Albert Ellis. Yes, I was seeing her for help!

While applying REBT to addiction and recovery may seem cumbersome at first, it DOES work and there are many many people that have recovered by applying the ideas and techniques presented in this book.

Ellis's REBT is a basis for SMART Recovery, and this book basically shows the REBT aspects of SMART.

Another reviewer has pointed to the Small Book of Rational Recovery as an alternative to this book, however, the primary author of that book no longer agrees with it's contents. The Small Book IS however, still on the recommended reading list at SMART.

Overall, this book provides excellent examples of applying REBT to alcohol and addiction issues.

As someone who feels that the only self-help book that anyone ever needs is David Burns' "Feeling Good," I was charmed to learn that Albert Ellis was the vanguard thinker of this cognitive approach to all. And here I find it applied to abusive drinking! What a treat, and at a crucial time.

Basically, the book shows you how you can teach yourself to analyze thoughts about drinking and to re-channel your actions. I find its logic unquestionable. VERY, very accepting of people, it makes me feel markedly more tranquil just reading it.

This book is not only helpful, but it's funny, also. Ellis is a rather salty person, sprinkling his writing with expletives here and there, which makes this logical, very useful book a giggle right when I needed one. I have heard some say that he's too rough in his language, but I find it a refreshing change, and a necessary one in the face of the real crudeness of alcohol abuse and the life it entails.

In response to the other reviewer who suggests that somehow his brother's suicide was precipitated by Ellis (!), I simply have to recap his constant allusion to the idea that no one can "make" you do anything. You choose to do everything that you do. Obviously, some people are too disturbed to think through it (this man evidently was)-- but for those who can -- it's awesome.

I found this title in a mainstream bookstore, among tomes of 12-step books...a ratio I propose to change if I am at all able to do so!

I am going to buy another title on the next "click!"

Peter Beresford Ellis cheerfully admits to a degree of hyperbole in the title of this excellent survey of Celtic history. There was no "Celtic Empire" as such, and no centralized Celtic authority, but this people, the aboriginal tribe of Europe, occupied the continent from its fringes in Iberia and Ireland all the way to central Anatolia. As such, they formed the foundation stock of the modern Irish, Welsh, Scottish, English, Bretons, French, Swiss, Austrians, Spanish and Portuguese, as well as contributing their bloodlines to the Italians, Balkan peoples, Turks, and even Germans and Slavs.

The Celts had an overwhelming cultural impact on the formation of modern Europe, but it is an impact which is shrouded, due to the Roman domination of the Celts around the time of Christ. Most European rivers have Celtic names (the Danube, the Don, the Dnieper, and the Donets are all named for the Celtic river-goddess Danu; and the Rhine and the Rhone both are named from the Celtic word for "valley").

Unfortunately, the Celts abjured writing in favor of human memory, so that, as their cultural nexus dispersed so did their learning and lore. Hence, we know relatively little about these people, the ancestors of many of us of European background. What we do know is often distorted, or plain wrong, written by Greeks and Romans, the latter (particularly Caesar, in his "Gallic Wars"), setting out to deride the barbarians seen as only fit for conquest.

Ellis tries mightily to lift the veil in this book. He has a fine appreciation for his subject, and if he makes the error of sometimes casting his Celts as "noble savages," replete with democratic thoughts and ways, he can be forgiven for doubting the Roman histories.

Given the relative lack of written primary source material, and the enigmatic messages of archaeological ruins, the book is necessarily too short, and reads as the quickest thousand-year history in print. It's still an excellent effort to bring these people, so long in the darkness, back into the light.

This book was excellent and the author is really an expert in his field. I was recently drawn to Celtic spirituality. I read this book slowly to completely understand it, and it was worth every minute! It is very academic and filled with historical information.

- had they been inseparable, they would have been insuperable.

Thus are paraphrased Tacticus's thoughts on that great ancient tribe, the Celts, to whom so much of Western Civilization is owed yet so little acknowledged. As Ellis tells us, many of the famous Roman writers and historians were profoundly influenced by Celtic literature - if not Celtic themselves. Celts served as mercenaries in the armies of Rome, Asia Minor, Greece and Egypt; they populated Europe from Bulgaria to Spain; they treated with Alexander and, on numerous occasions, and oh-so-narrowly missed the opportunity to beat Caesar. Ellis introduces us to the basic elements of Celtic society, a very democratic model that was largely shattered by the Roman conquest, and then takes us to those enclaves, such as Ireland and non-Roman Britain, where the culture continued to flourish. An extremely well-written history; a useful counterweight to Roman history, which too often neglects the Celtic achievement.

This is quite likely the worst book HRED has written. That said, there is still much of value. To find it though, one must wade through the author's agenda- she was in her One Great Goddess phase- and incomplete as well as unconnected examples of, well, sometimes one can't be quite sure just what she is trying to say or prove.

If your starting point is the premise that there was One Great Goddess, fine, you will love this book. If you want a scholarly evalution of Germanic goddesses, you will need to go elsewhere.

The tenor of this book is one of attempting to peer through centuries of Christian influence to show what the religion of the goddess may have been like. But in almost every of its presentations often is too loose in character to be truly fulfilling and abounds in conditional statements. It probably fails most in how it presents the subject in categories and then presents examples from the observations and works of others in an attempt to bring things to light. In doing so it tends to lose your appreciateion of variation in perceptions over time and place, which is understandable due to the scarcity of hard and sure information. But then it is this lack of certainty that makes it a book of possitbilites rather than information. However, if it were not for the obvious continuation of goddess worship into the Christian age with the Virgin Mary, I might doubt that there were any widespread goddess cults simply from the arguments this book provides.

It might have been better to have divided the book up by region, rather as History of Pagan Europe does. Instead the dearth of hard evidence is supplemented by comparisons to notions of goddess worship much further south of north. At best it is a collection of what can be said in a scholarly manner, but is rather too dull of a presentation to be an exceptional read.

Davidson has produced a useful book on Northern European Goddess history and tradition. She draws on early literature, legend, folk traditions (and records of now extinct folk traditions), and archaelogy to construct several categories of functioning for the Goddesses. She discovers Goddesses who are both nurturing and demanding, healing and destructive, revered and feared. Davidson includes Celtic, Norse, Finnish, and Latvian Goddesses, and frequently compares them to Mediterranean and Near Eastern Goddess roles.

She first considers the Goddess as Mistress of the animals, examining her roles as Hunting Goddess, Ruler of the Wild, Guardian of the diary [sic] herds, as Dog and Horse Goddess.

Next, she examines the Goddess as Mistress of the Grain, considering the most ancient roots associating Goddesses with fertility of the earth, the connection between Goddess and plough, the possibility of Goddess as Corn Spirit, and how the Grain Goddess of the North differed from Grain Goddesses of more temperate regions.

Davidson then takes up the Goddess as Mistress of the Distaff and Loom, looking both the context of Goddess and weaving in the ancient world as well as the differences in Northern Europe. She considers the Oseberg wall-hagnings, retrieved from a burial site, and illuminates Goddess figures found there. She also examines the interplay between weaving and destiny, the Goddess as Weaver of Fate.

In addition, she considers the domestic role of the Goddess as Mistress of the Household. She discusses Guardians of the home, the association between Goddess and fire and water, and the role of the Goddes in the birth and nurturing of children.

Finally, she examines the Goddess as Mistress of Life and Death, writing of her role as healer and in the realm of death. She also considers Northern European funeral rites and how they help us understand the roles of the Goddess.

Davidson points out that when we sentimentalize the Goddess, as so many white-light-bunny-fluff-goddess-of-the-week books do, we lose a great deal. She draws on Jung in her synthesis that the Goddess is both attractive and nurturing as well as repulsive and frightening. In her conclusion she points out that the Goddess was much more than simply the "Great Mother."

The book has a useful index and an excellent bibliography. It was poorly copy edited, however, with several typos. I also wish that Davidson had done a better job of separating out the layers of history through which she excavates. The meaning of stone-age evidence is poorly differentiated from the meanings of myths recorded in the middle ages or folk practices recorded in the 17th century. This is a significant problem which the book poorly addresses.

Five stars for depth and breadth, but knocked down to four stars for the failure to explicitly consider the impact of various historical contexts on the available evidence and on her interpetation of it.

(If you'd like to discuss this book or review, click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)

Albert Ellis provides his argument that religion is itself a form of mental illness; due to the fact that it promotes ideas such as not putting yourself ahead of everyone else, letting others emotionally support you, and thinking that there is such a thing as Truth.
Ellis absolutely rejects all absolute claims, tells people exactly how to avoid having people tell them what to do, and can't stand intolerant people. His intellectual arrogance is matched only by the internal weaknesses of his arguments. I am a psychologist who specializes in the study of religion, and the scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports the idea that religion serves as a source of emotional strength and personal worth, not as a source of pathology or irrationality.
Ellis, an otherwise admirable psychologist, is entrapped by his own prejudice.

Dr. Ellis presents a traditional psychoanalytic view of religion, but takes it one step beyond. Beginning with the writings of Sigmund Freud (e.g., "Totem and Taboo" and "Moses and Monotheism"), the field, traditionally, has viewed persons with strong religious beliefs as suffering from a neurotic preoccupation with fantasy objects (i.e., God). However, Dr. Ellis has extended these arguments by calling religious beliefs the equivalent of psychotic -- at least "irrational" (the worst perjorative in his vocabulary). This thinking has been largely undermined by more recent research evidence that indicates just the opposite: that persons with strong religious convictions exhibit lower levels of psychopathology, have more sustained relationships, and are more resilient in face of stress than persons of lesser religious faith (or with no religious beliefs at all).

The error of Dr. Ellis and others is the confusing of a simple correlation (i.e., that a person with strong religious beliefs has a mental disorder) with a cause-effect relationship. Systematic observation has not supported these contentions. Unfortunately, some theoreticians continue to hold to these tenents. There appears to be a strongly prejudicial set of beliefs driving the reactions of some observers, which is revealed in Dr. Ellis' writing. This can be seen in the title: "The Case Against Religion" and by statements like "Parental promotion of religion is guaranteed to have deleterious effects on children" (as noted by another reviewer). Such preposterous statements would be rejected out of hand, were it not for the esteemed positions of the authors. Such "scientific bigotry" is much like the eugenics of a century ago which strove to eliminate "undesirable characteristics" from the human population by selective breeding. In the science of eugenics, these unacceptable qualities might have been "swarthy complexion", low intelligence, or a sloping brow. In the case of the analytic tradition, religion has been treated as equally undesirable. For further reading on the subject, see "Freud and the Problem" of God by Hans Kung.

So many plans for breaking addictions involve a 12-step program, the apparent purpose of which is to replace one addiction (alcohol, drugs, TV, buying too many books, etc.) with an even more deadly addiction, the addiction to religion. More people have been murdered in the past 2,000 years in the name of religion than for any other reason. Read this well-written monograph, listen to "Imagine" by John Lennon, and if you're very lucky, religious addiction will be replaced by something less harmful. Why doesn't someone write a book and call it "How to Break Your Addiction to Religion, Spirituality and Personal Growth in Ten Easy Lessons."

As aforementioned, the mech and weapons stats are already in the game manual and in the game. So nothing new there. The supposedly "detailed" mech descriptions and evaluations really don't tell ya anything you didn't already know.. Ie going toe-to-toe with a big mech in a little mech isn't smart, or that one particular mech which is nothing but missle racks should be used for standoff missle combat--"gasp" how scandalous. The single player mission walkthroughs are a joke, though they are helpful in warning you that entering area x is going to trigger hordes of scripted enemys to descend on you. As for the books advice on how to beat those hordes...well, most of it is idiotic at best.

Basically, if you are desperate need of someone else to provide common sense while you play this game then this book is for you. For the other 99% of the ppl who buy this game its totally redundant.

As usual Sybex has put out a fine game guide.If only the game lived up to it's potential.I was disappointed the unrealistic graphics after playing mech 3 which was to my eyes on a great path towards that goal. Mech 4 is a step backward.With this guide you can't lose a mission,but that may be because the game is too easy.What do you think?

I found this MechWarrior 4 book pretty solid. I was a novice to MechWarrior 4 games and the guide helped hone some of the skills I needed to survive the campaign game. Decent mech and weapon info and fairly comprehensive walkthroughs. Would have appreciated more online play discussion but still a useful book for all types of players.

This book is poorly written and contains very little useful information. It spends far too much time describing trivial differences between various computer & network configurations, and too little time really discussing security. When it comes to discussing security tools (in an appendix), it simply lists all of the available products, with little to no comparisons or recommendations. The average user will get nothing from this book, and is better off spending the money on a firewall or screensaver.

I was able to use the advise from this book to setup my home router. I have been watching the logs and it is amazing how many times on any one day that I get attacked. I have a cable modem at my apt. This book was great on the details about how to setup the home router.

This book was very useful ---- I found that I get attacked every day --- due to logs on my router. I agree with one of the other reviews -- too much Linksys stuff ... but still a great book and provided me with the information I needed to block these constant attacks on my cable modem line.

At least they saved the title. Or should we say they stole a good title to market trivial trash. It copies the movie, and has all the flaws. The troopers in the movie had no guns. We're expected to believe that they flew starships and the best personal weapon they could find was an automatic rifle hardly better than 20th century. They had no guns. Even a battery of civil war field pieces would have been a major improvement. A Sherman tank would have been a miracle. Given the starship technology a viewer/reader would expect them to carry real guns that fire real destruction, not those puny ineffective popguns they died holding. The lack of credible weapons makes these troopers seem like ineffective jerks and destroys the credibility of the whole thing.

Heinlein's troopers wore armored suits and carried weapons sufficient to destroy everything alive within several hundred yards. They had to pay attention when they got within half a mile of each other so they wouldn't wipe each other out. Not these fools, they have to fire a hundred rounds to kill one unarmed bug. Pathetic and unbelievable.

The original Starship Troopers spends half the book discussion moral philosophy of government, command structure of troops, and the morals of space exploration. This has none of that. What a waste.

Maby I'm biased a little bit, but i found this book uninteresting and insulting to Robern Heinlein (may he rest in peace). I felt the book strayed too far from the original purpose of Heinlein's excellent book. This novel detailed the military aspect well, but completely missed the philosophical aspects of Heinleins book that made it a classic. The book is often thought of with the movie, even though they are nothing alike. It is unfortunate that this other seemed to have never even read the novel Starship Troopers, much less adhered to its purpose.

I really liked this trade-paperback because my parents prohibited my viewing the 1997 sci-fi thriller. This comic sets the stage by showing the prequel (Insect Touch) in which man comes in contact with the vicious arachnids, the tie-in (Brute Creations) in wich Raczak tries to save the inhabitants of Port Joe Smith, and the actual adaptation of the film itself.

I've read a ton of sales books and picked this one up because it looked promising. Reading it has been a waste of time. The author spends most of your time rather vulgarly promoting himself. A little, hopefully subtle, horn blowing always happens in sales books, but usually the self-promotion at least alternates with the sales ideas you bought it for. Not in this book. The coverage Who Dares Sells is shallow and contains no new, or even uncommon, information. I swear he got the NLP chapter by summarizing the reviews of a few NLP books, without the trouble of even reading them. It's that poorly done. I kept thinking I would get to some good ides eventually, so I kept reading. I'll save you the time. Avoid the book. There's a reason that there are no testimonials on the exterior, the book doesn't warrant any. If absolutes, generalities, and the occasional inane motivational song from the author are your bag, maybe check it out, maybe. If you've found that kind of advice as worthless in sales as I have, find another book.

The scope of this book is so broad that it doesn't go into much detail on any of the topics it attempts to cover! The author brags often about his success in selling and espouses rambling thoughts lacking any clearly defined point. No new ground is broken here. Much of the content is a rehash of principles better covered in many other books. There are a number of fine sales books out there. Sadly this is not one of them. I regret wasting the money I spent on this book and the time I spent reading it. I've never written a review before, but I feel a sense of duty to alert others. It's a catchy title and a beautiful cover, outside of that it's value couldn't be any lower if they had left all the pages blank.

In this world, we thank our parents as our first teacher , Then the second person we thank for is our teachers or mentors we met who guided and gave us inspiration in our career . How great a teacher is Mr. Patrick Ellis to new beginners who venture in marketing career studies. For there are living proofs of what his book WHO DARES SELLS can do!

I got hold of his book WHO DARES SELLS and like a miracle I had made it a guiding star to my quest in my marketing career. There are readers who bought his books and I am sure the book did something wonderful to them as it did to me since 1996.

I have graduated Dip.EMC and had studied related courses like IMPORT/EXPORT/International Trade which are important in Marketing products.Overall marketing knowledge is important factor to SUCCESS!!!

Thank you Mr. Patrick Ellis for that guiding beacon on marketing.

Ms. Ellen Moran