Apocalypses; Prophecies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs through the Ages, by Eugen Weber, well, the title says it all. This book covers every apocalyptic movement since they first began, and does it in nearly chronological order. Weber writes with a great sense of humor, which keeps this book from being completely mind-numbing. Its not the subject that is monotonous, but the overwhelming number of movements covered. I had no idea just how ubiquitous apocalyptic movements are and have been. This is not a new phenomenon, but one that has persisted for over two millennia of history, even proceeding Christ. I recommend this book as a good reference for anyone studying apocalyptic movements, but it might be a bit much for casual reading by the merely curious.

An amusing and often enlightening book about the many prophecies - from the ancient past to our days - announcing the end of times. After reading this book it will be impossible to listen to the "revelations" of the many charlatans opening - in good or bad faith - their mouth with certainty to find credulity. Too many times the end has been "tomorrow", but too often this has been forgotten.

Review by Marianne Luban:

When the Year 1000 was drawing near, people took it as an omen when Halley's Comet streaked across the heavens. Did this portend Doomsday or the advent of the Messiah? Was Man marching inexorably into the dusk or the dawn? Another thousand years later, we still don't positively know the answer to that question.

The eminent historian, Eugen Weber, delivers his latest work, "Apocalypses", just in time to ponder our status on the brink of the new millennium and to give us insight into the hopes and fears of previous generations who found themselves hesitating before the looming gateway of a new era, weighing prophecies or confronted with phenomena consisting of "lamps of fire, angels, plagues, lightenings, thunderings, earthquakes, falling stars, fire, blood, hail, black sun and bloody moon". Weber writes: "When the world ends, it could be argued that all that ends is the world we know. The end of the world was really only the end of one world, not the end of time but of our time, not the annihilation of mankind but the end of a way of life and its replacement by another."

While some contemplated finales, optimists dreamed and wrote of their hopes for an enlightened, repentant world and the regeneration of the human race: "They speak, earth, ocean, air; I hear them say 'Awake, repent, 'ere we dissolve away!" Yet others faced the unknown and dire forebodings armed with their wit. According to Weber, when Pope Benedict XIV was informed that the AntiChrist had come and was now three years old, the pontiff quipped, "Then I shall leave the problem to my successor."

Eugen Weber must be the world's most fascinating conversationalist. One gets the impression, from reading "Apocalypses", that he has the entire saga of mankind stored in his marvel of a brain and can conjure up imagery, names, anecdotes and dates from it with the same fluency that some of us have when writing a chatty postcard home, describing an exciting day in a far-away locale. This is not to imply that, although Weber's style is urbane and witty, that "Apocalypses" is an easy read. It is not. Eugen Weber is never ponderous, but he makes it plain that he is first and foremost an historian and only secondarily a raconteur. Or perhaps thirdly, because Weber as philosopher is also very much a presence in the book. In fact, it is his own thoughts and comments that leave the most lingering impressions, reminding us that, while the deeds of Man are fleeting, it is his "death-defying thoughts", set down on paper, that are like the nacreous bits of shell that remain gleaming on the beach after the great tides of history have flooded and ebbed. For an academic, Eugen Weber is a very good writer, indeed.

How different our "fin de siecle" seems from bygone chronological milestones. No longer moved by superstition and too jaded for optimism, we await the Millennium with a kind of dull signation. Our popular heroes are all dead or aging and nobody has emerged to replace them. The close of the century seems characterized by vapidity, greed and a lack of concern for the health of the planet we call home. Could there be a more fitting commentary on the status quo than that our direst prophecy for the Year 2000 concerns the imminent failure of the Machine, upon which we have formed such a frightening dependency? Eugen Weber doesn't have an email address. Perhaps he never will. Intellectually speaking, his address is the universe, his understanding cosmic. Doubtless he would like to offer greater comfort, but the honest scholar can only counsel, while commenting on the recent trend toward apocalyptic films and literature: "Adversity is good for faith, and adversity is ever present. Ages of decadence always suggest an end; few ages have not struck their contemporaries by their decadence" and "We suffer and suffering is catastrophic, sometimes unbearable, sometimes final....We yearn for some explosive, extraordinary escape from the inescapable and, none forthcoming, we put our faith in an apocalyptic rupture whereby the inevitable is solved by the unbelievable...in the end, salvation from sin and evil--meaning anxiety, travail and pain."

Marianne Luban is a freelance writer living in Minnesota. Her short fiction collection, "The Samaritan Treasure", is published by Coffee House Press

This book reminded me of my first novel which took place on the Great Lakes. Wright has taken this reader into another world which many do not know exists. "The Captain's Wife" shows those in the know and those who know nothing about the lakes. This author and I have a great deal in common. We have both lived on and around the lakes and have both come under its haunting heritage. The ships (or boats) which travel the Great Lakes are a strong story, alone, but "The Captain's Wife" brings a humanness, an identity of the sweetwater seas the reading public has missed. Write another one Wright! Continue the history!the love! Trish Schiesser author of another Great Lakes story, "Ida's Ride."

A born-and-bred New Englander now landlocked in the Midwest, my only experience with the great inland seas, the Great Lakes, has been the rare visit to the southern shore of Lake Erie. This book, "The Captain's Wife," took me fully into the world of the Lakes and the people who live, love, and work them. Ms. Wright obviously loves the land and the waters she writes about; her descriptions of scenes, settings, and weather were vivid and detailed. I became involved in the lives of Fannie Healy and her extended family, feeling her triumphs and disappointments. "The Captain's Wife" is an engaging read. I hope Ms. Wright plans to continue her stories of Fannie and Jack's family in the land of the Great Lakes.

I enjoyed The Captain's Wife and highly recommend it to other readers. Fannie, the main character, possessed a realistic combination of strengths and weaknesses. I cared about what happened to her and could hardly put the book down. The author did a good job describing the hypnotic beauty of the Great Lakes. I think it would make a great movie!

This book offers all the standard text used in undergraduate mechanics courses plus a number of more contemporary topics such as Lie derivatives, manifolds and much on nonlinear dynamical systems, all in a language appropriate for a Physics book. I consider it to be the modern equivalent of classics like the books by Goldstein or Marion. The material of this book should be the new standard for modern Classical Mechanics courses.

Classical mechanics often falls by the wayside in a modern physics curriculum. However, there are times when an understanding of subtle issues in this field are simply necessary for progress in current research directions. At times like these, one is all-too-often forced to turn to older texts such as Goldstein or directly to the literature of a field with which one is rarely intimately familiar. It is therefore a great pleasure to find a text such as Jose and Saletan's, a highly modern, extremely complete and very readable textbook on mechanics at an advanced level.

The book covers all of the standard topics of a graduate mechanics course (Lagrangian and Hamiltonian dynamics, rigid bodies, etc.) as well as more modern topics such as chaotic dynamics. All these subjects are treated in great detail and both in very physical and very formal languages. Most importantly, all of these discussions (including the formal ones!) are packed with completely worked examples which allow one to begin to use these techniques without attempting to decipher formal proofs.

The breadth of topics covered and the quality of the writing make this book a valuable addition to any physicist's workbench.

This book combines the standard topics covered in a Goldstein-type course; but in a fresh light. Using techniques of modern geometry, presented in an understandable way, it explores not just the solutions of dynamical equations, but the behavior of those solutions over the manifold in which they operate. The book begins by applying this geometry to well established Newtonian mechanics. Once you have that under your belt you are propelled into the Lagrangian formulation in a way that seems quite natural and reveals, easily, the symmetries that lay within. This book is written in a tight and readable style that makes even the most difficult concepts accessable. I highly recommend it and hope that it becomes the standard by which other mechanics texts of this level are measured.

Eugene Atget (1857-1927) spent almost thirty years photographing details of often inconspicuous Parisian buildings, side streets, cul-de-sacs, and public sculptures. In Focus: Eugene Atget brings together more than 50 of the J. Paul Getty Museum's 295 photographs by Atget, with commentary on each image by associate curator of photographs at the Getty Museum, Gordon Baldwin. Atget's photograph and Baldwin's commentary are enhanced with a chronological overview of Atget's life and an edited transcript of a colloquium on his career. In Focus: Eugene Atget is a superbly presented and invaluable contribution to the history of photography.

Eugene Atget (1857-1927) is the undisputed photo-documentarian of 19th century Paris. With studious attention to detail, Atget seemingly photographed every intimate corner of his much-loved city. Leaving the well-known monuments and boulevards to others, Atget instead concentrated on the atmospheric fabric of everyday Paris, photographing shops and window displays, cobbled streets, doorways, stairways, vehicles, churches, amusement parks, street-peddlers and prostitutes.

Unraveling the mystery of Eugène Atget's life and work is easier said than done. Now considered to be one of history's most important photographers, Atget was relatively unknown during his lifetime. Posthumously famous for his photographs, Atget in fact made only a humble living selling his prints to architects, artists, and institutions.

Atget wrote in 1920, "I may say that I have in my possession all of Old Paris." His systematic method of photographing Paris street by street is spellbinding, and the result is a detailed catalogue of 19th century Paris. The result of Eugène Atget's life's work is gathered here in a heartbreakingly beautiful book for lovers of Paris, architecture, and photography.

I received this book as a gift because not only do I collect photography books but I also frequently go to Paris because I love the city. This book is full of full page photos of Paris in the past and has a dreamy quality of the day to day events and sites of Paris and the surrounding areas. It's a great collectible book for photography fans and Paris lovers.

It's a long,foggy voyage taken in Edmond's deep ocean and its very sad. Through the blurry minds of the four members of the Tyrone's we travel back into their pasts and follow their tragic flaw. Especially Mary's choice has destroyed her whole life. Even though she loves James , its obvious that she has wasted her life by following his ambitions of becoming an actor and also has become a victim of his misery. James Tyrone is an old man now who unfortunately has not been able to get rid of his childhood's fears. The poverty that he suffered along with his three brothers has turned him into a vicious man.Who can blame him?He has suffered a lot when he was only 10 years old. How can we deny the fact that only the ones who experience real poverty, do know it closely and are afraid of it. He does not dare spend a bit more of his money for his own son's health. Money is more important than anything for him. Thus we see the couple lead their children into an unsober life .Its almost as if the father is like a Tyrant instead of a Tyrone. Thus, Jamie escapes them as a sailor and returns suffering of consumption without a penny in the till. The fog is even more depressing now. Edmond who critics believe to be Eugene O'Neill ,helps the narration by drinking with his father, where each one gives a long speech about their disillusions. They have no one else to blame but their past lives and what do we do with our wrong doings of past ? Don't we all have some long past wrong doings , haven't our parents taken the wrong choices sometimes? What are we supposed to do with them? Does the past hold in hand the right to ruin our present ? And if we allow it to happen , what will become of our future?

i don't think that the term 'enjoyable' can be attached to this poignant intensified private documentary of o'neill's life. what it is, is thought-provoking, humbling, heart-rending. one feels thoroughly uncomfortable, to say the least, reading the text; as if one were peeping through a spy-hole at a forbidden scene but with the master of the house standing behind one.

read it if you feel down in the dumps.

strangely, it promises a glimmer of hope in the enveloping 'fog' of despair.

From the opening curtain, O'Neill's play relentlessly examines the disintegration of the lives of four people. It is a disturbing drama where love and hate co-exist in such close proximity that it is sometimes difficult to separate one from the other.

The story unfolds in the course of a single day, which begins with an emergence from the fog, both literally and figuratively and ends with the descent of the fog yet again, deeper, more profound, more isolating than ever.

The youngest son, Edmund is the pivot point for the story. The other members of his family revolve around the drama of his failing health. He is represented by his family as both the cause and the victim of his mother's return to her addiction, his jealous brother's attempts to destroy his chances for success and his father's dissatisfaction with his life. And he accepts the responsibility thrust on him, all the while recognizing, acknowledging that it is merely an excuse for failures and bad choices.

The family, despite their best efforts, is bound together, caught in a web of their own creation, unable to escape eventual destruction. It is a sad commentary of life, poignant and fascinating. In spite of some dated references, it still provides an insightful look at the human condition.

I have used the other editions mainly as a reference to many medical conditons which I hear about in my practice as a psychiatrist. As usual,the latest text provides the information but there is no attempt to bullet or separate out the most important stuff - and no beautiful color diagrams as in Cecil's. Of its many strengths, the HIV chapter is authored by Anthony Fauci at NIH, a renowned international AIDS expert. If you want to keep up to date the ...price is a bargain. If you are a student choose what is most helpful to your style and use the study guide for board practice.

Big, complete and one of the most renowned books of internal medicine. Only the index could be more completely and the pictures could have been coloured. Instead of showing the genetic background
some practical approaches should sometimes have been emphasized more.

Briefly speaking: this book is for people who are familiar with the field of Medicine. Every few years I have to get a new edition as medicine is developing so rapidly. As I am now out of the mainstream of Medicine, when I want to look up something I read this book and the Merck Manual and I look up words I don't know in the on-line medical dictionary. That provides a fairly good intro. If I want to know more I go into the papers on PubMed. As far as I'm concerned, this book is a must-have, if you want to try to keep up with the field.

As any schoolkid (or fan of sci-fi knows) we are carbon-based life forms. But what if there were, in this universe, other forms of life, say, based on silicon? Remember the Horta on Star Trek? Wait, what if there were life forms based on carbon, but not organic carbon. What about mineral carbon, diamond, as a basis of life?

Taking this concept, author Eugene Goheen writes a very amusing sci-fi tale about Avrum Bengel, who loves selling rubber tires and failed to complete law school years ago, burning out when he lost a debating contest "Evolution will never erase the image of Man."

Now he's 65 years old (just, it's his birthday) and as a present, he's let go from his job selling his beloved tires. When he sits down at home and polishes off a snack of Fire-Master's best charcoal briquets, you know that this novel is heading straight into not only the funny, but the weird.

If you like science fiction with a good dash of humor and speculation, you will not be disappointed by "Inside the Rainbow." I was absolutely captivated by page three. Lots of fun.

on recent trip to wa. state i wandered into a bookstore & this book with the captivating cover caught my eye. i picked it up & thumbed through it & i thought to myself," what a different read this is". i purchased the book & went into a coffee shop & started reading it & could not put it down. the writer had me spellbound with detailed accounts which had me so engrossed in the book that i actually felt smarter after reading it. many books do not do this for me. i would highly reccomend this book for all to read...

Inside the Rainbow is the story of a future world in which US energy shortages spark a human mutation begins with a bang and doesn't let up: "I had to watch with my own eyes as my brother disintegrated into something not human." Different voices document not only the mutation but the changing nature of reality in an energy-shorted world. Fascinating and hard to put down.

Many English-speakers are distraught when they realise that the beautiful language of Italy will forever remain a secret to the rest of the world. The native Italians refuse to speak an ounce of their language to foreigners for fear that we should butcher their romantic language. It is quite a loss for those of us who are actually willing to give much time and training to learning Italian. This course "Italian, Made Simple" is probably the most comphrehensive courses ever written, and I have much of my Italian vocabulary obtained from this book!

The book itself has been around for quite some time. It was written in 1960 for the "Made Simple" series. It has been a popular staple of Italian courses in high schools and colleges ever since, and is now one of the better self-teaching courses. The book consists of fourty-one comprehensive chapters, each building on vocabulary, verbs, common expressions, and pronunciation and grammer. About every six chapters, there is a "revisione" - review chapter. These are like unit tests that one should do in full, at one sitting. At the end of the book, there is an Italian-English/English-Italian dictionary section, and contains all words learned throughout the course. (However, you might want to buy a complete Italian-English dictionary after completing the course, so you have a reference for words you did not learn. I suggest the wonderful "New World" dictionary, also available on Amazon.com.)

With each chapter drilling you to the maximum, and such a comprehensive voabulary agenda, "Italian, Made Simple" is not exactly the most simple of methods. It takes quite a lot of time. Each chapter may take from thirty minutes to an hour-and-a-half, and you may only have time to do three or less chapters in a single week. I suggest trying to do one lesson a day, but even I could not do this. The entire course took me three-and-a-half months to complete. However, by the end of this period, you will have learned enough Italian to get you through Carlo Collodi's complete "Pinnochio", and speaking with many Italians. Being an opera fan, I was able to comprehend large amounts of the texts of Italian operas without having to look at the supertitles! (Although, as Italian has changed quite a bit since the time of Puccini and Verdi, it is not always so easy.) I learned more from this course than anything else.

A problem with using this course is with the text, as it was written in 1960, and Doubleday has neglected to update the work, some of the text is considerably out-of-date. This is the Italian of the 1960's Italy - not current Italy. For example, the currently Italian pronouns used for "he" is not "egli" - but "lui" (pronounced "looey"). The current Italian pronoun used for "she" is not "essa" - but "lei". (This is also the same as the Italian word for "you", but one word capitalize it when using it in that sense.) Also, the phrase "per piacere" ("please" in English) is less common these days in Italy. Today, one would more likely hear "per favore". These can be cleared up, however, by watching Italian telision shows or listening to Italian music. (In Washington, D.C. we even get Italian music videos!) These will help to bring you a bit more up-to-date on Italian today.

I would suggest using this course along with the Pimsleur Italian audio courses. Although they are expensive, they help GREATLY with pronunciation, and are extremely easy. They are not as comprehensive as this course, but when used together, you will become quite fluent! (Also, the Pimsleur courses are actually up-to-date, so if you cannot get an Italian telivision show or radio program, they are quite a help! One little error on the course, however. Italy no longer uses the lyra as their monetary systems. It is now the Euro - easier to use and pronounce!)

This is the most comprehensive course I know of. It you learn to deal with the innacuracies due to dating (and I have pointed out the most prominent, already!) and have perseverence, you will be able to converse in fluent Italian, and read and write in the language (I even begin to THINK in Italian sometimes!), it is nessesary. A friend in Italy went through this course, and said to me: "If anyone can get through this course, they truly deserve to be treated as an Italian in Italy!" You should not fear about butchering the language after having done this course! It is a great secret to many who are looking for a great course!

This book is an excellent introduction to the Italian language. Its pronunciation guide is the most thorough I have seen, and pronunciations next to words indicate which syllable to stress, which is not done in the other popular italian books I have used. This is crucial to pronouncing the language correctly. The book is well layed out, pedagogically, if a tad ambitious. It keeps a fairly rapid pace in introducing new grammar rules, and can be overwhelming as a first text. Heavy use of drills really does get the language to "sink" in, however. The reason this book gets four stars, is that the italian it teaches is a bit outdated. Some of the vocabulary it teaches is straight out of 1960, and the pronouns it teaches for "he" and "she", among other words, are not in common current usage in Italy. My friend from Italy explained to me that those works anly used by her grandparents' generation.

By buying this book it really helped me understand the basic-intermediate status of Italian. It does everything in the best way I thought possible, and helped me learn my new language quickly and easily. It takes you step by step so that you don't get confused. Every six chapters there is a brief Quiz to see what you have learned and what you still need to spend some more time on. In the end, you won't be speaking fluently, but very very close to it. I reccommend buying "Living Language: Italian" that will give you an advanced-intermediate status. and finally, buy an advanced book or get a tudor...(TUDORS WORK REALLY WELL!)

HAVE FUN!!!

As you know now, this book is composed of two sections: Fletcher's indoctrination into the Army and his flight school training; then his flying time over Festung Europa. I have to give the book only three stars for the following reason: out of approximately 500 pages, only the last 200 pages were devoted to his flying experiences in wartime England. The first 300 pages described his experiences while learning to fly in California, Arizona, and Oklahoma. This portion of the book grows on you, but it's not really what I wanted to read. However, by the end of the 300 pages, you have a good idea what it took to learn how to fly in the early 1940s; and you learn to appreciate his training experiences when he finally enters the European theater of war.

The last 200 pages were a compilation of his diaries and input from various flight crew members. This section, of course, was much more readable. Therefore, I wish there had been more to read.

I would give this book more than five stars if I could. It is a very detailed description of life in training and in service as a B-17 pilot. I read it with great enthusiasm and highly recommend it to anyone interested in the B-17 in WWII

If you want to get a sample of what 8th Army Airforce pilots and crews went through, flying the big birds over Festung Europa then this is the book you want to get.

This is, by necessity, one mans experience and one mans war, but it is in such detail that it can be forgiven its narrow scope. This work is very much information rather than data, you will not be able to dip into its index for any facts and figures you might want BUT it will give you a snapshot view of what a tour of duty might well have been like.

The book reads like a diary and was, in fact, written using the authors letters home to his wife as inspiration. Luckily the fact that the author knew this letters might be read by censors keeps them from getting so familiar that an outside observer (the reader) gets uncomfortable reading them.

This book is two seperate works together, one takes the reader through Mr. Fletchers training, and the second goes through his tour of duty. Together they provide an important chronology of a B-17 Bomber crews career.

I thoroughly reccomend it to you.

Eugene Meyer's book on Maryland is a fascinating look at various parts of the state, with an emphasis on the human interest stories that bring it to life. I moved to Maryland a year ago and reading this book brings me much closer to feeling like I've been here for awhile. One criticism: where's the map? Maryland is a geographically complicated state and a map would have provided a great service to understanding where Mr. Meyer's was writing from and off to next.

Maryland is a geographical diverse state that offers mountains, magnificent waters, and communities that range from small, intimate villages to large, thriving cities. In Maryland Lost And Found...Again, Eugene Meyer provides the armchair traveler with a guided tour of the state and explores the people and places that made Maryland special both in the past and the present. His essays touch upon Maryland's relationships and features including megalopolis, Appalachia, the Chesapeake Bay, the Deep South, the industrial North, rich farmland, a major port, the nation's capital, as well as the primary car and rail routes carrying East Coast interstate traffic. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Maryland's "The Free State" history, geography and demographics, Meyer's engaging, informative, and "reader friendly" text is enhanced with black-and-white photographs.

I have lived in Maryland my entire life (with the exception of a few years between 1985 and 1994), and through the years I've done a lot of travel writing. This is an absolutely fabulous book: a must-read for anyone interested in the fascinating quirks and hidden stories in Maryland's geography and history. I think I'm familiar with just about every history/travel book that's been written on "The Free State," and this is certainly one of the best, and perhaps the best ever. Utterly fascinating and delightful reading.