Though this book is geared to leadership for blacks and blacks would more than likely identify with some of the examples and struggles in the book, the book provides Biblical and practical tips on leadership and wisdom that any race can appreciate! It's a shame this book is out-of-print. It has so much to offer the African-American community.

I am a Seminary Professor and I use this book in my classes for Leadership and Administration. The diverse backgrounds of the leaders make this resource explode with potential for training a new generation of leaders. I highly recommend it.

although i don't have a copy this particular book, (as it is extremely difficult to obtain). i do have a copy of The Bald Prima Donna translated by Donald Watson. Ionesco's first play and in my opinion one of his best. Ionesco uses great humour, it is classic Absudist Theatre at its best. Anyone studying drama or directing should read this play, it will open your eyes. if you thought waiting for godot was absurd, you will find this amazing!

this book features Ionesco's greatest works- The Lesson, The Bald Prima Donna and The Chairs. Particularly, it features a rare translation of The Blad Prima Donna, translated by Donald Watson, which in the other translation is entitled The Bald Soprano. the dialouge is quite different in this translation. This book is great for actors, directors, or Theatre enthusiasts, and is a must for any fan of Ionesco and/or Theatre of the Absurd.

The editors of The Defining Moment pose an interesting set of questions: Did the Great Depression cause a quantum increase of the federal government's involvement in the U.S. economy? If so, how and why?

Given the multitude of federal interventions into various sectors of the economy, the editors sensibly subdivided the questions into twelve topic areas, so that each chapter pertains to a particular program or sector. They then assigned the topics to respected academic economic historians affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Most of the authors actually try to answer the editors' questions, which gives the collection unusual coherence for a conference volume. Still more remarkable, most of them write well. They offer arguments and evidence that are far more accessible than those a reader will typically find in academic economics journals. The authors do not examine the question of whether the new roles played by the federal government during the 1930s contributed to, rather than only resulted from, the length and severity of the depression.

In their introduction to the volume, the editors set forth the quantum-increase or "defining moment" hypothesis and summarize the authors' answers. They provide useful line charts plotting the growing size of total government spending during the twentieth century, as a share of GNP and as divided among federal, state, and local governments. To my eyes, the time series for total government purchases of goods and services as a share of GNP shows two distinct upward steps. It first rises from a plateau of around 8 percent in the 1920s to a higher plateau of 14 to 15 percent in 1932-40. It then (after the spike associated with World War II) rises to a still higher plateau of around 21 percent after 1952. As is consistent with the theme developed by Robert Higgs in Crisis and Leviathan (1987), the crisis of the Great Depression is associated with the first upward "ratchet effect." The second ratcheting upward is a puzzle not examined in the current volume, beyond a passing reference or two to "the cold war."

Like most conference volumes, The Defining Moment is a mixed bag; some chapters are stronger than others. Few readers will want to read it cover to cover, but anyone seriously interested in the economic history of the United States in the twentieth century particularly those called upon to teach that subject should give the volume a look.

Prof. Bordo is my instructor for my Financial & Monetary History of the US class here at Rutgers University. He is a brilliant guy and I am sure this book is great. I have never read it but he is no slouch.

Propaganda towards The King of England's, etc..., extinction notwithstanding, such anti-evidence of "our" usual presentation to "our" Embassies and The World Court, if not also "our" "U.N. General Assembly," "we" in confiscation of "our" own "domestic/International" copyright legal prerogative, proclaim the four star rating from the subject matter's heretofore anonymous greatness, considering "H.E." is the Grandfather of the "Cross"-hybridization of an all European Royalty God, even on hypocritical earth, via commingled genetic mixing with "our" Father, Oskar Clas Frederick (SUECIA ET DANIA REX), creating the Divinity of such "our" prophetic Imperial dominance towards the truth of completely unifying Continental Monarchy(ies)(such book leaving out the fact that from Divine prophecy of "Lord" Louis' Grandson, "our" family being of relation to Rome's AUGUSTUS OCTAVIANUS; of such illuminations Philip, "our" estranged cousin, wants some Ira to just blow him up he's so extatic about having Caesar's genes) within Imperial Royal prerogative of, for example, "our" Halloween World Court Edicts regarding such conspirator secrecy as not depicted for such book's purchasers, returning to "our" Four birth-right Kingdoms through "our" Sovereign Coined image used on certain "small" denominations of "small" privitized "real estate" "claims" (Hapsburg) of "small" to be Kingdoms, as was similarly expressed within Ziegler's "Mountbatten," tales of the war(s), particularly bringing back memories of "my" Grandfather Mountbatten, "Do you go to the mountains and (batten) play baseball?," telling of the Burmese warriors who had to contact blood on their knives if pulled from sheath or the capsizing of his command vessel off the coast of Greece after attack from German war planes, a Prince of Greece, etc., defending his territorial "claim," ironically, again, against yet another (Germany) of "our" neverending right of fact claim of right, Divine Rights from "h.i.m.," "we" say, "...ici, ici...Dieu et mon droit, DEUS IUSI EGO," as (buy it and read it then get the full story at The Emperor's website forthcoming) I command it.

I read this book when it first came out. My grandmother was a Batenberg. According to oral tradition in the family, her grandfather was appraoched by a German Lawyer while the family- including my Maternal Grandmother was living in the Hague, Netherlands. The lawyer indicated that Mr Batenberg of the Hague was next in line according to the laws of German to inherit a vast fortune, which included the tin mines in Russia. The tin mones were co owned by the Tzar and the House of Hesse,aka Batenberg. The offer of wealth was repudiated - the reason was that the wealth would ruin the religious committments and lifestyle of the family-and the lawyer was told to pass the inheritance on the next in line by way of descent. The next in line was Mountbattens father and when the tin mones were lost in The Russian Revolution October 1917, Louis Battenbergs father and Louis Batenberg eventually went into the British Navy for the reasons mainly related to the loss of income from the tin mines in Russia. The oral tradition in our family is supported by this book. This has rather amazed me.

While psychological drama does not often achieve its goal, O'Neill gets it right with "The Emperor Jones." Even when reading the play, one develops a sense of inexorable dread as the native drum speeds up and the Emperor runs into one hallucination after another. All in all, a decent play, though I cannot give it five stars, since I really do not buy into the whole "Emperor" idea. It is the one thing O'Neill does not pull off.

"The Emperor Jones," by Eugene O'Neill, is a striking work by one of America's most significant dramatists. A bibliographic note in the Dover edition states that the play was first performed in 1920 and published in 1921. It's a one-act play in 8 scenes.

The play tells the story of Rufus Jones, a former Pullman porter who has become the monarch of a West Indian island. But as the play opens there is trouble in his empire.

This is a surreal, nightmarish character study, full of violent and disturbing images. There is some biting dialogue, as well as an intriguing exploration of tension between Black Christianity and Black "heathen" religion.

Jones is a memorable figure, powerful and tragic. O'Neill's stage directions are full of fascinating visual and audio touches--his mastery of the genre is quite evident. Ultimately, "Jones" is a haunting meditation on power, belief in the supernatural, and the seemingly inescapable pull of history.

This edition provides three original plays by Eugene O'Neill, about men at war with themselves and society. In "The Emperor Jones" Brutus Jones is a black man who has escaped the law in the United States and found refuge on an island in the West Indies. Through deceit, Jones becomes emperor over the 'bush Negroes' he so despises. The play opens on an empty court with a cockney confronting the last of Jones' servants who is preparing to 'run away to the hills'. When Jones awakes and is

told of the situation by Smithers, he masks his cowardess with fake bravado and is soon overcome by his guilty conscience of taxing the people and of his former life. O'Neill delivers his vision of a destitute man and his guilty conscience masterfully, using the vibrant pulse of a tom-tom to keep the continuous beat that spells Jones' doom. In '"Anna Christie"', a Swedish Sailor and his daughter are reunited only to discover that everything can not be perfect after 15 years of separation. It is the story of Chris coming to terms with the knowledge that he could have provided a better life for his daughter, Anna. At the same time, Anna must realize that she can not live in a lie, but must tell her father and boyfriend the truth and ask for their forgiveness, while also learning how to love. As in O'Neill's other plays, the characters portrayed are at the bottom of the social ladder and must also come to terms with their station in life. Finally, O'Neill tells the story of a coal stoker on a steam-ship who is confronted with the realization that he is nothing but the dregs of society. With the innocence of a child, Yank personifies himself as steel, he is the power of the steamboat and nothing can stop him. Yank thinks only of himself and those around him, not daring to imagine a world outside that of his natural habitat, the furnace. In five minutes Yank's world comes crashing down as a woman from the outside looks in and is horrified by what she sees in the men. Through possible jealousy and despise, Yank attempts to avenge himself of the girl who condescended on him. When Yank is snubbed by a group he wants to join that could bring him his coveted revenge, he is cast further into gloom and self pity. With nowhere to turn, Yank breaks into a zoo where he confronts his fears by addressing what society claims is his equal. Eventually, Yank is brought to the cruel reality that he is nothing but a 'Hairy Ape'. O'Neill wrote the characters in The Emperor Jones, Anna Christie, and The Hairy Ape as people at the bottom of the social ladder suffering from grief and guilty consciences because all people can identify with their trials and eventual reconciliations. Beautifully written and always stirring, these plays will never leave your mind or heart empty.

Just finished it! This is the best play I have ever read. In fact perhaps the best piece of writing ever read. An incredible journey through the past of a black man, Brutus jones aka Emperor jones, who over comes life to become an Emperor of an island in the West Indies. Only to find he has become something he hates, predominantly a white man stealing and corrupting his own brothers. He remembers his past violently attacking it, until he is killed by his own beliefs, when he told the natives he could only be kill by a silver bullet, the natives coerced him with haunting drum beats in the night while they made the silver bullet. forcing jones to go mad, and break down to defeat. He runs in acircle right into the native silver bullet!

It has been nearly fifty years since Eugene O'Neill's death. Much has been written about him since that time. In his new biography, Stephen Black insightfully analyzes the Pulitzer and Nobel Prize winning dramatist and his work. Black is an English professor with training as a psychoanalytic therapist. The "thesis" of his biography, Black writes, "is that O'Neill spent most of his writing life in mourning" (p. xvi). O'Neill, he contends, used playwriting as a means of self-therapy.

Black's 543-page biography is filled with interesting information about his subject's troubled life. We learn, for instance, O'Neill was born in a hotel room in 1888, and died in a hotel room in 1953. In between, he lived "a life of earthly and psychic wandering" (p. 43). At the time of his birth, O'Neill's mother became addicted to morphine, for which he blamed himself. As a mother, Ella O'Neill was "lonely" and "inadequate" (pp. 48, 51). O'Neill's father, an actor, was "revered," though "distant" (p. 47). O'Neill's estranged daughter, Oona, married Charlie Chaplin when she was 17. Chaplin was 54, and two month's younger than O'Neill. We learn that O'Neill's life was plagued with, among other things (and the list is long), illness, depression, alcoholism, family tension, unhappy marriages, and one devastating death after another. Truly, it is a wonder O'Neill ever found his way through the obstacles in his life to write four Pulitzer Prize winning plays, and to win the Nobel Prize in literature in 1936.

Black's book also contains plenty of perceptive commentary about O'Neill's plays. It ends with an impressive bibliography. Although I occasionally found O'Neill spending too much time on Black's couch in this psychoanalytical biography, this is nevertheless a worthwhile book for anyone interested in the playwright or his writing.

G. Merritt

Stephen A. Black has assembled an extraordinary range of materials to provide the first comprehensive psychoanalysis of O'Neill. Others have offered fragmentary perspectives, or analyses based on a little reading in psychoanalytic theory, but Black brings his experience as a trained analyst (as well as a literary scholar) to a through review of the historical documents. It must have been harrowing work for him, but we all stand to benefit from his having gone into the very mouth of a hellish psyche. (Hmmm... not so sure about that metaphor.) Anyway, it's a terrific book.

Some say philosophy is simply the study of how to accustom man to let go of life. And, Exit the King deals exactly with this subject. The King, believed by some to be a metaphor for God (but that involves whole different implications) is dying. His kindom is falling apart and falling into nothingness. The King, at the urgings of "the Doctor," is forced to face that indeed, he will die within the course of this play.

Denial, Anger...all the usual forms of defense the King plays. The play centers around how the King is to deal with his impending death.

Marguerite, his young second wife, begs him to live in the moment, and the power of love and happiness in the present will overcome even death. Deny, and live in the present.

Marie, his older first wife, demands the King face reality, and look death in the face, scolding him for not doing so all his life and for being so ill prepared. She, in this short play, urges him through the process of letting go of his defenses and his insecurities, and embrace death.

The play is a thought provoking one, and an excellent short read.

This book made me think: am I the king that lives his life and doesn't care what happens? When I am just about to die, will I be regretting just like this king does? Am I living my life to its full extent? Some good philosophical questions are raised in the book. I recommend you to read it.

AN ACTUAL ACCOUNT: A few years ago members of the missionary committee and David Morse (son of Eugene) sat in a local pizza resturant; I was amazed at the humble descriptions we pried from this young man about his family's experience in escaping the Burma government into the Hidden Valley and the six years they lived there with the Lisu tribe as they built a paradise but eventually where captured and deported. We were basically there to discuss he, his wife and children's present mission work. This humble, unpretensious personality is the servant the Lord wishes his people to be. Reading "Exodus to a Hidden Valley helps you understand the commitment and acceptance of these life long missionaries. It's a must read for a Christian.

This was a super missionary biography. It's exciting, detailed, exotic, and spritually encouraging. After reading about the trials the Morse family faced in Burma, my trials paled in comparison. I liked "Exodus to a Hidden Valley" even better than the prequel, "The Dogs May Bark but the Caravan Moves On". From the cover it looks pretty unassuming but I could barely put it down, it was so good! I've read a lot of missionary biographies and this is one of the best.

The canonical reference in this field is the venerable Brealey Myers book, which is often considered a bit too deep as an introductory finance text. The Brigham Ehrhardt book, however, is much more approachable. The layout of the chapters is much better than Brealey Myers', and mathematical concepts like beta are explained in a user-friendly manner.

I had no financial background when I took the course in Finance as a part of my MBA program. This text provides a very good foundation for all beginners. It helps to know some financial accounting concepts like the income statement, balance sheet etc. when you start off with this book.
Every chapter has an excel spreadsheet example that is in the accompanying CD ROM. Also, there are computer based exercises that simulate the real-world practices when determining cashflow, doing capital budgeting, financial planning etc. The CD ROM has powerpoint slides that highlight the salient points in each chapter. Our instructor basically used those as a guide to teaching the course.
Very good text book, highly recommended.