Northern Ireland is well known for the enduring conflict there over its constitutional arrangements within the United Kingdom. To follow the line taken by the American press, however, it is a religious war in which Catholics and Protestants commit atrocities in their struggle for power.

The Dynamics of Conflict, by renowned scholarly duo Ruane and Todd, is an excellent corrective to this common misconception. The book takes readers through the conflict step-by-step, explaining how the changing relationships between nationalists and unionists, Irish and British, natives and settlers Catholics and Protestants, have evolved over the centuries. Despite the evolution of those relationships, what is still more remarkable is the enduring constancy. Overlapping badges of identity have created two strong and self-conscious communities in a very small region where communal politics have subsumed most internal class, gender, and philosophic divisions.

Ruane and Todd show how the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland since the 1960s can be seen as the most recent manifestation of an enduring rivalry restructured from an all-Ireland basis into a Northern Ireland-only basis by the constitutional 'settlement' of the early 1920s which divided the island into the nationalist 26-County 'Free State' (now Republic of Ireland) and the unionist 6-County Northern Ireland.

The text predates the Good Friday Agreement, but diputes over the implementation of that settlement are a testament to its quality of scholarship.

This work must be seen along with the works of John McGarry and Brendan O'Leary, Paul Bew, and Arthur Miller as essential for a good understanding of the nature of the Northern Ireland conflict.

Nice review. However, the competition in the realm of defense/defence economics books is scarce. So don't look around that's it. It provides a balanced and objective description of the economics of defense. It's a bit too old and concetrates on UK. It offers some international comparison, but for that it's better to read some more recent working paper.

This pocket book as others in the same series is helpfull for interns in that it discusses majour emegencies with their managements each in one page. the first few pages discuss important topics for interns.

I was led to this book by my love of Henry Adams' "Mont Saint Michel and Chartres". In it Adams discusses the tale of Aucassin & Nicolette. Whether the charm resides within the tale itself or Adams' retelling of it, I do not know. But I did want to learn more about the period of French literature from which it sprung.

Since Monsieur Zink had a thesis to prove, I found the book a little too academic. I found theory where I wanted poetry pure and simple. I wish that the author had provided more examples of the lyrics that make up the enchantment of the Middle Ages for me.

But Zink did introduce me to some lovely Medieval songs and did, at times, awake a yearning nostalgia in my soul for the lost landscape of an older France that I never knew but would love to visit.

Whether you agree with Castro's cuban revolution or not, the conversation between Thomas Borge and Fidel Castro is quite interesting.

There is no doubt that Borge has a lot of sympathy for the cuban revolution. And it might be because of that, that some of the necessary questions is not asked!

Questions about political prisoners is not discussed very much, homosexuality, religion and freedom of speech are subjects that are only discussed briefly.

Even with these critical points I find the book (and Castro) very interesting. It is quite amazing that he has been able to keep the society together even though the US has kept a blockade against Cuba for a long time now.

Castros views on the blockade and on the US and his analysis of the matters are precise and analytical.

All in all the book is good and even though it is one-eyed I don't think that it is any worse than most of the books with a negative view on the cuban revolution.

Funny book. Makes me think of what might happen if the protagonist of NEVER MIND NIRVANA actually DID marry and decide to settle down.

How does remain faithful, especially when one is in love with one's spouse and there is a half-naked woman in the window of the next building? And can one stay on task when working from home?

Very dry wit, neatly written. Very enjoyable. Worth a couple of reads.

This is an excellent book and provides some of the best illustrations of fault zone rocks ever collected. The shear number of high quality photomicrographs and field photos with comments by the experts on the rocks will make it an outstanding reference for students of tectonics and petrology. This book could be easily combined with books like "Microtectonics" by Passchier and Trouw to make an advanced undergraduate or graduate course in fault zone kinematics and textures. Excellent.

This book was a big hit with my first graders. It showed them that there were ways to let people know what they were feeling, sometimes without saying anything. They now also have an idea of why they are feeling the way they do about things. I loved this book as much as the kids did.

The Soviet Union is history; it evaporated in just a few years, to the surprise of many.

Not everyone was surprised. Mr. Todd, a French historian, was not -- nor were those who have read this book.

Todd realized you had to analyze the S.U. in the same way as empires of the past -- places you cannot talk to, and whose records are incomplete and unreliable. And he examined the entire Soviet empire -- including its vassal states of Eastern Europe.

I won't try to summarize the whole book here. Suffice it to say that he describes why the Soviet Union was unstable, and what the causes of its downfall are.

Not everything carries over to the few remaining communist states, but some of it does. So this book will help you understand China, too.

This is a great book for fearful flyers. It explains many minor and important features of air travel including: noises in a commercial jet, what's involved in takeoff & landing, and how a plane actually flies. Sternstein is a former pilot, and his reassuring and knowledgable manner are *very* useful for someone who's afraid of flying