This is a story that has great dramatic potential - abused children, deceived parents, abuse of power and political scandal. Unfortunately, the author was unable to put any life into this story. The organization is very poor, with time lines and thematic lines jumbled about. Irrelevant biographical details and interminable discussions of various adoption laws make for annoying interruptions, and when an interesting narrative appears it ends abuptly without discussion of its relevance. With effort, a reader can glean the elements of the story, but it is hard work.

Austin is an attorney and historian. This book is a study of adoption in a corrupt political machine run by "boss" Edward Hull Crump in Tennessee. Crump ruled Memphis during a period when cities were run by criminals. In this age, governments were run for the personal profit of the "bosses & their machines."

Among the known activities these city bosses profited from was gambling, prostitution, bootlegging and the sale of favors from public office. Austin's book adds adoption through secret courts to the list of criminal activities.

The director of the Children's Home, Georgia Tann and the judge of the juvenile court, Camille Kelley were appointed and controlled by Crump. Evidence indicated that these people made millions from baby selling in the guise of adoption. The baby selling was exposed in 1950 by the late Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver.

Kefauver was subsequently appointed by the United States Senate to head a national investigation on organized crime. As late as 1964 Kefaufer's committee was making recommendations for changes in adoption law that would eleminate the crimianl element. The changes were never "adopted."

Austin's book is a fascinating look at how government can be run by criminals for their own profit. This book sheds light on the nature of secrecy in government. Secrecy in adoption is all criminals need to profit from a criminal activity.

THIS BOOK WAS A EYE OPENER. I WAS A STOLLEN BABIEFROM THE TENN. CHILDRENS HOME AND FOUND THE INFO. IN THE BOOK VERY, VERY, ACC.IT WAS A GREAT HELP TO ME IN GETTING MY SUIT READY TO FILE HOPEFULY IN 2001 AGENSIT THE STATE OF TENN.

I printed a return label for this course within one hour of receiving it. The entire 2 CD set is basically one short stlye demonstration after another. Very boring and hard to listen to. Scales, pitch, intervals, and so on are not part of this course. The "book" is basically a 5X7 twenty page pamphlet that was stuck inside the CD case and of little value. Not what I was expecting and not what I'd call "Singing Lessons."

I've had lessons with a few teachers but this born to sing course coveres topics that none of the teachers covered. It made everything very clear and showed me exactly how to practice to get the most out of my voice. - Their video is really good too.

"Born To Sing techniques have gotten me through the toughest vocal situations." Jennie Kwan, "Miss Saigon" title role. "California Dreams" (NBC TV)

I bought this book...its only for 3.1...and the first demo i tried to install was noted as expired...sup with that???

Where as I would prefer to put it at about 4.95, 5 stars is close enough. The thing that I most like about this book, which I am still in the middle of reading, is the obvious class and "beauty" of the author's writing; simply true class. To put it into a little more detail, this man (Daniel Burnstein) seems to display the impressiveness of a well educated, academically structured man, and yet has the cutting edge ability to reach out to people of all types by writing in plain, talented english. I have read other books and what I often find is that I have to go back over sections of the book(s) to try to retain the information. In Burnstein's book it was a totally different experience -- even after reading any one chapter, I was easily able to reassemble the information from that chapter in my head without the book in my presence.. I would recommend this book to people that want to do business the right way. Burnstein is right in saying that his book is good for business managers and owners that want quality knowledge and education by doing it on their own time.

This is superb...ignore my previous commment...amazon.com wont delete it...

The future of software is decision-support software--going beyond clerical software, such as MS Project.

I am so impressed with this book and software that I am going to spend time promoting it. Get it and let me know what you think.

This book basically puts forward a theory that the founders just established the Constitution for their own personal economic gain. This book is well-researched, but its premise is totally flawed. Moreover, it tries to portray all of the founding fathers as self-serving and looking out for their own economic interests. It doesn't really explain why some of the wealthiest colonists and statesmen such as George Mason and Elbridge Gerry refused to sign on. Moreover, I'd recommend that any student of the Constitution, study the writings of James Madison and John Adams to answer these charges. I also recommend The Founder's Constitution set, edited by Phillip Kurland and Ralph Lerner. It is an excellent tool for examining original intent.

This book is only recommended for its historical value. The renowned constitutional scholar, Forrest McDonald, does an excellent job introducing this book and debunking its controversial charge towards the Constitution.

Beard's origional thesis form 1913 remains that the forming of the United States Constitution was an effort by the economic well-to-do of the newly formed American social class to establish a government that would protect their interests and raise the value of the government's obligations in their possessions. Beard's goal is simply to re-establish the idea of the aforementioned economic interests as the primary, not secondary cause of the U. S. Constitution. Through a topical analysis of interests, that seem contrary to the work of his historical mentors, Beard weaves his interpretation of the economic history. Throughout his book Beard consistantly refers to his work as fragmentary, but it appears extensively researched through primary documents such as the Federalist Papers, early Treasury Department records, and Madison's convension notes. Beard does an excellent job in presenting all necessary facts for the reader to follow his argument. Little, if any information is left to the supposition of the reader. Whereas the work can be dry at times, it does provide scholars with alternative, not necessarily new, interpretations of early American historical events.

Charles Beard's thesis held sway for decades --and was not attacked in a significant way until after his death in 1948. Major critics were Robert E. Brown (1956) and Forrest McDonald (1958). It should be noted that Charles Beard greatly angered the liberal Establishment in the 1940s with his strong criticism re how Franklin Roosevelt manipulated the US into World War II and provoked the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor.

A new book due out in July 2002 -- Robert McGuire's "To Form A More Perfect Union: A New Economic Interpretation of the United States Constitution" will supposedly show that Beard was right re the Founding Fathers/Constitution and his critics were wrong.

This book is a very disappointing experience for me. While this book is very good reading, and exciting and well written, it is not at all what I thought it was when I bought it.

The dustjacket notes expalin that this is the further adventures of Sir Hugh of Taranto, who first appeared in the novel "Durandal," written by Harold Lamb. "Durandal" is a series of three stories first published in seperate editions of Adventure Magazine, and then later published as a novel. (I've posted a review of "Durandal" on Amazon.com. Great book. Read it. You'll love it.)

But the problem with "Sea of the Ravens," is that it does not continue where "Durandal" ended. "Ravens" is part of "Durandal"--the middle part actually--just rebound and sold under a seperate cover. Maybe the publisher thinks this is a pretty funny little joke. But for [the cost], I am not laughing.

Do no buy this book. Buy and enjoy "Durandal," but avoid "The Sea of Ravens."

Harold Lamb wrote some of the best swashbuckling fiction in the last century, and is long overdue for rediscovery. Once one of the most popular writers of Adventure magazine, he is chiefly remembered today for his fine histories and biographies.

Before his days as a respected historian, though, he wrote pulse-pounding historic adventre fiction featuring complex plots and heroes with Odyssean wit. Robert E. Howard listed him as one of his favorite writers.

As another reviewer noted, this is the second portion of a trilogy (I've learned that the third part should come out in 2002) that begins with Grant's reprint of Durandal. All three stories were collected in the 30s under the title "Durandal," but as that volume is long out of print and the Donald M. Grant editions feature amazing artwork, purchasing the individual books one by one is definitely the way to go--so long as the third book is finally printed!

Let me second the wish of that reviewer from Jordan that someone reprint Lamb's Adventure fiction.

Sea of the Ravens is a wonderful book by an underappreciated master of the adventure story. The problem is where is the end of the complete tale, "Rusudan?" Is publisher Donald Grant ever going to publish it or have they lost interest just like they did with the deluxe versions of Robert E. Howard's immortal Conan of Cimmeria? A paperback version of the entire story would be very nice. Harold Lamb is ripe for discovery. A lot of his best work, found in the moldering pages of "Adventure" pulp, has never been published in book form, even in the old days! Won't someone reprint the complete Khlit stories or publidh the excellent novellas like "The Grand Cham" or "The Golden Horde?"

I am not sure I can possibly convey the importance of this book and how urgently it needs to be read by almost anyone with an interest in the history of the last century. Actually, I would go further, and turn that last sentence on its ear. This is an indispensable book for those who have little knowledge of or interest in the 20th Century. People need to understand what went on in the Soviet Union between the years 1916 and 1989.

Growing up in the 60s and 70s, it was not at all uncommon, at least in Canada, for one's circle of friends to include Marxist-Leninists ' particularly once you got to University. I actually had a rather close friend who not only adopted this political philosophy, but also actively espoused the cause of Soviet Russia ' to the point of making excuses for Stalin. This made for extremely lively debates. In retrospect, knowing what we now know about communist Russia, I rather think my friend needed at the very least a good thrashing. For it was people like him, and the left-leaning western media, that gave succor to, and in a way legitimized, what we now know was one of the must shocking brutal, tyrannies ever to disgrace our planet.

The subject of the culpability of the western media, fellow travelers and communist sympathizers is covered by Richard Pipes, in 'Russia Under the Bolsheviks'. These people have, in a very real sense, blood on their hands, and I often tremble with rage when I recall the facile and damaging lies that they propagated. Under the noses of these gullible and willfully naïve 'liberal thinkers', 35 million people died, either as the result of political terror or deliberate starvation.

Alexander Yakovlev now reinforces the point with a harrowing, grim collection of essays, 'A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia.' Yakovlev was an advisor to Gorbachev and is now the head of a commission charged with analyzing and cataloging the horrors of Soviet Russia. In my review of Pipes' book (mentioned above), I had occasion to remark that in that book, Lenin came in for the thrashing that he so richly deserved. Lenin has had it easy. When the full horrors of the Stalinist period became known, Marxists and Socialists to a man rushed to point out that Stalin was an anomaly, that he and his regime had nothing to do with the gentle, humane, philosophical Lenin (and, in any event, 'one had to break eggs to make an omlette'). Some people still believe this. Do you? Well here is Yakovlev's trenchant, damning summing up:

'Exponent of mass terror, violence, the dictatorship of the proletariat, class struggle and other inhuman concepts. Organizer of fratricidal Russian civil war and concentration camps, including camps for children. Incessant in his demands for arrests and capital punishment by bullet or rope. Personally responsible for the deaths of millions of Russian citizens. By every norm of international law, posthumously indicted for crimes against humanity.'

Shockingly, Russians (as well and never-say-die communists throughout the world) continue to revere Lenin. This horrifies Yakovlev who notes that 'to this day the country proliferates with monuments to Lenin and streets names after him.' Worse than this, a shockingly large segment of Russian society today believes that Stalin is in need of rehabilitation, that he did nor good than bad for Russia. Stalin has become nothing more than a name to most people in the world. When Saddam Hussein was compared to Stalin, when it was noted that he had actually studied Stalin, this tended to make little impression - because most of the world has forgotten. Men like Conquest, Pipes, Figes and Yakovlev write so that we will NOT forget. Their books should be required reading, because men like Lenin and Stalin NEVER go away, they are always with us and we must be forever vigilant and on our guard that they do not take root again.

Am important book for Russians, and for all people who doubt the stark reality of the Bolshevik regime. Yakolev asserts at one point that the only true statement that came out of the Stalinist period was that there ws no change in the party from Lenin's time. Stalin, for Yakovlev, was the true student of Lenin, whoose brutality was shown from the very beginning. More, the entire system of Marxist-Leninism was flawed from the start, an untenable ideology doomed to failure. Coming from an insider, despite his ten years in the west as ambassador to Canada, and from the person who oversaw the rehabilitation of political victims under peristroika and after, these comments are damning indeed.

Yakovlev documents the atrocities--to the peasants, the church, the jews, ethnic groups, the inteligensia, to political dissidents, to prisoners of war and saddest of all to children and families of those considered dangerous to the regime. For Yakovlev Russia must purge itself of Bolshevism in order to once again move forward. At times an emotional journey, it nevertheless gives an accurate accounting. Well done.

Alexander Nikolayevich Yakovlev may be best known as the godfather of perestroika. He was instrumental in formulating the concept of perestroika (restructuring), in persuading Gorbachev to implement perestroika, and in bringing Gorbachev back to perestroika when he vacillated, Hamlet-like, between his liberal and hard-line advisors in the late 1980s. Yakovlev was, in a very real sense, along with Eduard Sheverdnadze, Gorbachev's political conscience.

In A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia, Yakovlev presents the tragedy of Russia under Lenin and Stalin. He examines in separate chapters how various constituents of the Soviet Union fared under Communism: Political parties other than the Bolsheviks, the peasants, the intelligentsia, the clergy, the military, the numerous non-Russian nationalities, the Jews. All were exploited, when possible, to further the Bolshevik hold on Russia, and executed, exiled, or enslaved when political exploitation was not possible. Yakovlev holds Lenin and Stalin responsible for 60 million deaths. These include peasants that starved as a direct result of the collectivization of agriculture and World War II deaths, many of which were a direct result of Stalin's purge of competent military officers on the eve of the war and the unwarranted trust he placed in the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact. Some have questioned the legitimacy of attributing these deaths to Stalin. Rather than debate that responsibility here, the reader is referred to Robert Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow, and Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime.

Yakovlev traces all of the totalitarian acts of terror associated with Stalin's rule to their beginnings under Lenin, demolishing the myth that Stalin somehow perverted the more humane party of Lenin. The book is a somber read, 200 plus pages documenting murders, torture, slave labor in the name of an ideology that is morally, intellectually, and (now, thankfully) financially bankrupt.

This is the type of book that demands regular updates. It's informative, yes, but presents itself as something it no longer is.

This book when I first read it as a young analyst seemed like fiction, but as the events in especially Africa have unfolded in the last decade, it seems now almost prophetic in its nature. I have read this text again and again, each time I extract something that is relevant today as well as possibilities for our world tomorrow. I also reccomend Race to the Swift, by Simpkin.

This is a book about future wars. Who will fight, where, over what, how it will probably turn out, and when it might happen, for fifty or more perpetual hots spots around the world. People fighting in the Balkans have been repeating the same war for 1300 years and nobody ever wins. Roughly the same for Iraq and Iran, England and France, France and Germany, Japan and Korea... you name it. Peace is only an interlude while the endless war sleeps for a while. It will break out again, in the same place, over the same issues, with the same results. It is only a matter of time.

I wish they had taught us about this in high school. Every American should read this book and keep it handy.

David Cowles and other faculty at BYU have come up with a very decent introduction to critical theories. I enjoyed reading it and found its explanations helpful.

That the book is too reductive is the major complaint I've heard as I've spoken with other students who have used it. These are usually English M.A. students, though. Especially after studying more in-depth the theories that the book covers, I admit that it's reductive, but I also wonder how I would go about writing an unreductive INTRODUCTION to anything.

I think that this book can be extremely useful to students wanting to get acquainted with the general aspects of theory, and the key is that they remember that it's only an introduction.

This is a super introduction to various critical approaches. Unlike authors of other books of this kind, the authors of "The Critical Experience" write in easy-to-understand language rather than stilted Academian. It was probably not designed for MA students, or even for undergraduates who sit in the library, bantering about the benefits of new historicism and why relativism is impractical.
Now, as an MA student, I have found myself returning to this book on numerous occasions throughout my academic career, and sometimes it's refreshing to go to a textbook for clarification and finding it without being made to feel like a dolt because I have to look up every other word in my elegant, pretentious textbook.
Admittedly, there are moments in this book when the authors become excessively chatty (esp. in the Poststructuralist chapter) and it is maddening, but there is a lot of good information to be taken from these pages. It isn't the ultimate Critical Experience, and it doesn't set out to be. But it's not "Dick and Jane's Pop-up Book of Literary Criticism," either.

annesi ve babasý için yasardi. ama þimdi annesi,kardesi,eþi için yaþamaya baþladý

Yes, there is a relation; I'm his daughter! :)

This book starts of a serious of wonderfully exciting and enjoyable books. It'll make you laugh. But most of all, you'll be hungry for more.

For those action adventure types, this will be one you can't put down. You'll be asking "when's the next one due?"

After reading Badlands , Goldfield and Sierra, and becoming quite a fan of Richard Wheeler, this latest work was dull to say the least.

Second Lives left me feeling hollow and found it difficult to get through the unimpressive and boring storyline given. I had no connection to the misplaced characters.

Second Lives is not the typical Western fare. Superbly written, this book is much more character driven than most other offerings from this genre. Incident is not the major emphasis. Here, instead, are very real people who shift and change as a result of forces both within and outside of themselves. Those readers who appreciate fine writing, sharply delineated characters, and a novel that causes the reader to truly care about its players will find much to admire here. Each person in the book is pushed into examining his or her existence, and the choices necessary to achieve some sort of fulfillment. Most of the characters seem to have arrived at a rapproachement with themselves, and with the vicissitudes of life by the novels end. The title here suggests a certain rite of passage in which the old rules and landmarks these characters used to guide their existence no longer work. It is now up to these people to fashion a future based upon the abiding lessons that experience has painfully taught them.

I read this selection for a genre fiction class I have in a graduate Library Science program, and this is the best book I've run across during the course of my assignments. Based upon the evidence of what I have just read, Richard S. Wheeler is one very fine writer. Quite frankly, I did not anticipate such a richly rewarding reading experience.