This book was orignially a doctoral dissertation that investigates the processes the Bundeswehr developed to assimilate the National VolksArmee (NVA) when Germany was reunited in 1990. That the plan was an outstanding success is attributed to Auftragstaktik (Mission Oriented Orders) and the idea that equals work with equals. There is a wealth of detail on the mindset of the NVA and what education needed to be in place to assist their transition to a western democracy and market economy, plus one of the best definitions of Auftragstaktik I've ever seen in military literature. Also, the rationale behind disposing of an immense amount of NVA equipment is illustrated. Interestingly, the author makes the point that the former NVA absorbed into the Bundeswehr have probably made that organization more mentally prepared for out-of-area operations than it would otherwise be. Anyone working with the new NATO or PfP countries, and especially those on a Joint Contact Team will benefit from the insights the author gleans from the Bundeswehr participants in the "Take Over". I would highly recommend that members of the S. Korean military read this book, as they may well be dealing with these issues in the coming decade. The work would, however, benefit from an update-it's been 10 years since reunification: has the Take Over worked well, or are there "two Bundeswehrs"? Given the Bundeswehr's draw-down is the influence of the former NVA correspondingly greater? Or, were former NVA targeted for separation/retirement under the current reduction? These questions would make an already superb resource even more relevant to the socio-political events in Germany and Europe. Highly recommended for military analysts and students of international relations.

This is an excellent book. While the subject matter may not whet the every intellectual appetite, if you're interested in European politics (specifically German affairs), the Cold War, and military history, this book is a must read. There's no Clancy-esque story line, however the principled academic path followed by the author thoroughly explores all aspects of German military integration. The copious number of interviews only add credibility to Zilian's conclusions. Interestingly, as today's business environment is dominated by mergers and acquisitions, the book's wisdom can be appreciated by an aspiring CEO.

Most of what we in the West read and hear about the Indian subcontinent comes from the British perspective. Humayun Mirza, son of Pakistan's first president and descendant of the royal Nawab Nazims of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, brings a thoroughly researched, enlightened, and deeply honest perspective to his family's story, and by extension the history of India and Pakistan from the 1700s to the present time. Because of his unique insider's perspective, Mirza makes his historical figures come alive.

Although he is talking about his own family--even his own father--Mirza shows a principled unwillingness to tamper with the truth, even when the truth is not flattering to people he clearly admires. The rich human complexity of these powerful personalities, warts and all, is one of the things that make this book so exciting.

If you're interested in the history and politics of the region, this is a must read. If you just like to learn interesting history, it's also a treat. I'm waiting for the update covering the current situation in the region!

From Plassey to Pakistan chronicles the lineage of Humuyan Mirza, the author and only son of the first President of Pakistan. The book provides personal and well-researched historical insight into the ruling class of India, of which the author is a direct descendant.

The author's father, and principal subject of the latter part of the book, is Iskander Mirza, a highly educated and respected citizen of India worked for the British Government of India. Upon the end of British rule in 1947, the country of Pakistan was formed and Iskander Mirza emerged to become a leading public figure ("the strong man") and eventually the first President of Pakistan.

The author offers excellent insight into his father's rise to the presidency and the subsequent challenge to bring order and democracy to the newly formed country, one fraught with political corruption at the governmental and military level combined with a high level of illiteracy within the population. Despite Iskander Mirza's well intentioned efforts, instituting the type of democratic government he envisioned would prove too difficult in this environment. His presidency was usurped by a military coup in 1958. Military control has presided over Pakistan for many of the subsequent years and remains in power today.

The author goes on to revisit his own life as a descendant of India's ruling and princely class as the son of the first president of Pakistan. Like his father Isakander, the author was educated at prestigious schools while growing up, ultimately attending the Harvard School of Business and subsequently working in various capacities for the World Bank. The author currently lives in the United States.

Toward the end of the book, the author offers thoughtful suggestions that address Pakistan's current political and economic situation. Above all, the author believes a very strong leader of Pakistan is crucial to help unite the country and its divisive factions. He truly desires prosperity for Pakistan.

The book is insightful and well written. I highly recommend the book for histroy readers and those interested in current events. Given the recent tumultuous events taking place in and around Pakistan, this book is even more relevant.

this book reads better than any fiction and it is verifiably true. i cannot reccomend this book highly enough, especially for those fans of the spy genre. get this, you won't be disappointed.

This a great choice of a book if youre looking forward to start reading. It has everithing accion, drama, a little comedy and you will never get bored you wont stop reading because it is so interesting most of all if you like Israel.

This Indonesian version of Cinderella hails from the Moluccas, or Spice Islands--the place to which Christopher Columbus was headed when he found the New World. In 1492 they were the only place in the world where cloves grew. The earliest written version of Cinderella is from China. As the author indicates in the afterward, no one knows where the story originated. But she speculates that Cinderella may have traveled West with the spices.

Damura was a child when her mother taught her to light a fire, cook, and to tend and harvest rice. But she still loved dolls when her mother died. The lorikeet and little green parrot outside in the nutmeg tree were not company enough for her. With a new doll, a neighboring widow bribed Damura into convincing her father to marry her. Her stepmother's two daughters were kind at first, but soon made Damura their servant. She cried at night that she had traded her happiness for a doll.

One day as she washed the family's clothes, she lost her sarong in the river. She called to the creatures of the wild for help, and a crocodile appeared. "Good morning Grandmother," she said to the crocodile.

The crocodile gave Damura her baby to care for, and returned with a silver sarong that sparkled like the night sky. She told Damura to take it and come to the river again if she ever needed anything.

Her stepsisters were naturally jealous of the sarong. But when they tried to entice the crocodile to help them, she saw through their façade. A year later, the village buzzed with excitement as the prince planned to hold a dance to choose his bride. Damura asked her stepmother if she might go, wearing her silver sarong. Of course her stepmother refused her.

The rest of this tale is very similar to that of Cinderella. But to find the unique ways in which it sparkles, you'll have to read this book. Alyssa A. Lappen

I Have never read such an interesting version of the cinderella story, i recomend that every one with children or who know those who have them buy this book and save it. It will provide pleasure to generations to come

This is a great book for people young and old. I haven't picked up a book since high school which was three years ago and these books have me going, there's no putting it down!! If you all have seen the TV show which most of you have the book, is very similar to the episodes but told in Rory's point of view. I recommend this book and all Gilmore Girls books to every reader who has a big heart and can relate to a mother daughter relation ship like Rory and Lorelai or like Lorelai and Emily or just need some heartfelt reading to do!!

I love the witty dialog of the TV show and this book is the literary version of the show. Great writing. Great Dialog. Great characters. This book is for grown-up readers also.

I loved reading the part where Lorelai tries to get Rory to "wallow" after a breakup. Rory would rather handle the problem by making a list and getting things done -- which she does -- mother Lorelai does get her to open up and release the hurt in a more indulgent way too. This should be required reading for all teenaged girls.

This book will take you through ancient prophecies of the days in which we live. Without resorting to Nostradamus and other lightweight seers, Marion Kremers gives a convincing overview of why you should read and study the Bible for yourself.
Included are many historical features such as timelines of recent Middle Eastern political history.
The reader will gain a lot of insight into why the Old Testament prophetical writings especially are essential for a thorough understanding of the hurting world without the Lord God of the Jews, post 9/11, in which we live today.

The best book that I, and many others have read. An excellent study of the Bible, ancient prophacies thru current affairs! Once you read the book you'll want to keep it around to help understand the precise timing of our creator.

Block has come out with his second edition of _Gods of the Nations_ in which he proposes that peoples in the Ancient Near East saw themsleves as members of a national state. Members of a national state were ones who saw themselves as related not just as members of a certain territory but related by other factors as well. Foremost among these latter was kin relationship.

Block proposes that there was a relationship between the deities of the ANE, the land, and the people which was similar to a feudal system. The land was given to or reserved by the deity who gave it to the people. Each member of this triad had responsibilities which Block investigates. Thus the conduct of the people was subject to the accounting of the deity.

Too bad this book is so short. Block spends too little time addressing the fact that political realities in the ANE shaped theological documents. For example on page 118, Block notes the titular deity of Ur is forced out because Ur has been destroyed.
Block could use these political realities to explain the religious syncretism of ancient Israel as known from the archaeological record. Rather than do that, Block concentrates upon biblical texts to explain the rights and demands of the deity upon the people, and then he uses extra-biblical texts to explain the end of the deity-people relationship.

A fascinating thesis worthy of a second edition. I will refer to this book often during future reading.

Dr. Block takes us on a tour of the Ancient Near East, comparing Israel and Yahweh to the neighboring gods and religions.

Using this book, one will be able to gain a working familiarity with some of the more common religious thought forms of the Bronze and Iron ages. A major conclusion of his work is that Yahweh is distinct from all the other gods in that he cares for a people while all the other gods care only for their lands. Yahweh is the electing God of love and mercy.

For gaining a better understanding of the Old Testament world, books such as this are indispensable. Block is a master teacher who knows how to systematically present ancient texts and beliefs. In the end he arrives at a profound restatement of Yahweh and His relation to Israel, resulting in a summary exposition of Ezekiel 8-11. In that text we discover how the Glory of Yahweh leaves the temple and heads east to leave Jerusalem and depart from Israel. This movement is explained in the Babylonian context where gods often leave temples when they are dragged away by captors. Yahweh, however, is unique in that his departure is voluntary and under his own power, for he is doing with the other gods can not and do not do. My summary can not do justice, you really need to get the book and read all the details for yourself.

The book is divided into five basic chapters that can each be read in one sitting. As a result, I found myself reading this book in less than a week -- and with little effort, which is good for me being that I am slowest of all readers. That is, I did not find myself spending all my free time reading, but the pages evaporated into the past as quickly as they appeared: the reading was over before I realized what hit me.

I have spent a good amount of time reading Ancient Near Eastern material, and I feel like this treaties has been the most pleasant and enjoyable. One critique I would give, which is really a wish and not a critique, is that it would be nice if there were a chapter on the New Testament. I would like to see Block develop his theme in relation to Jesus, who is the Lord of the New Exodus. Jesus is the "Yahweh-Saves" Man, and it would be wonderful to see how Block would incorporate this into his overall scheme (in my mind, the idea is perfectly complimentary to Block's present thesis, and I'd like to read the good professor's take on the matter). Where Block does not develop the theme, I recommend reading "God Crucified" by Richard Bauckham (available on Amazon), or "The Challenge of Jesus" by N.T. Wright, esp. chapter 5, also available on Amazon.

Geological research developed over the past 50 years indicates that the Earth's crust, [which we might liken to a loose film] has moved over the viscous inner layers of the Earth's mantle many times in earth's history. The fascinating evidence for these events was first discovered by Professor Charles Hapgood who later published the findings [with forward by Dr. Albert Einstein] in the first of his two landmark books, "Earth's Shifting Crust," and [now back in publication] "The Path of the Pole."

Einstein did not endorse Hapgood's theory without reservation, however, stating, "The only doubtful assumption is that the earth's crust can be moved easily enough over the inner layers."

Einstein's reservations on this issue went unanswered for three decades ... that is until a new author/researcher by the name of James Bowles published his findings. Now, in this intriguing and well researched book, "The Gods, Gemini, and the Great Pyramid," Bowles presents, [in complete agreement with Hapgood's treatise] the determining cause of these crustal shifts. In a fascinating piece of detective work [conducted as methodically as the best Sherlock Holmes novel] Bowles follows a trail of clues that ultimately leads him to the process that conditions Earth's inner surface for crustal displacement. Called Rotational-Bending, or simply the RB-Effect, this natural [gravitationally induced] process once and for all settles the debate [in favor of Catastrophism] that has raged for centuries.

In the Introduction Bowles writes:

"We rotate, tilted at an angle of 23º 27' [24 hours a day, year after year, millennium after millennium] while the moon, pulling relentlessly at us, circles the earth. With no change in time we orbit the sun and again we experience the relentless pull of gravity. The combined gravitational effects from the sun and the moon, and to a lesser extent that of the planets, pull at the crust from this oblique angle, relentlessly wearing the crust down until it is wrested from its moorings and fails from fatigue."

As valued as this work is, Bowles has also discovered that the line figures that are scribed on the barren Pampa above Nasca Peru are an ancient Bible whose parent texts [which they serve to illustrate] are those found on the walls of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty pyramids in Saqqara, Egypt. In Part III of this well illustrated, well documented book, Bowles shows how these two sacred sites, Nasca and Giza, unite with a third site in Alaska to form a Sacred Triad with the angular dimensions of the Great Pyramid. Bowles goes on to show how this Sacred Triad lay [circa 30,000 BC] with both Nasca and Giza, [and fascinatingly enough, the Great Sphinx] on the Equator during the early epoch when [as demonstrated by Hapgood] Alaska occupied the Polar position.

This is absolutely a must book for readers interested in Hapgood's work, in man's origins, and in Earth's future.

Richard W. Noone, author, "5/5/2000, Ice: The Ultimate Disaster."

It's a well-written and deeply interesting book, and its semi-autobiographical approach gives it an important personal touch.

[Reviewer: Colin Wilson, author of, "From Atlantis to the Sphinx," "The Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites," & "Unsolved Mysteries past and Present."]

These six volumes should be, in my opinion, MANDATORY reading for anyone interested in (a) WW II (b) HISTORY (c)increasing their knowledge of the English language. Having read the entire set over 50-60 times, I am still fascinated by new material I discover with each re-reading. It comes as no surprise that Sir Winston was awarded the NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE for this masterpiece.

Because of his immense output, Winston Churchill may be described as an old-fashioned writer. Fortunately for us he does not read as such. There is very little archaic about the expressions he uses or the grammar he employs, in volume after volume after volume. It remains immensely readable, and this is the strength of a good writer, it seems to me. As a boy, Churchill was held up to me as an example of a person with a very full command of English. I was told, although I have never been able to verify it, that Churchill employed one of the largest vocabularies of any individual writing in English. It is ironic to think that, although the use of English is becoming ever more widespread, it is not generally being put to anything like the kind of use a man like Churchill made of it.

"The Grand Alliance" takes us to the point in the Second World War when the Americans finally declared their intentions. In a sense, it announced the end to hesitation, the end to British doubts about whether they could possibly win out against Hitler alone. Of course, America had participated in the war to a very large extent already, having agreed to set up the famous "Lend-Lease" program, whereby first Britain, and later Russia, were given material support in a way which satisfied the neutral and isolationist U.S. congress. It was also something of a victory for Churchill at the same time, since he had worked doggedly at bringing the Americans around, and although Pearl harbour did tip the balance, it was partly due to Churchill having prepared the ground.

Churchill himself states that, from the moment of the U.S. entry into the conflict, no matter how long it might take, he was certain of victory. From his point of view at the top, he could see that the sheer weight of numbers (tonnage, armament production etc.,), added to the geographical reality of Germany, meant they could never hope to win against the combined industrial might of Britain and the U.S. It was this absolute faith which sustained him during the reverses of 1941 and 1942.