Ethnic Notions is a catalog of images exploring racist memorabilia from the collection of Jan Faulkner, examining racial stereotypes in commercial imagery from toys to sheet music. Over 200 items are examples of how the black image has been distorted over the years. The black and white images provide powerful testimony.

Ethnic Notions: Black Images In The White Mind explores American racial stereotypes in commercial imagery, including toys, household items, postcards, sheet music, and advertisements. More than two hundred items showcased in these pages accurately depict the ways in which the black image was distorted and black people misrepresented in the broader American culture from 1847 to the present day in order to establish and reinforce the existing social discrepancies, justify discrimination, and perpetuate traditional majority/minority relationships in the county. Ethnic Notions is very highly recommended reading for Black Studies, social issues, and American cultural history reading lists and library reference collections.

Shih Shumei is a very active participant in the academic circle. The other reviewer has said a lot about her book, so I think I can offer something about Professor Shih herself. She teaches at UCLA, in the departments of EALC (Modern Chinese Lit), Comparative Literature (tough!) and the center of Asian American Studies (UCLA's Asian American studies center is REAL famous). She also chairs 2 academic programs, something about transnationalism and/or globalization. Well, man, she is busy. Meanwhile, I expect that she can publish some books on other issues, such as the comparative literature (not only Chinese lit) at large, and globalization.

When 'Shanghai fever' spreads not only in the US but also in Asia, Professor Shumei Shih's solid book comes out in time. One third of this beefy book is on Shanghai writers in early 20th century, such as the Taiwanese/Japanese Liou Na'ou and Shi Zhecun, who is arguably the first writer in China who manifestly shows traces of Freudian sexology in writing. In addition to Shanghai scenes/sins, Professor Shih also gives another one third of the book to Beijing writers. The tension between the Shanghai writers and the Beijing ones is as intriguing as that between the two cities, even today. The most fascinating part of the book is its critical stance of modernity. Modernity in China, as well as in other countries in outside the US and European maps, has been a double-sided sword: people in China have been eager to be empowered by the (Westernized) modernity, but they fear its colonial implication at the same time. The history has proven that so many countries are strengthened and deprived by the Western modernity at once, in terms of politics, economics, cultural scenes/sins and so forth. Today's China is again eager to be modernized. Prof. Shih argues, by re-reading China's attempts to modernize/colonize itself in the past in the early 20th century, we might be able to consider today's motivation with a more critical mind. Pay attention to the word choice 'Semi-colonial' throughout the book. When we have paid so much attention to the more formal colonialisms, we should think over the diverse variations of colonialisms as well. At the moment when the US and China are tense with each other again (owing to the SPY event etc), the book also offers a window to the reason why the Chinese have felt so poignant and traumatized. Well, modernity always haunts.

I have to confess that I don't own the audiotape, but I've read the book several times and think it's one of the best mystery novels ever written. It definitely, but definitely does not deserve to be out of print! Humorous mysteries are often not well plotted, but this is an exception; it's wickedly funny and ironic, yet it's also cunningly structured, with a story full of twists and turns that lead to a truly satisfying surprise ending. The character of Dr. Bickleigh, the hapless protagonist, is truly a hoot, and the supporting cast is fabulously drawn as well. Don't miss this one.

High quality meets high readablity! I wish everything I've read could meet such high standards of full character development, and intriguing, original, yet beliveable plot. This book is definately deserving of precious leisure reading time.

This biography of Mary Shelly offers very moving insights into the life (sorrows, defeats, triumphs) of the young enfant terrible who brought us the world's first truly "modern" monster, literature's most famous abandoned child. Nichols deftly conjures the fears and desires that allowed young Mary to dream such a terrible vision, and offers invaluable insights into the legacy Mary would ultimately sow. Strongly advised for all fans of Lit, Horror, Gothic Romance, and good old fashioned storytelling.

Couldn't resist the temptation to write that headline. It's true that this book brings Mary Shelley to life as a fascinatingly modern person; it shows the world she grew up in and how it ended up in Shelley's most famous book; and it brings up, through Shelley's concerns, questions of very modern import. As an adult I enjoyed this book thoroughly and hope it finds a variety of readers who will find in Shelley a kindred spirit. I thought the reading level was pitched a little low for teens, but that shouldn't bother them and the content is definitely appropriate for Young Adults. In fact it will probably offend a lot of parents who are not, shall we say, on Shelley's level... Shelley and her circle of friends might have made some mistakes; they took lots of risks; but they did all this in attempting to be true to their own ideals. A great story which has fascinated scholars for years is made accessible here, in all its gory detail, to teens (and, as I say, adult readers can enjoy it, too).

In deft strokes, "Partners or Competitors" sets the stage with both Europe and America vying with each for a piece of the trade prize which is Asia. Although there is a history of competition between the U.S. and the EU, the economic downturn in Asia made both aware that they were in the same boat, in that both were going to suffer substantial losses due to debt that is unlikely to be repaid.

The competitive systems of the EU and the U.S. are similar, which creates a concomitant desire for similar outcomes in trade negotiations with Asian countries. The mutual interests between the EU and the U.S., especially in light of an Asian economic downturn, would seem to compel cooperation on trade issues and, perhaps, shared economic pressure on Asia to comply. However, there are enormous barriers to cooperation--some of which are inherent in the structure of the trade organizations currently used to negotiate international trade agreements.

The editors have put together an impressive array of contributors who, together, have written a careful exploration of the prospects for Asian trade liberalization along with the barriers to U.S./EU cooperation. Some of it is descriptive, some of it is prescriptive, all of it is brilliant.

This book is an absolute must for anyone interested in international trade negotiations, European/U.S. cooperation to affect trade policy, and the application of political power to open foreign markets.

Bravo.

This is now require reading for all of my students

It's British, it's amateurs solving a murder, the clues are all in front of you. What's better? And then on top of it all, this book gives us a crime club at which the members present their individual results and critique each other (with some dry wit at the expense of the genre). Great stuff.

I read this book after seeing it mentioned over and over again on best-mysteries-of-all-time lists.

Berkeley's novel is built around a fictitious, famed detection club (no doubt based on a real club that had authors such as Christie, Sayers and Dickson Carr as members). The members of this illustrious club set out to solve a mystery revolving around a poisoned box of chocolates. Every sleuth turns in a seemingly plausible solution, each topping the previous person's explanation. Until the end, that is, when a less-than-likely member offers the most surprising (and probably correct) interpretation of the facts.

Not only is this a real puzzle of a book, but it gently and self-consciously tweaks the fair-play traditions and cliches of the ultra-British "Golden Age."

It's very clever, very funny, and reads like a shot. What else do you want from a mystery?

This cookbook is full of delicious, unusual, and healthy food. The recipies do require some knowledge of cooking and a restocking of your shelves. I tend to plan the meals for a week, making out the grocery list from the list of ingredients for each meal. Wear your sun glasses for this trip to the grocery store, your basket will be glowing with orange, yellow, red and green items. Stick with using this book exclusively for a month and you will never think the same about food. I found that cooking and eating delicious food to be the best instruction in what constitutes a healthy diet.

Looking for one magic cook book? Simply Healthy seems to have it all. Almost every one of the recipes has turned out to be a winner. Quick prep time too. My wife and I love this book! Watch out for the pasta... its delicious!

Maybe the best volume of Berkeley physics. For those who are aware of series Berkeley Physics I have to say that it can be compared only with the second in Emags. It is a quite extensive book and covers almost everything concerning wave theory. Although it is rather old it is still one of the best reference books which however doesn't include the application of wave theory in quantum mechanics. The author explains with every detail the material and provides the reader with pictures that make the book comprehensive. It may be a big book but the reader can choose the chapters he or she wants and read the independantly. Although the material covers many applications of wave theory it is suggested for those who just want to learn the basic principles.

This is a fantastic book. It must have taken decades for the author (Frank Crawford) to write all these things, to imagine so many simple experiments, to invent such instructive exercises. The approach is very concrete, with little mathematics in the beginning. Actually, the mathematics grows with the book in a very natural way. As one would expect, the apotheosis of this great show happens when light waves, that is optics, appears. There is a small kit of quarter plates, polaroids, etc, which permit you to make beautiful observations. The explanation of how Edwin Land hit on the idea of artificial nicols (polaroids) is one of my favorites. Whenever I teach anything connected to waves, even mathematical topics, like the Fourier theorem, I always give a look at this volume. Usually it pays! It is a pity that, by its content, it seldom fits in the usual courses.

Since Berkeley is best remembered as a philosopher and it is therefore highly likely that anyone interested in this is interested in that part of Berkeley's collected works, that is where I will focus this review.

The most important work of Berkeley is "A Treatise Concerning the Principals of Human Knowledge [Part I]" (there is no part II - the partial manuscript for it was lost while Berkeley was travelling). "Principals" has two principal sections: one epistemological and the other metaphysical.

In the epistemological section of "Principals", Berkeley argued that when we use words to describe entities which we literally cannot imagine, we block our own understanding - "that we have first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see." We can use words to stand for a multiplicity of different entities (such as "triangle" to stand for all possible triangles), but that an abstract triangle, one that is "neither oblique nor rectangle, neither equilateral, equicrural, nor scalenon, but all and none of these at once", (here he was quoting Locke) is an impossibility. The significance of this is subtle, but critical to his argument since he came back to it again and again throughout his works to differentiate between meaningful and meaningless words.

Having laid out a differentiation between meaningful and meaningless words in his epistemological section, Berkeley then proceeded to the metaphysical section, in which he attacked the idea of matter, principally as expounded by Locke. Berkeley argued that matter is a meaningless word, signifying nothing that we can imagine. He argued that all of the properties that materialists ascribe to matter are either perceptions (non-existent in the absence of a perceiver) or utterly meaningless. Thus, Berkeley argued that a theory of matter to account for our perceptions was a meaningless proposition. Our perceptions of the world (our ideas of it), however, still required an explanation. To this end, Berkeley argued the things we perceive are ideas that are put into our minds by God. They differ from things that we imagine by our lack of control over them, and in their consistency and vividness - properties that are the result of their being the product of a mind other than and vastly more powerful than our own. In this argument, Berkeley felt that he had discovered a powerful counter to atheism, that his theistic idealism could account for the world whereas atheism, with its dependency on matter, could not.

"Principals" did not meet with the acceptance that Berkeley had hoped for it (to say the least), so he presented his metaphysics again in a more accessible form in "Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous." "Dialogs" is easier to read, but not as good a source as "Principals" for really understanding Berkeley. In either form, the critical side of his argument against matter had and has great force, even if his proposed alternative has never attracted many adherents.

Berkeley also presented his metaphysics again in less detail in two other works: the fourth dialogue in "Alciphron; or, the Minute Philosopher" and in "The Theory of Vision, or Visual Language, Shewing the Immediate Presence and Providence of a Deity."

"Commonplace Book - Berkeley's notes from 1705-08." is a collection of short notes that Berkeley jotted down while he was working through his philosophical ideas and preparing to publish them. "Commonplace Book" itself was never intended for publication but is of interest in understanding how Berkeley's thought developed.

Berkeley also wrote on scientific matters, consistent with his views as laid out in "Principals", on vision in "An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision", (which he actually wrote before "Principals" which he hoped would soften the audience for the presentation of the full theory in "Principals" and also in "De Motu" (On Motion).

Berkeley also wrote on mathematics, again consistently with his philosophical writings in "The Analyst; or a Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathematician" and the follow-on works "A Defense of Free-Thinking in Mathematics" and "Reasons for not Replying to Mr. Walton's Full Answer". "The Analyst" - an attack on the foundations of Newton's calculus, set off a furor in British mathematics that lasted a century.

"Alciphron" alluded to earlier, was a work of Christian apologetics, and was Berkeley's longest work. It is not without interest today, but it has not aged as well as his other works mentioned above.

"Passive Obedience: or The Christian Doctrine of not resisting the Supreme Power", was a work of political philosophy. It is not at all connected with his other philosophical works and was regarded as dangerous and somewhat subversive.

The last work of Berkeley that deserves individual mention is "Siris: A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries Concerning the Virtues of Tar-Water and Divers Other Subjects Connected Together and Rising From One Another", a curious (to put it mildly) work on both "tar-water", which Berkeley held to be a panacea, and metaphysical speculation inspired by reading classical sources (if you don't know what tar-water is, don't worry - you can get the recipe in "Siris"). "Siris" was written near the end of Berkeley's life. The metaphysical speculation in it did not constitute an abandonment of his earlier ideas, but it did not strike me as at all developed - he was going somewhere new but had not yet arrived when he wrote it.

Apart from his intellectual endeavors above, Berkeley also led a full life and was an active Anglican clergyman. He travelled, wrote on purely religious matters, and also wrote in support of social justice and tolerance. These works round out the man, as does "Life of Berkeley", Fraser's biographical essay at the start of the collection.

The collection is not without its flaws. Chief among these is that "De Motu" is left in Latin and untranslated both it and "The Analyst" really require more extensive introductions to be easily understood by a contemporary reader. Douglas Jesseph's "De Motu and The Analyst", Volume 41 of "The New Syntheses Historical Library" is a highly recommended supplement to the "Works".

So what do you get for your money?

Volume I:

Life of Berkeley - by Fraser.

Commonplace Book - Berkeley's notes from 1705-08.

An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision.

A Treatise Concerning the Principals of Human Knowledge [Part I].

Three Dialogs Between Hylas and Philonous.

De Motu - this is in Latin and is NOT translated.

Volume II:

Alciphron; or, the Minute Philosopher.

The Theory of Vsion, or Visual Language, Shewing the Immediate Presence and Providence of a Deity.

Volume III:

The Analyst; or a Discourse Addressed to an Infidel Mathemetician.

A Defense of Free-Thinking in Mathematics.

Reasons for not Replying to Mr. Walton's Full Answer.

Siris: A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries Concerning the Virtues of Tar-Water and Divers Other Subjects Connected Together and Rising From One Another.

Three Letters to Thomas Prior, Esq., and a Letter to the Rev. Dr. Hales, on the Virtues of Tar-Water.

Farther Thoughts on Tar-Water.

Volume IV:

Arithmetica Absque Algebra Aut Euclide Demonstrata - this is in Latin and is NOT translated.

Miscella Mathematica... - this is in Latin and is NOT translated.

Description of the Cave of Dunmore.

The Revelation of Life and Immortality.

Passive Obedience: or The Christian Doctrine of not resisting the Supreme Power...

Essays in the Guardian.

Two Sermons Preached at Leghorn in 1714.

Journal in Italy in 1717, 1718.

An Essay Toward Preventing the Ruin of Great Britain.

Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America.

Notes of Sermons Preached at Newport in Rhode Island and in the Narragansett country in 1729-31.

A Sermon Preached before the Incorporating Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts...1732.

The Querist, containing several queries, proposed to the consideration of the public.

A Discourse Addressed to Magistrates and Men in Authority.

Primary Visitation Charge Delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Cloyne.

Address on Confirmation.

A Letter to Sir John James, Bart., on the Differences Between the Roman and Anglican Churches.

Two Letters on the Occasion of the Rebellion in 1745.

A Word to the Wise: or, an Exhortation to the Roman Catholic Clergy of Ireland.

Maxims Concerning Patriotism.

Appendix: The First Edition of the Querist.

General Comments:

The books are very well produced. Cloth bound, acid-free paper, burgundy colored, with a simple and elegant design. All in all, this is a handsome edition that will physically grace your library.

Fraser's commentary and footnotes are helpful and abundant (note: this is a reprint of a 1901 work, so there is of course no commentary on how Berkeley has been read in this century).

The only thing I would have wanted different than what I got would have been translations of the Latin essays into English.

Insofar as Berkeley the philosopher, he is one of the major philosophers of history, and one of the clearest writers. He is also often scathingly funny.

Are you tired of playing You Don't Know Jack TV? Then why don't you get this! A book worth reading! Finally, now you have the TV trivia right in the palm of your hand! Now The BOOK where hi culture and pop culture collide sends you a chance to ask the questions! To be the host! You will be happy if you get this and The Book. Because the books worth reading are finally here! Hosted by: You! Question Types, Dis Or Dat Mutiple-Choice Gibberish and jack attack. and write me a e-mail about any You Don't Know Jack Book! I dare ya! Get you don't know jack the TV book. But even if you are reading, YOU DON'T KNOW JACK! Includes score rater.

(Although I'm the keeper of the only site on the net about the You Don't Know Jack games, this is a completely unbiased review.)

The book is hilarious! It really does enable you and a group of friends to play the game without a cumbersome computer. Dis or Dats, Gibberish Questions, and Jack Attacks are all here. It also contains some of the best questions from the Television volume compressed into short, quick games.

All in all, a great party game or temporary roof shingle depending on your needs at the time.