The book is invaluable to the experienced nurseryperson and is also extraordinarily interesting to the home gardener.

As a landscape designer, I could not exist without it as a reference. It's written (and photographed) by someone who's "been there, seen that" in heartfelt, knowledge-packed language.

I would suggest two changes to the author and publisher: If the "critical data/information"--zones, maturity height, etc.--were treated in smaller type (i.e., set off from the editorial text), there would be more space for Dirr's wonderful insights on each plant. Also, since I'm fairly new at Latin terminology, a phonetic descriptor for each of the Latin names, small and underneath each, would be very helpful.

This book could easily be priced (higher), and I bet it would sell just as many. I'd still buy it.

I am not a professional landscape designer, but wanted a reference to help choose trees and shrubs for a small space. This book provides both beautiful photos of mature specimens as well as the relevant information on plant habit & culture. I highly recommend this as a companion to the excellent "Manual of Woody Landscape Plants", also by Dirr. Together, these two make up the most useful (by far) of the general books on trees & shrubs I have found.

As a Master Gardener, but a novice at designing, I find this book to be an invaluable source of information. While many such books only show the features (flowers, leaf color) of a plant, Dirr has taken care to show the entire specimen, showing the shape and texture of mature trees and shrubs. It's a pleasure to read his descriptions (and opinions), which are written in plain but colorful language.

The minute that I found out that Matt and Jeff Hardy were releasing an autobiography I became excited, as a mark ( a wrestling fan ) and as a smark ( a smart wrestling fan ). I am fifteen years old and I have been watching professional wrestling since I was three years old and of all the superstars that have passed through, all have had great stories, and few are able to tell them but I guarentee that this is a story worth hearing.

Matt and Jeff grew up in a remote town in North Carolina, their mother died when they were just children and they were raised by their father. As they grew older, they developed a passion for wrestling and were determined to find away to follow their dreams. From the TWF to O.M.E.G.A to the WWE, this book tells of the trials and tribulations that these two brothers went through in order to achieve what they desired most - a job in the WWE.

Whether is be Matt's relationship with Amy Dumas ( Lita ) or the rumors of why they were taken off televsion in late 2001, all the rumors are adressed and in between these covers is an amazing journey that these two brothers have experienced all before the age of thirty.

Whether you are a wrestling fan, a closet wrestling fan or just an occasional reader, I guarentee you that in this book you will find not only that the fake world of professional wrestling is more real than you could ever imagine, but that you can achieve anything and that your options are limitless. It may have been a rocky road, but for Matt and Jeff Hardy, it was one worth walking.

This autobiography of the Hardy Boyz is different from other wrestling autobiographies in that this one is of two wrestlers instead of just one. Matt and Jeff Hardy are real life brothers and were a tag team in the WWE. Since this is of two men, rather than one, the format of the narrative changed. The best wrestling biographies (Mick Foley, Jerry Lawler) have gone into detail about the lives and careers of the wrestlers, but more so about the personal life. The lesser but entertaining biographies (Bobby Heenan, Hulk Hogan) were more episodic. There was no true narrative, but a series of short (one to two page) chapters dealing with a variety of subjects. Exist 2 Inspire falls into the second category. There is no true depth to the biography, but we are given the thoughts and opinions of the Hardys on various subjects and parts of their career.

Since the Hardy Boyz are brothers and the co-subjects of this book, the format is somewhat unique. I believe the co-author (Michael Krugman) simply interviewed the brothers and organized their thoughts into separate sections. The format is that Matt and Jeff each get to speak on a subject. Sometimes it is back and forth between the two; sometimes it is just one paragraph by each brother. Occasionally only one brother speaks. It feels like actual conversation, which is a plus.

The book deals with topics covering most of their lives. Considering that Jeff is only 25, that isn't a lot of time, but they have spent a decade in wrestling. The parts that I found the most interesting was when they first started wrestling and they started their own promotion. While it was never big enough to rival WWF or WCW (or even ECW), it was successful and always at least a little bit profitable. I was very interested in reading about this time, as it showed the work ethic and desire of the Hardys and also that they worked at the very beginning with wrestlers who would end up in the WWE as well. Shannon Moore (a Mattitude Follower) was a childhood friend of Jeff, and they also worked with Shane Helms (The Hurricane). The other part that I really appreciated was when they were training in the WWF development center: Dory Funk Jr's Dojo.

This book did not seem to dig too deeply into the personal lives of the Hardys, but this was a very interesting and very entertaining book to read. I would recommend it to any fan of professional wrestling.

This was probably the best wrestling book since Mick "Mankind" Foley's books came out. This not typical WWE thick and through like the last few books. This book did not dissapoint at all.

I never realized all that Matt & Jeff went through to become WWE superstars.

They were totally honest from relationships out of the ring to Jeff losing his passions/becoming burnt out of the wrestling book.

Both Hardy's have become 2 of my favorite wrestlers after reading this.

If you are thinking of purchasing a wrestling book I would suggest this one.

I originally got this for my sister since she loves the Hardy's especially Jeff but I ended finishing another book and just wanted to read a few pages and I wound up reading this book in 2 days.

I think this book is great. It's the first "Nancy Drew & hardy Boys Super mystery" I've ever read. But I think there should have been more romance between Nancy & Frank. Otherwise this a fantastic book & I highly recomend it!

This book was the first Nancy Drew And Hardy Boys book I read.it was pretty hard to figure out and it was exciting the whole time! I liked the way Nancy and the Hardy Boys met up. I think they should have more creative ways for them to meet. It was a great story!

I loved this book, and I also love all of the Nancy Drew and Hardy boys books. This one was really great because you are not really sure who are the "bad guys" and who are the "good guys". It is an exciting book with alot of action. The only bad thing about it is that you cannot put it down. I definately recomend this book if you love the series!

I liked this book because it was a very good mystery. The characters, Frank, Joe, Fenten Hardy, Pretzel Pete, and the smugglers made this book interesting and enjoyable to read. Never a dull moment, the author made me feel as though I was right inside the house, looking at every move the characters made.

The book ended when Fenten Hardy came home with his sons and caught the lead smuggler. You'll have to read it for yourself to get all of the details.

The Plot: One day shortly before summer vacation, the Boys, along with Chet, Biff and Jerry, are out motorcycling along the Shore Road and decide to investigate the spooky old abandoned Polucca house, high on the cliffs overlooking Barmet Bay. Once inside, they hear a shriek which scares all but Frank and Joe out. The Boys investigate but find nothing. They leave but a storm forces them all back to the house. They hear more shrieks, get locked in and part of the house starts to collapse! They finally get out but have problems with their motorcycles and find their tool kits stolen. They are distracted by a boat chase out on the bay. There are shots from one boat and the other boat explodes!.... Comments: The best story in the canon! A dark, violent tale of smuggling, drugs, kidnapping and murder! None of the other stories can match this one for sheer exciting adventure! I've always thought this tale would make a great Hardy Boys movie. The Boys show plenty of guts and good detective ability in this one. Fenton plays a major role here and he works well with his sons. The gun battle and fight at the climax is the most thrill-packed prose in any Hardy story. If you read only one Hardy Boys book, it should be this one. Rating: Original: A+

This review concerns the revised 1959 edition. Mr. Hardy disappears while investigating a group of smugglers. Frank and Joe suspect that a strange, old house on a cliff has a connection to the mystery and get some of their friends to help them investigate the place. This book is one of the best of the series; it is loaded with action, suspence and mystery. It doesn't take you long to get into the book and the last half of the book was especially good. Although, as good as this book is, the original edition, which is nearly the same, is even better and is the version that I would recommend reading because the writing is more rich and descriptive. While the original may be longer, with a book this good you don't mind that. Whichever version you decide to read, the original or the revised, you will not be disappointed with this book.

Post Captain is the second in the Aubrey/Maturin series and perhaps the first written with the knowledge that it was part of a series. O'Brian's first novel in the series was published shortly after C.S. Forester's death and the publication of Pope's and Kent's first novels in their series of wooden ships and iron men. O'Brian found a different niche within the genre and one that ultimately led to his recognition as a serious author of historical novels. If one has read Pope or Kent and even Forester, then the reader might have some difficulty getting into O'Brian's novels. If one accepts that O'Brian is a longer read and that the emphasis is more on character and historicity than violent action then one can enjoy this novel thoroughly.

I read the first book in the series, Master and Commander, and was disappointed. I enjoyed Post Captain more. Perhaps that was due to knowing what to expect and perhaps it is because Post Captain is better than its predecessor. However, it is not your typical naval action adventure. In fact, the first few chapters sounded a bit like Pride and Prejudice from Mr. Darcy's perspective. The fact is that O'Brian writes well enough to pull it off. Post Captain does pick up when war is declared and Aubrey goes back to sea.

One area of conflict that I found strangely missing in Master and Commander was that between Aubrey and Maturin. I had expected that Maturin would be critical of Aubrey taking the ship into actions that caused wounds Maturin would have to treat. There is a serious conflict between the two in Post Captain although it's not over Aubrey's naval actions. Since the series has 18 more novels one knows that the conflict will be resolved.

The main problem that Aubrey faces in the novel is not the French navy but his own indebtedness and the inability to obtain a suitable command. Paradoxically, Aubrey is safe from creditors while at sea. The problems that a person faced while in debt in 1800 are explained well and the reader has great empathy with Aubrey.

The naval activities in Post Captain seem similar to those in Hornblower and the Hotspur to the point that the climactic action appears to correspond to the same point in history. While O'Brian did not appear to value the Hornblower novels greatly it is obvious that he owes Forester a debt of gratitude for creating the genre. Without Forester it is doubtful that O'Brian would have been able to develop his own unique niche and this excellent novel would not have been published.

Patrick O'Brian's works have been compared to those of both Jane Austen and Homer. To those who haven't read the series, this might seem like a strange juxtoposition. But anyone who has read Post Captain understands this. O'Brian's novels are a marvel, mixing the story of life at sea with the goings on in 1800 Britain. Throughout the series, we see most of the world and experience the life of many characters. And all the while O'Brian develops two of the most vivid and well done characters in fiction: Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin.

Although the series itself starts out in Master and Commander, it really takes off in Post Captain. I've talked to several readers who's reaction to the first book was that it was good but they weren't ready to rush out that night and buy the next half dozen. After Post Captain, they're hooked, and procede to devour the entire series.

This second book in the Aubrey-Maturin series is, like all of the others, an absolute delight. O'Brian does his usual astonishing job of transporting us to an imagined early-19th century world, interesting in large part because it is in some basic ways quite unlike ours, yet peopled by richly-drawn characters who experience emotions intensely familiar.

For the fanatic O'Brian fan (I am one) this book is especially interesting to re-read, since several of the dimensions of the characters, especially Maturin, are slightly at odds with later versions. For example, in one diary passage, Maturin waxes eloquent (and accurate) about the specific arrangement of sails as a convoy weighs anchor -- something he would never do in the later books, when he has become hopelessly ignorant about all things nautical.

These books are in the rare category of those classics that are a page-turning excitement to read when first encountered, and remain similarly exciting if read again and again, constantly revealing new subtleties of character and incident.

One of the great things about the books is O'Brian's periodic indirect explanation of certain expressions that have passed into the vernacular, and are used in contexts far removed from their nautical roots -- for example, "the devil to pay" or "we were at loggerheads", or...I've forgotten the rest. I guess I'll have to read the books again, and so should you.

This review concerns the revised 1962 edition. Counterfeit money is being circulated throughout Bayport and Frank and Joe try to track down the culprits. While not as good as the original edition, this book is still interesting and exciting, with plenty of action. Read the original edition if you can, but if not the revised edition should not disappoint you.

Hi my name is Ryan.The Secret of the Old Mill is a really good book.In the story Frank and Joe descover conterfeit $20 dollar bills and a company called Eleckton is making them.The hardys drive over in the Queen and Frank and Joe descover a secret door.Will Frank and Joe solve the conterfeit mystery? Read the book to find out.I recomend this book for people who like stories with a lot of excitement.

My favorite Hardy Boys book is the Secret of the Old Mill. I loved the part when Ken Blake fell into the river and Frank and Joe jumped into the river to save Ken Blake. I also loved the part when Frank, Joe, and Chet were in the Sleuth and Frank pulled the wires from the engine to stop the boat. I think that the Secret of the Old Mill is the best Hardy Boys book I have read.

Though I have never read Thomas Hardy before, I shall again very soon. I greatly enjoyed Far From the Madding Crowd. I kept associating Bathsheba, the heroine, with Scarlett O'Hara. They are both women from the past who are struggling for a place where only men typically tread. Unlike Scarlett, Bathsheba's emotions are more restrained. She's so young, but matures through the book. The reader yearns for the day she finally matures to the point that realizes she needs a partner in life, and her perfect partner is Gabriel Oak, her steadfast mate of fate.

I definitely recommend this book for one of those cold rainy weekends curled up on the couch.

I am looking forward to diving into my next Thomas Hardy novel, Jude the Obscure.

I've always condidered myself to be sort of an optimist; so it is really odd that I've always really loved Thomas Hardy's books. I count Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure among my very favorites, and whether or not it is my favorite, I think that The Mayor of Casterbridge is marvelously written. Still though, reading all of that fatalism and cynicism can be a little much. It was really nice to pick up this novel and not read so many grim scenes.

Far From the Madding Crowd is a pretty simple love story driven by the characters. First, there is Bathsheba Everdeen. She's vain, naive, and she makes the stupidest decisions possible. Yet, you still like her. Then there are the three guys who all want her: Troy who's like the bad guy straight out of a Raphael Sabatini novel, Boldwood who's an old lunatic farmer, and Gabriel Oak who is a simple farmer and is basically perfect. The reader sees what should happen in the first chapter, and it takes Bathsheeba the whole book to see it. The characters really make the book. The reader really has strong feelings about them, and Hardy puts them in situations where you just don't know what they're going to do. The atmosphere that Hardy creates is (as is in all of Hardy's novel) amazing and totally original. I don't think any other author (except Wallace Stegner in America) has ever evoked a sense of place as well as Hardy does. Overall, Far from the Madding Crowd is a great novel. I probably don't like it quite as well as some of his others, but I still do think it deserved five stars.

This book was a required read for Academic Decathalon but I was handed the cliff notes and told to study them if I didn't have time to read the book. I dislike cliff notes unless I have already read a book and I need to review so I chose to listen to it on tape. I was thoroughly surprised to find myself laughing at the overly-honest Gabriel Oak proposing marriage to Bathsheba Everdene, I had been informed that this book was something of a rural comedy but I had not expected such preposterous situations and ironies. The novel centers around Bathsheba though I would not label her the heroine because the reader is often frustrated by her behavior and even annoyed by it. She is quite poor but a smart girl and a particularly beautiful one as well. Gabriel meets her and soon decides he must marry this young woman. She declines deciding that she can't love him and soon moves away. Gabriel loses his farm in an unfortunate event and through circumstance comes to be in the same part of Wessex as Bathsheba. She has inherited her uncle's farm and is now running it herself and she is in need of a sheperd and sheperding happens to be Gabriels forte so he is hired. Farmer Boldwood who runs the neighboring farm becomes smitten with Bathsheba too when he recieves a prank valentine saying "marry me" on the seal(this valentine was sent by Bathsheba and her maid/companion). He soon asks for Bathsheba's hand and Bathsheba who feels guilty for causing this man's desire says she will answer him upon his return in two months time. The union with Boldwood is not to be since Bathsheba falls deeply in love with Frank Troy and soon marries him. An ex-girlfriend of Troy's shows up but dies shortly after giving birth, Troy is heartbroken and tells Bathsheba that he loved Fanny more and still does. Troy leaves and soon is assumed dead but is truly only missing. Boldwood moves in one Bathsheba again but in a set of bizarre events Troy returns to take Bathsheba from Boldwood once more. Boldwood is infuriated and turmoil ensues. This is an escapist novel in these times and is well worth reading. Weatherbury and Casterbridge will charm you and allow you to experience the little oddities of Victorian Era rural life in the pleasantest way imaginable.

Unlike Ms. Geddes's other works, this one is designed to create the history of your child's first five years. It is not a book of baby photography although it certainly contains some.

I usually don't enjoy looking at baby books because they are so poorly designed and produced. But I look at them anyway because they contain the first lock of hair, the first little footprint, photographs lying on a rug, and other precious momentos that are so rewarding. Ms. Geddes has overcome the traditional baby book weaknesses by combining her trademark "organic" photographs of babies (in animal, insect, and flower costumes) with a nice design to create a truly beautiful book to record a young person's first five years. The book does have a major drawback in that too few pages are allowed in many sections to capture all of the momentos (such as photographs) that you will want to keep.

Most of the images in the book seem to be taken from Down in the Garden, her best book, so you should fall in love with the illustrations. These images are small and secondary to the book's function so I will omit my usual list of favorites.

The sections in the book include:

My Birth; Momentos; Newspaper Clippings; Comments; Visitors and Gifts; Signs; Names; Family Tree; 3, 6, and 9 Month Highlights; Milestones; Food; 1st Christmas; 1st Vacation; First through Fifth Birthdays; Clothes; Best Friends; Pre-School; Kindergarten; Drawings; Writing; Health; Height; Weight; Teeth; Tooth Fairy; Hands and Feet Prints; Birth Month Flowers and Stones.

I think the way to evaluate this book is to imagine that you are now about to start living on your own. What would you think of the parents who bought and lovingly filled in such a delightful book for you?

Since you cannot hope to put enough photographs into this book, I suggest that you make a separate scrap book for special photographs of your child.

This book would be a great gift to expecting parents.

I suggest that you consider making a similar book for your parents (at any age) that captures your recollections and momentos of them in a way that they would enjoy.

Make life more beautiful for everyone!

I had my first baby 2 years ago and I found a beautiful picture in this specific book that completely emodied my daughter's name. It has wonderful pictures and great information areas for me to record her growth and development. There is plenty of room for pictures and it's durable (now that my girl is 2, you need that quality). I just had another little girl and bought the "Images" album so she could have something just as nice as her big sister. I buy all of my expecting friends Anne Geddes baby books.

When I adopted my daughter, I was thrilled to find such a gorgeous baby book to go with my gorgeous baby! My husband is her natural father and he filled me in on all the birth details and enjoyed helping to create her memory records in this edition. I shopped for months to find the perfect book to keep her records in - I especially wanted the perfect one for her because it's difficult to put together the details of the earliest records as a mother who wasn't able to experience the earliest days of my baby's life. This is the most beautiful record book ever, and now that we are expecting our second baby, I will definitely order one of the Anne Geddes editions for the new one, too!

When i was younger i used to be wary of the sheer length of such works-never fear!Not for one moment was this masterpiece a chore in any way.Ive read 300 page books which were twice as hard to get through.If you appreciate classic literature,especially Dickens this is one of those novels that is a pure pleasure simply to get back to-youll anticipate the start of your next reading session. While there may be a slight criticism of the realness or believability of some of the main characters(esp. the female ones)they are individual enough to rise above the stereotypes one may at first feel they conform to.No doubt Dickens created his own 'Dickensian' universe where the characters may not be as bare boned and raw in terms of reality as more modern writers(reviewers comment that his readership were tiring of his style in favour of more naturalist writers like George Eliot around 1860's)but within the confines of the writers world the book works wonderfully well.No matter what the subject or mood and however dark they may be there is always an exquisite brand of humour,a biting sarcastic tongue-in-cheek commentary running through Dickens writing and none so more than in Our Mutual Friend.If your reading this or others of his novels and you are not laughing then you are just NOT GETTING IT!While he uses hyperbole often in his tales there is here plenty of poignant social commentary.There is also a dark thread permeating the story which acts as a good contrast to the humour and it is through this darkness that the best lessons are learned,the best points are made. The plot is very very involved and works for the most part although one has the impression Dickens may have changed dramatically a particular storyline at the end.It is written in the unusual style in that he intentionally hints and prods the reader to a certain conclusion early on,then not much later reveals the mystery-which i think worked well. Lastly i have just watched the new BBC production of this book and as much as tv can capture this it does very well but whatever you do read the book first(the tv series while of quality must intrinsically be inferior-it will really detract from the book).Never once was this book a task and ive now promised myself to read his entire set of works-so take up this book-you wont regret it!

When i was younger i used to be wary of the sheer length of such works-never fear!Not for one moment was this masterpiece a chore in any way.Ive read 300 page books which were twice as hard to get through.If you appreciate classic literature,especially Dickens this is one of those novels that is a pure pleasure simply to get back to-youll anticipate the start of your next reading session. While there may be a slight criticism of the realness or believability of some of the main characters(esp. the female ones)they are individual enough to rise above the stereotypes one may at first feel they conform to.No doubt Dickens created his own 'Dickensian' universe where the characters may not be as bare boned and raw in terms of reality as more modern writers(reviewers comment that his readership were tiring of his style in favour of more naturalist writers like George Eliot around 1860's)but within the confines of the writers world the book works wonderfully well.No matter what the subject or mood and however dark they may be there is always an exquisite brand of humour,a biting sarcastic tongue-in-cheek commentary running through Dickens writing and none so more than in Our Mutual Friend.If your reading this or others of his novels and you are not laughing then you are just NOT GETTING IT!While he uses hyperbole often in his tales there is here plenty of poignant social commentary.There is also a dark thread permeating the story which acts as a good contrast to the humour and it is through this darkness that the best lessons are learned,the best points are made. The plot is very very involved and works for the most part although one has the impression Dickens may have changed dramatically a particular storyline at the end.It is written in the unusual style in that he intentionally hints and prods the reader to a certain conclusion early on,then not much later reveals the mystery-which i think worked well. Lastly i have just watched the new BBC production of this book and as much as tv can capture this it does very well but whatever you do read the book first(the tv series while of quality must intrinsically be inferior-it will really detract from the book).Never once was this book a task and ive now promised myself to read his entire set of works-so take up this book-you wont regret it!

I have always loved Dickens since I first entered the world of Pip in a 9th grade English class. I have read many of his works in the twenty years since, and I just finished this novel last week. Although "David Copperfield" remains my favorite, "Our Mutual Friend" amazed me with its intricate plot and how Dickens pulled off such jarring tonal shifts without alienating the reader. I disagree with other readers who still found Bella Wilfer one-dimensional and unsympathetic...I was very caught up in her transformation. I also think that Bradley Headstone is one of the scariest of Dickens' villains, even surpassing Mr. Murdstone. I wish that I had not seen last year's TV production before reading the novel. Although the production was quality, I would have liked to approach the work with a fresher perspective.

In William McNeil's Plagues and Peoples, the author argued that disease profoundly shaped the course of human history. He even theorized that man himself is simply a disease-a macroparasite. Humans cannot escape the fact that, although they occupy the top spot in the food chain, they are still part of that chain: "the way infectious diseases have begun to come back shows that we remain caught in the web of life-permanently and irretrievably-no matter how clever we are at altering what we do not like, or how successful we become at displacing other species" (McNeil, 17). According to the author, humans are nothing more than a plague-a plague that forged the entire pattern of history as we know it, but a plague nevertheless. Although Plagues and Peoples presented a radically different view of traditional history, it left out several chapters in the saga of humanity's struggle with both their environment as well as themselves. McNeil supported his doomsday conclusions by systematically detailing the effects of disease-political, demographic, and psychological-in the human race, from prehistory to the present. His most powerful argument centered on the utter destruction of the vital Aztec civilization by a relative handful of Spaniards. As McNeil stated, the usual explanations-horses, gunpowder, allies-are inadequate. How could literally millions of people succumb to fewer than six hundred? Such an event defied all rational explanations and seemed to call for supernatural or racist theories-both certainly popular with the Spanish at the time. But McNeil's parasite thesis-on both the micro and macro level-offered a logical and intriguing counter argument. Although he characterized the Spanish as particularly brutal and careless, McNeil maintained, "After all, it was not in the interest of the Spaniards and other Europeans to allow potential taxpayers and the Indian work force to diminish. The main destructive role was certainly played by epidemic disease" (McNeil, 215). On the micro level, epidemic disease, namely smallpox, would have made Cortez's triumph "more difficult, and perhaps impossible" (216). The historic implications of this statement must not be taken lightly. The history of the entire Western Hemisphere, as well as Europe, would have been completely different without the successful take-over of Central and South America by the Spanish. On the macro level, the Spanish were themselves a disease, a "swarm" that descended on the Amerindians in the same way Louisiana mosquitoes descend upon their human prey at an after dusk barbecue. Although the analogy was uncannily accurate in this case, it did not describe the whole picture. What, for example, were the Spaniards' motivations for coming to the New World in the first place? They were mostly good, old-fashioned "human" considerations-greed, chauvinism, and religion. All history cannot simply be reduced to the level of parasites. Humans are creatures of emotion, of ideas. Unlike germs, they do not function merely through the wax and wane of biological urges. Even Sigmund Freud, great believer in the ever-grasping id, did not ignore the superego. In conclusion, McNeil's argument is important because it forces everyone-traditional historians included-to rethink humanity's role in history. His thesis enables one to take a step back from perhaps trivial details (did the Aztecs really think that Cortez was a blond god?) and truly examine the larger picture. But to leave out the essence of humanity-lust and greed, nobility and sacrifice-is to turn history into science fiction.

Diseases has been a big factor in human development. Disease has helped dictate where people have been able to live and create civilizations, helped in the conquest of countries and created a whole series of social ills in congested urban areas. McNeill takes a look at the effects of disease through human society.

The first chapter Man The Hunter focuses on disease in early human history. The following chapter Breakthrough to History focuses on the development of agriculture and permanent human settlements. The next chapter, Confluence of Civilized Disease Pools focuses on the role disease had on early civilizations in places such as China and India. The next chapter is Impact of the Mogul Empire and how this early large empire had an effect on disease. The next chapter is Transoceanic Exchanges focusing on the spearding of disease between the Eastern and Western Hempshires and its implications. The last chapter is Ecological Impact of Medical Science Focusing on how humans have been able to control diseas through means such as vacinations.

Good book to get a better understanding of history.

This book by historian McNeill seeks to, in his own words, " discern major landmarks in the interaction of human populations and microparasites". The book began as an inquiry into the role of smallpox in the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and was expanded to similar parallels in world history. McNeill uses historical epidemiology as the organizing framework for his analysis of civilizations, as affected by changes in patterns of pestilential infection. In doing so, he extends the paradigms of disease and parasitism to the broader "macroparasitism" in social and cultural mechanisms. For example:

"Religious history offers another striking parallel between Rome and China... Like Christianity, Buddhism explained suffering. In the forms that established themselves in China, Buddhism offered the same sort of comfort to bereaved survivors and victims of violence or of disease as Christian faith did in the Roman world. Buddhism of course originated in India, where disease incidence was probably always very high as compared with civilizations based in cooler climates; Christianity, too, took shape in the urban environments of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria where the incidence of infectious disease was certainly very high as compared to conditions in cooler and less crowded places." (Chapter III p.121)

For me, much of the delight of the book lies in the speculative leaps and connections that only polymaths of McNeill's stature are capable of making. The depth and breadth of learning that goes into the synthesis of such an ambitious survey is revealed in illuminating detail. McNeill is equally frank in acknowledging the limitations of his analysis, but makes the point that the body of scholarship has not been sensitive to the significance of changes in disease patterns throughout history. In that sense, the aim of this book is to "correct such oversight and bring the role of infectious disease in shaping human history into a juster perspective than others have allowed ..." In this he succeeds marvelously, I think. Advances in analyses of genomic history (at the human and microorganism level) should bear fruit in the testing of many of McNeill's hypotheses regarding mutual adaptation and equilibrium states in human history. And now, when looking to the roots of civilizations' ascendancies, I look past claims of "cultural superiority" to the paths of disease vectors ...