Perhaps the most viscerally exciting book ever written by a fighter pilot.' Rowland White Pierre Clostermann DFC was one of the oustanding Allied aces of the Second World War. A Frenchman who flew with the RAF, he survived over 420 operational sorties, shooting down scores of enemy aircraft while friends and comrades lost their lives in the deadly skies above Europe. THE BIG SHOW, his extraordinary account of the war, has been described as the greatest pilot's memoir of WWII. ‘A truly remarkable book … the most gripping descriptions of aerial combat I have ever read’ New York Times ‘A thrilling read … ranks among the finest accounts of war’ Guardian ‘A magnificent story’ Daily Telegraph ‘A classic … gripping, ripping, full of action’ Economist ‘Vividly captures the spirit of air combat’ The Times 'The relentlessness of the flying is extraordinary and the casual loss of life chilling. It really is one of the very best war memoirs ever written: exhilarating, exciting, deeply moving and a book that lingers in the mind long after the last page has been turned.' James Holland

    These two factors combine to make The Gathering Storm a unique work. The first volume of Churchill's memoirs, this selection is broken into two parts. The first, From War to War, consists of Churchill's critical observations on the settlement of World War I and its place in the causes of the Second World War. The second volume contains letters and memoranda from the British government--of which Churchill was part--as the country plunged unprepared into war. This stands as the best of history: written as it was made, by the man who made it.

    Winston Churchill was not only the war's greatest leader, he was the free world's singularly eloquent voice of defiance in the face of Nazi tyranny, and it's that voice that animates this six-volume history. Remarkable both for its sweep and for its sense of personal involvement, it begins with The Gathering Storm; moves on to Their Finest Hour, The Grand Alliance, The Hinge of Fate, and Closing the Ring; and concludes with Triumph and Tragedy.

    Churchill's epic accounts of those times, remarkable for their grand sweep and incisive firsthand observations, are distilled here in a single essential volume. Memoirs of the Second World War is a vital and illuminating work that retains the drama, eyewitness details, and magisterial prose of his classic six-volume history and offers an invaluable view of pivotal events of the twentieth century.

    Every individual story, every picture, every description is but a stone in that monument which will stand forever to remind the world of this shameful phase of history, and to ask of it vigilance, lest the events of these years be repeated.

    Intrigued by Polynesian folklore, biologist Thor Heyerdahl suspected that the South Sea Islands had been settled by an ancient race from thousands of miles to the east, led by a mythical hero, Kon-Tiki. He decided to prove his theory by duplicating the legendary voyage.On April 28, 1947, Heyerdahl and five other adventurers sailed from Peru on a balsa log raft. After three months on the open sea, encountering raging storms, whales, and sharks, they sighted land - the Polynesian island of Puka Puka.Translated into over sixty languages, Kon-Tiki is a classic, inspiring tale of daring and courage - a magnificent saga of men against the sea.

    

    Yet there is much more to her story than this one act of defiance. In this straightforward, compelling autobiography, Rosa Parks talks candidly about the civil rights movement and her active role in it. Her dedication is inspiring; her story is unforgettable.The simplicity and candor of this courageous woman's voice makes these compelling events even more moving and dramatic.--Publishers Weekly, starred review

    When the author was born in Tierra del Fuego in 1874, it was truly an unknown land. On the southern coast was the small settlement established by his missionary parents; the rest of it, over 18,000 square miles of mountain, forest, marsh, and lake, was the hunting ground of fierce and hostile tribes. Bridges grew up among the coastal Yaghans, learning their language and their ways. In young manhood he made contact with the wild inland Ona tribe, became their friend and hunting companion, and was initiated into the men's lodge. Surely the New York Times' critics's prediction for this book on its first publication has come true: "I have no doubt that Uttermost Part of the Earth will achieve a permanent place in the literature of several subjects: adventure, anthropology, and frontier history." Indeed it is still the essential work and indispensable introduction for anyone yearning to experience the breathtaking remoteness and stunning landscapes of this far-flung wilderness at the "uttermost part of the earth."

    This rare opportunity took the famous travellers not only to Moscow and Stalingrad - now Volgograd - but through the countryside of the Ukraine and the Caucasus. A RUSSIAN JOURNAL is the distillation of their journey and remains a remarkable memoir and unique historical document. Steinbeck and Capa recorded the grim realities of factory workers, government clerks, and peasants, as they emerged from the rubble of World War II. This is an intimate glimpse of two artists at the height of their powers, answering their need to document human struggle

    In an accessible voice, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy clearly illuminates Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Yin-Yang, and more. For those interested in philosophy or Asian studies, this is the perfect window into ancient and modern Chinese ideology.

    The most highly decorated German serviceman of the war, Rudel was one of only 27 military men to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds.Rudel flew 2,530 combat missions claiming a total of 2,000 targets destroyed, including 800 vehicles, 519 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, a destroyer, two cruisers, one battleship, 70 landing craft, 4 armored trains, several bridges and nine aircraft which he shot down.

    Eisenhower was arguably the single most important military figure of World War II. For many historians, his memoirs of this eventful period of U.S. history have become the single most important record of the war. Crusade in Europe tells the complete story of the war as Eisenhower planned and lived it. Through his eyes, the enormous scope and drama of the war—strategy, battles, moments of fateful decision—become fully illuminated in all their fateful glory.Yet this is also a warm and richly human account. Ike recalls the long months of waiting, planning, and working toward victory in Europe. His personal record of the tense first hours after he had issued the order to attack—and there was no turning back—leaves no doubt of Eisenhower's travail and reveals this great man in ways that no biographer has ever surpassed.

    Eliot), Ernst Robert Curtius (1886-1956), one of the foremost literary scholars of this century, examines the continuity of European literature from Homer to Goethe, with particular emphasis on the Latin Middle Ages. In an extensive new epilogue, drawing on hitherto unpublished material, Peter Godman, Professor of Medieval Latin at the University of Tubingen, analyzes the intellectual and political context and character of Curtius's ideas.

    7: Human Knowledge and Divine Knowledge. In this immensely erudite book, German classicist Bruno Snell traces the establishment of a rational view of the nature of man as evidenced in the literature of the Greeks - in the creations of epic and lyric poetry, and in the drama. Here are the crucial stages in the intellectual evolution of the Greek world: the Homeric world view, the rise of the individual in the early Greek lyric, myth and reality in Greek tragedy, Greek ethics, the origin of scientific thought, and Arcadia.

     The battle for the island of Okinawa would last for the next eighty-two days. Through the course of this dramatic battle over 20,000 Americans would lose their lives and over 75,000 Japanese were killed in one of the bloodiest clashes of World War Two. Okinawa: The Last Battle is a remarkably detailed account of this monumental event by four soldiers who witnessed the action first-hand. They take the reader to heart of the fight explaining the preparations for the invasion, under its codename Operation Iceberg, through to the major conflicts at the beachhead, Ie Shima, breaking through the defenses surrounding Shuri and overcoming the last-ditch counter-offenses of the Japanese. This book is essential reading for anyone interested the Pacific Theater and how the United States Marines and Army were able to overcome the Japanese in the last few months of the war. Corporal Eugene B. Sledge said of the battle: "The Japanese fought to win - it was a savage, brutal, inhumane, exhausting and dirty business." Okinawa: The Last Battle was written by U. S. Army historians who participated in the Ryukyus campaign as members of a group organized to accompany the American forces to the Ryukyus and secure at first hand the materials for a history of their operations. Maj. Roy E. Appleman was attached to the 27th Division, M/Sgt. James M. Burns and Lt. Col. Stevens accompanied the Tenth Army headquarters and Capt. Russell A. Gugeler served with the 7th Division on Okinawa. After the war many of the authors went on to become prominent military historians. Appleman passed away in 1996, Burns in 2014, Stevens in 2001 and Gugeler in 1985. Their work was first published in 1948.

    In this tapestry of poetic and religious scholarship, Graves explores the stories behind the earliest of European deities—the White Goddess of Birth, Love, and Death—who was worshipped under countless titles. He also uncovers the obscure and mysterious power of "pure poetry" and its peculiar and mythic language.

    First published in 1948, its elegance, passion, and iconoclastic erudition laid the groundwork for a totally new understanding of the American past. By writing a "kind of intellectual history of the assumptions behind American politics," Richard Hofstadter changed the way Americans understand the relationship between power and ideas in their national experience. Like only a handful of American historians before him—Frederick Jackson Turner and Charles A. Beard are examples—Hofstadter was able to articulate, in a single work, a historical vision that inspired and shaped an entire generation.

    It is the inside history of America’s inevitable wartime rise as a great power, written in wonderfully readable prose by White House speechwriter and prize-winning playwright Robert Sherwood.

    Siegfried Giedion's extraordinary, encyclopedic book traces the various ways in which, for better and for worse, mechanization has assumed control of our lives, from modern systems of hygiene and waste management, to agricultural production, fashion and beyond. This book isn't only clearly written but also eloquent and thoughtful in its investigation of mechanization's reach and appeal. It offers fascinating insights into the intersection between mechanization and the imagination, as manifested in literature and the visual arts. With a wealth of unusual and intriguing illustrations taken from old sales catalogs, industrial manuals, magazines and other sources, this book constitutes a remarkable and endlessly suggestive history of modernity itself, as comprehensive as it is provocatively eccentric.ForewordAnonymous history Springs of mechanizatonMeans of mechanization (locks, assembly line)Mechanization encounters the organic (agriculture, bread making, meat production)Mechanization encounters human surroundings (furniture)Mechanization encounters the household (kitchen, laundering, refrigeration)Mechanization of the bath ConclusionList of IllustrationsIndex

    Complete in itself, this two-volume Image Books edition opens with an illuminating account of the origins of the Church to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, provides a magnificent study of St. Paul and describes the relations between the infant Church and the imperial Roman government including the persecutions under Nero, Domitian and the Antonines, presents a fascinating picture of Christian line and worship in the Catacombs. Included is a survey of early Christian literature and the crucial period of the third century, ending with the victory of the Cross under Constantine. The intellectual problems of the fourth century which gave rise to the first major heresies and the steps taken to define Catholic dogmas are fully explored. The author vividly re-creates the administrative, cultural and spiritual features of the Church in the closing years of that century when Theodosius the Great established Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. This is truly 'a vivid account of the most stirring period of the Church's history.'

    It also covers noted gun makers, tips to match ammunition, interior and exterior ballistics, velocity variation, measuring methods, weights, overloads, and ranges. Invaluable information for shooters, gunsmiiths, collectors, ballisticians, and hunters.

    She remembers the sweet cedar smell in the air and the sun pressing on her head. But she also remembers Tabitha, the slave at the hotel who doesn’t have a last name, and she remembers the heaps of rags the slaves use for beds. Most of all, though, she remembers the slave auction where people were bought and sold like sacks of flour. Nettie can't forget these images, and she can't help but wonder what life would be like if she were a slave.

    Seldom in all history has mere man been charged with such an awesome responsibility as was delegated to the Prince of Apostles when Our Lord uttered these words. And it is the story of this humble fisherman, so curiously neglected by modern authors, that William Thomas Walsh tells so brilliantly.Skillfully arranging all the scattered facts that the New Testament, tradition, and archaeological discoveries and patient historical research have revealed, he provides a vivid and dramatic record of the hot-headed, impetuous, devoted follow of Christ who thrice denied his Master and yet was chosen by Him to be the Keeper of the Keys and the head of His Church. Here is the long, painful, exciting journey travelled by the fisherman of Galilee as he is transformed from a figure of shifting sand to one of rock--Peter the Rock--martyred in Rome. It is a glowing and inspiring picture, full of warmth and color, which reproduces the early days of the Church, the great figures of early Christendom and above all the towering colossus who became the Vicar of Christ on earth, the first pope.

    

    Liddell Hart, noted British miltary strategist and writer. They speak as professional soldiers to a man they know and respect. For the first time, answers are revealed to many questions raised during the war. Was Hitler the genius of strategy he seemed to be at first? Why did his Generals never overthrow him? Why did Hitler allow the Dunkirk evacuation?Current interest, of course, focuses on the German Generals' opinion of the Red Army as a fighting force. What did the Russians look like from the German side? How did we look? And what are the advantages and disadvantages under which dictator-controlled armies fight?In vivid, non-technical language, Capt. Liddell Hart reports these interviews and evaluates the vital military lessons of World War II.

    64-page hardcover pocket gift book with dust jacket, 3-1/4'' wide by 5-3/8'' high.

    I. Marrou’s A History of Education in Antiquity has been an invaluable contribution in the fields of classical studies and history ever since its original publication in French in 1948. French historian H. I. Marrou traces the roots of classical education, from the warrior cultures of Homer, to the increasing importance of rhetoric and philosophy, to the adaptation of Hellenistic ideals within the Roman education system, and ending with the rise of Christian schools and churches in the early medieval period. Marrou shows how education, once formed as a way to train young warriors, eventually became increasingly philosophical and secularized as Christianity took hold in the Roman Empire. Through his examination of the transformation of Greco-Roman education, Marrou is able to create a better understanding of these cultures.

    Thomas, the "Rock of Chickamauga," was a Virginian who chose the northern side in the Civil War. While Thomas was considered a traitor by his family, his military superiors regarded him with a certain mistrust because of his southern background. Nonetheless, Thomas was prominent in the battles of Mill Springs, Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, and Nashville, and was immortalized at Chickamauga, where he tenaciously held the field until ordered to withdraw.

    It was the sound of eighteen hundred airplanes approaching Hamburg from the south at an unimaginable height. We had already experienced two hundred or even more air raids, among them some very heavy ones, but this was something completely new. And yet there was an immediate recognition: this was what everyone had been waiting for, what had hung for months like a shadow over everything we did, making us weary. It was the end.Novelist Hans Erich Nossack was forty-two when the Allied bombardments of German cities began, and he watched the destruction of Hamburg—the city where he was born and where he would later die—from across its Elbe River. He heard the whistle of the bombs and the singing of shrapnel; he watched his neighbors flee; he wondered if his home—and his manuscripts—would survive the devastation. The End is his terse, remarkable and moving memoir of the annihilation of the city, written only three months after the bombing. A searing firsthand account of one of the most notorious events of World War II, The End is also a meditation on war and hope, history and its devastation. And it is the rare book, as W. G. Sebald noted, that describes the Allied bombing campaign from the German perspective.In the first English-language edition of The End, Nossack's text has been crisply translated by Joel Agee and is accompanied by the photographs of Erich Andres. Poetic, evocative, and yet highly descriptive, The End will prove to be, as Sebald claimed, one of the most important German books on the firebombing of that country. "A small but critical book, something to read in those quiet moments when we wonder what will happen next."—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

    This personal account by the Sanctuary's first curator shares the difficulties and discoveries he and his wife encountered during their first years on the mountain. Published in coordination with the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association.

    Never before has such a detailed study been made of the organization, training and operations of a single division of the United States Army. Each action in which the Division took part has been minutely studied and checked against available operations reports and the memories of the men who were there.

    It is inspired by Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West. Imperium advocates the creation of a pan-European empire governed by sound principles or 'absolute politics'. It is divided into five parts, which are concerned with History, Politics, 'Cultural Vitalism', America and the World Situation. Imperium deals with doctrinal matters as well giving a survey of the 'world situation' in the 20th century. "In this book," writes Yockey, "are the precise, organic foundations of the Western soul, and in particular, its Imperative at the present stage." "...What is written here is also for the true America, even though the effective America of the moment, and of the immediate future is a hostile America, an America of willing, mass-minded tools in the service of the Culture-distorting political and total enemy of the Western Civilization." "The mission of this generation is the most difficult that has ever faced a Western generation. It must break the terror by which it is held in silence, it must look ahead, it must believe when there is apparently no hope, it must obey even if it means death, it must fight to the end rather than submit. ...The men of this generation must fight for the continued existence of the West..." "The soil of Europe, rendered sacred by the streams of blood which have made it spiritually fertile for a millennium, will once again stream with blood until the barbarians and distorters have been driven out and the Western banner waves on its home soil from Gibraltar to North Cape, from the rocky promontories of Galway to the Urals." The book's Chicago-born author, Francis P. Yockey, was just 30 years old when he wrote Imperium in six months in a quiet village on Ireland's eastern coast. His masterpiece continues to shape the thinking and steel the will of readers around the world.

    Like other academics they tend to be overwhelmingly on the left. "Left-liberal historians worship political power, and idolize those who wield it most lavishly in the service of left-liberal causes." (Higgs) Why should it be surprising that they venerate Roosevelt and try to get a credulous public to do the same? For a rather different view, the reader can now turn to The Roosevelt Myth, which was and, after half a century, remains the major debunking of Franklin Roosevelt.

    This handbook of good taste and good manners, in preparation for more than four years, carries all the weight and prestige of a magazine which is the recognized authority on taste.

    By examining the forms of kingship which evolved in the two countries, Frankfort discovered that beneath resemblances fostered by similar cultural growth and geographical location lay differences based partly upon the natural conditions under which each society developed. The river flood which annually renewed life in the Nile Valley gave Egyptians a cheerful confidence in the permanence of established things and faith in life after death. Their Mesopotamian contemporaries, however, viewed anxiously the harsh, hostile workings of nature. Frank's superb work, first published in 1948 and now supplemented with a preface by Samuel Noah Kramer, demonstrates how the Egyptian and Mesopotamian attitudes toward nature related to their concept of kingship. In both countries the people regarded the king as their mediator with the gods, but in Mesopotamia the king was only the foremost citizen, while in Egypt the ruler was a divine descendant of the gods and the earthly representative of the God Horus.

    Published nearly 50 years ago and now available in paperback for the first time, This Is San Francisco is an affectionate, lively, carefully researched chronicle of the city from its inception to the end of World War II, as well as an unabashedly romantic portrait of its streets, neighborhoods, and people. Covering every part of the city, from the Embarcadero to Russian Hill, from Cow Hollow to Cliff House, this engaging, evocative volume opens the door for a new generation to San Francisco's rich and unforgettable past.

    

    Snow's first book-length collection of maritime stories, first published in 1948 and long out of print.

    It is, from the beginning, a period of revolt - the revolts of thinkers and 'mystics', of princes and kings, of bishops and monks, of capitalist bourgeois and proletarian workers. It is the story of the Templars, of the 'Avignon captivity' and the Great Schism of the West, of the councils of Pisa and Contance and Basel, of the Renaissance and the rise of the Ottoman Turks. It is the story, too, of philosophers (Duns Scotus and Ockham), theologians (Gerson, Nicolas of Cusa, and Cajetan)m and humanists (More, Machiavelli, and Erasmus). Popes of the period include Boniface VIII, 'Benedict XIII', Nicholas V, and Pius II, as well as the notorious Borgia, della Rovere, and Medici pontiffs. And, in these 250 years which culminated in the Reformation, come Wicklif, John Hus, and Martin Luther - and Catherine of Sienna, Vincent Ferrer, and Antonius of Florence.

    Has Maps and Geneologcal Tables. Excellent reference.Volume is indexed by name, title, occupation, event, place, time. Appendices includeTables of Kings & Pharohs (Rulers) by Nation Popes Emporers of Rome Members of the United Nations by order of admission (nations) Presidents List of European universities founded before 1900 New World and more..

    

    Even today, it explains the basic principles of propaganda and psychological warfare (both white and black), from organization and planning to analysis and response. Examples are drawn from military history, with an emphasis on tactics by both the Allies and Axis during World War II. This is a fascinating subject, with greater relevance to everyday business and politics than may be immediately recognized.

    Works prior to this tended to fall into bias categories either for or against. Max Brown’s book was the work of an open-minded outsider who’d put time and effort into studying the events of the Gang’s lives on the ground, in the caves, the ranges and the rough dwellings – wherever the incidents occurred.

    Publisher: Dietz Press Author: Gilchrist Waring Format: 35 pages, paperback ISBN: 0-87517-013-7

    

    

    The story of a man who takes his motherless children from Vermont to New Orleans in a peddler's cart, set before the Civil War.

    

    

    References to the practices of instrumental music of the 1500s appear throughout the text, in addition to 47 dance tunes with period barring and notation. 44 illustrations.

    Based on a lifetime's work and elegantly and persuasively written, both volumes evoked immediate admiration - and very soon sharp reaction. Little has in fact appeared on Alexander over the last thirty years that has not been directly related to Tarn's book. Especially Volume II, with its detailed analysis of the sources and discussion of the main historical cruces - such as Cleitarchus' date, the status of the Greek cities, Alexander's deification, his supposed plans for a world-kingdom and the famous thesis that he sought to realise the 'brotherhood of mankind' - has itself inspired scores of books and articles. For the scholar both volumes are indispensable and their re-appearance is to be warmly welcomed.

    What Reyher faithfully recorded—and then crafted into a moving narrative—is the riveting story of a South African woman who entered life among the Zulu royal family and then, after enduring psychological and physical abuse, found the courage to leave.In 1915, fifteen-year-old Christina Sibiya left teaching at a mission school to become the first wife of Solomon ka Dinuzulu. While at the royal household, Sibiya successfully adjusted to the expectations of her new position, finding her place among the other wives, and negotiating Zulu and Christian tradition. The royal headquarters, however, became increasingly plagued by divisiveness, dissolution, and ill health. After a series of hardships, climaxing in a beating by Solomon, Sibiya, at the age of twenty-eight, escaped to Durban. Although pursued by Solomon's representative, Sibiya successfully resisted Solomon's authority by testifying first in a European magistrate's court, and then at the royal headquarters, that her marriage was invalid.First published in 1948, Zulu Woman is placed in new context by an introduction and afterword which consider the book's relationship to other African literature and oral history, attend to questions of power and authorship, and draw upon newly available archival materials.

    

    Originally published in 1948, this text tells the story of the three fateful days of Gettysburg in the words of the men and women who lived it.

    Jane Austen, criticism and interpretation.

    

    Collection of 280 photographs selected and arranged chronologically to illustrate the architectural sequence of historical landmarks.

    This is an exceedingly interesting history of the beginnings of administrative government under George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Timothy Pickering, and other Federalist leaders. It is an intimate picture, drawn from original sources, of the day-to-day problems that perplexed officials; an analysis of the great permanent problems of management and of congressional relations; of the hard thinking done by government officials in the days when precedents were in the making.Hamilton-Jefferson FeudRealizing the importance of personality in the early American administration the author includes character sketches of Washington, Hamilton, and many lesser figures as administrators. He explores too the administrative aspect of the great feud between Hamilton and Jefferson, hitherto unrecorded; together with the consequences of the disastrous contest between Hamilton and Adams. The feud between Federalist ideals and those which became ascendant in Thomas Jefferson is especially fascinating.Basic SourcesThe author has made this interesting study almost exclusively from basic sources, such as collected letters and papers, public reports, memoranda, the decisions of federal courts, Studies at Large, Annals of Congress, American State Papers, etc. Five helpful tables are included.War: "A Dificult and Unpopular Department"; The Attorney General - "A Sort of Mongrel"; "Fitness of Character" - Public Service Ideals; Notes on Prestige; Administrative Housekeeping; The Rule of Parsimony - these are only a few of the down-to-earth chapters on subjects which will interest us today.Significantly, the Federalist administration was perhaps in advance of its time in moral standards, and well abreast in actual achievement - in spite of great physical handicaps in communications.

    In all the past history of the Corps, whether it be Nicaragua, Haiti, or Guadalcanal, it is improbable that Marine units ever faced and defeated such an implacable combination of terrain and hostile opposition.In this struggle, as always, superior training, discipline, determination and unquestioning will to win on the part of individual Marines were the crucial factors. Indeed, those same factors may be said to constitute common denominators of victory under any circumstances, whether jungle or atoll, on the ground or in the air. -C. B. CATES, GENERAL, U. S. MARINE CORPS, COMMANDANT OF THE MARINE CORPS”

    Full, objective, and thoroughly readable history, rich in content.... The result is a well-rounded treatment of Norwegian life--political, religious, economic, and intellectual--during the long centuries.... Easily the most important history of Norway in the English language since Gjerset.--N. Y. TimesOriginally published in 1948.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

    Originally published as "The Gate of Horn".

    

    

    It has long been a very useful source of study and inspiration for the would-be writer, and though times have changed since the book was first published in 1948 many of the comments and views remain as relevant as they were at the time they were initially uttered. Allen wrote: "What I have set out to do is to collect what T.S. Eliot has called the criticism of practitioners themselves, though in many instances the word criticism is too pretentious. I have sought the writers' notes on their trades, and sometimes they are merely notes, odd sentences thrown out casually in letters or in the give-and-take of conversation, though they may be none the less valuable for that."The book is divided into two parts. The first part concerns poetry, while Part 2 is related to The Novel.In the poetry section the sections include 'Definitions and Descriptions of Poetry'; 'The Ends and Uses of Poetry', 'Inspirations and Calculation', 'Rhythm, Rhyme and Diction", etc.Then in Part 2 there are quotes on The Nature of the Novel, Essentials of the Novelist, the Shape and Structure of the Novel, Characters, Style, and the Novelist at Work. Allen quotes a range of novelists, from Trollope to Hardy, Bennett to Maugham, plus Flaubert, Tolstoi and Henry James.Much good stuff in here, well worth a look eveni if you are not planning to write poetry or pen a novel!

    The story of mathematics, from the time man first began to use his ten fingers for counting until he mastered the abstractions of the infinitesimal calculus, is an epic of search and discovery in the realm of pure thought.

    

    We learn of the desperate struggles - yet resolute vitality - of this peaceful agrarian nation that lived at the crossroads where both Western and Eastern European imperialisms have clashed throughout history.In studying this corner of Northern Europe, the author of History of Latvia, Professor Arnolds Spekke (1887-1972), a diplomat, historian, and Roman philologist, has used materials and sources that are not easily accessible and were previously under-explored. He does not treat Latvia as an isolated area, but rather sees its history within the context of Europe's political crosscurrents.

    Justin Martyr is known as the outstanding apologist of the second century. While the Apostolic Fathers like St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Polycarp had addressed members within the Christian fold, St. Justin is considered to be the first prominent defender of the Christian faith against non-Christians and the enemies of the Church. The chief sources for the uncertain and meager chronological data of Justin's life are his own writings, the two Apologies and the Dialogue with Trypho. The circumstances leading up to his conversion are recorded in the first eight chapters of the Dialogue, and the events surrounding his death are reported in the Acta SS. Justini et Sociorum, an authentic source of the latter part of the second century. Historians place his birth in the beginning of the second century (ca. 100-110 A.D.) at Flavia Neapolis (today Nablus) in Samaria. Although St. Epiphanius calls him a Samaritan, and he himself refers to his people as Samarians, Justin was not Jewish in either race or religion. His family was rather of pagan and Greco-Roman ancestry. They had come as colonists to Flavia Neapolis during the reign of Titus (79-81 A.D.), the son of Flavius Vespasian (69-79), who had built this city and had granted its inhabitants the privileges of Roman citizens. Obviously, the parents of Justin had considerable means and could afford to give their son an excellent education in the pagan culture of the day. Young Justin had a keen mind, was inquisitive by nature and endowed with a burning thirst for learning. He tried to broaden his knowledge further by extensive travels. Driven by an inner urge and a profound inclination for philosophy, he subsequently frequented the schools of the Stoics, the Peripatetics, the Pythagoreans, and the Platonists. He set out to reach the truth; to gain a perfect knowledge of God was his greatest and only ambition. Dissatisfied with the Stoics and Peripatetics, he tells us of finding temporary peace in the philosophy of the Platonists: 'the perception of incorporeal things quite overwhelmed me and the Platonic theory of ideas added wings to my mind, so that in a short time I imagined myself a wise man. So great was my folly that I fully expected immediately to gaze upon God.'

    Based on a lifetime's work and elegantly and persuasively written, both volumes evoked immediate admiration - and very soon sharp reaction. Little has in fact appeared on Alexander over the last thirty years that has not been directly related to Tarn's book. Especially Volume II, with its detailed analysis of the sources and discussion of the main historical cruces - such as Cleitarchus' date, the status of the Greek cities, Alexander's deification, his supposed plans for a world-kingdom and the famous thesis that he sought to realise the 'brotherhood of mankind' - has itself inspired scores of books and articles. For the scholar both volumes are indispensable and their re-appearance is to be warmly welcomed.