Excellent, but not necessarily what the book the title infers
356128
I give this book five stars because it's a great read for anyone interested in the history of the early days of Hollywood.  However, the potential buyer needs to know that this book was originally published under the title "The White Brothers: Jack, Jules, and Sam White."  (The title was apparently changed to "Behind the Three Stooges" to boost sales when the second edition was released...?)  The White Brother's involvement with the Three Stooges (especially Jules) is indeed discussed in the book, but the book is not about the Stooges exclusively.  The White Brothers made many non-Stooge films, so people interested in reading only about the Stooges may find this book disappointing.
2825526
Having just finished reading "The Empire of the City", I must express my surprise. It was not at all what I had thought it would be.  Given the title, I had expected a representation relative to the rise of the Bank of England and its relationship to what New World Order propagandist Walter Russell Mead has styled as "Dutch Finance".  Although this subject is addressed, the book is mostly about power politics as practiced by the Anglo-American elite from 1815 until the end of World War II.

Knuth's presentation is excellent, well documented, and terribly interesting.  He avers quite rightly that there is an Anglo-American elite, which has controlled the foreign policy of both the United Kingdom and the United States in the historical period under consideration.  This is very important material that ought to be well absorbed by all serious students of history.

We strongly recommend this very important little book.  Read it.  And consider it will.  With this, we can all begin to know justice and to love mercy, while yet there is time.
2878003
I can't remember what led me to this book. Its title is somewhat misleading in that it seems to suggest an academic treatise dense with history and tech-speak. It's anything but. The author does a terrific job of making nuclear technology understandable in terms peppered with enough science to be instructive.

The early chapters are a bit of slog, but worth the effort for giving the reader a basic understanding of what's to come. Chapters on the Manhattan project are especially illuminating.

Overall, an excellent effort.
3567143
The title is a bit misleading, because McCarthy's focus is not primarily on authenticity. "My purpose," he writes (p. vii), "is not to gain belated recognition for the dead, but to exhibit the power and vitality of Lonergan's thought for the living." But a few pages later, he does seem to seek
"belated recognition for the dead" by saying: "My governing purpose in writing this book is to show that these discoveries are so basic in nature, so fertile in their implications, and so relevant to our cultural crises that they establish Bernard Lonergan as one of the truly great minds of the twentieth century" (p. xi).
I came to McCarthy's book already convinced that Lonergan was one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century. I have no quarrels with his exposition of Lonergan's thought, or with his explanations of the relations between Lonergan's philosophy and many of our current cultural crises. The book is an excellent introduction to Lonergan.
I give the book four stars rather than five for two reasons. The first is that McCarthy does not develop the notion of authenticity beyond what Lonergan himself had said. This disappointed me, because I am not satisfied with what Lonergan said about the "minor authenticity" of persons and the "major authenticity" of the traditions to which persons adhere. The second is that McCarthy is insufficiently critical of Lonergan's notion of culture. Again, this is one of the aspects of Lonergan's thought with which I am not satisfied.
I was also disappointed in McCarthy's failure to come to grips with the extended treatment of authenticity provided by Walter Conn in<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Conscience-development-and-self-transcendence/dp/089135025X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Conscience--development and self-transcendence</a>. Back in 1981, Conn wrote: "in this study the meaning of 'self-transcendence,' though not univocal, is quite direct and concrete: it refers primarily to the threefold achievement of 'moving beyond one's own self' that is effected in every instance of correct understanding (cognitive), responsible decision (moral), and genuine love (affective). Each of these aspects will be examined in detail when we consider the developmental theories of Erikson, Piaget, and Kohlberg, and then the transcendental analysis of Lonergan" (p. 6).
1162725
This is a beautifully written book, at turns touching, painful, and hilarious. I read this in book club and we agreed: the title is somewhat misleading. The dog-lovers in the group hoped for more about the dogs -- the author's daily interaction with them, their role in assuaging her grief, etc. Although this is a wonderful book, if you're hoping it will center around the dogs, it won't. They are very peripheral to the story. Lovely honest writing, though, and food for both heart and intellect.
1097548
Great insight and strong research but the title is a little misleading in terms of the overall content and focus of the book.
4420428
I bought this book after reading Monk's superb biography of Wittgenstein, being impressed by his clarity as a writer and attention to detail. Upon opening the book however, I was dissapointed to discover that this book was actually a collection of essays edited by Monk, and written by various authors including one essay, on Bertrand Russell's persuit of certainty, by Professor Monk Himself.

My initial dissapointment has proven unfounded as the collection is superb and structured to highlight competing themes found in different philosopher's work. The essays on Socrates and Marx, who I was suprised to find included, are worth purchasing the collection by themselves--the background information on Socrates is fascinating and Terry Eagleton's exposition of Marx's ideas on human freedom give a much different perspective than popular culture would allow.

Well worth the time and money.
4068477
This is actually a review of the whole story, Book 1,2 and 3. Book three resolves the whole story in an unsurprising, obvious way. Sadly this is also a way which renders the title to be a non-sensical attempted ingratiation to 1984. Let me warn you: the books have nothing to do with 1984 to the point of me supposing the author never read, or at least understood the work he is referring to.

Besides from this (I ignore some sections which where needless explicit), the books are solid despite being lengthy at times. I find it interesting (having lived in close to Tokyo for some time) how Murakami captures the different parts of the city and the region. The story captures some aspects of self-perception of the Japanese society in the form of sterotypes. Seen from this aspect, the resolution of the story is a kind of revelation which even contains some morale.
2571032
This is a great book.  But it is a book about the views of Minsky, and not really on Keynes.  The first chapter examines the way in which Keynes' 1936 book was received and interpreted, and Minsky's explanation is for the most part correct, namely, that Keynes' work represents more a revolution than an extension of "classical" economics.  However, as is argued throughout Minsky's book, The General Theory contained only "the seeds for a deep intellectual revolution in economics and in the economists' view of society."  According to Minsky, the Keynesian revolution was aborted and the seeds were prevented from reaching their full fruition due to the "bastardization" of Keynes' seminal message.  Minsky sets himself the task in this book to bring these ideas back to life.

Chapter two explores the more orthodox (conventional) view of Keynesian economics.  Chapter three is very good, as it spells out the concepts that are to be used later in Minsky's analysis of capitalism: the recurrence of the business cycle, uncertainty, and investment and disequilibrium.

Chapters 4 - 7 develop Minsky's theory of capitalism.  Minsky argues that booms are inevitably followed by crises and debt deflation not because of certain institutional weaknesses, but because of the fundamental nature of capitalism.  In other words, "Keynes visualized [the imperfections of the financial system] as systemic rather than accidental or perhaps incidental attributes of capitalism."  Minsky explores the way investments are made, and examines how they are financed.  Central to Minsky's analysis is the importance of uncertainty.  Financing and liability structures cannot insulate themselves from danger (excessive risk) precisely because the future is uncertain.  Another important element in Minsky's book is the importance of money, which he describes as as "insurance policy."  This is consistent with Keynes' definition of liquidity.  In the event that sales proceeds cannot meet existing liabilities, the possession of money becomes essential due to the frequent revaluations of capital assets making their quick sale at certain prices nearly impossible.

I really enjoy Minsky's work, but this book gives me the impression that Minsky was more concerned with fitting Keynes in his (minsky's) own analysis than in explicating very clearly and honestly Keynes' own economic views.  This can best be seen in the last two chapters on social policy.  Nevertheless, Minsky is the most important expositor of the "Financial Instability Hypothesis" and this book is a great place to begin.
3364621
With respect, I think the previous reviewer has missed the point of this excellent book.  Yes, Braitenberg "personifies" simple electro-mechanical relationships.  But his whole point in doing so is to  make us aware of how readily we personify animate objects in our  environment, including each other.
With a playfulness not usually found  in the writings of neuroscientists, Braitenberg starts with very simple  machines or vehicles that respond to their environment.  He shows that,  despite the simple internal workings of these machines, we would be likely  to impute feelings and desires to them.  As the book goes on, Braitenberg  discusses increasingly complicated machines, although remaining firmly in  the realm of things that could potentially be built.  The later machines  appear to be capable of impressive feats of memory, planning and foresight,  and yet they are ultimately made up of "simple electro-mechanical  relationships".  By the close of the book, one realizes belatedly that  Braitenberg has sketched out (in fable-like form) a possible history of the  evolution of intelligence.
For all those fascinated by the question of  how the complexities of human and animal behaviour arise from the  relatively simple world of the neuron, this book is a must.
1197053
Im a big fan of this book. I have read it several times now.

I think the title is a bit misleading.  The author isn't saying that you should not care about anything.  He points out that you can learn to prioritize what you care about.
1232629
An excellent book that I found difficult to put down

Slightly deceptive title, while there is indeed an alien invasion said ALFs are little more than a lingering threat in the background, the story for the first book is more focused on the various social reactions to the threat of the unknown, both from the individual behaviour changes to the surprisingly calm mass exoduses change to raving mob rush

Definitely worth a read
4797226
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Stirner-The-Ego-and-its-Own-Cambridge-Texts-in-the-History-of-Political-Thought/dp/0521456479/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Stirner: The Ego and its Own (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)</a>
An excellent book for anyone interested in the philosophy of anarchy (if that isn't an oxymoron) or in the precursors of Nietzsche. Although it's apparently unlikely Nietzsche ever read this book (first published in 1844, the year of his birth), it's obvious he must have been familiar with its theme, the over-riding importance of the individual as opposed to any abstract idea or physical collective.
Quite how far Stirner believed in his own thesis is difficult to say - which further adds to the inherent interest of the book.
The translation dates from 1907, and is difficult to fault. The notes by the editor, David Leopold, are succinct and relevant. Perhaps he could be persuaded to translate Stirner's biography, which currently only exists in German.
771344
I thought American Ghost was a very good book. Having done a fair amount of genealogical research, I enjoyed following Hannah Nordhaus in her search, and she did not disappoint with her discoveries. She's a fine writer, of course, and I was quickly drawn into this story of her family and their history, It was the proverbial page turner all the way.
Like other reviewers, though, I was misled by the title, and felt sort of let down to learn that Nordhaus was "a neophyte in the world of spirits and ghosts and had a lot of catching up to do". Indeed; I don't believe she ever actually caught up. She gave the most credit for her enlightenment on the subject to Mary Roach's book  Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. Not exactly a serious, definitive treatise on the metaphysical.  Besides an episode of the TV show, Ghost Hunters, and one of Unsolved Mysteries,  Nordhaus' extensive bibliography lists about 5 books on ghosts, mostly histories, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's, written in 1926.  Gary E. Schwarz's Afterlife Experiments was the only  "current" book. There is so much scholarly new research and so many contemporary, well-known and highly respected psychics/ mediums that weren't referenced. Without names or credentials, I questioned the legitimacy of those people Ms. Nordhaus did consult. I came away from this narrative feeling that Julia had been only vaguely, and probably not accurately, heard.  I wanted better evidence that HER story had been validated, and the assurance that she was no longer an earth-bound spirit.
1274379
I initially waffled over buying this book, because some of the initial descriptions that I read made it sound as if Blinder wrote as an apologist for Paulson, Geithner and Bernanke.  Then the NYTimes ranked it as one of the top books of 2013 so I bought it anyways.  I am happy to report that this is NOT a cheerleader's account of the actions of the Fed and the Treasury.  Blinder does a great job explaining what happened and why.  He gives criticism where criticism is due, and the trio of Paulson, Geithner, and Bernanke are not spared.  This is not a blow-by-blow account with transcriptions of all the important conversations between policymakers.  For that, look to Lowenstein's "The End of Wall Street".  The reason that I am giving this book four stars instead of five is because while Blinder is a professional economist and is clearly quite perceptive about economic issues and does a masterful job explaining them, he is not a political scientist and his account, especially toward the end of the book, of political issues does not have nearly the same depth or quality as the excellent description of the economic issues.  Overall though, an excellent book that I recommend purchasing, even if the last few chapters should have been cut by the editor.
3900191
A very nice book, but I was not as impressed as some of the other reviewers (maybe I missed something?)
4909772
I gave this book four stars because it is well written.  But the title is misleading.  I would have called it *Teaching Styles Across Spiritual Traditions*.  Kain offers a broad sampling of contemporary spiritual teachers from different traditions.  The overall tone is positive--a bit too positive, perhaps, as he doesn't really seem to consider that just as there are plenty of good teachers out there, there are also quite a few who are deluded and misguided.  Despite his inclusion of the word "pitfalls" in the subtitle, Kain doesn't explain what can go wrong in the teacher-student relationship nor how students can protect themselves from potentially harmful situations.  Nevertheless, reading Kain's portraits of spiritual teachers is enjoyable and provides glimpses into beliefs, practices and customs that readers might otherwise not get to learn about.