Important if obscure information not well presented, with a strong bias.
582647
This is another book that has an excellent topic, but the book falls short. Four stars because it provides a great deal of information about the inception and operation of US bases abroad, particularly in Okinawa/ Japan, Korea and Italy, but the writing is three stars. The book could cover the same material and be half as long. An aspect worth noting is that American bases eat up a huge amount of land, and in heavily populated areas like South Korea, this is an extremely serious issue. If Gillem is correct, there is perhaps some racism operative as well.

Readers should be aware that there is a strong bias here against this kind of Americanization. He seems to argue that if we must have bases at least make them opportunities for understanding the host nation (host is of course ironic, the bases in Japan and Korea are opposed by most locals). There is also the fact that hundreds of bases with huge numbers of dependents offers lots of  targets for people with hostile intent,
4455444
Teaches what appears obvious is not always true. Be careful how we judge.
2056102
Alan Lloyd has here rendered a very well written and fairly interesting general overview of Spanish history.  Sadly, the history of this important and, in fact, pivotal European nation seems to be much neglected.  By filling this gap, to an extent, Alan Lloyd has provided a very useful service.

However, we must say that the account, though interesting, lacks insight.  Perhaps it is the case that a complete presentation of the great saga of Spain is not well undertaken absent a fundamental appreciation of Catholicism.  Certainly, William Thomas Walsh's books on Spain are much richer and deeper in terms of describing the Spanish character.  Lloyd's account, though well done, lacks this perspective.

This lack of perspective is particularly evident in the latter stages of the book.  The masonic and communist attacks upon the Church in Spain are barely mentioned.  And the character of Franco is completely misunderstood.  This notwithstanding, the book is interesting, important, and, generally, well done.  It is worth the read, with the foregoing caveats in mind.
652505
While the book should be praised for its visual feat, the historical details tend to be grossly generalised with debatable nitty-gritty details in almost every page.

Comparable perhaps to Hollywood historical films, produced with veild agenda and full of ambiguous suggestions often taken as fact by the naive.

The strong point of the book is undoubtly its varied and extensive illustrations (which is quite enjoyable to go through), the history ('His'- 'Story') itself is extremly eurocentric and biased in many ways.

Will be useful for those whom want to improve general knowledge on military history, but not to be used for serious references.
3488653
There are some books that may be judged by the value of the ideas their Authors express, and others for the quality of the information they contain. Well, this work by Nix and Jerome is positioned in the second category: the one in which you can find the more precise data, the missing details and the useful news for completing the framework, having the reasonably certainty that such data, details and news, have been checked and verified.
Clearly, we can not consider this book as an historical essay on the German police during the Third Reich, nor an analysis of facts and events: this is, instead, a real data-grid, a sort of data-base on paper, that examines the organization of the Ordnungspolizei from top to bottom, by taking the biographical data of the various leaders as strong points, as well as the organizational and structural aspects of the many branches in which, the Order Police was subdivided.
Apart from the systematic exposition of these notions - that in some ways may appear dry and boring - we have to consider a fundamental facet: that is, the unquestionable effort, prolonged and meticulous, that led to the compilation of these pages. This is not, in fact, a work that may be completed in two days, but instead, the result of several years of researches, verifications, updating and corrections; a patient collection of details, often very difficult to find and rearranged in a coherent and reader-friendly manner.
What is certain is that, familiarity is needed with the subject Ordnungspolizei, for really appreciate the work of Nix and Jerome: because this is not a book you can read just for pass a rainy evening, and a reader with such kind of approaching, probably would end up finding it, unbearably boring. Instead, this book should be considered a kind of archives: with the advantage of having leaved the heavy work to the Authors and to the reader the possibility to enjoy the results.

Let us make a final remark. By virtue of its characteristics, this book is the antithesis of a market-oriented product and, on our opinion, this is a real value: often in fact, we have encountered seemingly ambitious works, refined and fashionable in appearance, but poor in contents and having the editorial business as primary aim. Well, that of Nix and Jerome is the opposite: it's a work written with a genuine passion for the topic, paying attention to the contents.
As always should be done.
The book is closed by a large portraits gallery.
3017125
This book suffers from a kind of double identity, as an outline of world history, adapted to some publisher's project to do with mythology. The question of myth is a complicated one, and Armstrong's manner of challenging 'logos' with 'mythos' is to me an invitation to sophistry, as an indirect attack on modern rationality and secularism. The periodization of the book focuses on the data of the Axial Age, which the author threatens to turn into another myth. Armstrong's treatment of this subject has made it into a proxy for the onset of the world reiligions, when in fact the Axial Age is something far more complex than that. The rise of Greek science, the emergence of the world's first democracy and much, much else have a place in the consideration of the Axial period.  Correctly understanding this period is not so simple and there is a danger that the author's power to sell books and bestsellers will completely confuse this issue for large numbers of people, making the whole area suspect. The data of the Axial period is one of the most crucial aspects of world history, one that has suffered neglect. The sudden promotion of distorted version is less than helpful. This reviewer's _World History and The Eonic Effect_ contains a complete analysis of the complexities of the Axial phenomenon for those who wish to sort out the confusion on this question.

There is now a kind of New Age postsecular exploitation of this idea under the rubric of a Second Axial Age, in a further distortion of the original data and its significance.

Myths indeed.
3406805
This book alerts us to the false paths of either believing in science as gospel, without understanding how it actually operates, or distrusting science generally, again out of ignorance.  It outlines how scientists themselves most responsibly evaluate their work and the work of their peers, conveying a picture of science as representing the best we can know about a particular matter at a particular time.

Most of all, it tells us about those scientists who have betrayed their calling - either by selling out for financial or political gain, by genuine ignorance of a field other than their own specialization, or both. It shows a history of misrepresentation that has impeded our ability to understand and address a variety of significant problems: the ozone layer, the health effects of tobacco, and climate change.  An important book for our times.
3800532
The Biblical part is handled quite nicely, with good references and good material on language, context, and translation.  The problem--and it's a very serious one--is that the analysis is based on unscientific and sometimes flatly inaccurate sexuality information.  For example, the statistics cited regarding homosexuality, its etiology, and its relationship to sex crimes, sexually transmitted infections, and general health run the gamut from reasonable to out-of-date, to out-of-context, to flatly inaccurate.  There is EXCELLENT research linking orientation to genetic and prenatal factors, where the author flatly denies such, and forensic research clearly shows that a quite significant number of male-male sex crimes are committed by married, heterosexual men.  Unfortunately, the average reader might not know those things, and this book would leave them embarassingly misinformed.  You can't call something "Real" and then go short on research for half of it.  Finally, the author offers far too many of his own opinions about what intuitively makes sense to him.  I'm glad he knows himself so well, but the implication is that others do, or ought to agree.  Few things in life offer as much diversity of opinion as sexuality, so that kind of argument seems out of place in a work like this.  I hope the author revises his book for another edition, because a better researched, less biased book like this would be a valuable work.
3151651
This book seems to basically accomplish what it sets out to, but not without some yawns and doubts in the author's objectivety from the reader. The book is filled with detail and information, but the reader is left to figure out the distinction between the major characters and facts and the more minor.
Perhaps a bigger concern is that the author seems very biased at certain points. She is rather negative towards Christianity (at least the later versions) and oddly positive towards Islam.
But, if the reader can filter out all the opinion, and get through the dense areas, there is a lot to be learned here.
2477404
The information is accurate, but I found the organization problematic - the presentations in the book sometimes provoked questions that were answered elsewhere in the book.  Finding the answers was not always easy.
2761466
Even though it's a bit out of date, there is a lot of worthwhile info in this book.
4214777
Very interesting; however, it did not contain the information I was looking for.
3604888
not sufficient information. missing many things of importance
3798838
The most comprehensive aspect of this book is the extent to which  T Colin Campbell misuses data to prop up the inflated health claims he makes for vegetarian, low-fat diets.  The implications are "startling" all right.  Fortunately, enough data is included so that those with a thorough grounding in statistics can figure this out.  Unfortunately, readers without the training or the motivation to do so and so will make dietary choices based on the author's dubious conclusions.
2023732
the information presented in the book was, for the most part, things i'd never heard, but wished that i had!  only downside (and is worth docking 2 stars) is how extremely strongly she comes across, in terms of the ideology she espouses.
4967504
There was information in the book that was not taught in high school or  college.
404132
While I will claim this book an important step towards demystifying the misinformed and injurious attitudes towards the "adult entertainment" industry, I say it with some reservation.  O'Toole is  very thorough (and amazingly convincing) in his examination and rebuttal of  many of the unfair accusations against pornography.  However, O'Toole's  careful omissions of many of the tragic events in the porn world forced me  to be a bit skeptical about his reportage. Nonetheless, I think this is an  important text and a good read.  O'Toole's defense is refreshing and, many  times, enlightening, although I think his arguments are weakened by his  unflinching one-sidedness  (he asserts that "snuff" films don't  exist and adult films aren't "obsence", yet he fails to report on  "Bizarro-Sleaze" films of Robert Black and Gregory Dark--see  "Neither Adult Nor Entertainment" by Willem R. Degroot and Matt  Rundlet in Premiere, Sept. 1998). To conclude, I would suggest this text to  anyone interested by the adult industries, but would suggest that the  reader not be so credulous to accept all that O'Toole says without first  checking up on his claims.  In other words, O'Toole's Pornocopia would be a  better work if he would have presented EVERYTHING and allowed the reader to  come to his own conclusions about the porn-world.  By leaving things out,  it appears that O'Toole isn't confident that his championing of porn will  be accepted and, subsequently an important trust can't be forged.