ERA Reviews

I have been assigned this book for a class in my Master's program in performance. This is quite possibly the driest book I've ever had the pain of reading. I will admit, there is a LOT of information here, but it is presented in the most boring way possible. I'd rather read an outline. I have NEVER sold back a textbook in my entire academic career, but this one will be going back, if I dont burn it.

If you are a professor, please, have mercy. Dont assign this book. I've had to read 400 pages of it and I already want to tear out my eyes.

This book is excellent for both students and teachers who are studying the Classic Era of music history. This source goes along well with other Norton pulications such as the Romantic Era and the Norton Publication that spans from Ancient music to the Baroque. I have all of these sources and it has enriched my knowledge in the area of music history a great deal!

Buy this book and you will have something in common with Confederate General John Bell Hood. You will both be victims of author Wiley Sword. The defenseless Hood is villianized by Sword's vicious, albeit eloquently written spin. Hood's critics are given top billing in Sword's pages, while Hood's many defenders are silenced. Statistics are twisted to make Hood's performance appear remarkably poor. Sword's fact-filtering, and cut-and-paste journalism will unfortunately impress the unwitting reader, who will be twenty bucks poorer, and totally misinformed on the 1864 Confederate campaign to liberate Nashville. John Bell Hood has been described as the Civil War's most "famously unfortunate" commander. Much more accurate and complete information on the campaign can be found within the pages of Shrouds of Glory, by Winston Groome, who doesn't try to create a villian where none existed.

The Civil War is rapidly drawing to a close. The Southern Confederacy is literally being ripped apart by the Union armies. In desperation Jefferson Davis turns command of the Army of the Tennessee to a crippled general with no experience at high level command. The outcome was almost foreordained. Mr. Sword's book recounts the tragic destruction of an army that had been scourged by the effects of bad leadership for far too long. The appointment of John Bell Hood proved to be, argueably, the single worst decision that the Confederate president ever made.
In spite of ample evidence of the futility of frontal assualts Hood sent his army into poorly coordinated, and futile, attacks that sapped both the heart and soul of his army as well as it's strength. The casualties incurred during Hood's 7 month tenure as its commander destroyed it's combat effectiveness and it's self-confidence and hope.
Mr. Sword's book meticulously documents the events that led to the fateful battles that destroyed the Army of the Tennessee with both passion and attention to detail. The suffering and privation of the men; the strategic and tactical decisions; the events that affected the overall war effort are all faithfully portrayed.
Unlike many works of military history this one is hard to put down. It reads like a novel but is backed by extensive research and documentation. One is left with a profound feeling of sadness from the descriptions of the torn and wounded survivors of both the Blue and Grey and also a sense of deep pride at the accomplishments and gallantry of so many of our forefathers.
Civil War buffs will find few books of this caliber and will be moved by the pathos in it's presentation. As a tribute to heroism and endurance this book is withour peer. The Army of the Tennessee was often defeated but never conquered and Mr. Sword's account does them the honor their sacrifices deserved.

I bought this book because it sounded like the authors had a clear picture of the way ahead in mobile commerce. Unfortunately, it does not live up to this promise. Some of the case studies and analyses are thought-provoking. For example, the classification of a mobile application as a 'feature', 'convenience', or 'freedom' is a good way to evaluate its worth. However, the good parts are offset by convoluted writing, repetition, and errors in both facts and analysis. We learn that SMS is a 'Simple Messaging System' (it really stands for 'Short Message Service'). The authors also seem confused about WAP, a suite of standards designed to work with cellular networks and limited mobile devices. Equating WAP with early personal computers, the authors paint WAP as being slow and a 'convenience'. The real limitation here is current 2G networks and handsets, not WAP (which actually helps things run faster and more reliably).

I did manage to wade through the entire book, but the technical errors and stream-of-conciousness (unedited?) writing made this a chore. Sadly at the end of this, I do not feel that this book does much to clear the muddied waters of mobile commerce...

I found the style to be very clear and straightforward, and it easily held my attention. It has the right balance between enthusiasm and passion about the vision, and the rational criteria of the limitations of Mcommerce.

The authors provide an excellent framework for strategic planning for the Enterprise and their selection of Customer Relationships, Logistics and Intellectual Capital as focus areas is right on.

I think the application of the Braudel rule to be a stroke of genius, and offers a real breakthrough in strategic analysis.

While I agree broadly with the themes outlined in the book, both in terms of the analysis of current state and the future vision, I would take issue with the authors view of the evolution of Mcommerce in Europe vs. the U.S. I think the $100 B tax on consumers, which was paid by the operators to governments for 3G licenses is not a benign event, but will in retrospect will be viewed as a watershed event in wealth destruction.

The impact will be that the competitive positioning of the U.S. vs. Europe will not evolve as outlined of a reciprocal convergence towards parity between the U.S. and Europe. I believe Europe will advance to competitive levels in B2B integration, but the U.S. will exceed European levels in mobile.

I believe that because of this tax, Europe will stagnate in mobile, and the U.S. will now pull ahead of Europe, and that within 2-3 years the U.S. will have clear leadership.

Furthermore, because of the palaeolithic and fragmented condition of the U.S mobile infrastructure, the hurdle rate for next generation technology investment will be lower and the economic imperatives and opportunities for growth will be greater in the U.S.. This will enable the U.S operators to more easily justify the investments necessary to move to 3G.

Ironically, the idiocy of European politicians will allow the Americans to recover lost ground, and because of their current competitive disadvantage of antiquated and fragmented infrastructures, they will have an advantage in migrating to CDMA based architectures and 3G infrastructures.

I believe in Europe the more likely scenario is:

a. delays for next generation deployment in Europe by the operators. b. once it is deployed, mobile rates will be held higher longer, particularly in roaming, to recover the investment in the licenses

Because of this, while the U.S. now suffers technological fragmentation, Europe will suffer economic balkanisation, the impact of which will be lower levels of innovation and retarded adoption rates, opening the door to U.S. leadership.

This was assigned reading in my Kentucky History class. It covers the founding and settlement of Kentucky. What makes the book is the brief glimpses it gives of the Forgotten Kentuckies:

-- Free Kentucky. When the land was a giant game reserve for Native Americans, full of trees and animals, but devoid of people. Where the buffalo literally roamed until white hunters brought about their extinction in just a matter of a few years.
-- Pioneer Kentucky. When small families lived in the middle of nowhere, battling Mother Nature and Indians. A world where some Native American tribes tried to assimilate captured white settlers, and some missionaries tried to lead converted Indians.
-- Chaotic Kentucky. When the lawyers and land speculators showed up, driving free-thinking spirits such as Daniel Boone away.
-- the Bluegrass Era of Henry Clay. When wild Kentucky transformed into a mini version of the Old Dominion with its slavery and aristocratic living.
-- Outlaw Kentucky. When the Green River and other parts of the state tried and failed to rebel against the establishment.
-- The Great Revival. When evengelical religious fervor swept the state, bringing the Shakers among others.

All in all, there's a little something here for everybody. It can be read on many levels. As an account of early Kentucky, a look at the worlds of Daniel Boone and Henry Clay, a case study on frontier expansion, or for just pure enjoyment.

Stephen Aron's book depicts the two conflicting ideals of how Kentucky is to go down into history by pioneer Daniel Boone and then, the powerful Henry Clay. A very good book answering all the questions of historical Trans-Appalacha. I feel as if Aron could have shortened the book and still be able to get the point across of the two opposing sides.

This book was not worth the paper it was printed on. This bookwas a very difficult read because of the poor editing, and many factmistakes. Havn't they ever heard of a spell checker? I would not recommend this book for anyone interested in the mormon battalion. Rather, try to get your hands on a copy of Daniel Tyler's book. END

The Mormon Battalion is a result of apparently careful scholarship brought to print with an eye for anecdote straight from the original diaries of the participants. Characters come to life through their own words. Anyone interested in the early frontier period of western US history should own this book. Unfortunately, several "typos" throughout were distracting

Owen Lattimore's own testimony confirms that he used a Soviet Diplomatic pouch. A leading Soviet General who escaped to the
West confirmed also that Owen Lattimore was a Soviet Spy.

Only idiots and communists believe the lies.
Senator Joseph McCarthy was right about Owen Lattimore !

This is one of the most important books ever written about the horrible social and psychological consequences of being a slander victim. "Tail Gunner" Senator Joe McCarthy radicalized his Communist paranoia hysteria to such an extreme in the 1950's that he attempted to destroy the lives of some very innocent people.

When I point out that James K. Polk and Jerry Ford were the two Presidents who promised only what they could deliver and delivered all they promised, people generally reply "James K. Who?" The man who stretched the USA from sea to shining sea has got to be fascinating. All Kudos to the author for a much-needed book.

Particularly fascinating in it is the hilarious story of the negotiation of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave us California et al. It proves the Mark Twain saying that God protects fools, drunkards and the United States of America.

Polk is frequently ranked in the top third of US presidents. The years of his presidency fall between Jackson and Lincoln - a period where the presidents around him were generally considered among the worst in history. Polk clearly learned lessons about management and control from the failures of Tyler before him and these lessons led to a most effective presidency. While sectionalism begins to tear apart the preceding presidency and those that followed, the Polk presidency sees a chief executive who manages to be in charge of events during his 4 years. This book was a good read about an import man in a dangerous and exciting time and perhaps a lesson in not promising only to serve one term.

This is a well-written and intriguing book that ultimately fails to deliver on its promise to provide a way to renew the theological center. The book's proposals are based on well-worn phrases that caricature nineteenth- and twentieth-century evangelicalism. Grenz is still pushing the old fallacy we saw as far back as the 1970s in books like Theodore Dwight Bozeman's book on Scottish Common Sense and Baconianism. That fallacy is this: intellectual types like the Princetonians were the only ones who believed in the inerrancy of Scripture. Pietists in the Anabaptist and holiness and other anti-Calvinist movements did not buy this Enlightenment line until the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy, when they felt intimidated by the liberals and higher critics into casting their lot with the Fundamentalists, thereby taking shelter in that movement.

The implication of this is that tired old dichotomy that evangelicalism can be divided into doctrinaire and pietist wings. But things are not that uncomplicated and neat. There is an apparently neglected body of research that shows all manner of pietists, Anabaptists, holiness, Arminians, Restorationists, Mormons, etc., etc., who held strong notions of propositional revelation and the inerrancy of the autographs before the the Princetonians had time to have an impact on the intellectual landscape of American Christianity. Grenz's data is very obviously based on secondary sources, and then they are the best known historical works, rather than scholarly articles or monographs that provide counterevidence to the thesis on which his book is based (intellectualism vs. pietism).

I realize that the wisdom he appeals to is quite conventional (e.g., Calvinist Joel Carpenter's assertion that inerrancy is not the kind of category that Wesleyans related to, etc.), yet if he had probed beneath the surface, even reading sermons, periodical articles, and other "non-theological" sources from uneducated pietists in early nineteenth-century American Christianity, he would have found that the dichotomy on which his book is based is a caricature, and he would have had to retool the way he explains the "Princetonian" and "Fundamentalist" reliance on "Enlightenment categories."

One more thing that I found disappointing from a scholar of Grenz's magnitude. In discussing the "Neo-Evangelical movement," he said that "some in the movement" held to the dictation theory of biblical inspiration, yet he didn't go on to cite any sources. This is just irresponsible.

I am sympathetic to some of the proposals Grenz made in the final chapter of his book, particularly about ecclesiology, and I do think we must reckon with postmodernism. Yet, I think we must get our account of just how modernism impacted evangelicalism beyond caricatures and easy dichotomies if we are to understand how to forge a viable evangelical theological witness in a postmodern context.

I write this to encourage you to look beyond the only customer review this far. For example, start by simply clicking above to view all of the editorial reviews of this book. Many good minds have commended it to you.

I'd hate to see you decide not to read this book based on one other person's conclusions. I happen to disagree with him about the 'faulty historical premises', 'fallacies', 'tired old dichotomy' and 'caricatures'. But this is not the place to argue that. If you don't have your mind made up in agreement with that critic about this one, basic premise, then I encourage you to read the book and then decide what you think.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book in order to learn more about the Mexican War. The chapters are short so it was easy to read a chapter each night before going to sleep. It's very well documented with endnotes to the sources he used. I had two problems with this book. First, it needs more maps. There are a few maps spread throughout the book, but there are long stretches where he tries to describe in words the geography and the troop locations without the assistance of a simple map. I bookmarked one map in the middle of the book which was a pretty good overview of Mexico, and I kept flipping back to that map to get a sense for where things were. His explanations of the tactical and operational level of the war would have been much better with more maps. (Have an atlas handy when you read it). Second, his writing style in this book is choppy. While it IS interesting to read about where the lieutenants of the Mexican War went on to command and / or death in the Civil War, Henry makes it difficult to follow because he takes mid-sentence tangents to tell what would happen twenty years later in Virginia. After you read the tangent, you need to go back and reread the beginning of the sentence to figure out what he was talking about in the Mexican War context. These were minor frustrations though. Like I said, overall I enjoyed reading the book and learned a lot about the Mexican War from it.

Unlike "The U.S. Mexican War" by the Christensens, this book has a clear ideological bias, trying hard to find pride and justification where historians and politicians have been unable to find them. This one-sided approach to the war perhaps makes it an interesting reading for the intellectually curious, but a waste of time for the reader seeking neutrality. The reader of other books about the Mexican War will find that the author strategically occults historic data basic to make a complete the picture of the times and the events that led to this war.

As someone who has been in the education field for years, I feel compelled to point out that this book does not adequately address the legal loopholes involved in "compiling" versus "plagiarizing." While plagiarizing, as all who have tangled with it know, is something engaged in by those lacking in imagination and is relatively easy to accomplish on the internet, compiling is a much more subtle, sophisticated way of stealing and utilizing the ideas of others and honing them in such a way as to make it very difficult to determine from whence they have come. Indeed, while plagiarism will undoubtedly earn you an F in most courses, compiling can often earn you up to a B with no one the wiser.

I never realized there were so many different ways to cheat on tests in school or to use the Internet to steal somebody else's paper to hand in instead of writing your own. And I had no idea that such a high percentage of students cheat and plagiarize. Now I know what clues to watch for to be sure my son is doing his own work in middle school. I also like the guidelines that tell me how to help my son do his homework and school projects without our being dishonest about it. There are good suggestions for working effectively with school administrators and teachers. Many of the chapters list web sites that have additional information on the chapter's topic. Any parent of a middle school or high school student will learn a lot from this book.