Triumph Reviews

Having read the first five volumes of Churchill's magnificent history of the war that he was so instrumental in winning, I looked forward somberly to the last volume, fully expecting the "tragedy" in the title to refer to the fate of the Jews in Germany and throughout Europe. But as I worked my way through that volume, I found almost no references to this true tragedy of humanity. The tragedy in question was Churchill's ouster at the end of the war. I finished the volume in disbelief. Checking the index to see if somehow I'd slept through this portion of his tome, I found no reference to holocaust, none to concentration camps, none to the Final Solution, and the only references to Jews are their organizing of a fighting force, their mistreatment in Hungary and an escape in Greece. I have long wondered at this terrible omission, and long to read what the New York Times had to say about this book when it was first published.

Winston Churchill found himself with a lot of time on his hands at the end of the war. Part of his personal tragedy was to suddenly discover, not long after the fall of Berlin but before the bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that he was no longer wanted by the British electorate. That is how "Triumph and Tragedy" ends, with a personal note of sourness, although with little explanation as to the why and wherefore of his own political demise. The truth lay perhaps in the real nature of the man. Recognised as the bulldog who could do a lot more than bark in a War Cabinet, he was called for at once when it was clear that Britain was in danger. Yet so well-known were his qualities as a fighter of men that, once peace was about to return, he was despatched back to political oblivion as being obviously the wrong man to continue. Such is democracy. I've no doubt he felt a little twinge, as many a soldier at the front also paradoxically felt, that his war was over.

Churchill was probably without equal during his own lifetime and, by the curious twists of fate which manage men, was one of the most extraordinary players on the world stage, throughout recorded history. The last sentence in the book nevertheless shows the true heart of a man who, whatever else may be said about him, gave so much:

"It only remains for me to express to the British people, for whom I have acted in these perilous years, my profound gratitude for the unflinching, unswerving support which they have given me during my task, and for the many expressions of kindness which they have shown towards their servant."

My comments refer not only to this penultimate volume but the entire series, and not to the currently advertised edition, but the first edition. Churchill remains one of my favourite authors, and this historic work is arguably his literary masterpiece. Speaking only for myself, I found the weight and style of English to be ideal, not too light or scholarly. His point of view of course is from the winning side, which is his right and privilege. For those willing to put in the time, without tiring of the war, it is well worth the effort. Somehow the narrative never seems to drag, in spite of the considerable length. Enthusiastically recommended.

Helen Keller had a bad illness when she was only nineteen mouths old. She lived,but the illness left her blind, deaf, and mute. At the age of five her mom and dad wrote a school that has blind and deak kids there. A teacher came and didn't get along with Helen at first, but later thay become the best of friends. This is a good book for anyone who would like to know what it is like to be blind, or deaf or even both at the same time. This is a relly good book and I think that anyone who will read it will like it.

I read one of the books about Helen Keller when I was nine years old, and I was hooked, at that age I could not put the book down, I actually memorized, taught myself the hand sign chart in the back of the book. I highly recommend this book. I am purchasing this book for my niece for Christmas, she loves to read. When you think you been short-cutted in life, read this. Then ask your self do you have it that bad?

...It's about a girl that is blind, deaf, and dumb. (As in can't talk) But later when she got a teacher named Anne Sullivan, she learned to do lots of things. When Helen was ten years old, she learned to talk. But still could not hear. I learned that if you are blind, deaf, or dumb, you could still do lots of things. I think you would like this book too.

I think all different kinds of people would like this book because people whoever likes biographies would like this book too.

The rule book is pretty straight foward and easy to use but useless because of its self destructing binding. Open the book fully to a page and you're likely to lose that page as it separates from the "stick-um" type binding. This is not the handy reference guide you'd like to pack in your team bag for frequent inquiries. [....]Better still, buy a rule book in a book store where you can hold it, flip through the pages and imagine it holding up through many challenging game situations.

This little book tells you so much about the game rules. You have to read each chapter and then go to the TV and watch the game... you'll see that you learn a lot !

I am an avid baseball fan and player. I think owning this book is crucial to every baseball fan young and old. This book helped me better understand the game and become a better smarter fan. I owe a lot to this book and i think everyone should have a copy of the rules of ouw great pastime.

Although lacking in adequate color plates as expressed by a previous reviewer, this text is wonderful in its description of the history of the mural which took Sargent 30 years and was never completed probably because of the controversy arising out of how religion was viewed in public in 1919, a change from when Sargent started it in 1890. The book describes the history of the mural in the context of its time of diverse social, cultural and religious matters. After viewing the actual mural at the Boston Public Library, where it is, unfortunately, covered with dirt but is being restored and cleaned, one will be overwhelmed with this painting and find the book extremely interesting and full of important historical information, as well as understand why this mural is considered one of the most important pieces of public art.

Promey leads the reader on an insightful exploration of Sargent's artistic and spiritual investment in _Triumph of Religion_. This book has changed the way I look at religious art in public places.

A fascinating book -- a major contribution to the history of American visual culture! This is a Sargent I hadn't seen before! The wealth of visual material in Promey's book (works of art, preparatory sketches and studies, photographs, prints, cartoons) provides testimony that Sargent's art was deeply informed by the culture of its time. It was also, as Promey shows, responsive to the artist's own intellectual and personal commitments. Highly recommended!

This book is more about one man's obsession with getting in girls pants. Nothing insightful, funny or enlightening. Just a bunch of garbage about girls he slept with and where he was at the time. Disappointed to say the least!

I looked forward to an at best rollicking depiction of road-comic (as opposed to TV comic/famous comic) life. The book is a fresh, unaffected amusing and often heartbreaking meditation on love, on desire, on loss, on choices we make and on the choices made for us. As my mother used to say. "Who knew?" The book is full of wonderfully written moments and very alive characters. Of course there are many comic moments but it is Friedman's gentleness and intimacy one remembers - in his obvious need to write truthfully and well he misses almost every opportunity to 'sell himself' as a comic! That in itself is miraculous! I enjoyed this far more than many of the 'important' autobiographies I have read about supposedly more 'important' lives.

We watch them on TV and at clubs but who are these men and women who make us laugh? Barry tells us all, and then some. The good and the awful, the funny and the sad. In the most honest and bittersweet words Barry lets us live his life on the road and we meet all the strange, wonderful, and not so wonderful people he worked with,loved and lost. Know the person behind the jokes, the puns and the punch lines. It's not all laughs, you know.

Fair, balanced and meticulously researched, Paterson's "Contesting Castro" nonetheless misses the author's stated goals, and while a recommended read, is ultimately unsatisfying. A comprehensive beginning, which outlines the thesis that an understanding of the US/Cuban relationship following Castro's revolution must be predicated on an understanding of the incidents and dynamic of the revolution itself, and offers a concise explanation of the multitude of factors which fuelled the insurrection, eventually becomes mired in an almost day-by-day description of the revolution which, while interesting in its own right, fails to offer much insight into the US/Cuba dynamic. The narrative, at times, also becomes muddled, with the chronology occasionally jumping around confusingly. Paterson's final summation occupies less than a couple of pages, and in this case, brevity does not offer clarity, but only a complete lack of explanation. There is no analysis of why Castro eventually became an ardent communist (even though a major portion of the book is devoted, to the point of distraction, to showing that the stance of Castro and the Movement of July 26th was not primarily communist (a contention which increasingly absurd as the book continues)); this glaring oversight leads only to frustration at the entire project. If seeking a diary of the Cuban revolution, albeit through the lens of US/Cuba relations (to the exclusion of other multilateral relationships), this serves the purpose; if seeking an overarching explanation of the modern US/Cuba détente, this book provides no more than a starting point from which further research can be undertaken.

This is a thorough, well-researched, ubiased work, yet it is terribly one-sided. Paterson describes the events of the Cuban Revolution only within the context of United States involvement. He fails to acknowledge or highlight important social movements occurring within Cuba during the revolutionary period. "Contesting Castro" offers particularly insightful analysis into the American role during events of the Sierra Maestra campaign (1956-59), but lacks an in depth discussion of the periods preceeding or following the triumph the July 26 Movement. Nevertheless, Patterson's work is a fine account of American-Cuban relations during the Cuban Revolution.

Contesting Castro is a book crucial to the understanding of the political history of Cuba. The author takes a stance not typical to most written on the subject,one of independence,free of the left-bashing not uncommon when reading of Cuba. Unbaised, well documented, and factually correct, this text offers a view of the events leading to, and during the revloution of 1959, free of any political bias by the author. This book is essential to the reader who wants a complete picture of the actions taken to stop the spread of communism and protect US business intrests. The events described help the reader understand US forigen policy action in recent years as well.

I do enjoy all of Lansdowne's books, she always brings such wonderful characters to life. It is the animals in this series that are my favorite, from Lord Nightingale to Stanley Blithe. They think like people and are just as interesting. However, this book was not as enthralling as the first two. It was just a little too light-I didn't think I'd ever say that! Problems were just too easily solved and things too easily dismissed. I'm looking for the next installment!

If ever you meet a too-top-lofty Duke, you'll be absolutely delighted at having first read this book. (Pun intended. You'll have to read the book to figure it out.) This is the third in the four-book series about Lord Nightingale's escapades, and is just pure and simple fun!

The Duke of Sotherland had twin sons; Edward and Peter. However, the Duchess was incapable of living with the duke in happy matrimony or any other kind, for that matter, and so, unhappily, when the boys were seven years old, he allowed her to live elsewhere with Peter, the younger son. The boys never forgot each other, but had no way of knowing where the other was.

When Edward met Eugenia (in Lord Nightingale's Love Song) it was at a country home he had leased for a short stay out of the city. To his surprise, his face was familiar to several of the local folks, among them the rector and his family of five daughters. The oldest of these, Mary, considered herself secretly engaged to Peter, who had been in the area for some time, hiring himself out to do occasional labor, before being accused of theft, and as suddenly leaving the area for parts unknown.

It helps immensely for you to have already read books one and two in this four-book series that culminates in next month's Lord Nightingale's Christmas. It's virtually impossible to adequately summarize the plot of this perfectly delightful and charming book without exceeding the word count, so let me just advise you to get all four books, and settle in for a wonderful long weekend's worth of reading about love and happiness and joy. What more could one want?

I really enjoyed this,the third book in Judith's wonder- ful series.I loved Lord Peter's and Miss Mary Butterberry's sto- ry.I also loved the scenes between Delight and the Duke of So- therland.He made a wonderful dragon for her to tame.The scenes reminded me of the scenes between Shirley Temple and Lionel Bar- rymore in "The Little Colonel",and as always Lord Nightingale is at his most irascible,matchmaking best.

On the positive side, the Carrigan translation is based on the E. Allison Peer's which is currently out of print. The negative is that some of the chapters are omitted by the translator (he says since they are repetative or about John's religious community, that are insignificant). I would have to discagree. Without the full transalation, some pertanent insights can be lost.

I have the downloaded the Peer's translation in both PDF and RTF format and am still looking (or hoping for a reprint) of a hardcopy from Ligouri

I'd give it 5 stars except that it's a hard read in spots. Otherwise a brilliant mystical text on spiritual union with God. Whatever your spiritual beliefs this book will give you insights into improving your spiritual being.

I read The Ascent of Mount Carmel over a decade after my own conversion to Christianity. What astonished me the most was that St. John of the Cross described with absolute precision exactly how God had intereacted with me. He describes many ways in which God chooses to reveal himself to man, most of which I did not understand. But it would be my guess that if anyone has encountered God, that encounter is described somewhere in this book.

A must buy if you are looking to purchase a post-war Triumph. The book really cuts to the chase and tells it up front. It is a good resource for distinguishing the differences in model years and what things to look for in each.

The book is a little hard to take as a Triumph enthusiast when he cuts up certain models. "The TR6... was old when it was new... the design was ancient, the car got lousy gas mileage... it was never bolted together properly" Hey!!! That's my baby.

Just don't let this book scare you away from owning a Triumph altogether. As the author states "All Triumphs are a good value". I personally would just say it with more enthusiasm

Great information for the enthusiast or shopper. The rating system for ability to match or beat the market trends is a good indicator of how much flexibility there may be in the price if you're shopping.

Overall, a decent book, but the author seems to go out of his way to emphasize the TR7's troubles. Although it's true that the 7 will not likely be an collector, it is a great value in an open top car, and has always been underrated. That he derides the model is probably not such a bad thing, as this will help keep prices down for those of us "in the know". One aspect he neglects is the ease of converting the TR7 to a TR8 via an engine swap, making the car a poor man's cobra (ok, almost) for the masses. Forget matching-numbers purism in this car, it's for driving. Other than that, his advice on selecting a TR7 is fairly well founded.

I found this book entertaining and informative. Contrary to the biased rantings of revisionist idealogues, I believe that Schuparra is more than fair to the father of the modern conservative movement.

Schuparra pinpoints a critical point in US political history and tracks the development of the nascent political ideology that one day will take over national government.

I enjoy good, well written history and I certainly enjoyed this book. It is extremely well written and highly entertaining.

Unless you refuse to use your left hand for fear of its revolutionary tendencies, as some of the other reviewers seem to, you will absolutely enjoy this book.

Leave it to 'lsifer@yahoo.com' to do his own conservative-bashing - urging the assassination of its political opponents is just the kind of thing the right deserves to get bashed for.

Kurt Schuparra has given many hot-button political figures a detached, centrist evaluation that will be helpful to anyone interested in the impact that the organized right wing has had on national politics. He touches on all of the important issues in less than 160 pages, and provides reasonable judgements on numerous scholarly questions without engaging in extended obtuse debate. Liberals and conservatives both will find a few arguments with Schuparra-- a sign of his independent relevance-- but each should find his consideration of an overdue topic helpful.