Vincent Reviews

I recommend this book to anyone who believes in clear, rational thought. If you are good at thinking, it will help you get better. And if you aren't very good at argumentation, then definately buy it!

I used this text in a philosophy class on logic and found it a refreshingly GOOD text. Too often professors assign texts that are either irrelevant to what we are studying or texts that are so poorly written as to be rendered useless.

I always thought I was good at logic, but this text (and the class to be honest) gave me some tools to hone that skill.

This text does a wonderful job of explaining the rules and terminology behind logical argumentation, giving examples to back those explanations up, and then giving you exercises to practice your fledgling argumentation skills.

Do you know what it means to beg the question? Are you guilty of amphiboly? Do you realize it when politicians try to pull a fast one on you with semantic ambiguity?

Don't know what I'm talking about? Well, pick up this book and you will!

Stafford was a great poet; he also writes about writing like a great teacher. I heartily endorse this book to anyone who has read "Writing the Austrialian Crawl." If you haven't read that book, read it first, and then read this one. This book is a posthumous collection of magazine articles, interviews, and other scattered writings. While it is delight to me, and anyone else who loved Stafford, it is not as effective at demonstrating Stafford's approach to writing. That said, Stafford's generosity and humanity shine in this collection. It is worth reading, even if you are not a writer.

Ever since the British government proposed radically changing British law towards secrecy, many unscrupulous people have tried to cash in on it. Journalists either slagged off or praised the government in an attempt to increase their own prestege and their newspaper's circulation. For a time it was the talked about issue in the media and around the office water cooler. It was, however, short lived and other items came into prominance within a couple of weeks. In the end, practically no-one had made any significant money or fame with the story. David Vincent, however, had written his book long before the story ever came about and has written one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. It details, in addictively well written English, the course of secrecy from Victorian times to the present day. It gives an amazing insight into the workings of the British government and the extraordinary methods, devices and motives that were employed to keep 'the stiff upper lip' towards a variety of foes (and friends) throughout the modern era. I admit that I had never before picked up a history book (and can't honestly say why I started reading this) but it is more than a history or political book. It makes you wonder about the world we live in and why so many things are kept from our knowledge. If you never read another popular history book in your life, read this as history has never been so fascinating.

Vincent Malmstrom has written a wonderfully entertaining book stuffed full of facts on the Mesoamerican systems of calendrical accounting. I had no idea the history of their calendars went so far back, nor that they were so widely used by such a great number of civilizations. His theories fill in where the facts leave off, as most studies on ancient cultures must, and the facts support his hypotheses. Malmstrom's theories on the origin of the calendar are quite different in some aspects than those of scholars before him -- one major difference is that he does not believe the Olmec developed the calendar. I don't want to ruin any surprises for a reader -- and there are some for those who accept the commonly supported theories of the Olmec as the "father" of all subsequent Mesoamerican civilizations -- so I will stop with just one more comment: If you have any interest in Mesoamerica or the cultures of the Zoque, Olmec, Zapotec, Maya, Mixtec, Toltec or Aztec, GET THIS BOOK!

This is a wonderful book for younger children, and their older siblings, too. It portrays the values and attitudes of days gone by when boys were masculine and girls were feminine and everyone was happy that it was so. The story is interesting, the action is well-paced and fun; you feel as if you have been on the picnic with the children! One of our favorite books!

I thought this was a very original book. I'm a very jaded person, and when I read about a guy who went from being a pimp to a writer, to a husband of a 14 year old girl... It was definitely original. The characters are hollow... but described to be hollow. The reader decides what to think of them. The main character, the man, meets several interesting people. This is set in the future, when the world is dying, and there is a race to discover a way to other planets before it disolves in a ball of fire. In the world that is dying, the characters struggle not to give up themselves, like the planet. Very good for originality... I didn't even get it until the second time i read it.

the book shows the political and economical situation after the second world war in europe. the foundation of "gesellschaften" and treatys like the ( German - French ) I needed it for a social studies report and it helped me a lot

This book is fascinating to anyone interested in the pre-Buddhist history of Tibet! But, for me, it was much more than that. It was a story of the land, the mountains and lakes and their personalities as perceived by the indiginous people. It was romantic and otherworldly as well, perhaps surreal. The book transported me to a far off magical world!

Readable, informative, and even funny at times. A really concise treatment of a most important topic. Great integration of contemporary examples and classical references. A must for parents and their children.