History Books

I had to read this class for a WWII 300 level History class. I'm not a History major, but decided to take my elective in this. From that perspective, I found the book to be interesting, but dull. Very dull. Getting through the pages was a struggle for me. Concepts were valuable as well as Dower's analysis of propaganda on both Japanese and American sides. The included comics and cartoons was great--it really gave an idea of feelings at the time and what people were seeing. Book is very long winded, but does provoke deep thought.

There are many other excellent reviews, so I'll keep this brief. I'm a grad student in Japanese Lit, and I focus heavily on history and historical works - Kobayashi Takiji, for instance, or Kurihara Sadako. I've been blessed with a great history professor and the opportunity to read a number of books and articles, particularly on this period in time. Dower's War Without Mercy is one of the best I've ever read, in any time period for any country. It is amazing. I also recommend that readers buy Embracing Defeat, which is Dower's post-war book. Both are fantastic.

Among the many flaws which significantly discredit his thesis, Dower fails to provide a serious look at how the war in the Pacific was fought as compared to the war in Europe, or really any other wars for that matter. Worth the read if only to discover errors in his analysis, and should not be taken as a definitive account of how the US fought the Japanese in WWII.

This is a thought-provoking treatise about the hate and racism found in all peoples of the world. It causes one to take stock of what is, and what was in a very violent and trying time. Both the Japanese and the Americans, among others, propagandized their populations to get them to hate "the enemy." This book looks at the techniques and substance used by both sides in the Pacific War of 1931 to 1945 and how it affected the attitudes of each toward the other.

I recommend this as a good read for anyone who is interested in the Pacific conflict and what was used to fan the antagonists into the fury that brough about, fought, and ended the bloody Pacific War.

War Without Mercy is not a comprehensive history of the Pacific War; if that's what you want, look elsewhere. Neither is it an "apologist's" account of the American conduct of the war, as some reviewers have suggested. If your mindset is "the Japanese deserved to suffer," don't read this book. If, however, you are interested in how racial stereotypes--views of the enemy as subhuman, primitive, childlike, animalistic, and so on--play a role in wartime, then read Dower's scholarly, engaging account of how the Americans thought about the Japanese and how the Japanese thought about the Americans. Dower never minimizes the atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese as they set about conquering other Asian countries and building their Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, but he provides a brand new perspective on why the Allies despised the Japanese as a people far more than they did the Germans. Not only will this book help you to understand how the dehumanization of the enemy makes possible the devastation of civilian populations, it will also make you think about the stereotypes of the enemy we encounter every day as the U.S. continues to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I've long nutured a private grievance against FM 3-24, which suddenly broke surface when I read this delicious comment by Steve Cole in The New Yorker this week: "Its reception reflected ... the appeal of counter-insurgency among sections of the country's liberal-minded intelligentsia. This was warfare for northeastern graduate students--complex, blended with politics, designed to build countries rather than destroy them, and fashioned to minimize violence. It was a doctrine with particular appeal to people who would never own a gun."

A more scholarly analysis of FM 3-24's failings, by Andrew Salamone, appears in the August edition of the online Small Wars Journal. He thinks that the historical examples in the manual are too selective, and warns: "While the current application of the new doctrine appears to be showing signs of success in Iraq, at least in terms of metrics measuring levels of violence and U.S. casualties, our enemy's well documented strategic, operational, and tactical adaptability all but guarantees that current doctrine will be out of date for the next conflict and result in the well known axiom of trying to 'fight the last war again'."

The Counterinsurgency Field Manual is a surprisingly well considered text on the nature of insurgency and the points where the course of an insurgency can be influenced.

Something is (or should be) rather confusing about the U.S. military. Since the inception of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, the U.S. military has been involved with counterinsurgency operations almost constantly, at home and abroad. (Put this way, Americans were waging counterinsurgency since before there was a United States; the French and Indian War...) What is confusing is 'why isn't the U.S. better at it?'

Setting this underlying question to one side, this text sets forth a framework for understanding the causes of insurgencies, and for dealing with them. The full scope of cultural, economic, social, political, and other factors are addressed in considerable detail, along with approaches to influencing these factors to address the root causes of insurgency. It is a robust, comprehensive work that can provide an adaptable conceptual structure for anyone involved in counterinsurgency or issues relating to counterinsurgency.

The big question in my mind; Why did the Army have to manage developing this process, when more than half the work required to respond to an insurgency should be done or overseen by the State Department? Why do soldiers have to arrange economic reconstruction and infrastructure development? Aren't those folks at the State Department competent to do all this stuff?

E.M. Van Court

This manual should be required reading for any candidate for public office at a national level, as well as all foreign staff personnel. After reading the manual I was better able to understand the motivations and actions of the various factions within Iran today. It also re-enforces the idea that terrorism / insurgency is not just an issue for a single nation, but anymore is a global issue.

This is the best manual that the military has ever published. While it is very thorough and covers every aspect of how to run a successful counterinsurgency, it is broken down into easy to understand concepts. Designed for commanders at all levels, it easily applies to every military member involved in the campaigns of Iraq and Afghanistan. This should be a must read for anyone deploying to the AOR, military or civilian as it will shape the way you think, speak, and act while trying to successfully end the insurgency that grips these countries.

I believe this manual is an excellent overview of counterinsurgency strategy and some tactics. This includes the broad strategy as well as to the drill down for the units/teams/boots on the ground. Its stated audience is for battalion commanders and their staff and higher. I would recommend it to any soldier, sailor or marine regardless of rank and for U.S. citizens generally who have an interest in the topic.

According to the manual, the host nation (HN) and the counterinsurgency force (COIN) will win if they can provide security first, and then other functions of a responsive - responsive to the HN populace - HN government. Otherwise, the populace will seek security and services elsewhere (i.e., in insurgent organizations/militias). This is not necessarily a sequential ordering. While basic security is fundamental - once a baseline is reached - other governmental functions responsive to HN's populace's concerns should also be instituted, supported, and reinforced, while still improving and accelerating the improvement of the security environment for the populace. One example used is how insurgency organizations/militias can destabilize the security environment and create insecurity through terrorist strikes, in order to then be viewed by the populace as the cure to the insecurity by operating militias to defend against such insecurity, and thus try to gain popular support.

Bottom line: creation, maintenance and sustainment (or assisting/building up) of legitimacy in the host nation vs. the insurgent organizations is the contest and crux of the matter. Insurgency and counterinsurgency is a fight for the support of the populace (i.e., the big middle). This conclusion should have been clear by now - insurgency has been with us for a very long time. For some examples, in the West, you can go back to at least to Julius Caesar for lessons; see also Napoleon; in the East, you can go back to at least to Sun-Tzu's The Art of War.

According to the manual, to win an insurgency/counterinsurgency type conflict, requires staying power without intentional or unintentional signaling of wavering support for staying the distance, at least until the HN has achieved the "tipping point" in terms of legitimacy and popular support.

As an aside, there is a good appendix on Social Network Analysis (SNA), which provides a cogent overview of some of the key concepts for those not familiar with SNA or its use in war, conflict, or intelligence.

A research product that is fascinating and memorable. The author does a sardonic job on the Old and New Testaments in examining the routes of males on top as a biblical command! Especially interesting is her cross-examination of the Genesis story with Adam, Eve, the Serpent and Him as
putative witnesses on the "stand". Her chapter on the virgin birth is uniquely well-documented. The story flows to Martin Luther and the religious re-acceptance of marriage without female authority. Looking forward to the sequel from Luther to modern times when relationships change dramatically at least in the Western world.

A fantastic, original, and entertaining read. Considering all the horrifying events Squire covers, from plagues to witch burnings, it's amazing how many times she made me laugh. A fresh and provocative look at how western civilization and religion have shaped contemporary mating. I can't believe I got married without knowing all this.

We all know marriage is hilarious. This book gives us even more to laugh about. It's a fantastic gift for all your single friends, or an anniversary gift for those who've already taken the plunge.

Susan Squire's I Don't, A Contrarian History of Marriage is an intelligent and playful history of an institution we're all captivated by in one way or another but know little about. Her writing is funny and outrageous because it's true. Squire imparts the horrendous ways every western society--Greeks, Romans, Christians--treated women. But I Don't is hardly a diatribe against marriage or men. Squire is not out for vengeance. Instead, she tells the story of why and how society became organized into couples and families. And this honest investigation thereby helps to ease the pain of the impossible conundrum of marriage by putting the personal into a political and historical context. We're not alone, we don't live in a vacuum. I Don't is a powerful book.

When read aloud, this book really breathes life into an otherwise boring class. My teacher assigned passages to read for homework, and I actually enjoyed reading them.

Its modern and not written in bland textbook language. You can look forward to the class that requires this book.

I was very impressed with the speediness if my purchase. It arrived exactly as they promised. Even though the book was indicated as "Used", it appeared as "Brand New". I will definitely use Amazon again for future textbook purchases. I saved a lot more money going this route than buying the books through my college bookstore.

A thorough history of the notable and extended art forgery career of Han van Meegeren. While it seems the basic facts surrounding Mr. Van Meegeren's blatant and many frauds are now known, I did not find the prose style of Jonathan Lopez in the retelling of this particular tale in any way exceptional.

I also think the author shows a rather unsympathetic (and, to my mind, unwarranted) attitude towards The Netherlands in terms of the immediate post-war period and that small country's uneven treatment of its German collaborators.

If you have a lively interest in the criminal forgery of European artworks or, more specifically, fake Vermeers --this book would be a reasonable purchase.

Not only is "The Man Who Made Vermeers" a great introduction to Han Van Meegeren and his notorious Vermeer forgeries, it serves as an excellent window into Nazi-controlled Holland during the war. It is Lopez's examination of Van Meegeren's Nazi sympathies--and his deft analysis of how Van Meegeren's faux Vermeers sprang from the same 20th-century Nazi iconography as contemporary propaganda paintings--that really sets the book apart. A devasting reappraisal of the man who "fooled" Hermann Goering and a good read for anyone interested in art, World War II, or how the two intersected.

What's really terrific about this book is the way that it sets the story of Van Meegeren's forgeries within the personal biography of the forger and the history of the period. In fact, I'm starting to think that this is the way that art should always be looked at, because I suddenly saw these fake Vermeers in a completely new light. I've heard people ask how anyone could have been fooled by these pictures, but through really simple side-by-side comparisons, the author makes it totally clear that the paintings really looked like the pictures that people of the time saw around them. So Van Meegeren's early forgeries (which look a LOT like real Vermeers) also resemble movie posters from the 1930s, and his late forgeries (like the famous one he sold to Hermann Goering) resemble Nazi propaganda pictures.

As a side note, I also just want to say how impressed I was with the way that the author clearly did a huge amount of research, but made the book a really engrossing one to read. None of that academic stuff that you find in a lot of books about art. But at the same time, treating the subject in a very serious way. And it's a very serious topic. Van Meegeren held truly despicable fascist beliefs, and his forgeries expressed them.

I found the book totally eye-opening. I definitely recommend it!

I like mysteries, intrigue, politics, and history. I picked up The Man Who Made Vermeers because it was one of the best sellers in my local bookstore. One of the salespeople told me that customers who read crime fiction had been buying it, and I can really see why. The book presents an excellent understanding of Han van Meegeren, the Dutch artist who sold a fake Vermeer to Hermann Goering during World War II.

It turns out that Van Meegeren was a fascinating figure--much more interesting than I would have thought. Because Van Meegeren had fooled Hermann Goering, he became a hero in the Netherlands after the war and he presented himself as kind of a patriot. But it appears that swindling Goering was more or less an accident. Van Meegeren didn't have an axe to grind with Goering. In fact, he had been an admirer of Hitler and fascism since the movement began, and had even painted work on commission for the German occupying forces.

What you really get to see here is the criminal mind at work. While other books about Van Meegeren have taken his story at face value and presented him as a hero, Lopez convinced me that this man was no hero at all. The book offers real insight into the psychology of a fundamentally duplicitous individual who capitalized on one of the darkest moments in world history...

There are a lot of fun books out there that use artworks as a sort of McGuffin for an elaborate or at least distracting plot. Books like The DaVinci Code or The Girl with the Pearl Earring, for instance, give the impression of being based on art historical research, but they take gross liberties with the historical record (or lack thereof). In a way, this ultimately devalues the artworks such books use as plot devices because readers come to see the art as mere accessories to a fantastical tale.

In The Man Who Made Vermeers, the artworks (or, rather, "artworks") remain at the center of a fascinating history. As objects of aesthetic pleasure, economic gain, or social status, the paintings at the heart of Lopez's story exert exactly the sort of power we have come to expect from art. Their status as fakes only complicates our understanding of the real value of art in society.

The Man Who Made Vermeers proves that it is possible to combine lively prose, an intriguing plot AND original research to create a wonderfully engaging yet scholarly narrative. Because the book's prose is so effortless, the painstaking archival research that the author must have undertaken is not as evident as it might be if the book were written in a more conventionally academic style.

Highly recommended!

Great descriptions of techniques and some pathology. However, for a physical diagnosis book I would have expected more pictures of pathology. Many are included, I just would have liked more.

The CD that comes with this book is very handy while learning exams. I have not really used the book however because Bates seems to be the standard that most schools are using.

Im disappointed that I did not have this book sooner in my student career. For the last 2 years we have been using Bates and quite frankly Bates is okay for the most part but it leaves out details as to why the test is done.

The pictures are better in Swartz. There are sections on differential diags and pathophysiology with each test. This is an amazing textbook.

I found out about this text from a visiting professor from the UK. For some reason all the visiting profs we have had from the UK have a certain skill which seems to be a lot better than what we are taught here in the US. They have an EXCELLENT grip on their H&P and treat medicine like an art. I asked which book they were using over there and they said Swartz and the other one by Epstein (also gold).

If you feel the Bates is insufficient check this book out.

The authors do not hesitate to tell the reader that two of the four women that were photographed for the section on breast cancer (half) were in complete denial of their condition. They remark that both women presented to the clinic with horrific and obvious cancers that they supposedly only noticed the "day before." While denial is an important aspect of breast cancer (and many other conditions), the authors limit the discussion of denial to women only. When I read the male genatalia chapter and saw the horrific lessions pictured, there was no mention that any of the men had "just noticed" that angry chancre or those boiling warts. I would think there must be some psychological issue such as denial at work in the fellows that were photographed as well since thier conditions were also so advanced. However, the authors do not mention it. Funny, huh? It's a good book anyway, but the authors need to check themselves. (...)

Best book I've read about physical diagnosis. Even though the book is long, it is actually a quick read, including numerous useful tables and graphes. What sets this book apart from the rest lies in the explanation of underlying pathophysiology of various signs and findings thus making them easy to remember. The CD ROM is also useful and quick if one simply want to learn the basics of physical diagnosis. This book is a good reference because it's so comprehensive compared to others.

Cod is an engaging history of the fish that changed the world. As an eye opening adventure, cod takes the reader from low impact commercial fishing of ancient Europe to the destructive power of modern fisheries. Mark Kurlansky shows his creativity and skill as he brings to focus the plight of cod. The author further illustrates the ability of super consumers to deplete a previously perceived inexhaustible cod population. In this biography is shown the effect cod fishing has had on individual lives, nations and the world. The book keeps the reader thirsting for more. The main weakness of this book would be the abrupt ending to the enchanting tale. Cod is for historians and scientists alike. Fishermen and those that enjoy sea food will appreciate this book. Cod is a book that should be read and reread by everyone as a reminder of mankind's dependence upon and responsibility to conserve earth's diminishing supply of natural resources.

Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World is a fascinating picture of the influence that cod have had on civilization and that civilization has had on cod. From the beginnings with Basque fishermen producing salt cod, through the Cod Wars between England and Iceland, and including the moratorium on cod fishing off of Canada this excellent novel gives a historically accurate look at the world market, politics, and conservation efforts. The fact that overfishing has destroyed what once seemed a limitless resource is an abrupt awakening to irresponsible human behaviors and their true effects on nature and on the future. Kurlansky expertly gives a historically, environmentally, biologically, economically, and politically correct, yet easy to read, account of the history of cod fishing. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in any of the aforementioned fields, particularly those with an interest in conservation. I highly recommend this book for the enjoyable and educational experience it provides.

Mark Kurlansky has created a truly enjoyable, historical narrative of a fish that has influenced many aspects of world history. Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, is a book that any food connoisseur, history buff, fisherman, or someone simply interested in fish, will appreciate.

The book's main strength is the integration of facets of history to support the idea of cod's impact on the world. Within are discussed the influences of cod on wars, discovery, settlement, technology, gastronomy, and the effects of the dwindling cod stock.

The tragic story epitomized by cod is masterfully told by Kurlansky. Until recently, the mindset of society made it impossible to fathom that such a prolific organism could ever be depleted. The book exposes a poignant message about the increasing problem of overexploitation of resources, which I believe was the author's inspiration.

The only weakness of Cod is that there is so much history included in this relatively small book that it is somewhat overwhelming. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book and have recommended it to others. After digesting Cod, one realizes that the codfish not only influenced diets and economies, but helped steer the course of world history.

Kurlansky takes the reader on a voyage from the beginning of the cod fishing industry through its almost complete collapse due to overfishing. He explores the effect of the industry on colonization of the New World, the Revolutionary War, slavery and more. This book was written first to show the important place cod has in the history of the world and second to warn of what can happen to natural resources if they are limitlessly exploited. This book was well written and easy to read, it was almost like reading a novel. Kurlansky added interest by including six hundred years of cod recipes, putting one at the beginning of every chapter and a section at the end of the book. A main strength of the book was that it covered a significant amount of history in very few pages. The only weakness of the book was that there were no endnotes or footnotes which left me unable to easily find the origin or support of information presented. My overall evaluation of this book is that is was very informative while still being enjoyable to read. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in natural history, ecology, fish, or conservation.

An interesting perspective on not just the poor cod but of all of the great creatures in the sea on which humankind has feasted over the centuries.

I agree with some of the reviewers below who stated that this is a good introductory book. Its well written and very easy to read. That being said, it doesn't contain nearly the level of detail as other books, written by both "sides" (i.e., Bremer's memoir or Ferguson's No End in Sight).

There's not a whole lot of analysis and it seemed that this book focused a lot more on food platters and young staffers than the more substantive issues. I mean, yes, it would have been better to have a more experienced individual in charge of reopening the Baghdad Stock Exchange. That being said, the Stock Exchange was miniscule in importance compared to the more important issues the lack of troops and the disbanding of the Iraqi army, which, in my opinion, needed more treatment.

I think it would be a mistake for us to view the problems we face as a result of the selection of young, inexperienced staffers, and to me, the book gives off that strong impression. The problems are (first) a result of not enough troops on the ground after the initial military victory (Rumsfeld) and (second) the failure to recall at least some of the Iraqi military (Jerry Bremer and Walt Slocombe). These were simply bad decisions made by 3 very experienced officials, with significant experience in both Republican and Democratic administrations.

This is an excellent book that stands out among the host of books that have been written about the Iraq war. The thing that makes it stand out is that it reads like a novel. A scary novel of course. It details the fiasco that has unfolded in Iraq due to poor planning, poor leadership, and the desire to reward loyalty over competency.

If people were not dying in Iraqi, the follies displayed in this book could be easily dismissed as a bad joke, just more of the same old well-known superpower hubris. Or as John Le Carre put it so elegantly in the cover notes: "a Black Comedy, set in the graveyard of the neoconservatives dream."

Since it is not merely a case of hubris, all true American patriots must now be worried about the health and continued life of the American Empire. As a "closeted ex-Republican," the incompetence showcased in this book makes even my stomach turn. It is not just the incompetence; which is staggering, that bothers me, but that this book finally confirms what I already knew: that from the President on down, there is no adult supervision in an administration that sorely needs it.

Since I have worked with some of them, I have no doubt that Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith, Condy Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and even Dick Chaney are competent, as individuals, and when they are operating under suitable adult supervision; however, this book points to something much larger than mere hubris, or even mere incompetence, with which we are already familiar through the likes of no WMDs, Katrina, Abu Ghraib, the sub-prime lending melt-down, no follow-up plan after the invasion, the healthcare gift to the drug and insurance companies, and the "mission accomplished" grandstanding. What the details of this book suggest is that a lot more than mere world-class incompetence and hubris are "in play": Here is a witches brew of incompetence, cultural insensitivity, ideological arrogance, and a kind of "classism" that parallels and mimics exactly the image that Saddam Hussein himself projected while he was in power. Go figure?

For those of us who did not know it, the "Green Zone," is situated in one of Saddam Hussein's "Republican Palaces," outfitted with all of the opulence of a petty Third World Potentate, but with an American twist: swimming pools, food, water, fruit loops and pork hot dogs (for the Moslem servants to handle) air-lifted in daily, seven sports bars with wide-screen TVs, with most of the soldiers strutting around with 9mm Berettas strapped to their waists. The motto of this "Texas Enclave in the Desert," says it all: "Keep the air in the bubble."

This "Little Texas on the Tigris," is not just obscene, it is an utter embarrassment to a self-confident and mature democracy. It alone goes a long way towards defeating the very purpose of our being there: to bring to the Iraqi people a new sense of what a true democracy means and can be.

With the kind of behavior chronicled in this book, we Americans should not be surprised that ordinary Iraqis would want us out of there in the worse kind of way. But our culturally insensitive behavior is just the icing on the cake of this monumental tragedy for them. Their main reason for wanting us out is that after five years and over 100, 000 Iraqi deaths, even the normal amenities of clean water and sewage, electrical power, and security are still not up to the level of the Saddam Hussein era. How shameful is that? What a nightmare for both Iraq and America.

Because it is just a computer dump of a reporter's logbook, obviously put together quickly, without any in-depth analysis, I give the book four stars.

This book was on the NY Best Seller list for a while and I finally got around to buying it after the price had gone down. This is a non-fictional account of the beginning of the Iraq diplomacy by the US and the operations that ran inside the walls of the "little america" called the Green Zone.

It accounts of the living conditions, the attitudes, the progress of the consistent and willful, while also documenting the failings of many due to ineptitude of accepting middle eastern culture, lack of knowledge and common sense. Basically trying to bulldoze Iraq with Bush administration's vision and not the people of Iraq's vision.

It is quite interesting who did what and how they did it and why some were somewhat successful and why many failed to bring any stability to Iraq. Also the conditions of the living quarters of our soldiers, contractors and foreign soldiers, the condition of food, constant departmental conflicts and lack of knowledge, planning and funding seems to have set up everyone who has gone to Iraq in the first 3 years of the occupancy to fail. The feeling I got when finishing up the book was that the US government did everything to try to make the reconstruction of Iraq a miserable failure. However depressing, the book is a great first hand account of life in the Green Zone.

Since I lived for a year in Baghdad's Green Zone, I felt it was necessary for me to read what happened before I got there, under L. Paul Bremer, bureaucrat extraordinaire. That is why I recently found myself reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

To say that the Bush Administration and its chosen Iraq occupation overlords made poor choices during and immediately after the invasion of that country would be an understatement so vast that I have no words to describe how big an understatement I would be making. Reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City reinforced for me many of the reasons why I heard the impact of so many mortars during my 2005-2006 sojourn to Iraq's largest city and at the time one of the most violent if not the most violent city in the world.

I met Rajiv Chandrasekaran in Baghdad in 2006, when I credentialed him for access to military bases. The man was humble, unassuming and patient with the bureaucratic process he endured, which is much more than I can say for Geraldo Rivera, who had sycophants hanging all over him and required that we open for a special session to credential him. In any case, the book itself is superly written in a professional tone.

The damning indictments of cronyism and poor decision making due to a complete lack of understanding of the culture and history of Iraq are presented artfully, without the forced overtones of sarcasm that would have appeared had I written Imperial Life in the Emerald City.

From the story of the Iraqi expatriatate who returns post invasion to open a five-star pizza shop only to find his American customers cannot leave their fortified enclave to the tale of the minor minister who is assasinated for trying to help his country without being politically involved, to the detailed descriptions of the "little America" inside a several square mile compound in downtown Baghdad, this book is well worth reading.

I do not know if L. Paul Bremer has yet publicly admitted how arrogant and stupid many of the decisions made in that first year of occupation were, but he knows it in his heart. If he doesn't that would mean the man has no heart.

Having served in Iraq, and having been to a few locales outside the "Emerald Palace" I called the Green Zone, I still hold pain in my heart for the people I met and for their suffering. Things may be turning around now in that country. But in reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City, it becomes clear that much of the violence that wracked the country and the city of Baghdad could have been avoided if things had been done differently in the beginning. We'll never know how many died because of bad decision making, but it is clear that the numbers are in the tens of thousands and possibly much higher.

If you've ever wondered what was really going on in those first days of the occupation, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Highly recommended.

love it! very informative and has the best of the best artworks. but could use a modern edition strictly of the 20th century

This is one of the standard history of art textbooks. Of course it includes color prints of all the most famous art of the Western tradition, as well as numerous photographs and floorplans of famous architecture. It has a little coverage of Islamic art, but that is a topic that deserves better than it can be given in a textbook on the Western tradition. Painting, architecture and sculpture are clearly the focus, but photography and decor each get a nod. Other forms of art--from gardening to appliance design--although interesting, evidently cannot fit in this space.

The text is adequate: a little better than standard textbook composition, less dull, perhaps a touch less condescending, and of course perfectly informative.

Issues in technique, interpretation and so on are well-introduced.

If you, like me, are not a student but an adult just curious about art, this is a fine choice. I've also enjoyed work by Robert Hughes ("The Shock of the New," which I strongly recommend, and "American Visions"), Andre Malraux ("The Voices of Silence") and David Morgan ("The Sacred Gaze").

(I'm not widely read in this field by any means: those are the only books I've read about Western art history! So there could be various better books out there. But still, this textbook has been very useful to me, helping me fill out my knowledge in many areas.)

This book is incredibly comprehensive and covers all aspects of art in different cultures, including painting, sculpture, architecture, and burial sites. It is remarkably detailed (almost too much so), and has many great pictures.

The most distinctive aspect of this book is the primary sources it includes that explain the historical context of artworks. For example, there are numerous letters (translated, of course) from Italian artists in the Renaissance to their clients. Another text includes excerpts from the law code of Hammurabi, to accompany the sculptural piece on which it was originally engraved.

An excellent base for an art student to build upon; clear, informative, visual, and historical. Supplements and sources such as Wikipedia and encyclopedias and history texts will show how intertwined art is with politics and religions in depth where the book skims over.
A wonderful book, and covers some Eastern Art despite the focus title on the West. Chapters are organized and they get the point across; lovely descriptions of photographs that are present in the book, so you really get to study the subject and with the assistance of the text, see the inner beauty in the architecture.
What I found lacking was the mention of the Golden Ratio, and in fact, any mathematics whatsoever. As mathematics is very important to ancient-modern art, I found it rather confusing. However, as said before, an excellent base.
Very intriguing and not in the least boring or dry, Janson's History of Art is a prime choice coupled with supplementary books. If you're interested in overall art history, this is the one to go with...
Have fun!!!

I used the original Janson when I took art history in college. I bought this for my son and started reading it on my own. What a wonderful rework of this classic. It provides very accessible descriptions of historical context as well as clear presentations of the impact of "technology" (i.e. development of various media) on the ability of the artists of various periods to express themselves. Love this book.