Philosophy Books

Stevens does a very good job of portraying the setting of a small liberal arts instituion which works to create the best freshman class possible under competitive circumstances.

The author finds the process more complex than imagined as the admissions office is charged with bringing in a class to help improve the status of the college and to serve the needs of the development office as well as the athletic department. The book describes how elite colleges and universities have assumed a central role in producing the nation's most privileged classes. The author found that individual evaluation protocols do not create equal educational opportunity but subtly reinforce class privilege.

Overall, I think this book is a great read for parents of students, and students as well, in high school and many parts really captured the work we do each day to prepare our children to be competitive for this next step in their lives.

Creating a Class isn't the typical how to get into a college, or just an insider view designed to help you play the system. It asks hard hard questions, and doesn't let anyone off the hook. It made me think more than any book I read this year.

An interesting analysis. Writing is digestable.

The College is Hamilton College (i.e. football coach left after one year).

Jacques Steinberg's musings in Gatekeepers is just as sophisticated as analysis in this book. Just because Stevens uses academic jargon like "status" over and over (in the text and in footnotes ("catalytic conversation" with a fellow professor), and smugly refers to "journalists" does not mean that Stevens' work is any more sophisticated. As young scholar in the process of establishing his reputation in the academia, Stevens wallows in academic lingo, and his prose also suffers in the process. Stevens' prose is not as lean nor muscular as the prose in Preparing for Power (Cookson et al).

One caveat: Hamilton is in an awkward position of being a good liberal arts college, which has a significantly less name recognition than the Ivy League, and schools like Williams, Amherst, or Wesleyan for that matter. Hence, Hamilton's admissions officers complaining of some prep schools of sending only "schlocky" kids.

By far, this is one of the best English-interpreted understanding of the Chinese I-Ching. In fact, it puts other English interpreted versions pale in comparison. I-Ching is really a Chinese heritage and most, if not all, of Chinese Philosophy and understanding comes from I-Ching (as a source). What the book lacks is to show how each of the I-Ching hexagrams or Gua (total 64 Guas with 384 "Yaos" or lines of Wisdom) is rooted to which Chinese Philosophy and how in Modern days, they can be applied successfully. A Note: Under teh Preface Section III, 2nd Paragraph, the line should states that there should be 384 and NOT 386 Yao Texts (since 64 Guas multiply by 6 Yaos per Gua will give us = 384 Yao Texts!). Steven Lim (RSTN Consulting - Singapore).

Alfred Huang's translation of the Yi-Jing is one of the few books with "definitive" in the title that actually is what it says. The introduction to each hexagram offers up snippets from Wilhelm and Blofeld, two earlier translators whose works are widely read. As a scholar of the etymology of Chinese characters I found Huang's use of the most ancient ideographs to be a nice touch--some of these characters go a long way to making sense of what have become rather obscure meanings of the hexagram names. Each hexagram chapter ends with additional information which encourages the reader to explore further connections. After initially reading R.L. Wing I go to Huang's translation for greater depth of explanation, and I am never disappointed.

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THE BOOK ITSELF WAS IN PRISTINE CONDITION AND HAVE ENJOYED IT EVERYDAY SINCE I HAVE HAD IT.THE REVIEW ON THE BOOK WAS GREAT AND TO THE POINT.
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HECTOR R. MARTINEZ

Not read it yet, but I think that the book will be very interesting and can teach me a lot of thinks

I came to understand the I Ching by way of a rich amalgam of factors that I could not have accomplished the goal without... And Alfred Huang's presentation of the I Ching has been the foremost influence in my ability to comprehend & access this incredibly vast system of sacred knowledge.

I have a major math problem, & the I Ching was always held out from me. My gateways to learning the I Ching were:

* Feng Shui...
I accessed the I Ching through the side door of Feng Shui, which has its basis in the I Ching. When I grasped the environmental layout system of Feng Shui - I segued right into the I Ching.
Richard Webster's introductory Feng Shui books were instrumental in getting my feet wet with the I Ching system. I also recommend "Move Your Stuff, Change Your Life" by Karen Rauch Carter. And a good compass.

* "The Visual I Ching: A New Approach To The Ancient Chinese Oracle" - Cards & Commentary by Oliver Perottet.
This book & card set helped me to visually understand the fundamental super-structure of the I Ching Oracle. Because you can see the system artistically represented across the 8 elements & 64 individual Hexagram cards, with apt descriptions of what each means. It puts the Hexagrams out there in pictorial terms, where you can see the over-arching, primary structure of the entire Oracle - all at once. It graphically shows you the way the I Ching is built. If all those lines aren't reaching you, this pictorial system will. I got the mathematical process of "changing lines" through my head in this book - & could proceed. Simple & concise for the novice. Experimenting with the cards according to the suggestions in the book has been a meaningful experience.

"The Complete I Ching: The Definitive Translation" by Alfred Huang.
I have accumulated several versions of the I Ching now - & I always find this translation to be the most useful. When I use the Oracle, I consult this book first. This is my starting place. Wilhelm second. I found the ideas for means of divination Huang presents were extremely helpful. He showed me that we can be flexible & creative in accessing the Oracle. I developed a system of drawing stones as a result, & the Oracle has been fantastic, & unfailing, in its wisdom. I've had a colorful variety of helpers in learning the I Ching - but this book has been INDISPENSABLE. I couldn't have mastered it as well as I have, without the teachings of Alfred Huang.
Make sure you pay special attention to all of the introductory material, before you get to the Upper Cannon. After this, review the glossary in the back. Read it, & re-read those first sections as many times as necessary - before you proceed. Huang suggests that you next read "Heaven" & "Earth" thoroughly, & I strongly suggest that you do. It is densely packed & essential material that will tell you how the I Ching is built, & how it works.
Huang recommends you read & understand all of the Hexagram interpretations, before using the Oracle for divination. But I do it the opposite way. After gaining an understanding of the history & the fundamental structure of the Oracle itself, which Huang provides - I learned by doing, & I read as I go. After grasping the basics, I cast the Oracle - & THEN I consulted the meanings of the hexagrams - & gained an understanding of their interpretations, directly as they applied to the life situations I read about. And then the I Ching came alive. Incredible...

* "The I Ching Pack" by Anthony Clark & Richard Gill, including "The Little Book That Tells The Truth".
Forget the cards, they're nice art - it is THE BOOK that really is worth the cost of this set. If I find myself stymied, or have an objectivity issue with an I Ching reading - the interpretations in this book will succinctly clarify the matter & remove any obstacles in short order.

* "The I Ching, Or Book Of Changes" by Wilhelm & Baynes.
When consulting the I Ching, FIRST I closely consult the interpretations of Alfred Huang... Then after taking a look at Gill's "Little Book", I mull it over later in detail with Wilhelm... Huang pans much of this work - & I understand where he is coming from, & why. It is a western theosophical approach to the Oracle, from a completely different culture, time, & spiritual era. But with a firm understanding of the perspective from which Wilhelm wrote - & I don't mind consulting the book for the fine tuning concerning a reading. Huang speaks to my inner Monk, & I go there first... Wilhelm speaks to my inner Yankee. And as a westerner, sometimes this reaches me in ways & in a language that the other works can't.

* The "Reiki Psychic Attunement" DVD, by Reiki Master Steve Murray.
This Reiki Attunement initially inspired & jump-started my process of learning to understand & read the I Ching. It put me on this path in 2005. This Attunement is *fantastic* - & you will need no knowledge of Reiki to benefit from it. This was where The Door to the I Ching first was opened for me. I highly recommend this Attunement, it is a one of a kind spiritual experience.

* My own Reiki & I Ching spirit guides... And past life experience.
If you once "got" the I Ching 1000 years ago - no matter how thick headed you feel, I'm living proof that you can "get it" again today... :) In a far different land, language, culture, lifestyle, & era. Math problem & all.

* Having a strong background in reading tarot didn't hurt either... Not a necessary requirement, but having experience with reading an oracle isn't a bad thing.
Reading the tarot is like driving a nice Honda Tracker... Reading with the I Ching is like driving a mint Rolls Royce......... The I Ching is a HUGE, comprehensive, intricate, holy & sacred System - to understanding All That IS. It is as Simple, as it is incredibly complex - & as Complex, as it is amazingly simple! Tarot has been practical & useful, & it is an excellent system bearing a great deal of depth. But the I Ching is like a GIGANTIC Metaphysical Spiritual Institution, all unto itself. Built on what is essentially, Binary Code... You are NOT in Kansas anymore, Toto..... When you get there - you'll see what I mean. You'll feel like you're viewing The Innermost Workings of The Universe, from the inside - & you are... : D And once you immerse yourself in the understanding of the I Ching, you will treasure it always.

"The Complete I Ching: The Definitive Translation" by Alfred Huang comprises the cultural foundation of my understanding of the I Ching - augmented & supported by all of these other major helpers... Think of Huang's I Ching as the cornerstone to my understanding, & the rest of these items supportive bricks in the archway.

First off, yes, I AM a kid, and yes, I have fully read and understood the genius of Marcus Tullius Cicero and the genius of Mr. Grant for bringing it to us. As far as the book goes, it is brilliant, and the translator's skill suffices to bring the greatest orator in history to my doorstep and unworthy mind. "Against Verres" is my favorite Ciceronian writing, because I always shake my head when I think of these noble Romans that I revere like gods stoop to the level of tabloid-like calumny!
But enough about the book! What I really wanted to share with potential customers is the enrichment that such books could bring to kids of today. All they are getting today is manure like Harry Potter and risque-teen dramas, when they should be reading the stuff of legends and the stuff of greatness. Now, I too, can be accused of reading Harry Potter, and liking it sufficiently to keep going, but I fully understand that those kind of books are NOT the kind that I will remember when I grow old.
No, indeed, I will remember the wit of Cicero, and the ambition of Herodotus, the social satires of Charles Dickens, and, of course, the poetic genius and sheer imagination that is J.R.R. Tolkien. That being said, I feel that such books (like the above) are too far undervalued in today's society because all the kids today will read is mind-corrupting filth simply becasue they wish to smother their brains. In short, they want to think as little as possible. And the escapist attitudes are also quite atrocious. Indeed, there is no greater world than this green earth (except for Middle Earth --- I would go there in a heartbeat!) and I would honor it, and honor those giants who came before us and upon whose shoulders we stand.
What is the world without the Republic, and what is the Republic without orators like Cicero and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, whose fiery opinions had kept the flame of democracy and the flame of the Senate alive for so long? I hope someday that people will come to understand this. You do not have to like Cicero, and you might find his writings a tad antiquated and boring --- but who says that they are relevant only to a certain time period or to certain people? No, I say that there are such writings that transcend time and offer us, if nothing more, a glimpse into the life of one other fellow creature who, though so different from us, is EXACTLY the same.
So, potential kid readers, I beg you to pay attention to history, and give it the respect that it deserves! And maybe you too, if only for a little while, will stand with him in the Forum, or sit beside him as he writes words that influenced the greatest giant of the Age. That giant is Rome, and that man is Marcus Tullius Cicero. Though but a Tullius of poor upbringing, he is remembered by those who care to remember as one of the greatest Romans of them all, vying only with the poetic tragedy of Julius Caesar and the military genius of Scipio Africanus and Aemilius Paullus.
So, my rant will come to an opportune end. Remember Cicero, remember Rome, and you will not be disappointed... in the mists of Time that forever encircle us, only the greatest can escape the haze and step into into the stuff of Legend. For they are remembered, and therefore, they Live. All I ask you is to let Cicero live.

Michael Grant has done it again with this wonderful translation of some of Cicero's finest work. Designed to give the reader an overview of this great master it shows you just how diverse a writer he really was, and why he cast such a shadow over European prose for the next thousand years.

I don't want to summarize the content here. I only want to talk about Michael Grant's translation.

Let's admit one fact: Grant's translation is not that good. I suggest you to check out Cicero's works published by OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSCIS: P.G.Walsh and D.H.Berry are more competent than Grant, and they are fascinating indeed. Grant often unnecessarily chops up a sentence, rendering it ends up with a whole lot of commas, and this utterly destroy the fluency and lucidity of Cicero. In my opinion, D.H.Berry (who published Cicero's DEFENCE SPEECHES) is thus far the best Ciceronian translator.

So why is it still worth 3 stars? It is mainly because of the contents, such as AGAINST VERRES, THE SECOND PHILIPIC, and ON OLD AGE, which are still not translated by OXFORD. Therefore, we have no choice but to stick with Grant's translation (unless you want to buy the expensive Loeb edition). If OXFORD will release more of Cicero's titles, I will definitely throw away Michael Grant's.

First of all I foundt this translation to be clear and readable, something that I have come to expect from Michael Grant.
But the material is what baffles me. Cicero is considered the greatest Latin orator and writer, having a concise and interesting style. Personally, I find him to be very long-winded, and I realize this is due to a shortened attention span, but nonetheless, he could have made many of his points with two examples instead of ten.
I also find it ironic that Cicero paints himself to be the epitome of Republican Roman values, a man who stood completely for the decrepit and dying Roman Republic. Yet, he was a great friend of Pompey, a man who's goal it was to acquire dictatorial power, albeit within the confines of Republic. Pompey's actions over the year also consistently undermined the strength of the Republic, whereas Caesar acted legally throughout his career, until his enemies backed him into a corner and an untenable situation.
Yet Cicero sides with Pompey over Caesar, for no especially good reason. Cicero was a brilliant orator and lawyer, but as a politician, his ambitions and sense of self-importance far, far outstripped his abilities. Cicero's allies were a self-centered lot of aristocrats, who ran Rome for their personal benefit rather than for the benefit of Rome. Quite frankly, a man with as strong a sense of justice as Cicero should have supported the more inclusive Caesarian politics; that he did not, is a shame for him.
Regardless, this reading is chiefly for people interested in ancient history, and starry-eyed idealists.
Mildly reccommended.

Cicero's thoughts on old age which are but one selection included here are alone worth the price of this book. The wisdom of this man is clearly reflected here and in other selections that are included. These thought provoking essays and letters contain much that is still relevant. Along with Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, Cicero's writings are a window into the ancient world that helps us to understand how human nature and the problems of living a good life transcend the ages. These are books to return to again and again. The penguin paperback editions are an excellent resource for the general reader and belong on the shelf of anyone interested in philosophy ,history or living well.

The book was in excellent condition and arrived on schedule. It was great service, typical of Amazon!

For years I have been searching for an introductory policy text that will give my BSW students a firm foundation without putting them to sleep. This book's explicit focus on social justice offers a powerful framework for understanding a wide range of issues, while its use of real case studies brings to life the human dimension of social policy. The first chapter of the text is the most difficult for my students, so I allow extra time and use the auxilliary resources on the Thompson website to be sure they master this abstract content.

If you recognize that the title of this book is taken from Boethius then the book is not for you. I can't remember where I heard about this book (NPR I think). I got on Amazon and ordered it without thinking twice. I was mislead.

This is not a book for people with any significant background in philosophy. It is clearly a self help book first and foremost. It belongs next to Chicken Soup for ______, not the original Consolations of Philosophy.

If you are looking for self help wrapped in a pop introduction to an interesting group of philosophers this is the book for you. If you are looking for a philosophy book then I've got to agree with the reviewer who commented "no clothes on this emperor."

This book did two things for me: First, it brought back my respect for philosophy as an effort to get oneself right with the world. Second, it caused to bring philosophy back into the mix of therapeutic psychology books I've sought out at various stages of life. The book is a great little down-to-earth explanation of how philosophy is, at its best, still an avenue toward finding meaning in life, not simply an esoteric or over-intellectualized mental sport. It explains how each philosopher connected personally not abstractly to the ideas he pondered. It's especially useful for an aging secular soul like me, but it also appealed to my son who is in his late 20s. I wish a book like this had been part of the mix in the intro philosophy course I took and fled when I was in college. As for my own favorite philosopher at this stage in my life, of course it's Dr. Peanut! Nutty to Meet You! Dr. Peanut Book #1

Better living thought, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Montaigne, Socrates, Epicurus, and Seneca. Alain de Botton accounts of six great philosophers, and what they bring to an individual in modern times. Good read.

According to Schopenhauer, the universal feeling of "Love" is a topic that gets short shrift by philosophers because it "violates man's rational self image". In what he calls "the will-to-life - defined as an inherent drive within human beings to stay alive and reproduce," Schopenhauer explains why opposites attract, and how the conscience mind is subservient to the unconscious mind "and unable to learn of all its plans." The unconscious mind is governed by "the will-to-life".

"Consolations of Philosophy" may give the reader a new perspective on feeling unpopular, having low economic status, feeling frustrated or inadequate, experiencing a broken heart or lovelessness. Alain de Botton includes ideas from the philosophers he deemed as best qualified to console those suffering from these social maladies.

The appeal of "Consolations of Philosophy" lies in its simplicity. Most philosophy books are written for philosophers. This book was written in easy to understand text for novice readers. For those who have not studied in depth the lives and ideas of great thinkers in Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, this is a decent start. This book is also a respectable start for others who wish to ease their suffering or gain a new perspective on various personal conflicts. It doesn't pack the punch to change lives, but it whets the appetite nicely for further reading. Alain de Botton's talent lies in bringing philosophy concepts to the masses.

Made me see that the concerns of some the greatest thinkers in history are concerns that I encounter everyday. I came to understand that philosophy has very practical and quite mundane applications that may apply to sweeping the floor or paying the bills or deciding where to live. The information is exhaustive but the language is very much attainable. Not at all what I thought reading about philosophy would be like. A pleasant surprise.

I purchased this book on the reading list for a conference I am attending next month, on applying mindfulness techniques to healthcare problems.

This is a good exposition of mindfulness theory and practice. Althought a novice therapist will find the text useful, most of the insight gained by reading this text will be achieved by therapists with 5 to 10 years actual practice under their belts. I would advise novice therapists to buy this book immediately and then delve into each chapter several times per month for the next few years. They will never regret it. The problem and promise on this book is that it requires you to go back and review each concept of your original training, whether it is Adlerian, Freudian, Cognitive or Christian. Mindfulness is the goldplating overlay that makes your therapy more valuable.

This well-written, wise, accessible book will help novice and seasoned therapists incorporate mindfulness practice into their clinical work, skillfully and thoughtfully. The editors and contributors provide a range of expert perspectives on the role of mindfulness in psychotherapy and convey the complexity of good psychotherapy, mindfulness practice, and the union of the two. The clarity with which they accomplish this is remarkable. The depth of their personal and professional expertise and experience is evident throughout. Inclusion of a thorough review of current research in the area is another notable strength of the volume. I highly recommend this book to clinicians and researchers interested in the powerful role that mindfulness may play in psychological healing. It is essential reading for anyone interested in this highly promising area of study.
-- Lizabeth Roemer, Ph.D.

I'm not really a psychoterapist, I'm an M.D.And although being a mindfulness meditation practitioner myself, I'm just entering this world as a way to "awake" my patients.So this is a good book for any health prefessionals who has to deal with all kinds of emotions, and essentially human beings.Liked it a lot!

As a psychotherapist for 30 years and a mindfulness practitioner for nearly 10 years, I have read a lot of good books and articles on both subjects. "Mindfulness and Psychotherapy" is as clear and helpful in both disiplines as any I have encounted. The editors have done a 'mindful' job in selecting from an array of perspectives. Mindfulness is defined and contextualized for our western psychotherapeutic practice, while also placed in an historical and cultural framwork that informs and enlightens our understanding. Indeed the more philosophical essays are perhaps the strongest pieces in this marvelous compendium. We are reminded that the Buddah saw himself as a physician who sought to diagnose and find a cure for human suffering. Out of his own intimate encounter with suffering, he devised and revised a program that we in western psychological science are just now testing and finding curative-both for our clients and for ourselves.
There is much here to be considered by all schools of psychotherapy. Paul Fulton presents an intriguing chapter on Mindfulness as Clinical Training. There are concise chapters on teaching mindfulness skills to clients (even children)with varying disorders, including panic,anxiety, depression, and psychophysiological problems. There is a comprehensive while managable 'Resources for the Clinician" appendix.
Andrew Olendzki deserves special mention for his piece on "The Roots of Mindfulness." I had to stop highlighting as each page was yellowed with brightness.
If you are a psychotherapist, a meditator, or thinking of practicing either, you will do well to read this wonderful book.

While I cannot claim to be able to read this classic work in the original German, I share many of the other reviewers' frustrations with regard to Talcott Parson's English translation of it. First is all the passages from other authors which are left in the original French, Latin etc. and which the average anglophone reader today will be hard-pressed to decipher. Second is the shortage of explanatory notes pertaining to the various minutiae upon which Weber dwells. Contemporary readers can't be expected to know anything about Pietism, for example, so a few footnotes would have been helpful. Finally, there's the dated quality of Parsons' language which seems more redolent of the 19th century than the mid-20th. Every time he uses the word "to-day" complete with its archaic hyphen, it's hard not to be reminded of how musty this translation is and how the far the "to-day" he's writing about is removed from the "today" we live in.

For all the above reasons I would be reluctant to assign this book to an undergraduate class. Surely there's someone out there willing to take a shot at a new, fresher rendering of this book for the 21st century and fix some of the shortcomings of this rather flawed translation.

this book was somewhat difficult to get through because of the footnotes (i have trouble with footnotes), once you get that point though, it's a fantastic book. it discusses why the capitalist system we have now, and the morality we have now is the way it is. we have all heard of the protestant ethic yes? it is that you must work hard, without pleasuring yourself too much, for the sake of pleasing god. working as hard as you can allows a person to 'most effectively' utilize the gifts god has given them, but they cannot take pleasure in the fruits if this because too much pleasure would result in the breaking of some sin, greed or sloth or what have you, pretty much all of them can be connected i'm sure. but if you can't have fun with what you're working so hard to create, why work so hard? because you are pleasing god, setting yourself up for the next life if you will. well this is wonderful for a historical reference, but we're very much secularized in society today so why does any of this matter? well, weber contends that a man named calvin (yes calvinism) took the protestant ethic and tied it to capitalism. calvin took the protestant ethic, which was good because it got things done with little complaint from the workers, and connected it to the economic system by turning god into money. we can imagine the problems with this, if nothing else, there would be trouble behind the fact that what motivated people before was spiritual, and now we expect the same results because of different motivations. that's like using a car to float down a river instead of a boat. ya cars go forward wonderfully, on the medium they were designed for.

so now we all ascetically put ourselves into our work towards the end of making more money. i'm not a history buff so i don't know if this is true or was just used as an example of how religion effected capitalism, but i don't really care as i can see the connections between the protesant ethic and our capitalist morality.

weber calls where we are now the iron cage, kind of pessimistic, but he believes that now we're here, we're stuck here. we can't get out of the mental state we are in now, which i don't necessarily agree with, but can see how someone could. if you leave the economic system today, chances are you'll end up on the street. i think this is my favourite quote, it's right at the end of the book and sums up the final point quite well.

"No one knows who will live in this cage in the future, or whether at the end of this tremendous development entirely new prophets will arise, or there will be a great rebirth of old ideas and ideals, or, if neither, mechanized petrification, embellished with a sort of convulsive self- importance. For the last stage of this cultural development, it might well be truly said: Specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart; this nullity imagines that it has attained a level of civilization never achieved before "

an eye opener to say the least, but a really good read.

A decisive intellectual victory over the numbing utilitarianism of the day -- as important now as it was a hundred years ago. In his masterpiece, Max Weber traces the development of the worldly Protestant ascetic spirit from its predecessor (medieval otherworldly asceticism) to its modern religious peak (Puritan social ethics) and beyond, to the current utilitarian economic thought (with no religious elements whatsoever).

Weber also reveals the development of the spirit of capitalism as a tautologous paradigm of thought that has a long time ago abandoned its original religious motives, leaving behind only a system -- a ghost of a ghost -- that everyone must reproduce in order to survive. This is the "iron cage of [capitalistic] modernity" which we inhabit, and as Weber says, it will not be gone before "the last load of coal has been burned"... A chilling remark in retrospect, as we have now found out that the ever-growing global economy -- a growth for the sake of growth in both communist countries (especially China) and Western democracies -- is cooking up the Globe.

I suggest you waste your money on this.

In my youth I used to believe that Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was the very last word in understanding, sociologically, the driving force behind capitalism in its prime. His premise, at least his expressed narrowly- defined one, that out of the mishmash of feudalism a `new' man and a `new' woman were being created who could subordinate their temporal desires enough to begin the tedious process of primitive capitalist accumulation that got the whole mode started, hit home hard to my young mind. Of course, that was not my conscious take on it at the time, although parts of it certainly were. What interested me the most wa that Weber was using some examples that were close to home, the Massachusetts Bay Colony experiment, and, being from Boston and steeped in Purtian history, that is why I was glad to get a copy of the work.

Strangely, in recently re-reading the work I found that I was drawn by those same examples. Additionally, I was drawn by the huge set of footnotes at the end that I did not remember going through in my youth but offer some very interesting insights into how Weber put his argument together and the sources that he had available at the time and that he used. The re-reading poses this question, though. How does the work itself hold up?

Of course today my class struggle perspective derived from a Marxist world view notes that Weber is clearly a political opponent. Not so much for his argument, which actually has a certain merit, but for his tenacious desire to use a quasi-Marxism materialist approach to sociology without drawing those requisite class struggle conclusions. I might add that the class struggle was fully raging in Germany at the time of the publication of this work as the Social Democratic Party was becoming the voice of the German working class. Weber, thus, really needed to keep his blinders on. Moreover, as a work of scholarship, which I will grant it certainly is, it is an early effort in the very long struggle to divorce sociological observations from any practical use. A militant today in order to benefit from reading this work has to do the equivalent of suspending disbelieve in the plot of a novel to realize that it is important to know what made capitalism tick in the old days and why we have to move on. Here, nevertheless is my very condensed take on the work today.

In some place in 16th and 17th century Europe, the scope of Weber's study, individuals and small communities were breaking from the established churches, Roman Catholic and mainstream Protestant and creating, in some cases 'hit or miss', a culture that we today describe as secular but in the nature of those times had a religious connotation. That breakout, not without opposition and oppression by the constituted authorities, formed the nucleus of an ethic that made accumulation of wealth through hard work and thrift the norm-in short that private accumulation mentioned above. This, dear reader, was a historically progressive series of actions. In the year 2007 those traits have long since failed to be progressive. What is necessary, as Marx, Lenin, Trotsky and even someone like Che Guevara recognized is in the interest of social solidarity we need to create `the new socialist man and woman' out of the muck and mire of capitalism. Hell, we need our own version of the Protestant ethic-and if current worldwide economic conditions are any judge- we need it pronto. Read this one at your leisure.

Weber is the definitive introductory text in Modernization theory. Although somewhat western-centric, this book is essential reading for any college student, as it gave rise to many theories in every branch of social science, and still has more influence on theoretical thought than most social scientists would like to admit.

This book displays in graphic detail why even Liberal Christians and those in Politics think the way they do and why Conservative Christians and those in Politics think.It put into words what I have always thought.
Thank you Nancy!!!

In a postmodern age of conflicting World-views and relegated religious values, Pearcy's book hits hard with pinpoint accuracy. A diagnosis of modern thought, the history which led to it, and the schism of ideas that we now accept in the public sphere, Total Truth is not just a deconstruction of modern naturalism, it draws a picture of a completed Christian Worldview. I borrowed this book from a friend, but will soon add it to my library. I highly recommend "Total Truth."

As a Christian, I have found myself at odds with the Christian culture without fully understanding why. Nancy Pearcey has done the research and answered a lot of my intuitive questions. Rather than expressing a judgmental opinion, she has sought the facts to build understanding which can lead to a wise response. This is a right-on book for today.

This book intelligibly offers why Christianity should and can prevail regardless of its cultural context. Pearcey is a well-qualified author to write this sort of book. Consider this book to be a handbook to modern times and Christianity's involvement to the most important issues of our day. For a thorough "manifesto" that can lead contemporary evangelicals into the contemporary cultural discussion, along with being a worthwhile companion to TOTAL TRUTH, I heartily recommend JP Moreland's KINGDOM TRIANGLE book (www.kingdomtriangle.com).

Even if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, this would be an engrossing read - especially if you think Bible-believing Christians have checked their brains at the door. It is, in fact, an astounding book that unveils in painstaking historical detail how our worldviews shape our beliefs, often to the detriment of truth. Already thoroughly marked-up, it's on my list of books demanding a second reading. And most likely a third.