Westerns Books

I am very satisfied with my recent order from Amazon.

The Book Of Massage is very educational and helpful!

I found the book to have very good detail. It enabled me to pick up the techniques of massage fairly quickly.

The book is informative with fine pictures giving every aspect of the description. The books gives the idea of the 'healing science', even to the layman for whom, massage is a new subject.

thanks,

Dr.Maulik Vyas

It is great knowledge of massage techniques for learner and trained MTs.
Pictures are very good and the matter has been dealt with expertly.
I enjoyed reading and learning new techniques of massage therapy.
The only thing I found different is nude client on table,which differs from draping rules defined by AMTA/National Board USA (That is draping of client as per applicable laws of MD/DC/VA) .

This book is intended for use between partners and close friends. It covers traditional Swedish Massage, Shiatsu, and reflexology. If you want detailed massage sequences on how precisely to give a massage to a close friend this book will do it. The photographs are excellent as are the drawings.

I'm still waiting for the book on sacred sexuality that doesn't talk to me like I don't know where my own vagina is. I'm from a freak scene where men aren't afraid to indulge their feminine sides and neither are the women, where walking around naked ain't no big deal and many of us have found our g spots and prostates and are happily stimulating them.

It seems that this book targets the same audience as practically every other mainstream "sacred sexuality" book out there - middle-aged folks bored with their sex lives and with the kind of money necessary to attend these sorts of workshops (and the illustrations reflect that - I'm not complaining though, I'm happy to see realistic folks getting down!)

So be it - I'm happy to know that Margot Anand is doing the work that she does, even if I couldn't ever afford one of her workshops. Like I said, I'm still waiting for a book that ups the ante on sacred sexuality and I might just have to write it myself. If that were the case, I'd want this woman right by my side to help me out. I know she knows what she's talking about.

Btw, folks, let's not confuse today's "sacred sexuality" with real, true tantra (Anand makes this difference clear). Sexuality IS sacred, however, and realizing it as such will definitely change your life. However, sex is merely a small part of the TRUE practice of Tantra.

Margot Anand has several books available to keep intimacy fresh for couples. This book is the best of it's kind. Even for people who roll their eyes at the "spiritual" aspects of sex, this books advice on sensuality, intimacy and arousal can bring a revived freshness into relationships even after years with the same partner.

The "Ritual of the Senses" itself is worth the price of the book. Guys that don't think they have anything to learn about sex REALLY should read this book...

I have owned this book for years and finally found a partner 6 years ago who was open enough to try some of the practices with me. It is chock full of fantastic exercises and ways of percieving and looking at things, with tools for opening your heart and mind to true intimacy.

We liked it so much that we went to a workshop with Margot last week. Of course, we came home and got the book out right away to see what else we can use to add to our relationship and our lives together.

I think this book is made up of a bunch of baloney. I don't believe a word of it. I think that way too much importance is placed on sex, to the point of being obsessed with it. It's about a bunch perverts, in my opinion. The author's interest and obsession with sex is not normal. It appears she thinks of nothing else in life, except sex, and who to have it with.

This book is a complete sacred sex course in itself. With lots of meditations, activities, and exercises, it is particularly suited for couples who want to open up to each other emotionally as well as physically.

Sorry, but the glut of coincidences and melodramatic writing was just too much. I'm going back to my nonfiction now.

I just read this book and what can I say except that it was amazing. I actually prefer Neil to David. David was never very consistent in his faith he was good talker but he had no understanding. I recomend this book to anyone who already has faith or is struggling to find theirs. Read this book! You won't be sorry!

I really enjoyed this book. I also enjoyed the fact that many of the events in the book are in the series released on DVD. I would have preferred if certain subjects had not been discussed in this book so that it would be more appropriate for younger ages. Other than that it was a really enjoyable read.

This is one of my very favorite books! I've read it over so many times and never get tired of it. It's just so interesting, captivating and touching.

This is one of those classic novels that you could read again and again. I hadn't read it since high school twenty years ago and just re-read Christy last week. I like it even better now than I did then (and I loved it then, too). I would have loved to have had Catherine Marshall's version of a sequel (hopefully it would have consisted of a continuation of Neil & Christy's romance), but I guess we get to imagine the "happily ever after" instead. It's a great read!

The "exaggerated" title of the book made me wonder if the author was aiming for a light-hearted tone, but he's serious! Herman backs up his claim with plenty of historical and anecdotal evidence, leaving the reader with an unabashed sense of respect and appreciation for the nation of Scotland and its people.

The book is particularly strong in explaining how influential the Scots were in the Enlightenment and Industrial eras, and how much American society was initially shaped by the Scots.

The book is written in a slightly dry, humorless, and scholarly manner, though, which might make this a cumbersome read for someone with no initial interest in the subject matter. However, history buffs will find this a fascinating and thought-provoking book!

Scottish history has always been vague to me, but Herman mixes history, biography, philosophy and much more into a great read. I was amazed at how events in the 1700s affect events today...like gun control. He overstates his case, but any professor that doesn't exude enthusiasm for his subject would be considered dull these days.

You may see how the ecclesiastical and civil trials of Scotland generated the people and their methods for all fields of endeavor in Western Society.

Herman's How the Scots Invented the Modern World is enjoyable and emphasizes the great Enlightenment vision that tried to understand human nature.

This is not a review, however, but a comment on two problems with the text that were not "fixed" in the paperback edition.
1) Harriet Martineau was not the wife of John Stuart Mill; his wife was also named Harriet but Martineau was a minor but important writer on her own.
2) Jonathan Edwards was preceded by Aaron Burr, Sr. as president of Harvard, not followed by him. Indeed, the chaos in the family from the deaths of his parents and of his gtandfather as well were a part of the first years of the more famous Aaron Burr's life.

I'm not a historian; I can see how these could easily happen. Nonetheless, much as I am enjoying the book, slips like these (kept into later editions) indicate Herman would profit from more fact-checking and a sharper editor.

This is a very well-organized book on the intellectual influence Scottish culture has had on the western world, most notably the United States and the United Kingdom. Despite the misleading title, this is not one of those "ethnic pride" books. Instead, Herman focuses on the specific intellectual achievements of specific, Scots and identifies that they were successful not because of some miraculous Scottish gene but because they were brilliant thinkers who were committed to scientific inquiry, productivity and sound morality.

In this book, you will learn about the Scottish Enlightenment. In particular, you will learn about how Scotland, prior to its enlightenment, was dominated by the Presbyterian Church (called the "Kirk"). At this time, the Kirk routinely executed blasphemers and promoted the world-view that man is an inherently sinful creature who can never truly redeem himself. Fortunately, a great thinker named Francis Hutcheson promoted the idea that men are generally moral creatures and shifted the focus of philosophical inquiry towards matters of concern to individuals living on earth (e.g., how men can be moral, how men can coexist in a society, etc.) as opposed to focusing on God, Church or Monarchy. Thus with Hutcheson, argues Herman, was the beginning of the Scottish Enlightenment.

In this book, you will also learn about many other great thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment. This includes Lord Kames, who wrote extensively on the importance of property and trade to allow societies to flourish. This also includes the pioneering economist Adam Smith, whose 'Wealth of Nations' became the first great work of capitalism.

The chapter on the great scientists and inventors of the Scottish Enlightenment is amazing. In this chapter you will learn about James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine. Watt is a man who is so confident in his brilliance and productivity that he agreed to build an organ for a church before he knew anything about organs or music. However, Watt displayed that his confidence was indeed rational, as he learned everything he needed to know to successfully build the organ by the original deadline.

You will also learn about the "colossus of roads" Thomas Telford, whose prodigious accomplishments in the construction of roads, bridges, canals and dams gave England an interconnected transportation network, making it ripe for the British Industrial Revolution. You will also learn about John MacAdam, whose "macadamisation" process allowed for smooth, stable roads to be efficiently built and to replace the network of soil-based roads in England.

Herman does a great job in painting a great historical context. This is particularly good for readers who may not be too keen on their British history. In this book, you will learn about the political/religious monarchical disputes between the House of Hanover and the House of Stuart and the Scottish infatuation with exiled British throne claimant Bonnie Prince Charlie. You will also learn about the Act of Union, which originally created the United Kingdom, and how Scotland was motivated to support it during a crushing economic depression. Finally, you will learn good context of the 13th/14th century Wars of Scottish Independence, including brief overviews of the celebrated Scottish warriors such as William Wallace (Braveheart) and Robert the Bruce as well as the Scottish bitterness over the English capture of the Stone of Scone.

This book has a few shortcomings. The major flaw is overkill. Much of the most exciting information is diluted by being tossed into an ocean of less interesting stories. Moreover, Herman advances a few claims, which are not that convincing. For example, Herman argues that David Hume had an enormous influence on American revolutionary thinkers such as James Madison, when it seems more appropriate to credit British empiricist John Locke. Nevertheless, none of these questionable assertions are major linchpins of Herman's book.

Overall, a very good read!

I have this as a reference book and I just love it. It's great to have in your personal design library.

Citizen Soldier is another excellent read into history from the author. The one thing that I enjoy about this book is the authors focus on the soldiers on the ground and not necessarily the major commanders that one reads a lot about. Very educational. This book is packed with well documented information that is presented in a format foreign to many history authors and that is the ability to tell a story, keeping the the information fresh and informative.

Great book!

As a wounded veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, I found this book spell binding. I found a few facts that I never knew even when I was there as rifleman in the 90th Division. The ineptitude of a great number of our generals and colonels was plainly laid out for all to see.
His telling of the desolvment of the ASTP program in which I was enrolled
was very graphic and to the point. All in all, if you can read about violent and deadly warfare and call it interesting, then that describes my reaction to the book.

Just like a book from Barnes & Noble. Perfect Quality. No issues. No complaints. Delivered before it was supposed to be and arrived early. Great!

Ambrose has a great writing style of interweaving the basics of battlefield strategy and tactics in enough detail to explain the historical significance of events, while keeping the focus on the men who fought the battles.

This book, like Band of Brothers : E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest (see my review here), consists primarily of anecdotes from first-hand accounts of front-line soldiers on both sides of the front, and this is where it gets its impact. Truly, it need not be said, that here was America's greatest generation, a phrase which has gotten its upper-case appelation from another author's book, and is richly deserved.

Maggie Joyce, an idealized young American living in post World War II London, is an avid fan of Jane Austen and specifically Pride and Prejudice. Taking advantage of her stay in England, she attempts to learn the true identities on which Jane Austen's characters in P&P were based. There is a story within a story when Maggie falls for another American working in London. Rob McAllister flew B-17 bombers during the war and is carrying some of the scars from that war which affect their relationship.

If you are a devotee of Miss Austen's P&P, then this book is a must read. There is also a lot of research on Regency Era and England immediately after the end of WWII.

This is a very thoughtful and penetrating book about different worldviews, especially modernism or post-modernism and Christianity. Helpful for helping those influenced by current Western culture.

A question we all have to ask ourselves, when we analyze our philosophical presuppositions about truth and morality, IS, "How Should We Then Live?" Whether we care to think about and admit it, we are all active moral agents in the world around us. Francis Schaeffer was a man consumed by this responsibility, and also a man passionate about his Christian faith. I chalk up a lot of the one star reviews to the latter fact about his life.

The book's first few sentences are indicative of the book's path and purpose: "There is a flow to history and culture. This flow is rooted and has its wellspring in the thoughts of people. People are unique in the inner life of the mind- what they are in their thought world determines how they act." Schaeffer then gives a brief summary of Western culture and thought. He shows how the changing philosophies and the "pop culture" play off of one another.

Meanwhile, in an evaluation of the book we must also heed Schaeffer's disclaimer: "In no way does this book make a pretense of being a complete chronological history of Western culture. It is questionable if such a book could even be written." (15, Author's note)

I think that Schaeffer's most apt observation is Hegel's influence on philosophy and epistemology, and the resulting smorgasbord of "truths" that result. If ideas are no longer "true" and "false" but somehow combinable, one cannot emphasize enough how much this has relativized the entire Western way of thinking. Once truth is relativized, the ability to claim one idea as "right" and another as "wrong" vanishes; people begin to make decisions in terms of convenience and expediency rather than definite moral principles. One could argue that this moral attitude has always existed; however Hegelian epistemology could be said to have institutionalized relativism. Schaeffer argues this (162-163,215-220).

In a Western world where the only absolute is skepticism; any meaningful basis for society, any truth around which a country or group could define themselves, is instinctively undermined. Here Schaeffer was once again prophetic; predicting the growing skepticism of the West a good fifteen to twenty years before the phrase "hermeneutic of suspicion" became the predominant, if not exclusive, academic ideology of most universities. Consider his words on page 202: "If people begin only from themselves and really live in a universe in which there is no personal God to speak, they have no final way to be sure of the difference between reality and fantasy or illusion." This is the philosophical child, you might say, of Descartes and existentialists.

Of course there is much more Schaeffer could have said. There is, just in this one review, much more I'd like to say. However, I've blabbered on far enough already; let me say that I recommend this book to all Christians and to any thoughtful, open-minded person who is interested in the philosophical and historical progression of the West as seen through the eyes of a Christian thinker.

The Westminster Confession states that the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. When men, beginning in the Fall, pervert the end to which they are created, by self-deception, to live for themselves, to be gods, as the center of the universe, they find themselves living in the world around them in horror, chaos and misery. This is Dr. Schaeffer's observation of modern and post-modern men, though he seems to lump them together as "modern men". His argument is that when men, living under the presupposition of human autonomy and anthropocentric worldview, attempt to explain the meaning and the purpose of life and the world around them beginning from themselves as the center and the starting point, whether by idolizing their reasoning and will powers and excluding the supernaturals, which is the heart of modernity or, upon realizing that reasons lead to nowhere but pessimism that human beings in the end are nothing but machines, rebel against the modern mindset which characterizes post-modernity as Prof. Dave Wells puts it, abandon reasons and embrace relativism; the result is the death and loss of both humanity and meaning; the ugly effects of which can be observed in for examples, but not limited to abortion, euthanasia, eugenics, concentration camps and gulags. And since there are no absolutes, what eventually matters that seems to become the ultimate pursuit of most individuals is personal peace and affluence.

If you enjoy European history, you might enjoy Dr. Schaeffer here traces how the West is where it is today by starting off with the Roman Empire, then contrasting the Reformed north and the Pagan south in philosophy, art, science and theology, whose influences were carried on, the latter being the dominant one to this day, with some implications by showing the examples of the effects of the Reformation and humanistic worldview. However, if you dislike such details as Renaissance painters, poets, scientists and philosophers and their works; and prefer instead more of sociology and Christology-based treatment of modernity and post-modernity, I would suggest Dave Well's "Above All Earthly Powr's: Christ in Post-Modern World." To me personally, though I love history, I like the latter better.

Schaeffer writes "I am convinced that when Nietzsche came to Switzerland and went insane, it was not because of venereal disease, though he did have this disease. Rather, it was because he understood that insanity was the only philosophic answer if the infinite-personal God does not exist."

If you can follow this poorly written book (very obtuse and difficult to read) and find yourself agreeing with Schaeffer then obviously you are used to reading poorly written obtuse books. I'll let you guess which book I'm referring to.

Schaeffer goes through history and finds a way to denigrate everything that he believes is 'from below' and exalts everything that is 'from above' by deciding if it agrees with his basic assumption "The only way to live is to follow the Bible and it's teachings." If he thinks that it agrees with that premise then it is rewarded and if it doesn't fit his model of behavior then it is labeled a failure of 'humanistic thought'.

This book is filled with silly and ludicrous comments like my first quote. Schaeffer decides that Leonardo Da Vinci was depressed in his old age because "As man thinketh so is he--and humanism had already begun to show that pessimism was its natural conclusion." In Schaeffer's heavily religious mind anyone who doesn't see the world the same way he does is insane, depressed, or suicidal.

If Schaeffer doesn't like a piece of art, it becomes a failure of the humanistic mindset. If Schaeffer does like a piece of art then it becomes an indication that only through a Christian world view can an artist really see the truth of the world.

If you are a heavily religious person yourself, this book will help you feel better about your beliefs, by reinforcing them using 'historical facts'.

If you are a reasonable and educated person with a curiosity about history and how it relates to religion, I'd recommend reading anything else. Anything.

I wish I could give this book zero stars, but Amazon doesn't allow that.

In reading How Should We Then Live, I found that Francis Schaeffer reminded me a great deal of another famous Christian writer, John Foxe. Like Foxe, Schaeffer's writing--specifically, his accuracy in assessing and describing art and culture--improve the closer he comes to his own era. I had never read anything by Schaeffer before but had always heard him highly spoken of, so when I came across this book recently I bought it on impulse. It was a fascinating, brisk read that I completed in two days.

What Schaeffer sets out to do is follow the development of the Western philosophy of life from the decadence of Rome to the decadence of the modern world and explain what has gone wrong with our society. He also seeks to describe how a proper worldview balances the universal with the particulars and how most modern philosophies overstress one or the other to a fault.

Schaeffer's flaws are not many, but they are often great. He begins the book with a brief explanation of presuppositions--unfortunately, many of his own presuppositions give an otherwise welcome brief history a bad flavor.

Starting with his presupposition--pointed out ad infinitum by other reviewers--that all pre-Reformation Christianity is unquestionably bad, he grossly misinterprets the works of St. Thomas Aquinas, Dante, and Michelangelo, to name only a few. His view of Greco-Roman culture is also oversimplified. Ironically, for someone so keen on balancing the universals and the particulars, he is often only generally accurate in the broad strokes and does poorly on the particulars.

I've dwelt on the flaws, but this is still a good book. Just read it knowing that much of the early material is either oversimplified or misinterpreted. Once Schaeffer reaches Nietzsche, he is within his depth and gives a good, if too brief and simplified, overview of the major philosophical movements that shaped the 20th--and now 21st--century.

How Should We Then Live? is an ambitiously conceived book--its problems lie with the author's presuppositions and, to an extent, its brevity. If you're looking for a book with similar themes and goals, I'd recommend John Blanchard's Does God Believe in Atheists? instead. Blanchard's work is much more detailed and exhaustive, and far more balanced in its treatment of viewpoints that don't square 100% with his own.

Recommended.

We're reading this in my Business in World History class. The book makes me want to stab my eyes out and jump off of a sky scraper. Yay! :)

The historian who hates facts

David Landes' The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is at once an impressive display of scholarship and a mortally flawed analysis of, as the author put the question "why some nations are wealthy and others desperately poor." The reason why I say it is flawed is not because I disagree with the main thesis - that attitudes towards innovation and openness to new ideas determine wealth - but rather that the way this thesis is argued is completely a-scientific, if not anti-scientific. In particular, David Landes' contempt for quantifiable facts, banishes the book from the land of scientific inquiry to the land of pure ideology.

Historians who despise facts are nothing new. Marxist historians insisted for half a century, even in the face of the highest economic growth rates seen in human history, that the internal contradictions of capitalism were dragging it to its grave. Professor Landes' contempt for numbers, though, is much more damning than that of the Marxist historians. While they based their analysis exclusively on Marxist theory, and thus had no problem trumpeting their contempt for "bourgeois statistics," he stakes his analysis on the same facts he disparages throughout the book. The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is one long account of experiences of economic growth (or lack thereof) of various nations and thus one would expect it to be empirical.

Professor Landes' disdain for numbers that do not agree with his theory is a recurrent theme throughout the book. It begins with an affirmation that Western Europe is the best place for agriculture because it receives more rainfall than any other area that flies in the face both of rainfall data and agricultural production data. Professor Landes seems especially disgusted by cliometrics. Now cliometrics is one of the most interesting developments in historical analysis. It is the application of the best and most sophisticated statistical methodologies to historical facts in order to shed new light upon historical process than is possible with the paltry pre-existing data. It is, of course, imperfect and cliometricians argue amongst themselves over many of their findings. However, cliometrics is one of the most interesting developments of historical inquiry, showing many pre-existing interpretations to be incoherent with the facts.

When confronted with cliometrical evidence, instead of judging his thesis against this historical evidence, Professor Landes chooses instead to disqualify it, behaving exactly like the Marxist historians he (rightly) criticizes. One passage is particularly illustrating:

"Some historians would argue that these strangers saw and understood less than they thought, or that they blackened the Indian picture by way of brightening the European. A few have even asserted - on the strength of estimates of food intake - that the Indian ryot lived better than the English farm laborer.

Such calorimetric cliometrics seem to me implausible in the light of the gulf between European and Asian techniques. Nor am I persuaded by efforts to project twentieth-century comparative income estimates back to the eighteenth century. The opportunities to distort the result are endless, and the leverage of even a small mistake extended over two hundred years is enormous.

In these speculative exercises, the numbers deserve credence only if they accord with the historical context. That context, for India, was one of limited property rights and technological backwardness. Western Europe, well on its way to the Industrial Revolution, was inventing and improving ingenious, labor-saving devices, in particular, both hand- and power-driven machines. It had long since passed Asia by. It's as simple as that: more productive techniques translate into higher incomes."
(page 165 of the paperback edition)

The numbers deserve credence only if they accord with the historical context. In other words: My analysis is, by hypothesis, correct. Therefore, any evidence to the contrary must be wrong. Dr. Goebbels could not have said it better. No matter that there is a reasonable literature stating that Europe did not have the most productive techniques nor the most complete property rights. (see China Transformed: Historical Change and the Limits of European Experience by R. Bin Wong and The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy by Kenneth Pomeranz). No matter that various stories can, and have been, told in which the economy with the higher wages is not necessarily the one that surges ahead. If it disagrees with me, it is wrong. It's as simple as that.

Mr. Landes' lack of proficiency with numbers is evident even with regard to those that are not at odds with his thinking. For example, when analyzing the war between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance he states that 70% of Paraguay's male population died as a result of the brutality of allied occupation. While the brutality of the occupation is beyond dispute, the number is preposterous. The occupation of Poland for five years by Nazi Germany resulted in 20% reduction of the Polish population. The idea that the Brazilian and Argentinean occupation troops could be 3 ½ more efficient than the Nazi death machine with no concentration camps, machine guns, airplanes or even roads, trucks and railroads for that matter, really makes very little sense. These silly numbers have been re-estimated by more recent historians and cliometricians and have been shown to be much smaller.

Ernest Rutherford is quoted as saying "All science is either empirical or stamp collecting." (actually, he used the word physics, but physics at the time meant empirical). Professor Landes' book is quite an impressive stamp collection, but fatally flawed empirical analysis.

A good and informative read, more so, the second time around. Landes, raises many excellent points for debate between socio-economics and cultural influences of peoples and their leaders, more ofter imposed upon them, as opposed to chosen to lead.

The book chosen for an economics class just finished at Lund University, Lunds, Sweden. As, a retired American ex-patriot with a background in international finance, still interested in learning, this book is highly recommended for anyone seeking to gain a better understanding on the question "how did we get to where we are?" And divides the world's peoples into three catagories: those that spend billions yearly on losing weight; those that eat to live; and, those who don't know where their next meal is coming from! That our wealth (the West) is dependent on others less fortunate. What they can't make, they will take! That wealth is, in and of itself, a magnet for exporting of commodities or products, but when all else fails or is denied -- people (migration) will be the end product that swamps the west.

We'd better wake-up and understand our need to declare World War III, not nation on nation, region on region, or religion against another religion, but a unified "War on Poverty" led by the west.

Landes is the man, and this book pretty much sums it up. His primary thesis, that when humans are given the freedom to be innovative and pursue their own interest, is familiar from Adam Smith, but Landes does it better, it's a convincing argument. Culture is the determining factor in the success and failure of nations, not chance, not geography, not even resources, and Landes makes it obvious, it seems.

Landes provides an interesting and credible explanation of the differences in income/capita (now about 400:1, about 5:1 250 years ago) between the richest and poorest nations. En route, Landes also provides a useful perspective on today's globalization debate.

Most of the differential is attributable to cultural values. Some, however, is geographical. If one marks off a belt a couple thousand miles in width circling the earth at the equator, one finds within it no developed countries. Year-round heat encourages proliferation of disease and parasites. Poor soils and extreme dry areas are added problems, as well as the debilitating heat's effect on workers.

From about 750-1100, Islamic science and technology far surpassed those in Europe - then something went wrong and science became denounced as heresy by religious zealots. Similarly, state control allowed Chinese innovations to fall into disuse. China's flotillas far surpassed Europe's. The biggest ships were about 400' long and 160' wide (Columbus' Santa Maria was about 85' long), and the fleet totaled 317 vessels and 28,000 men. Then new leadership brought an emphasis on agriculture and all ocean-going ships were destroyed in 1525.

Europe enjoyed a monopoly on corrective lenses for 3-400 years, beginning in the 1300s, more than doubling the availability of skilled craftsmen and allowing the further development of microscopes and telescopes around 1600.

Cotton from India proved capable of multiple washings (vs. wool), thereby transforming standards of cleanliness and health.

"Easy money" (eg. gold from Spanish colonies, Holland's discovery of North Sea natural gas) makes for a lazy economy that fails to develop the talents of its people.

The Protestant Reformation gave a big boost to literacy, and spawned dissents that are at the heart of scientific endeavor. Data show a much greater percentage of scientists from Protestant vs. Catholic backgrounds. Unfortunately, after Luther, cleanliness became a particular cause for suspicion of heresy, and smuggling non-approved books led to the death penalty. Thus, the fate of Catholic southern Europe was sealed for 300-some years. Sicily also suffered from intolerance and superstition of Jews, forced them out, and imposed a backwardness in trade on itself.

Landes then goes on to ask "Why did the Industrial Revolution occur in England?" Protestants were persecuted and expelled from France. Weavers from the southern Netherlands sought refuge in England and brought trade secrets with them, while Jews from Spanish persecutions brought networks of trade connections. England also had a much better system of roads, along with an emphasis on transport speed and time in general. Meanwhile, France was undergoing the upheaval of the French Revolution, India's craftsmen avoided using iron and steel (had made no progress in scientific knowledge for centuries), while Russia was hobbled by serfdom's tying peasants to the land to do forced labor. China and Japan had walled themselves off from the rest of the world - in fact, China lost many of its early innovations through disuse.

Another problem for Russia was that serfdom left so much wealth in the hands of the nobility that overall consumer demand was limited. Russia's poor industry was only able to produce inferior rifles, resulting in enormous losses in the Crimean War (1854-56), the war with Japan (1904-05), and WWI. Finally, the Baltic states remained poor because they were tangled in an endless struggle for freedom.

Regardless, once started, the Industrial Revolution proved difficult to copy because division of labor complicated industrial espionage. Across the Atlantic, scarcity of labor in the early U.S. led to high wages and a push for innovation. Thus, European devices were copied and imported, and skilled European craftsmen encouraged to move to high American wages. (Side Note: By the time of the Civil War, firearms production in the North vs. Confederacy was 32:1 due to the South's emphasis on agriculture.)

The Spanish in South America kept Protestants and Jews out; independence came not because of the settlers' strength, rather Spain's weakness. Spain also brought a macho society attitude that adulthood brought males complete independence and idleness; South American immigrants were also less educated than those in North America and the immense landownings lent themselves to simple ranching enterprises. (American immigrants created a squatters' rights culture, with small landownings and a high motivation for self-sufficiency.)

China and Japan both resisted foreigners; the latter persecuted Christians and their converts after being told these groups were part of Spain's control mechanism. Following a period of anti-foreigners, Japan committed to learning from and copying the U.S. and Europe. (The Chinese did also, but much, much later.)

Muslims (Ottoman Empire) cut themselves off from the mainstream of knowledge via banning the printing press - had a problem with a printed Koran. Another major limiter was their diminishment of women. (The Japanese did also, but to a much more limited extent - eg. girls were well educated, they worked until married, and continued to work afterwards if their income was needed.)

The Japanese realized they lost WWII because of greater U.S. industrial output. Landed attributes this to their support for a large, exporting auto industry - American occupiers saw no need for such an industry (comparative disadvantage). Japan's auto producing disadvantages (small market, lag in technology) were turned into advantages through the Toyota Production System.

Landes points out that today's comparative advantage rationality can easily become tomorrow's mistake. His example is Germany - the British economist John Bowring lamented that the foolish Germans wanted to make iron and steel instead of sticking to wheat and rye and buying their manufactures from Britain. Had they heeded him, they would have pleased the economists and ended up a lot poorer. Similarly, the Japanese.

Bottom Line: The most successful cures for poverty come from within. Educated, eyes-open optimism pays; pessimism only offers the empty consolation of being right. Gains from trade are unequal. Some activities are more lucrative and productive than others.

A cute fun read. The book should come with a gingerbread recipe and a cowboy cutter. My little cowboy couldn't wait to make one and re-enact the story! If you are giving one for a present or budding cook include them!

Nifty! It's a great twist on the classic. I collect versions of the Ginger bread. This one is a great addition. I like the ending with the fox/wolf being replaced by a coyote.

This is a great book for the youngest readers! Your little ones will delight in the Gingerbread Cowboy's chase across the barren lands of the Old West as he runs to save his life. Many animals are after him but he manages to outwit them all, even the clever old coyote, with the help of the rancher's wife.

Kids will laugh when they hear the Gingerbread Cowboy chant, " ... You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man." They will certainly enjoy the colorful illustrations of the animals depicted against the contrasting, muted background of the Old West desert and mountains.

Hazel Rochman, BOOKLIST reviewer, describes this story best (see Editorial Reviews above): " ... universal trickster tale with a cowboy slant."

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Great twist on a classic tale. My class of first graders LOVED it!

As a Kindergarten teacher, I am always looking for a new twist on an old story. One of the best ways to help children to start crafting their own stories is to have them use a character they already know and change the setting or other characters in the story to make it their own. This book is a great example of doing this. My class enjoyed the book. When I lent the book to another teacher, her children loved it so they were running around the yard calling Giddy up! as they chased each other. She told me that they didn't have that reaction to the original story!

Correct item as it was described, fast shipping. Everything was perfect. Recommend this seller.