Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR's Legendary Lost Cruiser, and the Epic Saga of Her Survivors

Book Description

"Son, we’re going to Hell."

The navigator of the USS Houston confided these prophetic words to a young officer as he and his captain charted a course into U.S. naval legend. Renowned as FDR’s favorite warship, the cruiser USS Houston was a prize target trapped in the far Pacific after Pearl Harbor. Without hope of reinforcement, her crew faced a superior Japanese force ruthlessly committed to total conquest. It wasn’t a fair fight, but the men of the Houston would wage it to the death.

Hornfischer brings to life the awesome terror of nighttime naval battles that turned decks into strobe-lit slaughterhouses, the deadly rain of fire from Japanese bombers, and the almost superhuman effort of the crew as they miraculously escaped disaster again and again–until their luck ran out during a daring action in Sunda Strait. There, hopelessly outnumbered, the Houston was finally sunk and its survivors taken prisoner. For more than three years their fate would be a mystery to families waiting at home.

In the brutal privation of jungle POW camps dubiously immortalized in such films as The Bridge on the River Kwai, the war continued for the men of the Houston—a life-and-death struggle to survive forced labor, starvation, disease, and psychological torture. Here is the gritty, unvarnished story of the infamous Burma–Thailand Death Railway glamorized by Hollywood, but which in reality mercilessly reduced men to little more than animals, who fought back against their dehumanization with dignity, ingenuity, sabotage, will–power—and the undying faith that their country would prevail.

Using journals and letters, rare historical documents, including testimony from postwar Japanese war crimes tribunals, and the eyewitness accounts of Houston’s survivors, James Hornfischer has crafted an account of human valor so riveting and awe-inspiring, it’s easy to forget that every single word is true.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Book.......2007-09-28

Excellent write-up on a little-known story. I had read of the Houston, but not of the fate of the survivors.

Ship of Ghosts - A Must Read for all Generations.......2007-07-31

Mr. Hornfischer graced my University Area Rotary Club in Austin, his home town, with an excellent talk about the saga of some of our bravest men from the greatest generation. Of course, I bought a copy of the book and it took me a few days to get through it before I hand it to my father to read. Hornfisher shows an unlikely ability to truly connect the facts of the USS Houston and her POW survivors together to tell a compelling human story of the horrors of war and the ability of man to overcome any adversity. Hornfischer is a true patriot for documenting the courage of these brave men, and I am a better man for reading this great book.

A good telling of the USS Houston and her crew.......2007-06-18

Ship of Ghosts is Mr. Hornfischer telling of the USS Houston and her crew during WWII. The USS Houston, known as the Galloping Ghost of the Java Coast (because of how many times the Japanese reported her sunk) was the flagship of the US Asiatic Fleet. In WWII she was responsible for holding and delaying the Japanese in taking Indonesia. Any ways, Mr. Hornfischer opens by telling us the early pre-war history of the USS Houston, how she was used by FDR as his yacht, and the history of the gentlemen whom Mr. Hornfischer interviewed.

After telling us about the pre-war years, Mr. Hornfisher jumps into the action of the Battle of the Java Sea and Sunda Strait. This is then followed by telling us about the crews time as POW's and working on the "Death Railway". Most of this book deals with their experience as POW's (btw, the crew of the HMAS Perth has coverage in this book, not as much as the USS Houston, but it is recognized. Also, Mr. Hornfischer cover the men of the 2nd battalion, 131st Field Artillery). In the chapters dealing with the men being prisoners of war we learn about the poor conditions they kept in and how terrible it was working in Burma on the railway (interestingly, the conditions in Thailand were worse). An interesting fact the Mr. Hornfischer points out several times is how the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai poorly represented the conditions the men served under.

Rating wise this book was very easy for me. A solid 4.5 stars. While Mr. Hornfischer did a commendable job telling us about the crew, I had two problems. First, was his book Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors was more solidly written than this one. There I felt as if I was there, this time I had someone telling me of the tale. My primary reason though for only 4.5 stars is that I'd read The Ghost That Died at Sunda Strait(by W.G. Winslow, a true 5 star book). Since I can't leave this as a half star I need to round the number. If I hadn't read Mr. Winslow's book prior, I might round up, however since I've read his book, this one gets rounded down. Sorry Mr. Hornfischer. A very good book though! It complements Mr. Winslow's nicely and picks up where Mr. Winslow chose to leave off. A very good job!

A Last-Minute Tribute.......2007-04-26

With America's WW II veterans dying at the rate of 1,500 a day, we are clearly into "the last lap". Therefore, Jim Hornfischer's excellent treatment of the cruiser Houston comes none too soon. His taut narrative actually involves two stories between the covers of one book: the ship's early combat in the Pacific and the surviving crew members' 3 1/2 year struggle for survival ashore.

There's a lesson for other researchers and authors: "the greatest generation" is fading fast, and its memories are fading even faster. Now is the time to grab the tape recorder or notepad and get the remaining veterans' stories while they are still accessible.

A Missing Piece of History.......2007-04-09

Americans generally think they know about world War II if they know about Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the Russian Front, and the Pacific War from the perspective of island hopping coming from the east side of the Pacific. What we usually overlook is the war in Southeast Asia. John Hornfischer has written what might be two books, one about the nearly-solo fight of an isloated ship in the face of the Japanese onslsught in 1942, and the other about the unbelievable suffering of prisoners of war in Japanese prison camps building the Thailand-Burma Railroad - familiar to most of us from the sanitized version seen in the movie, The Bridge on the River Kwai. The writing is good (though not overly great); but it is the content that makes this one of the best books written about World War II, the early struggle to give ground only very dearly, the suffering enduured by our soldiers, and finally the failure to meet the real needs of soldiers trying to readjust to society after three years of captivity.

Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World

Average customer rating:

Cannot Put it Down
Fabulous Finds!
Treasures That Touch Your Heart
Found was found! {: >
I'm glad I FOUND this

Found: The Best Lost, Tossed, and Forgotten Items from Around the World
Davy Rothbart
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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Fuck This Book

ASIN: 0743251148

Book Description

Discarded valentines. Ransom notes. To-do lists. Diaries. Homework assignments. A break-up letter written on the back of an airsickness bag. Whether they are found on buses, at stores, in restaurants, waiting rooms, parking lots, or even prison yards, these items give readers an uncensored, poignant, and often hilarious peek into other people's lives. By collecting them in his hit magazine, Found (and its companion website, www.foundmagazine.com), Davy Rothbart has bewitched the nation with a surprising window into its heart and soul and turned his many readers into an army of sharp-eyed finders.

Found is chock-full of the latest and greatest of these finds, arranged in the style of the magazine, laying bare the tantalizing tales to be discovered in the trash we toss. By turns heartbreaking and hysterically funny, Found is a mesmerizing tribute to everyday life and our eternal curiosity about our fellow human beings.

Customer Reviews:

Cannot Put it Down.......2007-10-03

Addicting book full of humor and sadness. Great look into people's lives sometimes understanding the story sometimes not.

Fabulous Finds!.......2007-09-22

This book of "found" writings just fires my imagination. It's like getting the middle of the story without the beginning or the end. It's addictive. Now I'm looking down all the time for my own finds.

Treasures That Touch Your Heart.......2007-08-30

I think that this book is such a wonderful way of respecting those things and people that deserve dignity. I am certainly glad that I 'FOUND' it.

Found was found! {: >.......2007-07-24

This book was suggested to me by the program as a possible gift for my 30-something son, based on items already on his Wish List. I got it for him for his last birthday and he loves it! He and his wife have been poring over it, coming up with lots of interesting nuggets. Thanks for the suggestion!

I'm glad I FOUND this.......2007-06-10

I'm nosy - not in a malicious way, but others' yearnings, secrets, and day-to-day lives fascinate me. The items documented in "Found" range from hilarious to heartbreaking, and it is a fascinating glimpse into human nature. It's a great bathroom read. It's also reassuring to know other people like reading crumpled notes they found on the library floor or gazing at pictures pressed between the pages of an old book.

The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma

Average customer rating:

A brilliant eye opener
A Comprehensive Look At Burma's Situation
Obligatory read for anyone interested in Burma politics
Must have for anyone interested in modern burma
Good read for beginners on Burma

The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma
Thant Myint-U
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Myanmar | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Southeast Asia | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0374163421
Release Date: 2006-12-12

Book Description

For nearly two decades Western governments and a growing activist community have been frustrated in their attempts to bring about a freer and more democratic Burma—through sanctions and tourist boycotts—only to see an apparent slide toward even harsher dictatorship. But what do we really know about Burma and its history? And what can Burma’s past tell us about the present and even its future?

In The River of Lost Footsteps, Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, in part through a telling of his own family’s history, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and appalling. His maternal grandfather, U Thant, rose from being the schoolmaster of a small town in the Irrawaddy Delta to become the UN secretary-general in the 1960s. And on his father’s side, the author is descended from a long line of courtiers who served at Burma’s Court of Ava for nearly two centuries. Through their stories and others, he portrays Burma’s rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through the decades of British colonialism, the devastation of World War II, and a sixty-year civil war that continues today and is the longest-running war anywhere in the world.

The River of Lost Footsteps is a work both personal and global, a distinctive contribution that makes Burma accessible and enthralling.

Customer Reviews:

A brilliant eye opener.......2007-07-25

The message of this book is that there is much more to Burma(Myanmar) than one reads in the newspapers, there is more than the military dictatorship and the cause of 'human rights'. The message is that there is much we can learn about Burma from her history and that the present state of siege is one that ignores her illustrious and rich past.

The past is indeed illustrious. It is made up of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Of a number of terrifying wars against England and colonialism. It is made up of powerful kings and rebels and Mughals and Portuguese pirates and Armenian businessman. It is about an exotic kingdom long connected with the world but also partially cut off from it, one that became Buddhist early on and has fought many wars against China and Thailand.

The author is the son of a famous Burmese family whose fortunes included being head of the U.N. and he has an intimate knowledge of not only the history but also the culture, clothing, architecture, smells and whereabouts of the subject he discusses. He weaves himself into the story as well, describing visits to ruined cities and an experience as a young man going to Thailand to protest for Democracy in his homeland.

A very important account and one of the few modern histories of Burma written in the last twenty years, it adds a great deal to an understanding of current Burmese politics and why many have been wrong to judge her for her actions without learning anything about her.

Seth J. Frantzman

A Comprehensive Look At Burma's Situation.......2007-07-08

We Americans tend to forget or ignore the fact that there are deep seeded historical reasons why governments in other countries take certain positions that seem to be inappropriate. Such is the case with Burma, and the xenophobic, anti-democratic actions of its military government. Fortunately, Thant Myint-U has provided a basis for understanding the situation in Burma through his wonderful book, The River of Lost Footsteps.

Thant shows that Burma's current state is mostly the result of its very long history of negative interactions with other countries. He discusses how occupations by the Chinese, British, Japanese, and others have led to a mistrust of foreigners. This mistrust has morphed into a sense of nationalistic self-reliance, in part from several examples (augmented by nostalgia) where a strong Burmese leader has successfully led the country. Thant then discusses how the radical changes that have occurred in Burma over the last 150 years have left the country without a governing class capable of managing it. Given these factors, it's no surprise that the one governmental unit with strong structure, the military, is running the country.

Considering all the care that Thant took to show how Burma came to its current state of affairs, it was a little disappointing to see that he rushed through his conclusions. Beyond saying that the existing international response of economic sanctions won't work, he provides little in the way of possible answers as to how Burma can be integrated into the international community. That response comes across as a little too vague and diplomatic for someone who clearly understands the reasons behind Burma's present circumstances. Still, The River of Lost Footsteps is an important starting point for persons interested in comprehending Burma's situation and developing a policy for addressing its position.

Obligatory read for anyone interested in Burma politics.......2007-05-09

Thant Myint-U tells the story of how Burma became the "poisoned Shangri-la", possibly the second weirdest country after North Korea. At first sight, Burma is a battle between the evil dictature and Aung San Suu Kyi. But Thant Myint-U gives us an infinitely more complicated picture, from thousands of years ago until the present day, with a civil was that has lasted for 60 years. The state-building suffered severely both when the british conquered Burma in 1885, as well as they were thrown out in 1948. But the book is more than just a story lesson. He has a clear message: Boycott is perhaps an easy answer to what to do with the country. Too easy. The dictature is extremely xenophobic, and avoids any influence from outside the country. They would not mind any boycott. Instead one should delicately try to interact more with the country. Thant Myint-U gives no easy fix, but a very sober and well-written overview. I have one minor remark: The map provided in the book should be more informative, many places mentioned in the text are not included.

Must have for anyone interested in modern burma.......2007-03-04

Best writing on modern Burmese politics yet to appear, should be read by all the ostriches with their heads in the sand who believe that sanctions, boycotts, embargoes and the like will have any effect on the junta.

Sanctions that target an entire country, rather than its leaders, are at best ignorantly undertaken and ultimately unethical.

Good read for beginners on Burma.......2007-01-27

This is a great introduction to Burma and its history. It is well written, clear, and sometimes funny. Furthermore, it is not too detailed for novices.

The author's main point is a good one. Discussion of Burma tends to be largely ahistorical. Few consider Burma's history when deciding policy. I wouldn't exactly consider US senators to have this level of sophistication, but it seems that somebody should, especially lobbyists. Through history, the author shows Burma as having been often isolated and torn, with little institutional capacity to govern after the British took over.

I thought the last few pages were a bit glib and not well argued. I disagree with current US policy of isolation, but the author loses his depth of understanding and seems to label the Burma lobby in the same brush as the government of Burma. The truth is, sanctions probably have relatively little effect on Burma. If the author has shown anything, it is the extent to which Burma's government isolates itself from international norms and pressure. While perhaps more aid money and business would go into the country without sanctions, much of it would not go in anyway because of the government's pervasive mismanagement and corruption (Global Fund pulled out because of misuse of its funds; Red Cross was recently expelled).

Despite these last few pages, the book is overall a great read for novices and long-time Burma watchers.

Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World

Average customer rating:

Entertaining biographical sketches that shaped the world after 1453
Tremendous work
A Great History of a Lost Empire
Forget Byzantium at Your Peril!
Cultural and religious dispersal

Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World
Colin Wells
Manufacturer: Delacorte Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Early Civilization | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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Civilization & Culture | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0553803816
Release Date: 2006-07-25

Book Description

A gripping intellectual adventure story, Sailing from Byzantium sweeps you from the deserts of Arabia to the dark forests of northern Russia, from the colorful towns of Renaissance Italy to the final moments of a millennial city under siege….

Byzantium: the successor of Greece and Rome, this magnificent empire bridged the ancient and modern worlds for more than a thousand years. Without Byzantium, the works of Homer and Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Aeschylus, would never have survived. Yet very few of us have any idea of the enormous debt we owe them.

The story of Byzantium is a real-life adventure of electrifying ideas, high drama, colorful characters, and inspiring feats of daring. In Sailing from Byzantium, Colin Wells tells of the missionaries, mystics, philosophers, and artists who against great odds and often at peril of their own lives spread Greek ideas to the Italians, the Arabs, and the Slavs.

Their heroic efforts inspired the Renaissance, the golden age of Islamic learning, and Russian Orthodox Christianity, which came complete with a new alphabet, architecture, and one of the world’s greatest artistic traditions.

The story’s central reference point is an arcane squabble called the Hesychast controversy that pitted humanist scholars led by the brilliant, acerbic intellectual Barlaam against the powerful monks of Mount Athos led by the stern Gregory Palamas, who denounced “pagan” rationalism in favor of Christian mysticism.

Within a few decades, the light of Byzantium would be extinguished forever by the invading Turks, but not before the humanists found a safe haven for Greek literature. The controversy of rationalism versus faith would continue to be argued by some of history’s greatest minds.

Fast-paced, compulsively readable, and filled with fascinating insights, Sailing from Byzantium is one of the great historical dramas–the gripping story of how the flame of civilization was saved and passed on.

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining biographical sketches that shaped the world after 1453.......2007-08-28

This readable history of the historical waves emanating from Byzantine influences is an indispensable work. The style is partly biographical sketches and partly telling of a story making it easily accessible and useful to novice and professional historian alike. The biographical flavor provides the structure for history as events involving human beings with complex characters and mixed motivations acting on the society in their time. The story-telling aspect provides the glue that sweeps the characters and their influence through their geographical dispersions to reveal their influence in Russia, western Europe, and Islam.

An enjoyable read for any historian looking for hints of the Byzantine in the world today. Well done.

Tremendous work.......2007-08-14

This is a great work about an empire that was - and indeed still is - important in our world today. Back when I took a course in Classics in college, my professor lectured us on the importance of the Byzantine Empire, and yet, how few people understand it, and can convey the importance. The author, in my view, has done a truly tremendous job of condensing history down into a very readable, non-intimidating book, which conveys the entire history of Byzantium, from its founding in 500 A.D. to its end in 1493 A.D. The author commands an encyclopedic knowledge of the Classical world, as well as an ability to write. I can't say enough about this work of history. And anyone who might think this is ancient history and doesn't affect us: the history of the clash and cooperation between Islam and Christian civilizations continues to this day (of course). As the author mentions, if the walls of Constantinople had not been so well designed, the Muslims might well have put Europe in a pincer movement in 750 A.D. Instead of being stopped by Charles Martel at Poitiers in France, and turned back, the Muslims might have conquered all of Europe. We would be speaking Arabic now. Yes, it is relevant ! At the same time, the author shows attempts made inside the Arabic Muslim world (which stretched from Spain to Afghanistan) to integrate Greek rationalism and Greek knowledge. Averroes was a famous Arab philosopher who not only championed rationalism, but also kick-started the European Scholastic movement. Unfortunately, Averoes lost out in the Arab world, and the reaction to rationalism, in 850 A.D. began, and continues to this day as Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia. We feel the reverberations to this day...

A very valuable work, at once encyclopedic, and very accessible.

A Great History of a Lost Empire.......2007-06-18

I have always had a fasination with byzantium. This book as well as John Julius Norwich's series of books has helped to appreciate this lost empire more than ever. I especially liked the end of the book where it is just abruptly ended. In a way it made me cry a little to see what could have happened to the world if Byzantium had never have existed. I feel that more people should read this book and be aware of the several contribution that Byzantium has bestowed upon out modern world.

Forget Byzantium at Your Peril!.......2007-05-19

Ignorance of Byzantium (in two senses: lack of knowledge and lack of attention) has confounded Islamicists and Western European historians alike in the past 100 or so years. Colin Wells offers a concise and cogent description of the role Byzantium,including exiled or conquered Byzantines, played in the preservation and transmission of ancient Greek science and philosophy to the Muslim empires of the pre-Crusade "golden age" and directly to Western Europe chiefly by way of Italy. For nearly a thousand years, Byzantium WAS Rome, the hinge of civilization, linking rising and sinking cultures from the Visigoths of North Africa to the Vikings who called themselves Rus, from the humanists of Renaissance Florence to the Nestorian Christians of Syria, the primary translators of the Greek classics into Arabic.
Yet despite the significance of the material presented, it's a fun book, a quick read, written in a relaxed and simple style, accessible even to people who couldn't locate Byzantium on the map. (Hint: "Istanbul is Constantinople, now you can't go back to constantinople...")

Cultural and religious dispersal.......2007-04-20

This is not a "history" book in the exact sense of the term, if you think of "history" books as a linear progression of events. What this author has done is written a very valuable work detailing how the Byzantine Empire spread its culture and religion to its neighbors. The book is divided into three parts, each one showing the effect of Byzantium on 1: Western or "Latin" Christianity, 2: the states in the Balkan area, and 3: what eventually bcame Russia. It's a fascinating tale, extremely well told, and reveals to us that, even though 1453 saw the political end of the Empire, its influence in many different aspects spread and remain even today in many areas. These are subjects rarely, if ever, covered in this context, and should be required reading for anyone interested in obtaining a well-rounded knowledge of Byzantium.

The Kebra Negast: The Lost Bible of Rastafarian Wisdom and Faith from Ethiopia and Jamaica

Average customer rating:

VERY INSPIRATIONAL!
Decent Buy
A must read
Let the reader beware
Interesting read

The Kebra Negast: The Lost Bible of Rastafarian Wisdom and Faith from Ethiopia and Jamaica

Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Rastafari | Other Practices | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Tribal & Ethnic | Other Practices | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Comparative Religion | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Kebra Negast | Bible & Other Sacred Texts | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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The Autobiography of Emperor Haile Sellassie I: King of Kings of All Ethiopia and Lord of All Lords (My Life and Ethiopia's Progress)

ASIN: 0312167938

Amazon.com

What did Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley and Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia have in common? A love for the Kebra Negast, holy book of Ethiopian Christians and Jamaican Rastafarians. Contemporary scholars date the Kebra Negast to the 14th century, but it retells the stories of much earlier Biblical times, one very important story in particular. According to the Kebra Negast, the Israelites' Ark of the Covenant was spirited away to the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia by wise King Solomon's own son, offspring of the union between Solomon and the exotic Queen Makeda of Ethiopia (a.k.a. the Queen of Sheba). Gerald Hausman, a consummate storyteller of native traditions, presents the core narrative of the Kebra Negast, from Adam to the rise of the Ethiopian Solomonid dynasty. On top of this, he injects his own encounters with Rastafarians during his travels in Jamaica--dreadlocked Rastas as modern-day Samsons, their unwavering faith in Jah, and a rare outsider's glimpse at the Nyabinghi ceremony. The combination of ancient tale and modern belief give Hausman's Kebra Negast the rich flavor of enduring truth. --Brian Bruya

Book Description

The Lost Bible of Rastafarian Wisdom and Faith from Ethiopia and Jamaica.

Customer Reviews:

VERY INSPIRATIONAL!.......2006-07-12

This book is an excellent read. I did not want to put down. It explained alot of what I felt was a bit unexplained in the bible. I have not finished the book yet but i Highly recommend it.

Decent Buy.......2006-05-05

I got this book a while back. It's a very nice book if you have a bad attention span, and you need what your reading to be simple. If your looking for the in depth historical version, then this probably won't be the book for you, but if you're looking for a real good Light reading, then this might be a good purchase.

A must read.......2002-06-04

The Kebra Negast is a must read for anyone on the path of black consciousness and understanding the truth of our place in the Bible. Reading the Kebra Negast really helped me understand Rastafari, I hate that I completed the book I wanted more. I wished women played a larger role and that the interpretation of doing God's will was a bit less damning like in all religions.

Let the reader beware.......2001-09-13

This version is not to be confused with the classic text of Ethiopian religion/mythology of the same name. This version contains excerpts from the classical ancient text and combines it with anecdotes and sayings of rasafarianism, which is itself a recent concept dating back to the days of Selassie's coronation in 1930 (another story altogther). Basically, this version tries to connect the classic text with modern rastafarianism. If you're interested in rastafarianism, you can go ahead with this. But if you're interested in an English translation of the actual Kebra Nagast (Glory of Kings), see the E.A. Wallace Budge translation or the Miguel Brooks translation.

Interesting read.......2001-04-21

My husband bought this right after he heard about it. He is heavily into Rastafarianism and wanted to check it out. He read the book in two days and has since lent it to several friends. If you are into this kind of stuff, it offers a lot of info on the culture and outlook.

Average customer rating:

highly speculative and non-scientific
Not as good as It could be
Sun has a twin ?
A must-have book for any thoughtful reader
Lost Star--Dark Star?

Lost Star of Myth And Time
Walter Cruttenden
Manufacturer: St. Lynn's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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Unexplained Mysteries | Occult | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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The Great Year
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Civilization One: The World Is Not as You Thought It Was

ASIN: 0976763117

Book Description

The myth and folklore of ancestral peoples around the world hints at a vast cycle of time, with alternating Dark and Golden Ages. Plato called it the Great Year. Long believed to be a fairytale, there is now new astronomical evidence to show it has a basis in fact. Moreover, because it is caused by the acceleration of our Sun around another star, we learn that the Earth should soon be carried into a region of space that will have a beneficial affect on our atmosphere, nudging mankind into a higher age of consciousness.

Lost Star of Myth and Time weaves together some of the latest archaeological evidence with cutting-edge astronomy to reveal a history of the world that finally fits with myth, folklore and the archaeological record. While this book explores some of the most interesting aspects of a once advanced civilization that covered the Earth, it is really about what happens to the Earth and consciousness as our solar system moves through space in the mysterious motion known as the "precession of the equinox". This astronomical phenomenon has since Newton been attributed to local gravitational forces wobbling the Earth's axis. Lost Star now shows us in no uncertain terms that the Earth's axis does not change orientation relative to objects inside the solar system at the same rate that it changes orientation to objects outside the solar system, meaning precession must be due to our Sun's binary motion around another star.

Chapter by chapter it becomes clear that ancient cultures knew of precession, used it as the clock of the ages, understood it to be due to the solar system's motion through space, and realized this subjects the Earth to a cycle of waxing and waning stellar influences. It is these forces that affect our magnetosphere, ionosphere and indirectly create the larger seasons of the Great Year. As you will see this not only gives cause for a major rethink of human history and potential, but indicates we are approaching a tipping point in the awakening of consciousness.

Customer Reviews:

highly speculative and non-scientific.......2007-09-26

What defines civilization? Is it the magnitude of knowledge, or tools, or transportation, or commodities, or peace, or all of these? Some writers have postulated the easiest method to ascertain a civilization's height is sift through their garbage dumps. There is some predisposition to believe a civilization is more developed if the refuse shows signs of complexity in art or construction technique. Archeologists have sought in vain to find records in the dust bearing the knowledge of deceased civilizations. The best they have found is records of commerce or letters between merchants or rulers.

Walter Cruttenden makes a pretty good case for our sun being a companion star in a binary or trinary system. And he presents some curious research on the finer influence of energy upon living tissue. But the idea of information stored in rocks or the earth's surface stretches credulity. The storage of information involves the imprinting of specific, organized patterns. To date, no one has noticed patterns of any kind (geological phenomena aside) residing or emitted from rocks or soil. I submit that the mark of a truly advanced civilization is it's ability to record and PRESERVE its knowledge for future generations. What would be the point of life if what is learned is carried to the grave? Isaac Asimov wrote an interesting story of a world which self-destructed caused by superstition, each time all the planets and moons occulted the sun. After a great number of cycles some information was preserved, enough that those of learning could disseminate to subsequent generations the discovery of the cause for periodic occultation, as well as the technical knowledge gained since the previous conflagration.

Mankind, in order to survive, must have transportation. The nomadic way of life has never produced a culture or civilization of advanced degree. It may contain a significant body of knowledge, but the passing of that knowledge verbally and by myth are the least effective of tools. The Ancients Walter speaks of may have had some knowledge of mathematics, astronomy, and various technologies, but they certainly weren't highly developed when it comes to technology, nor do they evidence anything of the Calculus we have today.

The Ice Man of 3500 BC may have owned an axe of highly refined tool grade copper, but did that knowledge die with him? Where are the others like it? Today we may not know how to refine and harden copper to that level, but apparently that knowledge was not widely disseminated by the Ancients either.

Did these Ancients levitate all those giant megaliths around like Tibetan monks in meditation? The scientific investigation into Stonehenge shows that those stones were moved by raw muscle-power which was destructive to bone and sinew. The Sumerians may have had beautiful gardens, sewers, tools of metal, medical technique, and the wheeled cart. They also had war. But none of it was as highly developed as we have today. No evidence has come forth demonstrating widespread education, high technologies in metals, glass, oil derivatives, medicine, art, and transportation. All of these advancements over the basic knowledge the Ancients had have happened in less than 200 years. It is exceedingly difficult to overlay this explosive growth with the Cycle of the Ages as Walter presents it. It doesn't fit the gradual cycle curve controlled by an interlaced binary companion star.

We may have lost some of the ancient knowledge of more refined energies, but no civilization of the past can rival the developments in knowledge dissemination and preservation, technology and artistic materials as we have today. Where is the evidence that a Pavaroti could be heard and observed not only in real time thousands of miles distant, but repeatedly as often as desired? Where is there evidence that man has brought back soil from the Moon, along with the technology to transport him there and back? Where is there evidence that the Golden Age of the Ancients had pictures of the surface of Mars, of asteroidal impacts upon Jupiter, of those tiny light sources in the sky really being galaxies of endless number as far as we can see?

The Ancients may have known many things we have yet to discover. The Spinx and Giza pyramid may forever remain a mystery as to how, when, and why they were constructed. But their "Golden" civilization does not hold a candle to the opportunities of learning, mobility, health, and leisure of today. It has been estimated that 70% of all the people who have lived on this earth are alive today. Surely, we do not know the extent of population on the earth back 10,000 years and more. But this merely begs the point: any advanced civilization will leave a trail of evidence indicating that of all advancements, chief will be reliable record keeping. The Egyptians will remain embarrassed over the mystery of the Sphinx and Pyramids. Ralph Ellis can go rooting around the north slope of K2 for the fabled Hall of Records. But the pattern that has emerged to date indicates no knowledge more advanced than we have today lies anywhere on this planet, nor were there ever any people who had greater comforts and self-fulfillment than today. Nor were they able to preserve their "advanced" knowledge against the Decline.

I'll trade the stone commode or bath-house for a modern flusher and sauna in a thermally efficient, heated room. If the Ancients were masters at canals and waterways it couldn't be due to unwillingness to use advanced technology over stone building. Walter claims there is evidence of widespread prosperity, but that is an unwarranted conclusion about a culture based on digs. I'll take the modern instruments used to do cranial surgery (which replaces the entire bone in its original location) over the crude Egyptian trephine any day.

Walter contradicts himself in many places trying to fit the eccentric binary orbit into the gradual loss and accretion of knowledge. He attempts to account for the changes in life span via the precession cycle, without investigating research into the errors in the Bible and his other sources of ancient longevity. It is amazing in one place he can assert that Terra Preta pottery is more than 10,000 years old, yet high tech metals, plastics, glass, and ceramics couldn't possibly last for more than a few hundred years. Archeologists dig up clay inscripted tablets from several thousand years back which are still legible! The obvious conclusion points to the absence of such technologies because nothing like ours has ever existed in the past. To assert that the Ancients figured out how to recycle any advanced metals, glass, plastic and chemicals back into the earth without a trace and learned to live without it is absurd. Nearly in the same breath he points to evidence of metal working discovered inside coal and stone, and stone blocks in an Oklahoma coal mine that survived several millennia. His stroll through the beaches and bluffs of southern California finding assorted trash is hardly equivalent to unearthing evidence of civilization several meters into the earth like Mexico City, the Cave of a Thousand Buddhas, and a thousand other digs.

The main subject Walter overlooks in his presentation is the prevalence of war in all ages. We have not found evidence of any civilization in ancient times without it. Walter also does not mention the Caste systems of India and China which extends back into the Golden Age he so glorifies. Nor does he treat in detail civilizations declining because of catastrophism. People who build with stone (megalithic or otherwise) don't recover from severe climate changes or deluges in short order.

While Walter presents reasonable and cogent research by professional scientists, his own approach is not scientific. Like much of the phony astronomical science of today, Walter has his process backwards, and leads the reader to believe that our world civilization's decline and rise are explained by association of Precession with ancient myth and folklore (ancient "science"). To him it is a forgone conclusion.

His book contains many interesting discoveries. But his speculations, assumptions, and premature conclusions simply do not hold as an explanation for the fall and rise of this planet's civilizations.

Not as good as It could be.......2007-08-08

When I first read the synopsis of this book, I thought this is the book I always wanted to write.
After reading it I can summarize my feeling in just one word: disappointment. This book is about the connection between the cosmic cycles of the traditions and the precession. According to Walter Cruttenden there must be a companion star out-there. Why? First: because there are some astronomical problems with the precession (for more details see: "Binary Research Institute" web-page). Second: this is a chance to give material reason of the ascending and descending ages (golden, silver, bronze, iron). How: via electro-magnetic waves. If the companion stars nears our Sun we become enlightened, when it goes away we fall into the dark age. (Sounds weird?)
The other planet hypothesis is not new, but mostly scientifically unproved. The best theory I have ever read is from Woelfli and Baltensperger. This book is contains some vague predictions about the size and distance of this object, but the Sirius would be the perfect fit (as the book suggests). Only some very new laws of the universe should be discovered, and we will understand the importance of Sirius in ancient mythologies.
Until then I will have time to write my own book.
Anyway, this is not a bad book, it's like a work of Graham Hancock. Terra Preta was the most interesting for me, that would be worth a book on it's own.

Sun has a twin ?.......2007-03-09

I was little bit sceptic when i order this book from Amazon. Lost STAR ? huh, this is ridiculous. So i start reading and page after page it take my attention. I pass whole "Accepting truth" process during first chapters. Author did extraordinary work, collecting those facts/ideas/myths. It is easy to read, easy to understand, so don't be affraid about the flood of facts. Author really know his customers (readers). So everything is served well.
I love part about the "Yugas"( world ages ), but maybe some of the parts are little bit short, i was missing some of the major ideas/facts about the ages. I understand it was not the main line of the book, but for some not well informed readers it might be little bit "vonDaniken" style.
But i really recommend this book to all 2012 scientists and researchers.

A must-have book for any thoughtful reader.......2007-01-10

Certainly one of the best books that I've read in recent years. Extraordinarily thoughtful review of the evidence that indicates that energy provided by the sun and its twin star affects our intelligence. In turn, this cyclical variation in intelligence results in cycles of dark ages followed by golden ages. Words fail me as I try to describe this remarkable book. Most highly recommended.

Lost Star--Dark Star?.......2006-09-08

Walter Cruttenden,
Lost Star of Myth and Time
(St. Lynn's Press, Pittsburgh) 2005
Paperback, xxii+340 pages
ISBN 0-9767631-1-7

Andy Lloyd
The Dark Star
(Timeless Voyager, Santa Barbara) 2005
Paperback, xiv+304 pages
ISBN 1-892264-18-8

Critiqued by Frederic Jueneman

Here is a pair of scenarios, very old ones in many respects, to be sure, but motifs that take the reader on multidisciplinary journeys through space and time, of history and cosmology, and of culture and tradition. Regular readers of such literature will find that all of these groups plow pretty much in the same celestial fields. Notwithstanding, in a somewhat eclectic exposition one author (Cruttenden) come uncomfortably close to what this reviewer regards as new age occultism. But then, don't we all take a lot of things on faith and hope.
Cruttenden himself is a nonprofessional archeo-astronomer who builds and relies on earlier authors, both contemporary and historical, as well as assembling his own cache of mythic material to fortify his case that our Sun is part of a double-star system which orbits one another in approximately the same period as the Precession of the Equinox--a polar retrograde wobble of Earth currently figured at 25,770 years. Moreover, as the most original concept in the book, the author argues that the binary motions and gravitational influence of the two-star system cause the precession itself.
In like manner, science writer Andy Lloyd takes inspiration from Zecharia Sitchin's ancient Babylonian interpretations although with marked reservations, while also delving into myth and alternative science. Yet he generally tends to follow es¬tablishment guidelines in giving credence to his argument for a solar binary system. His major theme is based on the cliff-like Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt of asteroidal objects and comets that drops off rather precipitously beyond some 45 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun--one AU being the Earth-Sun distance--a gap that ostensibly extends several hundred AU to the inner boundary of the the¬oretical comet-filled Oort Cloud beyond.
The Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt was initially proposed in 1943 by the British researcher Kenneth Edgeworth and later resurrected by American as¬tronomer Gerard Kuiper in 1951. This gap is argumentatively considered by Lloyd to be swept out by what might eventually be found to be a so-called brown dwarf star and its retinue of planetesimals, which have yet to be observed.
Such brown dwarfs were first theoretically described by radioastronomer Jill Tartar in 1975 as small, very dense and dim planet-like stars, which are radiating mainly in the infrared. They were called "brown" to differentiate them from the already designated black, red, and white dwarfs, although brown dwarfs were ultimately found to glow magenta to reddish.
Cruttenden's book, on the one hand, despite being replete with physical phenomena and apocalyptic mythology, also attempts to reinforce his earlier mercantile DVD exposé with additional detail from mythic and mystic lore by enumerating and expanding on the four stages of the Yuga ages: The primeval Kali Yuga, typifying the dark age of iron from which we have just emerged in the endless Hindu cycles of time, and our now having recently entered into the Dwapara Yuga, or bronze age, with the increasingly enlightening Treta and Satya Yugas, of the respective silver and golden ages, still some thousands of years ahead in the distant future. Our increased enlighten¬ment is apparently predicated on this approaching Lost Star, which endows mankind with field-induced expanded mental capacity. There are ascending and descending phases of these ages, the divya or half-yugas that comprise something over 12,000 years each, delineating the half-cycles of the equinoctial precession: The rise and fall of mankind's intellectual proclivities.
The Lost Star spends an inordinate number of pages on the significance of these ages on human culture, where a high point in human capacity and competence was reached some 11,500 years ago, and has gone downhill ever since, or at least until the end of the medieval period just a few centuries ago. According to Cruttenden, the lowest point--the Kali Yuga--was from about 700 BCE to around 500 CE; however, no allowance was made for the global renaissance of the 6th century BCE, where religious, philosophical, and intelletual thought burgeoned throughout the civilized world; a flourishing which gave rise to the received wisdom of India. Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece. This may have been an aberration according to his scenario, but the excep¬tion does test the rule.
This is where the two authors differ, in that Lloyd is less enthusiastic than Cruttenden about the mysticism surrounding recorded events in human history. However, both authors do pay tribute to Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, who themselves had furrowed their pioneering groundwork of mythic lore by highlighting the Precession of the Equinoxes, and who also complained, "It goes without saying that the still more modern habit of replacing `culture' with `society' has blocked the last narrow path to understanding history. Our ignorance not only remained vast, but became pretentious as well."
Both of our authors under review bemoan the fact that astronomical ardor doesn't include many who, either through ignorance or hubris, even bother to consider an otherwise "unknown" or "unseen" massive companion to our solar system in the light of mounting evidence, other than minuscule icy worlds such as the recently discovered Quaoar, Sedna and Varuna, inter alia. But, as we all know, tradition is a very viscous medium.
Late 19th and early 20th century cosmologists, who had studied the perturbations on Uranus and relatively newly discovered Neptune (1846), determined that beyond these planets there was another massive body disturbing their motions; but, the discovery of tiny Pluto in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh didn't account for the expected discrepancy, although Voyager 2 in 1969 supposedly settled the cosmological question by assigning Neptune a greater mass than was previously reported.
Only Lloyd referred to the earlier research of the late Hughes Aircraft mathematician John P. Bagby, assisted by his wife Loretta L. Bagby, who were intrigued by planetary perturbations that seemed to indicate what they termed a Massive Solar Companion (MSC), situated out of the plane of the ecliptic in the direction of Sagittarius. Bagby, who was well known to this reviewer, initially and tentatively proposed this MSC back in 1972 but only formally and obliquely published his results some years later in a study related to earthquake periodicity. However, his investigation seemed to indicate that such an MSC, or perhaps a distributed mass in Lagrangian orbits, might be also located in the direction of Sirius. Bagby postulated Lagrange distributions for several of the orbital parameters, which much like the Trojans in Jupiter's orbit may either lead or lag the gas giant by 60°.
Sagittarius, however, would turn out to be a "star-crossed" option since it is well within our most abundant view of the Milky Way galaxy, which leaves astronomers looking into the headlights of millions of stars that would make finding a dim body among such stellar traffic toilsome at best. The latest IRAS (InfraRed Astronomical Survey) satellite exploration of the heavens showed an excess of 200,000 dim suns within relatively short telescopic range that are available for study. So, where do those who want to look decide to seek such a candidate star? In the other direction, of course, where there isn't quite so much glare. The comparatively open celestial sectors of Orion or Canis Major will do nicely.
Interestingly, one of Bagby's major postulated orbits had a period of 1467.6 years, which is uncannily close to the so-called Egyptian Sothic period of some 1460 years, which makes an enticingly roundabout connection with Sirius. This reviewer had corresponded at length with Bagby over this observation, and subsequently copies of his summary were distributed to his colleagues.
Sirius, in Canis Major, visible in winter months just to the left (east) of Orion in the celestial sphere, turns out to be a candidate "lost" star for Cruttenden's argument, despite its 8.6 lightyear distance and -1.43 magnitude brilliance, making it the brightest nighttime star in the heavens. It is Cruttenden's nominee for a root cause of Earth's precession, because of some residual resonant effect, as well as Sirius' own unique proper motion. It is this singular proper motion, which remarkably is in the direction of our own locale in the galaxy that keeps it almost stationary over the centuries in its annual heliacal rising despite its gradual transit across the constellations.
Sirius has risen heliacally on almost the same Julian date for the past 4000 years, and is currently moving out of Canis Major. Here, however, Cruttenden makes an oblique reference to the calendar reform of Julius Caesar, whereas the Julian calendar used in the astronomical community was devised by Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609), whose own calendar reform was published in 1583, one year after the Gregorian amendment devised by the Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius was instituted by Pope Gregory XIII. Scaliger's formula, however, using days instead of years, is called the Julian Day Count--a practice still in use by astronomers today and named after his father, Julius Caesar Scaliger.
Both authors had scrutinized ancient literature, which claimed that in ancient times this star was red in color, which Sirius currently is definitely not. However, up until about 500 AD, observers did record Sirius as reddish in color. If, in counter-argument, it had been something akin to Betelgeuse, which is a bloated bright red-orange star of 0.7 magnitude in Orion, north and somewhat west of Sirius, then sometime in the distant future we may be treated to a shedding of its reddish envelope, exposing a bright white star within.
As an aside, an intriguing point was made by Cruttenden that Sirius' own incredibly dense white dwarf companion, Sirius B, orbits in front of its parent star every 50 years, which it did in 1989 as observed and recorded by Canadians Karl-Heinz and Uwe Homann, and as it did so Earth's daily rotation slowed down by a full second over the course of this transit, returning to normal after the event. If this is found to be verified, then it also appears to suggest that gravitational waves travel at light velocity as well. However, we won't have this particular opportunity again until around 2039.
The Dogon peoples in West Africa had their legend about a massive diminutive and unseen companion of Sirius that had a 50-year relationship with the parent star, supposedly well before it was known to astronomers, according to historian Robert Temple. In the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, our hero has a dream in which he is drawn to a heavy star that cannot be lifted--an indirect reference to Sirius B.
One might also speculate that, by the mechanism of "accretion disk accumulation," the massive gravity of the dwarf Sirius B may have stripped its parent of a conjectured red envelope within own our historical past, fomenting a nova, and revealing the brilliant star we see today. This, moreover, is in contrast and contradiction to what Cruttenden described. We might not expect this of the red giant Betelgeuse, since it doesn't seem to have such a dense companion. But since Sirius does, it leaves open the question: Could Sirius actually have under¬one such a nova event within our own recorded historical past? Say, prior to 500 AD?
Cruttenden also makes the point that the Sun's angular momentum is almost entirely tied up in its planetary family, and argues that this runs counter to known physical laws for a solitary stellar body, but bodes favorably for a binary system where such momentum is focused and normalized with another gravitational source. The period of revolution for our binary is considered equivalent to the Precession of the Equinox, based on the resonant effect due to the angular curvature of the mutually orbiting systems, and which is the crux of Cruttenden's hypothesis.
Others, as UC Berkeley physicist Richard A. Muller, who also opt for a binary star system of our very own, prefer a 26-million-year orbit, because over Earth's geological history there have been periodic upheavals and extinctions coincident with this cycle. This is the "Nemesis" star of media note, although Muller thought that it might be a red or brown dwarf. Lloyd is more modest in his reasoning for a 3600-year orbit, more in keeping with Zecheria Sitchin's scenario, thereby keeping it within the confines of the Oort cloud within our own outer solar system, and sweeping out the void beyond the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt. (This reviewer may have to rescan some of Sitchin's endless writings to see if something critically important was inadvertently missed.)
Evidence for high-culture ancient civilizations abound in both the Old World and Asia. This is in addition to ley lines, stonehenges of various sorts, earthenwork mounds and pyramids scattered around the globe, and foundations of cities with no apparent prior historic past, such as found in Sumer. And, since the discoveries of Cornell geologist Charles F. Hartt in 1871, such evidence also surfaced in South America. The extremely rich, renewable soil of myriads of scattered pockets of what is termed Terre Preta do Indio (Indian Black Earth) throughout Amazonia, from Bolivia to Venezuela, has made archeologists sit up and take notice. While most of the Amazon basin is infertile "green desert," known as Oxisol, some ten percent comprises this extremely valuable and sought-after productive loam, which is also characterized by the multi-stratigraphic inclusion of abundant ceramic shards that indicate a sophisticated fire-savvy culture as early as 9000 BCE. This is in contrast, for example, to ancient abattoirs found by archeologists around the world, who indiscriminately consider them to be ritual sacrificial sites by primitive peoples who were overly concerned with religious practices.
If ancient Old and New World civilizations had been decimated by some periodic global cataclysms, it doesn't augur happily for Cruttenden's prognostication of the upcoming ages of enlightenment coinciding with the pending approach of another stellar body nearer to our solar system. But notwithstanding, if Cruttenden and Lloyd, and Muller as well, are all justified in their estimations, perhaps we are not merely a member of a binary star system, but conceivably part of a ternary or even a multiple star complex.
The Sumero-Babylonian astronomers and scribes, who had meticulously recorded disasters as they were observed, aren't given much credence by today's know-it-alls, who relegate most all such "myths" to the dustbins of legendary history. The Jesuit scholar Francis X. Kugler, who pioneered the study of ancient "star wars" (sternkampf) did give these ancients some credit, but seems to be ignored except for a few researchers outside the pale of academic science and history. Kugler's two-volume opus, Sternkunde und Sterndienst in Babel ("Astrography and Astralatry in Babylon"--literally, star-mapping and star-worship), did nevertheless question the competence of Mesopotamian astronomers before the reign of Nabonassar in the mid-8th century BCE because of anomalies in their calculations, but before he died left the door open for further investigation. And, Zecheria Sitchin evidently was also influenced by and receptive to these anomalies mentioned by Kugler, resulting in his aggregation of books on the subject, which ideas were later taken up by Lloyd with alternative explanations. Cruttenden is otherwise occupied with Great Cycles over the ages.
Nibiru, of Sumerian myth, is the name of the red star that entered the ancient Mesopotamian night sky, and was equated with Marduk, the god supreme of Sumer. Was this red star the Surya of Sanskrit texts, the Sothis of the Greeks, the Sopdet of the Egyptians, the Al Shi'ra of the Arab world, the Lost Star of Cruttenden, the Dark Star of Lloyd, the Venus of Velikovsky?
There are many more such mysteries to be solved, both here on Earth and in our night skies. And, both Cruttenden and Lloyd have given us something of an awareness of the interdisciplinary aspects of approaching some of these mythic enigmas from widely differing, sometimes opposing, and of course puzzling perspectives. Accordingly, this overlapping critique is basically in consideration of both of these interesting if not persuasive books. However, although each is recommended for their individual merits, this reviewer suggests that each potential reader make up his or her own mind as to which author comes closest to one's own personal inclination.

The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money - The Story of Power

Average customer rating:

Regarding Thomas Greco's Review
Massive historical detail with a cogent message
If you only read one book about money this is the one.
The History of Money Redeemed
A good historical perspective but little science or solution

The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money - The Story of Power
Stephen A. Zarlenga
Manufacturer: Amer Monetary Inst Charitable Trust
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Binding: Library Binding

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Customer Reviews:

Regarding Thomas Greco's Review.......2005-09-05

I believe that "The Lost Science of Money" is a very well written, serious, and thorough book. If you can't afford the cost based upon reviews then check it out of a library first, and judge for your self.

Please, note that Greco's review is by an author(Greco himself) who is sideways attempting to promote his own book ("Money") by pulling Down Zarlenga's book. Yes, Stephen Zarlenga does not delve deeply into alternative and community based currencies in these current times, but the basis for a solid understanding of monetary history and principles is fully accessible and clearly written, unlike Greco's exercise in muddling through without an outline.

Massive historical detail with a cogent message.......2004-11-18

This book provides a huge service to understanding one of the most central and powerful artifacts in human civilization: money. The brilliance of Zarlenga's treatment of this subject and what makes it stand out from others, is that while including massive historical detail and richness, he brings a cogent message about money that anyone (viz. the non-specialist) can walk away with. And it is, that money systems are designed by the intelligence of humans and established and empowered through a collective authority. Thus, the more all of society understands money and willingly participates in backing its authority, the greater the possibility that it will serve all people, and not private elites who may be tempted to structure its design in their favor. This single human innovation - money - has many alternative ways of being socially constructed and politically established as a means of exchange. Get the design right, and the quality of life for all people can be dramatically altered. The structural design of money will directly affect the degree to which individual market action will be morally and socially responsible. Getting the money system right can lead to the alignment of individual and collective action of people. This understanding that money is a human-specified tool (and not some mystical object that we all use but don't really know where it came from or how it works) is so important in birthing a new awareness around emergent economic and market behavior. To me, this kind of writing is a great examplar of how economics should be performed: taking a historical perspective to see what worked and what didn't work. The metaphysical clap-trap around money, as well as the professional economist's mathematical obfuscations are avoided. Seeing it for what it truly is - a designable artifact - is really the gift of this study. Highly recommended, and in my recent reading, complements Kevin Phillips', Wealth and Democracy.

If you only read one book about money this is the one........2004-11-13

Having read numerous books on the issues of money systems I can say without equivocation this is the best by far of any I have come across including many of the Austrian economics books and those by Rothbard. All of them have their perspectives but Zarlenga's work and conclusions are a synthesis from history, well documented, and ring true on deep gut level. He makes his case very well and there is no hype or misplaced emotion as there are in many works on the money issues. Taken as a history book alone I would give the book 5 stars. Too many people, including me, have been ignorant of the historical roots of money and Zarlenga helps us to learn the dramas, political games, and debasement of money systems through the ages. It is fascinating and shocking story. What is taking place in the world now, including the Federal Reserve and World Bank is a slight variation of the historical power struggles over the control of money that go back thousands of years. The most informative issues that come out of this work is the history of gold and silver as money and how they are fiat currencies just like any other proclaimed currency. The money powers, governments, and kings have at various times decreed gold to be money (fiat) as they stood to benefit from it. Yes, gold can't be created out of nothing but it is just as fiat as a dollar bill. As a defender of the gold standard I have to admit that my notions of the gold standard have been flipped upside down even though I have read many of the Mises Institutes books. I can't say that a commodity-based money may not be useful or that the connection between paper money and its basis in gold adds integrity to the system but I do believe now that the issues is not black and white, gold or paper money. What Zarlenga elegantly makes clear is that all money, short of direct barter of goods, has always been a creature of law, i.e. someone decrees it so. As such it is open to abuse and perversion. The book, Subtitled " The Mythology of Money, the Story of Power", does a great service in taking the mythology issues and presenting them in a factual and understandable way. What I like about this book is it is common sense, down to earth, expertly researched and presented in a way that avoids the curse of too much economics jargon and pseudo-science. Money is not particle physics and it is an issue that touches each and every one of us every day. Money has, and continues to shape culture and the direction of life. Leaving the control of money, which seems to me to function as a sort of cultural economic DNA, to a private and secretive group of world elites is a recipe for life out of balance on all levels. It invites exploitation and abuse and as history show there has been much of that concerning the control of money.

Regarding the comments from a prior reviewer of the book who was somewhat critical of the work I disagree with his comment that the book does not give specific solutions. I got the sense that the reviewer wanted economic equations and esoteric pogroms that he could espouse as a scientific look at money. Money, at its roots is no more scientific than sex. Sure, you can define sex with all the science in the world but the gist of it is personal and well known to all of us. People get heated up over the issue of sex and everyone has an opinion. Money is no exception and taking the understanding and control of money and wrapping it up in academic polemics is simply a way to convince us that we need accredited experts to help us. Try that with sex and see what happens. The kinds of solutions that are needed are social and political. Zarlengas effort was not to micro-manage the topic but to show us the lay of the land and give us the broader concepts and tools to regain the control of societies money. It belongs to all of us and is part and parcel to human life and commerce. Just as "We The People" are the foundation and source of the authority for our constitution, we should also be the foundation and final arbiter of our money system. There is little difference between a dictatorship of the societal political process or the societal money process. Concentrated in the hands of the few leads to perverse distortion and societal destruction.

In my 50 years or so of life I have only a handful of books that I think are must-reads and this is one of them. With three sons all out of college and in their twenties this is one of the books I am getting for each of them to read. It is that important. I give this book 5 stars. It is a tour de force of excellent research and common sense analysis.

The History of Money Redeemed.......2004-11-02

After a decade-plus of intensive research in the monetary arena, Stephen Zarlenga has authored a book titled "The Lost Science of Money." It is a truly monumental work that, I believe, reconstitutes the history of money, and the essence of its nature, in a way that does not, and might not ever, otherwise exist. It documents this crucial, but long neglected field of study, in a manner that does justice to the finest standards of scholarship, while at the same time rendering in a subject that in lesser hands might produce a tedious tome, a lively narrative that is accessible to the interested layman. It is a good read; a page-turner even. It paints a sensitive and intelligent historical panorama that transcends the gaudier narrations of wars, rulers and empires commonly proffered by more orthodox historians. To state that it constitutes an urgently needed service to the human race is more understatement than hype. It provides the intellectual basis for comprehending the monetary undercurrent that has shaped and driven civilization. It is simply not possible to realize who we are, how we got here, and the options for the future without an understanding of what is delineated in this epic work.

A good historical perspective but little science or solution.......2004-09-26

- A Book Review by Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
The Lost Science of Money: The Mythology of Money - the Story of Power by Stephen Zarlenga
(The American Monetary Institute, PO Box 601, Valatie, NY, 2002. Hardcover, 724 pages. ISBN 1-930748-03-5)

Zarlenga's book attempts to do two things, first, to describe the dimensions of the "money problem" by tracing its roots, not only in economics and finance, but also in ethics, religion, and politics; and second, to prescribe, in broad outline at least, a solution. In the first instance it is mostly successful, but in the second, it falls far short.

This massive treatise (more than 700 pages) recounts the history of money from early times, providing an interesting historical overview based on a wide variety of sources. It is a scholarly, well researched, and insightful account of the evolution of money, banking, and finance, in which the author argues that "a main arena of human struggle is over the monetary control of societies..," and shows how the money power has historically rivaled that of governments. All that is well and good; the story of money IS the story of power, and the author tells it well. It is, indeed unfortunate that few people today realize the important political implications that are inherent in the control over money and banking, or that such control has typically been in the hands of elite private interests. This well researched history goes a long way toward clearing away the fog that has enshrouded that bastion of privilege.

The title promises to tell us about "the lost science of money," but there is little in it that would qualify as scientific. The author's subtitle, "The Mythology of Money - The Story of Power," would have been far more appropriate as a title. While I can appreciate the author for the major contribution he has made to our understanding of the evolution of money, banking, and centralized power, I must also say that the conclusions he draws and his proposed reforms are less than helpful.

It is not until the very last chapter that we see anything of proposed solutions. That is just as well, for his reform proposals are ill considered and anything but original, directing us into another blind alley of centralized control.

In a mere 28 pages, he manages to dismiss every other approach to a solution which he has ever heard of, then propose that the money monopoly be reestablished under new management. He gives short shrift to the whole alternative exchange movement - mutual credit clearing associations, LETS, and community currencies, and, does not even mention the commercial "barter" industry, thus revealing that he has not yet educated himself about the essential nature of the exchange process, contemporary methods, and the possibilities offered by voluntary, popular, and private approaches.

His critique of the "free money" movement covers less than a single page. If Zarlenga has any knowledge at all of the free money and free banking theories, it is not apparent. Likewise, his critique of the local currency movement is similarly uninformed. Again, in less than a page he dismisses it as worse than irrelevant, seeing it as a distraction from the "real" work of reform (the centralist, government-oriented approach).

His approach is both reformist and centralist, and shows no appreciation for the role of scale in making the system dysfunctional in the first place. Nor does he offer any strategy for achieving the massive reform he proposes. Having described so carefully the corrupting effects that result from centralizing the money power, it is curious that the author asks us to accept it when under the control of politicians and bureaucrats. Does he not see that the political and financial elites are in cahoots, and indeed are the same people.

Well, no one volume can hope to be competent in addressing all aspects of a problem, so we should appreciate this book for what it is rather than condemn it for what it isn't. Despite it's shortcomings, this is an important book. In sum, it is an admirable contribution to our understanding of power dynamics in today's world, and the singular importance of the democratization of the monetary power to enabling lives of dignity, freedom, and fulfillment for all.
# # #

Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America: Lost History And Legends, Unearthed And Explored

Average customer rating:

Ridiculous conspiracy theories based on facts
Authentic Ancient American History
excellent seller and product
Discovering Mysteries
Be Realistic In Your Analysis...

Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America: Lost History And Legends, Unearthed And Explored

Manufacturer: New Page Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Before the Pharaohs: Egypt's Mysterious Prehistory
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ASIN: 1564148424

Book Description

The nursery rhyme begins, "In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Less well-known is the line that follows: "…to learn if the old maps were true." How can there be "old maps" of a land no one knew existed? Were others here before Columbus? What were their reasons for coming and what unexplained artifacts did they leave behind?

The oceans were highways to America rather than barriers, and when discoverers put ashore, they were greeted by unusual inhabitants. In Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America, the author of The Atlantis Encyclopedia turns his sextant towards this hemisphere. Here is a collection of the most controversial articles selected from seventy issues of the infamous Ancient American magazine. They range from the discovery of Roman relics in Arizona and California's Chinese treasure, to Viking rune-stones in Minnesota and Oklahoma and the mysterious religions of ancient Americans. Many questions will be raised including:

What role did extraterrestrials have in the lives of ancient civilizations?

What ancient pyramids and towers tell us about the people who built them?

Are they some sort of portals to another dimension?

What prehistoric technologies have been discovered, and what can they tell us about early settlers, their religious beliefs, and possible other-worldly visitors?

Did El Dorado exist, and what of the legendary Fountain of Youth?

Was Atlantis in Cuba?

What are America's lost races and what happened to them?

Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America brings to the fore the once-hidden true past of America's earliest civilizations

Frank Joseph is the author of The Atlantis Encyclopedia (New Page Books), as well as a dozen other books on history, prehistory, and metaphysics. He has been the editor-in-chief of Ancient American magazine since its first issue in 1993. He lives in Wisconsin.

Wayne May is the founder-publisher of Ancient American. Laura Lee is the award-winning producer and host of the nationally syndicated "The Laura Lee Show". David Hatcher Childress wrote the best-selling Lost Cities series. Zecharia Sitchin is the author of the best-selling Earth Chronicles series. Andrew Collins is world-renowned for his consistent bestsellers, including Gateway to Atlantis.

Customer Reviews:

Ridiculous conspiracy theories based on facts.......2007-04-29

This book is a compilation of articles that take facts and add conjecture or speculation to arrive at a possible thesis.
The articles in this book are generally based on large leaps of faith which have little or no basis.
The editor, Frank Joseph, is from a historical conspiracy theory type magazine called Ancient American.
The book is a collection of articles from the magazine, printed in book form for a quick buck.
If you looked for this book in your local bookstore, you would most likely find it in the "new age" or "alternative history" section.
It is not possible to read this book as non-fiction because some of it is based on guesswork or patchwork history.
If fact and fiction are mixed, you have fiction, no matter how much fact is involved.
Unless you are a conspiracy theorist or you are looking for a book full of magazine articles of historical fiction, you can probably skip this one.
Some of the stories are interesting, but all are portrayted as journalism when they would more accurately be described as historical fiction.

Authentic Ancient American History.......2007-04-29

Finally, people aren't ignoring the evidence of pre-Columbus voyages to America. This change in thinking has been a long time coming. This book presents some of the most compelling evidences for the voyages and visits. Even skeptics will have a hard time putting this book down. See also: Columbus Was Last: From 200,000 BC to 1492, A Heretical History of Who Was First & The Island of Seven Cities: Where the Chinese Settled When They Discovered America

excellent seller and product.......2007-02-13

Item as described and received in a timely manner... an excellent buying experience!

Discovering Mysteries.......2007-01-03

This is exactly what I looked for. A collection of interesting articles, and among them strong evidences that the Vikings were in America before Columbus. Just what I was looking for. Great!

Be Realistic In Your Analysis..........2006-05-24

Childress' book cites numerous known abberations to the common perception that most relics and antiquities found in North America are of "native" cultural origin, and having these bits all in one place in one book is useful and entertaining. However, the speculation on aliens, portals, and Atlantis-type culture is, as always, tedious. Anyone can speculate and it is a writer's choice on how he or she chooses to speculate. The reader ,however, must be realistic in their analysis and truth behind the writer's speculation. If it is for entertainment purposes, the book and its speculations are wothwhile; if it is for actual information, the book is worth the price to read about the additional relics that have been found in North America that can really question our prevalent interpretations of North American history - however, the speculation on aliens and such is just that...entertainment value only. Early Mankind was a lot more innovative and flexible than people like Childress give them credit for - no use of aliens and portals is necessary to explain the historical evidence that is apparent in the antiquities record.

The Lost World of the Egyptian Jews: First-person Accounts from Egypt's Jewish Community In the Twentieth Century

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Fascinating history
A touching memorial

The Lost World of the Egyptian Jews: First-person Accounts from Egypt's Jewish Community In the Twentieth Century
Liliane S Dammond
Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

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The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World
Out of Egypt: A Memoir
Apricots on the Nile: A Memoir with Recipes
Sephardic and Mizrahi Jewry: From the Golden Age of Spain to Modern Times
The Septembers of Shiraz

ASIN: 0595399304

Book Description

Jews lived in Egypt without interruption since Biblical times. The community knew an apogee in the first half of 20th century. Political events during the second half of the 20th century caused the Jews to leave Egypt and disperse throughout the world. This book contains 28 interviews of middle class Egyptian Jews describing their life in Egypt in their own voices just before their final departure. They bring to life the charm and diversities of the lives they led with its many contradictions. A cosmopolitan life they shared with many other groups living in Egypt at that time.

"As a professional historian, I found the material of immense potential scholarly value. As a Jew who left Egypt during the 1956 Suez crisis, it touches me in a deep and personal way. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the forces that affect cultural dynamics, political conflict and, last but not least, human nature."

-Jean Marc R. Openheim, PHD

Teachers College, Columbia University

"We have been given an extraordinary gift in this compilation of poignant memories of an Egypt of long ago. These oral histories not only capture the rich way of life of Egyptian Jews, but they also inform of their caring for this land and its people."

-Nimet Habachy

Author, Broadcaster (WQXR)

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating history.......2007-04-11

The world of the Egyptian Jewish community would be lost to us if it were not for Lilliane Dammond's efforts to preserve their memories. Like it's authors, it reflects the emotions, issues and foibles relating to families, friends, and identity. I highly recommend it.

A touching memorial.......2007-03-31

In the first half of the 20th century the "foreign" communities in both Cairo and Alexandria had developed into a sophisticated, well educated group.
Following the creation of Israel in 1948, Arab nationalism expulsed and dispossesed this entire class of people. Many of these were Jews who were forced to leave, without their livelihood and savings.
More than a generation later, Lilianne Dammond has interviewed some of those who were obliged to create new lives for themselves in many new countries. These individuals recount their memories in the first person, lending a touch of pathos and affection to their wistful recollection of a country which ejected them.
It is a touching work, which I heartily recommend.

Average customer rating:

I am still waiting for the definitive book on Eva Braun
Can a fascist be a good lover?
Eva Braun
Kind of a Let Down
Eva, misunderstood

The Lost Life of Eva Braun
Angela Lambert
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 031236654X
Release Date: 2007-01-09

Customer Reviews:

I am still waiting for the definitive book on Eva Braun.......2007-08-13

OkOk I was really looking forward to reading this book, who wouldn't, talk about an interesting subject. Then I was hammered in the first few chapters when the author repeated the same information on David Irving ad nausea. Ok we get it, anyone reading a book on this topic knows about David Irving. It was too a point that I began to suspect that the author, actually thought that anyone reading this book must be an idiot, so she need to repeat the same information over and over again in the footnotes to hammer home a point. The treatment of Nerin E. Gun book was unwarranted and petty. I did not dislike the inclusion of her mother's experience in Germany during the Third Reich, although some aspects were a little overdone. I am still waiting for the definitive book on Eva Braun. The publisher bears much of the responsibility for the errors that occur and the inclusion of useless and/or repetitive information, which is why you need to employ editors.

Can a fascist be a good lover?.......2007-07-31

Eva really didn't leave any primary sources--just her photographs and home movies. There is a bit of a diary and a few letters. She was a photographer and had the best equipment of her day. She even developed and made prints. You can see close up and personal what a fool she was for love. The book is mainly based on hearsay evidence: old memories of people who were around at the time, all of whom are biased. Anything related to Hitler is a hot potato and the author handles the story gingerly interspercing it with memories of her own mother who lived in Germany at the time. The fact is Adolf and Eva finally got married 36 hours before they commited suicide together. I won't spoil the story by telling you any more facts. I liked the footnotes because they were short explanations.

Eva Braun.......2007-06-21

The author has given Eva Braun life through this book. Many readers may wonder Who was Eva Braun? How did she meet A. Hitler? What took place during their years together? and mainly Why did she remain with and die with Hitler? The reader will discover the answers to these questions while the book develops Eva's story and changes her from just a character to the real person she was.

Kind of a Let Down.......2007-04-16

I was excited when I purchased this book and continued to be iterested until about the third chapter when the author kept inserting her mother's life in with Eva's life. She seemed to try to find any little thing in common between the two and was trying to force an association that just wasn't there. It got extremely old very quickly. If she wanted to write a book about her mother, then write it. If she wanted to write about Eva Braun, leave the personal info out. This brings me to my next issue. I wanted to read a book about WWII, not about the author's personal political views on what is happening in the current time. I was flabergasted when I saw a comment about Lindy England (sp?) in the text. Many of these opinions appeared in the lengthy footnotes that appeared on every single page. Yet again, stick to the subject! She could have written three books out the ideas she crammed into this one book. The subject has great potential, but didn't deliver in the end. It has become long winded and is no longer keeping my interest. I would advise potential readers to just look up info on the internet and save your money for a better book.

Eva, misunderstood.......2007-03-20

I love biography's especially long ones with fascinating subjects. This one was more banal than the subject was. Admittedly Eva was not a rocket scientist, that is common knowledge , yet , the author's main intent seems to be to move us to sympathy for this kind, sweet, naive typical German woman who loved her man more than life and could HARDLY have done a thing even if she knew what was going on but certainly did not. whew. that was the entire message of the book, along with constant comparisons with the author's own mother who she seems to have confused and infused with the same sentimental romantic treatment of Eva Braun. I can forgive the author for her opinion of her mother but not of Eva Braun. The author dismisses eye witness accounts constantly. She will interject her own opinion on how the eye witness MUST have been mistaken because of an assumption she has made about Eva or Hitler or whatever the subject is.
This really was a dull, opinionated and completely subjective biography of one of the most infamous people in history. Eva misunderstood? i doubt it. I can't deny that i know more than i knew before of Eva, the issue is, i still don't know the important answers about her life, although i do know a great deal about her wardrobe.

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