Book Description
New York Times columnist Frank Rich examines the trail of fictions manufactured by the Bush administration from 9/11 to Hurricane Katrina, exposing the most brilliant spin campaign ever waged.
When America was attacked on 9/11, its citizens almost unanimously rallied behind its new, untested president as he went to war. What they didn't know at the time was that the Bush administration's highest priority was not to vanquish Al Qaeda but to consolidate its own power at any cost. It was a mission that could be accomplished only by a propaganda presidency in which reality was steadily replaced by a scenario of the White House's own invention-and such was that scenario's devious brilliance that it fashioned a second war against an enemy that did not attack America on 9/11, intimidated the Democrats into incoherence and impotence, and turned a presidential election into an irrelevant referendum on macho imagery and same-sex marriage.
As only he can, acclaimed New York Times columnist Frank Rich delivers a step-by-step chronicle of how skillfully the White House built its house of cards and how the institutions that should have exposed these fictions, the mainstream news media, were too often left powerless by the administration's relentless attack machine, their own post-9/11 timidity, and an unending parade of self-inflicted scandals (typified by those at The New York Times). Demonstrating the candor and conviction that have made him one of our most trusted and incisive public voices, Rich brilliantly and meticulously illuminates the White House's disturbing love affair with "truthiness," and the ways in which a bungled war, a seemingly obscure Washington leak, and a devastating hurricane at long last revealed the man-behind-the-curtain and the story that had so effectively been sold to the nation, as god-given patriotic fact.
Customer Reviews:
Too much sarcasm.......2007-09-10
Too much sarcasm from start to finish. It's a far-left view of the Bush administration where author Frank Rich seems to be visibly upset at any Republican administration. He uses references to Jon Stewart's, The Daily Show along with Saturday Night Live numerous times to back his opinions on current political events. In my view, an author of his age background and experience should not have written this farcical, liberal montage of jabs at the office of the President of the United States. Better luck next time Frank.
BRAVO!! Succinct yet complete, and thoroughly absorbing........2007-08-23
By his piece-by-piece dismantling of the façade that is the Bush administration, Rich offers the most plausible and perhaps definitive explanation of Bush-Cheney-Rove & Co.'s rush to war, leaving an unparalleled trail of destruction - Manhattan, New Orleans, Iraq, our constitution and civil liberties, our treasury, our international prestige, and perhaps our way of life - so massive in scope we may never recover from the hubris, deception, cynicism, incompetence, and lawlessness wrought by this gang of crooks.
Approximately since LBJ, television has had the effect of focusing then magnifying the character flaws of our presidents, until, appropriately, professional actor Reagan came along and made the camera work for him. With personal guru Rove behind the curtain directing Bush's every move, word, and decision, W. shamelessly honed this skill to big-brother perfection, until the façade could no longer outpace the complete lack of substance - character, wisdom, intellect, ability - beneath. The consequences of Bush being so exceptionally unqualified for the ultimate responsibility he so unlikely attained became too much for even the Wizard to keep up the ruse. And it all came crashing down.
Rich also pays attention to the cultural context - our infinite indulgence for infotainment, the Enron values - that allowed these charlatans to lead us not just into temptation (endless wars, tax cuts and debt that will break us) but infernal damnation.
There's a case for impeachment and conviction on nearly every page. We can sit it out and pray that W. doesn't wreak more devastation before it's all over, or we can impeach him and Cheney now. That's assuming we can evict them both without them taking us down with them. More than Nixon and all the crooks before or since, these guys belong in prison.
Kudos to Rich for a thorough chronicle of our national nightmare since September 2001. Read it and weep for our country and all we've lost.
Hubris Without Limits.......2007-07-22
There can be little doubt that George W Bush is a lightweight. I can say this from a distance as I am not an American but simply an observer of events. It is a great shame that so many people judge America by his actions. This is most unfair. America is so much more than this simpleton.
I read "The Greatest Story Ever Sold" with keen expectations of gaining some insight to the machinations of American political life. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case. This book is very superficial. Even with the benefit of hindsight where we can see events with greater clarity than when they are actually unfolding, Frank Rich sheds little light on matters. This is unfortunate. He was working with such potentially great material.
We all know what a monumental error it was for Bush to land on an aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" sign in the background. This was hubris of immense proportions. A wiser head would never have been involved in such stupidity. I'm certain earlier presidents would have at least thought twice before going ahead. But not this man. His naivety is without bounds.
Where to now? Iraq seems like a giant vortex. Civil war has been unleashed and outsiders seem to hold no sway. Perhaps it is best to just stand back and let time determine an outcome.
Overall, Frank Rich's book has value only in so far as we are reminded of Bush's mendacity. But do we really need reminding? How could we forget?
Best Yet on Iraq and Bush.......2007-07-14
I've read one book after another in my effort to understand how America has gone so wrong so fast. This is the best, right up there with Fiasco and One Percent Doctrine. I look forward to Rich's next foray of book length and hope he will attack the most important and as yet unanswered question of this era --- in the face of a cheerleading national press corps, how did the American people nevertheless reject this war and its leaders even before Katrina,etc. had disclosed their utter incompetence, stupidity, and disdain for us all.....in the answer to this question lies the future of all that is decent in our nation.....
A Soldier is Surprised When He Wakes Up One Morning.......2007-06-20
Imagine if you were one of several soldiers wounded in the Iraqi war who woke up one morning to find that there was a letter to the editor in your newspaper that supported the war and had your signature on it, but you didn't write that letter, and knew nothing about it.. The letter was written by the PR team in your federal government. Or picture this: President Bush is standing at night in the now brilliantly lit Jackson square in New Orleans talking optimistically about the city. Well at least the square seems lit up nicely so we guess the electricity is back on. The speech ends, the flood lights go off, and the square is plunged into total darkness.
This is a book detailing how the government lied and created propaganda to further their cause in both the war, and in the aftermath of Katrina. It's a fascinating book because it follows a time line that shows clearly how the public comments made by public officials changed over time. In fact there is a 78 page time line appendix in the book that details these morphing statements date by date. The book tells about the fake reporters at press conferences, the fake news columnists, and the fake "news" articles that the government distributed to gullible media. As one government person stated, "we create our own reality." When Specialist Wilson asked Rumsfeld why he and his men didn't have adequate armor Rumsfeld said it was a matter of production and capability. That was a lie that was outed quickly when it was revealed that one supplier, ArmorWorks said it could quickly increase production by 100%. During the battle in Falluja we were told that there were 3000 Iraqi soldiers fighting the battle. Reporters on the scene said that the Iraqi soldiers showed up after the fighting was over, posed in their neat, clean uniforms and departed. Certainly you remember the frequent comments about the thousands of Iraqis that have been trained or are almost completely trained. Somehow they never seem to materialize.
You've probably heard a lot of this stuff, but Mr. Rich brings out the deceit of all the Washington shapeshifters in wonderful - or perhaps the word should be horrible - detail. You see the action flow, and learn about a lot of governmental skullduggery that will make you cringe. It's spellbinding reading.
![History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [8 Volumes Complete Book Set] (Volumes 1-4, and Volumes 5-8, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII)](http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/I/21TDV9VAFWL.jpg)
Average customer rating:
- Brilliant, beautiful classic
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History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [8 Volumes Complete Book Set] (Volumes 1-4, and Volumes 5-8, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII)
Manufacturer: Folio Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000BRUDMM |
Product Description
2 boxed set, each wrapped in the original cellophane. Each box contains 4 books. Volumes 1-4, and Volumes 5-8
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant, beautiful classic.......2007-01-25
This classic presented by the Folio Society, cream leather bound, and gold leafed was a nice touch.
Hours of some of the best history reading that many authors have used as referance. Everything you wanted to know about the Roman Empire, to Attila the Hun, Constantine the Great, The Byzantines, Mohammud, and onwards.
Encyclopeadic knowledge at its finest.
Amazon.com
British parliamentarian and soldier Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) conceived of his plan for Decline and Fall while "musing amid the ruins of the Capitol" on a visit to Rome. For the next 10 years he worked away at his great history, which traces the decadence of the late empire from the time of the Antonines and the rise of Western Christianity. "The confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, pose equal difficulties to the historian, who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration," he writes. Despite these obstacles, Decline and Fall remains a model of historical exposition, and required reading for students of European history.
Book Description
Gibbon’s masterpiece, which narrates the history of the Roman Empire from the second century a.d. to its collapse in the west in the fifth century and in the east in the fifteenth century, is widely considered the greatest work of history ever written. This abridgment retains the full scope of the original, but in a compass equivalent to a long novel. Casual readers now have access to the full sweep of Gibbon’s narrative, while instructors and students have a volume that can be read in a single term. This unique edition emphasizes elements ignored in all other abridgments—in particular the role of religion in the empire and the rise of Islam.
Download Description
"It was Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amid the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind," recorded Edward Gibbon with characteristic exactitude. Over a period of some twenty years, the luminous eighteenth-century historian--a precise, dapper, idiosyncratic little gentleman famous for rapping his snuff-box--devoted his considerable genius to writing an epic chronicle of the entire Roman Empire's decline. His single flash of inspiration produced what is arguably the greatest historical work in any language--and surely the most magnificent narrative history ever written in English. "Gibbon is one of those few who hold as high a place in the history of literature as in the roll of great historians," noted Professor J.B. Bury, his most celebrated editor.
Customer Reviews:
the decline and fall of the roman empire.......2007-08-26
very good detail on the history , most Caesars were killed and the army rulled.
Lots of Info.......2007-07-09
Tremendous amount of information and lots of historical data. Problem is the guy who wrote the book can speak the real english language and I often thought I was listning to a foreign language tape. I learned a lot and woud recomend this to anyone who wonders how something as great as the empire was, fell apart. Great learning experience.
Gibbon's Magnum Opus.......2007-05-12
It's a literary work of art. Gibbon's style of narration is breathtaking. On every page he comes out as the true scholar that he really is. His choice of words and his style of sentence construction is consummate on every level.
Other than that, the whole account is Gibbon's perspective of the Roman Empire on a strict level. While most will concur with him on the insanity of the likes of say, Caligula, Nero; or the politically cunning inclinations of Augustus, his treatment of Christianity is open to debate. Gibbon places Christianity at the top in his list of the factors that could possibly have accelerated the empire towards decadence and its ultimate disintegration. Though this can be true on some accounts, he offers no clear explanation on how the Eastern empire could have carried on for more centuries with the religion at its very centre. It's an unwritten edict that the Byzantines were more passionate about Jesus than Western christendom.
Also, in some pages, Gibbon argues that the Roman emperors, say Marcus Aurelius for example, never really would have had an inclination towards persecuting christians on grounds of political gains. For Gibbon argues that the political elite of Rome were well aware of the fact that some kind of religion maintained social order. But his arguments are at considerable, if not complete, loggerheads with the several accounts from other historians that Rome continued to persecute Christianity until Constantine.
Persecution of Christianity might necessarily not have completely been primary disdain for the christian concept which totally conflicts with the Roman edicts of deifying dead emperors. Christianity came in handy for rogue emperors to have this sect of minorities scapegoated for their own excesses (remember Nero's fire?) or to appease the minds of a disgruntled majority which preferred to suspect them.
Finally, his stand that the "whole" empire prospered and preferred Roman rule in the age of the five good emperors is open to debate. Pax Romana might have worked for the Italian mainland at best, but not necessarily in provinces even as close as, say, Gaul.
Gibbons Decline and fall of Rome.......2007-03-11
This is the definitive History of the Empire from the first emperor (Agustus or Octavian, if you wish). However given the time and hence style of English, it was written in it is not for the faint hearted. Stick with it though and it is a very rewarding reference book which you will have for life.
One thing I fail to understand is what Amazon sells Vols 1-3 and 4-6 as seperate items. By the lot in one go otherwise it's a bit like owning the old testement bible and not having set eyes on the New Testement.!!
Dramatic and Informative audio book version.......2007-03-09
Philip Madoc convincingly relates Gibbon's great insights into the history and significance of the final centuries of the Roman Empire in this 6 CD set. Abridged by neccesity, nevertheless Neville Jason comments between Gibbon's passage recited by Philip Madoc, and fills the gaps with a coherent narration. The whole production flows smoothly and dramatically, quite easy to follow. This is one of the most worthwhile audio book puchases I've ever made.
Book Description
In the greatest work of history in the English language, Edward Gibbon compresses thirteen turbulent centuries into a gripping epic narrative. It is history in the grand eighteenth-century manner, a well-researched drama charged with insight, irony, and incisive character analysis. In elegant prose, Gibbon presents both the broad pattern of events and the significant revealing detail. He delves into religion, politics, sexuality, and social mores with equal authority and aplomb. While subsequent research revealed minor factual errors about the early Empire, Gibbon's bold vision, witty descriptions of a vast cast of characters, and readiness to display his own beliefs and prejudices result in an astonishing work of history and literature, at once powerfully intelligent and enormously entertaining.
Based on David Womersley's definitive three-volume Penguin Classics edition of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, this abridgement contains complete chapters from all three volumes, linked by extended bridging passages, vividly capture the style, the argument, and the architecture of the whole work.
Customer Reviews:
Hard to Read.......2006-11-11
Not what I was expecting. Very hard to read as it was written back in the dark ages and the english used is tough.
Understand that any civilization may fail........2006-02-24
Gibbon is one of the first historians of the Enlightenment. He does not have a favorable opinion of Christianity or the times he lived. This bias does not detract from this book. Nor is this book an effective argument against Christianity. His thesis is Christianity helped bring down Rome. The Christian mindset made it impossible to defend their empire in a way similar to how they made their empire. If you lose your basic traditions your empire will crumble. An excellent book, a must read.
MISUNDERSTANDING OF BYZANTIUM.......2005-06-29
Historians agree today that this book is responsible for the modern misunderstanding of Byzantium. Think of only what the labeling "Byzantine" means today. If you want to know more about Byzantium start with one of the books on the empire by Sir Steven Runciman.
Considered the most scholarly collection of Gibbon's work.......2005-06-06
I do not recommend buying an edition of "The Decline and Fall" based upon price alone, because for many reasons, which will become clearer to you after reading this complicated and scholarly work, the editions vary in content and price, nor does price alone guarantee quality.
For many hours prior to purchasing, I researched the numerous editions offered by different publishers and read reviews, and discovered a consensus among Gibbon fans in favor of Womersley's unabridged edition, in part because it includes a complete and unmodernized text, Gibbon's own comments and notes, and his famous Vindication, a final and thorough answer to scurrilous critics of his time. All of this is provided at a quite reasonable price, considering the length of the work (in excess of 1,300 pages), albeit in soft cover which I find makes a book easier to read, if slightly less durable.
I recommend buying this new edition from Amazon, instead of the used editions also offered here, because many of them, I discovered after investigating, are not the same as this one I am reviewing (ISBN 0-14-043393-7, which is Volume I). Like I said, there are many editions of Gibbon's masterpiece floating about, old and new, of varying quality and content. The vendors' failure to disclose the ISBN in their descriptions prohibits any purchase by the discriminating. Just pay the seventeen or so bucks for the new book, which is dirt cheap for a work of this magnitude.
There should be no need to defend Gibbon nor his work, which is simply the best I have yet read. I loved history as a boy, even while reading the simple and often stupid books offered in school. Imagine how much more I enjoyed history written by such a master of prose as Gibbon, the most thorough, meticulous and honest historian I have yet encountered.
We owe a debt of gratitude to a historian who has perused enormous quantities of ancient texts in Latin and Greek and other languages, such as would confound the vast majority of readers today, and with his formidable powers of intellect, analyzed their veracity, by comparing one against the other, and judged keenly of their worth. Gibbon had for his time a vast encyclopedic knowledge, for by his own admission, he devoted his life to reading. Gibbon's love was not among humans, but among books. He possessed an excellent understanding of government, which is the more understandable when you discover he served as a Member of Parliament for a number of years. His grasp of military science is explained in part by his service in the militia as an officer. To all these things, we must add an innate, profound understanding of human nature.
Why bother with Gibbon? Why not read the original, the ancient and medieval writers, from whom Gibbon based his work? That is a good question that I asked myself. Here is the answer. We cannot trust the ancient writers to be truthful or accurate in every event. For one thing, they sometimes contradict each other, which means one or both are lying. Also, they leave out important details, which can be pieced together by circumstantial evidence, if you have found it by exhaustive research.
This is where Gibbon comes in. He has performed exhaustive research that consumed a large portion of his scholarly and reflective lifetime. Gibbon is no fool, and never succumbs to the usual vices of enthusiasm or its opposite, cynicism. He is calm, rational, penetrative; just the guide and the mentor you want. He never takes an ancient historian at face value without considering their motives, prejudices, passions, and even their personal histories. Gibbon has studied not just the history, but the historians, and the history of the historian's countries. Not only has Gibbon accumulated and summarized the ancient and medieval texts, but interpreted and analyzed with his considerable deductive powers, to form a whole that is greater than the parts. Thus a novice does better with Gibbon than with the original. Gibbon's copious notes explain where has made interpretations, leaving you free to form different conclusions, should you desire.
Some reviewers are peeved that Gibbon suffers an opinion that disagrees with their own, and for this reason alone, they degrade his work. I experience the same treatment by those who are alarmed that my reviews have an actual opinion instead of being a rubber stamp marked "PERFECTION". If this intolerant philosophy were carried on, then no-one should dare express an unseasonable opinion of anything at all, and we should all become a tribe of dullards. Of course Gibbon expresses many opinions, some the inevitable product of his country, class and times; and this is the mark of intellectual honesty. You should never read without a critical mind, and should be prepared to disagree with an author on some issues, as I do with Gibbon, while agreeing with him on others. I especially favor his ideas concerning the causes and effects of the rise of Christianity, many of which can be observed today.
Look to find a better history than this, in any language, written during any time since the advent of letters. Look far and wide, as long as you like... and then revisit Gibbon, and see whether you have yet found an equal.
Overrated.......2004-07-16
I enjoyed this book, but some of the praise for it ("the best history book ever written in the English language!!") is over the top. It is no coincidence that intellectuals have embraced this history of the Roman empire above all others - the author is openly skeptical of Christianity and sympathetic to barbarians.
Gibbon's writing skills are also overrated in my opinion. Using 20 words to express a point that could be expressed in 10 words is, in my book, bad writing. For example, instead of writing "XYZ is true", Gibbon will write "It would not be incorrect for an observer to note that XYZ is true". This gets exhausting after a few hundred pages. He also overuses certain words, such as 'insensibly'.
Book Description
Third volume in the series. With 32 pages of illustrations and 10 maps and tables.
Customer Reviews:
a superb elegy for a relative too little loved. . ........2007-08-07
it's not that byzantium was perfect; far from it. but norwich reminds us that is was -- by any definition -- 'great.' here was a western civilization encompassing much of what contemporary sophisticates-cum-fools call the east. it was mighty, glorious, corrupt (like any human endeavor in a fallen world) and it was betrayed by covetous and stupid western rivals some of whom even acted in christianity's name. then, it was decimated by rapacious and virile eastern imperialists. net result? a half-millenium tug-of-war with islam, which europe has by no means resolved to its favor.
norwich is the rarest: a scholar and a writer at the same time. magesterial!!
Byzantine indeed.......2007-06-27
Just finished the third volume in Norwich's excellent series, and all I can say is wow. I started with the single volume primer, which helped, but there was just so much going on at all times that it gets harder and harder to keep all the players staright. But it was a very rewarding read, especially as regards the early expansion of Islam and the Crusades, the Turkish migrations into Anatolia, and the effects of those ancient events on today. I would reccomend the single volume for those looking to get a basic overview, but this series is well worth the time and effort to read. Norwichs very readable prose and occaisionally funny asides make the pages zoom by.
A very difficult book to read........2007-01-29
Thsi book is for someone who has an extense knowledge of the Byzantine empire. I do not posses such knowledge and got lost inmediatly while trying to read this book. The author's style adapts for someone who knows all the history of the people involved in this empire already. I couldn't even finish the first chapter because I found myself asking: who is he talking about? every two lines!
Number Three of an Ambitious Work.......2006-08-09
For years I have wanted to understand how the ancient world gave way to the Middle Ages. This three-volume set illuminated many of the details of the Eastern Empire with its oriental influences and often dysfunctional theocracy. It is, however, a survey, and leaves one wanting the details which such an ambitious work cannot possible contain. I highly recommend it though and think it would be one way to discover that atrocities were not committed only by the Christians of history as we often hear nowadays. If Americans were as obsessed with medieval history as Muslims are, we would certainly teach our children about the Muslim hoards (the Ottomans) that took Byzantium in a bloodbath, slaughtered and enslaved its people, and turned its churches into Mosques. The Ottoman era is often referred to as a kind of "golden age" of Islam by some Muslims while others, Wahabis, for example, campaign for a far more severe regime. To understand more about that I suggest Dore Gold's excellent book, Hatred's Kingdom.
Closure to a story of intrigue and fascinating history.......2005-05-27
If you have seen my other reviews on the previous two volumes, you will note that my criticism on the lack of maps is not a new one. However, once I get past that aspect of the book, wow...what a page turner. One of the reviewers here wrote "Gotterdamerung"...absolutely appropriate. The decline of one of the longest lasting empires is tragic in that the major Byzantine players had, at times,opportunities to reverse the decline, but Byzantine intrigue ruled the day.
Particularly today with the movies highlighting the crusades, this volume sheds another light on the Byzantine view of the crusaders, a view which many westerners may be unaware of.
The almost anti-climatic fall of Constantinople is a sad footnote in history, but the manner in which Norwich describes it is such a pleasurable read, I would not hesitate to pick this volume up again and reread it some time in the future. A wonderful story.
Customer Reviews:
A Step beyond Asset Allocation and Annual Rebalancing.......2007-02-24
For all of us that are interested in taking a more active role in our investments, the processes in this book are a good next step. There is a rare balance of acceptance of risk and potential gain in the author's suggested quarterly re-allocation method. The method is not a "read the market" approach, which virtually no one can do consistently, if at all. It is rather a method to use recent fund performance as a purchase / reallocation guideline for short periods of time (as in quarterly). It is definitely not for everyone, because of the quarterly attention required. A very good incremental step in a maturing investor's education.
Important Investment Guide for the Novice and Expert alike.......2006-11-27
Being a financial advisor, I've come across books that range from the very basic to the ridiculous.
Appel's book, although more conventional then his previous titles, lays out a comprehensive, although extremely practical and relevant strategy for 1) understanding how the markets both stocks and bonds work and 2) giving the investor various options to use that although do involve time and some monitoring, provide a solid blue-print step by step guide that will allow them to more intelligently invest with their hard-earned assets while reducing risk where possible.
Moreover, the combination of fundamental and technical analysis in security selection allows the investor to capitalize on both areas of the market that are affected by emotional factors (external events) but also takes advantage of proven technical and analytical strategies that in the long-haul will give the investor above market gains.
Highly recommended.
Practical Investing Guide for Self-directed Investors.......2006-11-07
Gerald Appel is a well-known author, technical analyst (and developer of the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator) who has written a practical guide to investing while dispelling a number of Wall Street myths on along the way. His book's purpose is to help readers who have limited time on their hands become active intelligent investors, as well as to help those individuals who are willing to put in more time and effort.
In the book, Appel covers specifically which vehicles to invest in, the timing of the buys and sells, and how to construct a portfolio that is diversified and balanced based on the individual's age and financial situation. Throughout the book, he stresses the importance of active, informed, self-directed investing instead of the out-of-date and risky buy and hold approach which "may or may not service investors purposes in the future."
The author suggests that investors focus not only on the U.S. stock market, but also on the overseas markets. He recommends investing in U.S. stocks, bonds, and money market instruments, as well as the more unfamiliar foreign bonds and stocks, real estate, and investments in foreign countries.
Appel kicks off the book covering the myth of why buy and hold is not a risk-free investment strategy compared to active management. He shows that by using a few indicators such as the NASDAQ/NYSE ratio, direction of interest rates, public sentiment, and the Best Six Months Strategy (buy at end of October and sell in May and go into cash until next October) that investors can reduce their risk and obtain decent investment performance. For example, by using the NASDAQ/NYSE relative strength ratio with a 10 dma crossover signal, according to Appel it is possible to beat the market's performance with about half the risk.
In another chapter, the author compares three diversified mutual fund portfolios showing how different market segments work well together to reduce risk and improve returns. He covers the basics of how to select the best mutual funds by providing the most important characteristics to consider for the long run. Furthermore, he illustrates how to pick funds that are in the top decile of performance.
Appel devotes a separate chapter to income investing suggesting short-term bonds with high credit ratings, and current interest flow. In a section on maximizing safety he mentions T-bills, money market accounts, and setting up a bond ladder with wide diversification. He also reviews what to focus on for maximum potential returns, as well as balancing risk and return. A follow-on chapter reviews the keys to securing junk bond yields at Treasury bond risk levels. Another chapter reviews investing in REITs while another covers investing abroad using open-end and closed-end funds as well as ETFs.
Appel favors ETFs as a new way to invest replacing the typical mutual funds. He contrasts the pros and cons of ETFs, the different ETF categories, and how to create and maintain a diversified portfolio. He provides three specific sample portfolios for different types of investors.
The author's market timing approach encompasses both fundamental and technical analysis. On the fundamental side he reviews the P/E ratio, bond yields, earnings yields and provides guidance on how to interpret the readings. On the technical side, he discusses the four year and presidential election market cycles, advance decline line, and new high new low breadth indicator.
Overall, Appel provides readers with a time-tested practical approach to take control of their investments. For those readers that prefer investing using their own skills this book will provide and excellent plan for moving ahead and succeeding.
Good book.......2006-10-31
Really like this book. Covers sector rotation, etf's, how to position yourself to profit regardless of the market. Good, usable information. Yes it is backtested info. Use at your own risk. I like it!
Book Description
Volumes 1, 2, and 3 of the Bury Text, in a boxed set. Introduction by Hugh Trevor-Roper
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
A Standard, Like it or not.......2006-10-17
Gibbon must be taken in the context of his time - his writing style, his prejudices, and his occasional lapse into sermonizing. His style is to say in 30-words what others would say in less than 10. His prejudices are many but one that seems to permeate most is the over-emphasis on the western empire at the expense of the east. It is as if the eastern empire did not survive another millennia after the fall of the west. But given difficult reading and language constructs and the slanted views, a greater work on the subject of the western empire probably does not exist. It is an essential though somewhat distasteful standard for anyone interested in Roman history. As yet, there is nothing comparable in scope for the western empire. For a balanced and more readable coverage of the east, I would highly recommend supplementing with the works of John Julius Norwich.
a necessary evil for self-education, I guess.......2006-05-02
There are three things to know about this book. It was written at about the same time America's Founding Fathers were writing the Constitution. Gibbon uses the EXTREMELY flowerly, convoluted, difficult prose of the time. Use the "look inside" feature, if you can. This is DIFFICULT reading. So, someone trying to learn about history might despair that it's hard to actually swallow the concepts because of the diffucult language.
Second, this book is really long. This is abridged. Yeah. So what. There are almost NO paragraph markers, the type is small (8 point or so, I guess), and it's about...what, 1200 pages? This is the War and Peace of history books.
Third, I'm still reading the damn thing. Every historian who EVER discussed Rome started with Gibbon. His is the most important work in the field. It is THE standard. No matter what history book you are reading about Rome from, say, 100 A.D. onward, the author will INVARIABLY use a phrase like, "Gibbon says BLAHBLAHBLAH." Like you're supposed to know who Gibbon is. Like you're supposed to have read the book. Well, I just didn't want to be the ONLY one who hadn't read the thing, since I'm studying history, trying to educate myself. It's a slog, but I think it's a necessary one. I'll be glad when it's over, and I'll be glad to say I've read it.
The English Language Doesn't Get Much Better.......2006-03-13
Gibbon was a master of the English language. He wanted to write something great, and he achieved it. No serious student of history should miss reading this masterpiece.
Understand what it is BEFORE you start.......2006-01-26
If you don't know about Edward Gibbon or this work then you really need to check out the "Look inside this book" feature that Amazon offers. Make sure you read the first couple of pages of the book. The reason I say this is that this book is not your typical history. The language is extremely tedious. I know some will say it is elegant, grand, whatever other adjective they can come up with. I just see it as making the subject much more difficult to comprehend. You will find yourself reading and re-reading and re-reading sections in order to pull out what this man is trying to say.
Now, having slammed the writing, I will say that there are some good stories in here. Gibbon is definitely opinionated. He doesn't shy away from injecting his opinion on just about every occurance in the history. Not that there's anything wrong with this approach. Just know what you're getting.
Finally, as you will deduce from looking inside at the index, this history leaves out the first few hundred years of Rome's history (it is, after all, about the DECLINE AND FALL of Rome...and that didn't start until around 300 C.E.). This is important because, if you are hoping to read about the murder of Caesar and some of those stories....it isn't in here. Again, look inside the book and study what you see very carefully before you purchase.
Problematic abridgement to remarkable book.......2005-07-24
This essential read's only drawback is the introduction and perhaps the aim of the abridgement. Gibbon wrote his masterpiece in the 18th century at the time of the American revolution. Clearly influenced by the ideals of the time, by the experiment of mass democracy in republican form, not tried since Rome and by new ideas of economics set out by Adam Smith as well as the ideals of the enlightenment, Gibbon penned his classic volumes on the fall of the Roman Empire. Previous abridgements focused on the destruction of the western empire, this one follows the volumes through to the rise of the Church and the fall of the eastern empire. Amazing sketches are given not only of the barbarian tribes of Europe but also of the Parthians, Ehtiopians, the old churches of Nestorians, diophysites and Monophsysites the Copts and of course the religion of Islam. What is most fascinating here is the level of enlightenment of the author and exposes the lies that many in the west were taught, namely that t he west is intolerant and racist. In fact Gibbon shows us through his beautiful language that perhaps not only were people more intelligent and insightful in 1776 but in his treatise on the rise of Islam and the life of Mohommed we get perhaps a more insightful and tolerant but critical view then most will get today in an entire program of Islamic studies. This illuminates two lies, first the lie that the west was narrow minded and self centered and ignorant until just recently when we embraced `diversity' and secondly that the modern view of Islam is not only not revolutionary, but that it is not modern. Gibbon was perhaps more modern, more intelligent, and more dynamic with his sense of whit and reality then most scholars today, and certainly then most `accepted knowledge' Much can be learned from this masterpiece, not only insights into church-state relations, taxation and warfare, but also the question of tyranny and the question of fanaticism, as well as how best a society can defend itself from enemies both outside and inside.
The message of the forward to this abridgement is deeply flawed. HANS-FRIEDRICH MUELLER, who did the abridgement remarks that many `born again' Americans will find the book `offensive' because the author questions the role of organized religion and faith. This is patently untrue and shows the ignorance of the European abridger in his self centered and arrogant interpretation of the world. We see that the same forward directs us to understand the message that Gibbon brings, the bigotry and incessant war and `empire' and apparently the power of the elite lead to the destruction of Rome. Be warned this was not the message of Gibbon. Rome guarded itself against barbarian invasions for more than a thousand years. In its corruption it died, in the laziness and arrogance of its people it died. In not having its own soldiers at the frontiers it died. Gibbons message has nothing to do with America or with the American system, it has everything to do with why Europe has collapsed and is disappearing.
Seth J. Frantzman
Amazon.com
Ron Chernow, the National Book Award-winning author of two astoundingly comprehensive biographies of prominent American financiers, now examines the ultimate decline of such power brokers and the corresponding rise of international money in The Death of the Banker. This surprisingly concise (but no less illuminating) volume opens with an expanded version of a speech on "the dwindling role of the financial intermediary" that he presented early in 1997; it concludes with condensed versions of his earlier books on J. P. Morgan and the Warburgs that show how the essence of financial power has changed in the 20th century.
Book Description
"For anyone interested in the world behind the business-page headlines, this is the book to read." --Publishers Weekly
With the same breadth of vision and narrative élan he brought to his monumental biographies of the great financiers, Ron Chernow examines the forces that made dynasties like the Morgans, the Warburgs, and the Rothschilds the financial arbiters of the early twentieth century and then rendered them virtually obsolete by the century's end.
As he traces the shifting balance of power among investors, borrowers, and bankers, Chernow evokes both the grand theater of capital and the personal dramas of its most fascinating protagonists. Here is Siegmund Warburg, who dropped a client in the heat of a takeover deal because the man wore monogrammed shirt cuffs, as well as the imperious J. P. Morgan, who, when faced with a federal antitrust suit, admonished Theodore Roosevelt to "send your man to my man and they can fix it up." And here are the men who usurped their power, from the go-getters of the 1920s to the masters of the universe of the 1980s. Glittering with perception and anecdote, The Death of the Banker is at once a panorama of twentieth-century finance and a guide to the new era of giant mutual funds on Wall Street.
"Chernow . . . delivers a sound, accessible account of the forces shaping capital, credit, currency, and securities markets on the eve of a new millennium. "
--Kirkus Reviews
Customer Reviews:
Top notch historical overview of investment banking.......2007-02-15
Published in 1997, this book, marking the modern transformation of banking, is a small addition to the Ron Chernow continuum of great American historical writing about finance; Hamilton, Rockefeller, House of Morgan and the Warburgs.
What's next? I can not wait.
an introduction to the history of merchant banks.......2006-08-28
Ron Chernow, who has degrees in English literature from Yale and Cambridge, has written excellent biographies of the Rockefeller, Morgan and Warburg families. In this book, which essentially is a spin-off of his other books, he explains how the economic niche that JP Morgan and the Warburgs inhabited, that of the middleman between the very wealthy and corporations and aspiring entrepreneurs, has disappeared in today's world of telephones, fax machines, the internet, the SEC, and mutual funds and venture capital.
This book grew out of a talk he delivered on the topic, with a brief summary of the Morgans and the Warburgs appended. Oftentimes talks given at conventions are in part written to fill time; this seems to be the case with this book; anyone with a bachelors in economics could summarize it on a page or two without any loss of meaningful detail, the second part is a short look at the lives of the subjects of his other books. Stylistically, the focus is on the use of elegant English, to such an extent that the book suffers under it. There certainly is a place for beautiful English in historical works, as anyone who has read Macaulay's History of England knows, but not as its own reward.
Those who want to familiarize themselves with the economic history of the great merchant bankers in an unthreatening way free of all too much economic jargon will greatly enjoy this book. PhD economists, on the other hand, will probably feel that Chernow ought to get to the point.
Excellent!.......2002-01-22
Brief, to the point and informative. A great anthology of how the financial world got from where it was to where it is now. Chernow is a master financial historian.
Nice little introduction to the history of banking in the US.......2000-06-15
I was disappointed with Chernow's tome on the Morgans, partly because, as he states in this book, it lacked thematic content. I don't think Chernow is right about banking and finance generally becoming 'democratised', even if it is changing. Global finance is still controlled by a very few fund managers and bankers, albeit with an eye to the profit margin. It may be the populace's money, but they do not decide how it gets used, and this is the crucial power in our time. Nevertheless, this is a good introduction to the subject and always readable.
Fascinating Introduction to Banking.......2000-04-07
This book provides a fascinating overview of the evolution of banking from its origins as an offshoot of general merchandising to the complex subject it's become today. Chernow skillfully and entertainingly reveals how bankers have gone from being all powerful "Masters of the Universe" to much less exalted financial bureaucrats. Chernow could have gone further, though, and extrapolated to explain how this is the natural product of capitalism, where the only true "Masters" are the vast bulk of consumers.
Average customer rating:
- Glimpses of the future master
- The sad story of Paul Pennyfeather
- "Monty Python" for People Who Think
- The Decline of an Empire & The Fall of Morality
- Deliciously scathing
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Decline and Fall
Evelyn Waugh
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Waugh, Evelyn
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ASIN: 0316926078 |
Book Description
1928. English writer, regarded by many as the leading satirical novelist of his day. Among Waugh's most popular books is Brideshead Revisited. Waugh established his literary reputation with this novel, Decline and Fall, an episodic story of the hilarious misadventures of Paul Pennyfeather, whose feckless odyssey begins when he loses his trousers. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.
Customer Reviews:
Glimpses of the future master.......2007-07-18
This is the novel that made a young Evelyn Waugh's reputation in 1928. "Decline and Fall" is dripping with early glimpses of the comic satire that Waugh would come to produce. The story follows the improbable events of Paul Pennyfeather's life after he is sent down from Scone College, Oxford.
Pennyfeather, a meek and polite divinity student, runs afoul of a group of drunken students after a raucous old boy dinner of the Bollinger Club. After a misunderstanding about a school tie, the students take Pennyfeather's pants there on the school quad. Pennyfeather is expelled for indecency.
What makes the hapless Pennyfeather so, for lack of a better word, huggable, is that events happen to him, not the other way around. He meets a bizarre cast of repeating characters, in this funny if somewhat moody book. If you read "Decline and Fall" as the satire that it is, even the casualness with which a grizzly murder is handled is funny.
"Decline and Fall" is well worth reading, but it isn't Waugh's best work. His rather scattershot lampooning of every aspect of upper-middle class British life will be honed to perfection in later works like "Scoop."
It's a great read and a zany adventure for Paul Pennyfeather, and while it appears that the story ends where it starts, it doesn't. That is the key the satisfying conclusion that Waugh gives his tale that at times seems little more than a Monty Python skit. Penny feather is a changed man, even if England is the same. Evelyn Waugh was a great novelist, even in 1928.
The sad story of Paul Pennyfeather.......2007-01-16
This bitter farce tells the story of one Paul Pennyfeather, a young man who is expelled from an Oxford-like university due to a misunderstanding. Ever since this first scene the reader understands that he's reading a novel of the absurd. The point is never to tell a credible story with a tight plot, but to develop a savage satire on the British society, especially the educational system. After being expelled, Paul finds himself with no money and so is forced to get a job at a school of the worst level. His colleagues are pathetic and their small misadventures are hilarious. Of course, Waugh's humor is very British: caustic, understated, and at the same time some passages, like the athletic event, are excessive to the point of ridicule. At some point, Paul makes the acquaintance of the mother of one of his pupils, a rich and beautiful widow who proposes to him in marriage. This seems to be Paul's lucky break of a lifetime, and he eagerly accepts. But the woman runs a strange business which will produce the decline and fall of the title.
What develops as a hilarious farce ends up being a sad story. Waugh aims his mockery at every person and system included in the novel. Education, prostitution, jail, politics and business are all the target of this first novel which promises much about the future work of Waugh. Recommended.
"Monty Python" for People Who Think.......2006-08-20
Waugh's notorious first novel, "Decline and Fall" brutally satirizes British society of the 1920s with his characteristic black humor. Based in part, upon his own experiences at Oxford and teaching at a private school in Wales in 1925, it lays waste British notions of honor, educational excellence, sportsmanship, the Church, and the upper class generally. In an age when most "humor" is visual slapstick, it is refreshing to read a writer who could be screamingly funny using words alone.
Readers with Politically Correct views, will probably be offended by this book (or any of Waugh's other novels for that matter), but those who believe that the only test of humor is whether or not it is funny will find it an enjoyable read.
Note: The movie version of another great satire by Waugh, "The Loved One," has only recently been released on DVD. With a screenplay by Terry Southern (who also wrote the screenplay for "Dr. Strangelove"), it is definitely worth buying, although you will enjoy it more if you read the book first. It is one of those rare films that does the book justice.
The Decline of an Empire & The Fall of Morality.......2006-08-12
When the First World War ended in 1918, Evelyn Waugh was fifteen years old. Over the next decade, he saw a continuation of the wrenching that England had suffered first on a material level, then on a moral and social one. In DECLINE AND FALL, Waugh expresses his dismay that the psychic underpinning that had bolstered England for the fighting proved incapable to lead it in the years that led to the Great Depression. Everywhere Waugh looked, he saw a gradual disintegration of the English social fabric, and for him, this fraying of that fabric allowed him to use his new found sense of biting satire that could lash out in all directions.
DECLINE AND FALL (1926) was Waugh's first novel. His protagonist Paul Pennyfeather is the contemporary English Everyman, a basically decent sort of chap who seeks to do the right thing, but finds out that all too often that he is the only one interested in doing that. Pennyfeather's approach to life is a passive one. When dire events happen, he tries harder to deflect their severity than to eradicate them altogether. The opening chapter sets the tone for his inability to confront dire evil with purposeful resolve. He is a student at Scone University who is subject to a mean trick by a group of consciousless upperclass cads, the result of which is that he is expelled for moral turpitude. Rather than fight to stay in school he meekly accepts his fate. From this point on, the novel descends into a series of events whose reverberations and ripples drag him ever more deeply into the muck and slime of existential disarray. He finds a job teaching vicious urchins at a tenth rate school, where he predictably encounters both students and teachers whose only purpose is to bedevil him. Eventually, he meets a woman who promises to be the Great Love of his life. She unwittingly involves him a white slavery deal that results in his imprisonment. By the time the novel ends, Pennyfeather has gone in a big circle. He returns to Scone University in a disguise (he needs one since he escaped from prison), but this disguise is external only. Inwardly, he is the same passive but good hearted naive youth that he was in the beginning.
DECLINE AND FALL proved to be the first in a series of novels that allowed Waugh to explore the bitter angst that bubbled beneath the surface in an English middle class society that increasingly came to see itself as having lost its moral compass in an age that prized breaking the rules over following them. As with all good writers, Waugh depicts a society that draws the reader inwardly, all the while urging that reader to judge the worth of that society as viewed through the bitterly satiric lens of a man who wants his reading public to feel the same sense of outrage that he does. In DECLINE AND FALL, Waugh succeeds admirably.
Deliciously scathing.......2006-08-10
In this his first novel, Evelyn Waugh lampoons the English education system, sporting events, theological study, the landed gentry, and prison reform, to name just some of the targets of his razor-sharp satirical barbs. Paul Pennyfeather, a third-year divinity student at Scone College, is kicked out after a prank is pulled on him leaving him indecently exposed; he then gets a job as a teacher in a prep school where his past is ignored ("I have been in the scholastic profession long enough," says the school's head Dr. Fagan, "to know that nobody enters it unless he has some very good reason which he is anxious to conceal."). From there the craziness only multiplies: a student is accidentally shot in the foot with a starter's gun at a track meet (and dies); Pennyfeather gets involved with the debauched Margot Beste-Chetwynde and goes to prison in her place as a white slave-trader (the truly insane practices of the prison seem right out of a Marx Brothers movie); he is somehow legally declared dead on an operating table in prison where he was to have his already-removed appendix taken out; and then miraculously finds himself back at Scone none the worse for wear.
As I read the book I was reminded often of ALICE IN WONDERLAND: the Caucus race and the track meet, the nonsense poems in both, the "reforms" that are worse than the problems they are addressing, the return to "normalcy" at the end as if nothing of consequence ever happened. Waugh's satire is biting and very, very funny, but never excessively cruel or mean. One begins laughing while reading this novel right on the first page (the party scene is hilarious in its destructive foolishness, "a lovely evening") and continues to do so with few interruptions to the end. It's scathing, brilliant comedy - something Waugh was a master at.
Book Description
An overview generalists will appreciate. DSBooklist
Customer Reviews:
A good overview of an Empire's painful decline.......2003-12-11
The Ottoman Empire was referred to "the Sick Man of Europe" in the mid-19th century, giving one the image of a decrepit old man with one foot in the grave - as indeed the Ottoman Empire was for over 100 years before its final, ignoble demise. Alan Palmer provides a good, if broad overview of the possible causes of the Muslim empire's death by a thousand cuts and the reasons why it took so long for it to finally dissolve. However, I found it lacking.
Palmer does an adequate job of outlining the major politcal reasons given for the decline. And for those seeking a an introduction into the last half of the Ottoman empire, this would be a good book to begin with. However, there is much that Palmer does not explore that merits some attention, even in a general history such as this.
For example, very little is mentioned of the Tanzimat Reforms, an attempt in the early 19th century by the Turks to modernize and industrialize along the lines of Europe after the Enlightenment. Similarly, Palmer would have been better served to disucss the role that the "Great Powers" of Europe played in simultaneously propping the Ottoman Empire up (as a balwark against the Russians) while assisting in tearing it down (by supporting the emergence of Balkan nation states.) to a greater degree.
I enjoyed _The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire_, but it did not do the subject matter justice.
A short history of Ottoman decline.......2003-01-27
The book covers Ottoman Empire from 1650 to demise and founding of Modern Turkey. Included in the story the wars, internal problems, European politics against the empire, internal uprising, modernization efforts and all.There is nothing about scientific or cultural sides of the empire.Although mentiones but there is no extention into Modern Turkey.
There are some interesting stories that makes dry historical information a little juicy.
As I was reading the preface I was astonished author's reasoning using the name "Constantinople" in lieu of current name "Istanbul" for he claims that Istanbul is not in common usage in English, give me a break. Yes Ottomans did not use the name Istanbul for they were not a nation Empire and they did not change the name when they took the city Istanbul but since the introduction of concept "nationalism" into Ottoman Empire by foreign countries within last 150 years, the name was changed to Istanbul like it or not. From the introduction I could feel the bias author had that would effect the writing and that should not be in a scientific book.
The title is very accurate of the subject matter.......2000-07-18
I was interested in how the Ottoman Empire played into the Great War and of what significance the Ottoman Empire played in the " big picture" of the Great War. Alan Palmer did an excelent job of discussing only the end of the Ottoman Empire and answering all of my questions. Be forewarned about this book, I had to have a dictionary handy to get through each chapter. This book is not for someone that does not want to be challenged with new words. Unlike another review of this book, I found that the more I read and understood how Turkey fit into the European puzzle, I became more interested. True, my interest is very focused, however, this book provide the information I was looking for.
Good for those interested in the Ottomans, but dull.......1999-02-08
Okay, I guess.
The book is horribly boring and a bit to pretentious. The book shines in the end (from the rule of the Triumveriate to the epilog), but until then it is plodding. After getting one-third of the way through, I put of finishing this book for 8 months and have no regrets.
If you like this peroid, there are two better books to read. The first is A HISTORY OF THE BALKAN PENNENSULA by Ferdinand Schevill, which in its 533 pages gives a better understanding of everyone (Bulgars, Vlachs, Byzantines, and Turks) in the area. The other is THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN TURKEY by Bernard Lewis. The latter is memorable if nothing more than its summary of Kemal Ataturk's "This is a hat" speech.
Factually accurate, but as dull as dishwater.......1998-08-29
Palmer's scholarship is immaculate, but this is one of the dullest books I've ever read. Let's hope that history professors overlook this book; it's the type of work that by itself could turn a student away from the study of history.
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