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Book description
Highly regarded here and abroad for some thirty works of cultural history and criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun has now set down in one continuous narrative the sum of his discoveries and conclusions about the whole of Western culture since 1500. In this account, Barzun describes what Western Man wrought from the Renaisance and Reformation down to the present in the double light of its own time and our pressing concerns. He introduces characters and incidents with his unusual literary style and grace, bringing to the fore those that have "Puritans as Democrats," "The Monarch's Revolution," "The Artist Prophet and Jester"--show the recurrent role of great themes throughout the eras. The triumphs and defeats of five hundred y... Rest of this review on the detail page
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Reviews (2) and details of From Dawn to Decadence : 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present

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Review:
Jean-François Champollion's biography is neatly interwoven with Napoleonic history and the functions of Egyptian hieroglyphs in The Keys of Egypt. A gifted bookseller's son born in Revolutionary France, Champollion was to become "gripped by energetic enthusiasm" for Egypt. By the age of 12, he was studying several ancient languages, and, amid a "wave of Egyptomania," he would beat rivals to discover the key to deciphering hieroglyphs. If this was a race, it was a marathon. The breakthrough came after "20 years of obsessive hard work," not through the quick-fix solution often thought to have been provided by the Rosetta stone. The Keys of Egypt details Champollion's life and work, which were hampered by politics, poverty, and an almost hypoc... Rest of this review on the detail page
(Review by amazon.co.uk)
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Reviews (1) and details of The Keys of Egypt: The Obsession to Decipher Egyptian Hieroglyphs

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Book description
To European explorers, it was Eden, a paradise of waist-high grasses, towering stands of walnut, maple, chestnut, and oak, and forests that teemed with bears, wolves, raccoons, beavers, otters, and foxes. Today, it is the site of Broadway and Wall Street, the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, and the home of millions of people, who have come from every corner of the nation and the globe. In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and... Rest of this review on the detail page
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Reviews (2) and details of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898

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Review:
"I just finished your book �Corps of Discovery� and in a word it was super. This book is very well written so it moves along well. Your technique of using conversation to cover a targeted incident then narrative to move the story to another section of conversation not only maintains reader interest and keeps the story from bogging down, but it also solidifies the history. Taking a considerable amount of the conversation from the journals � sometimes very close to quoting and other times loose paraphrasing � maintains a sense of realism in the dialogue. I was pleased and impressed by how well you stayed within the historical framework of the Expedition." "Jim, I just now finished reading your book, Corps of Dis... Rest of this review on the detail page
(Review by Gordon Thomas)
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Reviews (1) and details of Corps of Discovery: Lewis & Clark

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Book description
Our drug prohibition policy is hopeless, just as Prohibition, our alcohol prohibition policy, was before it. Today there are more drugs in our communities and at lower prices and higher strengths than ever before. We have built large numbers of prisons, but they are overflowing with non-violent drug offenders. The huge profits made from drug sales are corrupting people and institutions here and abroad. And far from being protected by our drug prohibition policy, our children are being recruited by it to a lifestyle of drug use and drug selling. Judge Gray’s book drives a stake through the heart of the War on Drugs. After documenting the wide-ranging harms caused by this failed policy, Judge Gray also gives us hope. We have via... Rest of this review on the detail page
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Reviews (2) and details of Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs