Book Description
Do You: Harbor guilt or grudges from past relationships? Feel plagued by thoughts of regret? Think "Oh, no, not again!" when personal problems arise? Wonder why life hasn't turned out the way you wanted? Feel anxious or depressed about your future? Seem to be less happy as time goes by?
If you answered yes to even one of these questions, this book can help you make peace with your past -- here and now.
The past lives on in everything we think, feel, say, and do. Medical studies show that adults who've had adverse or traumatic past experiences are much more vulnerable to life-threatening illnesses such as cancer and heart disease. Now, world-renowned psychiatrist Dr. Harold Bloomfield, bestselling author of Making Peace with Your Parents and Making Peace with Yourself, offers practical, scientifically proven techniques that can help you heal the wounds of the past; transform feelings of pain, shame, and blame into high self-worth; and reawaken to the magic and joy of being alive.
Customer Reviews:
Good to Know.......2005-09-24
(I wasn't aware of the charges against the author until preparing my review. How disappointing.)
I found this book useful in that it offered suggestions on how to heal the past when you are aware that you need to "get over it." Whether you decide to actually "go deep" and follow his six steps is a matter of choice. The book was helpful to me in that it simply named the problems (shame, guilt, remorse, etc.) and more or less pointed out how "normal" (or, "common") these problems are for many people.
As for the TM/Hindu connection- I didn't find it to be too much of a bother, as I skipped over parts of the book I wasn't interested in. I think the $2,500.00 fee to learn TM with a qualified instructor in my area is a bit much for me, so I more or less dismissed the TM completely, but any form of meditation can be very useful in dispelling anxiety and stress. Bloomfield's Six Essential Steps are only ONE man's program- this and similar books are nowhere near the only or final word on self-help.
If you're looking for information, or maybe a way to start addressing your feelings, most of what's in this book is good to know. Putting it to use is up to you.
Know what you're "drinking"..........2002-04-11
I just completed the audio version of this book. It was hard to restrain myself from posting a review because there there is great good and even greater danger in this book! Red flags are waving! You may be drinking poison when you're looking for nutrition!
First the danger, then the good...
DANGER:
The author and his wife are unapologetic new age pantheists. Throughout the book the "virtues" of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and buying herbal remedies from a Hindu based organization are touted. Sadly, the "science" behind these practices and their application to "Making Peace With Your Past" are glossed over. Is there a connection? A clear explicit correlation is never REALLY made (it's implied) AND, frankly, I felt that this was one of the major flaws with this work.
Next danger, the author encourages you to "question" any resistance that you may have to the suggested therapies in this book. While is true that resistance to change can be an obstacle in therapy does this mean that discernment and moral judgment should be jettisoned as well? Apparently the author's answer is, "Yes". The author and his co-author wife trapple all over time honored and proven Western European values and sensibilities. Visualization - a controversial practice in some religious, medical, and cultural contexts is used and discussed as if there is no controversy at all and there is universal consensus on it's effectiveness and use.
Frankly, I DID feel uncomfortable at many points during this book. However, I can assure the reader that it had NOTHING to do with resistance to change and EVERYTHING to do with the fact that my value system and moral code was being directly challenged by the pan theistic (or more accurately "pan-everythingistic") approach of these authors.
Because I knew that this "if you feel uncomfortable..." tactic is used by cult leaders and unethical therapists to cause their followers to "snap" and allow an unreasonable level of control over their followers, I kept my value/moral boundaries in place while I waded through the author's thin veiled belief systems (Hinduism and New Age practices) and world view (Existential, Post Modern Relativism).
I feel that authors would be advised in future works to state up front: "We are practicing Hindus, New Agers, and moral relativists" THAT would at least be honest!
If you are a practicing Christian, Moslem, or conservative Jew, you will find MUCH to hate in this book!
THE GOOD:
Despite this work's obvious flaws there is *some* value here. Ironically, the author is at his best when he sticks to go old Western European style psycho-therapy. He is obviously well educated, experienced, and very intelligent. His explanations of the inner mechanics of unforgiveness, resentment, bitterness, painful memories are excellant and liberating.
Even the visualizations would have great value IF a greater emphasis on keep the patient in their cognitize mind via maintaining a very LIGHT, constant Alpha state rather than the deep Alpha state that the co-author employs. However since the authors are TM practitioners it should surprise no one that they advocate a very deep alpha state mode that makes the patient vulnerable to unwanted suggestion. Again, keep that "moral judgment" and "value system" switch set to "off"!
However, her word pictures are indeed very powerful and I have used them - while maintaining a cognitive mode alpha state - since finishing the book.
In the end, I can not recommend this book. The underlying world view and dishonesty of the authors is just too pronounced! I would encourage to explore the OTHER authors on this web-site. Personally, I don't think that you can go too wrong with the work of either Norm Wright or John Bradshaw (although Bradshaw's moral relativism does tend to "leak" at times). I especially Bradshaw's "Healing the Shame that Binds You" and his books on family.
Finally, I would add that the clipping from the San Diego Union regarding this author is not surprising to me having read his book. The TM/Hindu guru that he mentions in the book as his spiritual leader and guide has accused (and I believe indicted) of similar moral lapses. In the words of Adam Smith...
Emptor Caveat!
Or, in the words of Jesus Christ concerning false prophets: "By their fruit you will know them".
News Flash - about the author.......2002-01-25
www.signonsandiego.com
Psychiatrist pleads guilty, may avoid jail
By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
January 24, 2002
VISTA - A Del Mar psychiatrist and best-selling author admitted yesterday he illegally drugged women in his home and office, but he probably will not be sent to jail as punishment, lawyers said.
Harold Bloomfield, 57, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of illegally furnishing drugs yesterday, defense attorney Bob Grimes said.
"This is the first time he's been to court since his release on bail," Grimes said in an interview. "He wanted to admit what he did and help with the healing process with the victims. He didn't want the victims to go to court and be cross-examined."
Prosecutor Richard Madruga said the two women whose drinks Bloomfield admitted drugging said they don't oppose a sentence without jail time.
"They want to see that the community is protected, that he not practice medicine, that he not be able to prescribe medications and that he get help for drug dependency, and counseling," Madruga said.
Such conditions are likely when Superior Court Judge Frederick Maguire sentences Bloomfield at a hearing scheduled for March 22, Madruga said.
As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped three drug-related felony charges and a misdemeanor charge of sexual battery.
In court papers, detectives said a glass of lemonade Bloomfield gave a woman in July contained Ecstasy and methamphetamine.
The woman said Bloomfield met her in his Del Mar home for a therapy session wearing only a pair of blue boxer shorts printed with martini glasses, according to court records.
She felt strange after drinking the lemonade, and Bloomfield offered to examine her breasts after she complained of pain from recent surgery, according to the documents.
When asked about that, Bloomfield blamed his daughter for the drugs in the drink, detectives said. The daughter denied any involvement.
Then, in December, a woman who visited Bloomfield's home said he undressed her and fondled her after giving her a funny-tasting green smoothie.
At the time of Bloomfield's arrest Dec. 19, prosecutors said they were investigating reports from other women who said he drugged and then sexually assaulted them.
Madruga said yesterday that additional charges are not supported by evidence in the case.
Bloomfield was released the week following his arrest after posting $500,000 bail.
He and his wife, with whom he wrote several books, are divorcing.
He was once a frequent guest on television talk shows, including "The Oprah Winfrey Show," on which he last appeared in 1993.
Defense attorney Grimes said Bloomfield descended into drug use during a bout of depression about four years ago. It worsened after he emerged from plastic surgery with chronic pain, for which he took larger and larger quantities of painkillers.
"Ultimately he started on his own, medicating himself by smoking marijuana and ultimately using Ecstasy," Grimes said.
As a condition of his release from jail, Bloomfield agreed not to practice medicine.
Feel The Transformation.......2000-09-25
What an awesome book! I have read all of Dr. Bloomfield's books, however, I felt change taking place deep within 'as I read' this one. The third chapter on 'Breaking the Shackles of Shame' is worth buying and reading the whole book. It gave me a direct plan to dealing with the deep seated issues of shame in my psyche. It also uncovered things in me that I have repressed for many years. It taught me the language of knowing what was really going on inside of me. Helped me to specifically identify hurts and obstacles that were holding me back from living the quintessential life. Read this book if you want to experience healing for your past. Dr. Bloomfield not only identifies your past issues, he gives you remedies for dealing with them successfully.
HELPFUL! COMFORTING! I LOVE THIS BOOK!.......2000-08-28
MAKING PEACE WITH YOUR PAST is the best book I've yet read of the "self-help" variety. Reading the book has helped me move into a calmer, more open and happy place in my life, and I continue to reread it whenever ancient, and not-so ancient history, in the form of regret, grief or hurt, visits me. The exercises in the book make sense and WORK. The writing style is welcoming, nonjudgemental, and understanding. Whatever negative experiences you've gone through in your life, from childhood through the recent past or present, there is help for you here. Bloomfield and co-author Philip Goldberg have given a great gift to anyone seeking the calm and happiness which may have been, until now, elusive. I never write reviews on Amazon, but I am too impressed by the results of this book to keep quiet. Simply put: the book works.
Book Description
A decimated Shiite shrine in Iraq. The smoking World Trade Center site. The scorched cityscape of 1945 Dresden. Among the most indelible scars left by war is the destroyed landscapes, and such architectural devastation damages far more than mere buildings. Robert Bevan argues here that shattered buildings are not merely “collateral damage,” but rather calculated acts of cultural annihilation.
From Hitler’s Kristallnacht to the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue in the Iraq War, Bevan deftly sifts through military campaigns and their tactics throughout history, and analyzes the cultural impact and catastrophic consequences of architectural destruction. For Bevan, these actions are nothing less than cultural genocide. Ultimately, Bevan forcefully argues for the prosecution of nations that purposely flout established international treaties against destroyed architecture.
A passionate and thought-provoking cri de coeur, The Destruction of Memory raises questions about the costs of war that run deeper than blood and money.
“The idea of a global inheritance seems to have fallen by the wayside and lessons that should have long ago been learned are still being recklessly disregarded. This is what makes Bevan’s book relevant, even urgent: much of the destruction of which it speaks is still under way.”—Financial Times Magazine
“The message of Robert Bevan’s devastating book is that war is about killing cultures, identities and memories as much as it is about killing people and occupying territory.”—Sunday Times
“As Bevan’s fascinating, melancholy book shows, symbolic buildings have long been targeted in and out of war as a particular kind of mnemonic violence against those to whom they are special.”—The Guardian
Customer Reviews:
Buildings Are Killed In Wars, Too.......2006-04-12
In 1993, the lovely 16th century Ottoman Stari Most Bridge in Mostar was shelled and broken by Croat gunners. It had been a landmark and a beloved Bosnian cultural totem. "Mostar" means "bridge-keeper", and the bridge had connected two sides of the most cosmopolitan city in Bosnia, one Ottoman old side and one heterodox new side. The city took pride that it had the highest rate of mixed Croat-Serb-Muslim marriages. The bridge was a symbol, and its destruction was a symbol, and is the abiding image of the Croatian war. In _The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War_ (Reaktion Books), Robert Bevan quotes Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulic, who wonders, "Why do we feel more pain looking at the image of the destroyed bridge than the image of massacred people?" The answer Drakulic comes up with is that we feel our own mortality, and we expect our lives to end, but everyone expected the bridge to outlive the humans who loved it. "A dead woman is one of us," Drakulic writes, "but the bridge is all of us forever." The bridge is but one of the stories in this sad and fascinating book. Bevan, who has edited _Building Design_ and written about architecture in various forums, has drawn on many examples to demonstrate that while attention must obviously be paid first to human casualties of war, the destruction of buildings and monuments is also a major crime. Because of the permanence we attribute to buildings, they foster "the creation of social identity located in time and place". Their destruction has effects on future communities and communal memory. The destruction is also evidence of crimes against humanity, including genocide.
It is true that such destruction has always gone on in human conflict, but Bevan makes the case that it was in the past century that war on architecture, "the destruction of the cultural artefacts of an enemy people or nation as a means of dominating, terrorising, dividing or eradicating it altogether", has become monstrously pursued. Bevan is not writing about collateral damage which happens in any war, but has one example after another, like the Mostar bridge, to show how deliberate is the destruction of buildings and monuments by combatants on the offensive, and how devastating the results might be. Religious buildings still seem to be particular targets (with libraries and museums also selected for particular destruction). In the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Catholic Croat and Serbian Orthodox structures did not escape targeting, but the Bosnian Muslims had the most severe losses. Here are before and after photographs showing mosques and then the ruins or car parks that has become of them. This is not mere aggression. In the town of Zvornik, once 60% Muslim with a dozen mosques, the mayor declared, "There never were any mosques in Zvornik." Destroying such pesky reminders is a way of controlling the present by controlling history (and it is no surprise that George Orwell is frequently cited here).
The examples are from all over. Israelis and Palestinians, of course, use history and archeology to promote politics, and are literally undermining each other's buildings by tunneling beneath them. "Bomber" Harris meditated on the destruction of the medieval city L?beck, saying it was "more like a firelighter than a human habitation." The communists destroyed churches in Russia, and China continues to obliterate the buildings connected to Tibetan worship and culture. The Taliban destroyed the colossal 1,500-year-old Buddhas in 2001, after having forced local people to plant the explosives. Of course the destroyed World Trade Center is here. Not everything in Bevan's book is about destruction; he also examines the construction of walls, in Berlin, of course, but also in Belfast and Israel. There is also reconstruction, which presents further historical and cultural problems. Some bombed out cities in Europe have taken a "Disneyfication" approach, trying to fashion city centers into the way they looked hundreds of years ago. The military could rapidly make repairs to the Pentagon, but the repairs to the World Trade Center site remain controversial as rebuilders and memorializers battle over the appropriate use of a very valuable piece of real estate. Bevan has not just accumulated examples of politically-motivated obliteration of buildings, but calls for a change; we cannot forget human lives lost, but we need, he concludes, a separate crime of "cultural genocide." His quietly angry book will convince any reader that warring against architecture makes losers of us all.
Amazon.com
When a book begins with a statement such as "In the 1992 presidential elections, it would appear that the United States stood a reasonable chance of acquiring a new president in the person of a certain Mr. David Duke," a reader must wonder if the author is being deliberately alarmist or has simply lost contact with reality. (After all, Duke had little national credibility, and even his campaigns in his home state of Louisiana could best be described as highly problematic.) On matters concerning his native Nigeria, and on the rest of the African nations, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka is perhaps more reliable, albeit still somewhat longwinded. The Burden of Memory is based on a set of lectures Soyinka gave at the W.E.B. Dubois Institute and faithfully preserves their highly academic orality, whether he is advocating massive reparations for the people of Africa for the historical injustices to which they have been subject, or using literary criticism to explore the ways in which Africans have been willing to "forgive" Westerners in the hopes of assimilating into the culture that formerly treated them as vassals.
Book Description
When Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka's The Open Sore of a Continent appeared in 1996, it received rave reviews in the national media. Now comes Soyinka's powerful sequel to that fearless and passionate book, The Burden of Memory. Where Open Sore offered a critique of African nationhood and a searing indictment of the Nigerian military and its repression of human and civil rights, The Burden of Memory considers all of Africa--indeed, all the world--as it poses the next logical question: Once repression stops, is reconciliation between oppressor and victim possible? In the face of centuries long devastations wrought on the African continent and her Diaspora by slavery, colonialism, Apartheid and the manifold faces of racism what form of recompense could possibly be adequate? In a voice as eloquent and humane as it is forceful, Soyinka examines this fundamental question as he illuminates the principle duty and "near intolerable burden" of memory to bear the record of injustice. In so doing, he challenges notions of simple forgiveness, of confession and absolution, as strategies for social healing. Ultimately, he turns to art--poetry, music, painting--as one source that may nourish the seed of reconciliation, art as the generous vessel that can hold together the burden of memory and the hope of forgiveness. Based on Soyinka's Stewart-McMillan lectures delivered at the Du Bois Institute at Harvard, The Burden of Memory speaks not only to those concerned specifically with African politics, but also to anyone seeking the path to social justice through some of history's most inhospitable terrain.
Customer Reviews:
...of social existence..........2005-10-15
This is a highly analytical, scholarly book, three lectures Soyinka gave at Harvard through it's W.E.B. Dubois Institute's Macmillan series in 1997.
This is also a densely packed linguistic explosion, a cultural retrospective of the ancients' behaviors, the modern ones, and the poet's struggle to express the depth of existence.
I also got through it only because I percieved and imagined the flow of the statements through clear imagery. There was much that I lost and as much time marveling at the control and brilliance of his mind to evoke the depths of Negritude, it's descendant issues and conflicts, and the artist's all important concern for the state of life.
But if I had attended these lectures I would have been gone. Off to the idea expressed ten minutes ago. But the thoughts of man's brutality of itself and incredible passages like this thrilled and bore into me:
"the fact remains that the other has impinged on it in a way that permanently precludes the solace of remaining within the secure isolation of its own precedent world order, or whatever vestiges of it are left. In short, the effects of that 'disdain' appear permanent, inescapable; they are to be read in a thousand and one actualities that plague the continent, and can be measured in the retardation of social existence against the visible prosperity of the other on a shared planet." (pg.185)
This is a book about the "...the retardation of social existence..."
In defense of a great author.......2003-09-04
Let me start by acknowledging that I haven't read this particular work. I'm merely expressing my ire at an ignoramus of a reviewer from Philadelphia, who suggested that Soyinka's nobel prize was not well deserved. While I'd be the first to acknowledge that Soyinka's writing can be difficult, I would suggest that this cretin start off with Soyinka's autobiographical corpus of "Ake: the years of childhood", "Isara" and "Ibadan: the pemkelemes years" then, maybe such powerful (if acerbic and polemical) works as "The Man Died," before attempting the more difficult critical works like "Myth, Literature and the African World" and by all accounts, the work under review.
I do not believe that such a powerful mind as Soyinka's, could write a lightweight tome and so while I haven't read "The Burden of Memory," I'm willing to stick my neck out and give it three stars if only because while Soyinka's mastery of language is beyond doubt, his quest for precision, sometimes, rather ironically, renders his writing a tad dense; which can be the only explanation for the bulk of complaints, levelled at this work, on this occassion.
Soyinka is more than "The Burden of Memory...".......2003-01-24
Wole Soyinka's mastery of the English language, as I have had occasion to say on another forum, borders on the supernatural. And perhaps therein lies the man's flaw--but that is a matter I will get to in a minute.
"The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness," you must understand, is "in the obligatory [Soyinka] fashion," a compilation of oral lectures the learned professor gave at Harvard. You must understand too, that the writing is basically academic, and suited more to an oral lecture. And because we speak of Soyinka, the writing is characteristically difficult.
So then, his lectures-turn-books (including, of course, "The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness") are not the best of works with which to appraise Soyinka's genius. For a true appreciation of Soyinka's literary prowess, you must read his plays and novels.
The flaw, of which I spoke earlier, is captured in the question a friend once posed to me (not Soyinka): "Is not the purpose of language to communicate?" Without a full-fledged dictionary, and the will to re-read whole paragraphs, one would struggle to keep up with Soyinka's writing.
In all, whether one likes it or not, the man is a literary giant, period!
Mildly interesting at best.......2002-02-06
There is no doubt that Wole Soyinka is a good writer - his Nobel prize was justly deserved and not a case of affirmative action as another reviewer insultingly suggested. However, someone encountering Soyinka for the first time in this book would not be tempted to try reading his more famous writings: this book is, to be frank, not well written. Based on three lectures Soyinka gave at Harvard University in 1997, Soyinka touches upon the very topical reparations controversy in the first essay, praises the Senegalese writer Leopold Senghor in the second and spends the last examining African poets' attempts to deal with the legacies of colonialism and racism.
Through all three lectures Soyinka employs a very dense style, one that might have worked well when speaking for an academic audience at Harvard but one that does not translate well onto the written page. Phrases like 'slaves into the twentieth-first century, mouthing the mangy mandates of mendacity, ineptitude, corruption and sadism' sound impressive but are merely a means for Soyinka to play around with words when he could be spending his time seriously addressing very important issues like reparations. When he does get down to business, he writes that 'reparations would involve the acceptance by Western nations of a moral obligation to repatriate the post-colonial loot salted away in their vaults, in real estate and business holdings' but never goes into detail exactly what this would involve. What is more disturbing is his frequent references to the U.S., which reveal his real ignorance about American life: examples include his belief that David Duke could have been elected President in 1992 and that the Ku Klux Klan held or holds a 'tentacular hold over power structures across the United States.' If he knows so little about the country where he is giving his lectures (and also holds a job as a Professor at Emory University), should we trust him to do a good job at addressing the international debate on reparations?
I didn't give this book one star for the fact that Soyinka's second and third lectures are reasonably coherent and do a good job of tracing the literary history behind Negritude. (For instance, he discusses the reasons why American black writers were in closer contact with Francophone blacks rather than their Anglophone brothers.) Yet even here he does not attempt to present any kind of thesis, but is merely contented with quoting various poems and doing some quick literary analysis.
Readers with an interest in discovering why Soyinka won the Nobel Prize should thus turn elsewhere.
Excellent.......2001-04-04
I was extremely impressed with Professor Soyinka's argument for reparations not only for Africa, but for all victims of enslavement, colonialism, and oppression. His style may be difficult, but for the able reader it is an excellent introduction to the conditions, both past and present, contributing to the current state of affairs throughout the African continent. It provides much food for thought on the question of just what is justice. Bob Marley's song "War" was constantly in my mind. It would be an honor to shake Professor Soyinka's hand.
Book Description
"Now that I am seventy years of age, it is my prerogative to offer a summing up," says Meron Benvenisti, internationally known author and columnist, Jerusalem native, and scion of Israel's founders. Born in Palestine in 1934 to a Sephardic father and an Ashkenazi mother, Benvenisti has enjoyed an unusual vantage point from which to consider his homeland's conflicts and controversies.
Throughout his long and provocative career as a scholar, an elected official, and a respected journalist, he has remained intimately involved with Israel's social and political development.
Part memoir and part political polemic, Son of the Cypresses threads Benvenisti's own story through the story of Israel. The result is a vivid, sharply drawn eyewitness account of pre-state Jerusalem and Israel's early years. He memorably sets the scene by recalling his father's emotional journey from Jewish Salonika in 1913 to Palestine, with all its attendant euphoria and frustration, and his father's pioneer dedication to inculcating Israeli youth with a "native's" attachment to the homeland.
In describing the colorful and lively Jerusalem in which he grew up, Benvenisti recalls the many challenges faced by new Jewish immigrants, who found themselves not only in conflict with the Arab population but also with each other as Sephardim and Ashkenazim. He revisits his own public disagreements with both Zionists and Palestinians and shares indelible memories such as his boyhood experiences of the 1948 War. In remembering his life as an Israeli sabra, Benvenisti offers a vivid record of the historical roots of the conflict that persists today.
Customer Reviews:
A one- sided witness Turning his father's world upside down .......2007-07-16
At the age of seventy Meron Benvenisti post- Zionist Israeli political activist and former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem has decided to make a kind of summing up of his family legacy and public life. He begins by telling the story of his parents, of his father who came to Israel from Salonika and his mother whose family came from Suvalki on the border of Prussia, Lithuania and Poland. The Sephardic father and the Ashkenazi mother hoped to produce a true child of the land.
Benvenisti's father was an important Zionist educator who contributed greatly to the educating of educators, to the learning of the land through walking up and down on it. His father who would be awarded the Israel Prize was a fervent Zionist, one who believed deeply in the Jewish return to their historical homeland and the making of a new society in an ancient land.
Benvenisti tells of his distancing from the vision of his father. This comes primarily through his sympathy with and connection to the 'other people' in the land, the Palestinians. As his father traced the Jewish roots of village after village in the Holy Land, so Meron Benvenisti would later trace their Arab roots. And this especially in regard to those Arab villages which were destroyed in the 1947-78 Israel War of Independence.
In fact Benvenisti seems at a certain point to wholly identify himself with the Palestinian Arabs, to see them as the ignored victims of the Zionist story. How ignored they are is of course a debatable question but Benvenisti sees them as the losers in the conflict who must be restored to a situation of dignity and well- being.
As he understands it Israel itself by its victory in 1967 entered a situation disastrous for its own soul and well- being. As Benvenisti understands the 'occupation' of 1967 and the subsequent Jewish settlement in parts of historical Eretz Yisrael led to an irreversible situation a mixing-up of the peoples which makes any kind of two- state solution of the conflict impossible.
Benvenisti who speaks at the end of the book of his despair and pessimism, and concern for his grandchildren believes that some kind of one-state federal arrangement is the only possible hope for improving the situation. But he realistically believes that even if this is adopted a situation of crisis will exist for years ahead. Here he indicates that even within the pre- 1967 Israel the large and growing Arab minority which constitutes today one - fifth of Israel's population makes a two- state solution impossible.
It is possible to understand and even sympathize with Benvenisti's sense of conflict and contradiction, his sympathy with the Palestinians while he maintains that he and his family are a strong part of the land and must continue there i.e. He is no Jihadi advocating eliminating of the Jews from the land.
But his 'conversion' to the Palestinian Arab side is so extreme that it leads him to distort not only the historical realities, but also everyday situations. He presents himself as a kind of one- man party of righteousness and repeatedly scorns his fellow Israeli 'leftists'.He underplays the murderousness of the Arab struggle, their unending efforts to destroy the Jewish community and drive them from the land. He does not connect the 'Palestinian Arab threat to Israel with the broader Arab and Islamic threats. He does not give proper credit to Israel not only for its against great odds, continuing to survive and thrive- but for the actual improvements it has made in the quality of life of the Arab minority in the state.
In this sense he is not a very reliable guide.
Not that interesting, scattered essays.......2007-06-07
This isn't really a soul searching book, and its not really about regrets. It mostly about the political development of an Israeli intellectual who came to abhore his countries policies and much of its history. It is the story of the coming of age of an anti-Zionist in his own words. It tells the story of a Kibbutznik and binationalist who beleived himself to be a native Canaanite Hebrew and worked for the Jerusalem municipality with Teddy Kolleck. He worked to help Arabs and to make 'occupation' tolerable.
He studied the Crusades and came to view them with some parrelells with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, but also claimed that it was not a completely fair comparison.
The author moruned the Dolphinarium bombing of 2002 but also thought the battle of Jenin was another Deir Yassin, still claiming in this book there were large numbers of civilian casualties, even though this is not accurate.
But the greatest failure of this book is that it is a bunch of loosely gathered anecdotes and stories and essays. It doesn't flow and there is very little synthesis. So by and large this account is a failure. Its not Benvenisti's best work and its not a very good memoir. It perhaps sheds light on a few topics and gives one an added introcution to this known critic of Israel.
Seth J. Frantzman
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Memories: My Life As an International Leader in Health, Suffrage, and Peace
Aletta Jacobs , and
Harriet Pass Freidenreich
Manufacturer: Feminist Press
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Book Description
   The first of Aletta Jacobs's major works available in English,
Memories introduces American readers to a remarkable woman-a key Dutch feminist who herself broke new ground, and who worked alongside world-renowned leaders in the progressive movements of the early twentieth century.
   Aletta Jacobs learned to lvoe the medical profession from her physician father, who took her on his rounds. Despite a sex-segregated education system, she became the nations's first woman to earn a medical degree. Jacobs's experiences as a doctor led her to pioneering health care reforms for prostitutes and saleswomen, as well as campaigns for the acceptance and availability of reliable birth control.
   Aletta Jacob's career included equally remarkable achievements in the international woman's suffrage and peace movements, where she worked closely with U.S. activists Jane Addams and Carrie Chapman Catt. Jacobs and Catt made frequent lecture tours together, culminating in a tour of Africa and Asia that combined avid sightseeing with speaking engagements in every country they visited.
   In
Memories, Jacobs recounts all of these experiences, and spiritedly imparts her opinions-such as her disdain for the customs that restricted women to theater balcony seats and chastised them for walking alone at night. By turns witty, impassioned, and poignant,
Memories brings to life a time of enormous changes for women-and one of the women who helped bring about the changes.Â
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Book Description
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo five times over five years while Prime Minister. As a result, Japan's relations with China and Korea have declined to their worst state since the end of World War Two. However, Prime Minister Koizumi has accused the two of meddling in Japan's internal affairs - he does not see this as an international issue. For China, Korea, and others the fact that the shrine also includes 14 Class A War Criminals makes the Prime Minister's visits to the Shrine, official or not, an issue of international concern. Why is there such a rift not only between Japan and its neighbors but also between the way Koizumi sees his visits and the way in which China, Korea, and other countries perceive these visits? What do the visits mean? This thesis has three arguments. First, this thesis argues that the Yasukuni Shrine is caught in a paradox of its legacy - a religious shrine and a state memorial to the war dead left untouched from before the war, in a country that since the end of World War Two has had a separation of Church and State. Second, this thesis argues that the domestic politics vis-à-vis Yasukuni are defined by this paradox, with an ill-fitting policy of separation of church and state without resolution of the need to recognize the war dead. Third, this thesis argues that by visiting the Shrine, along with various policies of the Government of Japan that have endorsed and supported the shrine since Japan signed the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, Koizumi demonstrates to Japan's neighbors that it is hollowing out Japan's post war reconciliation. While Japan has officially apologized for its actions in World War Two, for Japan's neighbors, visiting the shrine is a visible sign that Japan does not wish to act very sorry.
Customer Reviews:
Good introduction to the topic........2007-02-07
The author does a fine job of outlining the basics of the "Yasukuni Problem", an issue in which there seems to be a dearth of serious, academic imformation in English. The text could have used an bit more proof-reading, but that minor oversight does not really detract from the value of this work. Highly recommended.
Amazon.com
Peace and Memory is the stand-alone third novel of Mark W. Tiedemann's ambitious and acclaimed future history, the Secantis Sequence. The Secant is a territorial boundary in space, a forbidden zone, a closed border between deadly enemies: the Pan Humana and the Commonwealth Republic. The Earth-centered Pan Humana forbids interaction with aliens--and with the people of the Commonwealth Republic, who trade with aliens. Worse, the Commonwealth Republicans use alien mind technologies. Are they still human? What does it mean to be human?
Commonwealth Shipmaster Tamyn Glass is a trader gaining success among the aliens when a man from her past sends her a stolen starship. The ship bears the news that the man, her old friend Sean Merrick, is dead, and wants Tamyn to recover his body and bury him on the other side of the Secant--on Earth. But is Sean truly dead? Signs indicate he may still be alive. Yet, if he is dead, Tamyn must steal his body before she can bury it. And if she succeeds in this grim task, she runs the risk of getting herself and her crew destroyed in the Secant or killed on the forbidden planet Earth--or worse. For the ancestral homeworld has brain-breaking punishments undreamed of in the Commonwealth Republic. --Cynthia Ward
Book Description
Decades after the Secession, humanity is still split. The isolationist Pan Humana and the expansionist Commonwealth Republic live on either side of their mutual boundary, the Secant. Crossing the Secant is illegal, no matter which side you start from. Trade Tamyn Glass is on a well-paying and mostly legal run when she is contacted by Benajim Cyanus--a man she doesn't know, piloting a ship that isn't his, pursued by people who intend him harm. He carries a plea from an old friend that Tamyn can't ignore. Sean Merrick, richest of the early founders of the Commonwealth, is dying, and his last wish is to be buried on Earth. That means crossing the Secant and breaking the law. But that's only the start of Tamyn's problems. Merrick is trying to live beyond his natural lifespan: he has loaded his persona into his ship, the Solo, and turned it over to Benajim--a man who has no memory of his past and owes his present to Sean Merrick. One man has placed them all in a moral, ethical, and legal dilemma that threatens everything they know, and there's no time to consider. They have to decide, and decide now. Their choice will have profound consequences. For everyone.
Customer Reviews:
Tiedemann Comes into his Own.......2006-02-21
I am very glad that I did not read the Secantis Sequence in order. I began with Metal of Night, a tightly-written novel with a fully realized reality that I found satisfying, and yet not compelling enough to add to my library. Nonetheless, it led me to the other two books in the sequence.
Compass Reach...was definitely a first book. The makings of likeable characters and an interesting reality did not quite compensate for disjointed storytelling, rough writing, and discontinuities. Had I read this book first, I would not have pursued the other two.
Which leads to Peace and Memory. All of the author's strengths come together in a believable reality, wonderful characters, and a beautiful story well told. The pacing is perfect, and the book is hard to put down; it lingers in the mind.
Of course, any follower of Tiedemann will continue to enjoy this entry in the sequence. However, if Compass Reach and Metal of Night didn't blow you away (and in fairness, I read Sharon/Lee's Liaden Universe novels first, so my standards were high), don't let that keep you away from Peace and Memory. If you have not yet read the other two, you may want to start here, and read them as backstory instead.
A Splendid Return to Sci Fi.......2004-01-23
I grew up reading Science Fiction but somehow dropped away from the genre over time. That's why I am grateful to have heard about Mark Tiedemann's stunning novel, Peace and Memory. It reminds me of what I always loved about sci-fi: a gripping plot, sophisticated but accessible vocabulary, and some profound and probing philosophical and intellectual issues. That the book is I believe part three of a larger sequence did not get in the way of being caught up by the story. It simply made me eager to go back and see how the story all began. This one holds together well on its own.
He did it again!.......2004-01-13
Another great story from a gifted author. A personal favorite. Peace & Memory is a richly detailed, compelling tale of human motivations and frailties. Once started, it is very hard to put down. Highly recommended. I can't wait to read his next novel.
Tiedemann's best so far!.......2003-10-22
I have always enjoyed Tiedemann's work, but with Peace & Memory, he's surpassed himself. I haven't enjoyed a sci-fi work as much since my first taste of Asimov and Heinlein's early work. This has believable characters, an infrastructure that is integral but unintrusive, and a solid, character-driven plot. Don't miss this book.
Product Description
History: Fiction or Science? is the most explosive tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by solid scientific data. The book is well-illustrated, contains over 446 graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays, which never cease to amaze the reader. Eminent mathematician proves that: Jesus Christ was born in 1153 and crucified in 1186 The Old Testament refers to mediaeval events. Apocalypse was written after 1486. Does this sound uncanny? This version of events is substantiated by hard facts and logic - validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources - to a greater extent than everything you may have read and heard about history before. The dominating historical discourse in its current state was essentially crafted in the XVI century from a rather contradictory jumble of sources such as innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts whose originals had vanished in the Dark Ages and the allegedly irrefutable proof offered by late mediaeval astronomers, resting upon the power of ecclesial authorities. Nearly all of its components are blatantly untrue! For some of us, it shall possibly be quite disturbing to see the magnificent edifice of classical history to turn into an ominous simulacrum brooding over the snake pit of mediaeval politics. Twice so, in fact: the first seeing the legendary millenarian dust on the ancient marble turn into a mere layer of dirt - one that meticulous unprejudiced research can eventually remove. The second, and greater, attack of unease comes with the awareness of just how many areas of human knowledge still trust the three elephants of the consensual chronology to support them. Nothing can remedy that except for an individual chronological revolution happening in the minds of a large enough number of people.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
At the outbreak of the First World War, an entire generation of young men charged into battle for what they believed was a glorious cause. Over the next four years, that cause claimed the lives of some 13 million soldiers--more than twice the number killed in all the major wars from 1790 to
1914. But despite this devastating toll, the memory fostered by the belligerents was not of the grim reality of its trench warfare and battlefield carnage. Instead, the nations that fought commemorated the war's sacredness and the martyrdom of those who had died for the greater glory of the
fatherland.
The sanctification of war is the subject of this pioneering work by well-known European historian George L. Mosse. Fallen Soldiers offers a profound analysis of what he calls the Myth of the War Experience--a vision of war that masks its horror, consecrates its memory, and ultimately justifies
its purpose. Beginning with the Napoleonic wars, Mosse traces the origins of this myth and its symbols, and examines the role of war volunteers in creating and perpetuating it. His book is likely to become one of the classic studies of modern war and the complex, often disturbing nature of human
perception and memory.
Average customer rating:
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In the Service of Peace: Memories of Lebanon
Brendan O'Shea
Manufacturer: Mercier Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
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General
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Lebanon
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Military Science
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International
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ASIN: 1856353761 |
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