Amazon.com
This new edition of C++ Primer, a favorite choice for a first C++ book, has been greatly improved with the latest and greatest on C++, stressing the built-in language features of the C++ Standard Library. For this new version--weighing in at a massive 1,237 pages--Stanley Lippman, a well-known C++ expert, teams up with Josée Lajoie, who has helped define the C++ international language standard. The new material is excellent for programmers who want to get the most out of new and advanced features in the language.
The authors still introduce the basics of C++, including data types and pointers, but quickly move on to stress how to get the most out of the built-in features of ISO-standard C++. Throughout this book built-in support for the C++ Standard Library, such as container classes like vectors and maps, and other standard features, such as the string class, are integrated into a tried-and- proven basic-language tutorial.
The major new features of C++ (templates, name spaces, and run-time type identification) all get their due. The result is an authoritative guide to basic and advanced C++ in a clear and readable style, with plenty of short, practical examples throughout the text. The book includes exercises--some quite challenging--for every section: a perfect choice both for self-study and the classroom. --Richard Dragan
Book Description
"
C++ Primer is well known as one of the best books for learning C++ and is useful for C++ programmers of all skill levels. This Fourth Edition not only keeps this tradition alive, it actually improves on it."
--Steve Vinoski, Chief Engineer, Product Innovation, IONA Technologies
"
The Primer really brings this large and complex language down to size."
--Justin Shaw, Senior Member of Technical Staff, Electronic Programs Division, The Aerospace Corporation
"[It] not only gets novices up and running early, but gets them to do so using good programming practices."
--Nevin ":-)" Liber, Senior Principal Engineer (C++ developer since 1988)
This popular tutorial introduction to standard C++ has been completely updated, reorganized, and rewritten to help programmers learn the language faster and use it in a more modern, effective way.
Just as C++ has evolved since the last edition, so has the authors' approach to teaching it. They now introduce the C++ standard library from the beginning, giving readers the means to write useful programs without first having to master every language detail. Highlighting today's best practices, they show how to write programs that are safe, can be built quickly, and yet offer outstanding performance. Examples that take advantage of the library, and explain the features of C++, also show how to make the best use of the language. As in its previous editions, the book's authoritative discussion of fundamental C++ concepts and techniques makes it a valuable resource even for more experienced programmers.
Program Faster and More Effectively with This Rewritten Classic
- Restructured for quicker learning, using the C++ standard library
- Updated to teach the most current programming styles and program design techniques
- Filled with new learning aids that emphasize important points, warn about common pitfalls, suggest good programming practices, and provide general usage tips
- Complete with exercises that reinforce skills learned
- Authoritative and comprehensive in its coverage
Customer Reviews:
Awesome book !.......2007-09-28
This book is great!! I had learnt C++ way back in 2000. I have been hearing about the drastic changes in C++ and hence bought this book. It really taught me a lot. This coupled with Scott Meyers make a killer C++ combination.
Good as a starting point..........2007-06-05
The book is very nice, all explanations are very clear, and the index is helpful.
However, the book only covers the language itself, not good programming techniques. You should probably also get "C++ Template Metaprogramming" by Abrahams and Gurtovoy, "Modern C++ Design" by Alexandrescu, and some books on object-oriented design. Maybe also one on the STL.
Good book if u already have some programming exp, but if not, the word "Primer" is a lie.......2007-05-25
I really couldnt say anything about this book. It explains well but if you have quite an understanding on programming and stuff.
This is the first book i had when i started to learn c++. And it was hard and confusing as hell at first.
Good introduction to C++.......2007-04-14
I had been programming in C for a long time already when I read this book. I had mucked around with C++ - reading other peoples' code - before reading it. So, I was not completely clueless, but clueless enough. I knew little about OOP, and had never seen templates before.
This book does an excellent job of teaching C++. The book is organized beautifully. The first part gets you going with the basic sytax, but at the same time introduces some library containers almost right at the start. This makes it easy to play with non-trivial code even as you are just starting. The next part is an excellent coverage of containers and algorithms. Then comes a detailed discussion on OOP, which is well worth the price of the book itself. Finally, there is a section on advanced topics.
The book is well written, and despite being discouragingly huge, is a breeze to read. Further, the organization above helps in quickly getting familiar with the key ideas of C++ and then zooming in.
I have been told by C++ gurus that there are certain flaws in the book, and that at one or two points it may be misleading. I am no C++ guru, and I did not find anything amiss with the book. C++ is not an easy language to learn, but it is not as hard as it is made out to be either. It helps to have an approach to teachin the language that does not start with C, does not build on C, but starts fresh from scratch. This book does that. For me, this book is sufficient as the only C++ book I need to have on my shelf.
The book is very good for middle level C++ reader.......2007-02-24
I like this book as I went through this book. I had learned C++ in one of my college class before. But we use different textbook, which was more narrow and doesn't touch the standard library at all. Even the temple chapter is hard to understand. But this book clear a lot of concept at same time give you standard library and alogorism. Also give you very detailed explanation of pointer, C and C++ comparison, etc.
Jashua
Book Description
An Introduction to the World's Oceans, 8/e is an introductory oceanography text intended for students without a background in mathematics, chemistry, physics, geology, or biology. It emphasizes the role of basic scientific principles in helping understand the processes that govern the ocean and the earth.
A major objective of
An Introduction to the World's Oceans is to stimulate student interest and curiosity by blending contemporary information and research with basic principles to form an integrated introduction to the sciences of the oceans. To keep the text as current as possible, the authors conduct their own research and examine other findings such as analyzing satellite data and large-scale oceanographic programs. From this vast amount of data, they select interesting, relevant, and understandable examples that illustrate contemporary principles of oceanography.
An Introduction to the World's Oceans places greater emphasis on the physical and geological aspects of the oceans than on the chemical and geochemical properties, because the latter disciplines require more specific background knowledge. An ecological approach helps integrate the biological chapters with other subjects. Students are encouraged to look at oceanography as a cohesive and united discipline rather than a collection of subjects gathered under a marine umbrella. As with all previous editions, the authors continue to make each chapter stand as independently as possible, so that professors can assign chapters in the order that best suits their classrooms.
Customer Reviews:
The Worlds Oceans.......2006-08-31
It Looks great and cheap price!!!I never used a highlighter... Need to sell
Average customer rating:
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Government by the People, Teaching and Learning, Classroom Edition (6th Edition)
David B. Magleby ,
David M. O'Brien ,
Thomas E. Cronin ,
Jack W. Peltason ,
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James MacGregor Burns
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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The Sagebrush State: Nevada's History, Government, And Politics (Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in History and Humanities)
ASIN: 0131930052 |
Customer Reviews:
A scatterbrained book........2007-07-16
While I only took Texas Government as it is required to graduate, my professor required me buy this book, ostensibly as a favor to his friend, the author.
This is not a good textbook. While I did learn about Texas government, the materials for the chapters are interspersed and requires a great deal of searching to find. Additionally, much of the information presented in this book is irrelevant to the section title. In many of the sections, for example, the one in the Executive Branch chapter, attorney general section, most of the paragraph simply talks about attorney generals who have recently won elections in Texas. A more generalized overview on the Attorney General's powers and responsibilities was more lightly covered. Because of the lack of substantive material in this book, a good third of the text could be excluded and it would retain its effectiveness.
Book Description
Gaius Petrius Ruso is a divorced and down-on his luck army doctor who has made the rash decision to seek his fortune in an inclement outpost of the Roman Empire, namely Britannia. His arrival in Deva (more commonly known as Chester, England) does little to improve his mood, and after a straight thirty six hour shift at the army hospital, he succumbs to a moment of weakness and rescues an injured slave girl, Tilla, from the hands of her abusive owner.
Now he has a new problem: a slave who won’t talk and can’t cook, and drags trouble in her wake. Before he knows it, Ruso is caught in the middle of an investigation into the deaths of prostitutes working out of the local bar. A few years earlier, after he rescued Emperor Trajan from an earthquake in Antioch, Ruso seemed headed for glory: now he’s living among heathens in a vermin-infested bachelor pad and must summon all his forensic knowledge to find a killer who may be after him next.
Who are the true barbarians, the conquered or the conquerors? It’s up to Ruso—certainly the most likeable sleuth to come out of the Roman Empire—to discover the truth. With a gift for comic timing and historic detail, Ruth Downie has conjured an ancient world as raucous and real as our own.
Customer Reviews:
Medicus is great.......2007-09-19
Medicus is the first book by Ruth Downie, and she plans more to come. Her hero is a crusty Roman medical officer stationed with the XX Legio at Deva, modern Chester, England. Because they have no one else to take the bodies to (there were no police forces in ancient Rome, and anyway these murder victims were only slaves), people keep bring the bodies to the doctor. Though he's reluctant to get involved (he has more than enough troubles to worry about, from the pending foreclosure on the family farm to his difficult relationship with another Roman official), he's finally hooked on the question of the deaths. Murder and mayhem ensue, of course. I liked the fact that the protagonist wasn't an official "informer" or investigator. And also that he was living in the imperial backwater of Britain. His difficulties with the hospital administrator were amusing. Bureaucracy never changes!
Doctor in the House.......2007-09-11
All in all it is a good read, one that I recommend.
Rather than embroidered with a vast sweep of historic greats, Downie's "Medicus" is woven with day-to day circumstances of the more common folk, a slant that gives the plot some fascinating twists readily recognizable to the average person as the sort of surprises, ambiguities and aggravations so much a part of their own lives. But there is mystery and intrigue for Gaius Petrius Ruso, a medical officer stationed with a Roman legion in ancient Britain. His already complicated life becomes even more so by Tilla, his would-be slave, who is not exactly in full appreciation of her dire circumstances. A well-constructed plot in and around the fort location of Deva keeps a steady pace. The novel's other characters provide a colorful supporting cast and stimulate marvelous images of human comedy and tragedy, especially when they center around Merula's, a site of local, um, entertainment. Personal details of the characters' day-to-day living experiences bring this above the typical sword and sandal genre and provoke some refreshing humor.
I did find the attribution of vernacular English to be a bit of a distraction, for example the soldiers referring to each other as "lads." However, this was not a serious enough flaw to detract on what was otherwise a fun book to savor.
A Good debut.......2007-09-02
I have no doubt this author will improve with experience. Medicus is a little slow to start. I was about half through with little sleuthing on Ruso's part, more denial that he was investigating, although others seemed insistant he was. Nevertheless it was a nice read, and if this is a series she may continue with, this is a good introduction to the characters. It did however pick up in the second half and move along nicely. I wouldn't say she rivals Lindsey Davis, her characters and writing are her own, and she will, I think, carve her own niche.
I don't regret buying the book and look forward to her next, which I will definitely buy.
Amazing first book.......2007-08-23
Good story, great characters, well researched, funny, overall an amazing first novel. I sure hope this is the first book in a long series.
Compares very favorably with Lindsey Davis, Steven Saylor, John Maddox Roberts (all writing about Roman times), Ellis Peters and Elizabeth Peters. Can't get much better than that!
dave
In between Davis and Saylor.......2007-07-19
With Medicus, Downie joins Lindsay Davis and Stephen Saylor as the preeminent authors of genre fiction set in ancient Rome. I already like her more than Davis, but she has to write a few more books before I can compare her to Saylor. On the positive side, the novel features a likable hero in Ruso, a doctor, and I like how the author sprinkles in detail about medicine and health care of the time. I also like how she bridges the gap between ancient Rome and the modern world: for example, Ruso's problems with women and bureaucracy are relatable despite the centuries. On the negative side, the central mystery progressed too slowly and the identity of the villain is too predictable. I am also tired of reading about Roman characters who fall in love with their slaves. It's so trite. Furthermore, I don't feel that the author explains their romance. Why does he fall in love with her? Because she's pretty? That's lust, not love.
Medicus is a good debut novel. If Downie can evolve as a writer like Saylor did, she will become required reading.
Book Description
The health care sphere we inhabit would unquestionably be more satisfying if everyone adopted the cooperative techniques taught in this book.
--New England Journal of Medicine
Renegotiating Health Care presents pragmatic and effective tools for understanding conflict, negotiating differences, and creating a workable balance among those who deliver, receive, administer, and oversee health care. The authors present practical methods and techniques giving all the players the knowledge and skills they need to put their work in perspective and create workable solutions.
Customer Reviews:
Must Reading for Health Care Executives.......2001-12-02
This book is essential reading for any leader in the world of health care. Health care execs are confronted with complex, highly charged negotiation challenges, internal and external, nearly every day. Many of these conflicts can damage lives and corporate finances. The book gives you very practical, results-oriented advice on how to resolve conflicts and move forward.
Dr. Marcus is the nation's leading expert in health care negotiations and conflict resolution, having helped numerous high-profile organizations overcome conflicts and reach mutually productive agreements. This book thoughtfully conveys this valuable expertise.
Excellent principles for conflict resolution.......2001-06-25
Marcus presents a broad spectrum of options for getting through tough times in the healthcare industry. The personable style and ongoing case history make this a very readable presentation.
Marcus teaches us that conflict is not only always present and unavoidable but can be used as a catalyst for good change. He describes differences in types of negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. He is a proponent of interest-based negotiation which is an attempt to improve the lot of the whole by improving the parts. He advocates active listening.
As witness to his sincerity, he dedicates a chapter each to four of the healthcare stakeholders: policymakers, healthcare management, physicians, and nurses. Each of these chapters speaks loudest to its own stakeholder, at once representing them and persuading them to enter into negotiation.
Postitional bargaining is also explored. Marcus does not advocate being a sacrificial lamb.
This book serves as an excellent introduction to the topic of conflict resolution and negotiation. However, in order to engage into the fray, one would also need to continue to study and practice the principles presented.
Although Marcus seems preachy at times and overhopeful at others, he is at least starting to draw the diverse and strong healthcare industry into one place to sit and talk. Hooray for that.
Average customer rating:
- Powerful
- One of the best books I've ever read
- A different view.
- Spartan Ethos Alive Again
- 300 Awesome
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Gates of Fire
Steven Pressfield
Manufacturer: Doubleday
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Binding: Hardcover
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Thermopylae: The Battle for the West
ASIN: 0385492510
Release Date: 1998-10-20 |
Amazon.com
Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here obedient to their laws we lie.
Thus reads an ancient stone at Thermopylae in northern Greece, the site of one of the world's greatest battles for freedom. Here, in 480 B.C., on a narrow mountain pass above the crystalline Aegean, 300 Spartan knights and their allies faced the massive forces of Xerxes, King of Persia. From the start, there was no question but that the Spartans would perish. In Gates of Fire, however, Steven Pressfield makes their courageous defense--and eventual extinction--unbearably suspenseful.
In the tradition of Mary Renault, this historical novel unfolds in flashback. Xeo, the sole Spartan survivor of Thermopylae, has been captured by the Persians, and Xerxes himself presses his young captive to reveal how his tiny cohort kept more than 100,000 Persians at bay for a week. Xeo, however, begins at the beginning, when his childhood home in northern Greece was overrun and he escaped to Sparta. There he is drafted into the elite Spartan guard and rigorously schooled in the art of war--an education brutal enough to destroy half the students, but (oddly enough) not without humor: "The more miserable the conditions, the more convulsing the jokes became, or at least that's how it seems," Xeo recalls. His companions in arms are Alexandros, a gentle boy who turns out to be the most courageous of all, and Rooster, an angry, half-Messenian youth.
Pressfield's descriptions of war are breathtaking in their immediacy. They are also meticulously assembled out of physical detail and crisp, uncluttered metaphor:
The forerank of the enemy collapsed immediately as the first shock hit it; the body-length shields seemed to implode rearward, their anchoring spikes rooted slinging from the earth like tent pins in a gale. The forerank archers were literally bowled off their feet, their wall-like shields caving in upon them like fortress redoubts under the assault of the ram.... The valor of the individual Medes was beyond question, but their light hacking blades were harmless as toys; against the massed wall of Spartan armor, they might as well have been defending themselves with reeds or fennel stalks.
Alas, even this human barrier was bound to collapse, as we knew all along it would. "War is work, not mystery," Xeo laments. But Pressfield's epic seems to make the opposite argument: courage on this scale is not merely inspiring but ultimately mysterious. --Marianne Painter
Book Description
Thousands of years ago, Herodotus and Plutarch immortalized Spartan society in their histories; but today, little is left of the ancient city or the social structure of this momentous culture. One of the few antiquarian marks of the civilization that has survived lies scores of miles away from Sparta, at a narrow Greek mountain pass called Thermopylae.
It was there that three hundred of Sparta's finest warriors held back the invading millions of the Persian empire and valiantly gave their lives in the selfless service of democracy and freedom. A simple engraved stone marks their burial ground.
Inspired by this stone and intrigued by the lore of Sparta, author Steven Pressfield has brilliantly combined scholarship with storytelling. Narrated by the sole survivor of the epic battle--a squire in the Spartan heavy infantry--Gates of Fire is a mesmerizing depiction of one man's indoctrination into the Spartan way of life and death, and of the legendary men and women who gave the culture an immortal gravity.
Culminating in the electrifying and horrifying epic battle, Gates of Fire weaves history, mystery, and heartbreaking romance into a literary page-turner that brings the Homeric tradition into the twenty-first century.
Customer Reviews:
Powerful.......2007-10-01
I don't read much fiction, but a friend of mine bought this book for me. I read it and was impressed by how well written this historical fiction is. Anyone interested in warfare, modern or ancient, should look into this book. Pressfield gives such an authentic account of how Spartans would have acted on a day-to-day basis.
One of the best books I've ever read.......2007-09-25
This book is absolutely amazing. One of the best reads ever. Not only does it describe the battle but it also details the life of a Spartan. I wish 300 was based on the story presented here
A different view........2007-09-21
The story of the 300 is generally limited in scope. "The Spartans had 300 guys who fought to the death to keep the Persians out."
Pressfield gives us the background. He tells us about the politics, the geopolitics, the war, the characters such as Leonidas and his wife. He has vignettes in the words of Spartan warriors.
With Pressfield, we can see the stand of the 300 in its place. I was reminded of something the aviator/writer Wolfgang Langweische said half a century ago. Boulder Dam, he said, is enormous. But when you fly over it, it's in its proper place, like a child jamming a pebble in the narrowest part of a trickle of water. Which, when you think about it, is what is supposed to happen.
Circumstances conspired to put 300 Spartans and several hundred of their tough allies in a tiny mountain pass. They were the pebble, but instead of blocking a trickle, they were trying to hold back a torrent.
Pressfield has Leonidas say that the performance of the Spartans in killing Persians should be such that, although victorious, the Persians will quail at seeing a battle line containing not 300 Spartan shields, but six thousand.
Pressfield gives us glimpses of training new soldiers and the field work of the experienced soldiers. His characters refer to the more or less normal fights between the city states, with enough detail and immediacy to put the reader into the fight.
We learn a lot about classical Greek combat.
It's a fabulous story. The stand of the 300 was very likely one of the few battles which could be said to have preserved the West, matched with Tours and Lepanto.
And yet. And yet. Pressfield has the Spartans nearly as philosopher kings. See, instead, Hanson's "Soul of Battle". The Spartan society was a vicious, fascist slave empire. It was as if a couple of Waffen SS divisions had found themselves a big, fertile valley in the Ukraine someplace and missed the end of WW II, being left untouched and unknown by the outside world.
The demands of war and the bonding of the combat units, in addition to the classical Greek view of man-love, required the distortion of the family and the degradation of women. The necessity of keeping the helots in thrall required routine terror and, indeed, the young Spartan was used to execute those serfs whose deaths might be a salutary lesson, just in case, as a way of blooding the youth for combat.
Vlad the Impaler fought the Turks in Southeast Europe and to him, unfortunately, we owe a bit of our existence. The same is true for the Spartans. It's too bad we couldn't get this lesson of courage and honor from, say, the democracy of Athens. It appears that some of the doomed allies of the Spartans who stood with them, and died alike, came from somewhat more acceptable polities. But they didn't get the ink.
Nevertheless, it's a fascinating book which actually is one of those examples of the cliche about not being able to put it down.
Spartan Ethos Alive Again.......2007-09-17
This is one of the best historical fictions I have ever encountered--certainly one of the best evocations of ancient warfare. Without the benefit of personal experience of either subject, ancient warfare or warfare of any kind, I would also guess that this novel is one of the most insightful anaylses of the psychology of combat. This book is an impressive achievement of the imagination. Steven Pressfield has re-discovered or re-created the Spartan ethos in terms of what it surely was in its time--a spiritual force. And he does it without disguising it origins in a slave revolt and a deliberate policy to crush the resistance of its Helot population. From those ugly and life-denying origins, a way of life--an ethic of sorts and a vision of essentials--emerged and took on a life of its own. Appropriately, this novel is about personal transformations under the aegis of that way of life.
300 Awesome.......2007-09-10
I saw the movie first. I didn't know what it was, but the movie rocked in a non plot having, CGI heavy metal, yelling and fighting sort of way. I longed for more and after searching Amazon and reading the reviews of the movie and the comic book it was based on I discovered the Gates of Fire. I could hardly put the book down. It is very detailed and it takes its sweet time setting the stage. The actual battle itself is probably by far the shortest portion of the entire book, but once you get to the battle you understand so much about the Spartan Culture, Warrior Ethos, History and more. I highly reccomend this book and after reading it almost wish it were made into a movie, but the movie would have to be about three hours long and I don't think the world needs anymore three hour long movies!
Book Description
He found Rome made of clay and left it made of marble. As Rome’s first emperor, Augustus transformed the unruly Republic into the greatest empire the world had ever seen. His consolidation and expansion of Roman power two thousand years ago laid the foundations, for all of Western history to follow. Yet, despite Augustus’s accomplishments, very few biographers have concentrated on the man himself, instead choosing to chronicle the age in which he lived. Here, Anthony Everitt, the bestselling author of Cicero, gives a spellbinding and intimate account of his illustrious subject.
Augustus began his career as an inexperienced teenager plucked from his studies to take center stage in the drama of Roman politics, assisted by two school friends, Agrippa and Maecenas. Augustus’s rise to power began with the assassination of his great-uncle and adoptive father, Julius Caesar, and culminated in the titanic duel with Mark Antony and Cleopatra.
The world that made Augustus–and that he himself later remade–was driven by intrigue, sex, ceremony, violence, scandal, and naked ambition. Everitt has taken some of the household names of history–Caesar, Brutus, Cassius, Antony, Cleopatra–whom few know the full truth about, and turned them into flesh-and-blood human beings.
At a time when many consider America an empire, this stunning portrait of the greatest emperor who ever lived makes for enlightening and engrossing reading. Everitt brings to life the world of a giant, rendered faithfully and sympathetically in human scale. A study of power and political genius, Augustus is a vivid, compelling biography of one of the most important rulers in history.
Customer Reviews:
A Man for This Season!.......2007-09-27
I am struck by the relevancy of this work to the political climate of our own early 21st American century! Chilling, timely, a potent sociological, political perspective as well as a eye-opening perspective on the military undermining of Rome's Republic and it's dying years.
A workman-like treatment of the subject of Augustus.......2007-09-14
After my second read-through of the book, I'm still not enthusiastic about it. In fact, rather than breathlessly following an `often terrifying drama,' I got bored at times, and more often than not, Augustus did not `come alive,' at least not to me.
The book is one of the many new popular history books, a worthy undertaking, bringing history back into the eye of the general public. However, it should also be readable to the more knowledgeable history enthusiast and the professional. Mr. Everitt, known to many Roman history buffs through his Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician, has done an enormous amount of research. The problem, for this reviewer at least, is how he made use of it.
The book is a more or less chronological history of the life of Octavius/Octavian/Augustus. This is preceded by a brief romp through the recent history of the republic, unfortunately sometimes a bit too glib or even careless.
One would have liked to read more about the famed "Golden Age." The quote itself is thrown in somewhere, and the poets are mentioned and cited here and there, but there is no cohesive treatment of the subject.
All in all, Augustus is presented as a reformer and forgiven his considerable flaws, the latter outweighed by the "public good." The author also stresses Augustus' and Agrippa's management of the provinces, encouraging urbanization and the Roman way of life and extending Roman citizenship to many thousands of provincials throughout the empire.
"Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor" is a workman-like treatment of the subject of Augustus, intended for a general audience. For the interested reader, there is an excellent "Further Reading" list.
The spinmeister.......2007-08-08
A decent popularizaion of the subject. Eap. good on general background and overall perspective.
Amazing!.......2007-07-19
Just an amazing read! Everitt did an outstanding job with "Augustus". If you want to learn about Rome's first emperor then look no further than this book. I couldn't put it down!
Astonishing!.......2007-06-28
Simply perfect. The facts about Marcus Antonius` attitude towards Octavian and his role in the events leading to Ceasar`s assasination are depicted with great accuracy. Highly recommended for classical era fanatics.
Book Description
In 480 BC, a huge Persian army, led by the inimitable King Xerxes, entered the mountain pass of Thermopylae as it marched on Greece, intending to conquer the land with little difficulty. But the Greeks—led by King Leonidas and a small army of Spartans—took the battle to the Persians at Thermopylae, and halted their advance—almost.
It is one of history's most acclaimed battles, one of civilization's greatest last stands. And in Thermopylae, renowned classical historian Paul Cartledge looks anew this history-altering moment and, most impressively, shows how its repercussions have bearing on us even today. The invasion of Europe by Xerxes and his army redefined culture, kingdom, and class. The valiant efforts of a few thousand Greek warriors, facing a huge onrushing Persian army at the narrow pass at Thermopylae, changed the way generations to come would think about combat, courage, and death.
The battle of Thermopylae was at its broadest a clash of civilizations; one that momentously helped shape the identity of classical Greece and hence the nature of our own cultural heritage.
Customer Reviews:
Thorough in most things, lacking in others........2007-09-03
The author goes to great lenghts to accurately depict the events leading up to the battle of Thermopylae,as well as a detailed look into the spartan way of life and the overal state of the Greek civilization as well as that of the Persian Empire. A detailed look at the immediate and long term consequences of the said battle is also depicted to great extent, leading up all the way to comparisons to past and current western vs eastern conflicts.
What baffles me, very dissapointingly is the lack of content concerning the actual battle of Thermopylae itself, a mere 11 pages cover chapter 7 (the battle) I was expecting a little more on that subject. Perhaps more detailed info on the naval battle of artemisium would have been nice, (although perhaps not directly related to sparta, I find it an important piece of the battle of Thermopylae)
Although throughout the book, one will find added bits of information of the battle, I still wish more was devoted to the actual accounts of the battle, I understand that perhaps very little about is actually known to separate facts from fiction, I'll just have to look elsewhere and hope to find a literarly piece that depicts what I was hoping to learn about.
The author's extensive research is remarkable and his efforts are certainly notewhorthy, I consider it still a must read if one wishes to find out the intricacies of that time period and the way of the spartan society.
Theromopylae Review.......2007-08-19
While I thought this book was very good, with authentic, true detail, I felt the author's writing style was just a bit challenging to follow. I read the book twice, back to back, and missed some details the first time.
While I don't give it four stars, it is good enough to be someone's first purchase in beginning to learn about ancient Greek battles.
Wonderful in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end. .......2007-08-10
The former reviewers imagine that you can write a book on a three-battle day in some more than 340 pages (Spanish edition). If that is indeed the case, they'd better read a novel on the topic. No source, now and ever, will tell you the feelings of Demaratus, Megistias, and all the actors of this epopeia during the three day battle.
Homer did that in the Trojan war, due to the very nature of the conflict. Aristocratic, one vs one combats, in an age six centuries earlier than the Thermopylae battle, with a quite different concept of war.
Some others tend to ignore the fact that a war is a business of a state and its allies against another one and its allies. Politics cannot be ruled out of a war, because, as "someone" put it, war is politics, by other means, as politics is war, by other means. In essence they cannot be divided.
Others suggest that he is making a direct comparision between Thermopylae and the 9/11 hijackers' suicidal massacre of innocent people. Having read the book, from the beginning to the end, I don't see where, when Paul Cartledge states in no uncertain terms his awesome aversion for such acts as 9/11 and related massacres.
Finally, many fail to see what the intent of this book is all about. That if we're to defeat terrorism in all its faces, we must show, at least, no lesser degree of 'assabiya (Wikipedia: Asabiyya) than that of our foes. And that playing to division and partisan games we are risking all the civilization we've created.
The number of times he recall Simonides quotation, should make us see that we have our laws, voted by all, and that we have elements to develop such 'assabiya.
If only for this message, I would award this book 10 stars. Being only able to award five, I award five, with honours.
look elsewhere.......2007-08-02
I agree with many reviewers who stated that this book is mostly a long and painful description leading up to the battle and seeingly a fly by with just a few words about the actual battle. The writing is terse and reminds me of my least favorite courses in college. Please consider purchasing:
The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter That Saved Greece -- and Western Civilization by Barry Strauss. I learned a lot more about Thermopylae with Strauss' book plus a TON about the naval counterpart. Extremely well written and engaging. It was hard to put Strauss' book down.
Not a good book.......2007-07-10
Carteledge seemed more impressed with his knowledge of the events leading up to the battle than the battle itself. The book should have been named differently. His connections with the Greeks and the 9/11 terrorist floored me - not to mention his interjection of modern "Bush bashing" and even a dig at this website.
I wish I had not purchased this book.
Customer Reviews:
Golen Age of the Pharaohs: offical Book of the Exhibition .......2007-09-09
Fantastic book; saved money by purchasing it through Amazon. Shows all the exibits. Very pleased with the book. A fine edition to anyones collection.
Very good book.......2007-09-09
I bought the book before seeing the tour in Philly. The book is very well done, and very good representation of the tour. Beautiful photographs, plus good rich text around the history of the 18th dynasty.
Other reviews talk about the tour, which isn't really what the book is about. The tour was rather crowded, and I was somewhat disappointed that all the objects were small, and no Tut sarcophagus. Very little explanation of the layout, so my son was complaining about the lack of Tut objects; they included many from the 18th dynasty.
I recommend the official DVD, its great; bought it at the show.
yasangel.......2007-08-31
Beautiful book, great pictures. Great to have with you if you get to see exhibit.
Gollden Age of the Pharaohs.......2007-07-16
Purchased in anticipation of the opening of the exhibition in London in November, the book is a mine of information. Not only does Zahi Hawass describe the objects on display, but he places them in context and gives a vivid picture of life in Egypt at the time of Tutankhamun and before his accession to the throne. Not only a great read, a reference for future use and up to Dr Hawass usual enthusiastic and vivid style. A must-have book for anyone interested in Egypt.
absolutly stunning....a once in a life time chance...........2007-07-04
First and formost DO NOT miss the King Tut tour.....the artifatcs are absoutely astounding and incredibly beautiful beyond words..It it truly extremely hard to wrap your mind around that every peice is wll over 3000 yers old. As for the book itself it is nithing short of amazing...caputring the exibit almost in its entirety....but NOTHING compares to seeing the absoultly stunnig tour live...a truly once in a life time experience...after the US tour concludes it it will never leave Cairo again...The book is worth its weight in gold...the awsome photography and articles by renowned archiloghits and her HRH the Queen of Egypt her self...THis tour the book by National Geographic and the Official DVD are some of the greatest gifts ever bestowed opon the world. A gift from the heart of Egypt to the world that will never be go on tour again...A humbling experience live and most interesting reading a msater work indeed...Bravo!!!
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