The Coast of Utopia (Box Set)

Book Description

The Coast of Utopia is Tom Stoppard's long-awaited and monumental trilogy that explores a group of friends who came of age under the Tsarist autocracy of Nicholas I, and for whom the term intelligentsia was coined. Among them are the anarchist Michael Bakunin, who was to challenge Marx for the soul of the masses; Ivan Turgenev, author of some of the most enduring works in Russian literature; the brilliant, erratic young critic Vissarion Belinsky; and Alexander Herzen, a nobleman's son and the first self-proclaimed socialist in Russia, who becomes the main focus of this drama of politics, love, loss, and betrayal. In The Coast of Utopia, Stoppard presents an inspired examination of the struggle between romantic anarchy, utopian idealism, and practical reformation in this chronicle of romantics and revolutionaries caught up in a struggle for political freedom in an age of emperors.

Customer Reviews:

The Coast of Myopia.......2007-07-25

Tom Stoppard's three play series "The Coast of Utopia" was mounted at the Lincoln Center where I was privileged to see the dramas on separate nights. The plays about early nineteenth century Russia were brilliantly staged; the scenic effects were breath-taking; the acting was superb; and the thrust stage was used in novel ways with fast-paced exits and entrances; and the revolving stage, elevators and trap doors were integrated successfully with the action.
Here in this three volume set, we have the texts in which Stoppard tries to dramatize philosophical and ideological conceits. He writes in English, but unfortunately much of it turns out to be unfathomable gibberish. A brilliant turn of phrase becomes merely bombast. His sense of humor is sharp, but his sense of the dramatic is blunted.
We have anarchists, anti-Czarists, nihilists and serfs, landowners, sparkling women, and would-be bomb throwers who are content with editing polemical magazines. Stoppard's abstractions, high level generalizations, obtuse theories, obfuscations, and cloudy reasoning swirl in and around the theatergoers' heads. Although in the theater the lines go by with dizzying speed, the armchair reader will have time to parse and reflect.
Years ago I saw a marathon nine hour "Nicholas Nickleby" adapted from the Dickens novel on stage. It was magnificently acted and staged. It was dramatic and emphatically lucid. Dickens wanted to be a playwright and an actor, and it shows in his theatrical novels. Stoppard apparently wanted to be a philosopher, and it shows in his erudite plays. When one attempts to dramatize ideas, one runs the risk of creating cotton candy: fluffy, gauzy, and nebulous.
Some of the characters are based upon real personages of the period like Turgenev, and the views they spout come from their writings. Stoppard had the great good fortune to have first-class actors saying his lines. Readers who have the time and patience will find these play scripts well worth reading, and if they have the good fortune to see them in live performances, they will be doubly rewarded.
The Daemon in Our Dreams
Nine Lives Too Many
Nicholas Nickleby
The Rice Queen Spy

Fun Reading.......2007-06-12

I was delighted to finally be able to read these plays after reading so much about them. I don't live anywhere near New York and it would be impossible to see these plays either in a 'marathon' performance or separately. But reading and imagining (aided by the production photos in the TCG magazine) made it a good, though vicarious experience.

A Monumental Work.......2007-04-22

Stoppard's Coast of Utopia is marvelous, and reading the plays before you see them enhances the experience. For his canvas, Stoppard uses Russia in the mid 19th century, a period of tremendous turmoil that saw the Decembrist uprising of 1825, the death of Nicholas I, the emancipation of the serfs, and growing revolutionary sentiment in that huge and backward land. The other backdrop for Coast of Utopia is the political and social unrest in Europe, including the various revolutions of 1848, and the development of socialist/communist political theory.

For his story, Stoppard traces the lives of various of the young Russian intellectuals (for whom the term intelligentsia was coined) who saw their country's backwardness, oppression and poverty and dreamed and dared that it could be different. The central characters in The Coast of Utopia are Alexander Herzen, Michael Bakunin, Nicholas Ogarev, Ivan Turgenev and Vissarion Belinsky, but other historical figures also play roles.

The Russian intellectuals who sought change in Russia were hampered by many obstacles; harsh censorship, which made open political dialogue a crime punishable by exile or worse, an utter absence of democratic institutions, a huge peasant class that was largely ignorant of and oblivious to their efforts, and the Tsar and a coterie of landowners, bureaucrats and priests who were largely satisfied with the status quo.

In The Coast of Utopia, Stoppard adroitly mixes social themes with political theory and history. As one might imagine, as these Russians groped for ideas about how their country should be reformed, there were differences of opinion. Initially, the reformers, such as Herzen, favored gradual reform, led by the Tsar; as the 19th century progressed, more radical thought, influenced by Marx, came to predominate, and more moderate voices, such as Herzen's, were drowned out by the increasing call for violent revolution. Stoppard does a fabulous job in showing the various intellectual currents that ran among the exiles by having them argue out their theories on stage in the course of the play.

All this might sound talky and dull, but it's not, for two reasons. One is Stoppard's genius at showing how real people discuss these ideas. One minute we have two characters debating Hegel; the next minute they're attending their children, just the way real life interrupts all sorts of activities. And the lives of the main characters were sometimes untidy, and for that reason interesting; we see their joys, their sorrows, their love affairs and their occasional melancholy on being separated from Russia for so long.

The second is the staging of the plays; I could go on and on, but I was utterly wowed by the Lincoln Center production, it is magnificent and at times transcendent.

But ultimately what makes Coast of Utopia so interesting is that it's a series of plays about ideas, what is the best way to modernize and democratize a backward society. Of course, we see this play through the lens of history, after the revolution in Russia and after communism has been justifiably relegated to the dustbin of history. So we know how disastrous the actual revolution proved to be. But one of the strengths of Stoppard's work is that he doesn't fall prey to easy triumphalism about the later result. Instead he shows these men, mostly in a sympathetic light, trying to imagine a better society for Russia, and then taking the first steps toward making that better Russia come to pass. Without a doubt, Stoppard sees Herzen as his hero, and Herzen, with remarkable prescience, clearly saw the risks of the absolutism to come. But despite his sympathy for Herzen's humanistic views, Stoppard also gives fair voice to the radicals, so that a balanced picture of the political thought of the era emerges.

Stoppard has acknowledged his debt to Isaiah Berlin's Russian Thinkers in writing The Coast of Utopia. If you are interested in the ideas in The Coast of Utopia or the history of 19th century Russia, Russian Thinkers is well worth reading.

The most important theatrical event of the past 60 years.......2007-03-11

Stoppard's eloquence and wit are only the beginning. The subject is monumental and speaks to our times. Wisdom emerges at the perfect pace. Catharsis at the end. I have seen the trilogy and will see it twice more in marathon experiences. Reading the text beforehand enhances the understanding of the contest and of what takes place. If you don't recognize the importance of The Decembrists, please review some history before seeing and/or reading the trilogy. If you don't know at least a bit about Tsar Alexander, please look at wikipedia and go from there. Very timely and relevant and ominous.
And if you read the inspiring text either before or after the experience, the catharsis will be even more powerful. If you havent't seen the epic, this is a must-read.
Thank you, Tom Stoppard (and ensemble) for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"Rock & Roll" goes further.
IMO, this is a transformational work which materially enhances Stoppard's prospects for already likely Nobel Prize.
What next? What a genius.
Unforgettable lessons to be learned dramatically.

Unexpected disappointment.......2007-02-20

I am pasting here my letter on the topic sent today (Febr, 19, 2007) to "The New York Times" in response to the review of Mr. Stoppard's work by Ben Brantley:

I admire Ben Brantley for his skill of writing a seemingly positive review of Tom Stoppard's "The Coast of Utopia" (Febr. 19) filled with such phrases, unfortunately fully justified, as: "I wouldn't call it a major work of art" or "But as for major insights of philosophical or historical weight, that's not what "Utopia" is about."

First, my background: since seeing Mr. Stoppard's "Arcadia" in London about 10 years ago my wife and I have become great admirers of its author, we have never missed any of his plays until now when, after attending the first two parts of "Utopia", we decided to skip the last part (though we've read it). Also, with our school education in Russia, we understand a thing or two about the history of the Russian political thought.

With this background, it is painful for me to use the word "failure" to describe the last Mr. Stoppard's venture but regretfully I cannot find another word. A noisy long production - everything could be said in just three hours - with more than 60 characters, it exhibits no unity, no central idea and eventually no purpose. There are three major books on the topic written at that time: "The Fathers and the Sons" by a liberal Turgenev, "The Possessed" by a conservative Dostoevsky and "My Past and Thoughts" by a centrist Herzen ("Utopia" is in significant degree is simply a stage version of Herzen's book), and they give a much better idea of what really happened in Russia at that time. Orwell's "1984" may be considered as an important 20th century commentary to the first three books.

Of course, the fall of communism does call for some reconsideration and the new insight. As a man who combines both Eastern European and the Western cultural traditions, Mr. Stoppard was uniquely placed to give us such insight, and we eagerly waited for this his work. What we got instead may be best described by Mr. Brantley's words: "...you could find a snapper, shorter version of the same idea in a fortune cookie."

Average customer rating:

Masterpiece of Pop-Philosophy
I Loved This Book
Viscous or Brilliant?
Crystalline Reasoning Untested by Rock of Reality
brilliant but myopic

Anarchy, State and Utopia
Robert Nozick
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0465097200

Book Description

In this brilliant and widely acclaimed book, winner of the 1975 National Book Award, Robert Nozick challenges the most commonly held political and social positions oaf our age--liberal, socialist, and conservative.

Customer Reviews:

Masterpiece of Pop-Philosophy .......2007-01-10

Nozick's A, S, and U is a great work of philosophy; not merely for its clear and forceful arguments, but because of its ability to act like a textbook. With ASU, you get a broad coverage of political theories, ethical theories, theories about argument, economics, government and more. Highly recommended for anyone who is doing philosophy at an undergraduate level.

I Loved This Book.......2006-06-18

An observation and common criticism of the book, both in this little Amazon fishbowl and elsewhere, is that Nozick takes givens, starts the arguments, and proceeds without initial justification of his givens.

The charge is accurate. So throughout the logic of the case he builds one finds comments like, "This does not take seriously the person as an individual" with no support or clarification. What are these statements? Are they broad appeals to what everyone has already recognized through some moral sensory apparatus, a moral fact? Are they simply what Nozick has taken as true beyond dispute, or at least, beyond fruitful argument?

Some times they are. Some times, as with property rights, Nozick has simply accepted the work of previous thinkers, there John Locke. Are there flaws with Locke's property rights base? Yes, indeed there are flaws with any theory, and one must accept the least flawed if he ever wants to advance to a higher subject. This is especially true of ethics. But Locke is certainly no insignificant thinker, but rather a reliable starting point of an analysis. And what the author perceives as commonly accepted (but not necessarily unanimously accepted) principles are fair game when one is presenting an argument--without such data, we have nothing but skepticism unbounded.

And yet many seem intent on criticizing Nozick for not reinventing the wheel--for simply filling in gaps in other theories, weaving certain ones together in new ways without going through the substrata of the entire philosophy of Western civilization, doublechecking each vein.

I find that criticism unfair. Each writer, each theoretician, must accept certain truths to begin with, accept some axioms and from thence go forward. It simply won't do to demand an entire universe in every book. Some times the premisses a writer starts with will be bizarre to the reader, and so he will not accept the conclusions. Those skeptical of "rights" in general will find trouble accepting where we are led--and if the premisses started with are so absurd perhaps we can rebuke the author for his warped view on reality. But nothing presumed here can be dismissed so easily. You may charge, accurately, that Nozick has yet to prove the existence of external reality, and ergo, this political argument is unsupported. But you're a silly person to do so.

And some of you take the idea that a progressive tax could be immoral to be simply insane, and thus you find the book's conclusion contrary to reality as such. But I tell you the quality of the book is not merely its truth (though I do believe Nozick has presented here a powerful moral truth), but also the case Nozick builds from the (often widely-held) premisses he selects, and the mastery and beauty of that case. I don't think anyone can fairly deny the grandness of what he has done here. (I am not arguing that truth is insignificant--I am arguing it is one of many components of quality).

To be honest, I loved this book. I loved the honesty, I loved the politics he justified, I loved the vibrancy of Nozick's arguments, the freshness of his methods, the power of the Rawlsian critique, the dangling tantalizing questions. I loved the parts I agreed with and those I didn't agree with.

I loved the setup--the journey through economic theory to bring us a just minimal state from the anarchist's state of nature. I loved the detours along the way--the discussion of animal rights, utilitarianism, punishment and deterrence. I loved the minimal state, and the crisp arguments that ruled any increase in it immoral. I loved the discussion of utopia, born like dessert after a full meal, a whole new set of fun arguments, providing us with more rich analytic devices, and exploding possibilities.

I loved Nozick's style--never, not for a second, patronizing. Smart, quick, concise and dense, poignant with its thoughts, and yet neighborly, polite, forthright and friendly. Were I not already a libertarian I'd be one now. Were I not already interested in philosophy, I would be now. Were I not already an ardent Nozick groupie, I would be now.

There is a passage where Nozick gives a short paean to Rawls, the beauty of his theory, the mastery of his technique. Surely Rawls deserves it, but there can be no doubt that after this work, Nozick deserves no less glowing praise. It is hard to stress sufficiently the warmth and artistry of what the author accomplishes: the birth of a political philosophy, and a journey there with every step amazing. No cliches, no tricks, just light.

With this book, the libertarians have carved a slice of truth from the world. We can be defeated--but now we must at least be faced.

Viscous or Brilliant?.......2006-01-11

When I neared the end of this book, I was learning so much, I couldn't believe how I drudged through it in the beginning. Except that I did so for a reason.

This book is divided into 10 chapters. The first 6 answer claims of anarchists--they establish the existence of the state as legitimate. These 6 chapters are tedious, tedious reading. To be honest, I got very little out of them. Yet, you have to read these to be able to understand the rest of the book (sadly).

The reason? Chapters 7-10 are flat out GREAT. He crushes the welfare state beautifully, humiliates Marxism, and so on. Excellent stuff. I got tons out of these chapters.

So, half of this book is tedious drudgery (though still very brilliant stuff, to be sure), while the other half is very beneficial and enjoyable.

Recommended, with conditions.

Crystalline Reasoning Untested by Rock of Reality.......2005-08-16

This book represents a crucial turning point in American political philosophy. It should be mandatory reading for anyone who would start making sense of the differences between pre-Reagan and post-Reagan political views of the world. By comparing the style and substance of this book with Rawl's Theory of Justice one might learn much about the philosophies that have driven the politics of these two eras.

This book is presented in three sections. The first argues for a 'minimal state' in preference to anarchy. The second attacks 'utopian' notions of society. The third poses the author's own model of the 'utopian' state. There is a glittery, shiny, mathematical precision to the arguments. And when one encounters arguments that make sense, the sketchy quality works to the book's advantage and the book shines.

In the first section the author imagines established societies without the protection of governmental bodies. He posits the evolutionary development of hypothetical security companies and illustrates how these firms would always fall short of providing the minimal protections even their own clients should reasonably expect. He derives a hypothetical governing body he calls the 'minimal state.' This body has the rights to do certain things we normally associate with government, But these rights, he argues, fall far short of those posited by others, including our own government. If one assumes away most of the problems industrial societies face, Nozick's notion of the 'minimal state' is an interesting one and perhaps even a sensible one. He certainly makes the case that it is preferable to anarchy.

To the extent that the last chapter is construed as an argument about the 'unabridged rights of free association,' it also stikes one as being sensible and clear; brilliant, even. But the author's argument is too sketchy to robustly support his grandiose intention.

The second section is more difficult to believe than the other two. Consider a counterargument Nozick poses to refute one argument in Rawls' Theory of Justice.' This argument is related to a queston about how to divide among a group's participants the excess gains that are realized as a result of cooperation. (Paraphrased for clarity.)

1) People are entitled to their natural assets ( i.e. intelligence, strength, so on)
2) People are entitled to the benefits that flow from their natural assets. (i.e. income)
3) People's holdings accumulate as benefits from their natural assets.
4) People deserve their holdings because of rightful means by which they accumulate.
5) It is wrong to wrest holdings from people if they deserve them.

The author suggests that Rawls would rebut this syllogism at line 1. Then he proposes an argument which reaches the same conclusion but avoids positing 1) . And claims victory.

Not so fast. The second line of the argument , 2), could mean that people deserve 'all of the benefits that flow exclusively from their natural assets.' This is a premise that is a little hard to dispute, but has no legs. It does not carry the argument where it needs to go, because practically speaking such cases are never in dispute. Alternatively it could mean that people deserve 'all of the benefits that flow at least in part from their natural assets.' It is upon this meaning that Nozick must base his argument if it has any relevance to the cooperative behavior that pervades the modern world. But this interpretation is of no help in resolving the disputed claims of ownership that arise regarding the excess profits of cooperation. All parties involved do precisely this - claim all the benefits that flow in part from their natural assets. And we arrive back at the problem Rawls was trying to solve in the first place. Nozick's counter-argument is only helpful in trivial, practically indisputable cases that involve no cooperation.

There are a number of other very simple objections one can raise to Nozick's syllogism. It appears, for instance, not to properly treat the case of children. This argument is too simple and its implications too involved to state here.

Perhaps we have misunderstood the author in this case. Still, this example illustrates a kind of disconnection with reality that pops up now and again throughout the second and third sections - a failure to recheck the mathematically derived world against common sense understanding of the real one. It represents a case where the form of an argument is the means of persuasion rather than its sense. And the form is set up by the facile wordings of the starting premises. The appeal to pure logic might be compared to the appeal of a geometric proof (one whose premises might be a little shaky, perhaps).

Or it might be compared with a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. It is bright and shiny and attractive. One might be left with the sense that the author, starting in London, has pointed his Silver Shadow of reason in the correct direction and, in attempt to drive it to the resource-rich continent of Australia, is methodically driving it right over the precipice at the Cliffs of Dover.

brilliant but myopic.......2005-04-07

This book is brilliant for its microscopic and short term analysis of what is just, but it leaves out the possibility that short term microscopic violations of liberty can ensure the long term maximization of liberty. In this way Nozick's treatise is myopic. His entire treatment of what I would consider the most important critizism of libertarianism (namely the fact that redistrobution is necessary to maintain stable equilibrium of the economic divide due to the fact that well off persons can "use this power to give themselves differential economic benefits") is but one paragraph long (p272) and seriously lacking in credulity.

On the microscopic level, one of my many complaints with Nozick's treatise is how, for example, slavery is to be prevented with only a minimal state. Nozick handles this point by suggesting that "in the short run a more extensive state" could "rectify" this situation (p231). My problem with this response is that the same force that would cause an injustice like slavery would also prevent such rectification. In other words, Nozick ignores the fact that practically speaking a minimal state is often prevented from self-organizing the creation of such a rectifying more extensive sate, and that this point must be taken into account if one wishes to believe that the minimal state is the most just in the long run. Only the extenisve state can insure that gross injustices like slavery do not naturally evolve out of a given system.

In the end, I respect much of Nozick's argument, and it may well be true that mandatory redistribution is unjust for those wealthy folks who do not wish to part with some of their money to help the needy. But that does NOT mean that such persons are not a**holes.

Average customer rating:

Genius
Excellent edition of The Republic
Not the best
"republic" of the soul...aka: self help
Very good for an inexpensive translation

The Republic (Penguin Classics)
Plato
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140449140
Release Date: 2003-02-25

Book Description

Ostensibly a discussion of the nature of justice, The Republic presents Plato's vision of the ideal state, covering a wide range of topics: social, educational, psychological, moral, and philosophical. It also includes some of Plato's most important writing on the nature of reality and the theory of the "forms."

Translated with an Introduction by Desmond Lee

Customer Reviews:

Genius.......2007-09-07

If you can only have five books on your library shelf, this book has to be one of them. Plato argues against democracy and total freedom and does such an amazing job. You may not agree with him, but after reading the book you will have so much respect for someone that is seeking the absolute truth no matter what it turns out to be.

Excellent edition of The Republic.......2007-05-06

Shorey's english rendering of the Greek in the Loeb edition is, in my opinion, excellent. More than anything, he captures the passion and fervor of Socrates beautifully, as his english rendering of the text is significantly more poetic than the vast majority of translations of The Republic. While, obviously, there are countless other editions and translations of The Republic, few of these do "justice" to the work qua literature as Shorey does. Shorey's translation, while perhaps a little less accessible to beginning readers than Alan Bloom's or WHD Rouse's, is not difficult to the point of inaccessibility, and its strengths in other regards are too significant to make it necessary to purchase anything other than the Loeb edition of The Republic.

It is my hope that this review is actually helpful to someone that is deciding which edition or translation of The Republic to buy. Far too many Amazon reviews are little more than opining on the ostensible subject matter of a book that the individual either did not read, or did not understand.

Not the best.......2007-01-10

This work is poorly written and difficult to understand. Philosophy books are dense in the first place, but this edition adds to any confusion and created lots of headaches. Furthermore, the book in other editions usually have line numbers so that people can compair notes across editions, the Dover book lacks these. I purchased a different book and found in depth analysis to be much easier.

"republic" of the soul...aka: self help.......2006-12-20

i have no comments on this particular translation of republic, as it is the only version i have read.

republic does not live up to its namesake. as "socrates" says (i think we all know that socrates is really just plato's play dough after book 1) at the close of book 9, the vision of kallipolis only "exists in theory" or perhaps there is a "model of it in heaven." the earlier differentiation between theory and practice make it clear that plato only intended to use kallipolis as a model for the human soul. therefore, the suggested policies of eugenics, infanticide, communal property, and holding women and children "in common" are probably not to be taken seriously. plato himself predicts the inevitable unraveling of such a city.

after reading republic for the second time, it occurred to me that it is little more than a self-help manual. reason should rule spirit and passion. "dabbling" weakens the character. understand the difference between necessity and luxury. shatter your illusions about what you think you know, etc etc. not that these are not important, but such ideas do not require the complex analogy of a totalitarian society. thus, i think republic is slightly overrated.

the most compelling portion of this book, in my opinion, was the critique of the various constitutions. while the critiques of oligarchy, tyranny, timocracy and democracy map on nicely to the individual soul, they also make logical sense independently. while convention has led us to disregard the former 3 constitutions, democracy is often placed on a pedestal as the most ideal form of government. plato challenges this notion and succeeds with vigor in tearing down this pedestal. democracy, even in its representative form, is not much more than tyranny of the majority. we can witness democracy's inherent flaws today in the U.S., on issues such as abortion and gay marriage. this, in my opinion, is the only significant thing republic has to offer to the modern political theorist.

Very good for an inexpensive translation.......2006-11-10

I'm wrapping up a semester of teaching this translation of Republic, and I've had few complaints. Waterfield's editorial hand is visible, but that in itself, in the hands of a competent teacher, leads to good discussions above and beyond Plato's ideas.

With regards to Plato's masterwork, there's no good place to start save reading it for oneself. Plato is dead wrong in places (with regards to poetry and marriage just to get rolling), but his genius is that he's wrong as an idealist philosopher, encouraging readers to assert and refine their own ideals as counter-arguments. In other words, in order to refute Plato, one must out-Plato Plato.

Deconstruction is fine for deconstructionists, but a good discussion of this juggernaut of ancient thought is the life for me.

HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS

Average customer rating:

Useless as a Reference
easy to read
Great Beginner CSS Book
MUCH Better books available
A broad introduction to CSS for new users

HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS
Rachel Andrew
Manufacturer: SitePoint
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0975240277

Book Description

HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS, 2nd Edition is for web developers looking to create websites using Cascading Style Sheets for layout, which allow for faster page downloads, easier maintenance, faster website redesigns, and better search engine optimization.

HTML Utopia covers all aspects of using Cascading Style Sheets in Web Development, and is a must-read for Web Developers designing new sites or upgrading existing ones to use CSS layouts.

This book includes one of the most comprehensive CSS2 references on the market. Jeffrey Zeldman, web design guru and co-founder of the Web Standards Project, says "After reading this book, you will not only understand how to use CSS to emulate old-school, table-driven web layouts, you will be creating websites that would be impossible to design using traditional methods".

The second edition of this popular book includes brand new coverage of Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 1.1, new CSS Solutions, and greatly expanded coverage of popular, cross-browser, CSS layout techniques.

Customer Reviews:

Useless as a Reference.......2007-09-01

I purchased this book hoping to use it as a reference to solve various CSS issues that crop. Unfortunately the various chapters don't show how to actually use any of the knowledge its supposed to impart. For example, it'll show an example, and then display various extra code that it says should be "added" to the page. Added where? At the top? Bottom? Inserted inside a DIV tag? Which one?

I can understand a book not having any concrete examples if its going to concentrate on the subject at a conceptual level, but it doesn't explain the concepts either. For example, in the section on positioning it doesn't say more than "absolute" means absolute, and "relative" means relative. That's nice, but doesn't leave me understanding any more how to actually design a page than I did before reading the chapter.

easy to read.......2007-07-18

This book is easy to read. I am using it pretty much as a reference book. I do wish it would have been a bit bigger of a book with more indepth examples but thats why they have website.

Great Beginner CSS Book.......2007-06-15

Web design has always been a hobby for me, so I spent a good part of my life in the dark about style sheets. They've really only surfaced as an essential skill in the past few years, and even today a large amount of sites don't utilize them. This book is an excellent introduction to CSS. It is written clearly, without superfluous language, and is accessible to beginners. After reading it, you will have a very good understanding of CSS and you will be able to build your own webpage using current web standards.

The book begins with a basic overview of CSS - it breaks down the syntax, talks about what CSS can do, and tells you why it is a better choice for design than standard HTML tables (CSS is faster and easier to maintain, and the book tells you why).

The next section is a case study. The authors walk you through the creation of a CSS-only page (no tables!), and it's pure magic for someone who's never used CSS before to see how everything comes together. A second case study follows, and the 2nd edition also includes a new case study on how to build a 3 column layout with a footer.

The book is over 500 pages long, but a good 40% of it is an appendix that lists every single CSS declaration and describes their proper syntaxes and when and how to use them. The appendix alone makes the book worth buying as a valuable reference.

A must buy for the beginning CSS developer.

MUCH Better books available.......2007-05-17

Most other books on CSS talk about styling tables. I found this book (for a newbie with CSS) pointless and confusing. Don't bother with it. Other books by O'Reilly can teach one enough about theory to make this book superfluous at best.

A broad introduction to CSS for new users.......2007-05-01

In a sea of books on CSS, this one stands out because of its title, which promises to reveal CSS's great layout powers. Unfortunately, that's as much marketing as truth.

The first third of the book is a very elementary primer on CSS which can be found in all other books and all over the web. The last third of the book is comprised entirely of appendixes, primarily dedicated to describing every CSS property available, and again is widely-available information.

The middle 150 pages does focus on layout, but again its information is fairly elementary and widely available. An experienced developer looking for the secrets of making very complex cross-browser layouts in CSS won't find a lot here. And like too many books, all of the information provided is bound up in a single end-to-end layout project, the creation of a fairly simple three-column layout. If looking for information on a certain feature or technique, the reader can't easily just read a few pages for the information. S/he must stumble around trying to understand the current state of development of this single project before s/he can glean much on the topic.

So, why am I giving it a 4-star rating? I've read at least a half-dozen books on CSS and this one is by a long shot the best introductory text I've seen. The writing is very clear and focused, the examples are well written and illustrated, the appendixes provide a thorough reference, and the book occasionally nods towards the complexities that cross-browser application of CSS can bring.

It just isn't the advanced Holy Grail of complex layouts that I was hoping it would be.

Tinkering toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform

Average customer rating:

Excellent, although dated
Must-read for ed reformers
A different take on educational history
Best Brief Intro to Educational Reform in the US
disappointed after reading this book

Tinkering toward Utopia: A Century of Public School Reform
David Tyack , and Larry Cuban
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0674892836

Book Description

For over a century, Americans have translated their cultural anxieties and hopes into dramatic demands for educational reform. Although policy talk has sounded a millennial tone, the actual reforms have been gradual and incremental. Tinkering toward Utopia documents the dynamic tension between Americans' faith in education as a panacea and the moderate pace of change in educational practices.

In this book, David Tyack and Larry Cuban explore some basic questions about the nature of educational reform. Why have Americans come to believe that schooling has regressed? Have educational reforms occurred in cycles, and if so, why? Why has it been so difficult to change the basic institutional patterns of schooling? What actually happened when reformers tried to "reinvent" schooling?

Tyack and Cuban argue that the ahistorical nature of most current reform proposals magnifies defects and understates the difficulty of changing the system. Policy talk has alternated between lamentation and overconfidence. The authors suggest that reformers today need to focus on ways to help teachers improve instruction from the inside out instead of decreeing change by remote control, and that reformers must also keep in mind the democratic purposes that guide public education.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent, although dated.......2006-11-19

Having read Tinkering Toward Utopia for one of my graduate classes in administration at the GSE at Rutgers, I would summarize that the book is excellent, but a little bit dated.

Tyack & Cuban present a well-done overview of the American educational system, from its beginnings in the early 20th century through the mid-1980's. Their theme, "tinkering toward utopia," is an interesting take on addressing school reform throughout the century and sheds light on the problems and pitfalls of "overpromising" and "hyperbole" that have existed--and continue to exist--in American education. Overall, the text is easy to read and is replete with well-developed examples.

My only caution is that although the ideas presented continue through and are valied in modern times, the examples and data contained in the work are, for lack of a better word, dated--11 years in public education, especially with 5+ of those years overshadowed by NCLB, is a long time of increased levels of accountability that are missing in what could be "a century (and a little more) of public school reform." One would hope that a revised edition be published in the near future with a chapter or two specifically devoted to those last 5 years of the 20th century and the transition into the 21st.

However, overall, the text is excellent and highly informative.

Must-read for ed reformers.......2006-06-26

The history of public school reform in the United States has been characterized by institutional inertia and myriad failed attempts at wholesale change. Although policy elites, educators, school pundits, and the lay public regularly disagree about why we have intractable schools, David Tyack and Larry Cuban, in Tinkering toward Utopia, argue that a careful and complete understanding of schools as institutions has long eluded those who attempt to effect change in schools. The authors also claim that incremental change in education is a natural and viable phenomenon, not a symbol of a failed system. By rendering these arguments through sociopolitical and historical lenses, they present a comprehensive take on the stagnancy of school reform.

Although the word tinkering can connote clumsiness or incompetence, the authors use it in an equivocal sense in order to argue that educational change for better or worse has been piecemeal, largely due to what they call the grammar of schooling. Radical reforms, such as merit-based teacher pay and open classrooms, have repeatedly failed to make a lasting impression on schools largely because they have attempted to alter the structural and behavioral regularities that are entrenched in the notion of what constitutes a "real school." The argument, although effective, is nothing new: Sarason's (1971) illustrative example of the "man from outer space" immediately comes to mind. However, Tyack and Cuban take this argument to another level by diagnosing many failed reform efforts as "too intramural" (p. 108), and incongruent with external forces (e.g., college admission requirements, labor market needs).

How the grammar of schooling was engendered and why it has remained seemingly immutable is the real thrust of the problem. Like good scholars, Tyack and Cuban do not ignore political dimensions. They soundly argue that despite the ostensible claim that centralized governance of schools by experts would forever "take the schools out of politics," technocratic control of schools actually had just the opposite effect in practice, for the act of devolving power to a single group has the word politics written all over it. Furthermore, the structural regularities that exist today (e.g., age-graded schools, egg-crate classrooms, departmentalized high schools) secured their places in the schooling schema long ago by first gaining the necessary political support, and then by demonstrating that they were efficient and easily replicable. Crystallized school traditions have essentially become the blinders that prevent the universe of alternatives to be considered.

Tyack and Cuban clearly expose their advocacy of the classroom teacher as a critical change agent. Their argument is lucid and point-blank: schools change reforms. "Once the schoolroom door was shut, most teachers retained considerable autonomy to instruct the children as they saw fit" (p. 115). Unsurprisingly, thwarted attempts to introduce change from the outside were typically ones which grossly misunderstood or failed to take into account teacher perspectives. The authors describe reforms as blueprints meant to be altered, not followed indiscriminately, and they buttress this notion with empirical evidence detailing how reforms have been tempered, marginalized, or even rejected by teachers. While careful to avoid the emotional arguments such as the oft-cited teacher-as-unsung-hero plea, they extend a clarion call to empowerment of those who work closer to the front-lines of education.

As a caveat, Tyack and Cuban caution readers not to judge the success of reforms by frequency, longevity, and even fidelity of implementation. Rather, those who understand the value of local differences and teacher concerns, and more importantly, that schools are simply not "wax to be imprinted" (p. 83) but rather highly dynamic and idiosyncratic institutions, will be best able to wield the elusive wand of change.

A different take on educational history.......2005-11-12

If you are looking for a general history of American public education, look elsewhere. However, if you are interested in an examination of *why* American education is the way it is, then this book is for you. Tyack and Cuban delve into questions that should concern anyone with an interest in educational reform, such as: What has driven our desire to change education? Why do some reforms work while others don't? Their examination of these questions alone is worth the read, and their style (concise and clear) makes the reading itself a pleasure.

Best Brief Intro to Educational Reform in the US.......2001-12-09

Tinkering Toward Utopia is simply the best brief introduction to the history of educational reform in the US available. Anyone with a genuine interest in historical explanations of why grand schemes of school reform fail and why "crisis" is the way the US has tended to view its need for school reform, will be rewarded by this clearly written account. The book substitutes complex historical analysis for the usual simple-minded polemics of writing on education, but the authors do not weigh the book down with a lot of historical evidence and inpenetrable footnotes. I highly recommend this book for anyone who cares about the prospects of reforming public schools in the US.

disappointed after reading this book.......2000-10-11

Just as someone said below, "Good book for a report but not for pleasure reading".

Average customer rating:

a translation of substance and a great edition
A note on the unending work of Political Philosophy: Republic, Statesman, Laws
The First Communist Outlines His Program
Good edition of a seminal work of political and ethical philosophy
There are better translations...

The Republic of Plato
Plato
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0465069347

Book Description

Long regarded as the most accurate rendering of Plato's Republic that has yet been published, this widely acclaimed work is the first strictly literal translation of a timeless classic. This second edition includes a new introduction by Professor Bloom, whose careful translation and interpretation of The Republic was first published in 1968. In addition to the correct text itself there is also a rich and valuable essay--as well as indexes and a glossary of terms--which will better enable the reader to approach the heart of Plato's intention.

Customer Reviews:

a translation of substance and a great edition.......2007-06-17

i add my praise of bloom's *translation*, which avoids many of the historical pitfalls in rendering plato's language and concepts and, on the whole, is idiomatic, consistent and accurate. the few criticisms of the translation posted here seem to me to turn on bloom's educational background, which is a silly cavil, or on his translation, which as far as i can tell is objectionable only to readers lacking greek themselves.

i especially praise bloom's *edition*, which provides excellent endnotes to some of the disputed passages and, in particular, clarifies the meaning of key greek words (eidos, doxa, nomos, arete, politeia, etc.) and the translation difficulties the words create. i cite for example his gloss on greek "thymos" (passion) which bloom represents as "the seat of anger" (a common straussian misconception) but consistently translates as "spirit" or "spiritedness", which is about as accurate as english can render its complex meaning. the point is that without this kind of annotation the reader is hostage to the translator's whims. bloom discloses his choices at every turn, so that the reader is aware of the translator's challenge, can approve or evaluate his translation choices, and has the context for further exploration of plato's ideas if that seems fruitful. in this respect, the endnotes are at least as stimulating as the text.

the edition also includes a very useful index to proper names and a separate index to subjects (really, a synoptic index of concepts such as "virtue" or "justice"), which allows the reader to retrace page by page the steps in the argument that hinge on particular words (in the original greek) or specific philosophical ideas. of course the edition uses the berlin marginal numbering which is the standard method to cite passages in plato, but the indices are conveniently keyed to pages or endnote numbers.

finally, bloom's apparently controversial interpretative essay does presume a careful and skeptical reader. while clearly tendentious in certain respects it is also an excellent gloss on the outline and argument of the dialog; a kind of cliff's notes for the mature reader. i see this essay as a culmination in the invitation -- through the text, the notes to the text, the inquiry through the indices, and the questions all these raise -- to encounter the book in a spirit of self inquiry and self education. the book is a fine example of "paideia".

my disappointments are with the typeface, which is a bit small and stodgy, with the paper (too rough and heavy), and with the binding: as with many basic books paperbacks, the glue will split and shed pages if the book is used too familiarly.

materials aside: for a modern american reader with little knowledge of classical greek or of the three centuries of philological and literary scholarship laid over it, this is far and away the best english translation and nonscholarly edition for getting back at least part of the original meaning of plato's supreme political tract, with all the tools necessary for a lifetime of self study.

A note on the unending work of Political Philosophy: Republic, Statesman, Laws.......2007-03-31

A great source of perplexity to students beginning to study Plato's political philosophy is the question of how the three political dialogues -Republic, Statesman, Laws- hang together. In this brief note I would like to touch on how these three dialogues might be related. At first blush it might seem they have very little in common. Indeed, they do not even share a common primary speaker! The Republic has Socrates, the Statesman has the stranger from Elea, and the Laws has an Athenian Stranger as the primary speaker. We tend to think of the Republic as a revolutionary utopianism, the Statesman as a somewhat aloof, and occasionally absurd, philosophical description of politics, and the 'Laws' as a conservative paean to the traditional virtues. But is there a way of showing that these three dialogues (and the three speakers) do not merely contradict each other but rather correct each other thanks to Plato's allowing each dialogue to represent only a partial truth that we readers must put together with the others in order to see the whole Plato was aiming at? Let's start at the beginning:

Political philosophy truly begins with Plato. There is a crisis in Athens, various sophists and rhetoricians are spreading disrespect for the traditional gods and morality of Athens. In this manner, Athens reminds us of modernity and its fundamental disbelief in traditional values. In 'The Republic' Plato has Socrates (remember, Socrates is only another character in Plato's dialogues, and for all interpretive intents and purposes he is nothing more; the Platonic dialogues are not to be confused with biography) silence the rhetor Thrasymachus by demonstrating the chaos that ensues if everyone does as he pleases. That is, Thrasymachus learns from Clitophon and Polemarchus parroting his points (Book I) the consequences of his sophistry of power. The consequence being that rhetors and sophists will no longer be necessary (or employed) if everyone comes to think exactly as Thrasymachus does... Socrates then demonstrates to Thrasymachus that seductive rhetoric (and, of course, seductive rhetors) will have a role to play in the newly made Platonic Republic. Socrates, with his city built in speech, successfully seduces Glaucon, his brother, and the rest to accept a suitably modified 'city of pigs' - that is, a city in which all mind their own business. The 'city of pigs' (Book II, 372d), of course, is how Glaucon describes the moderate city that the philosopher Socrates is perfectly content to live in. The rest of the Republic, as I said, is little more than Socrates skillful seduction of Glaucon and the rest to accept a modified version of this moderate city. That is, they are to come to accept a city in which everyone minds his own business and has only one job, which is what Socrates' definition of justice demands. But is Socrates' moderate city, once modified, still moderate?

Another question that each of us must decide as we read this text; does Plato's Socrates deceive? - Oh my! At 389b-d Socrates tells us that the ruler of the City, and only he, may lie. Now, are Philosophers rulers? But the whole point of the Republic is to show that there can be no peace or justice until philosophers do indeed rule! Thus we are led to suspect that it is only the Philosopher-King who may tell 'noble lies'. But before philosophy actually rules must it not also tell lies to non-philosophers in oder to achieve the crown? Now, note that near the beginning of Book I (331e) Socrates asks if it is just to lie to the insane. But certainly, I hear many of you objecting, Socrates cannot possibly mean this of the splendid exceptional young men presently (i.e., in this dialogue) gathered around him. Indeed, later at 459c-d, Socrates seems to argue that the lying ruler is only a type of physician. Perhaps philosophical ruling is necessary only because of the sickness in the souls of non-philosophers? What!?! ...It really is quite remarkable how often the insane do not even know they are insane! Now, is the 'treatment' that the philosopher-physician Socrates demonstrates in this dialogue always and everywhere effective? No, for instance, there is nothing that either converts or silences Callicles in the 'Gorgias'. Thus Socrates, and his utopian revolution, fails to bring peace to Athens. (True, at the end of Plato's Symposium 'peace' finally reigns, but everyone has been seduced by words and sedated by drink.) Indeed, the historical Socrates is in fact understood by Athens to be part of the problem, and not a solution. Thus the later Plato elects to modify (or correct) the famous, garrulous Socrates with the silent, unknown Eleatic Stranger.

In Plato's 'Sophist' and 'Statesman' the taciturn Eleatic Stranger is forced to speak. Philosophy must battle Sophists and Statesmen over what can be said and what can be done. The Stranger demonstrates (i.e., acts out, not explains) the difficulty of seeing (and showing) the differences between Sophist, Statesman and Philosopher. Also, note that in the 'Sophist' he shows us how difficult it is to `know' as opposed to (and distinct from) making while in the Statesman he shows the impossibility of mixing (or weaving) flawed types of people into an unflawed whole. Since the weaving of flawed types into a supposedly 'unflawed' whole is an example of making the resulting 'unflawed whole' cannot, in fact, be an example of knowledge. This means that the Eleatic Stranger could not bring philosophy to the City any more than Socrates could. Thus no matter who rules the City Socrates is going to die... Also, always keep in mind that the dramatic date of the action of Sophist/Statesman coincides with the beginning of Socrates trial. Thus the Statesman ends with the Eleatic Stranger leaving the City behind and, in effect, saying to Socrates that there is nothing in the city, for us, but death. I would be remiss if I did not mention that in the 'Statesman', a rather short Platonic dialogue, there are more confusions, errors and repetitions than in any other dialogue that I am aware of. This is due to the fact that the Eleatic Stranger, unlike Socrates, views the political from the viewpoint of theoretical philosophy. From this viewpoint the political is madness itself! But does the Eleatic Stranger also tell 'noble lies'? In a sense yes, at 242b (in the Sophist) the Eleatic Stranger tells Theaetetus that everything he (i.e., the Eleatic Stranger) says is said out of regard for Theaetetus. But note that these philosophically 'noble' lies that the Eleatic Stranger is 'forced' to tell are not really said for the sake of the City; they are only necessitated by theory and pedagogy. The Eleatic Stranger doesn't seem to have the slightest interest in changing the City.

Now, be that as it may, we wonder what becomes of those that must continue to live in a world that condemns a Socrates to death? Plato rejects both the irresponsible silence of the Eleatic Stranger and the responsible silence that results from Socrates' murder by Athens. In 'The Laws' Plato has the Athenian Stranger (Socrates returned from the dead, according to Aristotle) teach the sovereignty of Nomos (law), while in Plato's 'Timaeus' Plato has Timaeus spins fabulous myths about creation and the God to enchant everyone. Thus Plato strove to save philosophy from the city and the city from philosophy by allowing philosophy to be seen revering what the city reveres - that is, laws and myths. But do note that the Laws dialogue ends with the concoction of the so-called 'Nocturnal Council' which is to have power to revise all the Laws (keep in mind that this must also mean laws regarding the gods) in the city whenever necessary. It is in this manner that the 'noble lies' philosophy tells are embodied in an institution hidden within the city itself. Thus the philosophical 'conservatism' of the aged Plato is in reality the founding document of the permanent revolution of Western Philosophy. Or, to put all this yet another way, the utopian revolution that was loudly proclaimed in the Republic has been replaced, in the Laws, by the machinations of the nocturnal council, which operates behind everyones back. Thus the 'philosophical conservatism' in the 'Laws', that has been so-often denounced by modern scholars, is in reality a call, but a call only made to to genuine philosophers, to permanent revolution!

There are those among us who are coming to believe that the 'History of Philosophy' is, in reality, nothing but the record of the maneuvers of our philosophical 'nocturnal council'. But this would be how the Platonic Revolution became perpetual philosophical reform; there is simply no end to it...

The First Communist Outlines His Program.......2007-03-09

This book has to be read, as a defense, especially by freedom loving people, because Plato outlines his "ideal" society. Think Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, today's Iran, the Inquisition, and today's American "Nanny/Theraputic State" all rolled into one mega dictatorship, with of course, the omnipotent and authoritarian "philosopher-king" in charge. Now, philosophy is a science crucially needed today, but it has to be the right philosophy. Sadly, we live in a Platonic age and the continuting disintegration of America into a fascist/religious nightmare. Let's hope the pendulum is swinging toward the antidote: Aristotle's "pursuit of happiness". Obviously, the [so far] lone commentor hasn't a clue.

Good edition of a seminal work of political and ethical philosophy.......2007-01-08

I don't feel too much need to discuss the subject of The Republic, given its status as one of the most famous works in the history of philosophy, but I should say that the topics that it addresses are as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago. The great question of justice, which Plato takes as his topic in the Republic, is still one that we debate about today, and Plato's political philosophy is important to read even for the staunchest democrat as another perspective on our overglorified system of government.
The Bloom translation offered here holds up very well - it is the most accurate translation of the Republic that I am aware of, and though this does make it convoluted at points it gives the English reader a better sense of what Plato meant without ever getting too difficult (although even the most dedicated readers may have to skip the famously difficult section on the 'nuptial number'). This handsome edition is well worth having, to read and reread.

There are better translations..........2006-12-28

I have taken a look at all the main translations out there and have to strongly disagree with the other reviews here that Bloom does the most faithful or "best" translation.

I have a few reasons to be suspicious about Bloom's work here:

1. As a student of Strauss, Bloom learnt well the power of esotericism. That means to me he is both aware of (and possibly) uses esotericism as part of the translation. I didn't like the idea of ideologues such as the Straussians having anything to do with a text that is already pregnant with esoteric meaning. Read Strauss if you wish (I did) to develop one's understanding of The Republic but read another translation as one's reference. It will help you come to your own conclusions about this towering and radical work of philosophy.

2. I've applied a very quick litmus test of "safe" translations by going straight to 362a of the text to determine whether the translator has used the word "crucified", "crucify" or similar when referring to the punishment meted out to the just man. Some texts go further by "clarifying" that the translation should "literally" read 'impale' and from my point of view, use of the concept of crucifixion is way too close to what is to my mind a completely unnecessary and misleading Christianisation of the text. Interestingly, Bloom is credited with removing the long standing tradition of Christian-Platonic readings via the Straussian re-interpretation of Plato. However this version of The Republic by Bloom repeats this very significant mistranslation and puts into doubt the whole project undertaken by him.

Similarly, I rejected the penguin/Jowett versions that come from this same tradition.

So, what are my recommendations? I have to go with Grube/Reeve versions. They are atheistic/pantheistic, uncoloured but still poetic and powerful translations. One of Reeve's versions comes with the dialogue broken up against each character to assist with reading [...] but either version is excellent and I strongly recommend them over Bloom's version.

Average customer rating:

A Surprising Saint
Utopia: 'a place that does not exist'
An Intellectually Fun and Stimulating Read
A good reflection on Moore's thoughts
Literary Garden of Eden

Utopia (Penguin Classics)
Thomas More
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140449108
Release Date: 2003-04-29

Book Description

Revised introduction; new chronology and further reading

Translated with an Introduction by Paul Turner.

Customer Reviews:

A Surprising Saint.......2007-09-26

I suspect that this translation is a paraphrase of the original Latin. Nevertheless, it has the virtue of being lively and very readable. Everyone knows that More is a Catholic saint, which makes much of what he says in Utopia very surprising indeed. The Tudor functionary who persecuted Protestant heretics advocates religious toleration, married priests, the abolition of money and private property, and the pursuit of scientific knowledge as an end in itself. He shows himself to be a thorough rationalist and humanist and a sort of proto-socialist. His criticism of the gross injustice existing between rich and poor is breathtaking when one considers that there was no freedom of conscience or opinion in his time. (Shakespeare never dares to criticize society except when he puts subversive ideas into the mouths of his more disreputable characters.) I think that More made a strict division in his own mind between reason and revelation and that he thought of Utopia as what the ideal society would be like in the absence of the One True Faith. More's tone throughout is pleasantly witty (if the translator has been faithful to the original), as More himself was, even on the scaffold. For those who can read old books, Utopia is well worth the effort.

Utopia: 'a place that does not exist'.......2007-09-03

I first read this book in my impressionable and idealistic youth (some time in the second half of the last century). I've read it a couple of times since then and still enjoy the way that the book can be read as either a satire (my current preferred reading) or as a description of an ideal society.

This is a very short book and well worth reading - even for those of us without Latin who can only read it in translation.

Recommended.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

An Intellectually Fun and Stimulating Read.......2007-04-21

More exhibits intellectual creativity in the classic Utopia, originally written in Latin. It is a narrative on a non-existent, ideal society. The book Utopia includes the Utopian alphabet, a poem in Utopian and then translated into English, lines on the island of Utopia by the poet laureate, More's letters to Peter Gilles, Gilles's letter to Busleiden, Book 1, and Book 2.

The alphabet and poems at the beginning immediately display the creative and structured thought of More, introduce the island of Utopia, and display the humorous wit of More that will continue to make you chuckle throughout the course of the book.

The letters serve as the background to the authoring of books 1 and 2. It adds a sense of reality to them by describing where the subject matter for the books comes from and creating a pretend internal debate about whether or not a book on Utopia should be written by More at all. More's considerations in that staged internal debate are highly enjoyable to any avid reader.

The real fun to this book is how More uses plays on words, he comments on or uses writings of other classic authors, and he parallels or completely contradicts happenings and/or beliefs his own real life holds. For instance, book 1 weaves together completely fictional characters and situations together with real people, situations, and history that have impacted him in reality (This is the same concept of adding truth to falsehood to make falsehood more believable as is displayed in The DaVinci Code). More's talent is further displayed as he is able to discuss social governance issues in the entertaining and more relatable format of dialogue.

Book 2 describes in depth the structure of the Utopian society. It handles everything from governance within Utopia and relations with societies outside of Utopia to the handling of religion and the growth of morals in society members. While More presents some thought provoking concepts and ideas in this book, he clearly states that they are all based on the assumption that there's no such thing as greed, fear of want, or vanity in Utopia (pg 61).

This particular edition of Utopia comes with a short bio of both author and translator. It also includes a time line of More's life, a helpful introduction, further reading suggestions, a note on the text and translation, an appendix, a glossary, and a multitude of footnotes. If you are not already well versed in Latin, the writings of Greek and Latin philosophers, and English history, than I highly recommend you soak in all this added information from the translator and book editor that is included in this edition both before and while you read Utopia.

My only complaint of this edition is that I don't like flipping back and forth between the text of the novel and the notes in the back. I wish they had put the notes at the bottom of the page. Other than that, I really enjoyed this edition of Utopia and applaud More's witty creativity.

A good reflection on Moore's thoughts.......2007-01-04

Not the book everyone thinks it is. Great insight into thoughts on crime in the 12th century (in England).

Literary Garden of Eden.......2006-12-16

This was required reading for a graduate course in the Humanities. A great story and important historical work in literature. History of Utopia begins with Thomas Moore's book in 1516 he coins the phrase Utopia. Ideal societies have been around before like Garden of Eden, city on a hill. For Moore the idea of utopia was intended to be an ironic one. One of the problems you are faced with when reading his utopia is that you cannot really tell when he is serious and when he is being satirical. He writes on the border of the lyrical and satirical, you cannot really tell when he is trying to be funny or serious. The other problem is the Thomas Moore who speaks to us in the story is not the Thomas Moore who actually lived. He wrote himself into a character. He is intending it to be ironic. Utopia is Greek for "Good Place, and "no place." He is punning an ironic two-sided term he clearly intended irony when he wrote this text, which provided the foundation for a new genre for social representation. Now, according to Lewis Mumford, who wrote the book "The Story of Utopia" 1922, one of the first comprehensive studies of Utopian representation in Western Civilization, the word Utopia signifies human folly or human hope, the vain hope of perfection. The vain hope of remaking our own imperfect natures, so that we can establish the blissful harmonious communal life. On one hand, he is entirely playful and paradoxical. Thomas Moore could be bigoted (against Protestants), small minded, not a saint as portrayed. Among all the things, he was a great wit, great sense of humor. On the other hand, it seems that Utopia could be a reflection of his devout Catholicism. He has been represented as a Roman Catholic martyr. In which case you want to take him seriously, altering the model of menses a set of new aims for moral and social objectives. Of course, Moore's death is important to consider in this life he is glorified in the film, "A Man for All Seasons." He was a Renaissance man, he was a lawyer, statesman, Christian humanist a classical scholar an advocate for women's rights he was also Henry 8's Lord Chancellor.

In 1514, he was sent to Flanders to negotiate a wool treaty and while there, he meets and befriends Peter Giles who is the town clerk of Antwerp, and allegedly tells him "It is my intention to write a book about the way a country should be governed according to my principals. But, it is dangerous to write about those things in England while king Henry the 8 wrath is so easily encouraged, I could perhaps write that I met an old sailor in your house and introduce that man as a globetrotter, who had traveled all over the world and had seen places that we don't even know the existence of. What he had seen there was so unbelievable as compared to the life in Europe that the islands the countries he had visited would seem to belong to another world. Therefore, the title of my book will be "Utopia" a word that means "no where." That sailor will have traveled all over Europe and lived sometime in France Germany, and England. That is why he could compare the ideal community he got acquainted with in Utopia, to the ones he got to know in our countries, and that way I would keep myself out of the matter." After he returned to London, he wrote the fist chapter. Now, what would that tell us about the Utopian imagination, the creation the public presentation of a Utopia? Moore was beheaded in 1535; he would not recognize marriage to Ann Boleyn as lawful to the church. In 1534, Henry becomes head of the church, but Moore remains loyal to pope. In 1935, Moore is canonized. We have to take Moore's religion very seriously. Moore thought Protestants should be burned, he was greedy and proud, not a perfect man. Yet he had this wish for a Utopia.

All utopian fictional ideas of mythic proportion occupy kind of distant realm of the afterlife, myth, faith that unite all of these elements in a matter that is so rich and potentially illuminating and invaluable for scholars students that are interested in working across boundaries and in understanding and exploring the value of working across boundaries. Societies woven and inhabited by populations some of them very select, the exceptionally virtuous or blessed in some cases getting there requires a metaphysical transformation, in other cases it requires a harrowing journey that has to be understood as some ways metaphorical and some ways literal. There is always a sense that to reach Utopia requires a transformation of the human self how do we get away from our flaws, how do we get away from our seemingly inevitable and invariable nature of our being.

These places offer anecdotes to painful and tragic realities to human existence. They are historical in nature you cannot understand any utopia, whether it is represented in a sci-fi movie, or novel or feminist utopia; they must be placed in some kind of a historical context. A fascinating proposition to explore, all utopias all acts of the utopian imagination strike us as constituting in one manner or another statements, critiques or observations about the world we occupy at that given moment. Therefore, any utopia is a reflection and study of the world that we are occupying at that given moment and what we wish it were rather than what it is at that moment. Therefore, utopia is a deeply and inescapably a historical manner organizing the human imagination. I don't think any utopia works in a fixed and eternal way because for every generation and every age they have to imagine their own utopia. Of course utopian experiments were not just talking about fiction or wishing it were so, were talking about actual Soviet Revolution of 1917, were looking at movements looking to bring about radical profound social and political changes that are so deeply utopian in nature. So utopians are aesthetic, philosophical, sociological, they are imagined and fictional, but you can look a history and find attempts most of which failed to bring about these kind of communities that Emerson, Thoreau, these 19th century American egalitarian attempts to create the ideal agrarian society. 1960 hippies reawakening movement of going back to the natural and living off the land. Even today's green and ecological revolution you find in them utopian aspects that resonate so richly with the history of envisioning the ideal society, an ideal place.

Oscar Wilde once said "A map of the world that does not include Utopia, is not even worth glancing at for it leaves out the one country at which humanity has always landed, and when humanity lands there it looks out sees a better country set sail. Progress is the realization of utopias." So when we talk about utopias we are not only talking about a desire or a wish or a longing for perfection, we are talking about an order of progress, a way in which we intend to advance, a way in which we envision or imagine improvement and progress. A progress narrative, psychoanalysis is utopian. Freud's theory of psychoanalysis is a scientific expression of the utopian imagination. The idea that where id was, the ego shall be. The idea of a talking story, the idea that we can master our neurosis that we can harness them that we can move from unconscious behavior to conscious behavior. Marxism and all the grand philosophies of the 19th and 20th centuries are grand utopian narratives. Feminism is a grand utopian narrative in and of itself.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, and literature.

HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS (Build Your Own)

Average customer rating:

Perfect book for explaining CSS practically
Excellent for all levels
Learning CSS (Beginner or Advanced)
Misleading Title, But Helpful Book
High hopes dashed by brief delivery of title topic

HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS (Build Your Own)
Dan Shafer
Manufacturer: SitePoint Pty Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0957921829

Book Description

This book is for Web Developers who want to develop or migrate existing websites from using table-based layouts to using Cascading Style Sheets, which allows for faster page downloads, easier maintainence, faster Website re-designs and better search engine optimization. HTML Utopia covers all aspects of using Cascading Style Sheets in Web Development, and is a must-read for Web Developers designing new sites or upgrading existing ones to use CSS layouts. This book includes one of the most comprehensive CSS2 references on the market. Jeffrey Zeldman, web design guru and co-founder of the Web Standards Project says about this book "After reading this book, you will not only understand how to use CSS to emulate old-school, table driven web layouts, you will be creating Web sites that would be impossible to design using traditional methods".

Customer Reviews:

Perfect book for explaining CSS practically.......2006-03-29

To say that I love this book is an understatement. This was the first book that I'd read on CSS that clicked from the first page all the way through until the last. I have many other CSS books on my shelf, but this one is the one that gets reached for the most.

Excellent for all levels.......2006-03-21

There are many books on CSS out there, and I've investigated quite a few of them in order to gain some proficiency in it.

However there were always pieces of the puzzle that never came together for me. CSS books seemed to lean towards either the technical or design aspects of CSS, without sufficiently showing their connection. For instance, technical books would discuss in varying detail the types of selectors without examining their practical significance, or what all the properties were without exploring their aesthetic ramifications; or, on the other hand, design oriented CSS books would discuss the wondrous ways to use CSS to create beautiful websites, but without exploring on a satisfactory technical level some of the reasons for their decisions.

Mr. Shafer strikes the perfect balance, demonstrating with succinct examples the relationship between technical considerations and design aesthetics. He takes you by the hand from the beginning and leads you step by step so that the reader will develop solid, standardized habits based on theoretical considerations to produce clear, uniform, and aesthetically compelling stylesheets. He teaches you why you're doing things so that you come away with a greater understanding.

This was a book written by an expert with a complete mastery of his topic on both a technical and design level who knows how to teach. Plus it has the added advantage of being written simply and clearly, with relevant examples demonstrating everything discussed. And it's refreshingly no-nonsense, without the painful condescension or groan-inducing style of all too many computer books.

Don't let the title deter you. Though it's ostensibly written for old-style designers to definitively convince them to move from table-based designs to CSS and showing them how to do it (are there any left who remain so unconvinced?), this book would benefit anyone wishing to really gain a mastery of CSS, no matter what level of expertise. The book even includes an appendix containing a comprehensive property reference for CSS2. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for those seeking to understand the relationship between the technical and design aspects of CSS. Well done, Mr. Shafer -- you have written one of the best computer books I've yet encountered! I wish all computer books were written this well.

(On a related note, this is the second book published by Sitepoint that I've purchased, and I applaud their editorial team for publishing such good books. Judging from these two books they seem to have a successful policy in place to write excellent technical books. Their books remove the chaff that turn so many computer books into useless tomes; and they treat their readers as possessing intelligence but who lack some specific knowledge which their books seek to fill from the ground up. I've grown weary of the condescending, patronizing, and sometimes even (seemingly deliberate) mystifying tone of most of the other computer book publishers out there, especially O'Reilly, who seem to target their books for some kind of "in-group" (wink wink). In the future when I need a technical computer book I will look first to Sitepoint, then to Sams, then to Peachpit. O'Reilly's Nutshell books are often still the best reference standards; but I will look elsewhere when I need to acquire new computer knowledge.)

(On another note, I wrote the above before reading some of the other comments here about this book. Wow -- what a range of opinion! I, as many other commenters here, have been a computer professional for many years (>25). I think the only conclusion I can reach is of the 'different strokes for different folks' variety. Clearly what works for me does not work for many others. Well, Vive la difference!)

Learning CSS (Beginner or Advanced).......2006-02-24

This book is very easy to read. The author takes a very simple building block approach. A chapter will talk about a group of CSS commands/options and at the end of the chapter, the author shows how these items can be used in a praticle web site.

The book is simple enough for beginners to understand and yet it provides enough details that advanced CSS users could still learn something from this book.

Misleading Title, But Helpful Book.......2006-02-11

I was recommended this book by co-workers and I haven't been sorry. Yes, the book is for beginners, but it's answered some questions and has helped out with browser compatibility - a skill I was lacking. The book does jump around a bit, but I feel that it covers each topic completely over time. It's not a dry read like many technology books. What is most helpful is reading the author's recommendations for best practices.

For the beginner, this is a good book to get a leg up on CSS.

High hopes dashed by brief delivery of title topic.......2005-10-05

I had high hopes for this book. I was ready for something completely dedicated to teaching me everything I needed to know about creating a site without using a single table tag for layout. Although the book does explain how to do this, I was still disappointed. After a brief introduction about CSS (yet again), section two of the book explains how to create layouts without using tables. In all, seventy pages of 500 are centered on this topic. Half the book is a CSS reference. The other sections talk about fonts, colors, etc. Clearly, the book is mis-titled. This remains a good book for someone new to CSS, so they can avoid bad habits from the start.

Average customer rating:

Roller coaster ride with a lot of fun
Enjoyable Action/Predictable Ending
Entertaining thriller
A roller-coaster thriller ... literally!
Fantastic

Utopia
Lincoln Child
Manufacturer: Fawcett
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0345455207
Release Date: 2003-12-02

Amazon.com

It takes a lot of chutzpah to give your novel the same title as one of the most famous novels in the history of English-language literature, even if the original novel didn't spawn a literary field or two (utopian and dystopian fiction) or become an everyday term for the perfect place to live on Earth. Yet there's a postmodern appropriateness to applying the title Utopia to a novel set in a theme park that uses cutting-edge technology to create Earth's most desirable fantasy place to visit. Like Westworld and Jurassic Park, Lincoln Child's Utopia is a near-future theme-park thriller, and like Michael Crichton, Child delivers an abundance of white-knuckle thrills, chills, and shocks.

Despite its remote location in the Nevada desert, the Utopia theme park receives 65,000 visitors daily. They never dream their lives may be in any real danger. However, some of the self-programming robots are becoming erratic, so park administr