Merrill, James

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Recitative
James Merrill , and J.D. McClatchy
Manufacturer: North Point Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0865472548

I-Series: MS Office XP Volume I Expanded Version

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I-Series: MS Office XP Volume I Expanded Version
James T. Perry , Rick Parker , and Merrill Wells
Manufacturer: Irwin/McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

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ASIN: 0072539194

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The I-Series Applications textbooks strongly emphasize that students learn and master applications skills by being actively engaged- by doing. These texts have been written with clear, error-free, and unambiguous steps to accomplish tasks that lead to a finished document, worksheet or database table. The authors made the decision that teaching “how” to accomplish some task is not enough for complete understanding and mastery. Prior to introducing steps, the authors discuss why the steps students are about to experience are important and what role the steps play in the overall plan for creating a document, workbook or database.

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A sample
The Modern Epic
Merrill's Masterpiece
Propelled me (startled me!) into poetry - 10 year ago.
An Utterly Singular Experience

The Changing Light at Sandover
James Merrill
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Collected Poems
The Maximus Poems
Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments
Collected Prose
Familiar Spirits: A Memoir of James Merrill and David Jackson

ASIN: 0307263215
Release Date: 2006-02-14

Book Description

James Merrill’s audacious and dazzling epic poem, The Changing Light at Sandover, remains as startling today as when it first emerged in separate volumes over a period of several years. Individual parts won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and the entire poem, when it was collected into one volume in 1982, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. It is now an American classic, here in a definitive new hardcover edition that includes Voices from Sandover, Merrill’s recasting of the poem for the stage. The book carries us to the scene of Merrill’s Ouija board sessions with his partner, David Jackson—the candlelit Stonington dining room with its flame-colored walls and the famous Willowware cup they used as a pointer in their occult travels. In a shimmering interplay of verse forms, Merrill set down their extended conversations with their familiar and guide, Ephraim (a first-century Greek Jew), W. H. Auden, W. B. Yeats, Plato, a brilliant peacock named Mirabell, and other old friends who had passed to the other side. JM (whom the spirits call “scribe”) and DJ (“hand”) are also introduced to the lonely eminence God B (“God Biology”), his sister Mother Nature, and a host of angels and lesser residents of the empyrean who are variously involved in the ways of this world.
The laughter, the missteps, and the schoolroom frustrations of the earthly pair’s gradual enlightenment make this otherworldly journey, finally, and utterly human one. A unique exploration of the writer’s role in a postatomic, postreligious age, Sandover has been compared to the work of Yeats, Proust, Milton, and Blake. Merrill’s tale of the joys and tragedies of man’s powers, and his message about the importance of our endangered efforts to make a good life on earth, will stand as one of the most profound experiences available to readers of poetry.</p>

Customer Reviews:

A sample.......2003-11-20

There was a lot of attention given to Merrill when his Collected Poems came out, so I went out and read it. (The fact that I hadn't heard of him before should indicate that I don't read a lot of modern poetry). What was astonishing was how effortlessly the poems read, how thoroughly Merrill had mastered the technical aspects of the craft. The poems read as smoothly as prose, but line after line stayed in the memory - and when you went back you realized what a complex and subtle rhyme scheme many of the poems had.

But for some reason, there was a lot I could admire but very little I could love. They didn't just feel like exercises in style, but there was something too cool and smooth about their surface: there wasn't enough humanity in them.

The same isn't true of The Changing Light at Sandover. Don't be put off by the Ouija stuff: the heart of this poem isn't some sort of half-baked spiritualism, but simply the relationship between two people that love each other - the poet and David Jackson.

Let me quote a line from The Book of Ephraim that I memorized without trying, just from reading it a few times. The same technical mastery is there, but now there's something alive in them. Enough of the other reviews tell you what the poem is about, so here's a sample of how beautiful this strange masterpiece can be in its smallest details:

We take long walks through the turning leaves
And ponder turnings taken by our lives.

Look at each other closely, as friends will
On parting. This is not farewell,

Not now. But something in the sad
End-of-season light remains unsaid.

The Modern Epic.......2003-05-28

After checking out Divine Comedies at the library and reading a few chapters of The Book of Ephraim, I knew I was willing to read the entire epic of The Changing Light at Sandover. Nearly six months later, after having read and reread Ephraim, Mirabell, Scripts and the Coda (the four sections of Merrill's magnum opus) I am ready to pass judgement. This epic is great but probably not GREAT. It requires a very heavy investment from the reader, not unlike Dante's Divine Comedy, or Joyce's later work. This investment pays dividends, but not the astronomical sort that one hopes when one is flipping through an opera dictionary, trying to discover Merrill's point.

Sandover is full of allusions, contradictions, and virtoso poetry, the latter being why I highly recommend it. As the other reviews tell you here, Merrill, elitist that he is, has not made the work accessible. Which is fine. So here is my short list of writers to be familiar with before you read it: Dante, Homer, Auden, Pound, Eliot, Proust, Wagner, Merrill's earlier work, Blake and Yeats. I also highly recommend Robert Polito's A Reader's Guide to The Changing Light at Sandover, which is more of a handy index followed by a compilation of reviews (including Bloom's and Vendler's) than say, a line-by-line explication of the sort available for Pound's Cantos. Thankfully, The Changing Light at Sandover does not require that.

The Book of Ephraim stands alone and whether you like it will probably be the best gauge of whether you will like the whole of Sandover. Mirabell I found very difficult going and, in all honesty can probably be skipped, like most people skip Purgatorio. Scripts for the Pageant is much more fun and The Higher Keys is really of a piece with it, tying up the loose threads. For all my pessimism, this really is the best modern epic I've found, a thousand times better than The Waste Land or Blake's prophetic works, or even Milton's Paradise Lost. The poetry and storytelling are so overwhelmingly confident that, once you have assimilated the scattered references, it is easy to get carried away. Large questions of free will, life after death and the nature of love are tackled with wit and sincerity. I'm glad I bought it and have it on my bookshelf. Since I put in the sweat, it is now a treasure-box I can open at any time.

Merrill's Masterpiece.......2002-04-26

The Changing Light at Sandover is Merrill's magnum opus. It is also the greatest example of epic poetry in modern literature. Divided into four sections (four being a mystical number [seasons, elements, etc] and possibly alluding also to Eliot's "Four Quartets"), Sandover, is, as far as I am aware, the longest single poem in the modern cannon. Yet length alone is not what qualifies this as an epic poem. Like all true epic poetry, it borrows heavily from its classical predecessors, so Homer, Virgil, Dante, Milton and even Tasso are alluded to throughout the poem.

The method behind the poem is fairly well known, and is in fact included in the poem's narrative. Merrill and his life-partner, David Jackson, would ritualistically cleanse themselves for a stipulated period, then consult the spirit-world by means of an Ouija Board. Merrill served as a kind of amanuensis, taking dictation from spirits from another dimension and translating the messages into poetry.

Merrill has been branded as an elitist by some, and there is no getting around the fact that he did consider himself and his partner as members of an order higher than that of most of mankind. He believed in a quasi-Gnostic hierarchy, wherein human beings are ranked according to their spiritual development. Unfortunately, the belief system he invokes leans more closely to Third Reich mysticism than to Buddhism or Hinduism. A great many people, according to Merrill's tenets, don't even have souls. They exist only on an animal level. One can see where this sort of thinking can, and has led.

I don`t want to infer, however, that Merrill, or this work, are in any manner political or polemical. This is a true work of art, full of imagination and of ideas. The sheer scope of creativity on display in "Sandhurst" is unsurpassed in the past 100 years of poetry, with the possible exception of "The Waste Land." It should be read and studied (and hopefully, cherished) by all lovers of literature. Whether or not Merrill existed on a higher plane than most of us is certainly debatable, even questionable. Whether or not his excursions into other spiritual realms were "real" or were delusional is also debatable. What is not debatable, is the fact that he produced a remarkable and very important poem in the process.

Propelled me (startled me!) into poetry - 10 year ago........2002-03-02

How can I start a review of the book that captured me into poetry? that led me to actually read and enjoy Dante and Milton? that even led me to reading odd epic poems and novels in verse that rarely make it into the top million rank here on Amazon?

How about "Great book - a life-changer in wholly unexpected ways."

I got my copy gratis back when I was doing occasional book reviews of the more traditional sort and not the slightest bit interested in the slender wisps of poetry that crossed my desk. There was something different about this one, though. This was five pounds of poetry ! Five-hundred and sixty pages ? One poem? How could that be? WHAT could that be?

But you've got to decide whether to spend a few bucks here, your situation is different. So the real question is what brought YOU to this page in Amazon. Needless to say, my five-star rating means that I will try to convince all comers to read "Sandover", but you must realize that you are a rather lonely explorer to have come this far. Your path reveals the nature of your search.

Maybe you've read some of Merrill's other work from the recent, rather successful "Collected Poems". Wonderful! While the critics can tell you about commonalties in all those poems, you probably noticed more of the vast range in that collection: from the tiny, surgically incisive "Little Fallacy", to the weirdly evocative "Lost in Translation" (bet you read that one more than once), to the extended, languorous narrative of "The Summer People", to the challenging and often enigmatic mythos in "From the Cupola."

This wholly different last pair, my favorites, were unexpectedly conjoined as the only two poems in the UK-published early book entitled "Two Poems." Together, they hint best at what "Sandover" will deliver: carefully crafted narrative and delight in poetic form along with intellectually challenging and sometimes cryptic layering. Expect some strangeness wrapped in a reassuring pale, cream cape, until the cape is tossed back to reveal a startlingly, spookily omni-dimensional vision. Sounds like fun ? Jump in...

I guess it's possible that you came here after reading Alison Lurie's recent lurid little "literary memoir." If so, congratulations for stepping over that indelicate little pile to consider the man's most epic work, instead of a shrewish listing of his peccadilloes. Of course personality and autobiography inevitably fuel poetry, and Merrill's "Sandover" is no exception. You might even, legitimately wonder, as I did, how the poetry of a rich gay man, who sounds suspiciously like an aesthete of the flightiest sort in Lurie (and apparently had a weird, mystic streak) can do anything more than entertain you. And how is that possible for 560 pages ?

You won't find the glib and thoughtless dilettante of Lurie's portrayal lurking beneath "Sandover." Merrill was not an overtly autobiographical poet, but he collected the pieces and wrote the tale of Sandover through 20-odd years of his life, In doing so he revealed the reality of privilege without arrogance, mysticism within a wry skepticism, and appreciation of love and beauty in all their forms. "Sandover" is actually a fine place for one who is neither gay, nor rich, nor mystical and, perhaps, like me, aesthetically-challenged, to get drawn-in to a world that twines these elements together in an endlessly interesting and attractive way. If you've read Lurie, I think you will find "Sandover" an especial pleasure - a much more graciously framed journey toward much more extraordinary horizons.

I suppose you might be here because you have developed a taste for the long poem: the epic or the novel in verse (maybe from my own `listmania' list of such works right here on Amazon). If so, you face a more interesting challenge. "Sandover" will offer many things that are familiar but probably some quite different. If the story in Vikram Seth's "Golden Gate" captivated you, you will find a quite compelling story here - but not one quite so down-to-earth. If the different cultures circumscribed by Walcott's "Omeros" or even Budbill's "Judevine" intrigued you, you will find other worlds here - otherworldly locales, indeed.. If Merwin's "Folding Cliffs" satisfied while it challenged you as a reader, you will find "Sandover" to be a surprising combination of the eminently readable and the multi-layered and re-readable. If Dante's, Milton's or even Frederick Turner's epic reach inspired you, you can count on "Sandover" to take you to the inner and outer reaches of the universe.

Finally, of course, you might be here just because you've heard that James Merrill was one of the finest poets of the 20th century. He was. In "Sandover" he combined many, many talents - as a formalist and as an experimenter in form and as one of the last poets to show a pure delight in words and their infective enlodgement in the human brain. The atomics of the poem satisfy and surprise no matter what magnification your readerly microscope is set on. Over and over you will find yourself startled at a just plain perfect piece of short verse - as tersely powerful as William's "red wheelbarrow." Then you will find yourself so captured by the narrative of the story, that only part-way through will you realize that you are in the midst of two pages of elegant "terza rima." Even the largest structural elements partition, loop-back and break off in ways that build a magnificent whole that is as captivating in its large-scale structure as in its single word choices.

Sandover is an endlessly captivating work - I've read it, all 560 pages, four times in ten years, and still pick it up and read a section or two every few months.

An Utterly Singular Experience.......2001-06-29

James Merrill's extraordinary poem is surely one of the most remarkable and distinctive literary accomplishments of the 20th Century (though there are many, most in acadamia, whou would disagree). Yes, it is very strange and ocassionaly obscure. But it is, after all, a narrative poem and not nearly as difficult as some claim.

Most and best of all, however, it is a work of which one seems to never tire. After 10 years, this reader still finds it utterly fresh and its meaning and relevance ever more personal and touching. No 20th Century poet was as astounding as Merrill at his flashiest, and very few are as sincerely moving.

Book Description

The publication of James Merrill's Collected Poems is a landmark in the history of modern American literature. His First Poems—its sophistication and virtuosity were recognized at once—appeared half a century ago. Over the next five decades, Merrill's range broadened and his voice took on its characteristic richness. In book after book, his urbanity and wit, his intriguing images and paradoxes, shone with a rare brilliance. As he once told an interviewer, he "looked for English in its billiard-table sense—words that have been set spinning against their own gravity." But beneath their surface glamour, his poems were driven by an audacious imagination that continually sought to deepen and refine our perspectives on experience. Among other roles, he was one of the supreme love poets of the twentieth century. In delicate lyric or complex narrative, this book abounds with what he once called his "chronicles of love and loss." Like Wallace Stevens and W. H. Auden before him, Merrill sought to quicken the pulse of a poem in surprising and compelling ways—ways, indeed, that changed how we came to see our own lives. Years ago, the critic Helen Vendler spoke for others when she wrote of Merrill, "The time eventually comes, in a good poet's career, when readers actively wait for his books: to know that someone out there is writing down your century, your generation, your language, your life . . . He has become one of our indispensable poets."

This book brings together a remarkable body of work in an authoritative edition. From Merrill's privately printed book, The Black Swan, published in 1946, to his posthumous collection, A Scattering of Salts, which appeared in 1995, all of the poems he published are included, except for juvenalia and his epic, The Changing Light at Sandover. In addition, twenty-one of his translations (from Apollinaire, Montale, and Cavafy, among others) and forty-four of his previously uncollected poems (including those written in the last year of his life) are gathered here for the first time.

Collected Poems in the first volume in a series that will present all of James Merrill's work—his novels and plays, and his collected prose. Together, these volumes will testify to a monumental career that distinguished American literature in the late twentieth century and will continue to inspire readers and writers for years to come.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Nothing short of astounding.......2005-12-22

Merrill doesn't need another admirer, but my gratitude compels me to write. This volume is further proof that the gulf between great poetry and all the mediocre stuff is immense. Genius exists--and Merrill has it in abundance. Mastery of craft, breadth of vision, depth of emotion, intensity of intellect--Merrill's work reveals all the hallmarks of greatness. An extraordinary and generous accomplishment. I will read this book as long as I'm alive.

On Merrill.......2003-01-01

Merrill requires no introduction. This is a splendid and comprehensive volume. It is a monolith, which commemorates the work of one of America's outstanding contemporary poets.

This collection includes some truly marvelous work: "The Drowning Poet," "Entrance From Sleep," "Poem in Spring," "Willow," "Walking At Night," "An Urban Convalescence," "The World and the Child," and "My Father's Irish Setters," to name a few.

I enthusiastically recommend this anthology. It serves as a means to remember that poetry of the Western hemisphere is capable of transcendent vision--that the Muses can still sing to twentieth century scribes.

Magnificent!.......2001-06-19

Though occassionally less perfect, these poems scratch the edges of brilliance with every sweep of the pen. They are immaculate, dense, allusive, elusive, and always beautiful. Spend two days with "Charles on Fire" alone and you'll understand why Merrill was--no, IS --so widely admired. You should own this book.

Bull Market for Poetry.......2001-06-16

Weighing in at almost 900 pages, this book holds just about all the Merrill you'll ever need outside of "Sandover." Merrill wrote exactly the kind of poems I used to think of as "real" poetry--stately, measured, clever & bittersweet, with lots of exquisite images to savor along the way. So why does this writing feel so stuffy and distant to me now? Reading a Merrill poem is somewhere between doing a crossword and shopping for antiques--you exercise the brain and always find something curious to enjoy, but even the most intimate ones left me strangely unmoved. I know Merrill has a legion of fans, and I can see why--these poems are among the best of their kind. But somehow they reminded me of the good chairs in my mom's living room--you could admire them, but you couldn't sit down. Still, the editors have done an excellent job and you'll enjoy going through this handsome book to make up your own mind.

Treasure Chest.......2001-04-19

James Merrill was the greatest American poet of his generation, and while he was alive, one of the most important poets writing in English. This collection presents just about every poem that Merrill finished, apart from the long poem, *The Changing Light at Sandover* (the "ouija board poem"). That means that there are about 44 poems in here that no one's ever seen, plus uncollected poems from Merrill's first volume and the complete text of a 1974 collection called *The Yellow Pages*, which would be REALLY hard to get elsewhere.

Merrill was a virtuoso from the start, but his early poems - mostly from the first book - are, more often than not, somewhat too too, if you know what I mean. Still, they are better made than anyone else's first poems, and some of them are fine. They are show-pieces of a big prodigious boy.

Starting with some poems in *The Country of a Thousand Years of Peace* and more in *Water Street*, Merrill started to make some of the finest lyric poems in modern English. After *Nights and Days* (1966), Merrill was unrivalled.

There is no poem in this volume that is not worth the time and the effort. All of the great poems are here, such as "The Broken Home", "Days of 1964" and "Lost in Translation" and everything in the great valedictory performance, *A Scattering of Salts* . But, sometimes Merrill is at his most sublime in miniature lyrics such as "A Downward Look," and "Little Fallacy."

Even if you already own the *Selected Poems* or *From the First Nine*, you still need this. It's expensive but it will pay you back for the rest of your life. Find the money and buy this book.

Eastern Old-Growth Forests: Prospects For Rediscovery And Recovery

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excellent material for all forest activists

Eastern Old-Growth Forests: Prospects For Rediscovery And Recovery

Manufacturer: Island Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 155963409X

Book Description

Eastern Old-Growth Forests is the first book devoted exclusively to old growth throughout the East. Authoritative essays from leading experts examine the ecology and characteristics of eastern old growth, explore its history and value-both ecological and cultural- and make recommendations for its preservation.

The book provides a thorough over-view of the importance of old growth in the East including its extent, qualities, and role in wildlands restoration. It will serve a vital role in furthering preservation efforts by making eastern old-growth issues better known and understood.

Customer Reviews:

excellent material for all forest activists.......2000-06-08

Forest activists often hear the argument, "What is Old Growth?" This book helps to distinguish these valuable ecosystems. The book covers everything from fauna and flora that habitat these areas to the spiritual value of the remaining old growth in the Eastern United States.

This book is essential for activists and ecologists everywhere.

How the Bible Was Built
Average customer rating:

introductory and elementary. great for first timers and youngsters.

Nice Intro for Young People

A superb introduction to just how the Bible did come to be as we know it today

A Good Introduction to the History of the Bible

How the Bible Was Built
Charles Merrill Smith , and James W. Bennett
Manufacturer: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Church History | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0802829430

Book Description

The Bible continues to be the world's runaway bestseller. But very few people could tell you just how its seemingly disparate jumble of writings — letters, stories, poems, collections of laws, religious visions — got there. Filling this knowledge gap clearly and objectively, "How the Bible Was Built" relates the story of how the Bible came to be the Bible.

Penned by Charles Merrill Smith in response to his teenage granddaughter's questions, the manuscript was discovered after Smith's death and has now been reworked for a wider audience by writer James Bennett. Free of theological or sectarian slant, "How the Bible Was Built" gives a factual overview of the Bible's construction. Treating it as a house with two wings (the Old and New Testaments) connected by a passageway (the Apocrypha), the authors examine the biblical books that make up each wing's foundation, walls, and roof.

With this book in hand, readers will learn about the disagreements of various church councils concerning which books ought to be viewed as authoritative (a book called the Shepherd of Hermas almost made the cut, while Revelation, to name one, almost didn't). They may well be surprised to learn that debate over the canon didn't really come to a close until the Protestant Reformation and the invention of the printing press over a thousand years after Jesus lived. Readers will also find help with difficult biblical terms and important dates.

It's hard to overstate the quality of writing in this little book. People of virtually any reading level and virtually any religious persuasion will all come away with a new grasp of how the writings contained in the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, and the New Testament came to be regarded as special by different groups of Jews and Christians — and how they ultimately came to be regarded as Holy Scripture.

Customer Reviews:

introductory and elementary. great for first timers and youngsters........2007-04-29

This book is excellent as a first venture into the history of the bible. If you've already read a few things, this will be quite remedial. gives just enough information to intrigue, and makes you want to investigate further. Easy to read in one sitting. Excellent for scholarly kids/teens, and adults who know nothing about the subject.

The bible didn't just fall out of the sky in its present form, all ready to go,--this book is for those who thought it did or have never thought about it at all.

Nice Intro for Young People.......2006-08-19

It's interesting that this book is entitled "How the bible was built" because this book itself was stitched together from a series of versions of a book that Charles Merrill Smith was working on before he died. His friend James Bennett then tried to put them all together. In some senses, this book is built just as the bible they describe is also built.

The analogy to building the bible starts off fine, but soon disappears into a more general discussion, aimed at the young adult audience. It's well written, but hardly scholarly. There are few gross errors, but then it doesn't pretend to go very deeply into some of the major controversies about scriptural origins.

At the end of the book there is a brief chronology that highlights some of the seminal dates in the history of the bible up to 1611 (e.g., Jerome's Latin Vulgate, John Wycliff's english translation, Gutenberg, Martin Luther, Tyndale's first english printing, etc.) It's a good list, but it does leave out some important dates (e.g., 1551 - 4th edition of Greek New Testament divides text into verses for first time; 393 - Church council at Hippo affirms 27 canonical books).

This book would certainly be appropriate for any young adult who was interested in the topic, but it's hardly food for the hungry scholar.

A superb introduction to just how the Bible did come to be as we know it today.......2006-04-07

Knowledgeably co-written by the late United Methodist Minister Charles Merrill Smith (1919-1985) and is long time friend and award winning author of several young adult novels, James W. Bennett How The Bible Was Built is a superb introduction to just how the Bible did come to be as we know it today. As an in-depth exploration of what influences, ideas, concepts, people, and visions were inspiration for the gathering and writing of the Bible, How The Bible Was Built offers readers a greater understanding and premise to work from when viewing the unfathomable records of such a holy and influential scripture. How The Bible Was Built is very strongly recommended to all students of the Holy Bible (be they clergy, laymen, or theology students) for its casual and easy-to-read formatting, filled with educated and invaluable understandings from first page to last.

A Good Introduction to the History of the Bible.......2006-02-07

Smith has done a great service in writing this brief, easy to understand overview of the history of our modern Bible. It will satisfy most of the questions people have about translations, versions, and who decided what books to include. I wish he had incuded a list of books for those who want to delve further into this topic, or for those who wonder where he got his information.

A Unified Theory of Party Competition: A Cross-National Analysis Integrating Spatial and Behavioral Factors

Average customer rating:

A "must" for political science researchers.

A Unified Theory of Party Competition: A Cross-National Analysis Integrating Spatial and Behavioral Factors
James F. Adams , Samuel Merrill III , and Bernard Grofman
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521544939

Book Description

The authors explain how parties and candidates position themselves on the Left-Right ideological dimension and other issue dimensions. Their unified theoretical approach to voter behavior and party strategies takes into account voter preferences, voter's partisan attachments, expected turnout, and the location of the political status quo. The approach, tested through extensive cross-national analysis, includes studies of the plurality-based two-party contests in the U.S. and multiple-party competition in France, Britain, and Norway.

Customer Reviews:

A "must" for political science researchers........2007-01-31

This is an excellent book for students of political science who are at a Phd or a Master thesis level.

The reading flows as the chapter arrangement follows a logical and perceptible order while the appendixes are of a valuable importance for the reader who seeks to fathom the theorems presented on the book. Upon theory discussion the authors present empirical data from USA, Britain, France and Norway, and how the unified model finds its application in each of these cases of different electoral systems.

One of this book's advantages is that it gives the whole picture of James F. Adams, Samuel Merrill's unified model as it exhaustively covers their arguments stated in former academic articles.

It should be stressed though that the book is quite technical and it requires previous knowledge on spatial models, and on rational theory basics (Anthony Downs' "Economic theory of Democracy" is an excellent text for this purpose). Hence, it might be very difficult for students other than postgraduates with a keen interest on party competition.

Furthermore, a discussion on the different arguments around the notion of party identification is missing from the book and thus it is advisable for the reader to be acquainted with PID beforehand.

But overall and by all means this is a valuable book for all political scientists.

Average customer rating:

A beautiful life in perfect focus - read with the poems.

A Different Person: A Memoir
James Merrill
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Collected Poems
Familiar Spirits: A Memoir of James Merrill and David Jackson
Voice of the Poet: Merrill
Collected Prose
Collected Poems

ASIN: 0679423176
Release Date: 1993-08-31

Customer Reviews:

A beautiful life in perfect focus - read with the poems........2004-07-08

When I first expressed interest to my adviser in pursuing work on Merrill, she leaned back slightly, admitting that she had known him, commenting on the sadness of his death, and how beautiful a person he was. With each page of this memoir I discovered anew how much force such a simple statement, such as could be made about many a friend or relative, could have between the anonymous reader and master poet. Perhaps the greatest credit to this fascinating narrative skimming back and forth across oceans of memory, time and water lies in the constant delight of coming across the title phrased within the work. Never overstated, the phrase reverberates effortlessly as JM, (for those who love The Changing Light at Sandover - and this work is, though more than worthy in its own right, ultimately intended and most valuable for those who have read or wish to read Sandover) translates his non-egotistical love of the experience and metamorphosis of the self into a selflessly shared region for his reader to explore, guided by the gentlest of hands. "A Different Person" dispenses with a distinction from his poetry. Indeed, I found myself supplying the lines with hidden rhymes, Merrill's voice and its shifting tones of surprise, glee, facility followed by grave discovery, so on. But perhaps unique to our experience is the sense that at a remove from poetic form, the metaphors, images and dramatis personae behave at once with the force we permit in poetry (and tend to ignore as flourishes when reading a biography), and the weight of that which irrevocably occured and influenced a man's life, about which we care deeply. We cannot help but be reminded that we are in a sense writing ourselves, hoping that the nuances of our self-reflection can make good of our experience, as Merrill does of his life, which like the lightening flashes of Oujia inspiration, "dwells all along in a manner of speaking."

Additionally, for those interested in either critical analysis of Merrill's work or simply improving their familiarity with his oeuvre, "A Different Person" offers numerous insights into Merrill's poetics, as in his hope, expressed towards the end of the memoir, for the "perpetual freshening of human language" through slang, dance or Astrophysics.

Nor should it go without mention that Merrill's numerous acquantainces, flings, soirees and hesitant appraisals of this whole world delight throughout. And the prose (if it can be so called) is of course masterful - fluid and deep.

Book Description

Organized around the theme of human development, this book is written by experts on each region of the world to create a comprehensive volume on world regional geography that presents a vital overview of the topic, providing a deep understanding of the character of the world's people. A rich art package assists the reader in gaining a personal feeling for the inner essence of each world region. This book covers the geographic, social, and economic issues for each world region, including the United States and Canada; Europe; Russia and the Eurasian States; Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands; Asia; the Middle East and North Africa; Africa south of the Sahara; and Latin America. This book can serve as an excellent tool for any reader who is interested in the world's regions and its people; it is an excellent reference work for geographers, cultural anthropologists, and others working in those fields.

Customer Reviews:

Seriously Biased.......2001-09-19

The tendency of this book to ridicule America (its history, its culture, its priorities, etc.) really calls into question the objectivity and political persuasion of its authors. Whether it's the destruction of the environment or world poverty, America and the American people are always to blame. We use too much energy; we don't share enough; blah blah blah. America does more to promote peace and economic development throughout the world than any other country. While the authors of this book don't seem to be so, I, for one, am PROUD to be an American

As a text.......1997-12-20

The general feel of this book is dark and dull. Graphics are oddly benign,upside, the Geography in Action sections offer realistic insight into Geographic concepts. Clawson and Fisher tried.

As a text.......1997-12-20

The general feel of this book is dark and dull. Graphics are oddly benign,upside, the Geography in Action sections offer realistic insight into Geographic concepts. Clawson and Fisher tried.

When Work Equals Life : The Next Stage of Workplace Violence

Average customer rating:

When Work Equals Life : The Next Stage of Workplace Violence
Anthony Baron , Suzanne Hoffman , and James G. Merrill
Manufacturer: Pathfinder Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Human Resources & Personnel Management | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Violence in Society | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0934793662

Book Description

Full of step-by-step interventions and procedures for dealing with potentially violent workplace situations, this hands-on guide offers reliable solutions for many anxious employers and managers. It explains how to conduct psychological assessment tests of employees, recognize warning signs, and communicate with troubled workers. Organizational factors that may trigger violence are pointed out, solutions are given on how to eliminate them, and crisis procedures and security features are discussed. Employers learn how to be safe and compliant with the law and when and where to seek legal and medical intervention. Human resource, management, and executive professionals will find practical assistance in determining how they can effectively reduce the risk of workplace violence in their organization.

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