As publisher of the flagship forum of equalitarianism at The Backlash! I have long prized my well worn copy of Reay Tannahil's Sex in History: It is an unbiased overview of sexual relationships throughout history. In highly readable prose Tannahil tells the truth about women and men without lapsing into rants about either sex, and I recommend her book to everyone.

It pinpoints clearly where many current but odd behavior patterns derive from. 5 Stars are not enough to describe this most unusual combination of high quality in research, structure and common sense. Many authors should take stile and approach as an example. As a typical human I have a complaint, the book is too thin.

A most informative and very objective book on this delicate subject... I enjoyed it so much that I have given this very title 24 times as a gift... "go girl"

My dad was in the 531st and as many soldiers did, only touched on a few thing's here and there. This book put's all the pieces together. I knew that his unit was important but, "DARN". I really recommend this book to anyone who wondered just what the hell these guy's did.

The appeal of Ken Garn's account for me is that this is the definitive account of the enlisted man's WW II told by an enlisted man. There are many stories and histories by historians and retired generals, but they gloss over what the man under fire on the beach was thinking about. The story telling is straightforward, personable and engaging.

A good read, given the rising interest in WWII. An amazingly detailed memoir of a man who survived four assault landings and seven campaigns in a special engineer unit which prepared invasion beaches for troop landing, including D-Day. It resonated with this vet of that war, but others will find it compelling as well.

For his first novel, Tom Marlin has captured my interest. The story line is skillfully interwoven with glimpses into the history and culture of the DFW Texas area in the middle 19th century. Many real names and places are used in the story which make it seem almost like a documentary of the struggle for territory between the native Americans and the settlers. Two main characters emerge; Jake Chalk, a young rancher who finds himself involved in efforts to protect the settlers from Indian attacks and to capture the other main character, Black Wolf, a young Caddo chief who seems to be bent on continuing the hostilities. The more the story unfolded, the more I was drawn into it trying to anticipate what would be coming next. Would Melody and Jake eventually marry? Would Black Wolf recover his sacred obsidian knife? The ending was exciting and surprising enough to rate a five star for me. There are still some unanswered questions which may be sufficient material for a sequel which I hope is coming soon.

Initially, I thought this was a story about times preceding the settlement of Dallas but I found it to also be a saga of westward expansion in the US (the culmination of which was the destruction of Native American cultures during the 19th century).

I was delighted to read not only a good solid story, but see the characters evolve with real emotion and motivations. A fairly difficult task for accomplished writers, the author ups the ante with a historically based setting. What I liked is that these aren't the cardboard characters you find in so many well conceived but poorly executed pieces of historical fiction, where characters only exist to fulfill their 'historical significance' and are discarded to the annals of history.

Stories that take the time to weave a good tale are one thing but when the author follows it up with what appears to be very detailed research to base the story upon past events in real locations (in addition to showing the effects of the real issues of day to day life in the time period) you know you've got something special. This book is going to be one tough act to follow, but I trust the author welcomes and rises to the challenge.

I suspect I'll be let down by the fact that the author is incapable of crafting his tales as quickly as I can read them. If you're reading this Mr. Marlin: START ON ANOTHER BOOK NOW.

Ok, so I grew up on the Lone Ranger and more of the stereotypical "good guys wear white hats" kind of western. I had written off the genre for the most part until I read some L'amour and thought I'd give this a shot as well. (Apparently there's a lot of really bad stuff out there and have been told I lucked out when I found L'amour.)

Keep in mind that my usual reading is stuff by Phillip K Dick, Bruce Sterling, and William Gibson, so you could definitely say I'm a fish out of water in regards to this genre.

Imagine my surprise when I saw not only a good solid story, but character development and...what's that? historically based. Stories that take the time to weave a good tale are one thing but when the author does the research to base the story upon past events in real locations AND deftly shows the affects of the real issues of day to day life in the time period....WOW.

I had never thought of "cowboys" like that before. It's my belief that if you like L'amour, you'll like Marlin.

Thanks for a great read, Mr. Marlin.

Great book! Kelton shows us Charlie Flagg's country. You'll like it

Beyond the quality of Kelton's stories, especially this one, is the quality of his characters. His leading character, an individualistic, independent, honest and brave rancher, is one of the most admirable people I have ever read about. This was the first Kelton book I read, and I became a Kelton addict. I have read and re-read this, and highly recommend it. Excellent!

This book is, to me, the jewel in the crown of that outstanding body of work that convinced the Western Writers of America that Elmer Kelton should be disignated the best Western writer of all time. The author's obvious gut-level understanding of West Texas, the people who live here, and the lifestyle forced on its inhabitants by the vagaries of Mother Nature join to make this his finest contribution to literature to date. Mr. Kelton is without peer in his ability to develop characters so vividly that each reader truly feels that he/she has met them and known them for years. His descriptions of places and situations are so realistic and detailed that, with only a little imagination, a clear picture forms in the mind's eye of the reader. There is no doubt that Mr. Kelton has experienced more than one West Texas drouth. It is equally obvious that he has closely observed the drastic changes that befall the reigon, its people, and their livestock when these natural disa! sters occurr. A must for Kelton's fans, and for his fans-to-be who love stories based in the lore of the West, but have not yet experienced the rich satisfaction that can result only from reading the works of this master story weaver.

First, Truth and Method is a true classic. Dense though not poorly written, it is a good idea to take Joel Weinsheimer's 'Gadamer's Hermeneutics' along for the ride. My main criticism is that Gadamer writes - in T&M at least - as if oblivious to what seem like obvious objections. But don't be put off, its subject matter - our involvement in the experience of truth - deserves attention.

Second, I think the review below is mistaken when it states that Gadamer thinks we should take the Old Testament literally. Gadamer does refer to Luther's position that "the Scripture has a univocal sense that can be derived from the text", but he does this as part of a *historical overview* of hermeneutics. Luther gets refuted on the very next page by 18thC historicism. Gadamer moves beyond both these positions to reveal how 'literalism' (and - more pressingly - 'historicism') is the unthinking projection of unexmained prejudices. It is an "obstruction", that gets in the way of the truth Gadamer seeks. Also, while T&M is relevant to theology, it should be made clear that Gadamer is writing of a philosophical-universal hermeneutics and not something regional.

Gadamer's _Truth and Method_ is both very profound and very readable; it is a vast improvement over other more widely-read philosophical texts from the same region and time period (such as Heidegger's _Being and Time_ and Husserl's _Crisis of the European Sciences_). Unlike the aforementioned philosophers, Gadamer is actually willing to stick his neck out and reveal to us the true nature of his own personal spiritual beliefs. Believe it or not, Gadamer has the audacity to tell us that we "must take the Old Testament literally" (!) That's right, folks. Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, Moses, Abraham-Isaac-Jacob-Joseph-ect. We have to take all of that literally. Now I've been to north-Georgia, backcountry, hillbilly Baptist churches where they didn't believe in that stuff anymore. And that is precisely what makes Gadamer's philosophy so revolutionary. The age of reason has quite literally come full circle. People were completely caught off guard by this shocking new assertion, that we must once again turn to the literal interpretation of the Old Testament in order to explain the dawn of temporal conciousness in man.
It seems as though modern phenomenolgy has uncovered far more new questions than it has answers. Hegel was one of the first to attempt an in-depth systemization on how and why the "spirit enters into time". Heidegger was one of the first with a specific answer, stating that the phenomenon of spirit is attributable to a type of "care" and "being-unto-death". Sarte countered that this phenomenology is in fact a result of "being-unto-other". But if we believe Gadamer's historical theory, we may have a concrete solution to all of these problems. Rather than be stuck with a narrow and one-dimensional theory of the phenomenon of soul (which could easily be diluted with other contingencies and unforeseen contributing factors) Gadamer brings us back to a very viable, believable, and comprehesive system of the historical birth of the spirit. Granted, it is impossible to empirically prove the historical accuracy of the Old Testament, but Gadamer points out this historic text's uncanny ability to account for and eliminate every possible obstacle to the coming-into-being of spirit. Once we understand Gadamer's system, we realize that not only is the Old Testament a sensible, fitting, and believable way to account for our existence, it is actually one of the most solid and inarguable existential theories out there. Yes, it does seem shocking and surprising at first, but the more you think about it, the more believable you will find the Old Testament to be. Apparently, the modern philosopher must go down every dead-end, back-alley historical theory known to man before he can finally come to terms with the wisdom of the ancients.
So the only question remaining is, should you buy this book? If you are open minded enough to at least consider the possibility of the historical theory described above, then you will probably find this book to be interesting and intellectually stimulating. If, on the other hand, you are horrified and appauled by what I just said, maybe you should instead ask your college professor for his latest recommendation.

Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method is a result of sixty years of reflection on the nature of the hermeneutic experience and an exemplary document of lucid and fascinating scholarship. The purpose of the treatise on understanding is 'what takes place above our thinking and doing', in other words, the constitutive events in art, literature and ethics.
As Gadamer's examination of the romantic human sciences, or Geisteswissenschaften, is constantly referred back onto the tradition and the sources from which it emerges and supports itself, some background knowledge is required, particularly of classical philosophy, Hegel and Heidegger.
The project of Truth and Method opens by engaging the reader to a critique of Kantian aesthetic exposition, and uses it as a starting-point for an examination of hermeneutics, the art of understanding. In the course of the examination Gadamer does not, however, engage in a dialogue only with the philosophical tradition, but by continuously exploring the universality of the hermeneutic experience demonstrates its relevance and presence in history, study of languages, legal theory and theology.
For a reader coming from the analytic-linguistic tradition, the final section on the hermeneutic character of language should be of particular interest. In it Gadamer outlines his conception of language as the horizon through which the experience of the world is understood. But as throughout the book, the horizon of understanding is not determined solely on the basis of the grammatical or the logical structure present; indeed, the horizon itself is a constant possibility for the historically effected consciousness to gain further self-knowledge through its experience in language as a historically and temporally defined phenomenon.
The style of the book is thoroughly lively and engaging; despite the abstract subject-matter the argument is never lost from sight and Gadamer's sense of clarity in terms of expression makes the book a pleasure to read and come back to.

I recommend this book whole-heartedly, not as a conclusive and total life-philosophy, but as an exploration and fascination of the possibilities of human potential in its recurring activity of living and perpetuating, its own culture, tradition and being.

I am an avid western reader, (L'amour, Will Henry, Zane Grey, Frank Bonham) and this book is a "Must Read" for anyone that likes western novels!! I thoroughly have enjoyed Six Notch Road!! A great story!! Can't wait for the other 2 books!!

Mr. Santee transported me to the actual place and time of this great adventure. I was spellbound for two straight days. The only thing that could have possibly made it better... is to have been sitting around a campfire listening to Mr. Santee tell the story in person. Keep up the great writing. I am anxiously awaiting the release of the other two books.

This is without a doubt the best book I have ever read.I couldnt put it down.The writer is very good.Hope the other two will be out real soon.Just cant wait to read them.Please tell the author to hurry,hurry.A fan in waiting.....

Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, had a glorious history and at one time was the capital of ancient Rus'. Yet the Ukraine gained independence only upon the collapse of the Soviet Union. Oppressed by both Poland and Russia/Soviet Union, many Ukrainians felt resentful and hostile towards both Poles and Russians. During World War II, the Soviet Union and Poland fought on the allied side, so an enemy of the Soviet Union, such as the UPA, became an enemy of the West. While the Ukrainians fought heroically both for the Soviet Union and against, they obviously had no monopoly on heroism. There is also some reliable evidence of the UPA members killing innocent Polish and Jewish civilians. Unfortunately, some Poles retaliated against the UPA atrocities in a revengeful manner. This is an important book, which should be read by all those interested in the war on the Eastern Front during World War II.

This book is the memoirs of Maria Savchyn who spent 15 years of her life (from the ages of 14 to 29) in the Ukrainian underground army fighting for freedom against first the Nazis and then the Soviets. It is an exciting story of strength and determination in the face of overwhelming opposition.

In 1925 Maria Savchyn was born in a Ukrainian village east of the city of Lviv. At that time this was a part of Poland. Ukrainians living in this part of Poland formed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) to seek independence from Poland, but in 1939 the partition of Poland put Western Ukraine under Soviet control. The OUN continued their activities for independence during this early Soviet occupation, and they formed the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) when the Nazis gained control early in World War II.Fighting first against the Nazis and then the Russians until the mid-1950s, the UPA resisted the occupation forces and fought for an independent Ukraine 50 years before the country actually gained its independence in 1991.

Maria joined the youth division of the OUN in 1940 when she was 14. Later she married a prominent leader of the group. She was an active member until 1954 when she was captured by the KGB. Involved in propaganda, Maria talks more about the day-to-day life of the underground than armed resistance. She gives a remarkably detailed account of her life in the UPA. This includes the names of the towns and villages she stayed in and the names of the people she worked with in the underground.

Its a sad story to read since during the period covered most of her fellow rebels were either captured or killed. Maria herself lost both her children to stay with the rebels. For the last nine years of the resistance she and her allies spent every winter in underground bunkers which were cramped, moist, and dark.

Yet for anyone interested in Ukrainian history or in resistance movements this is essential reading. Few members of the UPA have lived to tell their stories so Maria's book opens the door on a chapter of history long hidden from view. This is, however, not a history of the OUN and the UPA. That book remains to be written and will probably require access to KGB records.

I only wish this book came with a map that detailed the region and the villages mentioned in the text. Most English-language readers will not have sufficient geographic knowledge of the region to follow Maria's exploits without a good map.

This is a story of astonishing courage, resilience, resourcefulness and dignity in the face of the overwhelming resources of the totalitarian Soviet mammoth. The story is told plainly and simply, almost matter-of-factly about a struggle against all odds, a struggle to prevent Ukraine's being drowned in the poisons of Sovietism. Perhaps most striking is the calm dignity with which the author and her colleagues in the Ukrainian underground faced death almost daily, and their quiet determination to continue their mission, well into the 1950's, to fight for some semblance of normalcy in Ukraine no matter what the personal and familial costs to the author and those with whom she served so nobly. This is a stunner.

Drs Lobsang and Arpaia have written a book that can truly and simply help the Western world benefit from the spiritual dynamics of the Tibetan monks. I have worked in the mental health field for over 15 years and none of the training I have received has ever touched on the wisdom of the book and the one-on-one teachings I have received from Joe in the last year. Working with Joe and reading the book he co-authored has been one of the most important experiences in my life. I am finding my own peace and understanding of the MindBodySpirit connection that is essential for me to become my authentic self and a truly effective clinician. It has been an honor to work with Joe and the book follows closely many of the techniques he has taught me. Other recommended books? Thich Nhat Hanh's The Miracle of Mindfulness, Jonathan Carroll's White Apples and Charles DeLint's The Little Country.

this must be the best book on meditation I have ever read. It shows different techniques (short & long ones)that can easily get integrated into our busy lifes. Without forcing any kind of religious views on the reader this book shows how to be able to cope and improve our daily (western style) life. In simple, clearly written chapters one gets instructions and examples on how to train the mind and achieve better health, inner peace and many other goals which are up to the reader. I can recommend this book to anyone who is interested in meditation - from beginner to advanced.

I am actually luck enough to be a patient of Dr. Arpaia and this book is RIGHT ON TARGET! It is so helpful, easy to read, easy to understand, easy to impliment - very wise!

This book had one of the best plots of any Louis L'Amour books you'll ever read. Louis L'Amour does a graet job of getting the readers attention and keeping it throughout the book. The author discribes the setting so well, it feels like you are there. My only dislike of this book would be that the author skips around from subject to subject, but it did make the story make sence. I think anyone with a sense of adventure or anyone that likes western books would like this book.

When I was just a little boy... My cousin gave me a box set of five Louis L'Amour books and To Tame a Land was the first one I read. It was also the first book I remember reading that was not written for children and it hooked me. Completely.

An epic story with a moral but deadly hero, To Tame a Land tells the story of a boy orphaned on a wagon train headed west. With natural skill and the luck of Raggedy Andy he grows into a gunfighter as fast as John Wesley Hardin, a bronc buster, a gold miner, a card sharp and a cattle driver. The story starts with a sad little boy and ends with man fighting for the woman he loves. Corny Cliches - sure - but this book captures the language and feel of the old west. Scratch that - it DEFINES the old west as we all know it. I re-read the book recently and twenty years later it still works (although it seemed awfully short the second time around...).

Ryan Tyler was a boy when his father got killed by marauding indians and was then left alone, without a father or family. In steps Logan Pollard, a loner and a drifter without ties to anyone or anybody. The moment they meet their lives change forever. To Tame a Land has got to be one of the best books L'Amour wrote. The plot is tight and fast moving and the chapters are woven seemlessly together. The characters are diverse and complicated, while Ryan Tyler's character is tough, hard, and sad all at once. If you are a person who loves action and adventure, then pick this one up. As soon as you open the book, you will be transported to a time where a romance was pure and danger was real. A time when good prevailed against evil and your friends are what stood between you and death. If you have nothing to do on a weekend, or are longing to be transported from the day to day grind of life in the new millenium, then pick this one up amigo, you will not regret the time spent reading this book. So, cinch up your saddle and reload your pistol because you are on your way to a fast paced ride through the west.

These vibrant stories of such phenomenal women who Dared to be Different and accomplished such awesome feats against so much adversity will inspire you to reach higher goals, regardless of any obstacles of the times! These outstanding women are incredible to study and this book is an excellent volume of heroism and unique personalities! Kudos!

This is a great read about 20 remarkable western women of whom some you will know and others you will meet for the first time. From Sacagawea who accompanied Lewis & Clark, Georgia O'Keefe, a revolutionary in the art world to Sandra Day O'Conner, the first woman on the Supreme Court Justice, these snapshots demonstrate the tenacity and inspiration that guided these women to design their own lives. An excellent read that will inspire you to look deeper into the lives of these amazing women who helped shape the American West.

A great book for learning more about women who made a difference in the frontier and later days of the West. Some subjects were familiar to me while others were completely new.
The author organizes her information in a easily read, informative manner. Each subject was well researched.
A good read!!