No comments about Symposium (Oxford World's Classics).

4 comments about Confessions of Augustine.

1. Sacred Scripture gives us persons like the prophet Isaiah, who cry out, "Woe is me, I am doomed!" He knows he is a sinner, especially realizing that he is in the presence of God. Saint Paul tells us "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost." Peter, in the gospel, falls on his knees in front of Jesus exclaiming, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." What the three have in common is not simply that they acknowledged their sinfulness. In doing so they began the process of becoming great people, eventually saints. Acknowledging our sins & sinfulness is therefore not a morbid exercise in futility. It is the beginning of true self-understanding. It is an invitation to greatness!
   
   St. Augustine was also one of these. Early on in the "Confessions," he recalls when he was an adolescent that he stole pears, not to eat (he had better himself), but only for the sake of stealing, saying the only pleasure in doing it was that it was forbidden: "the malice of the act was base and I loved it--that is to say ... I loved the evil in me--not the thing for which I did evil, simply the evil" (Book 2, 4). Also, because there was another person involved, the sin was more attractive: "O friendship unfriendly, unanalyzable attraction for the mind, greediness to do damage for the mere sport and jest of it, desire for another's loss with no gain to oneself or vengeance to be satisfied."
   
   "I went away from Thee my God, in my youth I strayed too far from Thy sustaining power, and I became to myself a barren land." He says: "Who can understand sins?" This is after discussing the CAPITAL SINS and their futility, for example:
   AVARICE wants to possess much, where God possesses all.
   ANGER cries for vengeance, but only God's vengeance is just.
   ENVY tries to excel, but who can excel before God?
   
   Father De Bergamo, in the introduction of "Humility of Heart," calls these the innate springs of evil within us, from which all other sins arise. All that we are, we have received from God, except for our sinfulness, deeply imbedded in our nature. Then he names the characteristics of his soul, i.e. the SEVEN CAPITAL SINS: PRIDE, COVETOUSNESS/AVARICE, LUST, ANGER, GLUTTONY, ENVY/JEALOUSY, AND SLOTH.
   
   Part of the greatness of St. Augustine was his ability to analyze this and show how it works. Any of these can get out of hand (addictions & compulsions). For him it was predominantly lust (but compellingly all, except perhaps gluttony); for the alcoholic it is usually some combination of pride, anger, & gluttony; for each person, it can be different.
   
   But, EVIL IN HIM?--Yes! St. Augustine knew very much about Original Sin--what we inherited from our first parents. Yes, Baptism took care of it for us: the sin, but not, however, the effects. No, Baptism did not do much about these. It doesn't take very much thinking for us to see how much these affect each of us, and the world around us. Even our modern society realizes that these can get so out of hand that they can exercise a real control over our lives. We have support groups that attest to this. We have "THIS ANONYMOUS" and "THAT ANONYMOUS." And we all know that these groups really work. Why? Because the people admit that they are helpless over that which has its hold on them (they become humbled) and they know that they must turn to God who alone can cure them.
   
   Any person struggling with compulsive or addictive behavior can find comfort in the writings of St. Augustine. He knew what sin was. He knew how it worked. He described it! He knew that any of the capital sins could dominate us and be the source of evil in us. It starts, he says, by just giving into them--that's where the evil begins: WE WILL TO DO EVIL! If repeated enough, we develop habits. Habits, if continued, can turn to compulsions. Compulsions, not resisted, become necessities. He says later (Book 8): "The enemy held my will, and out of it he made a chain and bound me. Because my will was perverse it changed to lust, and lust yielded to habit, and habit not resisted became necessity." And, "With the object of the experiment as myself I was able to see how the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. (see Romans 6, 7, and 8). He was held captive by the "law of sin."
   
   No surprise! We can all see this in us to some degree. We can pervert our will so that any of our passions can have a hold on us. St. Augustine describes these as "chains which bound him," and though he wanted to love God, his will struggled greatly because his sins "held him bound," like a "captive!"
   
   He understood, first hand, what St. Paul meant in Romans 7:13, ff., about being a "prisoner to the law of sin in his body's members." That is, St. Augustine describes, "the law of sin is the fierce force of habit, by which the mind is drawn and held even against its will, and yet deservedly because it had fallen willfully into the habit" (Book 8,5). So, he knew he was licked, that was his first step! His second step he got from his "sponsor," St. Paul, who himself could say "what a wretched man I am" in Romans 7:24 and also the answer for St. Augustine: "Who then should deliver me from the body of this death, but Thy grace only, through Jesus Christ Our Lord!"
   
   St. Augustine was willing to pray for help: Lord that I may know me; and I may know Thee." We see in this what Father Scupoli, in "The Spiritual Combat," that the SPIRITUAL LIFE consists in: "knowing the infinite greatness and goodness of God, together with a true sense of our own weakness and tendency to evil ... and in renouncing our will to follow His." The battle always includes: DISTRUST IN SELF, CONFIDENCE IN GOD accompanied by PRAYER. This is no different than "believing that we are powerless," that help must come from "a power greater than ourselves," and then asking for help.
   
   Like it or not, we are all involved in this battle. Only if we have HUMILITY will we be able to see our own helplessness and turn to God who can and will help us. Saint Augustine's "Confessions" will enable us to recognize this in ourselves and respond, as did Saint Teresa of Avila, as she describes in "The Book of Her Life":
   -----------------------------------------------------
   "O my God, I am amazed at the hardness of my heart amidst so many succours from Thee. I am filled with dread when I see how little I could do with myself, and how I was clogged, so that I could not resolve to give myself entirely to God. When I began to read the "Confessions," I thought I saw myself there described, and began to recommend myself greatly to this glorious Saint. When I came to his conversion and read how he heard that voice in the garden, it seemed to be nothing less than that our Lord had uttered it for me: I felt so in my heart. I remained for some time lost in tears, in great inward affliction and distress. O my God, what a soul has to suffer because it has lost the liberty it had of being mistress over itself! And what torments it has to endure; I wonder now how I could live in torments so great: God be praised Who gave me life, so that I might escape from so fatal a death! I believe that my soul obtained great strength from His Divine Majesty, and that He must have heard my cry, and had compassion upon so many tears."



2. Augustine's Confessions is not for the faint of heart. With a lot of confusing backpedaling, this book has confused many a philosopher. Chronicling his search for God and acceptance, this is a semi-autobiographical account of Augustine's life. He tackles a variety of topics, but the only reason I can see anyone reading this book is for a college course. In which case, I have to say, good luck to you, your life got worse. 2/5



3. Sheed's translation of this classic of Western and Christian culture is truly beautiful. He went beyond presenting an accurate translation; beyond a clear translation. He gave us a translation that is accurate, clear, and sonorous. The footnotes, introductions (one by famous Augustine scholar Peter Brown), and index make this a solid scholarly edition. This is a translation I will reread often.



4. Michael P. Foley's "Editor's Preface" to this edition of Confessions contextualizes the translation well. It serves to locate Sheed's translation historically and academically. The "Editor's Preface" also discusses the cover art for this edition. That discussion is not only an insightful description of the art, but also relates the art to the text effectively.

5 comments about The Portable Karl Marx (Portable Library).

1. If you've ever wondered what all the fuss is about with regard to Socialism, this is the book to get you started. Marx, the true father of Socialism, was an economic genius, ranked with the likes of Einstein and his theory of relativity. Socialism is most likely not anything close to what you have been told or what you have assumed. As you will learn here, in the writings of Marx, Socialism is not the Nationalism forced upon Germany by the Nazi tyrant Hitler, nor the tyrannical form of Communism that Stalin forced upon Russia. Instead, true Socialism is not a controlling force by rather the result of the "energy and independence" of the working class, who emancipated and united, use "political power to the attainment of social ends." Socialism is a true form of democracy, where the State is governed by the working class, to serve the working class, unlike Capitalism, which, through propaganda, would have the people believe they live within the framework of a democratic republic, but who are in fact governed (directly and indirectly) by the few ruling class elite, who exploit the working class to service their accumulation of wealth and the power it affords them nationally and internationally. "Workers of the world, Unite!"



2. The Communist manifesto goes along with such books as Mein Kampf which everyone should read, not because of their insight, wisdom nor to be illuminated but because the logic is flawed ideas are dangerous. Communist class warfare has killed 100 million people, it was and is an evil movement and it is important to understand the ideology behind the genocides of Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot and so on. This is not a book which should be referenced day by day but read with close attention to every detail to combat the ideology. A travel version will not provide full comprehension of the evils of Communism.



3. There is little question that Marx was the most important economic/political theorist of the modern era. The question then, is how to present an overview of his thought in a single volume.
   
   This collection includes sections from Marx's earlier more philosophical period as a gradute student. It includes his dissertation on democritus and Epicurus as well as the famous essay 'On the Jewish Question.'
   
   Additionally, there is the great 'German Ideology,' 'Gundrisse,' and the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (one of the most important works on political revolution in the entire literature. Of course you will also find the Manifesto, and selections from Capital (though far from comprehensive) as well as the Economic-Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844.
   
   I was also pleased with the editor's inclusion of several letters of Marx between him and friends and family, mostly Engels. Also, there are report cards from the young Marx while he was in school, a fun extra.
   
   The Portable Marx is a good way to begin to immerse yourself in Marx, though only a thorough reading of Capital will really allow you to appreciate the depth and range of his genius.



4. In addition to Marx's writings, this book consists of introductions to various sections of Marx's writings by Prof Kamenka, a chronology of events in Marx's life, letters and other documents by and about him and a glossary of Marxian terms. The writings can be tedious, windy full of run-on sentences, sometimes unreadable. I skipped some of them, including his speech "Value, price and profit," which Kamenka claims was a good laymen's introduction to the ideas of "Capital," but I gave it up after a few pages. The first section of writings is from before 1844. In the tradition of the enlightenment, he discusses the concept of "alienation," how human nature is based on the need to maximize one's creative potential. Yet under capitalism, the worker is turned into a machine; the product he makes, or help makes under the division of labor, does not give him any value, but the wealth from it goes to his boss. The workers intellectual capabilities and self-esteem are stunted. Thus, a truly just society would give the worker the freedom to pursue his dreams, not having to worry about renting himself out to capitalists to survive. Workers, those who actually produce wealth, would directly manage businesses (not state bureaucrats).

   As we progress along the years with Marx, he begins to develop his redoubtable historical materialist conception of history. This is a "scientific" thesis that all societies pass through slavery, feudalism, and capitalism and then capitalism starts to break down because of its own "contradictions." In unrestrained capitalism, capitalists try to maximize profit anyway they can. They build up excess capacity of factories and other facilities to try to compete but unfortunately in unregulated competition, all but a select few are destroyed. The petit bourgeoisie i.e. peasants and small business owners are also wiped out by big business. The capitalists in order to keep up their rate of profit, increase the hours of their slaves and try to reduce their wages and getting out of doing anything for them to make their conditions better. The capitalist system will eventually collapse from all of this and the urban wage slaves, the proletariat will take over the means of production, eventually instituting democratic workers control over these means. As Prof. Kamenka notes later, it is rather vague if Marx conceived of various measures to forestall capitalism's, destabilization. ...

   His writings from the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte are certainly interesting, though his efforts to apply his theories to the situation in France somewhat take away from his analysis of the events. He conceives the France under Louis Philippe (1830-48) to be under the control one of section of the bourgeoisie, basically stock market swindlers. The rest of the proprietered classes revolted against this one faction in 1848. The ruling classes promised the proletariat radical democratic reforms to get their support for the overthrow but once they had consolidated their power, they massacred them into submission. The peasants were the majority of France at that time, and they, of course, valued stability above all else to maintain their meager property. The Bourgeois republic that was consolidated in 1848 could not provide the requisite stablity for capitalist operations, so up rose Louis Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon to establish a dictatorship.

   In his article,"The Indian revolt" from 1857 he breaks free from the vague theorizing and comes out with first rate journalism pure and simple. He reminds his readers that with all the hocus pocus of holy horror in England of the atrocities of the Indian sepoys , British troops were raping and burning down villages in China not that long ago. He quotes the proud numerous proud accounts from British soldiers of routine racist massacre and torture. Such as "not a day passes but we string up ten to fifteen of them(noncombatants)" and "every nigger we meet we either string up or shoot."

   Another first rate piece of journalism, is his inagural address to the international working of 1864. Again, no tedious theorizing but a straightforward report on the condition of the British working classes. This was in a period, he notes, which the Chancellor of the Excheqeur slobbered over as a period of unprecedented expansion of wealth for all Britons. He contrasts this with a quote from William Gladstone that this increase in wealth was actually exclusvely confined to the property-owning minority. He quotes extensively from house of lords reports that worry about the severe malnourishment among agricultural laborers and which also noteed that the worst conditions of these laborers was better than the average amongst urban laborers.

   The best writing by far is his stuff on the Paris commune of 1871, after France's defeat by Bismark's Prussia. Prussia and the French elite combined to crush these communes. These communes were set up as local, regional and national bodies. However, the local communes had the predominant power. Each body selected delegates to the higher bodies. Each body had reprehensive from the working class paid at workingperson's wages. Any government official could be removed from power at anytime by a recall type action. This is clearly what Marx had in mind as a system to govern the "transition to communism," instead of the dictatorship over the proletariat that was set up in the so-called "communist states" under his name.

   The Critique of the Gotha program for 1875 consists of Marx attacking the German workers party somewhat pedantically but it consists of interesting comments. He denounces the party for its advocacy of state power to achieve its ends. He even denounces them for calling for government control of the schools.




5. "The Portable Karl Marx" is a splendid anthology of Marx' writings, political, philosophical and economic. The book also features a selection of Marx' personal letters, his university records and various private documents, including his birth certificate, all which help to illuminate the character of one of the prophets of the modern age. The compendium of extracts traces Marx' intellectual trajectory, from his early discipleship to the critical idealism of Hegel, onto his maturity, by which time he had established himself as a luminary of political thought. The chief doctrines of his mature philosophy are expounded here, such as historical materialism, surplus value and the class struggle, which would be generated by the contradictions and tensions of capitalism itself, leading to the growth of an educated proletariat which would free themselves from their yoke and revolt to usher in the era of communism. Karl Marx is, along with Freud and Nietzsche, one of the focal points of the culture of the twentieth century. Contemporary debates on political philosophy cannot do without having recourse to, or at least coming to terms with, his shattering insights and path-making formulations.

1 comments about Perdurabo, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Life of Aleister Crowley.

1. Dr. Kaczynski had already written what many people regard as the best biography of the enigmatic Aleister Crowley, his original "Perdurabo;" the out-of-print paperback currently sells for $90-100, as do the privately published volumes "Perdurabo Outtakes" and "Panic in Detroit." This revised and expanded version is fleshed out with 150 pages of largely new material-- per the author "there is very little overlap between these books and the revised and expanded edition."
   
   This lovely and beautifully bound hardback edition has been highly anticipated and is sure to be a collector's item in years to come. Get it while you can!

5 comments about The Trial and Death of Socrates.

1. This book was listed as "LIKE NEW." It is garbage.....there is writing all over it. The back cover is bent, pages are ripped and it there is so much writing you can barely read it with all the red.



2. This was the book necessary for my introduction to political philosophy @ Harvard. My professor said we needed it for the next week and thanks to the next day shipping guarante I received it the next day mid afternoon. This book was only useful to us for Plato's "The Apology" but I'm sure to keep this on my shelf and read the rest od Socrates's trial. Overall it's worth the 6 dollars it's just like buying a big Mac, but you get to enjoy this one longer.



3. This magnificent compilation has four Plato writings: "Euthyphro," "Apology," "Crito," and "Phaedo." Though apparently early works and not as complex or philosophically influential as later ones, they are immensely important in portraying Socrates' trial and death. They are our clearest picture of the historical Socrates and would be invaluable for this alone. Indeed, I have read hundreds - perhaps thousands - of books, and this is one of my ten or so favorites, mostly because of how moving the depiction of the great man's last days is. The story of Socrates' Apology and last moments is part of world literature's very fabric, an immortal part of Western cultural heritage. Anyone who wants to learn about Socrates should start here. However, the works have great value even aside from this; a few have indeed questioned their historical veracity. This does not affect their philosophical, literary, and political worth, which is of the highest, making the book doubly essential.
   
   "Euthyphro" is the least important work philosophically and probably not meant as historical, but it is still worthwhile. It examines the important "What is piety?" question and, like many Platonic dialogues, does not have anything like a definite conclusion. Some find this aspect frustrating, and it is certainly beguiling, but those who have experience with it come to love it. Like Socrates, Plato is after all too intelligent to give hard and fast answers; in all likelihood, he knows there are not any. What he does is far more important - lead us to think for ourselves and come to our own conclusions if we can. "Euthyphro" is a good, if relatively minor, example. It also introduces what philosophers call the Euthyphro Problem; here it is "Are good things good because they are loved by the gods, or are they loved by the gods because they are good?," but it has been restated in innumerable forms. This is in some ways an unrepresentative dialogue and thus an unfortunate one to begin the book, because it seems to prove the stereotype that philosophy obsesses over inane, probably unanswerable questions of no practical use. The Euthyphro Problem seems truly asinine as given - or, in our post-postmodern world, simply irrelevant. However, we can begin to see its importance when we replace "good" and "loved by the gods" with whatever seems most pressing. Such is after all the kind of thing Plato wanted; we are not supposed to read in narrow literal terms but use him as a starting point for our path to wisdom. This is an instructive example of how Plato has been immensely influential far beyond his apparent significance.
   
   "Apology" is Plato's least philosophical and most unrepresentative work but arguably his most important and is among many readers' favorites, including mine. The book's title is misleading in that this is prose rather than dialogue; it purports to be Socrates' self-defense at his trial. It is historically priceless if so, as it gives his last public statements and some background about his life and the lead up to the trial. Even if not, it is of immense worth as a passionate, sound defense of individualism and free speech; its timeless evocation of these all-important concepts is forever associated with Socrates and the main reason he has been immortalized. The work also piercingly examines the often vast law/conscience gap and is thus an early higher law document. Finally, it is a sort of mini-dialogue in itself touching on and in several ways tying up classic Socrates/Plato themes like the nature of piety and goodness, responsibility toward the gods and the state, interpersonal relations, and life vs. death issues. It sums up Socrates and perhaps Plato better than any other work.
   
   "Crito" is a possibly partly historical account of the title character visiting Socrates in jail to inform him that he is able to escape via bribe; Socrates famously says that he accepts his sentence and argues down contrary pleas. This gives incredible potential insight into Socrates, in many ways telling us more about his character and thought than a full biography ever could. Again, though, it transcends this philosophically and otherwise and is particularly relevant politically. It also examines the law/conscience gap and gives further background on Socrates but is notable above all as a very early example of the social contract theory of government. This is an astonishing example of how advanced Plato was, as the theory is generally considered to have been founded by Thomas Hobbes nearly a millennium later. Even more amazingly, it is put forth more clearly and persuasively here than perhaps anywhere else, making the dialogue essential for anyone interested in political theory.
   
   "Phaedo" ostensibly details Socrates' last moments, including his last look at his wife and child, his last dialogue, his last words to friends, and his actual death. A large part of Socrates' image comes from this, and its potential historical value is inconceivable, though its historicity can easily be doubted since the work itself strongly suggests that Plato was not there. Even so, it is likely accurate in regard to the things that really matter and certainly a fine account of how it very well could have been. It is extremely moving; shot through with pathos, it is one of the most affecting things I have ever read. One can surely not read it without being overcome by emotion; I can hardly even think of it without misty eyes. Anyone who respects and admires this central Western civilization figure will be profoundly touched; his famous last words seem comic out of context but are very much otherwise here, telling us much about Socrates and moving us yet further. This would be one of the greatest works of all-time if it had no other aspect, but it is also a fine dialogue appropriately dealing mostly with death. Plato examines perennial questions like the soul's immortality and metempsychosis very thoroughly and thought-provokingly, and the conclusion - unsurprisingly, given the circumstances - has uncharacteristic certainty. It may not convince our cynical, empiricist, science-loving, twentieth century-surviving age, but the argument is certainly well-made and in many ways admirable. The dialogue touches on other important subjects also and is generally seen as the culmination of Plato's early, Socrates-centered thought.
   
   It is important to realize that these four works were not originally published together, but the trial and death connection means they are often collected. There are many such editions, but this is the least expensive and probably the most widely available, making it ideal for most; it also has extra value in that many versions lack "Euthyphro."
   
   The ever-important translation issue must also be kept in mind. It goes without saying that anyone who cares about intellectual issues, especially applied ones, must know Plato, as should anyone who wants to be even basically well-read. However, this is far easier said than done for most; he is so different from what now passes for literature, to say nothing of pop culture, that he is virtually inaccessible to general readers. Yet the importance of persevering cannot be overemphasized; the payoff is well worth the effort. As nearly always in such cases, reading him becomes far easier after the initial difficulty; no attentive reader will ever think Plato easy reading, but he is utterly absorbing once we get used to his style. He has a near-poetic beauty that all agree has never even been remotely approached in philosophy, and such mesmerizing prose is rare in any genre. His dialogues are an incredible form at once intellectually and aesthetically pleasing - an inspired combination that has perhaps never been bettered; many have appropriated it, but none have matched it. All this means that picking the right translation is probably more important with Plato than any other writer. For the average reader, the more recent, the better is generally true, though older translations like Jowett's and Rouse's are still very accessible. The important thing is to read Plato in some form, and those who happen on a translation that does not work for them should keep trying until their mind opens in a truly new way - and once done, it will never close again.



4. This purchase saved me a lot of money compared to the price in the campus bookstore.



5. Of the eight books I bought, it was the most expensive (cost per page) for all that I received. Although it was in great condition, so were some of the others.

5 comments about Shakespeare.

1. I like Bryson, so was on a winner to start with, but this I found superb. Having read a bit about Shakespeare over the years (although I'm no Shakespearian, I hasten to add!), it can be difficult to separate fact and legend. This book does that execellently, and in Bryson's lovely light and unassuming anecdotal style. A really enjoyable, useful and informative read, both on a professional and a personal level. A must read, really.



2. I found this brief volume was pitched at just the right level for me. Obviously, this is not original Shakespeare research, and the Shakespeare scholar (and surely many below that level but above mine) will already know much of what it contains. But for someone at my level, who loved Branaugh's Henry V ("we few, we happy few") and "Shakespeare in Love ("Romeo, ooh, good title"), it is perfect. I learned about both Shakespeare and his era, and Bryson's sardonic voice leavened the material, while the material gave some weight to Bryson's musings. In his book about the Appalachian Trail, I ultimately found his self-serving self-deprecation tiresome, but this time, with a more high falutin' subject that can use a little pricking, Bryson is just right. The last section of the book takes on those who claim Shakespeare did not write Shakespeare, and this is where Bryson works hardest. From his (sometimes hilarious) one is left quite certain that Shakespeare is Shakespeare. The absurd provenance of some of the doubting theories is remarkable.



3. Shakespeare: The World as Stage is a succinct but entertaining short biography of the Bard of Avon. It's author is Bill Bryson who has published such best sellers as "A Walk in the Woods" and "A Short History of Nearly Everything". The native of Iowa who has lived for many years in Norfolk, England is a fan of the English language and William Shakespeare (1564-1616). This book is one of the short biographies on famous folks published by Atlas Books in their James Atlas edited series "Eminent Lives."
   Among the things we learn in this book are:
   1. We have very little evidence to go on in constructing a life of Shakespeare. We have only 14 lines in his own handwriting; his will and a court document.
   2. We know nothing about how loving or miserable was his life with his wife Anne Hutchinson or his relationships with his two daughters or sons. He willed his wife his second best bed!
   3. The years of 1585-92 when Shakespeare was earning his spurs in playwriting and acting in London are completely blank.
   4. Shakespeare wrote his greatest plays during the reign of King James I who became king in 1603 following the death of Elizabeth I.
   5. Life in Shakespeare's day was short and often brutal. Plagues swept away large numbers of citizens; bear baiting and other cruel sports were popular and the English population was at a low due to disease.
   6. No one has proven that Will Shakespeare did not write the plays. He probably had a good elementary education in Stratford, knew Latin and Greek and was generally well educated for the day.
   7. It is doubtful if such people as Francis Bacon, Ben Johnson, Christopher Marlowe wrote the plays. Bryson provides various reasons for his doubts anyone but Shakespeare wrote the 38 plays
   8. There are over 2,000 word coinages first used in Shakesperean drama. He was an excellent wordsmith and poet.
   9. Shakespeare is the greatest author in English writing such masterpieces as Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Romeon and Juliet, Measure for Measure, the history plays and such comedies as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing and As You Like It.
   10. Shakespeare retired from the stage in 1613 dying in Stratford. He was not rich.
   10. We have no proof as to what were Shakespeare's religious beliefs.
   Bill Bryson has done a good job on this informative little book. It could be used with profit in high school classes involved in a unit on Shakespeare.
   The book provides good material on life in the sixteenth century



4. I love Bill Bryson,he inspired me to take to the trails of the Quachita Mountains so I thought, "if anyone can bring Shakespeare to life, it has to be him". The problem was too much history of the theater and no really juicy morsels about Willy the Shake. Big blanks and no real story line. But I am still a devoted fan of both.



5. As part of the Eminent Lives series, Bryson presents a brief (196 page) biography of William Shakespeare - brief, he explains, because so little is actually known about Shakespeare. In his quirky comedic style, Bryson elucidates on what few facts exist on Shakespeare's life. General history is interwoven with specifics about the playwright (for example, up to 40% of brides were pregnant on their wedding day). With amusing anecdotes on farfetched theories (like the plays were actually written by Francis Bacon, a random aristocrat, or a combination thereof), Shakespeare is a quick, enjoyable read on a mysterious author's life and times.

No comments about Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-C).

No comments about An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth.

5 comments about The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America.

1. Well, I was in 'early' on much of what went on in the story of these four folks. I knew Alpert and Leary from the Human Be-In, and I was part of Leary's getting out of the country. I personally think Weil could have been raked over the coals a little more.....



2. Don Lattin has turned in a very well done popular history of the turned on generation.
   
   The book focuses on four self-promoters who used psychedelic drugs as their gateway to fame and fortune, while getting high often along the way.
   
   Timothy "Tim" Leary became the most famous of all, a perpetual magnet for media attention - which he incessantly sought. Lattin, happily, takes Leary as he was, without turning him into a saint or a devil.
   
   Andrew Weil, who ultimately became a health guru, starts off as a thoroughly disreputable character - and never changes. Like the rest of this small group, Weil is an energetic self-promoter.
   
   Houston Smith is a thinker, a student and teacher of world religions. He comes early to the realization that "tuning in, turning on and dropping out" through psychedelic drugs is not going to change the world.
   
   Richard Alpert is, after Leary, the strangest of the lot, a man who never seems to find himself, but gains much fame and perhaps considerable fortune while flailing around. He becomes Ram Dass, teacher to the world.
   
   Lattin groups the four together as the "Harvard Psychedelic Club", which was really a group of fellow-travelers seeking the path to self-enlightenment. The journey began with Leary's experimentation with "magic mushrooms" and progresses to laboratory manufactured LSD with a long list of other drugs included.
   
   Lattin's descriptions of how the group came together is interesting and well told. There was, for a while, a common belief among them that they would revolutionize mankind's understanding of itself, lead to the destruction of the myths of organized religion, forge new bonds between humans and cure all that ails you. Lattin's descriptions of their early goings-on is really well done and, frankly, makes the drug experience seem appealing.
   
   All this was going on in the sacred academic precincts of Harvard University. The snake in the garden was a low-life named Andrew Weil. Without condemning Weil directly, Lattin's description of Weil leaves you not wanting to get your hands dirty touching him. Will too has been a relentless self-promoter since his youth: "exposing" the psychedelic drug "movement" at Harvard was his first taste of the fame he sought.
   
   Leary and Alpert who taught at Harvard were expelled from Harvard as a result of Weil's betrayal.
   
   The four principals went on to lives of fame, but the happiness they sought became more and more elusive. Leary lost a daughter to suicide (as he lost a wife earlier) and was an international fugitive and prison inmate. Ram Nass, nee Alpert, has journeyed far and wide. Weil has achieved success in the health industry.
   
   Psychedelic drugs and the age they inspired for at least short time tremendously impacted American culture and not necessarily for the better.
   
   Leary made a theatrical production of his dying and death. The others live on - as do the results of their early "Harvard Psychedelic Club" exploits.
   
   This is, thankfully, not a rigorous academic history - and it is excellent and well worth reading to understand how we got to where we are at in this country.
   
   Jerry



3. Being born in '70, I found this book to be helpful in putting together some of the history of the '60s of which
   I was unaware. Even being interested in all 4 men, particularly Ram Dass, quite a bit of this material was new
   to me. And it inspired me to pick up Leary's autobiography, "Flashbacks," which I am also finding to be a bit
   of an eye-opener in places. So I would highly recommend this, and certainly one has to get back the title and
   the marketing aspect of all of this and just appreciate the author's craft in putting it altogether in a readable and
   enjoyable way.



4. I was going to rate this book four stars with deference to over all readership, knowing why I liked it so much and thinking how my wife for instance wouldn't be as riveted or even choose it over other material, but then this is my review and I ripped through the book in less than a day and I don't read that fast. In reading these reviews I feel some folks expect too much. This book is entertaining and useful. I'm no judge of whether this is a scholarly work, but it has a place of great value as a window into the history of an era which is difficult to really capture. From my biased perspective, Mr. Lattin seems to have done journeyman's work capturing the times.
   
   H.P.C. was informative both historically and anecdotally with regard to both the potential benefits and the hazards of psychedelic drug use. It gave a back story which entertained me as a person who road that there horse and got some bruises before I lept from the saddle to safety. I will never take back what I learned from my psychotropic encounters but my first acid trip was at age 14 ( in 1969) and I must say one shouldn't try to kill their ego before it's not fully formed. In that respect I seriously consider this book a useful handbook for any youth who is drawn to experimenting with psychedelics and I recommend the book to parents in that context, especially those who are not initiated but worry for their own kids. I've been honest with our children to the point of telling war stories because I am still in awe of having survived my own youth ( or have I?), but in doing so risk glorifying stupid behavior, so I view this as a a very useful tool for objective education.
   
   I liked Lattin's idea to bundle these four stories together. I only knew of Weil as that bearded guy on PBS lectures. After this read I'm no more impressed with the man, but I am glad to have a better knowledge of Weils works and their context in the culture. Only last year I found myself in a Berkeley restaurant where I strained to eavesdrop as a very old and frail Huston Smith regaling a couple seated with him, with great Huston Smith stories. What a treat. As a casual student of religious philosophy and what is truly useful about the psychedelic experience, Smith has become my hero and go to guy, and that notion is happily re-enforced by this book. What a neat guy, and now a sweet old man. To me as a young "seeker", Richard Alpert, AKA Ram Dass, Baba Dick, Dick Das, etc. was a hero and icon, and somebody whose path I have crossed a time or two. But with time I've taken the man off his pedestal. I know the guy has done some great work with SEVA foundation etc, but I was blown away that after all that mentoring by his guru, even Ram Das struggles with forgiveness when it comes to Andy Weil ( see the book for details). Referring back to "death of ego" touted by Leary and company, if Lattin's descriptions of Leary are right ( and those in the new book "Orange Sunshine" which align with Lattin's telling) Leary's ego was such a fortress as to be impervious to the atomic bomb that is LSD. Even Ram Das laments in the book that on his death bed Leary was unable to really embrace his physical death at the end. How ironic since early LSD experiments were on patients who were dieing. Was all that LSD actually wasted on the guy! Shee-it!



5. There was a time, briefly, when it looked like psychedelic drugs were going to change the world for the better. One could be forgiven for thinking so, when experiments were "proving" that taking a few micrograms of a chemical like psilocybin (distilled from the "magic mushrooms" of South America) could induce highly charged religious visions and generate feelings of love and ecstasy. But the very people who could have changed the world by promoting legal chemicals were the ones who made that revolution impossible. In fact, their out-of-kilter visions and refusal to adhere to the scientific method caused another kind of revolution, rousting the American populace out of the sleep of the 1950s, waking them up good and proper to some brand new rules of cultural engagement.
   
   Timothy Leary, perhaps the man most associated with hippie drug culture, was the worst of the lot for muddying the waters around him. In his sphere were three powerful characters --- Richard Alpert, who later morphed into the reluctant guru Baba Ram Dass; Huston Smith, who had a career in religious media mapped out before he tangled with Leary and Alpert; and Andrew Weil, who set out to renounce Leary and his Harvard cohorts and in the end wound up looking a lot like them.
   
   This is the cautionary tale of these four men, how their lives and fortunes were interwoven for a few short years gravitating around Harvard and Leary's now infamous psilocybin experiments (including his work in prisons turning the inmates on to psychedelics, and his attempt to stone half a church full of students and leave the other half gaping and praying in a daring foray into drug exploration known as the "Good Friday Experiment").
   
   Leary --- whom author Don Lattin dubs "The Trickster" and, by every account, a once respectable Harvard don who went shockingly native when his ideas melded with those of the hippie subculture --- loomed large and attracted a zealous following. Alpert, "The Seeker," was one of his acolytes, a rich-kid psychology professor who hid his homosexuality from the disapproving Leary, willingly devised research projects in the name of Leary's brave new science, and even babysat Leary's kids. Huston Smith, "The Teacher," was the son of missionaries who was wrestling with the demons of his Christian doubt; he took psychedelics with Leary and believed them to be a powerful, potentially spiritual pathway. Andrew Weil, "The Healer," was able to procure psilocybin from Leary and Alpert. Highly ambitious, he began developing his own drug experiments and seized on a chance to go undercover, make a scoop for the Harvard Crimson and successfully engender an academic smear campaign against Leary and Alpert.
   
   In THE HARVARD PSYCHEDELIC CLUB, Lattin satisfyingly places the parallel and interconnected lives of these four titans along a timeline, drawing in a cast of minor characters as fascinating as its stars: Allen Ginsberg, Alan Watts, B. F. Skinner, Ralph Metzner and Peter Orlovsky. In the end, Leary wound up in jail and on the run for his sins; Alpert became the prototype of the pilgrim/saviour, never quite there himself but able to convince others to "be here now"; Smith had a distinguished but quiet career as an author and educator, bringing Eastern religious thought to the attention of the West; and Weil is apparently content with his own legal drug business and his bushy white beard.
   
   It's possible to speculate that had Leary and his disciples not been so obstreperous, legitimate science might have explored salutary uses for psychedelics --- but then, the whole '60s thing never would have happened. And, Lattin seems to suggest, it was meant to happen, with the confluence of these four unstoppable, visionary nonconformists.

5 comments about Thomas Paine's Rights of Man: A Biography (Books That Changed the World).

1. Hitchens does a great job of highlighting the political genius of Thomas Paine. For Paine, the eighteenth century was the Age of Enlightenment because for the first time humankind was throwing off the millstones of religious dogmatism and political despotism. Paine essentially believed that the rights of man encompassed, "...all the intellectual rights, or rights of the mind, and also all those rights of acting as an individual for his own comfort and happiness, which are not injurious to the natural rights of others."
   
   Paine's Rights of Man was an eloquent yet blistering rebuttal to Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France. Paine got right to the crux of the disagreement he had with Burke when he admonished him for his argument that governmental enactments of previous generations had the force and authority to bind citizens for all time. An example that Burke used was the English Parliament of 1688, which he praised as a model of the type of reform French citizens should emulate. Paine's answer was swift and cutting "Radical Enlightenment" reason. "Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself, in all cases, as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity and presumption of governing beyond the grave, is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies." Paine also took Burke to task for his narrow understanding of French socio-political and economic problems leading up to 1789. Unlike Burke, Paine understood that the French Revolution, unlike the others that took place in Europe, was not just a revolt against the king. "Between the monarchy, the parliament, and the church, there was a rivalship of despotism, besides the feudal despotism operating locally, and the ministerial despotism operating everywhere." Thus, what Paine witnessed, Alexis de Tocqueville and Georges Lefebvre observed, agreed with, and commented on, in their history's years later. The institutions that Burke defended in his Reflections, such as the nobility, Church, and monarchial rule, all became "fodder" for Paine's "grist mill" in his defense of France's new constitution.
   
   Paine abhorred the institution of nobility and supported its dissolution for several reasons. "Because the idea of hereditary legislation is as inconsistent...and absurd as an hereditary mathematician....Because it is continuing the uncivilized principle of governments founded in conquest, and the base idea of man having property over man, and governing him by personal right." No friend to tradition, Paine took Burke to task for defending the notion of, "...hereditary rights, and hereditary succession, and that a Nation has not a right to form a Government for itself." Paine defended the French constitution's eradication of tithes to the Catholic Church and it "...hath abolished or renounced Toleration, and Intolerance also, hath established UNIVERSAL RIGHT OF CONSCIENCE." Finally, Paine unleashed a most scathing attack against Burke's suggestion that France should reform its absolutist monarchy into a benign form of constitutional monarchy similar to what Britain enjoyed. "All hereditary government is in its nature tyranny." "It occasionally puts children over men, and the conceits of nonage over wisdom and experience. In short, we cannot conceive a more ridiculous figure of government, than hereditary succession."
   
   Thus, Paine's Radical Enlightenment polemic, which sold more than 200,000 copies throughout Europe, was his reasoned and articulate project towards developing a better world. Consequently, there is no doubt that Paine, whose Radical Enlightenment pen proved to be "mightier than the sword" of despotism both in the American and French Revolutions, understood the importance of the nurturing relationship that Enlightenment philosophes had on the French Revolution. "But all those writings and many others had their weight; and by the different manner in which they treated the subject of government...by their moral maxims and systems of economy, readers of every class met with something to their taste."
   
   Recommended reading for anyone interested in political philosophy, enlightenment history, and the French Revolution.



2. I read the first third of the book but then grew tired of it. Its a good book when he focuses on Thomas Paine, but Hitchens can not resist injecting his own views and biases into the book.
   
   When Christopher Hitchens agrees with Thomas Paine he calls him a "free thinker". Which unsurprisingly used today as an euphemism for atheism. The author then criticizes Paine for using the Bible as a justification for individual liberties. But in the 18th century the bible was the essentially the only book that everyone had read. So to use the bibles arguments and analogies to justify your case was not pandering. It was not pandering it was teaching the common man with examples that the he would understand.
   
   If Christopher Hitchens is a "Thomas Paine for our times" he would be a religious, individualist, but Hitchens is neither. Mr. Hitchens disagrees with Paine stance on religion and quarantining rights that favor collective action as opposed favoring individual rights that protected and guaranteed from the collective action.



3. I had forgotten how much American History I have forgotten. Even that Paine was English, not to mention vital dates in and around the revolution. Christopher Hitchens is always a delight to read and makes men and events come to life.



4. Thomas Paine began a unique tradition for American writers. His unbalanced lifestyle existed in contrast to a brilliant mind but his abilities were limited to righteous inspirations. As Christopher Hitchens so intricately penned, Paine was a revolutionary in thought and deed but tried to reach beyond the power of his influence. This book delves into the chronography of his rise and the comparison between his works and those of Burke and Jefferson. As always Hitchens writing style evokes both historical clamor and his own revolutionary tilt towards greater aspirations. It's almost too deep to absorb in one take. You might have to read it twice.



5. Christopher Hitchens is something of an Oxford-educated, free-thinking Renaissance Man: author, journalist, literary critic, columnist, polemicist, intellectual, former Trotskyist, and (as of 2007), an American citizen. Although he admires George Orwell, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James Joyce, Richard Dawkins, and Barack Obama, he is sharply critical of Mother Teresa, Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, Jerry Falwell, and Michael Moore. As demonstrated in his best-selling book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Hitchens is an ardent believer in the Enlightenment values of secularism, humanism, and reason. "Above all," he writes in God Is Not Great, "we are in need of a renewed Enlightenment, which will base itself on the proposition that the proper study of mankind is man, and woman . . . And all this and more is, for the first time in our history, within the reach if not the grasp of everyone" (p. 283).
   
   Hitchens has been recognized as one of the world's "Top 100 Public Intellectuals" and "a Tom Paine for our troubled times" (The Independent, London). In his entertaining 2006 essay, Thomas Paine (Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man": A Biography), Hitchens examines the history of "The Rights of Man" and analyzes its contemporary significance. Thomas Paine (1737-1809), much like Hitchens, was a pamphleteer, radical, and intellectual revolutionary. Best known for his pamphlet Common Sense (1776), which inspired the American Revolution, he also wrote his passionate guide to human rights, Rights of Man (1791), in response to Edmund Burke's attack upon popular government in Reflections on the Revolution in France. Hitchens' basic premise is that Paine's treatise on the Enlightenment values of human rights and reason was the philosophical foundation of the United States, and that it is now essential that we revisit Paine's "paean to human liberty" in a time when both our rights and reason are under attack: "In a time when both rights and reason are under several kinds of open and covert attack," Hitchens writes, "the life and writing of Thomas Paine will always be part of the arsenal on which we shall need to depend." Highly recommended.
   
   G. Merritt