3 comments about Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (Perennial Classics).

1. I have read many biographies and autobiographies of influential and powerful women in history and many were good, but Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter is by far the best written I've come across. Not only is it very thoughtfully expressed, but de Beauvoir has me totally hooked on her writing.
   
   So much of what she wrote about in her youth I could relate to: the feelings of being oppressed and pressures to conform to behaviors and beliefs she didn't believe in, wavering emotions of joy and pain in interactions with parents, sibling, and friends, wanting to break away from a suffocating atmosphere, and being her own person on HER terms. Many write of the same things, but she expressed exactly how she felt and thought in such a way that I felt I was right there with her! Few authors have grabbed me in such a feverish manner as to cause me to want to read EVERYTHING they wrote. I'm glad to say she is one of them. Highly recommended!



2. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter is the first of Simone de Beauvoir's four autobiographies.
   
   "The most innocent conversations were full of hidden traps; my parents construed my words with their own idiom and ascribed to me ideas that had nothing in common with what I really thought. I found myself repeating Barres' phrase: 'Why have words when their brutal precision bruises our complicated souls'. As soon as I opened my mouth, I provided them with a stick to beat me with, and once more I would be shut up in that world which I had spent years trying to get away from, in which everything, without any possibility of mistake, has its own name, its set place and its agreed function, in which hate and love, good and evil are as crudely differentiated as black and white, in which from the start everything is classified, catalogued, fixed and formulated, and irrevocably judged; that world with the sharp edges, its bare outlines starkly illuminated by an implacable flat light that is never once touched by the shadow of doubt."
   
   In Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, Simone de Beauvoir lives in a stark black-and-white world with no gray areas or blurred edges. Everything is stiff and rigid -- almost suffocatingly so -- she cannot breathe (philosophically speaking) and cries a lot. "Dutifulness" has a death-grip around her throat! She abhors blatant tradition, mindless religious rites and glaring absurdity -- but, she loves Paris, books, her first cousin Jacques, writing and nature!
   
   The Luxembourg garden in Paris (filled with picturesque fountains, diverse minds and fragrant flowers, near the Sorbonne university) plays a major (inspirational) focal point in her formative years. At a very early age, Simone decides she will become a world renowned writer -- but, in order to accomplish such a feat, must give up any idea of marriage and children -- at least in the traditional sense. She plans to focus all her creative energies toward her #1 passion, writing.
   
   A meticulous undertaking, satisfying -- very "Dutiful". --Katharena Eiermann, 2007, the Realm of Existentialism, Presidential Hopeful



3. and I was amazed at her perception, her understanding of what it is to see as a child and how ones relation with ones parents changes. This is must reading for anyone who has been a child or is a parent. Her intelligent articulation of our experience is a gift.
   
   I'm just about to re-read it, and I bet I'll have more to say then.

5 comments about Niccolo's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli.

1. Niccolo's Smile is, undoubtedly, a masterpiece in accessibility, ease of prose, and historical flow. Viroli has written a book that is both deeply human and unabashedly humane, as well as enjoyable, both for the Machiavelli fan and the newcomer.
   
   I cannot, however, understand or even detect where all the kudos and admiration for the translation come from: the book was evidently written in Italian, and the translation is so literal, so unedited, and so evident, that it is sometimes difficult to read through entire paragraphs without picking up a pencil and correcting the evident mistakes.
   
   Perhaps it is due to my Romance-languages background (Spanish is my native language), but I didn't find anything commendable about the translation, whereas the biography itself, on the other hand, is indeed a true masterpiece. (And this from a fan who's read through 12 other Machiavelli biographies, including De Grazia's intriguing Machiavelli in Hell, also available from Amazon).
   
   In short: buy it, enjoy it, and if you find yourself re-reading certain portions in search of a more coherent meaning, don't blame yourself: it's the translation.



2. Every now and then you read a book that brings its subject to life. Having studied Machiavelli from his writings, it helps to now know of his charms. This book contributed to my understanding of his works but more importantly to the background and history of his conversations. A good, quick read... Recommended.



3. Maurizio Viroli does a masterful job of bringing the teachings of the world's first modern philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, to light. Machiavelli has gained an unwarranted notorious reputation for his "evil" treatise on political thinking and acting through his authorship of "The Prince". "The Prince" received more notoriety than his politically erudite work "Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy" in which Machiavelli espouses his belief that the Roman Republic was the best and most virtuous form of government to emulate. His breadth and understanding of Roman history is remarkable. Viroli throughout his book emphasizes Machiavelli's love of his country Florence, and the proud political work as a minor government administrator and ambassador Machiavelli performed during its years as a republic. It was on his many ambassadorial trips to the French, Papal, and Italian courts that he learned to observe political leaders and their governmental institutions which formed the basis of his political theories in his many writings. My favorite quote from the book is from a letter Machiavelli writes to a friend; "It's better to act and repent then not to act and regret".
   
   Modern philosophers starting with Machiavelli reject the classical view of politics as undemocratic and elitist. Only wealthy men of leisure would have time to develop the virtues and character necessary to rule. Machiavelli believed that man by nature was selfish and driven by ambition. Machiavelli is not interested in character formation and moral appeal but in building the right kind of institutions to govern society. Laws and justice would protect men from power hungry rulers. Modern philosophy is an out growth of the revolution that takes place in the natural sciences during the Enlightenment. The purpose of science is the conquest of nature man is in control of human life. Philosophers from Machiavelli on become sectarian. "Everything good is due to man's labor rather than to nature's gift." This book is not all politics and philosophy. Viroli gives us a good insight into the life and times of Niccolo Machiavelli with a good study into his character, passions, and psyche.
   
   As a retired Army officer and student of political philosophy, I found this to be a great book to continue one's journey into political philosophy and history of Europe.



4. This biography presents the full Machiavelli, not just the cynical philosopher of politics. The reader discovers many other facets of his sometimes lusty, sometimes ironic, sometimes mischevious personality. The book places Machiavelli in the context of local events current to his time. We can see how he was influenced by, and tried to influence, the politics of his day. Above all, this book conveys Machiavelli as a writer, more effective in offering advice than he was at managing events. Viroli's brief essays at the beginnings of some of his chapters are elegant works in themselves. A plan of Renaissance Florence would have been a useful addition.



5. This is a concise and lively account of Machiavelli's life. It provides the general reader with much needed context and background in order to read Machiavelli's works with any kind of understanding. While there are good scholarly works that can provide the feeling of more intellectual heft, this book should not be underestimated simply because it is easy to read and doesn't require weeks to read.

   Machiavelli is one of those brand-name characters that evoke certain reactions in people in such a generalized way that people mistakenly believe they know something about the man and his work. This book can help debunk much of that received nonsense. It is surprising how "modern" a man he was considering he lived nearly 500 years ago.

   The author has admiration for Machiavelli's skills as an analyst and as a diplomat, has sympathy for his personal suffering and disappointments, and forgiving in his attitude towards Machiavelli's human failings (the author might not even agree they were failings - they were just human). And that is the book's greatest contribution; it shows its subject as a human being rather than a caricature or a statue.

   In any case, I found this to be a very valuable and entertaining book. I recommend it highly. You can draw your own conclusions about the subject and they author's conclusions. But you will have gained a lot in the process of coming to those (now better informed) conclusions.

   There are a few helpful maps throughout the book and a suggested reading list at the end. The translation is terrific.

4 comments about The Portable Karl Marx (Viking Portable Library).

1. 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.



2. 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.




3. "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.



4. This book is an outstanding overview of the life and thoughts of Karl Marx. The editor masterfully weaves together Marx's published works and private letters into a rich tapestry of history and ideas.

   In addition to what you might expect to find in a collection like this (the text of The Communist Manifesto, selections from Das Kapital...), there are also tidbits from Marx's hand that help you truly understand the man and the history of his ideology, from his predictions on the fates of France and Russia, even down to his favorite color (red, of course) and his old report cards.

   No serious student of economic and political philosophy should be without an understanding of Karl Marx. This book provides it like no other.

5 comments about Maimonides (Jewish Encounters).

1. Maimonidies' two biggest contributions to civilization were his religious writings, and medical practice. As author Sherwin Nuland himself points out, Maimonidies' truest, lasting legacy are his religious writings. Yet probably because he himself is a doctor, Sherwin Nuland emphasizes the medical Maimonidies at the expense of not giving the religious Maimonidies his proper due. When reading this book, Maimonidies sounded like quite an ordinary man, nothing special, and the truth is, as a doctor he was nothing special. Yet in religious circles, he is a giant. This specialness of Maimonidies was lost in this short biography of this great man.



2. The most interesting parts of this book focus on Maimonides the physician (as opposed to Maimonides the religious leader, where Nuland's discussion is a bit too sparse here and there). Maimonides (known to most Jews as Rambam) did not develop new medical knowledge, but wrote ten books synthesizing existing medical knowledge in a clear and concise way, and even occasionally criticizing the Greco-Roman masters whose works dominated medieval medicine. By the low standards of the Middle Ages, this passed for genius.
   
   Nuland links Rambam's religious and medical careers by pointing out that in both areas, Rambam focused heavily on codifying existing knowledge in ways that would be easy for the public to use.
   
   Nuland also engages in interesting speculation about a variety of other issues, including:
   
   1. Why were Jews so likely to be doctors in the Middle Ages? Nuland asserts that (a) Christians were uninterested in medicine because they were more ascetic, (b) because priests could not take employment as doctors, the Christian talent pool for medicine was artificially diminished and (c) because Jews' wealth could easily be taken away, Jews had a strong incentive to seek portable skills (as opposed to investing in fixed assets such as land).
   
   2. Why was Rambam so uninterested in accommodating or discussing competing religious views? Nuland speculates that because of Judaism's dire condition in those days (beset in persecution in some places and the temptation of assimilation into Islam in more tolerant places) Rambam may have felt the need to "circle the wagons" by encouraging as much uniformity as possible.
   
   3. Why did Rambam (who generally opposed Messianic speculation) suggest in his letter to Yemenite Jews that prophecy might return in 1216? Nuland suggests that Rambam may have been trying to defang Messianic fever by setting a date so far in advance that he could not be disproven during his lifetime.



3. Nuland has accomplished the difficult task of summarizing Maimonides' complex writings in a way that is accessible to the common reader. Nuland's style is clear and concise, and he obviously admires Maimonides as a sort of Renaissance man before the Renaissance. It is true that the book gives considerable attention to Maimonides' life as a physician, but as someone who has dipped a bit into Maimonides' writings on Jewish law and thought but knew little of his place in medical history, I didn't see that as a problem. In fact, I found that that made this book even more enlightening.
   
   I could have used more discussion of the Guide to the Perplexed, however, beyond the notions that the book is difficult and that some see it as a hidden confession by Maimonides of his lack of belief (an unlikely hypothesis). The Guide is an extraordinarily fascinating book, from all I understand, and Nuland does not do it justice.



4. it shows you right way about life
   i think it is possible to adopt it to today.
   it was very interesting book for me.
   it is the kind of book that i always enjoy reading



5. Dr. Nuland, himself a Jewish physician, was understandably reluctant to engage in doing the biography of perhaps the ultimate Jewish physician of all time: Moses Ben Maimon also referred to as Rambam or Maimonides.
   
   His reluctance was understandable on a number of levels. First, Maimonides was of pronounced expertise in the healing arts. Not only the author of ten medical books, he had through dint of skill managed to elevate himself to being court physician at the court of Saladin.
   
   Second, for Jewish thought (and derivatively for western thought itself) Maimonides was significant for his recognition of and attempt to deal with the conflict between the canonized precepts of faith and the unanswered questions of science. His "Guide for the Perplexed" itself perplexing is an attempt in some ways an attempt at striking a balance.
   
   However, in both ways Nuland managed to briefly make the material accessible to the reader.
   
   And significantly also, Nuland managed to connect the reader with Maimonides humanity...his early difficulties with learning, his grief at the loss of his brother and his joy in parenthood.
   
   In this way, Nuland managed to create and even more iconic figure because rather than putting him a pedistal, Nuland put Maimonides right next to you...all the more human and therefore all the more relevant.

5 comments about Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography.

1. Safranski has made a name for himself in Germany as biographer of Schiller, Hoffmann, Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and with a recent bestseller about the German Romantic School, which comprised poetry, painting, and music. But his main triumph and commercial success was this book about Nietzsche.
   Oddly, it is not a biography, nor an introduction into FN's thinking, but a 'biography of his thinking', a concept which is inadequately translated in the English subtitle: I do not think that this book can be called a 'philosophical biography'. What is that anyway?
   It is a very readable book, unless you know zero about the man. In that case, better go elsewhere first. It is well worth reading if you are fairly familiar with the idea map of ancestors and successors and the main writings. It helps establish mental links and puts you on firmer ground.
   FN was one of the most influential writers in the decades around 1900, the year of his death. By that time he had been in 'mental care' for 11 years. Some said of him, he had delved into the mysteries of life so deeply that he went mad. His philosophy has been called a philosophy of life in opposition to materialism and historicism and other -isms. His Zarathustra was one of the 3 most carried books by German soldiers in WW1, says Safranski. The other two were Goethe's Faust and the New Testament. But I wish I knew how this statistic was obtained. Part of the Nietzsche myth?
   His ancestors, the triad of 'educators' if you wish, were the poet Hoelderlin, who shared the fate of ending his life in a lengthy asylum phase, having 'gone mad' as well, who provided the background of craving for mythology; then Schopenhauer, whose 'Will and Representation' became FN's philosophical backbone and became transformed into the concepts of Dionysos and Apollo; and finally Wagner, the composer in search of the German myth.
   When he became unable to handle his life, his evil sister took care of him and established his reputation as a German national chauvinist, a militarist, and a racist. The Nazis actually knew better, one of theirs wrote somewhere, says Safranski: apart from the fact that he was anti nationalist, anti socialist, and anti racist, he might be useful for Nazi propaganda.
   Personally I like to see FN as a poet and an aphorist; his philosophy does not seem to add up to a system, so better take your bits and pieces as you like them.
   I give only four stars, because I think the concept of the book has limited value. I would prefer a more stringent focus on either life or philosophy. As it is, the text somewhat vacilates. It can't make up its mind. Like its subject.



2. The book appears to be targeted exclusively to the most serious student of Nietzsche such that subject matter is condense to the level of an essay. Definitely not for the layperson in search of an overview but more a book of snippets and fragmention which fails to offer any outstanding impressions.
   And the translation seems to be an exercise in," how to include as many obscure word from the English language as is possible".
   Definitely a smell of elitism.



3. Nietzsche unfolded an entire existential drama. The will to power is first power over oneself. Cheerfulness was achieved through ecstasy and composure. Nietzsche's writings were a major force in the development of various intellectual currents of the twentieth century. He was a laboratory of thinking.
   
   Hearing Wagner's music in 1868, Nietzsche experienced rapture. He sought to capture music in his writings. Nietzsche placed Wagnerian music and musical improvisation at the pinnacle of pleasure. Friedrich Nietzsche considered himself divided. The early death of his father left him solitary. Between the ages of nine and fifteen he tried to acquire universal knowledge. He was a student of classical philology at Bonn. Reading Schopenhauer between 1866 and 1868 produced in him a sort of conversion. He read Lange and learned of Kant's critique of knowledge. He retained Schopenhauer's sense of the inner nature of the world and the possibility of transcendent knowledge.
   
   Self-configuration through language became a passion for Nietzsche. He considered philosophy a linguistic work of art. Encountering Wagner, THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY emerged. The philological establishment was provoked by the assertion of Nietzsche that there had been a decomposition of tragedy through intellectualism. Nietzsche's highest goal was the flourishing of culture. Nietzsche uses Dionysian for reality and also for barbarism, pre-civilized, and violence. He believed Wagner's music was a means of reviving intellectual life in a Germany damaged by materialism and historicism and the founding of the German empire in 1871. Eventually the inner revolution of his thinking transcended Wagner.
   
   Myth is a concentrated image and it yields social and cultural context. For Wagner myth had religious overtones. Nietzsche's take on myth was aesthetic. The aesthetic moment is a sort of atom of happiness. An 1876 visit to Bayreuth left Nietzsche feeling disappointed. He thought historicism might be compensating for a lack of vitality. Hegel had enobled history in philosophical terms. In THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY Socratic knowledge was a panacea. Nietzsche criticized Socrates as sentimental. He lacked the coldness of a Democritus, of a Hume.
   
   Nietzsche was interested in an implicit system to connect his ideas. He feared the aphoristic form might be an admission of failure. The compassionate disposition possessed by Nietzsche caused him to suffer. In HUMAN ALL TOO HUMAN Nietzsche wanted to liberate himself from thinking of first and last things. Between 1877 and 1880 Nietzsche's health was precarious. He linked physical suffering with mental triumph. To triumph over the body, an idea had to have linguistic form of great beauty and pithiness.
   
   Thinking was an act of emotional intensity. Nietzsche had a theater of ideas. His works are an experiment to obtain power over oneself. His philosophical thinking moved to a means of self-reflection. DAYBREAK contains phenomenological research. He wondered how we really feel when we think. ZARATHUSTRA dealt with the doctrine of recurrence.
   
   In 1881 Nietzsche wrote that pain was vanquishing his life and his will. He spent a bright winter in Genoa. THE GAY SCIENCE was written in 1882. He felt writing dealt with the long logic of a philosophical personality. The logic was difficult to discern because Nietzsche was circuitous. He met Lou Andreas-Salome in 1882. He proposed marriage and she said no. He was in competition for her with his friend, Paul Ree. Salome sensed Nietzsche's alien uncanny quality. She did not feel love for him. He had felt that she understood him completely. Although tortured by his own fantasies, he moved forward to complete the writing of ZARATHUSTRA. The metaphoric style hints at biologic contents. ON THE GENEOLOGY OF MORALS was written a year and a half before his breakdown in Turin.



4. My copy is actually orange.. but what's beneath the cover is most important.
   
   This book is written by the #1 Nietzsche expert of our time. It flows well and squishes the important ideas into a picture that normal people can understand as one whole.



5. The only thing that makes this book unique is that it organizes Nietzsche's ideas chronologically, according to their development. If not for that, there's nothing that makes this book any better than the hundreds of other books about Nietzsche.

5 comments about Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings.

1. This is perhaps the most complete review of the Gorin no Sho. Tokitsu not only offers a very well thought out and complete translation, he also gives an unbelievably in depth view of the Master's life. The notations for the translation are, to say the very least, quite thorough and very well written. Tokitsu used the two original existing copies to create his english translation, along with adding every known work that the Master is known to have written himself. The first section covers the Master's life and duels. The second is the translations of his writing, covering more than just the Gorin no Sho (however the full documents are not fully translated, only the parts which differ in tone or line from the Gorin no Sho). The final section of the book contains an amazing look at modern kendo, as well as other Japanese martial arts, and how Musashi's specific art can be related to them. Included in this are several observations of early 20th century kendo matches, in which the level of control and ability documented have yet to occur again. The sheer amount of research and sources cited, with the differing views and conflicting arguments make for a fascinating read from a fair and balanced point of view. For any individual who studies any martial art, or is interested in Japanese history, this book should considered to be essential.



2. It's an excellent biography, it told me everthing I needed to know. It also includes a copy of the Book of Five Rings, which is nice, although I didn't notice and had already bought a copy, but having two different translations of a book is nice.
   
   Overall, a nicely organized book full of useful info and such-not.



3. Having come to this book without any prior knowledge of Musashi, I was deeply impressed by this work, especially the biographical part. It also includes the Book of Five Rings which certainly adds weight to this addition, although I would've given the book 5 stars anyway if it only included the biographical/historical parts.



4. Well, I read one book on the subject and thought that I knew everything about the man... I was wrong.
   I especially like this book because the author tries his best to show the different points of view and include sometimes contradicting documents. Also he included much needed (for me at least) background data that helped to better understand the realities of that time.
   It definitely cured me from my "I know everything" attitude.



5. Once I started reading 'Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings' I could not put it down and found myself reading until the next morning... This is a well written informative and detailed account of Miyamoto Musashi's life, his training, his teaching, his paintings and his writings. Various sources are cited and comparative analysis is rendered. We are given more than a glimpse into Musashi the warrior, the father, the artist and the man. I place this book on the top of the list of books regarding Miyamoto Musashi and his writing on Strategy as presented in Go Rin no Sho. It is a must for every military professional and devoted martial artists.

5 comments about Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life.

1. I read "Democracy in America" when I was in college and wrote a paper looking at how the issues Tocqueville discussed in the 1830s played out in 1980s America. My conclusion was that many of his insights still had amazing relevance and yet his over-arching analysis of how America functioned as a democracy was pretty weak. He didn't understand the Presidency and Congress and completely neglected the role of political parties. However, his thoughts about American character; the striving for material success, the triumph of mediocrity, our refreshing practicality, the tyranny of majority and most amazingly how America and Russia would one day become polar opposite but competing superpowers were still all wonderfully relevant to modern American life.
   
   Hugh Brogan's book similarly points out the strength and weaknesses of Tocqueville's work so I feel vindicated in my youthful analysis. As a biographer, he is terrific. He has studied Tocqueville for much of his 40 years as a historian but waited to complete this work until he could access much of the Tocqueville archives that had been off-limits until recently. I felt he got inside Tocqueville, revealing his character, his times and feelings with amazing power. He also gave a sense of his many close relationships. I knew how he felt towards his tutor, his parents, best friends and wife. Sadly, he also gives a harrowing description of Tocqueville's last years of illness and the man's relationship to his sickness which was both complex and naive.
   
   I thought he was less successful in helping me understand Tocqueville's intellectual process. He talks about him being insightful but doesn't detail how those insights came about. I also think he could have put Tocqueville's work into intellectual historical context; how did he compare to other great thinkers of his era? What accounts for his ongoing influence when many others have faded away, have become important as indicative of their age or how they changed the way people thought about issues but aren't worth consulting for how we should think about our world today. That quality is what make Tocqueville so special.
   
   I have one other quibble. There is no discussion of why he and his wife didn't have children. Was it because of infertility? Choice? How did they feel about this? I have to believe that during this period and in the aristocratic class, not having children would be a big deal.



2. This very enjoyable book is an excellent study of the very interesting French writer and politician Alexis de Tocqueville. Known best for his analysis of contemporary America, de Tocqueville is a notable figure in the history of political thought and a key source for the history of 19th century America. Brogan's Tocqueville is an essentially conservative figure. The descendent of relatively liberal aristocrats under the Ancien Regime, a number of whom were executed during the Terror, Tocqueville grew up in a legitimist household that detested the Bonapartist state and feared the radicalism that led to the Terror. Tocqueville, however, was too intelligent and preceptive to be a dogmatic Throne and Altar conservative. Following his famous trip to the USA in the early 1830s, he published Democracy in America, a case study in how a liberal society dedicated to political equality, property rights, and respect for law could produce lasting stability. Brogan points out well that Democracy in America, while about American democracy, was inspired by concerns about the role of democracy in France. At the same time, while Democracy affirmed a liberal vision, Brogan is careful to point out that it was a somewhat conservative version of liberalism and that Tocqueville did not really understand important aspects of American democracy. He didn't really understand the role of Congress and appears to have been completely clueless about the crucial role of the party system in providing stability.
   Tocqueville's failure to understand crucial aspects of the American democratic system would prove to be hindrance in Tocqueville's political career. Brogan devotes much of the book to a thoughtful description of Tocqueville the politician. More than anything else, his political career shows his essential conservatism. At times, his fear of unrest led him to support distinctly illiberal policies. Like many of his contemporaries, Tocqueville doesn't seem to understand the changes being brought about by the industrialization of Europe and to his last days, he had a fear of urban unrest and the nascent working class.
   Brogan shows very well that his last great work, the very interesting Ancien Regime and the French Revolution, should be interpreted in good measure as a critique of the Second Empire. Tocqueville's contemporary preoccupations clearly influenced the themes of his last major work.
   Tocqueville is often compared with Montesquieu and this is quite apt. Its clear from Brogan's account that Tocqueville's version of liberalism and democracy was one in the tradition of classical 18th century republicanism. He would definitely have preferred a society with democratic elements but also with institutions that allowed a powerful voice for a principled elite. This vision, shared by people like John Adams and even James Madison in his early constitutional proposals, essentially evaporated in the early years of the American democracy. Tocqueville was pursuing something that had really become anachronistic in his own time.
   Brogan writes affectionately but objectively about Tocqueville. This book is written very well with a nice combination of the primary narrative and enough background information to be informative but not over power the narrative.



3. He seems the unlikeliest person to write an incisive study of American democracy: a rather spoiled son of a French aristocrat of the ancien regime, and one who suffered from a sense of futility in his own life. But the amazing truth is the Alexis de Tocqueville was exactly the best qualified man to do exactly that. Scholarly, intelligent, a precise writer, de Tocqueville was the one to write an immortal study of American life that would become in time a classic. Best of all, he wrote his work not in his study, but after an intense journey through America itself in the early 1830s.
   Hugh Brogan's biography is an excellent study of this young author, and probably the very best modern biography. He uses de Tocquevilles' letters and other contemporary writings to illuminate the life and thought of the young aristocrat. And aristocrat he was, his father having stoutly stood by the French crown through its many vicissitudes (and nearly executed by the Jacobins for this). Young Alexis himself clung to the aristocracy until the turbulent days of the July Monarchy, when the Bourbons were unseated by the Orleanists. After this, the young writer lost much of his loyalty to the crown.
   Brogan's book is well written, and covers the political scene in France during de Tocqueville's time quite thoroughly. It is simply a book not to be missed about the world of this very talented young man, who proved to be so influential in studies about America and democracy in general.



4. I have been using Tocqueville's teachings in my college classes for years. However, it has been difficult to piece together exactly how his thought process came together. Brogan has brought this process together so beautifully in this book. Thank you.



5. Hugh Brogan brings to light on of the most careful and subtle minds ever to ponder the origin and meanings of democracy in American history, the fall of the Ancien Regime, and the the basis for much of what passes for modern political thought.

3 comments about The Authentic Confucius: A Life of Thought and Politics.

1. Confucius' influence has endured for nearly 2,500 years at the heart of Chinese culture, even though his light occasionally has been eclipsed by various political and cultural movements. In China, Annping Chin points out, he is simply known as "the first teacher."
   
   Just as the figure of Jesus is reinterpreted in each new age -- and there's vigorous debate among Christians and non-Christians over Jesus' life and teachings to this very day -- Confucius also is the target of continual scholarly reinterpretation.
   
   Chin points out that two large caches of ancient manuscripts that relate to Confucius' legacy, which were discovered in 1993, are sparking readjustments in our modern understanding of that legacy. Plus, after a condemnation of Confucian thought as recent as the 1970s in China, his influence is rising again in his homeland.
   
   In her book, she points out that, once again, Chinese government funding is available for scholarly conferences on the Confucian tradition -- an official move with complex interconnections to the current cultural mix in China. Ping has been part of all of this unfolding reinterpretation, traveling widely in China, examining the new manuscripts, attending at least one of these major scholarly conferences.
   
   That's why it's so important to select a recent book like this, published in 2007, in exploring Confucius and his ongoing importance as a spiritual and cultural figure. Books published in other eras spoke to other historical windows into his life and significance.
   
   Chin's work is respected among scholars and she writes with one eye on this elite audience. But, if you're a general reader in this field, you're likely to find this a very helpful book in understanding the "real" Confucius. Ping works hard in this book to limit her overview of his life, work and influence to hard facts attributable to original sources. In other words, this isn't a fanciful "legends of Confucius" treatment.
   
   This means that opening chapters of the book are a little challenging for general readers. In those chapters, Ping works through some of the more complex political situations Confucius faced as a philosopher-for-hire in the service of powerful rulers in his era. But the middle of the book opens up as a fascinating look of his teachings. Plus, Ping's accounts of his followers' distinctive characters and adventures make for flat-out fun spiritual reading.
   
   Her closing chapters look at some of the ways Confucius' body of work was used -- and reinterpreted and sometimes even abused -- in other eras. That's also a very interesting section of her book, especially for Christian readers in the West who are familiar with the many ways that Jesus' teachings bounced through similar waves of reinterpretation down through the centuries. This tendency to human re-interpretation of spiritual sages seems to be a universal yearning.
   
   This is an all-around excellent book for Western readers -- a superb choice as a book to help Westerners understand a major spiritual thread in Asian culture to this day.



2. A fine book on what is now reasonably thought to be known of the great teacher, Confucius. The author, Annping Chin, writes with clarity and authority on a still revered figure, whose actual life to most is lost in a mythical haze.
   
   People interested in China, ethical living, and governmental theory would profit from this biographical study.



3. Confucius, whose family name was Kong and given name was Qiu (551-479 B.C.) was a philosopher, humanist, teacher, and political theorist whose ideas were collected by his disciples in "The Analects of Confucius" and elsewhere.
   
   Annping Chin, who teaches in the History Department at Yale University, has done admirable and extensive research into the most reliable Chinese texts, seeking to make sense of the reconstructions and guesswork that has muddled Confucius' memory.
   
   But what can we really know about Confucius, who lived five centuries before the birth of Christ, aside from embellishments and conflicting stories concocted by his disciples? (Indeed, what can one know about Socrates other than what Plato (and a few scattered sources) reports concerning him, or of Jesus apart from what the Evangelists claim he said and did?). Did not Plato, the Gospel Writers, and the disciples of Confucius "put words into the mouth" of their heroes?
   
   Confucius often taught in baffling paradoxes that lead to various interpretations. Moreover, linguistic and cultural barriers may prove challenging for Western minds seeking to grasp the nuances and subtleties of his thought.
   
   In his essay, "On the Study of Latin," the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote, "A man's thought varies according To the language in which he speaks." One worries that "something is lost in translation" from the ancient Chinese dialect in which Confucius spoke, and wonders if the Western thinker is on the same wave length as "the inscrutable Oriental mind."
   
   A few of Confucius' aphorisms, however, ring true, as when he is reputed to have said, "Do not impose on others what you do not desire yourself" or, as it is sometimes translated (or paraphrased), "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself." Some scholars assert that Confucius' "Silver Rule" is superior to Jesus' "Golden Rule" ("Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.") Their reason for such a judgment is that what one person might want done to himself, another person might not want done to him! Confucius' "negative" formulation seems akin to the Hippocratic oath: "First do no harm."
   
   Confucius also said, "The superior man practices virtue. To be able to practice five things everywhere under heaven constitutes perfect virtue. [They are] gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness." Although, while serving briefly in the political arena, Confucius once ordered that a man be put to death (which, because of the man's criminal conduct, was probably deserved), the general tenor of Confucius' life and teachings is that of a caring and compassionate human being . . . and the world would be a much better place if there were more people in it like Confucius.
   
   On the subject of teachers, Confucius said, "Even when walking in the company of two men, I am bound to find my teachers there. Their good points, I try to emulate; their bad points, I try to correct in myself."
   
   No revolutionary, Confucius had a deep respect for the wisdom of antiquity, and considered his mission to help preserve the world from chaos and disorder. Teaching the virtues of benevolence and reciprocity, he strove to "keep the idea of the moral within human reach."
   
   A surprising result of Annping Chin's revelation concerning Confucius is that he was involved deeply in the rough and tumble side of politics. His plunge into politics was necessary, he believed, for to be "immaculate," one has be able "to withstand black dye." Morality, he believed, cannot be insulated from politics and society.
   
   Chin shows that Confucius was human, a man who made mistakes and could be duped. People did not always trust him, thinking his pursuit or the moral life was futile and Quixotic. Yet he persisted in listening, learning, and teaching the way of "the gentleman" and "the superior man." His lifelong pilgrimage was a quest for living a life of benevolence, kindness, and square dealings with others.
   
   Annping Chin studied mathematics at Michigan State University and received her PhD in Chinese Thought from Columbia University. She was on the faculty at Wesleyan University and currently teaches in the History Department at Yale University, where her fields of study include Confucianism, Taoism, and the Chinese intellectual tradition. She is the author of Children of China: Voices from Recent Years and Four Sisters of Hofei. She has also coauthored, with Mansfield Freeman, Tai Chen on Mencius, and with Jonathan Spence, The Chinese Century: A Photographic History of the Last Hundred Years.

No comments about Memoirs: Hans Jonas (Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry Series).

5 comments about Karl Marx: A Life.

1. Wheen tries to follow a current fashion and divorce the man and the politics. This is often done to Marxists because authors don't want to show what the theory of Marxism is. In the his introduction to Trotsky's autobiography, Joeseph Hanson makes a statement that could very well apply to Marx, too. "To make a truthful film of Trotsky requires taking him as a political figure, but not the kind characteristic of the bourgeois world of today. He was of a different kind-commited, like a great artist, to presenting a faithful reflection of his times, or, moe accurately, a scientist who has become convinced that the main problem facing mankind is to change the framework of our times, to end the agonizing epoch of warring classes and to replace it with a society built on the foundation of a rationally planned economy. He could be pictured truthfully as a tribune and fighter preoccupyed with constructing the organization required to win socialism on a world scale. To make a film of Trotsky in which all this is cast aside is like presenting Pierre and Marie Curie without their drive to discover the secret of radioactivity or the drudgery of fracinating huge amonts of pitchblende in order to isolate the mysterious substances, polonium and radium; or a "drama" of Loius Pasteur without his passionate interest in bacteriology and the painstaking laboratory work he engaged in against the advice of well-meaning friends who sought to persuade him not to waste his valuable time on chimerical and insoluble problems."
   Marx's writing on the Civil War In France and others show that he was indeed interested and active in the politics of his time. The Communst Manifesto actually grew out of his work with the international. Any revolutionary will tell you: It's not about the men, it's about the IDEAS. Revolutions, down-swings, life of a revolutionary revolves around the smell of a fresh print. The man and the idea become bound together flesh and blood, and to seperate Marx from his ideas is to cut off his greatness, leaving a messy bookworm in Soho, London.



2. If you want the best inside look of the man,Karl Marx, this is it.There are no weighty theories or politicial axioms edified in this cornerstone book.One book-example given is of Marx's young daughter,Eleanor,giving him a personal quiz.What is your favorite colour? (Answer-)Red! What is your favorite past-time? (Answer-)Book-Worming! etc.etc.
   Years later,after Eleanor got into a tense arguement with her husband ,she committed suicide.Gray-haired Marx ,the rebarbative rebel and Mary Burns the Irish red-head firebrand, had a son together,who later become an auto mechanic. -Yet,Marx was a sinecure thinker,thanks to Engles.Marx rather liked to play the part of the agent provocateur.He miasmatically smoked black cigars ,lazily reading the afternoon London newspapers,on his Soho couch. He was an arm-chair philosopher,and not an active participant in storming the governmental offices of repression.This book is the best personal portrait of a very complex and mysterious historical thinker .An excellent biograghy !



3. As the reader below observed, this book was a chilling read. Marx was a very strange fellow and this reading this book felt like surveying the scene of a car accident. It hurts to continue but one finds themselves so intrigued that they can hardly stop. For my part, I disagree thoroughly with just about every idea Marx had. Still, I thought it refreshing to read a biography of the man that objectively treated Marx as human first, ragamuffin later; Unlike the brief essay on him in Paul Johnson's "Intellectuals," which is meant only to slam Marx and infuriate the reader.

   I took half a star away for the a-little-less-than-constant humor (or so the author thought.) At first it was mildly amusing, probably do to its gauche inapropriateness. After the first few chapters though, it became a nuisance. How about this one? "Like another Marx, Karl did not want to belong to any club that would have him as a member." PUKE!!

   The other half star is deducted for a suggestion the author makes about three-quarters through, when discussing Das Kapital. He suggests that Marx did not mean Kapital to be a work of science, but a work of ART (he means this literally, not figuratively.) His evidence? Marx refered to Kapital as his "work of art" (my guess, this is metaphor). Also, the author argues, if Marx had already summed up the themes of Kapital in a speech a few years earlier (he did), then why did he write a 1000 page tome espousing the same ideas (he did). Honestly, with flimsy evidence like that, this claim looks utterly ridiculous - not to mention likely insulting to any Marxist or person who takes Marx seriously as a thinker. Enough to cost half a star.

   Otherwise, this book is an unbiased, humanistic read that plays just like a novel. Marx, of course, is a far superior character than any author could ever devise and in the end, my bet is that whether you love or hate him, you will find yourselves modifying your opinion to ambivalence as Marx (the person, not the manifesto) is much too complicated to love or hate.




4. I would not have imagined that a biography of Karl Marx could be such an entertaining and interesting read. This was. Much more has been written about the 'ism' than the man. This is a fascinating insight into his life, his poverty, his exile, his contradictions as well as his thinking.

   What was most noticeable was the remarkable loyalty of Engels - friend, ghost-writer and benefactor - who even became a stranger in a strange land (Capitalism) to help finance publication of Marx's ideas, often in the face of staggering procrastination by the latter.

   This is a very readable account of the life and carbunkles of one of the last century's most influential figures.




5. Let's write a book about Karl Marx which wants to talk about the Man, rather than simply about the Ideas. Sounds great, right? Except that in Wheen's hands, the relationship of the life to the ideas and the ideas to the life are brutally banalized.

   The opportunity to write a good biography obviously presented itself, but what we have instead is some charming personal biography by a man who does not grasp the smallest part of Marx's ideas nor any meaningful engagement with Marx's political activity.

   This book is so lame on the theoretical level that one would think that Wheen spent too much time reading old Stalinist schoolbooks on Marx, avoiding any actual scholarly work, such as Debord, C.J. Arthur, the journals Common Sense and Capital and Class, the work of Lukacs, Korsch, Adorno, Horkheimer, Rubin, etc. Wheen's treatment of the politics is less than worthless and mars his obviously generous sentiment towards Marx the man because Wheen simply cannot grapple with Marx as a whole human being.

   Instead, we are treated to tawdry discussions of Marx's 'psychologically induced illnesses' every time deadlines came due. And these are tawdry not for being uninteresting, but because we never get a sense of the juxtaposition between Marx the researcher (who happily spent a great deal of time in the London Library system) and Marx the writer who did not simply hate deadlines, but who struggled with the content and style of each line he wrote. We never get any sense of why Marx might be the single most influential thinker of the last 150 years.

   I gave it two stars because I do not see Wheen as intentionally malicious, but as merely incompetent. In a world where malicious intent and lack of scholarly scruple towards Marx seems welcome, this is not the worst book ever written on the man, but certainly not one worth reading.