Beany Goes to Camp Reissue (Beany)

Customer Reviews:

Funny, Sensitive and a great read.......2007-01-12

I recently discovered Susan Wojciechowski's Beany series and I love them! Beany is a believable character, with whom I think many children can identify. Often her worries and troubles remind me of things that bothered me when I was a kid. As a teacher, I plan to use this book (and the other Beany books) with my grade 2 class. It has a great flow, is engaging, and has many lessons on appropriate problem-solving and kind, considerate behavior without that actually being the focus of the story.

Book Description

"A beautifully written and definitive history of Baghdad...opening the doors to the old city and letting its secrets spill out." (Library Journal)

The "golden age of Islam" in the eighth and ninth centuries was as significant to world history as the Roman Empire was in the first and second centuries. The rule of Baghdad's Abbasid Dynasty stretched from Tunisia to India, and its legacy influenced politics and society for years to come. In this deftly woven narrative, Hugh Kennedy introduces us to the rich history and flourishing culture of the period, and the men and women of the palaces at Baghdad and Samarra-the caliphs, viziers, eunuchs, and women of the harem that produced the glorious days of the Arabian Nights.

"Superb...this is compelling reading for anyone concerned with the perils of power, the medieval Islamic legacy and the images that Baghdad continues to conjure in the modern imagination." (Publishers Weekly starred review)

Customer Reviews:

Great Introduction.......2007-09-05

This is one of the best history books that I have read. The best thing about it is that it reads like a novel. When you start reading it you cant stop because you really want to know what happens next, and most of the time I already knew what was going to happen!

Needed a few more details to make it perfect.......2006-08-08

Hugh Kennedy has done a wonderful job here of writing about one of the greatest dynasties in history. The history is comprehensive providing details about the caliphs, the battles for successions, their harems, the names of important men in each reign, and court intrigues etc., The book is very easy to read and at no point does the reader lose interest. In spite of breaking up the narration, of successive reigns and interspersing it with descriptions of court culture and palaces built by the rulers, the author has maintained a wonderful flow in the book.
My only disappointment was that the author did not provide more indepth information on 1. the famous libraries of Baghdad and 2. the economic and financial system prevalent at the time. I looked in vain for details of trading markets and goods brought in to Baghdad at the time and for any mention of the modus operandi of monetary transactions.
However, the book is still one of the most comprehensive English Language histories of the dynasty that I have come accross.

An Era I Knew Little About.......2006-06-07

So much of the study of history is concerned with dates. I can remember in college with cram sheets of when things happened. Mr. Kennedy doesn't write much of dates. He writes of people, people living more than a thousand years ago when our own western history was in a period we call the dark ages when learning was forgotten and the Roman Catholic church ruled all.

This was the time when the Shia and the Sunni were falling apart and beginning the conflict that rages to this day (In the morning paper a group of terrorists in Iraq stopped a bus or two, let the Sunni people go and murdered the Shia.)

This was the time that Osama bin Laden seeks to re-establish. An old glory such as Mussolini felt about Roman times.

For a couple of centuries a family ruled most of the Islamic world from Baghdad. For those of us more familiar with the antics of the kings of England there is a striking resemblance, palace intrigue, key supporters changing sides, murder, imprisonment, struggles over succession.

This book brings to life an aspect of history that few of us have heard before but which is increasing in importance in our time.

Fabulous history.......2006-02-15

I studied the medieval Islamic world a little in college, and fell in love. It's a fascinating age in which Central Asian Buddhists, North African nomads, Ethiopian slaves, Greek cave-dwellers, Persian aristocrats, Arab bureaucrats and a host of different cultures came together, mixed, wrote wonderful literature, and lived the kind of drama that makes history fun. But it's hard to find anything written about the time that isn't arcane professor babble or Islam 101. (You know, "There are five pillars of Islam..." Snore.)

Here Hugh Kennedy has written the book I always wanted. He wisely concentrates on medieval Islam's golden age, the early Abbasid dynasty, when Baghdad ruled a large portion of the world-and, even more astutely, on the dramatic stories and personalities of the court. Let's face it, you read about the Abbasids because you want to know how the slave girl Khayzuran not only managed to marry the caliph but to quell a military revolt, why her son Harun al-Rashid was immortalized in The Arabian Nights, and why the all-powerful Barmakid family suddenly fell from grace to prison and execution. Kennedy brings the caliphs and their families to life. He's up front about the fact that the book is about aristocrats, but the common people of Baghdad, the "pickpockets and sellers of cheap sweets" who fought back when their city was besieged, and the middle class who developed Islamic tradition dance around the edge of the narrative.

Kennedy doesn't believe everything he reads, and doesn't think you will either. He repeats stories-like the "harem intrigue" tales, in which devious women are blamed for various deaths-that are almost certainly not true, but tell us something about the people who believed them, and are still enormously entertaining. He also is frank about the same-sex relationships, male and female, that were a part of the era's culture, without the awkwardness of many modern historians. And he's smart enough to explain the geography-why southern Iraq could support such a fabulously wealthy monarchy, and why the Afghanistan/NE Iran region was so critical to the faraway Middle East-in a way an American can understand. Very rare for books on Islamic history, the book boasts an excellent map, naming both cities and regions-invaluable for a hapless Westerner who doesn't know where the major cities of Iran are today, never mind where long-gone kingdoms like Yamama and Ushrusana used to be. There's also a surprisingly good index (another rarity).

The book isn't flawless. Kennedy twice awkwardly interrupts his straightforward account of political events with fascinating chapters on aspects of court culture-palaces, poetry, science, and (my favorite) women's lives. Unfortunately, this structure means the reader learns about the palace Mutawakkil built before she knows enough about him to care, and doesn't hear anything about Ma'mun patronage of scientific research until long after he's dead in the main narrative. The last chapter goes into far too much detail about the depressing downfall of the dynasty, short-changing a more interesting discussion about its legacy. But all in all Kennedy does a great job, and I for one plan down to hunt down his earlier books.

If you know nothing about Islamic history and want an accessible introduction to an fascinating period, or like me know a little and want to learn more, I highly recommend this book.

Rivetting narrative.......2006-01-14

This purely popular tale of the Baghdad Abbasid Caliphate is a wonderful book, full of splendor and tales of the times of the Caliphs, the Harem, early Islam, the founding of modern Baghdad, luxury, corruption, bad governance, murder, passion, rape, affluence gone wild, gluttony, exorbitance, decadence and political failure.

The Abbasids were the first dynasty following the first four `righteous' caliphs(Bakr, Omar, Uthman, Ali) who followed the death of Mohammed. The movement of the capital of Islam to Baghdad symbolized the secular transference of temporal power from its religious foundations into a colonial capital of imperial Islam, after-all the region around Baghdad, modern day Iraq, then Mesopotamia, was a country full of Jews, Zoroastrians, Pagans, Assyrian Christians, Nestorians, Jacobites, Gnosts and others. Muslims were a minority in this land. Baghdad was a new city created to rule a colonial empire that was recently created. The empire that the Abbasids ruled was wealthy beyond belief, corrupt, licentious, full of slander, moral turpitude and court scandals. This excellent tale of this period doesn't really shed light on the modern `conflict' as claimed but it is an excellent fascinating tale, unfortunately it doesn't follow the narrative of Baghdad through to its destruction by the Mongols, but only to the replacement of the Abbasids by the Fatamids who rode to power on the backs of Turkic immigrant warriors from the east, see the book `black banners from the east' for a narrative of the rise of the Fatamids. If this sheds light on anything to do with Islam and modern times it shows that fundamentalist Islam's accusations of Western power, wealth and immorality, are mirrored in the actions of early Islam, which resembled the modern day west far more than modern day Islam, an irony. Islam in the 8th century was far from the fundamentalist form we see today, however there is nothing admirable in its use of Harems and slavery.

Seth J. Frantzman

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Informative Background on the Iraqi situation
Truly Different book on the War in Iraq
Iraq's Upheaval
interesting
A must read

The Fall of Baghdad
Jon Lee Anderson
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Iran | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Iraq | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1594200343
Release Date: 2004-09-23

Amazon.com

The press coverage of the second Iraq war was notable for the American military's program assigning journalists to be "embedded" with specific military units. While this afforded more personal coverage, the reportage was inherently narrow, missing out on the larger perspective of a sprawling and complex situation and telling stories only from the American troops' point of view. Such is not the case in The Fall of Baghdad, journalist Jon Lee Anderson's harrowing account of the Americans' capture of the Iraqi capital. Anderson was not embedded but on the ground in Baghdad and recounts the increasing anxiety and dread of Iraqi citizens as they try to prepare as best they can for a seemingly inevitable invasion. Not only were the Iraqis fearing for their lives, dwelling as they did in what they knew to be the largest target city in the nation, they also lived in fear of Saddam Hussein while he was still in power and so projected a facade of desperate optimism and unfailing loyalty. Anderson chronicles the collapse of this feigned allegiance and the Iraqi people's joy of being free of Saddam but also reports hints of the kind of anti-American sentiment that would come to deadly fruition in the months following the end of conventional fighting. Additionally, Anderson tells of the journalists covering the war, who struggled with the conflict between their drive to tell the story of what was happening and their desire to stay alive. Anderson keeps the scope of his book limited to the situation within Baghdad, omitting any mention of the larger political issues related to the war, which means that the book is not only non-partisan and highly focused but also incredibly claustrophobic, capturing the feeling of being trapped in a city about to be devastated. --John Moe

Book Description

For every great historical event, seemingly, at least one reporter writes an eyewitness account of such power and literary weight that it becomes joined with its subject in our minds-George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and the Spanish Civil War; John Hersey's Hiroshima and the dropping of the first atomic bomb; Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories of Rwanda and the Rwandan genocide. Whatever else is written about the Iraqi people and the fall of Saddam, Jon Lee Anderson's The Fall of Baghdad is worthy of mention in this company. No subject has become more hotly politicized than the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, and so a thick fog of propaganda, both from boosters of the war and its opponents, has obscured the reality of what the Iraqi people have endured and are enduring, under Saddam Hussein and now. For that reason alone, The Fall of Baghdad is a great and necessary book. Jon Lee Anderson has drawn on all of his reserves of stamina and personal bravery to create an astonishing portrait of humanity in extremis, a work of great wisdom, human empathy, and moral clarity. He follows a remarkable and diverse group of Iraqis over the course of this extraordinary time: from the all-pervasive fear that comes from living under Saddam's brutal, Orwellian rule to the surreal atmosphere of Baghdad before the invasion; to the invasion's commencement and the regime's death spiral down into its terrible endgame; to America's disastrously ill-conceived seizure of power and its fruits. In channeling a tragedy of epic dimensions through the stories of real people caught up in the whirlwind of history, Jon Lee Anderson has written a book of timeless significance.

Download Description

"From New Yorker contributor Jon Lee Anderson comes The Fall of Baghdad-a masterpiece of literary reportage about the experience of ordinary Iraqis living through the endgame of the Hussein regime, its violent fall, and the troubled American occupation. For every great historical event, seemingly, at least one reporter writes an eyewitness account of such power and literary weight that it becomes joined with its subject in our minds-George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and the Spanish Civil War; John Hersey's Hiroshima and the dropping of the first atomic bomb; Philip Gourevitch's We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories of Rwanda and the Rwandan genocide. Whatever else is written about the Iraqi people and the fall of Saddam, Jon Lee Anderson's The Fall of Baghdad is worthy of mention in this company. No subject has become more hotly politicized than the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime, and so a thick fog of propaganda, both from boosters of the war and its opponents, has obscured the reality of what the Iraqi people have endured and are enduring, under Saddam Hussein and now. For that reason alone, The Fall of Baghdad is a great and necessary book. Jon Lee Anderson has drawn on all of his reserves of stamina and personal bravery to create an astonishing portrait of humanity in extremis, a work of great wisdom, human empathy, and moral clarity. He follows a remarkable and diverse group of Iraqis over the course of this extraordinary time: from the all-pervasive fear that comes from living under Saddam's brutal, Orwellian rule to the surreal atmosphere of Baghdad before the invasion; to the invasion's commencement and the regime's death spiral down into its terrible endgame; to America's disastrously ill-conceived seizure of power and its fruits. In channeling a tragedy of epic dimensions through the stories of real people caught up in thewhirlwind of history, Jon Lee Anderson has written a book of timeless significance. "

Customer Reviews:

Informative Background on the Iraqi situation.......2007-02-17

It's important for all of us in the U.S. to know about this country that we've just invaded, for heaven's sake!! Good on the coverage of Saddam, and military affairs. Only wish there could have been more about the day to day existence of living in this country, from the point of view of an average citizen. Well written.

Truly Different book on the War in Iraq.......2006-11-08

Jon Lee Anderson has written a book on the War in Iraq. He's a journalist, like pretty much everyone else who's written books about the current conflict. The difference is that while most of the rest of the writers were embedded with American Army or Marine units, and so saw the war from the perspective of the U.S. military, Anderson was reporting on the lead-in to the war from Baghdad, and partly by choice, partly by circumstance, he stayed in the city throughout the war. This gives him a very different perspective on what was occurring while the shooting was going on.

The book itself spends a lot of time covering the nation of Iraq prior to the start of the war, and then has a couple of lengthy chapters dealing with the fighting and the aftermath of the American entry into Baghdad, followed by a very long epilogue that details the author's further adventures in the country. The whole thing is well-told, and for the most part interesting.

The author doesn't show much bias, either. He clearly despises Saddam and what he did to the country, and doesn't think much of the other extremist leaders there either. One interesting sidenote: he expresses considerable contempt for Peter Arnett, who wanders into a hotel towards the beginning of the book, before the war. Usually, the one person a journalist won't say anything negative about is another journalist.

I enjoyed this book a great deal. It covers the war from a pretty unique perspective, and I would recommend it.

Iraq's Upheaval.......2006-08-04

A well-crafted report of the unique milieu of totalitarian Baghdad. Anderson expresses a deep humanity in the stories he tells. Without grasping for explanations or theories, he writes about the people he met and befriended and his own experiences as a journalist. His eye for the richness of the particular lives he encounters makes the bleakness of Saddam's cruel and absurd system all the more clear.

interesting.......2005-10-03

This work depicts the reality of the latest Iraq war, rather than the hyperbole often used to sell and maintain the conflict. It would be worth reading if only as a vaccination against media that enthusiastically markets simple slogans in lieu of lethal reality. It stands as a prudent warning to those who think poly-sci term papers can painlessly remake the world.

A must read.......2005-06-17

This is by far one of the best books that I have ever read about a city on the brink of war. It delves into the sentiments of the people of Iraq, Baghdad and the Bathists....I really felt like I was there, at times it took me a few seconds to realize that I was in New York City in Central Park reading this great book and not in Baghdad or Falluja. An amazing read...in fact I have bought two more of his books.

America's Splendid Little Wars: A Short History of U.S. Engagements from the Fall of Saigon to Baghdad

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A fascinating overview of an eventful era in U.S. military history

America's Splendid Little Wars: A Short History of U.S. Engagements from the Fall of Saigon to Baghdad
Peter Huchthausen
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0142004650
Release Date: 2004-07-27

Book Description

From the evacuation of Saigon in 1975 to the end of the twentieth century, the United States committed its forces to more than a dozen military operations. Offering a fresh analysis of the Iranian hostage rescue attempt, the invasions of Granada and Panama, the first Gulf War, the missions in Somalia and Bosnia, and more, author and distinguished U.S. naval captain Peter Huchthausen presents a detailed history of each military engagement through eyewitness accounts, exhaustive research, and his unique insider perspective as an intelligence expert. This timely and riveting military history is Â“a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the nature of war todayÂ” (Stephen Trent Smith).

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating overview of an eventful era in U.S. military history.......2005-08-28

"America's Splendid Little Wars: A Short History of U.S. Engagements from the Fall of Saigon to Baghdad," by Peter Huchthausen, is a fascinating guide to a quarter century of American military actions. Starting with the S.S. _Mayaguez_ incident off the coast of Cambodia in 1975, Huchthausen tells the story of many missions: the failed 1980 attempt to rescue hostages in Iran, intervention in Lebanon in the 1980s, the 1983 Grenada invasion, the 1986 attack on Libya, activities in the Persian Gulf in the late 1980s, intervention in Panama in 1989, Operation Desert Shield (1990-91) and the 1991 Gulf War, the 1991 relief effort on behalf of the Kurds of northern Iraq, actions in Somalia in the early 1990s, intervention in Bosnia in the 1990s, and the 1999 Kosovo campaign.

The book is full of good features: logical organization, more than a dozen clear and informative maps, several pages of black-and-white photographs, a comprehensive nine-page bibliography, and an index. Huchthausen's prose style is clear and to-the-point. A paragraph about the author notes that he is a retired U.S. Navy captain, and that he served as an analyst of the Soviet navy, a submarine expert, and a naval attache. In his introduction Huchthausen notes that the phrase "splendid little war" was used in 1898, by a U.S. ambassador, to describe the Spanish-American War (incidentally, Theodore Roosevelt's classic memoir of that war, "The Rough Riders," would make a great companion text for this book). Huchthausen notes the irony of his book's title: "The U.S. military encounters from 1975 to 1999 were neither splendid nor small."

Huchthausen offers gripping descriptions of the unfolding events, both political and military, of each "little war." He gives historical backgrounds for the conflicts and also provides interesting analyses of the U.S. actions. Significant recurring themes include relations between the press and the military, the combination of assets from different branches of the U.S. military, and the use of unconventional forces such as Navy SEALs and the Army's Delta Force. We get glimpses of some fascinating personalities: U.S. Admiral William J. Crowe, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, Somali warlord Muhammad Farah Aideed, Grenadian Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, and more. In an afterword (to the 2004 edition), Huchthausen reflects on more recent U.S. wars in Afghanistan (since 2001) and Iraq (since 2003).

Yes, one can only fit so much information into the relatively short space allotted to each "little war," and at times I felt that the book didn't give a full enough story. Still, as a general overview of this era the book is very useful, and the excellent bibliography offers interested readers plenty more places to go if he or she wants to learn more. For additional companion texts that cover some of the same material from other valuable perspectives, I recommend "Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEAL," by Chuck Pfarrer, and "Inside Delta Force," by Eric Haney. Overall, I consider "America's Splendid Little Wars" a well-written and valuable book--in particular, essential reading for contemporary military professionals.

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Fall of Baghdad
Jon Anderson
Manufacturer: LITTLE BROWN & CO @
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SMY2VS

Muslim-Christian/East-West Relations Up To The Fall Of Baghdad

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Muslim-Christian/East-West Relations Up To The Fall Of Baghdad
Muhammad Hedayetullah
Manufacturer: AuthorHouse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1425996256

The Saracens From The Earliest Times To The Fall Of Baghdad

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The Saracens From The Earliest Times To The Fall Of Baghdad
Arthur Gilman
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Islam | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1417912480

Book Description

1890. With maps, many illustrations, a chronological table, and a list of books treating the subject. Contents: How the Story Begins; Creatures of Fire, Light and Clay; The Times of Ignorance; The Year of the Elephant; The Sacrilegious War; The Camel-Driver of the Desert; The Man of Affairs Meditates; The Month Ramadan; A Prophet with Little Honor; Fugitives in a Strange Land; A Twofold Cord Broken; To the Seventh Heaven; In a Cave; The Year One; Islam; The Sword is Drawn; Victory for Mecca; The Battle of the Ditch; Exiles in an Empty City; The Mother of Cities Conquered; How Taif was Besieged and Taken; A Farewell Pilgrimage; The First Successor; Can Islam be Shaken Off?; Reaching Out to Chaldea and Babylonia; Palestine and Mesopotamia Conquered; Jerusalem Captured; How Egypt and Persia were Conquered; Favoritism and Intrigue; The Misfortunes of Ali, Father of Hasan; The Tragedy of Moharrem; The Victories of Abd El Melik; The Glory of the Omiades; The Stroke of the Hammer; The Black Flag of Abbas; By Bagdad's Shrines; Aaron the Orthodox; Gold and Dross; Glimmerings and Decays; The Grip of the Turk Tightens; and The Fatal Blow.

When Baghdad Ruled The Muslim World: The Rise And Fall Of Islamandapos;s Greatest Dynasty

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When Baghdad Ruled The Muslim World: The Rise And Fall Of Islamandapos;s Greatest Dynasty
Hugh Kennedy
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSXM26

Baghdad Power Supply Falls Short Of Pre-War Levels.: An article from: APS Review Downstream Trends

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Baghdad Power Supply Falls Short Of Pre-War Levels.: An article from: APS Review Downstream Trends

Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from APS Review Downstream Trends, published by Thomson Gale on December 12, 2005. The length of the article is 528 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Baghdad Power Supply Falls Short Of Pre-War Levels.
Publication: APS Review Downstream Trends (Newsletter)
Date: December 12, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 65 Issue: 24

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Baghdad's fall.(Editorials)(With victory in sight, start building the peace)(Editorial): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

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Baghdad's fall.(Editorials)(With victory in sight, start building the peace)(Editorial): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR)

Manufacturer: The Register Guard
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B0009FYY26
Release Date: 2005-07-31

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by The Register Guard on April 10, 2003. The length of the article is 525 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Baghdad's fall.(Editorials)(With victory in sight, start building the peace)(Editorial)
Publication: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: April 10, 2003
Publisher: The Register Guard
Page: A12

Article Type: Editorial

Distributed by Thomson Gale

The golden age of Baghdad.(When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty)(Book review): An article from: National Catholic Reporter

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The golden age of Baghdad.(When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty)(Book review): An article from: National Catholic Reporter
Thomas Noble
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from National Catholic Reporter, published by Thomson Gale on October 6, 2006. The length of the article is 974 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The golden age of Baghdad.(When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty)(Book review)
Author: Thomas Noble
Publication: National Catholic Reporter (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 6, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 42 Issue: 43 Page: 8a(2)

Article Type: Book review

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