Adolescent Portraits: Identity, Relationships, and Challenges (5th Edition)

Customer Reviews:

Adolescent Portraits: Identity, Relationships and Challenges.......2004-04-19

Adolescent Portraits: Identity, Relationships, and Challenges, written by Garrod, Smulyan, Powers, and Kilkenny (2000), is a collection of personal stories written by college students. The stories consist of the students' recollections of events that occurred during their adolescent years. This book provides much insight into the development of adolescents, while it also aides in the understanding and development of current theories. The case studies collected by the authors are excellent tools for gaining insight into the mind of the adolescent. The authors of the case studies not only narrate events from their past, but also provide personal perspectives as to why they reacted in certain ways and held particular concerns during their adolescent years.
"The way in which we view adolescence depends, to a large extent, on our perceptions of human nature and the relationship of the individual to society" (Garrod et al., 2000, p. 1). Current theories are independently and personally based on such perspectives. Before the authors present the adolescents' case studies, they discuss the various contributors to current adolescent theory. These contributors include theorists such as Locke, Rousseau, Hall, and Mead. By presenting the case studies, the authors show these theories at work.
The case studies are divided into three sections: "Identity," "Relationships," and "Challenges." The first section, "Identity," involves Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory, particularly the stage of "identity verses role confusion." Believed by Erikson to be the dominating challenge during the adolescent years, this stage is characterized by the need to establish one's individuality in the world. According to his theory, it is only after this stage is completed that the individual is ready to develop intimate relationships with others.
In the following section, "Relationships," Erikson's belief of obtaining intimacy only by first successfully achieving personal identity is disputed. Many theorists believe that intimacy may actually be a source of achieving one's personal identity. For example, Sullivan believed that the development of intimacy may be related to relationships with best-friends. It is in these types of relationships that individuals are able to experience, first-hand, how various roles and attitudes are viewed by others. Other types of relationships one might encounter during his or her adolescent years "include close friendships, cliques, peer groups and crowds, and romantic relationships" (p. 132). Furthermore, psychoanalytic theorists such as Anna Freud and Blos believe that adolescence is a critical time of separation from one's parents. Even so, theories maintain that adolescents have a need to preserve a close, meaningful relationship with their families of origin. The case studies that are seen in this section concentrate on the importance of the development and continuity of relationships throughout the adolescent years.
In the final section, "Challenges," the authors present a collection of cases about adolescents who are caught up in various challenges that appear quite difficult to overcome. It is in this section that the authors present the phenomenon of adolescents who grow up in extremely difficult, if not tragic, situations, yet still develop into healthy, successful adults. The challenges presented in this section are "(1) a severe stutter and serious sexual abuse in early childhood, (2) the emotional crisis surrounding an abortion in adolescence, (3) a journey from war refugee to immigrant to the United States and gradual acculturation, and (4) a family breaking apart under the stresses of immigration to the United States and the mental illness of a parent" (Garrod et al., 2000, pp. 249-250).
One might wonder how the adolescents described in the preceding paragraph might manage to live through such tragedy, yet still develop into "normal," healthy adults. According to the authors, "self-understanding is one of the more important aspects of emerging adolescent abilities for overcoming serious challenges" (Garrod et al., 2000, p. 250). It is only with this self-understanding that one might be able to live through such atrocities, yet still continue with healthy physical, emotional, and psychological development.
Though it must be considered that the sample of individuals who wrote the case studies seen in Adolescent Portraits: Identity, Relationships, and Challenges may have higher than average academic markings, it may be understood that it is a fairly average sample. Therefore, the cases presented may be assumed to be typical of "normal" adolescent development. With this assumption, the case studies allow for further development of the theoretical perspectives which are already presented. Furthermore, the case studies leave room for personal evaluation and introspection, both of which may lead to a better understanding of current theories as well as the development of personal theories.

Adolescent portraits: Identity, relationships, and challenge.......2000-06-13

I think that these case studies are a wonderful insight to the work done by the authors Kudos!

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Beautiful Yoga
Beautiful Photography Book
I am woman, hear me roar!
A beautiful illustration of the power of females
A Powerful Collection!

Shakti: The Feminine Power of Yoga
Victoria Davis
Manufacturer: Davis Designs
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Accessories:

Tanita BC533 Glass Innerscan Body Composition Monitor

ASIN: 0971558116

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful Yoga .......2007-03-10

I study yoga and bought this book at my studio. I love the pictures-- they inspire me as a yogi and they teach me form just by looking at them. I like the book better than many of my artist model books as many of them fuzz out the private regions! this book is about yoga, pure and simple, in the buff and captures graceful women and thier art.

My only problem was that the woman are all athletic and strong and make yoga look like it is only for the well built when yoga is for everyBODY.

Beautiful Photography Book.......2006-10-10

I love the photography in this book. It is powerful and beautiful at the same time. I started using yoga about three years ago to help me destress and relax after a good run and this book helped me reaffirm why yoga is such powerful tool for women. The women featured in this book are amazing. I only wish I could do the poses they are doing!

I am woman, hear me roar!.......2006-10-04

I am very much a believer in the power and beauty of the female form, which this book portrays flawlessly. The poses these women can get into are amazing, and you can see their joy and energy in every image. Yes, the figures are nude, but even if you're squirrely about nudity, the photographs are so beautiful and the representations so tastefully done that you'd almost have to be crazy to be offended by them. Besides, yoga pants and track suits don't exactly portray the awesome beauty of the female body.:) Definitely check this book out.

A beautiful illustration of the power of females.......2006-09-16

This book was an amazing gift from a friend who knew I was interested in posed black and white photography. I really enjoy looking at this book and seeing the amazing positions these women can achieve with their own bodies. For me, it is a reaffirmation of the strength all women carry inside them. Highly recommended for photogs, yoga lovers, and art lovers everywhere!

A Powerful Collection!.......2006-09-09

I have only been doing yoga for about a year now, so I'm nowhere near as strong and skilled as the women in this book. This collection reminds me of the beauty of the female form and inspires me to work towards the power and elegance of the models. The photography is all black and white, the perfect medium for portraying the complex and graceful yoga poses. They show so many different aspect of female power: strength, flexibility, peacefulness, joy, and sensitivity. I never get tired of looking at this book!

The Black Panthers - Photographs by Stephen Shames

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The Black Panthers
Offering candid and rare glimpses behind the scenes.
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BLACK PANTHERS
All Power to the People!!!!!!!
a Must have

The Black Panthers - Photographs by Stephen Shames
Charles E. Jones
Manufacturer: Aperture
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1597110248
Release Date: 2006-07-15

Book Description

In 1966, as the largely nonviolent Civil Rights movement swept through America, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale founded the legendary Black Panther Party in Oakland, California. Revered by some and vilified by others, the party burst onto the scene with a militant vision for social change and the empowerment of African-Americans. Its methods were so controversial and polarizing that in 1968, FBI head J. Edgar Hoover described the organization as the country's greatest threat to internal security. During the height of the movement, from 1967 to 1973, photographer Stephen Shames had unprecedented access to the organization. He captured not only its public face--street demonstrations, protests and militant armed posturing--but also life behind the scenes, from private Party meetings to Bobby Seale at work on his Oakland mayoral campaign. Shames was prolific and his archive of Panther images is the largest in the world, presenting an uncommonly nuanced portrait of this dynamic social movement. Released on the occasion of the Party's fortieth anniversary, this illuminating publication gathers an astonishing collection of never-before-published images, offering an electrifying visual history. Panther newspapers, posters and other ephemera help convey the ethos of the Panthers and of a transformative period of social upheaval for the whole nation.

Customer Reviews:

The Black Panthers.......2007-03-21

Stephen Shames' The Black Panthers provides some very powerful and insightful documentary images of the Black Panther Party. Shames served as their official photographer- and was actually close to publishing this book decades ago until convicted felon and Vice President Spiro Agnew told his golf buddy (and publishing honcho) that he best not publish any such book.

This book also serves to remind us how our government first denigrates, infiltrates and then obliterates any political movement committed to the direct service of its people and community.

Offering candid and rare glimpses behind the scenes........2007-03-12

While the visual study The Black Panthers could've been profiled in our Arts or Photography sections, it's reviewed here because no serious collection of titles on social issues and 1960s American history should be without it. The foundation of the coverage is black and white photos by Stephen Shames, which have taken nearly forty years to appear in book form. Shames was involved with the Panthers since a student at UC-Berkeley: his photos thus document the party from an insider's viewpoint, not your usual outsider's journalistic documentary approach, offering candid and rare glimpses behind the scenes.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BLACK PANTHERS.......2007-02-17

FEBRUARY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Recently I posted on my blog an article passed on from the Partisan Defense Committee protesting the recent arrest of some former Black Panthers for crimes allegedly committed in the early 1970's. Apparently, when the government gets you in its sights you are there forever, especially if you are black. That article got me to thinking back to the days when we of the white left were head over heels in love with the Black Panthers as the epitome of revolutionary manhood (and it was mainly men) and of revolutionary struggle. Well, as we are all painfully aware, those days are long gone although the goals fought for in those days are still desperately in need of completion. Thus, some thoughts about the ups and downs of the Black Panther experience, the most militant and subjectively revolutionary part of the black liberation movement of the 1960's, and its role in the history of black liberation is in order.

It is extremely improbable that the phenomenal rise of the Black Panthers in California, and later elsewhere, would have occurred had it not been for the tidal wave of the black civil rights struggle in the South in the early 1960' s and the various ghetto uprisings in the mid-1960's. The victories achieved in the civil rights struggle, limited as they were, taught masses of blacks how to organize around their own interests. That those victories were limited became apparent with the hardheaded and hard-learned experience that those problems were only the tip of the iceberg for the black community as the struggle moved North and West. This contradiction played itself internally in the black liberation movement and eventually caused a profound political collision between the liberal integrationist, pacific wing epitomized by Martin Luther King and the separatist, nationalist, self-defense oriented Malcolm X wing , of which the Panthers were the heirs. A shorthand way of putting this is the black liberation variant of the age-old tension between revolutionary and reformist strategies for social change. The Black Panthers throughout their rise and fall never did successfully overcome that tension, to the detriment of militant leftists, black and white.

As any photograph taken of the Panthers from the period would demonstrate the Panthers and particularly the central leadership, Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Elridge Cleaver among others were not adverse to little provocative demonstrations or shock-value publicity. The FBI, however, early on had other plans for them and they were not pretty. If J. Edgar Hoover saw the placid Martin Luther King-led branch of the civil rights movement as some kind of communist conspiracy then he turned apoplectic at the thought of armed black men asserting their right to bear arms. Since early slavery times that possibility had always been the fear of whites and the response was no different this time. Over a very short period the Hoover-orchestrated federal and state drive against the Panthers left most of the key leaders and cadre dead, in jail, on bail or in hiding, This was not the first time a perceived leftist threat had been deal with this in this way. One can think of the International Workers of the World (Wobblies) in the World War I period, the Communist and Anarchist `red scare' raids and deportations after that war and more recently the anticommunist witch hunts of the 1950's. With this difference, however, in the case of the Panthers there was a concerted effort to kill off every one they could get their hands on.

The repression of the Panthers became so intense that in many ways they became a de facto legal defense organization. That was quite a difference from the wild, revolutionary black nationalist days when they believed that they could go it alone on the streets with a cadre of black street militants in an American version of a `third world' guerilla warfare- driven national liberation front. Their nationalism initially alienated them from the black community (except, perhaps in their home base of Oakland, California) as until very late the ordinary black worker could not relate to the Panther political line despite the fact that even then the East Bay and other locales where the Panthers had influence were solidly working class areas. In short, they were looking in the streets not in the factories to organize the revolution.

The state repression also caused a shift in strategy as a matter of self-defense. However, the price the Panthers would pay for this was a capitulation to Democratic Party reformism through the vehicle of the Communist Party's legal defense organizations, which they latched onto out of desperation. I have personal experience of this change. A fair number of blacks I had known from various earlier political struggles drifted into the Panther revolutionary nationalist orbit in revulsion against Martin Luther King's non-violent strategy for social change, the incessant racism of American society and the barely hidden paternalism of the white liberal establishment and a fair part of the left. For a period in the late 1960's it was almost impossible for white radicals and revolutionaries to talk or to socialize with many Panthers, especially the rank and file. On more than one occasion I was either snubbed by or threatened by Panthers for attempting to argue for an integrated black and white alliance around a common program to fight the beast of American imperialism. Then in the very early seventies all of a sudden I was invited to various Panther support meetings and social affairs. Obviously the line had changed (through the concept of the united front against fascism) and now I was a comrade again

Even a cursory glance at the current American class structure points out that blacks (and more recently Hispanics) are heavily concentrated in the working class so that in order to be successful the struggle for socialism will have to deal with the fact that blacks will be a central component in the leadership of, and the struggle for, those goals. This is where the sad lessons of the demise of the Panthers between the rock of black nationalism and the hard place of democratic reformist politics is especially important. Looking back at the history of the 'sixties' black liberation struggle one can see little turning points where if hard communists had had enough forces they could have shifted the axis of the struggle away from black nationalism and democratic reformism. A working class program to break from the Democratic Party and struggle independently for a freedom/workers party could have gained a cadre. Do you not think that such a program would have not gotten a hearing from the landless rural workers in the South and the black industrial proletariat of the North and West? That, dear readers, is the ultimate tragedy of the demise of the Black Panthers. Enough said.

All Power to the People!!!!!!!.......2006-11-23

First off peace to all those panthers that are still living and fighting for freedom (FREE ASSATA SHAKUR!!!!!!!!). This book is awesome!!!!!!!!!! Has great historical value, unseen articles and never before seen pictures of the panthers. I was looking for a christmas present for my brothers and it looks like I found it!!!!!!! I love my people and my history and recommend this book for anyone who wants to enrich their book collection or enlighten someone in the dark.

a Must have .......2006-11-19

I've always collected books&things on the Black Panthers. the Panthers were a Powerful movement&they made a strong impact. this Book captures the Images&elements that made the Black Panthers a Powerful force. hard to beleive it's been 40 years since the Black Panthers first emerged. Props to Bobby Seale&RIP to Huey P.Newton. this Book takes you behind the scenes&showcases so much more. a Must have.

Speak Truth to Power : Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World

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Powerful and frightening
Excellent, touching reading
almost religious in its power
Shallow Treatment of a Vital Subject
Stories of important and incredible strength and vision

Speak Truth to Power : Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World
Kerry Kennedy Cuomo , and Eddie Adams
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0812930622
Release Date: 2000-09-19

Amazon.com

Anonymous wears a black shroud and a hangman's noose. Unnamed and masked, perhaps he or she will avoid the fate suggested in the haunting photograph that graces the cover of this remarkable book. Anonymous is one of the mostly unsung heroes interviewed by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo who are fighting for human rights in places where torture, imprisonment, and death are the side effects of speaking out against such atrocities as child soldiers, sex slavery, honor killings, and repression of political rights. In Anonymous's case, teaching Sudanese women their rights where a civil war is being waged by Islamic extremists could land him or her in a "ghost house" of torture, or, if lucky, in prison for an undetermined amount of time. In an age when heroes seem almost a thing of the past, these 51 human rights defenders demonstrate that real moral courage is alive and well on planet Earth. As Kennedy Cuomo writes in her introduction, these are the Martin Luther Kings of the world, and "courage, with its affirmation of possibility and change, is what defines them."

For instance, there is Ka Hsaw Wa, who, after hearing stories of horrific torture and abuse from Burmese villagers, took the bold step of bringing a lawsuit against the American oil company Unocal for using human rights abuses to further its profit margins. To protect himself as he gathers documentation, he travels the jungle in black clothes and has had to interview victims using only his memory for lack of pen and paper. Fauziya Kassindja came to her work through no choice of her own--when she fled Togo to escape genital mutilation she found herself shackled and abandoned in the U.S. prison system, and has become a force for change in both countries. Others have seen a need and filled it, such as Muhammed Yunus, who has achieved miraculous results in Bangladesh by giving small loans to those who no one else would entrust with money--poor women without collateral. The results have been nothing less than the transformation of the women, their families, and the political landscape of a nation.

There are also the famous here: Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Rigoberta Menchu Tum. Václav Havel speaks on becoming a dissident and the divine, while the Dalai Lama talks about compassion, suffering, and nonviolence. These are extraordinary people, and yet they are as human as the rest of us. As Oscar Arias Sanchez says, "One works for justice not for the big victories, but simply because engaging in the struggle is itself worth doing." An inspiring work made beautiful by photographs by renowned photographer Eddie Adams. --Lesley Reed

Book Description

Speak Truth to Power presents an inspiring rainbow of heroes from more than thirty-five countries and five continents. In searing and uplifting interviews, veteran human rights defender Kerry Kennedy Cuomo examines the quality of courage with women and men who are dramatically changing the course of events in their communities and countries.

Imprisoned, tortured, and threatened with death, they speak with compelling eloquence on subjects to which they have devoted their lives and for which they have been willing to sacrifice -- from free expression to the rule of law, from women's rights to religious liberty, from environmental defense to eradicating slavery, from access to capitol to the right to due process.

Accompanying the interviews are a powerful series of portraits by world-renowned photographer Eddie Adams. This is his first book, representing two years of crisscrossing the globe to make these deeply felt and insightful images of courageous individuals, including the internationally celebrated, such as Vaclav Havel, Baltasar Garzón, Helen Prejean, Marian Wright Edelman, and Nobel Prize Laureates the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Oscar Arias Sánchez, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, José Ramos-Horta, and Bobby Muller. But the vast majority of the defenders are unknown and (as yet) unsung beyond their national boundaries, such as former sex slave and leading abolitionist Juliana Dogbadzi of Ghana, domestic violence activist Marina Pisklakova of Russia, mental disability rights advocate Gabor Gombos of Hungary, and more than thirty others.

Speak Truth to Power is accompanied by a major exhibition opening at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., then traveling nationally, beginning in January 2001 at the Newseum, New York. The authors also plan a fully integrated Web Site as well as an education and advocacy campaign by Amnesty International.

In addition, a theatrical presentation, written by Ariel Dorfman, based on the stories featured in the book, will be performed by internationally known actors, including Glenn Close, Edward James Olmos, Sigourney Weaver, Alfre Woodard, and others, opening at the J. F. Kennedy Center, September 19, 2000.

Customer Reviews:

Powerful and frightening.......2006-12-27

In the interst of full disclosure, I have not read through this book in its entirety. Nor to I contemplate doing so soon. The perils faced by the men and women who work for justice are often too hard to read in large doses. The savagery of the human heart is grotesque and seemingly insurmountable. Yet men and women of good will, as beautiflly told in this book, find the courage and strength to look into the face of evil and tell it "No."

The stories are taken from all over the world -- the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. They tell of the lonely struggle of those who seemingly cannot stop themselves from pursing freedom and dignity for their fellows. The stories are simultaneously ennobling, terrifying and challenging. Why are we not all fighters for the rights of our neighbors? WHy are we so often craven and complicit with oppresive powers? Why are so few able to face and withstand the fire of persecution?

As I said, "Speak Truth to Power" is not a light read. But the stories are inspiring and need to be told. For this, I thank Kerry Kennedy Cuomo for her introductions and her selection of material, and to Eddie Adams for the stark and powerful images of the men and women who raise us as a species above the level of beasts.

Excellent, touching reading.......2001-12-28

I bought this book for the sole purpose of a class where I was required to do some outside reading. This book was on our recommended reading list. I read the entire book, only one story was required. It was astonishing how these people change the world. I was moved by these stories.

almost religious in its power.......2001-09-06

The stories and photographs are deeply moving profiles of several of the most courageous people in the world. There are few terms to describe the total power, since I turn to this work on many occasions to gain some inspiration.

For someone not immediately interested in the field of human rights, the work is probably not quite as affecting, as personal stories about those who are involved in human rights will be unlikely to move the unconcerned. "Speak Truth to Power" is essential sustenance for the converted.

Shallow Treatment of a Vital Subject.......2001-01-01

The people described in this book are true heroes, and their stories make me feel humbled and ashamed. But the book attempts to describe 50 different people. Each person gets 3-6 pages, and at least one of the pages is a photograph, leaving room for only a short, unsatisfying glimpse of each life story.

The flyleaf states that "'Speak Truth to Power' is accompanied by a major exhibition opening at The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., then traveling nationally." It almost appears that the story is secondary to the photographs--a pity.

Stories of important and incredible strength and vision.......2000-12-25

This is an inspirational and important book. The biographical portraits of the human rights activists are compelling, and their stories shocking, infuriating, sad, and ultimately inspirational. These are amazing people - prevailing against enormous odds. You read it in awe of the subjects, and their often appalling stories. The black and white photographic portraits are respectful, serious, and appropriate. The one thing I would change about this book is its "coffee-table-book" presentation. It's not an "art" book, there is intensity of feeling and action in its stories, and so is really too important to browse. In my view the big (and expensive) format invites a sort of readerly casualness that is at odds with the subject. There is outsized courage in these stories, but a surfeit of human suffering and cruelty, too. I wanted to be able to take it with me, and the size of this book makes that impractical. So I hope that it will eventually be published in a more accessible format. Five Amazon stars for excellence in all ways but that one.

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Well laid out book
Vaguely Entertaining....
Great for little girls
Very, Very Good!!!
Broad based overview of Queens makes excellent reading.

Ten Queens: Portraits of Women of Power
Milton Meltzer , and Bethanne Andersen
Manufacturer: Dutton Juvenile
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0525456430

Book Description

From the courage and beauty of Esther to the reforming spirit of Catherine the Great, here are essays about ten queens by an author who has been called arguably the best writer of social history for children and adolescents ever. Meltzer, by his own description, is accustomed to presenting history from the bottom up, but he takes a top down approach for these monarchs, revealing the personal and political natures of women who commanded power not because they happened to marry a king but because they ruled in their own right, by themselves. Or if they sat on thrones beside kings, they had as much or more to say about governing than their husbands. Most were, by today's standards, astonishingly young. Many were physically powerful, accomplished women. Some were schooled to rule, others not. But all were ambitious, passionate, and determined to hold power. All were subject to suspicion and envy. And all, in their successes and failures, ideals and compromises, assumptions and privileges, present interesting contrasts with the lives of women today.

Customer Reviews:

Well laid out book.......2007-04-30

I enjoy reading stories of women from pre-history to modern times so this one intrigued me, even though it was written for younger readers. This was a well laid-out book overviewing queens. Sequentially, it went from oldest to newest and spanned queens from 5th century A.D. to the 1700's. Each were from a different place and culture. This book was well researched and was easy to read. The illustrations were done well, giving it an air of mystery, romance and dignity. It's one that I'll keep on my shelves to reference when I want a quick, easy to read overview.

Vaguely Entertaining...........2004-03-29

(...)"Ten Queens" gives the life story of ten monarchs from diverse time periods and cultures, along with the effects they had on their realms.
The problem with "Queens" is that it reads like a textbook, dryly listing fact after fact. It would be perfect for a research report or biography, as it includes firsthand accounts and scholar's analyses. However, the entertainment quotient is somewhat lacking - as I mentioned before, I could read a textbook and be equally intrigued. However, Mr. Meltzer does manage to portray the personalities of these extraordinary women, and certain passages convey how spectacular their lives must have been.
The illustrations nearly make up for how tedious the text of this tome is. The colorful, barely abstract paintings add an air of fun to the otherwise stringent chapters.

Overall, I suggest "Ten Queens" for those wishing to pen a report/biography on Queen Esther, Cleopatra, Boudicca, Zenobia, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Isabel of Spain, Elizabeth I, Christina of Sweden, Maria Theresa or Catherine the Great, but if you are seeking entertainment, look elsewhere.

Great for little girls.......2002-03-28

I found this book at the library by chance. I was looking for a more books about Queen Elizabeth I. This book is a great introduction to women in history. It is easy enough for my then 8 year old to read for the Texas Reader's club. I am definitely checking it out for my 7 yr to use for her TX Reader's club requirements.

Very, Very Good!!!.......2001-12-13

I checked "Ten Queens" out from my local library to brush up on my reading of some of my favorite historical figures of all time- Cleopatra VII and Eleanor of Acquitaine.
While the book shed great light on two of the most famous women in all of ancient/medieval history, the author also brought to light lesser known queens. All of a sudden, I have a great respect for the fearless Zenobia, the corageous Boudicca, and, of course, the Biblical Esther. He has done an oustanding job of researching all of the queens and presenting them all in a favorable light (though let's not forget Christina's hypocritical ways, Cleopatra's love affairs, and Catherine the Great's promiscuity- for history's sake).
All in all, a great book worth the money.

Broad based overview of Queens makes excellent reading........1998-10-24

My nine year old daughter thoroughly enjoyed this overview of famous women rulers from ancient times to the 18th century.

Tibetan Portrait: The Power of Compassion

Average customer rating:

One of the most beautiful books I have ever seen.
A Visually Stunning Portrait on the Theme of Compassion
Pure feelings you want to share
Beautiful and Inspirational
The most touching portraits I've seen.

Tibetan Portrait: The Power of Compassion
Phil Borges , Dalai Lama , and Jeffrey Hopkins
Manufacturer: Rizzoli International Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0847819574
Release Date: 1996-04-15

Customer Reviews:

One of the most beautiful books I have ever seen........2005-02-18

This book was sent to me by a friend overseas, and I fell in love with it the moment I opened it.
Borges' photographs capture the very essence of these proud, wonderful people, and every person I have shared it with has falled in love with it as well.

Namaste.

A Visually Stunning Portrait on the Theme of Compassion.......2002-10-04

Phil Borges presents, through the medium of photography, a project that brings attention to the situation in Tibet. Both stylish and yet sensitive, Borges uses an extensive cross section of subjects to accomplish this. He brings to the project, like I mentioned above, an extensive cross section not just of subjects but locations as well that exemplify the phenomenal complexity and diversity in that country. An example is the portrait of Yama, which caught my eye, who could be any child in any place in the world. I might be waxing "noble savage" here but does she not deserve a childhood just like any child in the globe? With text from such notables as Nobel Peace Laureates like Elie Wiesel and His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso - the book is a sure hit and a must for every home. Not to be outdone are other contributors who themselves are "heavy hitters" in the discourse of Tibet and Tibetan issues - Robert F. Thurman and the late Galen Rowell. Phil Borges presents us with nothing less than a tour de force of visual stimulation coupled with profound text and a stylish presentation. A keeper that will stand the test of time.

Miguel Llora

Pure feelings you want to share.......1999-08-12

Each of these faces is pure incarnation of a human feeling...from joy to worriness, from amazement to pride.Some of these people will haunt you for long after you turn the last page (See little 4 year old Pemba's eyes...) Sent the book to friends overseas...just the kind of work you want to share with your closest ones.

Beautiful and Inspirational.......1999-02-05

Phil Borges amazing photography, accompanied by words from the Dalai Lama make this book not only beautiful to look at, but inspiring as well.

The most touching portraits I've seen........1998-12-05

This book is incredible. I am an artist myself and have seen more than my share of photographic portraits and none of them touch the quality of these. It is the kind of book you can look at again and again. There is nothing pathetic or dramatic about these photos, they are pure and seem to cut right to the truth of the subject. Whether the cause of Tibet is something you are passionate about or not - the spirit and life in these portraits will make you feel like you are seeing the soul of the subject and want to do something to help.

Changing the Face of Power: Women in the U.S. Senate (Focus on American History Series,Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)

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Changing the Face of Power: Women in the U.S. Senate (Focus on American History Series,Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin)
Melina Mara , and Helen Thomas
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Congresses, Senates, & Legislative Bodies | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation

ASIN: 0292709757

Book Description

They are America's most powerful women. The fourteen female U.S. senators currently in office have changed not only the face of power, but the exercise of power as well. Bringing women's perspectives and life experiences to what has been described as America's most exclusive (and exclusively male) club, female senators are emerging as powerbrokers in Congress, known for their bipartisan teamwork, compassion for social issues, ability to build coalitions, and use of unique tools for lawmaking.

This pioneering work of photojournalism documents all fourteen women in their day-to-day work as senators. Melina Mara's candid images show the senators attending hearings, meeting the press, greeting their constituents, consulting with staff, legislating behind the scenes, and sharing private moments with colleagues and family. The photographs capture the demanding, 24/7 nature of the job and show clearly that the female senators more than hold their own among their male colleagues.

Accompanying the photos are a commentary by journalist Cokie Roberts, introductions by Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), and interviews between veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas and all of the senators. These pieces address women's achievements in attaining political power and frankly describe the burdens and rewards of the office. The senators describe their motivations for being in the Senate, the challenges they've faced, the way they balance work and family, and the prospects for a woman winning the presidency in the coming years.

As Congress becomes a truly representative institution for the first time in its over-two-hundred-year history, the women who have been pathbreakers in the Senate well deserve this photographic tribute. Changing the Face of Power is at once headline news and a potent documentary record of a turning point in American and women's history.

Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal in the Court of Duke Cosimo I

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Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal in the Court of Duke Cosimo I
Gabrielle Langdon
Manufacturer: University of Toronto Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0802038255

Book Description

The ducal court of Cosimo I deÂ' Medici in sixteenth-century Florence was one of absolutist, rule-bound order. Portraiture especially served the dynastic pretensions of the absolutist ruler, Duke Cosimo and his consort, Eleonora di Toledo, and was part of a Herculean programme of propaganda to establish legitimacy and prestige for the new sixteenth-century Florentine court.

In this engaging and original study, Gabrielle Langdon analyses selected portraits of women by Jacopo Pontormo, Agnolo Bronzino, Alessandro Allori, and other masters. She defines their function as works of art, as dynastic declarations, and as encoded documents of court culture and propaganda, illuminating CosimoÂ's conscious fashioning of his court portraiture in imitation of the great courts of Europe. Langdon explores the use of portraiture as a vehicle to express Medici political policy, such as with CosimoÂ's Hapsburg and Papal alliances in his bid to be made Grand Duke with hegemony over rival Italian princes.

Stories from archives, letters, diaries, chronicles, and secret ambassadorial briefs, open up a world of fascinating, personalities, personal triumphs, human frailty, rumour, intrigue, and appalling tragedies. Lavishly illustrated, Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love and Betrayal in the Court of Duke Cosimo I is an indispensable work for anyone with a passion for Italian renaissance history, art, and court culture.

Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman (Power & Personality Series)

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Stefan Zweig, a truly amazing writer
A dated interpretation!
Was She Average?
Stands the test of time very well.
The Wicked Austrian Queen

Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman (Power & Personality Series)
Stefan Zweig
Manufacturer: Random House Value Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0517553422
Release Date: 1984-05-16

Book Description

Life at the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette has long captivated readers, drawn by accounts of the intrigues and pageantry that came to such a sudden and unexpected end. Stefan Zweig's Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman is a dramatic account of the guillotine's most famous victim, from the time when as a fourteen-year-old she took Versailles by storm, to her frustrations with her aloof husband, her passionate love affair with the Swedish Count von Fersen, and ultimately to the chaos of the French Revolution and the savagery of the Terror. An impassioned narrative, Zweig's biography focuses on the human emotions of the participants and victims of the French Revolution, making it both an engrossingly compelling read and a sweeping and informative history.
"Certainly no one can arise unmoved from the reading of this powerful work." -- The New Republic
"Excellent biography." -- The New York Times

Customer Reviews:

Stefan Zweig, a truly amazing writer.......2007-01-10

I love all the works of Stefan Zweig; even in translation, you can tell what a brilliant storyteller that Stefan is. In Marie Antoinette, you could almost feel pity for the unfortunate woman that fate so harshly dealt with the responsibility of a queen. The book is excellent in detailing the emotional stages of her life as a young child into womanhood, & all that she had to endure amid all the royal duties, gossips, struggles & fights behind the palace doors. All in all, an execellent book that I enjoy over & over again.

A dated interpretation!.......2006-07-28

As a disciple of Freud, Zweig was fascinated with the new psychoanalysis and applying it to historical characters. I think he overdoes it in his biography of Marie Antoinette, attributing her love of clothes, gambling, and partying to supressed desires rather than youthful vivacity, since she was a teenager, married at fourteen. This is a book that has outlived its time. Unfortunately, Zweig's Freudian interpretation has been imitated by other biographers and gives a false view of Marie Antoinette even to this day.

Was She Average?.......2005-09-14

I think the title should read, "The Portrait of an Average Woman's Behavior". I think one would find it hard to accept that Ms. Antointte was anything but an average woman of her time. Yes, it is true that her behavior was typical of an average woman, but she was raised to become a queen, not your average woman. Finding true love with a warm, romantic, and compassionate man in comparison to her husband Louis XVI and the manner in which she handled the affair are truly average. Her thoughts and behavior as the momentum of the French Revolution accelerated are those of an average woman. Aside from the misnomer, I truly enjoyed the information and the manner in which Mr. Zweig presented it to the reader. Mr. Zweig exposed Ms. Antoniette to the reader as if he had known her personally. After reading this biography I now feel that beneath all the hair pieces and hats, she behaved as any woman would have done in her situation.

Stands the test of time very well........2005-05-23

Dating from 1933 in its first edition, this book is part biography and part psychological analysis of the great Austrian Empress Maria Theresa's daughter who died a hated Queen of France. While both its writing style and its ideas - particularly its author's assumptions about the fundamental nature of womanhood - may seem quaint to the 21st Century reader, it's still very well worth reading. Zweig refuses to rely upon a number of commonly used sources that he has reason to consider suspect, and he approaches his subject with genuine interest that's refreshingly uncontaminated by awe. The Archduchess Antoinette, the Dauphiness of France, the giddy young Queen to Louis XVI, the maturing mother of the Dauphin who would have become Louis XVII - Zweig captures them all, and then takes us with him through this woman's terrible final transformation into the prematurely white-haired "Widow Capet" who mounts the scaffold. He writes her life with frankness that's remarkable, truly, considering the era in which his work was originally published.

The Wicked Austrian Queen.......2003-02-22

Portraying Marie Antoinette as an "average woman," as the title of Zweig's work provocatively suggests, is a debatable proposition. On the one hand, as Zweig shows throughout this study, Marie Antoinette was no prodigy: she was flawed, egotistic, intellectually limited and ... indiscreet. Her greatest passions were for clothes, vast flowery gardens, [fancy] jewelry and good looking Swedish men; she was a compulsive spendthrift; her political self-awareness was zero and her policy meddling was uniformly disastrous. Her indiscipline at court was flagrantly exploited by her political enemies - notably her jealous and ambitious brothers-in-law Louis and Charles (the later Bourbon Restoration kings) - who portrayed her as a modern day Jezebel. In all of these respects, her life was far from "average". But the "ordinariness" within, argues Zweig, left her ill-equipped to deal with the challenges of an extraordinary life.

Once the Revolution happens, however, Zweig's "averageness" argument makes a dog-leg turn. Under the extreme pressures of her imprisonment, her husband's guillotining, her separation from her beloved children and her state trial for treason, she rose above the "average," drawing on her Habsburg dignity and treating her Committee inquisitors with the contempt they deserved. In death, if not in life, she proved herself to be a true daughter of Maria Theresa. Even ordinary people can be martyrs, Zweig seems to be saying.

Zweig is a natural storyteller, and the fact that he, like Marie Antoinette, was Viennese gives him insights into her sensibilities and predilections. Another Viennese voice can be heard in this narrative: the psychological narrative owes much to Dr. Freud - particularly when we come to her early womanhood. Can it be, as Zweig dares to suggest, that Louis XVI's early impotence, and young Marie Antoinette's consequent frustration, fueled her shallow materialism? Was her scandalously profligate lifestyle an outlet for ... frustration? Did one man's "shortcomings" thus cause the revolution? And what of the bizarre Strasbourg ceremony whereby the newlywed Marie Antoinette was forced to [unclothe] at the frontier, lest the new Dauphine of France cross the border wearing foreign clothes? Surely an emotionally scarring experience? Her tale is a gift for the Freudian, and Zweig milks it for all it's worth.

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Much needed inspiration

See the art in this book

A gift of photography and prose

My Spirit Flies: Portraits and Prose of Women in Their Power
M. Cathy Angell
Manufacturer: Bay City Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0965545938

Book Description

1998 Small Press Book Award Finalist

Delight in this beautiful and empowering book which portrays women in moments of confidence, focus, passion, and strength. With its insightful photographs and inspiring essays, MY SPIRIT FLIES serves as a roadmap which every woman can follow to unearth her greatest treasure: the power within.

Customer Reviews:

Much needed inspiration.......2001-03-30

Cathy Angell has the ability to reach into the truth in each one of us. She is passionate about revealing the individual's beauty. Her book is a treasure filled with love and life.

See the art in this book.......1999-06-06

I enjoyed this "book," but I put that word in quotes because I think it really should be seen as art. Angell's photographs are, after all, a travelling exhibit. This is just the small-scale, paged version of the exhibit.

I have also written a more detailed review of this book at [online].

A gift of photography and prose.......1998-11-22

Cathy Angell, whose obvious talent for catching on film the empowered spirit of her subject, has given her readers a positive connection with what resides at the core of each of us when we dare to live life with *heart*. As I read the text accompanying Angell's photos, I was struck with the integrity of her book. Here each of us honestly can find something to hope for,something to pin our dreams on, and renewed pride.

Janeanne Narrin, Author of "One Degree Beyond: A Reiki Journey Into Energy Medicine"

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