Book Description
An acclaimed journalist and novelist explores the legacy and future of American liberalism through the history of his family's politically active history
George Packer's maternal grandfather, George Huddleston, was a populist congressman from Alabama in the early part of the century--an agrarian liberal in the Jacksonian mold who opposed the New Deal. Packer's father was a Kennedy-era liberal, a law professor and dean at Stanford whose convictions were sorely--and ultimately fatally--tested in the campus upheavals of the 1960s. The inheritor of two sometimes conflicting strains of the great American liberal tradition, Packer discusses the testing of ideals in the lives of his father and grandfather and his own struggle to understand the place of the progressive tradition in our currently polarized political climate. Searching, engrossing, and persuasive, this is an original, intimate examination of the meaning of politics in American lives.
Customer Reviews:
Am I the Only One? A Colored Man's Review.......2006-12-16
I admire the liberalism of Franklin Roosevelt and company as much as the next person. I admire politicians who speak up for the common man. But am I the only one who notices how complacent and dishonest George Packer really is on the subject of race?
While Packer seems sincere in his goodwill towards blacks, the southern history in this book is seriously distorted. In what appears to be a misguided effort to make liberalism more palatable to "ordinary" white Americans, George Packer tries to whitewash the racism of his own grandfather, a mediocre congressman from the depths of the Jim Crow era.
Packer claims that his grandfather Huddleston spoke for the "common man." But he fails to examine the real ugliness of his grandfather's position. The vicious, lynching white men of Alabama sent him to Congress back in 1908. They allowed him to make his little chirping noises about "common men" and "Jeffersonian democracy." But all the old man was doing was providing long-winded camouflage for pure evil, for a reign of terror against black people. We don't need to revive the weak-willed cowardice of Packer's grandfather. We need to remember what his lying words really stood for, and who paid the real price for his success.
While we're reviving dead American heroes, why can't we bring back all the black men who got lynched while Grandpa Huddleston was in Congress? Come to think about it, what about all the black American soldiers who were killed in combat in the Spanish American War? Georgie Packer doesn't care about their sacrifice. Like most modern liberals, he regards all military personnel with contempt. In fact, Packer tells us with evident pride that his sniveling Grandpa couldn't even make the grade in combat -- he played sick, and sat out the Cuban war, stateside. (At least Hitler won the Iron Cross.)
George Packer, the modern liberal, doesn't bother to draw the comparison between his grandfather's shirking and the courage of black men. But there is a striking contrast between Grandpa Gutless Liar and the black heroes who served honorably under Pershing. That's General "Black Jack" Pershing, by the way. As in, he commanded black troops in Cuba. But you won't learn about that from lying little Georgie, who loves his Alabama grandpa but has no use for black men with guns.
While Packer condemns the social policies of the conservatives, and blames them for black poverty and crime, it is nevertheless regrettable that the only blacks in this book are either helpless "victims" or rude, ill mannered nationalists. Packer claims to have hated the Sixties, and condemns black campus radicals who were "violent." Apparently any black who raises his voice to George Packer is a public menace. He doesn't mention the thousands of black men who served in Vietnam. And he never acknowledges the lynchings his Grandpa allowed to happen with his blessing.
While he absolutely refuses to discuss the countless daily hate crimes his grandfather countenanced as a legislator, Packer makes a big thing out of Grandpa Huddleston "opposing" the war against Kaiser Bill. I can see why a lynching autocrat like Huddleston would identify with Prussian brutality and the rule of blood and iron! But I don't understand why George Packer has more respect for his yellow, gutless grandpa (who ended up voting for the war, by the way) then for the black heroes of the 369th Infantry, a.k.a. "Harlem Hellfighters." They weren't sullen, spoiled campus radicals, George. They were men. Soldiers. And I don't propose for our race to be cheated of its place of honor in this country because of fools like you -- or Grandpa Lynching Leghorn Huddleston.
So many real American heroes are trivialized or ignored in this hateful, stupid book. What about me, George Packer? I graduated from Columbia in 1985, and I joined the Marines -- as an enlisted man -- in 1986. You're my age. But you say you would never have joined the military because it was "beneath" you. Don't you see that your hypocrisy and elitism is precisely what's poisoning the liberal movement?
If you want to understand why liberals lose elections, read Packer.......2006-10-07
Blood of the Liberals is a near-perfect blend of the personal and the political. Packer's grandfather was George Huddleston, a Congressman from Birmingham, Alabama who represents for Packer a lot of the contradictions in modern liberalism: desegregation versus states' rights, support for the common man against bigness (whether corporate, governmental, or otherwise), and at the same time a belief that government is sometimes necessary.
Packer's father, by contrast, was a pointy-headed academic. He grew up as a shy Jewish boy and moved into the ivory-tower life after some time spent in World War II; Packer paints the war years as rather uneventful for the senior Packer -- indeed little more than a pause from his books. I felt a lot of empathy with the dad; I was the same way when I was a kid, and I'm sure that if I went off to fight a war I'd be mailing home to ask for books and magazines just as much as Packer Sr. was.
I also drew a lot from Packer's portrait of his father, because in that portrait Packer seems to have discovered why liberals keep losing elections. Packer Sr. was an Adlai Stevenson man -- Stevenson, the charismatic, brilliant loser. In a better world, Stevenson would have been our president, but in this world he lost the race twice. The term egghead became popular because one of the Alsops tagged Stevenson with it.
And ever since Stevenson, says Packer, liberalism has been dominated by rather bloodless intellectuals who can't argue persuasively against the bread-and-butter issues that let Republicans win. The common thread among these intellectuals, says Packer, is a love of abstract debate, and the belief that human problems can be solved by the judicious application of reason -- that we can all get along and solve our issues without yelling or fighting. That's fine and good, and as far as it goes it's no more modern than Jefferson. The Jeffersonian strain is one of the key strands that Packer identifies in liberal thought.
Where it starts losing elections, he says, is when the intellectuals start to take it over. Discussions shift from individual people -- this man lost his land, this man's family is starving because of government policies -- to larger universal themes like freedom, equality, justice, and the rule of law.
This adherence to principles loses us elections. It lost Stevenson the election against Eisenhower when he stood up for fairness and impartiality in the anti-Communist witchhunts; he himself was a strong anti-Communist, but he framed his beliefs in terms that Nixon could tear apart.
This doesn't play with the public. The public is more concerned with outcomes than with processes. If the public doesn't feel safe, it will not vote for abstract principles that seem to help their enemies. We could argue for civil liberties all we want, but Republicans will always come back with the argument that they're helping protect us from terrorists. When it comes to a battle between safety and our Constitutional freedoms, safety will always win.
This, at least, is the message that Packer seems to be sending so far. His diagnosis does seem spot on. And his delivery is just right: he cuts back and forth between an impersonal political tale -- how liberals have ended up in the mess we're in -- and a personal story about discovering his father's and grandfather's role in it all. It is at once autobiography and political cautionary tale. I'm amazed that he could pull it off.
A voice in the wilderness.......2002-06-19
How did such a basic, rational notion as liberalism turn into the favorite epithet of talk-show hosts? What happened to social justice? Where is the freewheeling spirit of the Sixties? These, and other questions, have haunted me for years. Not being well versed in American history, the seemingly abrupt annhiliation of everything "liberal" has caused me great puzzlement and distress.
Packer, in a beautiful amalgam of memoir and history, has written a book that has almost singlehandedly restored my relationship with the past and pointed my way to the future. While as a historical account it is spotty, and as a memoir it is sometimes dry, the heartfelt combination of these two styles has a vitality and immediacy I've never seen anywhere else.
His conclusions, while expansive, are also poignant, with a touch of desperation. In his consideration of the prospects of liberalism in this country, I am reminded of the Monty Python sketch about the parrot - "It's just resting!" - while at the same time I'm stirred by its undercurrent of optimism. His last few words ring in my ears: "We will have a more just society as soon as we want one."
If you sense that, like myself, you are a lost liberal that is trying to find your way in the world, this book is for you.
If you are a Rush Limbaugh dittohead who needs a clue as to what "liberal" really means, this book is for you as well.
George Packer is a literary and historical genius!.......2002-06-09
Words can simply not do justice to the rapturous "Eureka! I have found it" feeling I experienced when I found, read and re-read this timely, vivid and insanely insightful book. (Perhaps I should mention that I have been searching in vain for nearly two years to find material on George Huddleston Sr. written in the literary style of eminent historians Richard Hofstadter and Christopher Lasch which also serves as both a caustic critique and a dynamic defense of the very concept of American liberalism). Packer is a great writer! He surveys the modern history of the American reform movement from 1869 to 2000 in a penetrative yet highly readable style and the word pictures he creates both engage and enlighten the reader immediately and throughout. His highly personal depictions of his family lineage - including triumphs and more than a few tragedies - make the story so poignant and touching that your heart will simply melt even if you don't agree with all of his premises or conclusions. And his understanding of the broad sweep of history is astounding - anyone who reads this book will come away with a much more enlightened view of 20th century American reform efforts than they would ever get from a more traditional historical author. There are only a few flaws (which I will not detail here), but those should be arrived at only after thoroughly studying this absolutely amazing book. Blood of the Liberals is simply one of the very best books I have ever read and I recommend it highly!
A rallying cry for modern liberalism.......2001-12-31
I really enjoyed Packer's book. I'm roughly a contemporary of his, and experienced the same wrenching events that occurred in modern liberalism during the late 1960s and early 1970s.I'd just finished reading Roth's "American Pastoral", and it was great to follow it up by reading Packer's book.
Like Packer, my father was an academic at an elite university, and as a traditional liberal who voted for Adlai, he was shocked by what he saw during the late 1960s. On a personal level, I liked reading a book by a writer who likes the same authors I like - Saul Bellow (Humboldt's Gift), Christopher Lasch, Irving Howe et al. There is a passage in which Packer perfectly summarizes the thesis of Lasch's "Revolt of the Elites" - gated communities like the ones that dot my hometown in Southern California.
The only area where I would fault Packer's book is that he does not criticize the dogmatic, politically correct tone that liberalism took on during the late 1980s and early 1990s and which still haunts liberalism. What alarmed Packer's father was exactly that, and I'm afraid Packer only devotes one paragraph to it. Left liberalism has, I'm afraid, taken on a neo-Stalinist quality on some college campuses, viz, stealing copies of conservative campus newspapers which take politically incorrect stands on such issues as affirmative action. Liberals should decry that just as much as the depredations of the Right. David Horowitz shouldn't be the only one who claims the moral high ground on that issue. I don't know if Packer's father would be a neoconservative today, but he might have been, if he'd lived.
Aside from all that, I commend Packer's book. It is a decent, humane and intelligent work that says that there's still a place at the political table for liberalism, even for disheartened liberals like me!
Book Description
This digital document is an article from American Scholar, published by Phi Beta Kappa Society on September 22, 2000. The length of the article is 1776 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: BLOOD OF THE LIBERALS.(Review)
Author: Keith Gessen
Publication:
American Scholar (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2000
Publisher: Phi Beta Kappa Society
Volume: 69
Issue: 4
Page: 143
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
Is there really a God? Or does God exist only in our heads? Is the Bible truly God's Word, or a jumble of fanciful myths? THE WORLD'S BEST-SELLING BOOK ON ATHEISM is your front-row ticket to mankind's most enthralling debate. An atheist for thirty years, David Mills argues that God is unnecessary to explain the universe and life's diversity, organization and beauty.
This unique and captivating book rebuts every argument ever offered to "prove" God's existence and the Bible's credibility — arguments from logic, common sense, Christian apologetics, philosophy, ethics, history, and up-to-the-minute science.
Among the intriguing questions addressed in this all-inclusive volume:
* What, precisely, is atheism, and why is it misunderstood so thoroughly?
* If God is a myth, then did the universe appear from nothing?
* Does the meticulous clockwork of planetary motion result from mindless random forces?
* Do atheists believe that human beings evolved through blind accident from lifeless matter?
* Do the splendor and intricacy of life on Earth reveal evidence of intelligent design by a supernatural Creator?
* Can atheists prove that God does NOT exist?
* What about Creation Science, and the popular new movement to reconcile Scripture and science?
* Have recent scientific discoveries pointed to God's governance of the cosmos?
* Did Albert Einstein believe in God?
* Does the fact that energy cannot be destroyed lend credibility to a belief in eternal life?
* Without God, can there be a valid system of ethics or an objective "right" and "wrong"?
* Does religion encourage moral conduct and civilized behavior? Is the Golden Rule really such a bad idea?
* What is the meaning of life without God?
* When we die, are we simply dead like dogs?
* Did atheists suffer a trauma in childhood that warped them into blasphemous rebellion?
* Because of ubiquitous injustice on Earth, is an afterlife required to redress the imbalance, where evil is ultimately punished and virtue rewarded?
* Is atheism just another crackpot religion?
* What's the harm in a person's private spirituality? Does humanity have everything to gain, and nothing to lose, through belief in God (even if He's only imaginary)?
* Apart from the Bible, is there secular historical evidence of Jesus' miracles and resurrection?
* How do atheists explain "near death" experiences and medical miracles which amaze even skeptical doctors?
* Why should a tiny minority of atheists be able to force their opinions on everyone else by banning prayer in public schools?
* Since "there are no atheists in foxholes," have famous nonbelievers recanted on their deathbeds?
* Did Old and New Testament prophecies correctly predict events which actually unfolded during our own lifetimes?
* What about the Shroud of Turin and the discovery of wood fragments from Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat in Turkey?
* Does the Law of Entropy (or the "running down" of the universe) contradict evolutionary theory, which asserts that Nature's complexity is increasing?
* Is there absolute proof that man evolved from a lower form of life?
* Even if you believe that all life evolved from a single cell, how could complex cellular life originate without a Creator?
* Is atheism a totally negative philosophy, leading only to cynicism and despair?
* Does communism's past embrace of atheism prove that atheism is an evil and failed philosophy?
* Was America really founded upon Christian principles by Christian believers?
* What is the true, behind-the-scenes relationship between politics and religion in 21st-century America?
All of these questions — and hundreds of others — are fully confronted and methodically answered in the riveting pages of Atheist Universe. It's all here for you in one richly entertaining, comprehensive, and easy-to-read volume. Few other books provide such spellbinding inquiry and arrive at such a controversial and well-documented conclusion.
JUST UPDATED FOR 2006!
Customer Reviews:
Simply the best.......2007-10-22
I've read books on this subject before but I can tell you that this is by far the best, easiest to understand book that disputes the existence of a supreme being. If you've ever wanted to know what's on the other side of religion, had any doubts about your faith or ever wondered "where did it all come from and for what purpose?".......you should definitely start with this book before you read any other. You'll come out more knowlegable than 99% of all fundamentalist or any religion out there.
WELL ORGANIZED, UNDERSTANDABLE.......2007-10-20
Author David Mills writes with calm clarity that is rich with insight and understanding of evolutionary science. He pulls off the coating of misrepresented information and tells the truth with details. His prose style is easy and fluid. The reader is not overwhelmed with verbose scientific technical language. Most important, he does not apologize for or excuse the defenders of creationism for their sidewinding tactics. This is a refreshing read.
Not terribly interesting or informative..........2007-10-12
I picked this book up as a christian who is interested in maintaining a well-rounded viewpoint. I was hoping to encounter some interesting arguments or data to challenge specific points of the christian religion, but I can't say I really did. Ultimately, I feel like the author spent a lot of time dismissing Intelligent Design, which I can understand since it isn't hard science, but also ended up doing a lot of handwaving over his points of contention in general. Maybe I expected too much, I don't know. I think it's a worthwhile read since it's one of the highest ranking books on the subject, but that doesn't speak too well of the genre in general it seems. I appreciate the author's civil style and friendly tone, but ultimately I just wasn't persuaded to even reconsider anything, and that may make his attempt a failure.
Don't Waste Time, Read Dawkins.......2007-10-04
Don't waste your time reading this drivel. This book is so centered on the "dramatic" life of the author. None of his arguments are new or that well presented. Dawkins is more comprehensive, Dennett has more interesting insights and compelling arguments (belief in belief), and Hitchens will make you laugh and remind you that being an atheist doesn't mean you hitch your wagon to the crazy nuts on the left!
Very informational.......2007-10-03
I thought the information was so important I ordered a second copy for a friend who lives in the bible belt. Just the reference to the Treaty of Tripoli makes the purchase well worth the money.
Customer Reviews:
JIM JONES WAS A JESUIT.......2005-10-26
This book is an excellent book for the explanation and the indside happenings with the People's Temple/ Jim Jones movement. It's ironic that after the book was published, Jeannie, her husband and daughter were mysteriously murdered. By the Catholic Jesuits of course. Jim Jones was a jesuit set up to decieve and kill many. read this book and dont be as stoopid as this poor woman and many others who were so easily sucked into a cult. The only man in autority in the church is Christ. Not the pope, not Jim Jones, not David Koresh, NO MAN!!! Do not be decieved!
Superb!.......2005-05-02
I liked this book very much. The way I choose to praise it is to write down the text on its front and back flaps. I think it will help the reader to know if this book is what he/she is looking for:
"To look at Jeannie Mills, you wouldn't think that for six incredible years her life went haywire. At 39, she's both smart and attractive, a good wife to a good man, mother to five terrific kids... the picture of everything that'se right - and possible - in America. But from 1970 to 1976, she and her entire family were bound to a cult that finally became the story of the decade - THE PEOPLES TEMPLE.
"In the autumm of 1976, Jeannie and Al Mills filed a statement with an attorney that was both a personal catharsis and a public plea. It said, in part, the following:
'Jones has a power that operates in fear, guilt and extreme fatigue. While we were in it we did many strange things. We signed over all our property. We wrote and signed false, self-incriminating statements. We had to admit that we were homosexuals and that we molested our children. We had to participate in painful punishments for such minor things as forgetting to call Jones 'Father', forgetting to pay a bill, or for giving a piece of candy to a child. Some of the punishments were beatings, humiliations and medications that made people appear to die (later to be ressurrected by Jones). We were so frightened of him and his power that we would have sworn to anything he asked. We believed that he would always take care of us and would never harm us, even though we witnessed daily atrocieties that should have convinced us otherwise. It is impossible to explain the effect of his brainwashing. We do know that it took months after we left to be able to think and act as normal, reasonable people.'
"While in the temple, Jeannie and All produced hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash revenues - seha as head of the Publications Office, he as official photographer. They belonged to the prestigious Planning Committee. In late 1975, they left the temple with many of its most important documents, and Jones began a siege of terror against them.
"Throughout 1976, 1977 and 1978, they crusaded to have Jones exposed. They pleaded with the press, with public officials, with the federal government. They worked unceasingly to warn a public that needed the deaths of 912 innocent persons before it would listen.
"This haunting document captures the sinister means by which Jones took advantage of intelligent, but vulnerable, people. In 32 pages of exclusive photographs and in tape-recorded conversations, the unbelievable is revealed. America has never seen anything like it. And - to use a quote that Jim Jones admired a lot - 'those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it'".
God on Geary St........2004-09-25
I lived on the same street as Jim Jone's People's Temple, & I got a hell of a lot of warnings from relatives to steer well clear of the guy! Not like I cared--- I wasn't a Christian, a communist, or anyone even remotely susceptable to his message. Still, the warnings came. He seemed almost comedic in the news, in the Glide Church... then came the news of the deaths in Guyana. A week later a paperback was on the newstands in Safeway at Church St. & Market in SF. It was all very nuts. "Six Years With God" seems to be the most definative book... & the most lurid. What more can you ask for?
Shocker!!.......2004-04-11
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Jeannie Mills>>>
Just as I got through reading this story, and posting my first review, I searched just a bit further, and found out that this woman and her family were mysteriously murdered. How horrible this is!! It may have been a ex-member of the cult that certainly was not deprogrammed. Please, let us protect ourselves and our families from such a horrible experience!
Should Be More Than 5 Stars For This..........2004-04-11
Jeannie Mills, if you accepted personal email, I would send you one! What made me purchase this book was looking at A&E Biography channel, and there was a documentary about Jim Jones. I was very young when this happened, and even then, I could not believe that so many people would suffer this way, and revisiting this made me search, and I must say that I opened up this book on Wednesday, April 7, 2004 at 3:00pm in the afternoon, and I finished it Thursday April 8, 2004, 3:00am in the morning. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN!! It scared me, it opened my eyes, and it clarifies what I have believed for years, and that is that we have to pay attention to the message, not to depend on a man, from any religious denomination. This needs to be studied, so that history NEVER repeats itself.
Average customer rating:
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Briefly, Aquinas' Summa Theologica, (God) (Briefly Series)
David Mills Daniel
Manufacturer: SCM Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Philosophy of Religion
| Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Philosophy
| Theology
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0334040906 |
Book Description
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was the most influential nineteenth-century British philosopher. Highly regarded by many in his own day, his writings on logic, economics and moral philosophy have been widely studied ever since. His religious writings have received less attention yet were highly controversial when originally published. They have continued to provoke philosophers of religion. This is especially so with respect to Mill's ideas on immorality, and his dramatic posing of the problem of evil.
Based upon a study of Mill's intellectual environment, life, critics contemporary and subsequent, and the relation of his religious writings to the rest of his corpus, Alan Sell presents an invaluable introduction to, and exploration of, Mill's religious thought. Despite Mill's widespread failure to satisfy believers and non-believers alike, Sell shows that in his religious writings he raises issues of continuing importance, not least that of the appropriate starting-point for Christian apologetics. This comprehensive study represents an invaluable resource for students and scholars of philosophy, intellectual history and theology as well as for those more generally interested in Mill.
Customer Reviews:
Often insightful, but has structural and stylistic problems.......2004-11-12
This fairly slender volume is intended as a student's guide to Dante's COMEDY. When I reread INFERNO and read for the first time both PURGATORY and PARADISE, I read Chiarenza's and Joseph Gallagher's guides. I learned a good deal from both books, but I have serious doubts about the appropriateness for students or beginners. While Gallagher is immensely insightful, well-written, and superb at making Dante clear and accessible at every point, Chiarenza writes in a style and organizes the commentary in way that makes Dante somewhat opaque. I ended up reading Gallagher interchangeably with Dante, reading his commentary on each canto and then Dante himself. After I would finish the entire section of the COMEDY (e.g., PURGATORY), I would then read Chiarenza. While this method worked well for me, it is hard to imagine that many students would get much help from Chiarenza alone, or at least would not benefit much without knowing something about Dante ahead of time. This is not to say that this book is without merit; it is merely to say that it fails somewhat as an introductory work.
Some of the problem of the book is style. Although the difficulties of reading Dante are sometimes exaggerated (indeed, of the "classic" writers, he is remarkably immediate to the reader, especially in INFERNO), there are impediments to reading Dante-historical distance, changes in the shared cultural heritage, alterations in religious orientation-that a good introduction will need to address. Chiarenza does this, but in a style that frequently creates barriers of its own. She is not a especially accessible writer. One has to work at working through her sentences, her paragraphs, and sections. There are frequent insights into Dante, but she doesn't lead the reader into the heart of Dante as Gallagher does in his remarkable work. I want, however, to emphasis that the problem in this book is not created merely by comparison to Gallagher's: it is there at the heart of the work regardless of what other writers have done with Dante. So the first problem is that the book is not stylistically clear and the second is that it doesn't take one immediately into Dante's text. The third problem is that the content seems less introductory in nature but more general reflections on some key concepts in Dante. In the end, I think most of the book's problems are structural and stylistic.
Nonetheless, this book does contain a great deal that someone who has more than a cursory knowledge of Dante can benefit from. I think it would be a fine book to read when rereading Dante, and I'm certainly learned much from reading it. She clearly knows Dante's work quite well, and if she does not always write well about her encounter with Dante, the quality of the insights shows that she has struggled to understand his work.
So, I can recommend this book to readers of Dante, but I do not recommend it as a first work on the COMEDY. For that Joseph Gallagher's A MODERN READER'S GUIDE TO DANTE'S DIVINE COMEDY will remain the work of first choice. Bu for those familiar with Gallagher, they might want to consider looking at this work as well.
Dante's great spirit made grippingly compelling -.......2003-06-04
Being long lost in Shakespeare's genius, I've yet sensed that I needed sometime soon to delve even another 300 years back into literary history and bless myself with some appreciation of Dante. And yet, despite reading observations from numerous wise perspectives that Dante's insight, vision and creative genius were rivals to Shakespeare... getting myself up to sufficient speed on the historical, literary, and religious context of The Divine Comedy was too daunting.
Professor Chiarenza's finely written little volume has proved just what I needed to help inspiration overcome inertia. Brief background chapters offer an interesting survey of 1) Historical context, 2) The Importance of the Work, and 3) Its critical reception. Then she devotes a chapter each to Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. A pleasingly written explication of the complex dynamics of each afterlife realm offers refreshing clarity without overwhelming the newcomer. The author's ability to present the grandness of the poet's accomplishment conveys her love for the material without reducing herself to mere emotional gushing - offering the reader a sense of real reverence for this artist and his art that reminds me of Helen Vendler's ability simultaneously to inspect and respect creative greatness.
The spiritual height to which Dante reached in order to wet his quill with inky grace comes strongly through in this sensitive survey.
Although out of print at the moment, if found in a used copy, this volume will bless the reader who is open to develop or expand an appreciation of Dante. Highly recommended.
Book Description
2000 AD's ever-popular Celtic hero returns with a vengeance! In this full-colour, fully painted new edition of the classic tale by Pat Mills (Marshal Law) and Simon Bisley (Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham), Ukko the dwarf narrates the story of how Sláine came to be crowned High King of Tir-Nan-Og...
The people of Tir-Nan-Og, the "Land of the Young", have suffered for some time in the clutches of the Drunes, strange druids who have poisoned the very land itself with their vile magic. Sláine has had enough of their tyranny, and "communes" with the Earth Goddess to discover some shocking truths about the priesthood and his own future! Now Sláine must unite all four kings of Tir-Nan-Og to gain the use of their mystical weapons, as he and his Sessair tribe prepare for all-out war!
Customer Reviews:
Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03
The very cool 2000 AD loose adaptation of some Irish mythology, and other aspects of Celtic mythology. They take an actual high king of the past, and adjust him slightly and he goes on crazy adventures.
He is a bizarre magical type of berserker with an axe, undergoing fearsome 'warp spasms' in combat, turning him into something a tad on the scary side as he slays away.
Best of the current 2000AD offerings.......2003-08-11
One of the best stories to have come out of long-running British comic 2000 AD is Slaine, the ale-swilling, axe-wielding, trouble-making Celtic hero who wanders the lands of Tir Nan Og having all sorts of adventures. The stories were classics: a rich storyline, great action and some truly outstanding art by Mike McMahon.
This book is Part Two (of Two) of the Horned God series and teams up Pat Mills, the original creator of the Slaine series with the awesomely talented Simon Bisley. There were several earlier printings of The Horned God story and to my knowledge all of them are out of print and have become collector items of value. This latest printing splits the tale into two books, the first part of which is ISBN 1840234776.
In this story, the wandering Slaine has at last returned to his tribe, the Sessair to lead them as king. To defeat their dreaded foes the Drunes and their sea-devil allies the Fomors, Slaine sets out to unite the individual tribes and bring together all four of the great treasures of Tir Nan Og: The sword of the moon which can cut through any metal, the spear of Lugh which thirsts for blood, the cauldron of blood which never empties of food, and the stone of kingship whose test the High King must pass to be accepted by the tribes.
In Part Two of this tale, Slaine has gathered all the treasures but one and sets out to finish the task and confront the age-old enemies of his people, the Drunes. The rich, well-researched story and the humour that was so much a part of the original strips are all retained. Combined with Bisley's incredible full-colour artwork makes this the possibly the best of the 2000 AD offerings currently in print.
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PURSUING GOD
Bill Mills
Manufacturer: Leadership Resources
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000BYAIDY |
Product Description
This book will lead you along the path on which God develops spiritual men and women of character.
Average customer rating:
- Speaks to every situation
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God's Word for You
Dick Mills
Manufacturer: Whitaker House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
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General
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| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
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General
| Religion & Spirituality
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ASIN: 0883682737 |
Customer Reviews:
Speaks to every situation.......1998-03-13
I have a tattered version of this book at my bedside. These brief words from the Lord (Dick Mills is wonderfully passive, as he allows the spirit to speak through him), give comfort and hope in any situation, and are especially helpful to those who sometimes have trouble finding the comfort or even answers they are searching for in the Bible. No matter what I'm feeling, I am always amazed that the passages in the book speak directly to me, and bring me closer to the Lord as read them. Although I have read and reread it, the Lord newly speaks to me every time I open this book.
Books:
- Brother Number One: A Political Biography of Pol Pot
- Capital Mysteries #5: Who Broke Lincoln's Thumb? (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
- Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume One: 1919-1968
- Communication Circuits: Analysis and Design
- Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture
- Conversations with Gorbachev: On Perestroika, the Prague Spring, and the Crossroads of Socialism
- Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences
- Cross-Border Warriors: Canadians in American Forces, Americans in Canadian Forces : From the Civil War to the Gulf
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan: The Intellectual in Public Life (Woodrow Wilson Center Press)
- Day Lincoln Was Shot
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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- The Book of Proper Names: A Novel
The Assassins' Gate : America in Iraq
Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
Politics : Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004
The Fight Is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World
At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 (America in the King Years)
