No comments about The Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell: The Private Years, 1884-1914 (Selected Letters of Bertrand Russell).

1 comments about Descartes, Bacon, and Modern Philosophy (World of Philosophy).

1. It wil open your mind and your eyes to a whole new world. The concepts in this book is what modern philosophy is based on! It is as painful as a root canal to read but if you can read a fully comprehend the concepts you have achived more than you can ever imagine. I was truly blown away!

No comments about Nietzsche and Jewish Culture.

1 comments about My Search for Bill W.: Biography.

1. From a recovery point of view, this book will not change your program or anything. It's one of those quick knock-offs that someone did when they needed money. I liked Mel B's work on "Pass It On" and the book about Ebby, but she really sold short on this one. You could simply read the chapter titles in this book and you've read the whole thing. And while vaguely illustrating her points, Mel wanders off into conjecture and personal opinion, and admits that's what she's doing!

No comments about Nostradamus: Sus Secretos Descubiertos.

No comments about On Fodor (Wadsworth Philosophers Series).

5 comments about Heidegger in 90 Minutes: Library Edition (Philosophers in 90 Minutes) (Philosophers in 90 Minutes).

1. If you are not familiar with Chalmers Johnson, maybe it is time you were. He has been a sharp critic and scholar of United States politics and history for most of his life and he takes the bush administration to task over their many errors and misjudgments over the past seven years. He is specific, exacting, and does not miss a beat.
   
   In "Nemesis" Johnson takes on U.S. hegemony and its modern imperialistic manifestations. He chillingly compares the United States to those last "glory days" of Rome, and he also examines British imperialism, all of this helping to put modern U.S. imperialism in persepctive.
   
   And perspective is powerful in this regard. For example, while the U.S. now has hundreds of military bases on this planet, Rome and the British had like only 49 or 50 or so at their peak. Needless to say, Johnson talks about the horrendous costs of this imperialism. We have borrowed into our great grandchildren's future just to pretend to pay for this extravagant hegemony.
   
   After September 11th, 2001, I purchased Johnson's book "Blowback" which came out before the WTC towers were hit. Like many researchers on this controversial topic, I grabbed that book thinking I would find the golden link between how we perceive ourselves as a powerful and righteous nation ("American exceptionalism"), and how we are actually viewed by the rest of the world.
   
   The concept of blowback has many hidden aspects to it, however, and it is never really that simple, says Johnson. All the same, I smelled, tasted and sensed a connection between this concept "blowback" and how the third world in particular now views the U.S.
   
   "Nemesis" details the unraveling of Empire (U.S.) from beginning to end, using the history of past events which can be woven into and connected to today's globally critical challenges.
   
   Short Story with Chalmers: He gives real examples and details them out, showing connections between everything he touches. He is easy to read, and I cannot emphasize enough how exacting and conscientious he is.



2. According to Chalmers Johnson a country can have constitutional government or an empire, but not both. Using England post WWII giving up her empire, and Rome giving way to rule by Caesar. Johnson makes a strong case for why America has now reached the tipping point between the two.



3. "Nemesis" is the last book in Chalmers Johnson's inadvertent trilogy.
   
   It is a critical examination of U.S. foreign policy and particularly the G.W. Bush mistakes. Mr. Johnson exposes the starkly unsuccessful record of our interventionist forays into foreign countries. The result is usually not a democracy, but a dictatorship.
   
   The concept of Command Responsibility-the doctrine that a military commander is legally liable for all abuses and atrocities by his troops whether he knows about them or not is interesting considering recent U.S. history. The author provides a history of the application of the concept and how far up the chain of command that it can go.
   
   There is a lesson on the Roman Empire and it's transformation over time form a democracy to a military dictatorship contrasted with the British Empire and how their democracy survived because of decreasing their military size and reach.
   
   The costly, clandestine, illegal ventures of Charlie Wilson are used as an example of "off the books" CIA activities. The author describes some of Clinton's experiences with the CIA and his mistrust of their intelligence information.
   
   The Council of Europe's report on illegal CIA "renditions" as an international violation of human rights was sobering. How many citizens are aware of these operations?
   
   Another subject that was enlightening is the critical view of Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA) from the host country's vantage point. The alarming rate of increase in the 90's of these agreements further validates the author's point of American imperialism/empire building.
   
   Chalmers Johnson detailed the military-industrial complex's profit at taxpayers' expense on SDI(Star Wars space defense shield) and how it all too predictably evolved into an equally wasteful space weapons plan. The ridiculous idea that the United States "is an attractive candidate for a 'space Pearl Harbor'" is further evidence of the use of the fear-mongering
   to precipitate funding for another absurd weapons program.
   
   "Nemesis" spotlights the battle for secrecy that is all too obvious with Bush II. The actions regarding the FOIA by Cheney and Rumsfeld in the Ford Admninistration are not surprising.
   "In theory, given our Constitution, we should not need a Freedom of Information Action."-page 245.
   
   The Bush "signing statements" are aptly described as illegal line-item vetoes.
   
   "Nemesis" drives home the point that all empires eventually over-extend themselves and face a harsh choice for survival. Remain a military dictatorship like Rome and pass from the world scene or sacrifice military global dominance for survival as a democracy. Right now U.S. foreign policy emphasizes global dominance rather than national defense.
   
   Chalmers Johnson is the best author on foreign policy I have read to date. I highly recommend his books.



4. Chalmers Johnson is one of America's greatest heroes for writing INFORMATIVE books that display his critical thinking. We must know what is going on with our American country and we must understand that the mainstream media is part of the empire umbrella. (For example, if you saw the movie, Charlie Wilson's War, you'll be intrigued to learn of the REAL Charlie Wilson in Chalmers' book). What struck me first and foremost as I was reading this book is the insight and intelligence Chalmers has about his subject. He informs us of some incredible facts, such as: The U S spends more on its armed forces than all other nations on earth combined, and that the U S has military bases in more than 130 countries! A critical thinker must ask him/herself why this is so. These are very important facts when reading political books about our United States of America because they help us to understand what is really going on, as explained in the book, Don't Weep for Me, America: How Democracy in America Became the Prince (While We Slept) Chalmers explains the relationship between big American corporations, such as ITT and the U S Government, and how the President's private army the CIA factors in. Chalmers discusses the 9/11 Commission and says, "...the fix was in..." And then in gutsy investigative detail, he says, "The Senate Intelligence Committee, the 9/11 Commission, and the CIA's Iraq Survey Group, under Charles Duelfer, all reported that the CIA's intelligence on Iraqi WMD was largely fictitious. Even more dangerous for the White House, these reports suggested that much of this intelligence had been manufactured by neoconservative officials in the Pentagon long eager to invade Iraq." But Chalmers doesn't stop there. He gives a very brief historical context for such governmental subversion by writing, "at the apex of those who profited from British-style "free trade" at the end of the nineteenth century was the Rothschild Bank, then by far the world's largest financial institution with total assets of around forty-one million pounds sterling. It profited enormously from the wars-some seventy-two of them-during Queen Vicotria's reign and financied such exploiters of Africa as Cecil Rhodes"-see my review: Rhodes: Race for Africa. It can't be easy to inform the American public of such an evil government without crossing the line of "unacceptability". Chalmers Johnson is brilliant in his scope and his scholarship. Read him and you'll understand why Tocqueville wrote in his "Democracy in America" in 1835 that civilization has perfected despotism. And then you'll understand Chalmers subtitle: "The Last Days of the American Republic".



5. Nemesis (2006) is the final book in Johnson's trilogy, following Blowback in 2000, and The Sorrows of Empire in 2004. It is a warning call to Americans in our interdependent world that our foreign policy actions have consequences, and that we cannot continue to guide our destiny through aggressive use of military power. Nemesis is well researched with scores of citations. It poses alarming questions, such as: 1) is our political system capable of saving the US in the face of the DOD and unaccountable government spending? and 2) What are the effects of having the US maintain so many bases in foreign lands? and 3) Is "military Keynesianism" a sustainable policy?
   
   Johnson draws some historical lessons from the empires of Rome, which tried to maintain a far flung empire but eventually lost its government, and Britain, which gave up its distributed empire for the benefit of more robustly sustaining England. He devotes a chapter examining the CIA as an agency of foreign policy and the effects of US military bases in foreign countries. He has many surprising facts, such as there are more people of Lebanese descent in Brazil than in Lebanon, and that post WWII Japanese pacifism is a fiction.
   
   Johnson considers space the next battleground and describes the currently deployed ground-based missile defense as a `dual use' system with the potential offensive purpose of shooting down satellites. Johnson's description of the future battleground of space is quite thought provoking and alarming, whatever your attitudes about the efficacy of military preparedness and the use of force. He points out the collateral damage likely during earth orbit warfare will have detrimental consequences for everyone, as the debris clouds will affect all communication satellites. Johnson states that our government operating in shadows of secrecy is not what the Constitutional framers intended, and the public should have access to information about the activities of our government.
   
   This book is depressing in its hard-edged assessments of the future of the US, and is a signal alarm to that it may already be too late influence a more secure and sustainable nation for successive generations.

No comments about Roger Bacon's Life And Work.

3 comments about Orestes Brownson: Sign of Contradiction.

1. Orestes Brownson was one of the most original, and eccentric, American philosophers of the 19th century. It has been his unfortunate fate to slide into obscurity in the 20th century. Now he has been brought to vibrant life in sn excellent new study of his life and works by R.A. Herrera. The strength of this book lies in its interweaving of Brownson's life and thought, taking care not to tip the scales in favor of either. The importance of this method cannot be stressed enough because of the obscurity into which Brownson has fallen. Herrera is not out to rehabilitate Brownson; far from it. But he does provide an insightful new look at this iconoclastic thinker who was always swimming against the intellectual tides of his times. Highly recommended.



2. Orestes Brownson was a writer, philosopher,and cultural critic. He was also an Catholic during a period in this country when it was not publically orthodox to be a Catholic. Never more than an intellectual gadfly to begin with, Brownson's intellectual star faded soon after his death and he entered a sort of intellectual purgatory, becoming the subject for obscure Ph.D theses and academic biographers in search of a subject no one else had tackled. Now Brownson is brought back to life in a rather charming portrait by, all of people, a fellow teaching alumni. Orestes Brownson had taught at Seton Hall University, in New Jersey, for a brief period of his life, as did his current biographer, Robert Herrera. Perhaps it's the Seton Hall connection that's responsible, but Herrera does a nice job of breathing life back into the old boy and letting us see him warts and all. Instead of conforming Brownson to his image, Herrera instread conforms to Brownson's image and what emerges is a full, rich portrait of both the man and his times, of the critic and the subject of his criticism. Another selling point for this book, besides its brevity (Why do academics feel they have to give us every nugget of their subject's life?), is its refusal to bend to the politically correct winds that currently constitue the Public Orthodoxy of our squalid intellectual times. If you love American intellectual history (and, no, that is not an oxymoron), you will love this charming little tome.



3. This little book has the same problem as much of the materialcoming out of academia these days. All complexity and jargon, and noability to tell a story or relate the insights to the broader, contemporary flow of ideas at the time our subject lived. Where a simple word would suffice, Herrera uses arcane words that often leave you grabbing for a dictionary. More importantly, however, we get mostly opinions from the author, and after having slogged through 200 pages, know very little about Orestes Brownson, and his times. I learned more about Brownson's thinking from two short extracts of his writings from a primary source book on religion in America, then I did in this entire work. Instead of decent quotes from his writings, and other primary sources, we unfortunately are fed repetitive blather, and sketchy analysis about Orestes' often changed views, his contradictions (to wit the title), and the usual overly critical analysis from today's modern scholars. My copy of this rather expensive little book... is now being contributed to my local library. Otherwise, it would have ended up in the wastepaper basket. A much wiser investment would be to obtain a synopsis of Brownson's actual writings even if the cost was more than this overpraised book as contained in the other reviews.

3 comments about Isaiah Berlin - Selected Letters 1928-1946.

1. If you are interested in Isaiah Berlin, and in understanding his roots and evolution, this is the book for you. These letters cover the period of 1928-1946, and deal with some very fascinating topics such as Oxford in the 1930's, Berlin's service in Washington and New York during World War II, and a cast of well known British, Continental and American characters. The collection is immeasurably enhanced by yet another superb job of editing by Henry Hardy, including an extended preface, extensive notes and a biographical directory which save the American reader from becoming too lost. But Berlin being Berlin, the letters are sometimes overly long, may deal with mundate topics, can be maddeningly repetitive, or lose one in the intricacies of Oxford and the academic life. Berlin is absolutely unrestrained in his comments, both pro and con, since these were meant to be private letters, and his views of some fellow academics can be devastating. However, he can positively support some individuals, such as H.L.A. Hart whose initial appointment as Fellow and Philosophy Tutor at New College Berlin strongly advocated. The book is dedicated to Hart's wife who provided indispensable assistance to Hardy in putting all this material together. As the letters illustrate, Berlin's prolonged struggle in writing his book on Karl Marx goes a long way toward explaining why his book output was so limited and he preferred to express his thinking in essays. This first volume concludes when Berlin is 37 and has returned to Oxford. By this point in the letters, one begins to have a very solid grasp of Berlin's character, interests, interactions, and ambitions. "Berlin on Berlin" is beyond question the best way to come to know and understand him.



2. Few philosophers in the twentieth century have had more of an impact on their times than Isaiah Berlin. Born in Russia in 1909, he immigrated to Great Britain with his family in 1921, where he went on to a fantastically successful academic career, first at New College, Oxford, then as a fellow of All Souls. His burgeoning career as a young philosopher (during which time he wrote his excellent short biography of Karl Marx) was put on hold by the Second World War. Though initially destined for the Soviet Union, he ended up in the United States, where he wrote weekly surveys of American politics that were unmatched for their insights and still reward reading.
   
   Berlin's insights were not just reserved for his superiors in London, though, as they infused his correspondence with his family and friends. This book, the first of three projected volumes, collects the letters he wrote during these early years, giving us a unique view of the man and his times. The Isaiah Berlin we see in these pages is witty and perceptive, not just about the people he encountered but about himself. His pride in his identity as a Jew is also apparent, and the letters chronicle his interaction with the flourishing Zionist movement of the 1940s as well as his involvement in academics and his work for the British embassy.
   
   Berlin's erudition also is evident in these pages, as is his penchant for name-dropping. Navigating through the people and places he writes about is a monumental task, and one that the editor, Henry Hardy, performs admirably. His footnotes provide an indispensable guide to the letters, vastly increasing the reader's understanding of Berlin's activities and encounters. The result is a work that offers a window into life in interwar Britain, the politics of wartime America, and the life of a great intellectual who lived in the world rather than apart from it.



3. "Life is not worth living unless one can be indiscrete to intimate friends', opines the remarkable Berlin in this collection of his early letters. Isaiah Berlin is one of the most engaging figures of twentieth century letters, and this early first volume stretches from his school years, through to his classic work on Marx, thence the war, and subsequent Cold War. Berlin the witty conversationalist manifests in these epistolations, with their colorful background amidst ominous political events of high drama.