Editorial Review

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Reviews (25)

Wickedly witty, wonderful, and wise
I never read the original (1963) edition of this ground-breaking expose of the "death care industry" (to use that industry's own euphemism), so I can't compare the "Revisited" (1998) edition to it. But it seems, since Mitford primarily addresses methods and practices, that much of the earlier work has been preserved. As other Amazon reviewers have noted, it can be confusing when trying to distinguish the "then" from the "now." Sometimes you simply have to guess based on the prices being discussed. But sadly, the reader can't help but realize that in most matters regarding the disposal of our dead, what was true then (the lying to customers about the "necessity" and "benefits" of enbalming; price gouging on caskets; secretive pricing and resistance to providing itemized price quotes and invoices; etc.) remains true today.
Jessica Was An Original
The late Jessica Mitford enticed me with the original "American Way of Death" in the 1960's. Her graphic description of the embalming process would later inspire me to follow in her work, as a muckracker and consumer advocate. One thing Jessica did was give me an out, if I didn't want to read about the embalming process she directed me to another page. I thought that was a great move on her part because some people just couldn't handle it.
Over-written but Thought-provoking!
A verbose, over-written book. Some say the original book was great; perhaps they're right.I don't know.I've only read this one, and through each chapter I kept wishing that the writer would get to the point and lay the facts on the table.I often found myself out of patience and skimming large sections.As for the funeral industry, I came away from the book thinking that the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.Yes, they'll take you, (and some funeral homes are probably very shady) but the funeral industry is a business too, and a necessary one that not too many of us want to do.And, of course, there are some morticians who doubtlessly see the business as their calling. The book has definitely persuaded me to think carefully about a burial plan and to research the funeral homes in my area. It didn't persuade me to steer away from a pre-need plan.I disagree with the "Buy now die Poorer" philosophy.I certainly don't want to put a $6,000+ bill on my kids.At any rate, this book will make you think seriously about your final earthly bill.
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Subjects:  1. American    2. Current Affairs    3. Customs & Traditions    4. Death & Dying    5. Economic aspects    6. Funeral rites and ceremonies    7. Industries - General    8. Sociology    9. Undertakers and undertaking    10. United States    11. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT    12. Social Science / Death & Dying    13. Sociology, Social Studies    14. USA   

Reviews (14)

Good research, but too much fluff and "chicken-little"
Take out the fluff and chicken-little-the-sky-is-falling nonsense, and the meat of this book would make up a small pamphlet.There are many more informative authors on the subject of personal privacy."The Privacy Rights Handbook" is a much better start.

Excellent Privacy Primer
Michael Hyatt's book is a very comprehensive book on Good, Practical Advice on Preventing Personal Fraud
Author Michael Hyatt is a best- selling author and speaker who wrote this book to advise individuals on ways to protect themselves in today's digital age. He feels that we need to be aware of the everyday dangers to our personal privacy, and that we should not take this issue lightly. Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer crimes    3. Computers    4. Data protection    5. General    6. Handbooks, manuals, etc    7. Personal & Practical Guides    8. Political Freedom & Security - Civil Rights    9. Prevention    10. Privacy, Right of    11. Reference    12. Security - General    13. Political Science / Reference    14. Current Events    15. Information Technology   

Editorial Review

We already worry that our food makes us fat, dull, disease-prone, and sleepy. Now we have to worry that it also makes us crazy. According to certified clinical nutritionist Carol Simontacchi, the food industries that give us packaged, processed, artificially flavored, chemical-ridden, artificially colored, nutrient-stripped pseudo foods such as sodas, processed soups, sugared cereals, and fiberless bread "wantonly destroy our bodies and our brains, all in the name of profit." We Americans (adults and children) eat 200 pounds of sugar and artificial sweeteners each year. Our children's test scores and grades drop. We become violent, illogical, moody, depressed, drug-addicted, and crazy. The reason, according to the author, who is pursuing a doctorate in brain nutrition, is that we're starving our brains with lack of nutrition.Read more

Reviews (25)

Excellent book on nutrition in today's world.
The book describes the essentials to providing excellent nutrition for babies, children and teens specifically when it comes to brain development and health. It details the dangers of allowing the food industry to decide what your kids should eat.If you want your kids or future kids to thrive and succeed in life, this is book hits the importance of doing it right from the start.

Good Book
I really enjoyed this book.
This book is awesome!
Not only does it get the sensationalist words "crazy" and "destroying'worked into the title, but it also ties them into other such sensitive topics as (1) our brains and, (2) our children.The only other things it could have mentioned is (1) the elderly, (2) kitty-cats, (3) puppies, (4) rainbows, (5) gumdrops and sugarplums, and, (6) Jesus.Maybe the author can re-think the title to work all those things in to make it more dramatic and appealing to the masses.
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Subjects:  1. American    2. Consumer Health    3. Food additives    4. General    5. Health & Fitness    6. Health/Fitness    7. Neurotoxicology    8. Nutrition    9. Toxicology    10. Fitness & diet    11. Health & Fitness / Nutrition    12. Popular medicine    13. USA   

Reviews (14)

Can Great Good Places exist in today's world? (4.2 *s)
This book is a heartfelt and nostalgic lament at the loss of vibrant local communities and the disappearance and exclusion of the various shops and places that facilitate the spontaneous, daily neighborhood interactions that are essential for viable communities. As the author notes, American society has undergone tremendous changes since WWII: sprawling suburbanization, an automobile culture, and reliance on home entertainment, mainly television. The isolating tendency of these developments is reinforced by planners and zoning commissions that do not permit neighborhood hangouts like taverns, cafes, and the like to be located near developments of "dream" homes with their sculpted lawns.
Think, eat, drink, act, buy local....
Drawn by the concept of a "third place" as described by this book and referenced elsewhere, I thought I'd read to find out what this was about.In the end, this was a fascinating and thought provoking book.Mr. Oldenburg posits that much of our societal ills today are resultant from a lack of free association.That is, the places where people congregate / hang-out are disappearing because of urbanization, industrialization, etc.One example, the German beer garden (and its descendant in the US with early German immigrants) as a family affair - as, economically, there didn't seem to be any reason for such an institution in an "American" community, this venue slowly disappeared or devolved into the bars we know today - focused on serving alcohol to the subservient and willing.In fact, Oldenburg points out, the beer served in the beer garden was weaker than what we know today because the point was not the beer - the point was the association and conversation within the community, among families.
Finding a Great Good Place
I discovered this book after reading Willaim Raspberry (Washington Post Writers Group) commenting on his retirement.He found the newsroom served as the Great Good Place for him and rued that Americans don't have "informal gathering spots where one finds not just escape but camaraderie, conversation, friendly argument and pleasant conversation with regulars."
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Subjects:  1. American    2. City and town life    3. Community    4. Leisure    5. Public spaces    6. Social Science    7. Sociology    8. Sociology - General    9. United States    10. Urban Anthropology    11. USA    12. Urban communities   

Editorial Review

Dr. Thompson made the list of inspirational scribes when I polled in a recent writing workshop, and why not? Back in a spiffy Modern Library edition, replete with additional essays, I find in this iconographic work that HST both invoked--and provoked--an era that was not so much the '60s proper, but rather the mean, shadow-filled death of that time, which is still playing out. Thank God Thompson was there to explode the myth of "objective" journalism and help pave the way for the pens and voices that followed. ... Read more

Reviews (46)

Best book I have had an opportunity to read!
This is a oh so truthful book sadly to say. It clearly shows the down fall of the American civilization. A dream long since dead and visible in Las Vegas a cheap town where anything goes. I enjoyed this book very much. The detail of the drug usage is real very real. NOT THAT I WOULD KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT. The story also made me sad to realize I live in a long dead dream and the civilization is wa past its prime. Oh what I wouldn't give to be a flower child.
When the bats appeared
I first read this book after finding it on the bargain table at my college bookstore.I have read it several times since then, and have shared it with friends and students.From the first bizarre line to the last, it was hard to stop laughing.It is one of the unusual class of novels that truly enables you too look through another man's eyes, distorted as that vision may be.Admittedly, this is perhaps not for those who have never enjoyed being not sober.Still, if you are open minded, it is an amusing and enjoyable read.

A book written for those who were too afraid to take the drugs themselves
I can't believe they actually made this into a movie.What crap!
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Subjects:  1. American Journalism    2. Biography    3. Biography & Autobiography    4. Biography/Autobiography    5. Journalists    6. Literary    7. Pop Arts / Pop Culture    8. Popular Culture - Counter Culture    9. Thompson, Hunter S    10. United States    11. United States - 20th Century/60s    12. American English    13. Current Events / American    14. Modern fiction    15. True Stories    16. USA   

Reviews (1)

Issues just as important today as they were then.
Take one overwhelmingly male-centered and predominantly white society, add huge portions of power, racism, sexism, a misinformed public and gross displays of injustice, and you've got a recipe for the American way.This collection of essays written at the time of the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearings holds every bit of relevance now as it did nine years ago. Highlighting earlier civil rights legal battles and connecting their influence to the hearings themselves, each essayist examines in progressive detail just how pervasive--indeed, how dangerously latent--racism and sexism are in our society.How the volatile and often avoided issue of race can blind the equally volative and often dismissed issue of sexism in any race.In these essays, we are given a shockingly clear image of the circus that was the mishandling of the hearings.Explosive, revealling, and thought-provoking, this book yanks the proverbial rose-colored glasses from our collective American conscience and dares us to think for ourselves. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1948-    2. African Americans    3. Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General    4. Government - U.S. Government    5. Hill, Anita    6. Judges    7. Politics - Current Events    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Racism    10. Selection and appointment    11. Social conditions    12. Sociology    13. Thomas, Clarence,    14. U.S. - Contemporary Politics    15. U.S. Supreme Court    16. United States    17. Current Events / American    18. Thomas, Clarence   

Reviews (63)

fascinating read
This story has appealed to me for a long time.So, needless to say when this book came out I had to purchase it.The book is especially strong on the post-army deterioration Mcveigh felt and his disillusionment with the government. The authors were also granted interviews with Mcveigh in prison which lend credence to the story. The fascinating part for me was generally prisoners deny their crimes and fight to the bitter end, as in the case of death row prisoners. Mcveigh seemed to be completely willing to die for his acts, and in fact relished it.It seems to be part of his endgame strategy. Great read about a intense individual.

Patriotism vs. Terrorism
One of my students discussed this book in a paper and stated that he had really liked it, so I decided to read it as well.Although I knew some about the OKC bombing, I didn't really know much.
Book by Lou Michel:American Terrorist
If you want a book about Timothy McVeigh this is the one to buy.
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Subjects:  1. American    2. Biography    3. Current Affairs    4. Government - U.S. Government    5. History - General History    6. History - U.S.    7. Oklahoma City Federal Building Bombing, Oklahoma City, Okla., 1995    8. Political Doctrines    9. Political Freedom & Security - Terrorism    10. Political Terrorism    11. Politics/International Relations    12. Right-wing extremists    13. Terrorists    14. U.S. Government    15. United States    16. United States - 20th Century (1945 to 2000)    17. United States - 20th Century (1945 to present)   

Reviews (12)

One of the Best War Books Ever Put on Paper

Teddy Man's Review (Dr. S/W.C.)
The book, What Every Person Should Know About War, is an interesting one.This book is not read like any other novel, it is read as a series of questions. Everything that a person thinks about when he thinks about war is covered in this book.It is a great tool to use in order to get a better understanding and to further your knowledge about war.
Now Everyone Does Know About War!
What Every Person Should Know About War by Chris Hedges is an excpetional book. Hedges gives straight answers about many touchy subjects dealing with war and all the struggles that come with it. From what I have read in the past, this book covers war the greatest. I believe, as Americans, we do not truely know the struggles and depth of war that a person goes through. Although this book is not a "story", it allows you to feel as though you are in real war-like situations. By reading this book one truely recieves an understanding of war.
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Subjects:  1. Armed Forces    2. General    3. Military - United States    4. Miscellanea    5. Political Freedom & Security - International Secur    6. Political Science    7. Politics / Current Events    8. Politics/International Relations    9. United States    10. War    11. Weapons systems    12. Current Events / General    13. POLITICS & GOVERNMENT   

Editorial Review

Ordinary middle-class Americans have often tried to assuage their jealousy of the rich by repeating the axiom "money can't buy happiness" to themselves. But according to Read more

Reviews (72)

It may make you a bit happier to read it
The first part of the book is an impressive array of information and statistics telling us how life has gotten better in the U.S. over the past fifty years.
A poor effort.
I was reading through this book for a while at the bookstore while I was waiting for my wife to find some travel books.
Rightist Hegelian Author Claims 'All's Good'
Despite all of it's problems I enjoyed this book. Is the author arrogant at times? Yes. Is the author clearly a conservative christian (who makes an attempt at nonpartisanship)? Yes. For example, he singles out Hillary Clinton as a politician who acts contrary to her own words (she derided consumerism but purchased a $1.7 million dollar home apparently)...but couldn't this be said of many if not most politicians these days? Maybe I'm just cynical.
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Subjects:  1. General    2. Personal Growth - Happiness    3. Political Science    4. Politics/International Relations    5. Psychology    6. Current Events / General   

Reviews (5)

Brilliant book
Unarguable facts. Amazon sell this at twice the price, and they sell Harry Potter at half the price. You see my friends, keeping people in ignorance is big business.

We deserve an explanation!!!!!
Why have you, Amazon.com, not printed an explanation as to the doubled pricing of this book? Your silence pertaining to this previously asked question, makes many, with good reason, wonder exactly what type of "business" you run. You owe us all, your paying customers, a response for this blatant price gauge!

Something fishy at Amazon.com
Great book, unfortunately, Amazon for some bizarre reason has doubled the list price. You can order the book directly from the publisher for around $20. Who are you beholdened to Amazon? ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Espionage    2. Nonfiction - True Crime / Espionage    3. Other Miscellaneous Crimes    4. True Crime    5. True Crime / Espionage    6. Current Events / General    7. Political control & influence    8. Sherman H. Skolnick    9. USA   

Reviews (3)

voyage to hell
Sara Daniel's reportage on the Iraq war through the voices
Voyage to a Stricken Land
I intend to buy extra copies of Voyage to a Stricken Land for some of my civilian friends and family because I want them to have a better understanding of my downrange experiences.
Don't Waste Your Money
As one of the individuals interviewed for this book, I can emphatically state, "this book is a waste of time and money."
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Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Editors, Journalists, Publishers    3. France    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History - Military / War    7. History: World    8. Iraq War, 2003    9. Iraq War, 2003-    10. Journalism    11. Journalistic Writing    12. Journalists    13. Middle East - General    14. Middle East - History    15. Military - Iraq War    16. Personal narratives, French    17. Current Events / General   

Reviews (13)

Outstanding Read
This is a must have for anyone who loves America and is doing their part to strengthen it.Howard Dean has had all the answers all along and even if you aren't a Dean fan, you will love his insight and point of view on the problems we face daily.Dean is hard on Dems as well as Rebublicans and wants us to know that power is ours, now we just have to use it.This book reads easily and is worth every penny.A must have.

Worn Out Lines?Maybe Some
"We need to restore the balance between corporate power and the ballot box."
Howard Dean's Manual for Reform
Howard Dean is proving himself to be one of the Democratic Party's more enduring leaders.Not yet 60, he has already served as Governor of Vermont, head of the Democratic Governors Association, a Democratic candidate for the party's 2004 presidential nomination, head of the political action committee Democracy for America, and since, February, 2005, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.With the Democrats poised to make big gains in 2006, Dean's future relevance is likely to continue for some time.
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Subjects:  1. 2004    2. Biography    3. Election    4. Government - U.S. Government    5. Political Ideologies - Conservatism & Liberalism    6. Political Ideologies - Democracy    7. Political Science    8. Political participation    9. Politics / Current Events    10. Politics and government    11. Politics/International Relations    12. Presidential candidates    13. Presidents    14. United States    15. Political Science / General   

Reviews (11)

Hardly a Manifesto But Interesting
As someone who has been critical of US foreign policy through a variety of administrations, it may seem inevitable that I would be drawn to someone like bin Laden. Having read my share of writings by sociopaths such as Hitler, Mao, and even Kaczynski, my only compliment for bin Laden would be that his thoughts aren't nearly as fractured and self-contradictory as others I've read. In a sense, I agree with the commentary provided in the foreword -- whatever his faults, he is very likely a true believer and not merely a charlatan.
Timely in the Extreme
This collection of translated and annotated statements by Osama bin Laden is the sort of primary source collection I had begun to fear would never be published.
Know Your Enemy!
Bruce Lawrence (the compiler) points out that while occasional fragments of bin Laden's words are cited, official pressures have ensured that, for the most part, his voice has been tacitly censured - as though too dangerous to hear.This collection of 24 items include interviews with Arab and Western journalists, handwritten letters, and video recordings.
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Subjects:  1. General    2. Islam    3. Islamic countries  &n