one of the best book I have read.
You do not have to agree or disagree with Mr. Mussolini to enjoy this book. Because you can learn a lot about the will power, the determination, and the courage of the man.

I bought this book on the belief that it would explain to me the very essence of Italian Fascism. Although some important themes and ideas of Mussolini's fascism were discussed, I was disappointed with the lack of detail and expansion. However, I was enthralled by Mussolini's elegant writing style.I found the Duce's view of his own history - however biased - very informing. It gives an intimate view of early 20th century Italy,and in particular, the mood of the Italian people(especially the war veterans). The book's two parts, the first written well before the Second World War and the second during the war, offer a stark comparison of the different outlooks on the world that Mussolini possessed - he was once popular and arrogant, then hated and bitter. The book offers an extraordinary opportunity to take a deep and intimate look inside Mussolini's soul, as well as a thorough - however biased - examination of Fascist Italy. A must for anyone interested in the Duce, Fascism's general themes or World War II in general.

MY RISE AND FALL is actually two books written twenty years apart. MY RISE is an autobiography written in l928 when Mussolini was extremely popular. The introduction by United States ambassador Richard Washurn Child is laudatory, in fact, a hagiography that represents the conservative opinion of that day. To modern readers this view seems a bit grotesque but was widely held by many important people such as Churchill. Mussolini was admired, feared, and universally believed to have been a renaissance genius-exactly the image the dictator carefully crafted through the years of glory. He preened, strutted, intimidated and philosophied on the world stage until he met Hitler and was reduced to a pathetic secondary role as comic 'side-kick'. We now know the tragedy Mussolini inflicted upon his nation, but one can understand his seductive genius by reading him Mussolini, unlike Hitler, could write-and write well. His terse masculine prose ripples across the page reenforcing the image of a hard modern Caesar. Pithy epigrams such as: "throttled by the skinny hand of poverty "(p.86); descriptive images: "ferrets were sent out to smell into my life"(p.95); dramatic scenes like when Zaniboni attempted to kill him: "The bullets pass, Mussolini remains" (p.237);challenging appeals: "If I go forward, follow me; If I recoil, kill me; If I die, revenge me!" (p.238); as well as softer images "the authority of the state was a kitten handled to death". Il Duce was also a great actor who lived his various roles with such zest he believed them himself. Observe Mussolini: fighting a duel with broadswords, skiing bare-chested down the alps, flying an airplane, driving his red sports car with his beautiful mistress Claretta Pettaci, taking his horse over incredibly high hurdles, or playing with a lion. These images combined with the world stateman brokering the Munich Conference-he was the only one there that knew French, German and English-or negotiating the Concordant with the Vatican;along with the family man accompanied by Dona Rachele and his five handsome children made him the idol of his nation. He had restored respect to his nation. Or did he? One can well understand how intellectuals at first flocked to his banner, Nobel prize winners such as Luigi Pirandello, Guglielmo Marconi, and Enrico Fermi were members of his Academy; Giovanni Gentile, his minister of education; Conductor Arturo Toscanni a Fascist candidate; Curzio Malaparte a war correspondent; and even philosopher Bennedetto Croce, a bitter opponent, supported the Ethiopian War. True, many later deserted, Toscanni and Fermi to the United States, but many remained. THE FALL OF MUSSOLINI reveals the true man behind the myth. Actually, Mussolini only writes of a period of twenty-four hours, the day he was dismissed from the government, The bulk of the fall was written by Max Asoli, a critic of the man and his movement. In this section the curtain is stripped away revealing a timid little fellow manuvering a complex illusion-pyrotechnics that could not harm any one. The real Duce was a humbug-with ulcers... The really strong people in his life were his women: Clara Pettaci, Edda Ciano and most of all, Dona Rachele... Mussolini was more Napoleon III than Hitler, in fact Hitler was his nemesis, and Mussolini knew it! Il Duce first thought the Fuhrer was a degenerate but like a hypnotized rabbit would not flee in horror from the viper. The result was Mussolini's degregation and the negative verdict of history.

Napoleon Bonaparte is one of the compelling figures in the annals of history. Thousands of books have been written about the man, his contemporaries and the events that were shaped by his life. David Markham now presents us with a compelling biography of the man who rose from lesser Corsican nobility to become the Emperor of the French. He was both loved and hated in his own time, and historians and writers over the past two hundred years have found it most difficult, if not impossible, to be objective in their approach to the man and the period of history that he dominated.

Markham has written a good concise biography of Napoleon that is historically accurate and captures the essence of the man. He is fundamentally sympathetic with respect to his subject without being totally seduced by the legends that have grown up about the "Great Man." While praising his accomplishments on the battlefield, his organizational abilities, the foresight of the "Napoleonic" Code and his tolerance of the Islam and the Arab population on his Egyptian Campaign, etc., Markham is also quick to criticize his weaknesses and mistakes.

Napoleon's Road to Glory is much more than a military biography of Napoleon. Markham has produced a well-rounded picture of the man: the general, the lawgiver, the administrator and the lover. The author's insight into Napoleon's relationships with his family, Josephine, his marshals and members of his court provide interesting and enjoyable reading. The book is well written and contains a good bibliography of primary and secondary sources. The extensive index makes it easy for the reader to find information on individuals and events. It will be enjoyable reading for anyone interested in the Napoleonic era.

Jerry Gallaher, President
Napoleon Alliance
Author, The Iron Marshal

The most enjoyable and concise bio of Napoleon I've yet to read.Impressive knowledge of detail beyond military events. Very good illustrations, many from author's personal collection. Excellant overview of the life of this most fascinating historical figure. Floyd McRae, Col., USAF, {Ret}. Napoleonic Alliance

Easy to read with excellent illustrations from author's personal collection. Knowledge of detail very impressive.Highly recommended for excellent overview of this most fascinating historical figure. Col. Floyd McRae, USAF, Ret., Napoleonic Alliance.

This is not Ginzburgs only book on Shamanism. He also covers the subject in his book "Ecstasies". Nonetheless, this is a superb book. In it, he deals with a group of men in northern Italy who believed that their souls left their bodies while they slept to do battle with malignant forces. However, he does not view this as either a hard-line skeptic or a muddle headed New Ager. He approaches it as a historian and treats it no different from any other subject, thus creating an unbiased account of what happened. And what he constucts is an account of shamanism and witch trials in a northern Italian village. This is a fascinating account, and certainly well worth the read. If you appreciate this book, then I strongly recommend you check out "Ecstasies", his other book on European Shamanism and the witch-hunts.

Witchcraft was the belief that there were people, principally women, who met at night in deserted spots to worship the Devil. There is no evidence that this ever happened, except perhaps in the 20th century, after women were misled by the books of Margaret Murray.

Ginzburg's subject is a group of men who dreamed that at night they would go to fight witches so that there would be a good harvest.

Highly recommended.

This book is goddamn outstanding! You really see the simple power and depth behind these poor Northern Italian farmers who believed their souls left their bodies in ecstasy to fly through the night to do battle with life-destroying witches on their own grounds! At the very height and heat of Christendom, their beats an ancient, pagan heart. All who wish to know this hidden history, I definitely recommend this!

Having never truly suffered, most Americans born in the post war years as I was can not really grasp the supreme tenacity of the human spirit. Nina's Journey opened my eyes to just how much suffering brings out the absolute best in some people, the demonic worst in others. Nina Markovna lived in the Soviet Union under Stalin, when "comrade-citizens" living in constant fear of nighttime purges commonly kept bundles of winter clothes ready year round in the event of imprisonment at short notice. Rampaging gangs of gulag orphans terrorize the towns, their status as children of enemies of the state condemning them to short brutal lives of homelessness and starvation. Nina records the arrival of the German Wehrmacht to Crimea in the early 1940's--instead of fighting them, the beleaguered citizens welcome them as liberators from their own cruel regime. When the Red Army gains the upper hand, Nina's family escapes to Germany as "guest workers" where at war's end, they must avoid repatriation to the Soviet Union at all costs. This book is filled with heart rending scenes of life lived at the ugly edges of endurance, where often the only thing between life and death is the intervention of a single good soul, whose refusal to give in to the hate of war is testimony to the power of love. This book gives witness to the fact that though one person might not be able to do everything, he can do something. And those small somethings saved not only lives, but souls.

This book is without a doubt the most breathtaking, exciting, epic, harrowing, (fill in the blank!) autobiography (or biography) I have ever read. I have loaned this out to at least five other people who have had the same reaction. Nina and her family had perhaps 30 adventures (within one great adventure) any of which would top the most memorable event in the average life today. Nina evades starvation, instant death, rape, murder, treachery, and more in the course of her late teenage years just before and during World War II. Her style of writing and convictions make you know that whatever she is writing about, no matter how unbelievable today, is completely true. Gone With The Wind is a trifle compared to her adventures.

Epic Scenes: Wandering through the river of Russian prisoners captured by the Germans and actually finding her father. Her successful plan to avoid rape by the Russian Army. Her mother's desperate trek to get to work on time in the ice storm or risk imprisonment. Her family's voulunteering for slave labor in Germany to raise their standard of living. The happy ending at the American air base. Scores more.

If this story were made into a movie, it would be the epic to end all epics. Since it tells what actually happened to her, it relates the good relations between the Russian people and the German Army relatively free of the SS influence in southern Russia. Compared to their life under Stalin, the German occupation of Odessa was a golden moment for the average Russian living there at that time--something that the populace paid for with their lives when the Red Army swept in again. By the time Nina loses her Jewish friends to the second, SS-led German invasion, genocide merges with the on-going sorrow of daily life of the Russian people as just something else to endure and survive.

Nina's Journey is filled with details little understood by Americans today, but what remains is an epic struggle by on Russian girl to survive the upheaval and strife of the late 30's and early 40's. I couldn't put it down.

I have never felt such emotion and drama while reading an autobiography . Nina's Journey should be read by every Amercan high school student as part of History class. I know that I am not the same person I was before I read this book. Never before has a story touched me so deeply and stayed with me like this one has.

My father served in Co G, 104th Regiment 26th Infantry - a sister company to the author's. He refused to talk about the war. When he passed away in 1990, I found his short written memoirs penned during recuperation from wounds suffered in Germany while in an English hospital. Reading this book alongside his memoirs was an incredible experience for me. It filled in many blanks by being much more complete - yet was absolutely true in time, place, and tone with my father's notes. It was like he came back and finally decided to tell me his stories. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

My dad was in M, Co. 104th Rgt. same as author. I lost him on Memorial Day 1969 before he ever had a chance to discuss his experiences as I was only 20. I have been searching for people who were there, and in finding this book, it showed me very clearly how proud I am of him. Thank you Richard for sharing this with all of us.

A marvelous account that takes a different approach to telling the infantryman's story. It is World War II Europe through the eyes of a naïve, young soldier who has little control over his environment but accepts - largely through faith - that everything will work out. Courtney doesn't focus on tactics or battle actions but rather on the relentless grind of bad weather, bad food, and constant danger. He does a first rate job of showing the lighter side of combat - Bill Mauldin in words. He takes the reader on a roller coaster adventure with the 26th Infantry Division traveling across war-torn Europe all the way to Czechoslovakia and Austria. Particularly interesting were the poignant accounts of post-war forced repatriation of Russians, Hungarians, and other eastern Europeans - a dark chapter of World War II which isn't well known. A great read clearly showing the sacrifice that Courtney's generation endured for their society and their buddies. It made me question whether we could duplicate their sacrifice today.

This guide, like others in the Cadogan's range is chock full of information, and not photos. If you are looking for maps (other than a Metro and RER railway map inside the back cover and the walking maps) and colour pictures you are advised to look elsewhere.

After opening chapters looking at 'Paris in a Weekend' ,practicalities, history, art and architecture and several short pieces on topics such as dog poo and modernism (well worth reading - very entertaining, but make sure your spectacles prescription is up to date - the print in this section is very small!), the guide really gets into its strength.

The bulk of the book is built around 11 different walks, in 11 different neighbourhoods. All are thoroughly described with an accompanying easy-to-follow black and white map. Each walk has an indication of how long it will take (excluding museum visits), suggestions for restaurants and cafes on the route and comprehensive information on the sites.

This makes the book perfect for a visitor spending an extended time in Paris, who wants to discover the city the best way possible, or for the repeat visitor who has the good fortune to be able to return to Paris time and again.

After the Walks, the museums of Paris are listed and cross-referenced to where they occur in the Walks text. The Louvre and Musee d'Orsay are described at length. A section then follows on peripheral attractions - lying further afield than central Paris. There are listings for restaurants, accommodation and nightlife venues.

The writing in Cadogans tends towards the opinionated, witty, slightly ironic (but not smart-alec) and drily understated British style. It appeals to me in the same way as Rough Guides do.

This is not a book for the first-time short-term visitor intending to see the "Top Five" and then move on. There are plenty of other guides catering to that market, and fulfilling their brief admirably (try Rick Steves, Let's Go, Frommer, Lonely Planet for example). But if you want a book with some substance and detail which will be just as rewarding a read back at your hotel as accompanying you on your on-foot rambles around this beautiful city, then I can't recommend it highly enough.

Opinionated, controversial, occasionally intolerant, sometimes jarringly critical, but always possessing at heart a deep affection for the city, this guide will point your gaze towards places people, places and events that may well be unknown to the majority of born and bred Parisians.

It is deeply learned, but never stuffy, memorably describing the decor of one church and "cold potatoes", the descriptions on the walks ensure that once you arrive at a given site, you are aware of its historical and architectural context.

Previous reviewers have referred to the guided walks in the book, and these are indeed its jewel. It will absolutely make so much more of your time in Paris than you could have believed possible if you make the effort to follow as many of them as you can. They are not arduous treks, they can be leisurely strolls and the book makes sure that you know the very best places to stop an eat (or drink) on the way.

Buy the book, read the history (also humourous, but quite bloody) on the way, use it whilst there, and relive your Parisian peregrinations on the way back by rereading the walks you had a chance to follow.

You will want to go back

The walking tours in this book are incredible. Fun, interesting, perfect directions (even for those of us who are directionally challenged!). The history, art, architecture sections are also well worth reading and opinionated just enough to make them truly interesting and unique. I plan on buying as many other travel books by this couple as I can find.

Wow! I found this little gem at the bookstore at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. The cover attracted me because it looked like a scene I had seen many times when I lived and wrote in Paris. Any writer who has spent time in Cafe le Dome or Le Select will get multiple nostalgia attacks looking over the pictures and reading the quotes from Shaw, Papa Hemingway, Camus and the other greats. The review title above about everyone having two countries comes from Thomas Jefferson who loved Paris. Too bad he is dead, for he too would have also loved Val Clark's wonderful little book.

A Literary Companion, indeed! As a writer, lover of Paris and cafes--I found this book delightful, and the perfect companion for a cold winter day. For like the cafe it celebrates, it has the ability to lift my spirits the moment I "enter" its sumptuous pages. Val Clark has done a masterful job in matching up the evocative photographs of Doisneau and Brassai, the art of Van Gogh, Manet, Bemelmans and much more--with the words of writers and artists that endure because they resonate with that fullness of being that the cafe nurtures. This little book pays loving homage to that sensibility. Thank you Val Clark!

Val Clark's selection of images and quotations evoking the literary life of Paris cafes is like sitting down to a cafe creme at Les Deux Magots with your favorite writers. Clark has scoured literary sources both familiar and overlooked to compile an ecclectic assemblage of testimonies on the allure of Paris cafes. She pairs these testimonies with images (photographs, oils, watercolors) so naturally that it seems the writers and artists had collaborated: Langston Hughes and Vincent Van Gogh, Irwin Shaw and Andre Kertesz, Henry Miller and LeRoy Neiman, and many, many more. The Introduction gives an insightful and appreciative overview of the essential role of cafes in Paris literary and artistic life. Like a good cafe, this charming books offers a respite from our hectic work-a-day lives. A delight!

This was a wonderful book, with characteristic Lloyd Alexander wit and humor, along with his deft story-telling. People of all ages will enjoy this latest escapade of Vesper Holly!

Unlike the other books in the Vesper Holly series, this book takes places in an actual place, Philadelphia (as you might have gathered from the title). The World Exposition is going to be held there, but the opening keeps on being delayed, problems of plagued it from the start. President Grant goes to Vesper Holly's home and pleads for Vesper to rescue the kidnapped children in the care of the Brazilian King. The stage is set for some grand Vesper Holly action with her guardian Brinnie, Smiler and Slider (from the previous books), and a new character, Weed in toll! This is a fabulous book!

The ever delightful Vesper Holly is back in this fifth chronicle by one of my favorite master storytellers. Vesper's resourcefulness, bravery and wit are ever-present while she falls in love (innocently) yet again. Her red hair, fiery personality, orphaned status and love for a certain fat cat conjure up another favorite heroine of the historical fiction world, exotic Nefret Emerson from the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. Each of these books packs a lot of punch considering how short they are, making them perfect for any young reader.

I really enjoyed this book. It is by Lloyd Alexander, author of The High King winner of the Newbery Medal. One reason I enjoyed was that it kept on surprising me until the end.
It is not based on things that really happened, although it has people who really existed, such as President Ulysses S. Grant.
The adventure begins when Ulysses Grant comes to Vesper Holly's door asking for her help with a kidnaping of two children. The kidnaper is using the children to ransom the emperor of Brazil.
The kidnapper hates Vesper Holly, so he made it clear that bad things would happen to the children if she did not deliver the ransom. That way he can put her in danger to get revenge on her.

Don't leave this book on your coffee table. Take it anywhere you can dream. The pictures are so clear you can smell the air and run your hands over the bricks. The copy is crisp and well written. The perfect book to sit with in front of the fire, when the wind is howling and dream of warmer climates and clear skies.

This large format hard cover masterpiece squeezes all the natural beauty out of the Tuscan landscape. Hugh Palmer floods the pages with gigantic panoramic photos of almost forty villages in Tuscany, many of which are never visited by the average tourist. If nothing else, this book has convinced me to wander off the well-beaten tourist track to get a real taste of the rich landscape and architecture that hides there. This book is not only a magnificent inspiration for a magical tour of Tuscany, but after, the best possible way to remember the experience of being there.

This book is more than a well-researched travel guide. It's also the most gorgeous tribute to Italy I've ever seen. I'm an Italian, living in Como, and have visited every one of the villages in the book and I can tell you, they are as gorgeous as the authors' interpretations. The photographs are some of the most beautiful I've ever seen, and, like a previous reviewer, I, too, get misty-eyed just looking at them. If you want to travel to Italy or just love Tuscany, you won't go wrong with this book!

It is difficult to top a book on Michael Collins composed primarily of his own words. After all, what better way to peek into his brilliant mind than by reading his words? This book was indeed published to coincide with the release of Neil Jordan's film in 1996, ostensibly to give curious moviegoers a way to better understand Collins before or after viewing the biopic. Tim Pat Coogan's foreword to the book is excellent and shows him in his usual top form. The book's chapters are "Advance and Use Our Liberties," "Alternative to the Treaty," "The Proof of Success," "Four Historic Years," "Collapse of the Terror," "Partition Act's Failure," "Why Britain Sought Irish Peace," "Distinctive Culture," "Building up Ireland," and "Freedom within Grasp." This book sheds light on how articulate, well read, historically aware and insightful Collins actually was. It is too often thought that Collins was a country bumpkin whose knowledge of anything beyond 'murder and mayhem' was quite limited. This simply isn't the case and it becomes apparent almost immediately into the book that Collins was a more than capable thinker. Collins discusses Ireland's tumultuous history, the accomplishments of the Easter Rising, the political events of 1914-1918, the many aspects of British rule, the potential resources of Ireland, and the work of Sinn Féin.

If you are looking for a traditional biography on Collins, this is probably not the right selection for you. _Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland_, the book Tim Pat Coogan excerpted his foreword from, would be a much better fit for that need. If you are already basically familiar with the life and times of Collins, this book will give you a much richer sense of how his mind worked.

These essays or articles are engrossing reading for the insight they provide into the mind of one of the most fascinating revolutionary leaders in modern history. Thought of by many during his time and even now as a 'terrorist' or gunman, these writings reveal Collins to be a thoughtful, intelligent leader with a far-ranging interest in all aspects of the present and future of his country. Had he lived it seems very clear that the quality of his mind and the compassionate concern he had for his people would have made him as formidible a leader in peacetime as he was in war. His death was Ireland's great loss but he left an impressive legacy.

Michael Collins own words provide a clear and insightful look at life in Ireland circa 1921, delving into the social conditions and circumstance that led to the infamous Black and Tan War. This book helped me see that enormous importance of the independence movement of the time, how Ireland was not even recognized as its own country, and what it meant to finally achieve that status. I could not picture a world without a free, seperate Ireland, its amazing to me that this was the case up until well into this century. Micheal Colins here is addressing the people directly, so you get a head-on view of the realities of the times without a lot of historical or sociological analysis. Thats good, because its better to encounter his words personally, to understand the case he is making in all its simplicity: The Irish people are, now and forever, Free!