Botanical classifications;: A comparison of eight systems of angiosperm classification,

Book Description

Grab a colander and the kids and hit the sand - take in jazz, bebop, chamber music, ballet, paintings and sculpture - make the sea your quest and dive among grouper, snapper, barracuda and amberjack - or just drive along the Sunshine Skyway and marvel at the spectacular views. The local authors of The Insiders' Guide(r) to Sarasota & Bradenton take you to all of this and more with the flip of a page.

Book Description

Political war stories from a thorn in the side of Chicago's famous Boss

In 1955, south-sider Leon Despres was elected to the Chicago City Council-the same year that Paddy Bauler famously uttered that "Chicago ain't ready for reform."
Ready or not, Chicago got twenty years of reform efforts from Despres, one of the few independents in the council and the most liberal alderman in the city. His demand to cut out the corrupt sale of city driveway permits made him enemies from the very beginning. Over the years his crusades to ban discrimination, preserve Chicago landmark buildings, and gain equality for African-Americans-when Daley-beholden African-American council members refused to help-threw wrench after wrench into the Machine. And, not incidentally, changed the city.
But Challenging the Daley Machine is more than a memoir. It's a historical portrait of the way things were done under the Boss, when changing times and a changing city forced the Machine to confront the problems Despres championed. His battles against the seemingly monolithic Machine are also an inspiration to anyone who is facing long odds, but is convinced he/she is on the side of right.

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Metalcraft Workshop

Just Plain Fun!

Metal Craft Discovery Workshop

Excellent

Very Comprehensive!

Metal Craft Discovery Workshop: Create Unique Jewelry, Art Dolls, Collage Art, Keepsakes and More!
Linda O'Brien , and Opie O'Brien
Manufacturer: North Light Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Metal Work | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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Collage Lost And Found: Creating Unique Projects With Vintage Ephemera

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Alphabetica: An A-Z Creativity Guide for Collage and Book Artists (Quarry Book)

ASIN: 1581806469

Book Description

Metal is the newest big trend, and crafters are hungry for ideas for using it in everything from jewelry and home décor to scrapbooking and mixed media art. In Metal Craft Discovery Workshop, artists Linda and Opie O'Brien show easy ways to manipulate, emboss, twist and join metal without using complex soldering or traditional metal-smithing methods. They provide:

-20 unique projects including a bottle cap bracelet, mesh book cover, magnetic photo card, tin can doll and mixed-metal clock

-An extensive technique section that teaches etching, hole punching, image transferring, and metal aging

-Creative approaches for using copper, tin, brass, aluminum, found objects and recycled metals

-A special gallery section featuring even more inspirational work

Customer Reviews:

Metalcraft Workshop.......2007-05-17

This is the book you will want if you want to learn how to creatively make jewelry, collages and dolls. They provide you with clear instruction , lists of tools needed, and supplies to do the creating.

I received this book within a week of ordering.

Just Plain Fun!.......2007-01-10

This book is great fun, whether you work with metal or not! It's nicely photographed and well written, and the projects are all fun(ky). Very enjoyable experience. I especially loved learning how to patina metals with potato chips... something I would like to try if only I could keep my kids out of the bowl!

Metal Craft Discovery Workshop.......2007-01-10

The book is very helpful and provides you with all of the tools you will need for the techniques in the book. Very helpful for someone just getting started with working with metal.

Excellent.......2006-09-13

Lots of great ideas and tips. A wonderful book for any artist seeking to expand their skills. This book will stay on my desk
to refer to time and again. The step by step how to's alone make it well worth the price. I have now added an aviation snips to my tool chest and have cut up every tin in sight. Get it! You will love it!

Very Comprehensive!.......2006-06-09

I'm a mixed media collage artist, which very regularly implements metal into my design, this book is amazing! It shows different transfer techniques as well as giving your metal a patina (either with ammonia or patina kits that can be purchased at Michaels).
It has some great inspirational pieces.
I'm also a fan of product lists (instead of vague references), which this book has in spades. It will flat out tell you what product works best.
A++++

Book Description

Gardening requires time and planning. My New York Garden: A Gardener's Journal is the perfect planning tool for anyone who enjoys and wants to improve their garden. It is arranged by week and is not dated so you can start journaling at any time of the year. There are weekly tips on each page, as well as space to record notes, such as "Garden Observations," "What's the Weather Like?" and "What Have I Planted/Transplanted?" Each week also features a page to record any notes you want to add in order to personalize your journal. My New York Garden: A Gardener's Journal is a perfect gift for anyone who enjoys America's favorite leisure pastime.

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My New York Garden: A Gardener's Journal

Manufacturer: Cool Springs Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Book Description

"Were all just somebody else's kids..."

A small seven-year-old boy who couldn't speak except to repeat weather forecasts and other people's words...A beautiful little girl of seven who had been brain damaged by terrible parental beatings and was so ashamed because she couldn't learn to read...A violently angry ten-year-old who had seen his stepmother murder his father and had been sent from one foster home to another ...A shy twelve-year-old from a Catholic school which put her out when she became pregnant...

"What do we matter?"
"Why do you care?"

They were four problem children-put in Torey Hayden's class because no one else knew what to do with them. Together, with the help of a remarkable teacher who cared too much to ever give up, they became almost a family, able to give each other the love and understanding they had found nowhere else.

Customer Reviews:

Thankyou again, Torey Hayden.......2007-06-04

We really do need more Torey Haydens in this world. I have now read everything she has published bar the fiction and "Murphy's Boy" which I'm going to start soon. Reading 'Somebody Else's Kids' felt like going backwards in time, because it was one of her first books. Like most people probably, I picked up one of her more recent books, was immediately hooked and set about tracking down the rest of Torey's work.

Hayden is a teacher of special needs children, specialising in elective mutism. This book comes from very early on in her career. Due to changes in the law with regards to the 'mainstreaming' of education, the politics of teaching children with special needs has become very convoluted. And while all the arguments go on and new theories are considered and schools are shut down, reopened and studies are done, somebody has to deal with the reality of teaching children who for whatever reason can't function in a regular classroom. That would be Torey.

As always, her compassion and passion and kindness blast off the page. You will read and weep, read and laugh and read and wonder. I love that Torey exists and represents so many other passionate committed teachers and carers in this field. Her children are always incredible characters and have usually suffered horrific abuse, like Lori, the lion-hearted 7 year old who, due to being beaten by her parents has a piece of skull embedded in her brain, along with lesions from other beatings resulting in her simply being UNABLE to learn to read. Torey manages to convey how clever Lori actually is with an exceptional ability to 'read' people. And makes the deliberate point that Lori would have been better off without a limb or sight in the current education system where some special needs are still treated with an almost medieval stigma.

Hayden's books are never sugar coated. The reader always gets a good dose of the reality of teaching special needs kids, the mess, the smells and the chaos. She never portrays herself as a hero (although she is) and her honesty about her personal life and her frustration at her own frustration and impatience just make her more endearing.

I have 4 children and a teaching degree. I feel very strongly about the amazing work Torey and people like her do, usually behind the scenes and often in less than acceptable conditions. I tentatively offered "One Child" to my 10 year old daughter, because I WANT my children to learn compassion and to value difference. My daughter devoured this book and has now read 3 of Hayden's books. She is about to start this one because I just finished it. Torey's books have helped me start a dialogue with my daughter about compassion and caring and how each individual person has a part to play, a choice of better or worse, in their lives and the lives they touch. For this I feel I owe Torey Hayden a huge debt.

Torey Hayden's books are relevant to everybody and should probably be made required reading for some! She truly contributes to making life worth living in this world.

Somebody ELSE'S kids, (not yours, Torey Hayden!).......2007-05-29

Torey Hayden is a person with personal boundary issues and a belief that she can be a "savior" to the children whom she is supposed to teach, no matter how serious their problems, as long as they are "beautiful" and have "high I.Q.'s". Moreover, her writing is prone to exaggeration, repetition and contradiction.

She states that others see her over-stepping her boundaries as a teacher, yet she repeatedly does just that. For example, telling Tomaso that he is "a special guy" is fine; telling him that she loves him is one thing, but then saying, "I need you, come here so that I can put my arms around you." (112), she is clearly out of line. Probably co-dependent.

She uses the term "high I.Q." to validate the worth of her "special kids" on at least four occasions in the book (p.30, 133, 185, 257) and at one point calls the children who are in the profoundly mentally handicapped class as "Betsy's idiots" (p.288). She loves Lori who is strangely beautiful and has a high I.Q. despite her specific brain damage. She often refers to Claudia's above-average I.Q., and uses this to try to get her accepted into a counseling program for pregnant teens.

She states that she tries not to believe that she is omniscient, yet she acts otherwise. For instance, she tells Lori that she loves her, and that there will never be a time when she can't handle things, because she (the teacher-god) will never let this happen. She is unable to let go of her work and have normal relationships with adults. This is why she looses her boyfriend, Joc, who sums up the problem with, "Oh get off your God trip for once!"

And OMG, her writing! Redundant, melodramatic and sometimes illogical. My favorite example is when she contrasts Lori with Hitler. When Lori fears that she is a "retard kid" because she can't read, Torey replies, "Hitler could read" , and he was a really retarded. I mean really. Hayden throws moral retards like Hitler and profoundly retarded "idiots" like those in Betsy's class are thrown into the same dumpster of humanity, while she, god-like rises up to save those special children who have worth because of their I.Q. or physical beauty.

A straightforward account of four unusual children and their extraordinary teacher.......2007-03-21

Special ed teacher Torey Hayden tells the story of a year within her classroom, when she struggled to help four students -- 12-year-old Claudia, a shy, bright parochial school student who is pregnant; Tomaso, a Mexican 10-year-old who became wild and unreachable after his stepmother murdered his father; seven-year-old Lori, unable to learn after physical abuse at the hands of her biological parents resulted in brain damage; and Boo, also seven, and severely autistic.

Most days, Heyden admits, she was full of frustration, as these four kids aren't exactly easy to work with. In addition, having the four -- with widely different needs -- *together* was also a challenge. But still, something within her refused to give up. Although many others before her had dismissed each of the children as lost, Heyden wanted to believe that wasn't true.

Although it crosses into the realm of potential sap, preachiness or self-admiration, the book never goes there. While Heyden's quest to help the children -- and resulting success with them -- puts her well ahead of others, she never takes on the air of patting herself on the back for it. Rather, she is a mere human; one who often becomes frustrated, as anyone else might be; and far from perfect. Often, as she becomes fixated on the children, Heyden forgets to balance the other areas of her life, which become problematic as a result.

This is a fascinating look at a year in the lives of four different special needs children, and what one caring individual does to try to help them.

somebody else's kids.......2005-11-09

Torey Hayden, author of "One Child," charts a year in the life of a special education classroom with some unusual and unforgettable students. They include Claudia, an academically gifted, pregnant twelve-year-old; Tomaso, who witnessed the death of his father; Lori, a girl whose abuse left her unable to read and write; and Boo, an autistic boy with a fondness for giving weather reports. How they bond, become a class, and deal with the largely unsympathetic outside world makes for a remarkable story. Even more gratifying is the epilogue, in which we learn that all four made gains after they graduated from Hayden's class, all quite remarkably.

Pretty Good.......2003-03-22

While I didn't enjoy this book as much as some of the other Torey Hayden books I've read, I did like this book.

The troubled children in this book were lovable and as always, Torey worked miracles with them. I really felt her love for them. My favorite of the children was the autistic Boo.

Book Description

With the narrative force of an epic novel and the urgency of first-rate investigative journalism, this important book delves into the daily workings and life-or-death decisions of a typical American family court system. It provides an intimate look at the lives of the parents and children whose fate it decides. A must for social workers and social work students, attorneys, judges, foster parents, law students, child advocates, teachers, journalists and anyone who cares about our nation's children.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating and thoughtful look at a complex system.......2007-01-15

This book kept me up every night for the past week until I finished it. A fascinating and thoughtful look at the juvenile dependency and delinquency systems, the authors get it right. Told mostly through vignettes of families representative of typical child welfare families, the authors deftly illustrated the complexities of "the system," fairly documenting the strengths and failures. Considering that child welfare is what I've been doing for 5 1/2 years, I wasn't bored with the book or angered at any misrepresentations. Rather, I was pleased to see how well-researched and unbiased the piece was. Further, it reminds me that the complexities are what have kept me in the field so far.

The book is a bit dated -- methamphetamines have overtaken crack cocaine as a drug of choice for most child welfare families, and timelines for reunfiication have shrunk. Further, Monterey County (where I work), at least, has greatly improved how it does sexual abuse forensic interviews. I got a bit bogged down in the delinquency section when it became less vignette-based and more pedanctic, finding that the vignettes were better conveyors of information. Overall, though, this was an outstanding book and one which I will give to my boyfriend and parents to read. Anyone interested in child welfare should read this book for an understanding of a system that will never and cannot be black or white.

An excellent book!.......2001-05-03

I randomly came across this book in the library while looking up something else. I thumbed through it a bit and then ended up checking it out and taking it home, where I have proceeded to read it almost constantly over the last couple of days (with occasional breaks for comparatively less compelling things like eating, sleep, class, and hanging out with friends). I'm always a bookworm and am used to becoming absorbed in what I read. However, this is the first time in quite awhile that I've been so caught up in a book, particularly a non-fiction book.

I like this book so much because the authors worked hard at giving a thorough and unbiased look at the juvenile justice system and the kids stuck in that system. Of course, remaining completely unbiased is impossible; however, they tried to give a variety of points of view. They also tried to keep from vilifying any one group (parents, children, social workers, judges, police, the community, and so on), while still indicating the complexity of the problem. Case-studies were carefully chosen not to be sensational, but rather to exemplify the typical issues dealt with by kids in the justice system. Finally, they interspersed the information from the case studies with general information about the law, the way such cases are usually handled, and so on, then applied this new information that they had given back to the case study. This made it possible to learn a great deal about the system in general, while keeping it interesting because you could see the immediate application to one particular kid that you had learned about. This added to the book's general readability. All in all, this book is an excellent, well-written book that has the possibility of moving us a long way towards an understanding of these complex issues.

Compulsively Readable.......2001-03-17

This is a textbook of the juvenile dependency system that reads like a page-turner novel. I was unable to put it down for 2 days. The authors' treatment of their material is even-handed and true-to-life. I have worked for the past 4 years as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate and Guardian Ad Litem for these children in my local juvenile court and the cases featured in the book closely mirror the actual cases I've seen over and over again in the courts. The book raises problems in the system to which there are no easy answers, and the authors don't attempt to offer any simplistic solutions: What does the system do with severely emotionally disturbed kids who blow through one placement after another? How do you know when to give up on parents and terminate parental rights? Do you wait until the child's crucial childhood years are mostly over, waiting for the parents to get their act together? How do we place children in good homes when there is such a shortage of foster and adoptive families? I urge anyone interested to get involved with the system as a volunteer. There are over 700 advocate programs around the country and the minimum time commitment is only 12 hours a month.

This is a superb book!.......1999-03-27

I have been in the field for over 20 years and this is the most accurate account of the Juvenile Justice system. The stories are real and moving. I could not put this book down. I did not agree with everything in the book, however, if you want to know the real story then this is a must read.

A real-life look at the kids in the "system".......1998-06-22

Hubner and Wolfson do an excellent job of presenting the reader with the children's point of view of the juvenile court system. Children who are removed from their homes because of an abusive environment are often subjected to even worse treatment by the state-run system into which they are placed. Some of the problems that are brought to the reader's attention include: 1) Children are removed from the home based on hearsay evidence, 2) Parents must sometimes admit guilt (even if innocent) or they are accused of being in denial - this Catch-22 situation can be used to keep children separated from their parents regardless of the "facts", 3) Foster parents don't always receive adequate training, and are sometimes perpetrators of abuse. Some foster parents are only in it for the money. Yes, the system does benefit many children. But there is also a large number of children for whom the system is more abusive than the environment from which they were removed. Judge Edwards deserves a lot of credit, because he understands these issues and because he cares about the kids. Read this book at least twice.

Somebody Else's Children: The Courts, The Kids, and the Struggle to Save America's Troubled Families

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Somebody Else's Children: The Courts, The Kids, and the Struggle to Save America's Troubled Families
John & Wolfson, Jill Hubner
Manufacturer: Crown Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K72S2Q

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Somebody Else's Kids
Torey L. Hayden
Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O1CWVA

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Somebody Else's Kids
Torey L. Hayden
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GRMB1I

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Somebody Else's Kids
Torey L. Hayden
Manufacturer: G. P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Personal Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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The Tiger's Child

ASIN: B000LUDYLG

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Somebody Else's Kids
Torey L. Hayden
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NJD5ZK

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Somebody Else's Kids
Torey L. Hayden
Manufacturer: Avon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O2D7TU

Book Description

Dearest of Geniuses is the first definitive biography of one of America's first successful female architects, Theodate Pope Riddle (1867-1946). In addition to designing schools and private homes in Connecticut and New York, Theodate designed and supervised the reconstruction of President Theodore Roosevelt's Birthplace in New York City. Theodate's masterpiece is the unusual medieval campus of Avon Old Farms School, where she served as founder and pioneered a progressive curriculum far ahead of its time. The school continues to flourish today and receives ongoing acclaim as an architectural tour de force and as an innovative educational institution.

According to writer and critic Brendan Gill, Theodate Pope Riddle was one of the ten most distinguished American women of the 20th century. Her friend, the famed psychologist Carl Jung, saw her as an "intuitive" woman who trusted her instincts, ignored raised eyebrows, and courageously forged ahead despite the restrictions of her day.

Using Theodate's extensive correspondence, girlhood diaries, journals, memoirs, transcripts of séances, and sittings with mediums, as well as interviews, family letters, and other sources, author Sandra L. Katz re-creates the life of this extraordinary woman.

Book Description

Lost in antiquity, rediscovered in 1896, and only recently accessible for study, The Secret Revelation of John offers a firsthand look into the diversity of Christianity before the establishment of canon and creed. Karen L. King offers an illuminating reading of this ancient text--a narrative of the creation of the universe and humanity and a guide to justice and salvation, said to be Christ's revelation to his disciple John.

Freeing the Revelation from the category of "Gnosticism" to which such accounts were relegated, King shows how the Biblical text could be read by early Christians in radical and revisionary ways. By placing the Revelation in its social and intellectual milieu, she revises our understanding of early Christianity and, more generally, religious thought in the ancient Mediterranean world. Her work helps the modern reader through many intriguing--but confusing--ideas in the text: for example, that the creator god of Genesis, a self-described jealous and exclusive god, is not the true Deity but a kind of fallen angel; or, in an overt critique of patriarchy unique in ancient literature, the declaration that the subordination of woman to man was an ignorant act in direct violation of the "holy height."

In King's analysis, the Revelation becomes not strange but a comprehensible religious vision--and a window on the religious culture of the Roman Empire. A translation of the complete Secret Revelation of John is included.

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King John: New Interpretations

Manufacturer: Boydell Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Irish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0851159478

Book Description

The reign of King John (1199-1216) is one of the most controversial in English history. When he succeeded to Richard the Lionheart's lands, he could legitimately claim to rule half modern France as well as England and Ireland; but by the time of his death his dominion lay in tatters, and his subjects had banded together to restrict his powers as king under the Magna Carta and to overthrow him in favour of the son of the king of France. Over the centuries his reign has provided politicians and historians with fertile ground for inspiration and argument, and this volume adds to the debate, offering the most recent ideas and arguments from leading historians on the subject, and covering all the major issues involved. It is coherently formulated around explorations of the two major events of his reign: the loss of his continental inheritance, and the ending of his reign in the disaster of civil war. Topics cover all aspects of his life and career, from his reputation, the economy, the Norman aristocracy, the Church, Justice and the Empire, to his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine and his wife Isabella of Angouleme. It will be essential reading for all interested in one of the most significant periods of English history. Contributors: NICK BARRATT, J.L. BOLTON, JIM BRADBURY,SEAN DUFFY, A.A.M. DUNCAN, NATALIE FRYDE, JOHN GILLINGHAM, CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL, PAUL LATIMER, JANE MARTINDALE, V.D. MOSS, DANIEL POWER, IFOR W. ROWLANDS, RALPH V. TURNER, NICHOLAS VINCENT. Dr S.D. CHURCH teaches in the Department of History at the University of East Anglia.

Kaiser Wilhelm II New Interpretations: The Corfu Papers

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Kaiser Wilhelm II New Interpretations: The Corfu Papers
John C. G. Röhl , and Nicolaus Sombart
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Irish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0521019907

Book Description

Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941) is one of the most fascinating figures in European history. Inheriting the 'mightiest throne on earth' in 1888, he played a central part in fashioning the policies which culminated in the catastrophe of 1914–18, the collapse of the Reich, and his own abdication. To an extraordinary extent he was also representative of his epoch: brilliant, bizarre, aggressive, insecure. Yet German historians have virtually ignored him. They have written the history of the Kaiserreich without the Kaiser, of Wilhelminism without Wilhelm, leaving the field to the amateurs. Recently, the conviction has been growing, in Germany as well as in American and Great Britain, that the huge advances achieved in the social and economic history of Imperial Germany must now be complemented by deeper research into the Kaiser's character, his role in decision-making, and his relationship to the social and cultural values of his era. In September 1979, a dozen historians met in the Kaiser's palace on Corfu to discuss these questions: this book contains their findings.

Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity

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Lucid and Sensible
Why Was Jesus Crucified?
A History without Faith vs a Faith without History....
an excellent, if slightly flawed, scholarly work
This is a good book, but isn't anyone else a bit skeptical??

Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and the Emergence of Christianity
Paula Fredriksen
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0679446753
Release Date: 1999-11-23

Amazon.com

The epigraph to Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews by Paula Fredriksen includes the following observation by Matteo Ricci: "[A]ll things (including those that at last come to triumph mightily) are at their beginnings so small and faint in outline that one cannot easily convince oneself that from them will grow matters of great moment." This little thought helps to explain Fredriksen's big one, that no one during Jesus' lifetime (including the man himself) considered Jesus to be the Messiah. That interpretation of his life, Fredriksen argues, was occasioned by his death: "Jesus' crucifixion as King of the Jews had come as a shock to his core followers. Their experiences of his continued presence after his death, on the evidence of the Gospels, surprised them, too. Seeking to understand what they had witnessed, they turned to Scripture." Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews makes its argument through careful reconstruction of Jesus' historical context, and dogged attention to the details of his crucifixion and to the fates of his immediate followers. The book's surprising arguments and its lucid style make this a valuable addition to the canon of popular Historical Jesus scholarship. --Michael Joseph Gross

Book Description

In her new book, the acclaimed historian of Christianity gives us a portrait of Jesus that departs radically from the traditional. Paula Fredriksendraws on the narratives of all four evangelists, both John and the Synoptics, as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jewish authorities of Jesus' time -- Philo, Paul, and Josephus -- who wrote in Greek, and early rabbinic writings. She shows us a historical Jesus living in the tumultuous world of late-Second Temple Judaism: an observant Jew of his time, a prophetic teacher who traveled through the villages of Galilee and frequently in and around Jerusalem. At the center of her book she brings us to the questions raised by the least disputed fact about Jesus' life: his death. Jesus was executed by the Roman prefect, Pilate, on or around Passover, in the manner Rome reserved particularly for political insurrectionists -- crucifixion. Pilate could not have planned this very imperial death for a Jesus concerned purely with Jewish controversy.

Why was crucifixion chosen as the means of execution? If Jesus was executed as a political insurrectionist, why were none of his followers executed or even arrested?

The author's quest in search of the answers takes us through the religious world -- Jewish and pagan -- of Mediterranean antiquity, through the tangle of Judean and Galilean politics, and through the surprisingly intimate social interactions of Jewish and gentile communities in the ancient city. And it is through the Gospel of John -- a text out of favor in most academic reconstructions -- that she finds the answer to the interpretive dilemma posed by Jesus' execution and his disciples' survival.

She shows us a Jesus firmly situated in his native religious milieu, a Jesus whose mission and message, whose Jewish life and Roman death, account for his movement's rapid spread through territorial Israel to diaspora synagogues, its ready embrace of Gentiles, and its enduring commitment to the message of the crucified Messiah and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews won the 1999 National Jewish Book Award in the category of Jewish-Christian Relations.

Customer Reviews:

Lucid and Sensible .......2007-06-13

Fredriksen tries to answer one big question: why was Jesus crucified? Why wasn't he just quietly done away with by the Romans or the Jewish religious establishment? What did he do that merited the most extreme and public form of execution?

In the course of examining this question the author looks and evaluates the sources for Jesus's life and teaching -- mostly the New Testament and Josephus -- and identifies what is most plausible from often conflicting stories. She conventionally relies on Mark as the most reliable of the Gospels, but suprisingly cites John as the better source for the events in the last few hours of Jesus's life. She comes up with a persuasive rationale for the rapid spread of Christianity after Jesus's death and she spends a lot of time looking at whether Jesus and his teachings conflicted with orthodox Judiasm. She reminds us frequently what we do not know -- which is a lot more than we do know.

None of the author's conclusions are revolutionary or unique amidst the vast literature about Jesus, and specialists might want a little more depth. But for the average reader this is as good a book as you find about Jesus's teachings and the environment in which he taught. Not the least of its virtues are good maps of the Mediterranean, ancient Judea and surroundings, and a plan of the temple in Jerusalem. Interesting notes at the end of the book outline contrary views and characterize her sources.

Smallchief

Why Was Jesus Crucified?.......2005-08-11

The search for the historical Jesus seeks to understand Jesus as his contemporaries understood him. Historians endeavor to separate the theological issues (esp. later theology) from the historical. Thus, some historians dismiss the reported miracles as the imagination of gospel writers or as explicable in natural terms. Numerous questions arise in the gospel accounts that challenge reconciliation with known facts. Where do the prophets say that the messiah shall be called a Nazarene? Or, how are the disparate birth narratives to be reconciled? Some scholars have tended to explain such difficulties as historical errors or as story lessons that are not to be taken literally.

The reader should not expect a fundamentalist view from the author. In her search for why Jesus died and why he died the way he did, she attempts to understand the times and explain the circumstances surrounding Jesus in terms of the historical and cultural setting. The gospel claims are secondary or incomplete. If Pilate wanted Jesus dead what would the reasons have been? Fredriksen's conclusions may not exactly agree with contemporary theology but her endeavor does challenge the commonly held views with a look at the larger historical events and the complex relationship between Rome and Judea/Galilee.

A History without Faith vs a Faith without History...........2005-03-23

Paula Fredriksen's exceedingly well-written and carefully reasoned text asks a simple question: Why was Jesus crucified? The answer she is seeking must withstand the methodological rigours of the historian's craft. Simply put, she searches for the answer to this question by examining the social and cultural context in which Jesus found himself. This approach does not negate speculation, but any such must plausibly fit the available data, including information from outside the synoptic gospels, such Josepheus and other sources. For Ms. Fredriksen the puzzle is why Jesus' death by crucifixionn and thus a very public death. That particular mode of death was reserved for those believed to be a threat to public order, in short, Rome. Jesus' life and teachings fail to answer this question directly. Ultimately, Jesus was threatening not because of anything he said, or even did, but because of the reception he received by the masses. It was they who elevated Jesus to the status of the Messiah. Thus, Pilate moved: to deflate the supporters of Jesus, and to satisfy his opponents. Of course, this too is speculative -- Pilate's decision to execute Jesus, rather than have him quitely "removed," ultimately rested on his "bet" that Jesus' supporters would be quelled, and not energized to rebellion. Perhaps in the immediate context, Pilate was right, but in the long-term his "strategy," if we may refer to the death of our Lord in this way, was way wide of the desired mark.

an excellent, if slightly flawed, scholarly work.......2004-05-04

Paula Fredriksen succeeds where so many of her colleagues fail: recapturing the Jewishness of Jesus. She accomplishes this feat simply by placing him within his Jewish context, accompanied of course by very in-depth and rigorous research into the historical settings of Judea and Galilee, collectively known to us as Palestine. She quite correctly criticizes scholars such as Crossan who Hellenize Jesus by making him into some sort of wandering Cynic sage, although at other times she is quite dismissive of arguments contrary to her own. However, given the scope of the subject and the limited time involved, perhaps we may forgive such a tendency as perhaps inevitable. ALthough I agreed with her main thesis, she immerses herself in overly rank speculation towards the end. I personally do not feel it necessary to posit John's itenerary rather than the Synoptics to explain why Jesus' followers were not crucified. Also, although all scholars do this, I seriously question the tendency to speculate far beyond what is necessary to explain the limited facts we have. Of course, some speculation (one might even say "much") is inevitable given the subject matter and the questionable nature of many of the facts involved, but to seek to explain every bit of questionable evidence just to fully flesh out one's theory seems wholly unnecessary to me. Either way, though, if you are interested in the actual Jesus of history, then you would be hard pressed to do better than this book.

This is a good book, but isn't anyone else a bit skeptical??.......2003-10-27

Paula Fredriksen's argument about the reason for Jesus' death by crucifixion are very convincing. She provides good evidence for her arguments based on the Gospel and an understanding of the historical and religious context in which Jesus would have lived. However, even with her basis of Gospel evidence and historical record, Fredriksen must still make certain assumptions and inferences in order to make her arguments.
The first claim Fredriksen makes is that Jesus preached in Jerusalem many times before his crucifixion. This is confirmed by John's gospel, and also just seems likely that Jesus, as a devout Jew, would have made the trip to Jerusalem many times for the various festivals. It is likely that she is correct on this point, but she has little evidence other than John, which she prefers precisely for this reason.
Another point Fredriksen makes is that Jesus was probably proclaimed as the Messiah by the crowds gathered in Jerusalem for Passover, and not his close followers who had been with him for a few years. It is more difficult to argue against this claim, because it seems that Jesus would have been killed at the very beginning of his ministry if his followers had immediately proclaimed him to be the Messiah.
That Jesus was arrested by the priests also seems very likely. They would be the ones to lose power if there was a riot or insurrection surrounding Jesus. However, Fredriksen argues that Jesus was probably not interrogated by the chief priests or Pilate. She believes that it would have been unnecessary for them to do so, and unlikely because they would not have wanted to do so at night on a festival (or the day before it), as they would already have been very busy and tired. This seems to be a weak argument. Perhaps Jesus would not have been interrogated by these high authorities, but it seems that the priests and Pilate may wanted to have maintained some semblance of lawfulness before killing Jesus. If he was simply killed without a mock trial or interrogation of some kind, people may have been stirred to insurrection based solely on the injustice of Jesus' death.
Fredriksen attributes the rise of Christianity after Jesus' death to the idea that the disciples were still working within an apocalyptic paradigm. They believed that Jesus had promised to come again, and that it would be at that time that End of Days would come. As well as a continued belief in Jesus by his disciples, the movement grew to include many Gentiles, who were excused from following most of the laws of Judaism in order to become Christians.
At the end of the book, Fredriksen claims that the pictures of Jesus presented in the Gospels and Paul's writings do not so much describe Jesus as the effect he had on the people to whom he preached. She believes that there is little of historical representation other than a few facts about Jesus' death. Fredriksen therefore attempts to recreate the life of Jesus based on political and religious history of the time, but she must always make assumptions. Her arguments are ineffective if Jesus had not indeed preached in Jerusalem many times; if the crowds did not first proclaim Jesus to be the Messiah and then clamor for his death. Her argument it logical, but it remains a theory.

Dryden's mind and art (Essays old and new)

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Dryden's mind and art (Essays old and new)
Bruce Alvin King
Manufacturer: Oliver & Boyd
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ASIN: 0050019813

Family of the King: Dynamics of Metaphor in the Gosepl According to John (Biblical Interpretation Series)

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Family of the King: Dynamics of Metaphor in the Gosepl According to John (Biblical Interpretation Series)
Jan G. Van Der Watt
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9004116605

A King is Bound in the Tresses: Allusions to the Song of Songs in the Fourth Gospel

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A King is Bound in the Tresses: Allusions to the Song of Songs in the Fourth Gospel
Ann Roberts Winsor
Manufacturer: Peter Lang Publishing
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ASIN: 0820439312

Book Description

The Fourth Gospel is among the most beloved and enigmatic pieces of early Christian literature. Although this Gospel has been exhaustively analyzed, portions of it remain baffling. Among its more elusive texts are the narratives describing the anointing of Jesus' feet by Mary of Bethany (Jn 12:1-8) and Jesus' resurrection appearance to Mary Magdalene (Jn 20:11-18). By demonstrating that the Song of Songs is the matrix for these narratives, this study not only resolves several puzzling details, but also opens a fresh dimension in Fourth Gospel research. The investigation largely relies on literary critical techniques and breaks important new ground in Johannine studies.

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King John: New Interpretations.

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Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IBKZ38

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King John: New Interpretations.
S.D. (ed) Church
Manufacturer: [John] Church, S.D. (ed). King John: New Interpretations. Rochester, NY: The Boydell Press, 1999. Hardcover. 361pp. Fine, as new / Fine, as new dust jacket.
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ASIN: B000TABMUS

The Revelation of the Apostle John: Arranged as in the Earliest face of the New Testament

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The Revelation of the Apostle John: Arranged as in the Earliest face of the New Testament
John S. E King
Manufacturer: The Author
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ASIN: B0007BIRZM

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