Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan And the 1960s

Book Description

"In this remarkable reflection on the culture of the sixties, Mike Marqusee restores the forgotten moral and political contexts of Dylan's supernova years. In doing so, he rescues one of the most urgent poetic voices in American history from the condescension of his own later cynicism."-Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz

Bob Dylan's abrupt abandonment of overtly political songwriting in the mid-1960s caused an uproar among critics and fans. In Wicked Messenger, acclaimed cultural-political commentator Mike Marqusee describes the rise of Dylan's artistic ambition at the expense of his activism. Marqusee advances the new thesis that Dylan did not drop politics from his songs but changed the manner of his critique to address the changing political and cultural climate and, more importantly, his own evolving aesthetic.

Wicked Messenger is also a riveting political history of the United States in the 1960s. Beginning with the march on Washington in the summer of 1964, Marqusee traces the formation of the Southern voter registration movement and the rise of the Students for a Democratic Society and the Weathermen. The twists and turns of political and cultural dissent movements, Marqusee says, were anticipated in the poetic aesthetic-anarchic, unaccountable, contradictory, punk-of Dylan's mid-1960s albums Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde.

Dylan's anguished, self-obsessed, prickly artistic evolution, Marqusee asserts, was not what everyone thinks it was: a movement away from politics. It was a movement away from protest and from activism, it was a movement away from the front lines, it was a deeply creative response to a deeply disturbing situation. "He can no longer tell the story straight," Marqusee concludes, "because any story told straight is a false one."

Mike Marqusee is the author of a number of groundbreaking books on politics and popular culture, including Anyone But England, War Minus the Shooting, and Redemption Song. Born and raised in the United States, he has lived in London since the 1970s.

Customer Reviews:

Where have all the 60's gone?.......2007-01-15

Have you ever wondered where Bob Dylan got some of his inspiration?

Have you ever wondered what went on behind the scenes when the politically active youth culture was born in the 60's?

Starting with stories about Bob's relationships with the "Dust Bowl Balladeers" and wandering along with the concert tours and digging deep into the history of SNCC (Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and SDS ( Students for a Democratic Society), and everywhere else that was relevant this book masterfully chronicles the connection between the songs and times of the 60's and beyond.

The reader is treated to a deep view of what was going on as many of Bob's most beloved songs were written. You are given a clear picture of why Bob was such an honest and faithful reflection of our times and has become America's favorite balladeer.

I have to say that I think the title is unfortunate, there is nothing "Wicked" about this messenger. The things he protests are outrageous things and he finds exactly the right words and the courage to sing them out with songs that can not be ignored. He also has made some of the most touching and romantic love songs that I have ever heard. I'm very glad to have been able to see some of the background behind his inspiration.

Finally, I understand why Bob was not at Woodstock, why he "went electric", what went on during the London tours, who was the "girl on that album cover", and many other things.

This is clearly a fascinating book that has helped me to better understand the times that I lived through even better.

More 1960's Left Wing Politics than Dylan Biography.......2006-07-22

I purchased this book without knowing that the author's focus was at least as much on politics as Bob Dylan. I thought I was buying a Dylan biography but was greatly disappointed. In case others may be misled by the packaging please know that the author is so devoted to adulation of socialist/communist/left wing politics that Bob Dylan the person, songwriter, musician and performer is definitely secondary. Although the book was reasonably well-written and appears to have been researched the author's unwavering obsession with politics and his overt political bias is quite annoying. If you are a political partisan you might like the book. If you think you are buying a biography of Bob Dylan you may be disappointed.

Draws some important connections between Dylan's musical approach, its message, and how and why it affected his times.......2006-03-05

Wicked Messenger: Bob Dylan And The 1960s represents a revised, expanded edition of the 2003 hardcover Chimes Of Freedom, and is a recommended pick for Dylan fans and especially newcomers who missed Chimes and here will enjoy the benefit of a new chapter on his 2004 memoir and his 2003 film. Wicked Messenger shows that Dylan didn't turn away from his famous political music but instead changed the style of his message to address changing politics. In providing a concurrent social survey of the atmosphere of the U.S. during the 1960s, Wicked Messenger draws some important connections between Dylan's musical approach, its message, and how and why it affected his times.

Interesting book.......2006-02-28

This book is very interesting!!!! It provides a wonderful background of the period of time that influenced Bob Dylan's life and music. The book describes the history behind his songs and the history of what was going on in America during that era. It was more than I expected and I could hardly put the book down.

Book Description

Just as his best-selling Snobbery argued that contemporary American snobbery isn't what it used to be, Friendship: An Expos begins with Joseph Epstein's feeling that friendship, too, is somehow different today. From the idealization of "family time" to the acceptance of gender equality, from technological leaps like e-mail and instant messaging to the (very recent) assumption that your spouse will be your best friend, Epstein charts the unexpected and surprising forces that have squeezed and shaped friendship. In the process, he sketches a witty and incisive anatomy of the modern version: its duties and requirements ("Reciprocity, or Is It Obligation?"), the various kinds of friendships ("A Little Taxonomy of Friends"), the differences between male and female friendships, the complications marriage creates ("Friendship's New Rival"), even what happens when sex enters the equation. Moving easily from Aristotle to Seinfeld, and drawing on his own experiences with people great (Saul Bellow and Ralph Ellison) and unknown (an army bunkmate), Epstein uncovers the surprising and hidden truths of friendships and so inspires us to reconsider our own.

Customer Reviews:

Friendship: An Expose.......2007-09-22

In Joseph Epstein's conclusion to Friendship: An Exposé, he states that he 'began with a vague sense that the standard idealization friends was somehow false to the truth of friendship'. Indeed Epstein does not during the conclusion, the introduction, or throughout the novel, claim to have solved the riddle of what a friend is and what a friend is not, rather he puts forth examples of friendships he has had, and examines them in an attempt to explain the varieties of friendship. This approach, while overall quite successful, does leave one with the sense that his book applies perhaps only to himself, or to the current age, or to an American, rather than being a grand, overarching discussion on the concept of friendship. Perhaps it would be impossible to write the final word on friendship, at any rate, that has not been achieved here.

Joseph Epstein is modest, but he has had many friends throughout his life. He recalls when he was a schoolboy how he would actively cultivate friendships with people from the different social groups, partly ingratiating himself, partly by being a 'good guy'. This ability to create friends is something he has carried with him throughout his life until now, when he is in his sixties (Joseph Epstein recently celebrated his seventieth birthday, but the point remains - here is a man adept at creating friendships). He began to realise, however, that, try as he might, he could not fashion an adequate definition of friendship that would include every single person he believed was his friend. On top of that, he had many different levels of friends, which he compares in a running metaphor as possessing different 'seats' in a football game, with the best seats going to the closest friends.

All of this is fairly obvious, and it is good for the novel that these points are raised in the introduction where they belong, rather than taking up space in the main thrust of the work. But what is literature, or indeed essays, about, other than in part the clear, concise explanation of what is obvious to us already, though we have never managed to articulate it so? Reading Epstein's introduction - and I have read most of the historical authors he mentioned who have written briefly on friendship: Aristotle, Plato, Montaigne, La Rochefoucauld - it became clear how necessary it is that we have a great book on friendship.

For what is friendship? We have friends we wish to see regularly. We have friends who we do not care to see, but enjoying talking on the phone with, or emailing. We have friends we don't see for years, friends we live cities, states, countries apart from. We have friends of the same sex and we have friends of the opposite sex. Friends from similar social, economic backgrounds, friends with the same level of education, intelligence, wealth, prospects, political ideas, philosophical ideas, aesthetics tastes. We have friends who are the complete opposite of us in these areas. All of these things, and yet each one is a friend. What, then, is a friend? Epstein provides two dictionary definitions, neither of which suffice.

The main thrust of the novel, then, comes from an examination of the different aspects of friendship as he sees them, using the particular lens that is Joseph Epstein's very own friends. He says that, 'My friends will recognize themselves in these pages...some to their pleasure, some to their chagrin, and a few to their strong distaste,' and it is true that some come off poorly, but most do not. Rather, it is Epstein who allows the probably guilt, the likely negligence, from the friendship. By using his actual friends as examples, Epstein has created a potentially dangerous exercise for himself, but reading the novel never feels like a dirty exposition but a celebration, examination and critique of the different levels of friendships he has known. Even the 'sordid' tales - stories of friends who were not good friends, or friendships that end badly - are told with tact.

Epstein notes while explaining his methods for dealing with friends that, 'If this all sounds rather cold and calculating, this is only because it is - or at least it's calculating.' However, none of his stories but two comes across as anything but carefully explained with an eye for discussion, not blame. Examination, not airing dirty laundry. The first is a 'friendship diary', a record of a week's worth of activities involving his friends. This comes across as little more than boasting, which may be an unfair accusation against what is largely a tasteful, moderate novel, but the comment stands. The greater point of the article in which the diary is placed would stand without this endlessly busy week of Epstein's. The second is a confused story involving Saul Bellow - presumably not Epstein's favourite person - and Edward Shils. At its core, Epstein chose Shils as his friend - or was chosen - and naturally became an 'enemy' of Bellow when the two older men had a falling out. Perhaps because Epstein is concerned with preserving his friends reputation, and given Bellow's immense standing in American literature, Epstein's walking on eggshells way of explaining his story means, essentially, that we are left scratching our heads as to why it was told at all. The novel would have lost nothing by its omission, and certainly has not gained from it.

Excluding these admittedly minor flaws, Epstein's work is intelligent, reasoned, well articulated and entertaining. References to works ancient and contemporary are rife throughout the novel, but never in a way that detracts from the experiences of readers who remain ignorant to the primary works. Epstein draws heavily from his own friendships, painting most of them with tenderness, care and consideration, and the wide range of his examination leave little left unexplored. Because the stories of friendship are mostly his, and thus not necessarily immediately identifiable to everyone, the book remains a collection of stories about Epstein. It rises above this due to his erudition, wit and willingness to examine what his friendship mean beyond what they are. At the end of the novel, no suitable definition for friendship has been found. We remain where we have begun, though now we have learned Epstein's take on friendship. His is not - and nor does he profess it to be - the last and only word in friendship. What it is, however, is a collection of intellectual examinations on a topic that should be, but isn't, exhaustively examined by literature. A beginning point, then.

A Book of Pleasure and Utility.......2007-06-09

Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was a teacher of the art of talk, a Roman rhetorician, a lecturer, an admirer of Cicero. While his theories on education during the first century remain largely true even today, Joseph Epstein quotes him on friendship:

"The name of the friend seems to me even holier than that of relative. For the one comes from the intellect, comes from a decision; the other chance bestows, circumstance of birth and things that are not elected by our will."

I do appreciate Epstein's tackling of such an important topic as friendship that has been a source of consternation to myself. Before the book my definition of `friendship' was someone whom I would like to be with. After the book this definition changed to: someone who motivates me to be myself. Yet they all influence who I am.

This is not to say spending time with someone whom I would like to be with is not worthwhile. Perhaps I am learning something new, or just awed by an aura of charisma, yet none of which fuels friendship, rather acquaintance that may takeoff to friendship. It is important, as Epstein encourages the reader, to recognize the difference and save the paean tendencies.

Dictionaries are not very helpful to define what a friend is: a comrade or a companion. Equality in `comrade' is challenged because friendship is preferential and by its very nature it is discriminative. A `companion' is "too neutral" as Epstein puts it. It is nearly non-preferential because it means someone who happens to be in one's company.

Epstein attempts to distinguish between the "kinds' and "degrees" of friendship, a taxonomy, or science of friendship by the following categories:

Old Friends
Out-of-Town Friends
Professional Friends
Secondary Friends (friend of a friend)
Male-Female Friends
Ex-Friends

Marriage is more than a friendship and it is in a class of its own, although nearly all of the characteristics of friendship are inherited perhaps with the exception of guy-talk.

Epstein devotes an entire chapter on the Best Friend. He quotes George Santayana's definition for this phenomenon: "the person with whom you can be most human." Epstein interprets `human' in this context as the state of being "most yourself".

A characteristic of friendship is giving back and you take, but how to measure? Top bean counter who wrote the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith, had thought of the notion of reciprocity in friendship to be unreckonable. The author amusingly calls the "theme" of his family as "ingratitude" because his mother and father didn't forgive one they lavished generosity with and did not receive a thank-you card. Epstein is quick to note that he has to "guard against fresh outbreaks of this family trait."

Epstein quotes Aristotle in the Nichomachean Ethics where friendship is based on one or two purposes: pleasure and utility. This is the reason I find professional friendship at work. There is pleasure because we do what we enjoy doing (software development) and there is utility because we help each other. There is also the pleasure of conversing about many different things with like-minded people. Since so much of my time is spent with people I work with, it is no wonder our friendship spills outside of work into poker nights. But these friendships always remain, and must remain, within the "professional friendship" category. While business is good, people at work are as Alexander Dumas's D'Artagnan exclaims "All for one and one for all!" But when it turns sour it's more like Napoleon's cry "Every man for himself!" at Waterloo. Of course in theory and practice good synergies don't allow for a business to crash and burn. While loyalty is a characteristic of friendship, Epstein asks, but to what degree? In marriage--as I see it--this is at infinity.

Aristotle, according to Epstein's research, had said the prerequisite to a friendship is that a person must have good character. This is very basic, true, and more or less ubiquitous among people most of us like to be with. A much subtler point to friendship is probably the requirement that a person be intelligent. F. Scott Fitzgerald offers a clear and unambiguous definition to what an intelligent person is:

"The sign of an intelligent person is the ability to keep two contradictory ideas in his head at the same time and still function."

In other words agreeing to disagree is extremely crucial to the sustenance of friendship.

Listen friend..........2007-01-04

...save your dime, or in this case 240 dimes, and go buy some old Susan Polis Shultz books. They make about as much sense, but at least they come with some art.

From the beggining this book did not make a good impression. In the first three pages I learn that the author doesn't know Freud from a hole in the ground. Even worse he doesn't know the difference between solipsism and narcissism. Think that's bad? It doesn't get much better.

I managed to plod about a third of the way through the drudge fest, constantly aware that if I had turned in something so heavily filled with misunderstood quotes and mindless meandering, I would have failed High School English. Eventually I had to donate it to the Friends of the Library bookstore. Ironic, that.

In the end, I can only say this; friends don't let friends buy this book.

Do not waste your money........2006-11-01

This was the most boring book I have had the mispleasure of reading. Our book club chose it based on a review one of our members read. Needless to say after every member complained about the book and found nothing positive to say we looked into other reviews and found them to match our opinion. Do not waste your money on this book.

Raises questions, leaves some hanging.......2006-10-02

If, as Joseph Epstein writes, friendship can rest on nothing more or less than liking someone enough to see him again, one wonders how he can elsewhere say that spouses or romantically engaged people aren't really friends, at least in the early days of their relationship. I'm sure this is true for many people (who may in fact never be good friends and require other supports), but it is certainly not true for the rest of us. Early married friendship as friendship may have its deficiencies, but surely those deficiencies vary in number and intensity with each couple; and on his own showing, friendship itself has deficiencies. Aiming too high or asking too much may mean that one doesn't have friends at all.

But that raises another question: is friendship a thing in itself, with standards or criteria that must be met in order to be friendship, or is it something that we can squeeze and shape and reduce as opportunity or lack thereof requires, a sort of Procrustean thing? In other words, friendship may be swell, but maybe the real thing is just rare, and no amount of longing can make it less rare.

An interesting question, also (for me at least), is how Epstein's friends have received this book. Epstein makes it clear, in different places, that he has more friends than he really wants; he is someone presented with a huge chocolate box of friends, but he really only likes the hazelnut ones, and then even these must have hard centers. All his friends must be wondering: am I the hazelnut with the hard center or the mint one he could do without? And if so, can I do without him? He may be the only person in history that has written a book not to make more friends but to have fewer.

So, if Epstein is unlike most people in that instead of wishing that he had the right sort of friends, or real friends, or more friends, he is not very needy of friends, does he shed light on what gives a person that lack of neediness? Not directly; but it seems as if some of the very qualities that make one a good friend are the same qualities that make one not very needy of friends. An interesting paradox, perhaps, pointing to quality over quantity.

Further, Epstein's self-described ability to draw people to him, and to flatter them that he likes them more than he does (a revelation that itself is very unflattering), raises the question of why, other than vanity, he has persisted in the same behavior for so long. If (at least before publishing this book) he has ever answered the phone and smiled down it audibly, as customer service people are sometimes trained to do, did he genuinely smile in each case or did he know that he was doing his customer-service thing, his people-love-me-because-I'm-so-lovable thing? I'm not saying this to "go after" him, but these questions come up in the course of reading his book. In other words, can one really have "a lot" of friends, however defined and whatever the number, if one doesn't really want them? Expose, indeed.

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Friendship: An Expose
Joseph Epstein
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0618872159

Book Description

From the writer whom James Atlas has deemed "the liveliest, most erudite, and engaging essayist we have," Friendship is a sharply entertaining examination of those complex and wonderful relationships without which wed all be lost. Joseph Epstein sketches an amusing yet serious anatomy of friendship in its contemporary guises: the duties and requirements of friendship, the various kinds of friendships, the differences between male and female friendships, the complications marriage and family create-and what happens when sex enters the equation. Moving easily from Aristotle to Seinfeld and drawing on his own experiences with people both famous (Saul Bellow and Ralph Ellison) and unknown (an army bunkmate), Epstein uncovers rich and often surprising truths about our chosen companions.

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396 pages of pure bliss

Might & Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer: Prima's Official Strategy Guide
Joe Grant Bell
Manufacturer: Prima Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Strategy Guides | Games & Strategy Guides | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
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Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor: Prima's Official Strategy Guide

Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven : Prima's Official Strategy Guide

Might and Magic: Platinum Edition

Might and Magic 8: Day of the Destroyer

Heroes of Might and Magic V (Prima Official Game Guide)

ASIN: 0761528415
Release Date: 2000-04-05

Book Description

Stop the convergence of the elements!

• Extensive weapons and spells list
• Strategies for party creation and development
• Detailed maps for every quest
• Essential creature attribute tables
• Covers all outdoor and indoor areas
• Tips for every player: novice to expert

Customer Reviews:

396 pages of pure bliss.......2000-05-02

What can I say? Everything that was wrong with Might & Magic VII's Strategy Guide has been remedied in this one.

1. Quest Walkthroughs have been separated into Main, Promotion, and Secondary (according to region) sections so you can get to the walkthrough you want with a minimum of page flipping, in contrast to that annoying jumble of quests in each region provided in the previous strategy guide.

2. A serious flaw of the previous strategy guide was the lack of a Skill table. This guide not only provides a Skill table, which is nicely divided into Armor&Weapons, Magic, and Miscellaneous Skills, it even mentions them again in the Region Location tables, resulting in (u guessed it) a minimum of page flipping.

3. The Walkthroughs in the previous guide were written in long winded paragraphs that mentioned too much useless information. When I'm playing a game and get stuck in a quest, I don't want to spend time reading a bunch of paragraphs, I want to find out the exact sequence of steps required to finish the quest, as in: (A) go talk to this guy who is in such and such a place to receive the quest. (B) go do THIS over THERE to THOSE people (C) go back to that guy and collect your reward. Quick and painless just like this guide.

4. In general the guide hasn't forgotten anything. It provides ALL the stats on EVERYTHING: Spells, Items, Ores, Maps, Travel Schedules, Monsters, etc. The Maps are clearer, and the tips provided are very useful and great time savers.

Customer Reviews:

Untold World War II history a must for all navy vets.......2006-06-27

Being a Korean navy vet and having worked for the author 1966 to 1971, I was totally unprepared for the contents in thebook. I have passed out 20 copies to family, friends, those who have had business relationships with the author; a very successful auto dealer, direct sales marketing training systems, pioneer in computerized auto dealer accounting systems.

1960 Annopolis grauduate "best book on WWII I have ever read." 1962 destroyer electronic technician, "they still call it the Williamson turn, baseball caps on deck now uniform of the day."

Fascinating Story of a Remarkable Ship and Crew.......2005-04-20

The USS England (named after a sailor killed at Pearl Harbor, not after the country) was a small destroyer escort ship (DE 635 306 feet long, 1200 tons). This book is the story of her wartime career from launching in San Francisco through her nine month career. Yes, nine months, launched December 10, 1944, she fought in the South Pacific until hit by a kamikaze at Okinawa. She struggled back to the Philadelphia Navy yard and was in the process of extensive rebuilding when the war ended and such a damaged ship was no longer needed by the Navy.

The crowning point of the England's career was the record it set for killing six enemy submarines in twelve days. This was enough to make the Navy use her name on a guided-missile cruiser (CG-22) to keep the history alive.

The author was exec and then commander of the England during her short life. He writes a tale of navy life during the war that is fascinating and interesting.

May there allways be an ENGLAND.......2005-04-20

This is a wonderful book. Having met John Willaimson and some of the officers and crew of USS ENGLAND DE-635, I cannot say enough about these men, there heroes. John Willaimson had said he was working on a book when I met him in 2002 and when he passed away I was curious as to what happened to the book. I was elated to see it in print and after reading happier still! It is well written, personal, and detailed as it discusses both John Willaimson's path to the USS ENGLAND and USS ENGLAND in the Pacific at war where she sunk 6 submarines in just twelve days in 1944! This was not well publicized at the time but ENGLAND's effort was well known in the Navy, "There'll always be an ENGLAND in the United States Navy." CNO Admiral E. J. King 1944 "May there allways be an ENGLAND. Well done and congratulations to all hands." Admiral Halsey. This is a must read book. It is also imperative that an ENGLAND return to the US Navy to honor these men and this legacy.

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CURE director Harold Smith is center stage; to his horror!

Judgement Day (Destroyer, 14)
Warren Murphy , and Richard Sapir
Manufacturer: eReads.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0759248443

Book Description

The new director is ordering the Destroyer and his mentor Chiun to kill Smith, the director of CURE. They are searching for Smith, who is successfully hiding, when immediate trouble begins for the deadly duo, because Chiun doesn't want to agree to the killing. Smith is Chiun's emperor, the man who pays the salary that supports the ancient village of Sinanju. Chiun doesn't know about CURE, just about Smith, and the cash always arrives on time. That's enough. Remo is a company man though, a trained killer who works for CURE, the top-secret agency that doesn't exist, and if they don't want Smith to exist any longer, it is his job to murder him. Orders are orders. But who is the new director? Who hired him and who fired Smith? Could there be another infiltrator? CURE's security has been violated before, and there is always that possibility. There are a lot of questions to be answered before judgment day arrives.

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CURE director Harold Smith is center stage; to his horror!.......1997-01-15

Remo Williams thought he would never be rid of his lemony boss Harold Smith, director of the supersecret organization CURE. After all, Smith was the one responsible for framing Remo for murder, faking his execution, and shanghai-ing him into service at CURE; a man who doesn't exist for an organization that doesn't exist. When golden boy Blake Corbish takes the helm at CURE, Remo is surprised to find that he likes Corbish even less than Smith and refuses to carry out Corbish's first order: Find Smith and kill him. Good thing, because Corbish is behind a plot to usurp CURE's awesome powers for his own evil ends, and only Dr. Harold Smith stands in his way. Can Remo Williams save the man who framed him for murder and virtually enslaved him? Of course, Remo is the Destroyer...the question is, will he

Corry: A D-Day Survivor's Stories About the Destroyer That Led the Normandy Invasion

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An eyewitness, blow-by-blow accounting

Corry: A D-Day Survivor's Stories About the Destroyer That Led the Normandy Invasion
Kevin McKernon , and Francis M. Mckernon
Manufacturer: Easy Rudder Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Bootprints

ASIN: 0974069809

Book Description

June 6, 1944: D-Day - After leading the massive Allied invasion armada of more than 5,000 ships into the battle that was the beginning of the end for Adolf Hitler, off Utah Beach the destroyer USS Corry (DD-463) engaged in fierce combat with German artillery firing from the Normandy shore. A prime target at the front of the invasion force, she was the only U.S. destroyer sunk on D-Day. After abandoning ship, crewmembers fought to survive in bone-chilling water for more than two hours as they awaited rescue under constant enemy fire. Read fascinating stories that include D-Day front-line action, U-boat patrol, the Battle of the Atlantic, and more. These stories of Corry Chief Radio Technician and D-Day survivor Francis "Mac" McKernon proudly pay tribute to those who served on the USS Corry - the destroyer that led the Normandy invasion.

Customer Reviews:

An eyewitness, blow-by-blow accounting.......2004-01-16

Francis M. McKernon is a survivor of D-Day. Corry is his eyewitness, blow-by-blow accounting of the destroyer ship that led the Normandy shore invasion as told to Kevin McKernon. Destructive shelling eventually sank the USS Corry, and twenty-four crewmen lost their lives before the rest could be rescued. An intense saga of battle, death, and remembrances of the small touches and great friendships that transcend time and situation Corry is a welcome contribution to World War II European Theatre Military Studies reference collections and reading lists.

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The Destroyer #14: Judgment Day
Richard & Murphy, Warren Sapir
Manufacturer: Pinnacle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000U0KV4U

Harm's WayEvery Day: The Book of a Destroyer (Tin Can) at Okinawa

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Harm's WayEvery Day: The Book of a Destroyer (Tin Can) at Okinawa
Harold "Bud" Kalosky
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1424100313

Book Description

This book was written from the actual ship's daily log of the USS Sproston DD 577. This log is not much unlike that of any other Tin Can that was out on the radar picket lines around the island of Okinawa from March 26 until June 30, 1945. It was an almost daily occurrence to have kamikaze suicide planes from somewhere coming in to the island or surrounding area; only heavy rains held them back. The destroyers suddenly became the first line of defense. No ships or anyone on the island knew of a plane until we told them when and from where they were approaching and how many were in the group. Reporting them to Combat Air Patrol was our primary assignment. By attacking us, it was usually over for them in a hurry, and they died happy for their emperor.

JUDGEMENT DAY (DESTROYER SERIES, NO. 14)

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JUDGEMENT DAY (DESTROYER SERIES, NO. 14)

Manufacturer: Pinnacle Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HQVO1G

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Judgment Day (The Destroyer, 14)

Manufacturer: Pinnacle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: 052300303X

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Judgment Day: The Destroyer #14
Richard & Warren Murphy Sapir
Manufacturer: NY Pinnacle Books 1974.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LTMKQM

Kull the Destroyer # 23 (Day of the Demon -Shade, Vol. 1)

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Kull the Destroyer # 23 (Day of the Demon -Shade, Vol. 1)
Marvel Comics Group
Manufacturer: Marvel Comics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic
ASIN: B000T8I4R4

Book Description

Acclaimed one of the "seminal books . . . comparable in ultimate importance to . . . Galileo or Malthus or Rousseau or Mill", Cybernetics was judged by twenty-seven historians, economists, educators, and philosophers to be one of those books published during the "past four decades," which may have a substantial impact on public thought and action in the years ahead." -- Saturday Review

Customer Reviews:

Timeless work joins philosophy, computing, and mathematics.......2006-05-17

Norbert Wiener was interested in the means by which feedback could be communicated to help correct the problems that develop in an organism. In investigating this matter, Weiner investigates a number of topics that differentiate between mere computation and intelligence and the importance that information plays in both. This is the unifying theme of a book that seems to wander through many topics using philosophy, mathematics, and the theory of computation.

For example, in chapter one of the book, Wiener illustrates the basic difference between man and machine with a discussion of the concept of Newtonian versus Bergsonian time. He states that Newtonian time - that of high level physics phenomena- is reversible. Bergsonian time, the time of living organisms making their way against entropy is not reversible. Thus since Newtonian time is reversible nothing "new" happens, as opposed to the irreversible time of evolution and biology in which there is always something new.

He continues this idea in the chapter "Computing Machines and the Nervous System." In it, he defines the characteristics of computing machinery. He concludes that the brain, being irreversible, is thus an analog of a single run of a machine. Wiener also points out that many problems of human metabolism and reproduction are associated with the inability to receive and organize impulses and make them effective in the outer world. Thus Weiner ultimately concludes that to live effectively is to live with adequate information.

There are also chapters that are almost purely philisophical about the role of information in society. Then there are other chapters that present heavy-duty mathematics on such topics as representing a time series of known statistical parameters as Brownian motion in an attempt to solve communications problems in nonlinear situations. The mathematics in this book is presented with little or no background, so you are going to need other sources to understand what Wiener is trying to convey.

In summary, if you want an interesting read on the science and philosophy of artificial intelligence and the role of the machine this is one of the best out there. It still stands the test of time after nearly sixty years.

Welcome to the Machine.......2006-01-24

Why is everything called "cyber" (cyberspace, cyberpunk)? Because of this book from 1948 in which Norbert Wiener, a prof at MIT, coined the phrase "cybernetics," from the Greek word "kybernutos" meaning "governor." If you're tired of viewing your computer as a black box (the input goes in here, the output comes out there, and something mysterious happens inside), or if you wonder if the tech world has any relation to the natural world, check out this unusual book, which is rewarding on many different levels.

Find out why robotics, neural nets and artificial intelligence (AI) predate the PC and even the mainframe computer and are not a new development. Travel back to the days of the giant ENIAC when the computer seemed to be an idea on everyone's mind, simply waiting for advances in technology to make it a reality. But this very readable book goes further, as suggested in Wiener's subtitle: "Control and Communication in the Animal and Machine." Many specialists in various fields initially opposed this book because of Wiener's interdisciplinary approach, which broke down the hard and fast walls between various disciplines.

The vocabulary of this book has now become commonplace (we ask for "feedback" and refer to "systems" on a daily basis), but many of its ideas have yet to be discovered. I couldn't keep up with the math, but you don't need to to grasp the basic ideas or to enjoy Wiener's lucid and luminous style, which ranks among the best of popular science writing. Wiener also wrote a general market book, "The Human Use of Human Beings" to present some of these ideas to a wider audience. Some fifty years after its initial publication, this book still forms an inviting welcome to the machine.

A fundamental law that is applicable to almost everything.......2000-04-09

Two books, both written in the late 1940s stand out as contributing much to our understanding of the world around us. One of these is "Cybernetics" by Weiner and the other is "The mathematical theory of communication" by Shannon. Both require some study by contain many sections that are easily readable by anyone which get the main points across in an understandable manner.

Weiner's book discuses the use of feedback on virtually every type of control mechanism known... i.e., those of nature as well as those of man. It is the "basic" stuff that everyone of us uses everyday and every moment of our lives whether we are aware of it or not. Whereas Shannon's book tells us how to communicate information in an error-free (or nearly so) way, Weiner's book explains how that information is used to provide effective control of everything around us. For many decades since I first was introduced to these two works, I have used their principles in most things I do.

I very highly recommend these two books to anyone who considers themselves a "thinking person" and is seeking to understand the world around them. Both easily get 5 stars. They are major works!

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