Works Book Reviews Samples For Students

"Walden or Life in the Woods" by Henry David Thoreau belongs to the vivid and memorable American works of classical literature. The personality of the author and the pages of his famous book highlight anti-capitalist, romantic, and utopian ideas that received considerable spread in the United States in the 30-40-ies of the last century and these ideas were a kind of protest against the brutality of the bourgeois industrial progress and its accompanying social ills.
  The ideological pioneers of the anti-capitalist and romantic-utopian protests were called transcendentalists. It is a circle of prominent representatives of the American democratic intelligentsia, ...

Introduction

The things they carried was published in 1990 and is regarded as an outstanding fictional work that is based on a platoon of American soldiers who participated in the Vietnam war and how they are fought boredom and trauma of combat throughout the Vietnam War. While it seems it is based on the experiences of O’Briens, the cover page recognizes the book as a work of fiction. In one of the short stories, Good Form, the narrator draws a clear cut distinction between the happening truth and the story truth. The author, O’Brien, has a feeling that, creating a story that is ...

In the introduction to Hunter's Shakespeare and the Comedy of Forgiveness, the author announces his intention to combat oversimplifications that have arisen over the past few decades with regards to the scholarship of Shakespeare, wherein the attitude of Shakespeare itself at the time of his writing would actually reflect the politics and intent of the work itself (e.g. King Lear having a sad ending indicating Shakespeare being despondent at the time of its composition). "This study...will be an attempt to investigate one feature - the denouement in forgiveness - which is common to five of the later comedies" (Hunter 2). ...

Historical Background and Overview of the Book

The term Viewpoints as used in theater arts refers to a set of terminologies given to some specific principles of motion/movement through time and space; they simply describe what happens on the stage. The viewpoints can also be defined as an improvisation technique that emanated from the postmodern world of dance. The technique was developed in the 1970s by choreographer Mary Overili by breaking down space and time. Composition on the other hand is the art of selecting and arranging the individual components of theatre language into a combined work of art. Directors Anne Bogart and Tina Landau expanded and adapted ...

Chapter 1

The main idea of “The Matthew Effect” is that people frequently attribute success to individual characteristics that they consider to be rare, such as genius or talent. However, oftentimes the real explanation for that success has to do with advantages that are not accessible to the public. The analogy that he provides has to do with the factors that create the tallest tree in a particular forest. It is true that the tree came from a quality seed, but that seed (and sapling) did not have any other trees blocking its sunlight, and the seed was planted in fertile ...

Background

Thinking Strategically by Dixit and Nalebuff is a book that aims to give strategies to help the reader increase their IQ while not necessarily providing solutions to all problems. The book is subtitled "The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life." The book is a worldwide bestseller because of the timeless advice, strategies and case examples given throughout its pages. The book was originally written in 1993 but is still listed as one of the best business books around.

Overview

The first chapter of any book usually sets the tone for the rest of the work. In this book, ...

Plutarch’s historical work On Sparta is a vivid and compelling description of Spartan life, and their contributions to modern philosophy, warfare, and other elements of life, to which they have made significant knowledge contributions. Spartan customs, and the rise and fall of their kingdom, are both of interest to current readers, because their culture influenced the rest of Europe profoundly, even after it’s’ eventual decline in the third century B.C. It is a compelling read, depicting some extremely significant historical moments, and characters, and offering tidbits of wisdom still applicable today
Plutarch was a Greek Historian, and ...

Middle East History: Trickster Travels by Natalie Zemon Davis

“Trickster Travels” was written by Natalie Davis, who is a historian of the early modern period. Her main interests are cultural history and social history. She has worked for the period ranging from 15th to 18th centuries, and focused on Europe (Princeton University, history.princeton.edu). She has taught history in many universities including the University of Toronto, Brown University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Princeton University.
Her book “Trickster Travels” was published in 2006, and with the publication of this book, she successfully managed to sustain her name as one of the most interesting historians of the early ...

The novella, Heart of Darkness is, in the literature world, considered one of the greatest cultural literary works of the 19th century. Conrad takes us through the experiences of the European colonialists in the heart of Africa. The clash of the European and non-European customs form the basis of Conrad's writings. The book has garnered a lot of criticism from African scholars who argue that the book negatively targets the African nation and the African people. The book, according to Chinua Achebe is a mockery of the African people. It ridicules the customs of the native Africans, terming Africa ...

California' is a novel and the works of an American author Edan Lepucki. Due to the authors’ style of writing and themes involved, the novel’s description is a "post-apocalyptic dystopian fiction," since it involves two characters, Cal, and Frida, who move from Los Angeles to the wilderness of the post-apocalyptic California.
Frida Ellis and Calvin Friedman are the main characters in ‘California.’ The two are young lovers who escape from Los Angeles, which is falling apart to Northern California and become foragers and farmers as they live in an abandoned house. There are also places for the wealthy, ...

12 Book Descriptors
12 Book Descriptors

Penned by the feminist author of America, Kate Chopin, the novel is one of the very first works of literature that points to the challenges faced by women in the American society. This naturalist work stirs readers with its narrative.

A Doll’s House, Henrik Isben (40 words)

Henrik Isben’s most famous play, A Doll’s house, leaves a mark on the audience or readers with the engaging narrative that shows the gradual transformation of Nora. The play reflects the oppressive nature of marriage and speaks for gender equality.

Frankenstein, or, the Modern Prometheus, Mary Shelley. (40 words)

This sci-fi novel is immortalized in the pages of literary history ...

Comics are a simple and engaging style of storytelling with the help of images, visual art and words. The images are arranged in a panel and into a sequential narrative. Words might or might not be used and usually, appear in a box or balloons near the images. The essay discusses MAUS graphic novel, its content and visual strategies used by the illustrator to convey the information. It evaluates as to how some specific concepts of comics are employed by the author of MAUS. When one mentions a graphic novel, it conjures images of illustrated books and comics.
There ...

In the book «Children of Paradise: The Struggle for the Soul of Iran» the author tries to understand the current state of affairs in Iran by thorough analysis of the historical developments. Furthermore the characters of Iranian people are also described; the factors of influence on the policy of this country are considered both on micro and macro levels.
It is important to make clear how does the author combines the historical events and the up-to date situation. The historical background of this book is really significant one. Laura Secor tells about Iranian history starting with the time when ...

History of the United States: to which is prefixed a brief historical … Published by Noah Webster is a book that begins by giving the creation account as well as men’s dispersion on their attempt in building Babel; gives a description of the ancestors , Japheth’s descendants as they were seen before the era of christianity. Saxon ancestors were briefly discussed since they conquered Britain hence improved their art life which eventually led to their reformation. The peopling of America and the aboriginals character was also put into account in this book. Puritan’s origin and cause of migrating to America was ...

Introduction

As the world develops, more people expect a higher and better quality of life. In the 21st Century, architecture has evolved significantly and it seeks to maximise the quality of life that people have across the world. Thus, several works have been done, seeking to blend traditional architecture with other disciplines in order to enhance the nature of the built environment. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a book review on Cognitive Architecture: Designing for How We Respond to the Built Environment by Professors Ann Sussman and Justin Hollander. This book review will include an overview of ...

“Burmese Days” is a powerful and thought-provoking novel written by George Orwell that presents a grim portrait of imperialism and the British Empire. In the book, Orwell neither romanticizes Burma and its people nor idealizes the imperialists. Instead, he depicts bitterness, meanness, corruption, and wickedness. Using his own experience, the author skillfully depicts the cruel circumstances and tragic outcomes in a colonial society that is based on domination and fear and is in the service of the imperialists. The protagonist of the novel, John Flory, vividly demonstrates the dark side of the ruling class, and that the imperialists did ...

Divide Waters: The Naval History of the Civil War

Historical accounts often define important milestones for the human society. It is a creed that Ivan Musicant’s book Divided Waters: The Naval History of the Civil War lives up to as it defines a watershed moment not only in the history of America’s naval operations but also in all other aspects of its human development. The book gives a detailed overview of America’s naval operations during the period of the civil war. Ivan Musicant’s ability to paint such a vivid picture of the events at the time is aided by the use of both primary ...

Introduction

Juvenile delinquency has long been a sensitive topic. It often encompasses the disciplines of morality, ethics, and criminal justice and law enforcement. The same is true for other hotly debated and related topics such as the over-criminalization of youths, youth policing, and the war on drugs and how it affects the mindset and social behavior of young people. There has also been numerous works that have been published about these topics. One of those was Punished Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. Punished was a book published by Victor Rios in 2011.
What makes this book a ...

Book Review of “The Politics of Air Pollution” By George Gonzalez

The Politics of Air Pollution by George Gonzalez
Introduction
Background
George Gonzalez is a renowned assistant professor based in the Department of Political Science at the University of Miami. He has been an avid advocate of the inner political workings of the environmental policy in the United States. The book entitled the politics of air pollution delves into the establishment of policies that govern emission standards with a specialization on California as a key study. The book generally describes California as one the leading states in the promotion of automobile emission standards.
As such, the book focuses on highlighting ...

The Sorrows of Young Werther

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote the book “The Sorrows of Young Werther” in 1774. Originally, the book is in German language, and it was initially published in the year 1774. In English language, it was initially published in 1779.

Summary of the Book

The Sorrows of Young Werther has a number of letters by the main character, Werther, who is an artist having a passionate and sensitive temperament, to Wilhelm, one of the friends of Werther. Those letters of Werther help in telling about his life, his finding of love and losing it in a village known as Wahlheim, whose people captivate him ...

There can be no denial of the fact that the novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by the famous author, Mark Haddon, is one of the best literary works to be adapted in the cinematic form of expression. Indeed, the story in context has enormous scope of quintessential and aesthetic portrayal of the events, emotions, frictions, and mystery. The young teenager of the narrative, Christopher, is the hero of this story in context. The way he is portrayed in the literary narrative truly impresses the readers, and it provides ample scope for catapulting the affective ...

Introduction

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas was written by Douglas, not only as a means to recount his story, but in order to raise awareness about the predicament of the people who suffered from slavery. It was his belief that through his works, people will have a better understanding of the slavery and the need for its complete abolition. Douglas thought that, being a former slave himself, he was in the best position to tell the truth about slavery. Accordingly, the author provided some arguments in his books, a) he argued that slaves must be allowed to ...

A reading of Wakatsuki Houston’s Farewell to Manzanar and Melba Pattillo Beals’ Warriors Don't Cry reveals that racial prejudice in the twentieth-century societies of the United States was against anybody who was not Caucasian. In other words, while Houston’s work focuses on the Japanese-Americans’ experiences after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the internment that came after, Beals talks of black segregation and the laws that declared black people inferior to the whites. Hence, there are similarities between the two books as they revolve around ideas of white supremacy that placed persons of African and Japanese descent ...

The Ghost Map, by Steven Johnson, is a narrative that revealed how diseases spread, how cities developed and how people viewed science in 1854. Integrative thinking and the ability to make connections enabled Dr. John Snow to trace the pattern of the disease to its origin. John’s ability to make a connection between the epidemic and the water the people consumed was marvelous. It enabled him to save people’s lives. It is, therefore, important to have an open mind and think in a connective manner.
This is a narrative that took place in 1854 during summer. London, ...

Introduction

This paper critically analyses the book “Stories that Changed America: Muckrakers of the 20th Century” by Carl Jensen. This will involve trying to put the book into various perspectives so as to improve a better understanding of Jensen’s work. To undertake a critical analysis, the writer will examine the foreground and the background of the author. Examining the author is important because she is the pivotal point of influence in the analysis and understanding of the book. Apart from examining the author, the paper will go ahead and analyze the various themes which were portrayed by the book. ...

The title of this book is “The Goal” written by Eliyah M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox, written in the year 1984 it is ranked among the America’s Business Best seller novel. It also has included an interview with David Whitford; this book is a Narrative non-fiction or a personal narrative. The genre of this book is based on the tense with which this book is written and employment of first person narrative. The writer is also feted for other works such as, It’s not luck, Critical Chain and Necessary but not sufficient. The writer sales standing in ...

Introduction

It has become difficult to distinguish once traditional media from the new media, as the former have integrated all the capabilities of the latter. In such a scenario, it would help to compare a traditional medium of communication with a relatively modern/new medium with respect to the circumstances around their origin, and how did they facilitate interpersonal and mass communication. This essay will discuss and analyze two cases: coffee houses as really old media, and podcasts as new media. While the coffee houses gained importance in Europe the mid-1600, and have been around since then, their importance as facilitators ...

The Haunting of the Hill House Shirley Jackson

“The journey itself was her positive action, her destination vague, unimagined, perhaps nonexistent (Jackson 1.49)”
The car journey to the haunted house means a lot more than just a road trip. She defies her sister’s rule about taking the family car and going to Hill House and gets out to be on her own after a long time. Eleanor lives a repressed life even after the death of her mother curtailed by her family who smother her and refuse to let her grow up. This act of defiance and the car ride gives Eleanor a sense of freedom. ...

The River and the Chimp is an analytical book written by David Quammen about how the HIV originated from chimpanzees in an African forest (Quammen, 2015). The acumen of this book challenges the many unscientific beliefs about the origin of HIV and spread. There is a great need to understand where this scourge originated to beat the diverse stereotypical and unscientific beliefs. By examining the works of David Quammen in the book The River and the Chimp, this research paper shall focus on discussing the origin of HIV. The knowledge of the origin of HIV is of immense importance ...

A social commentary is a piece of work that expresses opinions and expressions about a historical event, appealing to the audience’s sense of social justice. George MacDonald Fraser wrote a novel known as “Flashman “in 1969, which he identified as a reflection of his childhood memoirs.The novel entails the escapades of Flashman. The character is a fictional character that initially appeared in Tom Brown’s work “School days”. The author used his interest in being a soldier in Asia, and quitting his job as a journalist as the majormotivation for writing this novel, and the other series that ...

The Review of ‘The Glory and the Dream’ by William Manchester

Describe the central theme and objective of this reading. Cite examples from the reading.
Recently I’ve read the book on history called ‘The Glory and the Dream’ by William Manchester. ‘One more boring history book,’ you may say. But you shouldn’t draw any firm conclusions at once. Let me prove you that even history books can be interesting and absorbing. Are you ready? So, let’s go.
There are two volumes of this book which the author called a narrative history of America. It comprises the information about the years from 1932 to 1972. And, unlike other ...

NeuroMarketing

Buy.ology, the book by Martin Lindstrom is a new take on marketing. In this book he tries to delve deep into the consumer's subconscious to learn, ‘why we buy what we buy’. After testing a lot of techniques, he has devised a new way to revolutionize the marketing industry. He also has a lot of findings from the experiments that he has conducted.
I would like to discuss the key points and findings of his experiments. According to Lidstrom, our subconscious is in the favor of our emotions every time there is a conflict between feelings and rational thought. ...

Analysis of the Book "The Medicalization of Society" By Peter Conrad

The Main Author's Arguments
Peter Conrad, the author of the book "The Medicalization of Society," conducts a study of the most common problems of the modern society, which essence and nature have changed and obtained a medical character over the past 10-20 years. In other words, the author examines the social problems that have become the diagnoses at the beginning of the 21st century, though they were not related to medicine even a decade ago. At the very beginning of the book, Conrad emphasizes the investigated phenomenon, claiming that his analysis is connected only with the social connotations of ...

The idea of persistent poverty is a pervasive one, and its context in the plantation economy is important to understand if these aspects are to be applied to one’s own concept of the economy. In George Beckford’s 1972 book Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World, he presents a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to understanding the plantation states in the West Indies, while expanding the scope of these appraisals to other third world countries.

Beckford’s basic argument is that “the net development impact [of the plantation system] was large enough to bring about a transformation from a condition ...