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Article: Ebook Price Fixing with Apple and Publishers


Investigation Into Alleged Price Fixing in the USA

The links below are to articles into alleged ebook price fixing involving Apple and various book publishers.

http://boingboing.net/2012/04/12/apple-publishers-accused-of-p.html
http://boingboing.net/2012/04/12/antitrust-and-ebooks-regulato.html

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Free Book: A God Entranced Vision of All Things – The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards


The link below is to a Blog where you can get a free ebook copy of this book, which is edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor. This book examines the character and teaching of Jonathan Edwards, a pastor from the era of the Great Awakening in the USA.

How do you get a copy? Simply leave a request in the comments section of the post linked to below.

If you would like other books visit the Blog, subscribe to it to keep up to date on what books are available and tell your friends about the site.

To Obtain a Copy of the Book, Visit:
http://searchandtrace.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/a-god-entranced-vision-of-all-things-the-legacy-of-jonathan-edwards/

Visit the Blog at:
http://searchandtrace.wordpress.com/

 

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Books: Bookselling Being Destroyed by Bookselling???


The link below is to an interesting article on the battle over ebooks in the USA particularly – an interesting article.

For more visit:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/barry-eisler-on-amazon-it’s-pretty-hard-to-see-how-someone-could-destroy-bookselling-by-selling-tons-of-books_b48474

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Free Book: History of the Boston Massacre – Frederic Kidder (1870)


This book is for history enthusiasts and concerns what has come down to us as the ‘Boston Massacre.’ The Boston Massacre was an important incident that led up to the American War of Independence. This book contains an account of the incident, as well as information on the town of Boston, the trial of the soldiers involved in the incident and a number of unpublished documents attributed to John Adams (who would become the second president of the United States) who defended the British troops
in their trial.

The book is some 320 pages long and can be downloaded as a pdf, as well as a number of other formats as shown on the page linked to.

To Download the pdf version of the book, visit:
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924076622731

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A Cartoon History of the George Dubya Bush Years, By Elena Steier


 I have just had a quick look at ‘A Cartoon History of the George Dubya Bush Years,’ by Elena Steier. This book is a collection of cartoons from the George W. Bush years as president of the United States. They are a comical look at those years and I’m sure will produce a laugh or two for some people. I however found little in it that amused me – perhaps because I live in Australia and don’t get all the political jokes based on the US political scene of the George W. Bush years.

I have to say that I found some of the cartoons quite offensive and a good number without anything that made them funny to my way of thinking at all. I quite openly state that I am a Christian and therefore some of the material in these cartoons is particularly shocking and offensive to me.

I have had a good laugh at a good number of the cartoons I have seen of George W. Bush in Australian papers, so I do not base my opinion of this book on my appreciation of George W. Bush as a president or for not being able to have a laugh at politics. I simply did not find this book particularly funny or appealing in any way. In fact, I have rid myself of it completely.

Available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Fringe-Cartoon-History-George-Dubya/dp/1439211744

There is a copy here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23408494/A-Cartoon-History-of-The-George-Dubya-Bush-Administration

 

Unknown's avatar

History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent – Volume 1, by George Bancroft


I have been working on getting this volume onto the Tracing our History – History website for some time. I did have about three chapters on the site in HTML format, but have now begun getting the volume up in PDF format. This is taking some time, especially with the large number of footnotes in the text, which I am seeking to have available quickly via links to the footnotes and links that return to the text from the footnotes. The time being spent on this will allow a very good and useful ebook when completed I think. I do have plans to make the entire set of volumes on the History of the United States available over time.

I would recommend the volume I am currently reading (volume 1) as a very good treatment on the European discovery and colonization of the United States. For those outside of the United States (like me) – and quite possibly many within the United States – this work provides a very easy to read and informative history of this period. For those interested in further research, the footnotes provide plenty of material for further reading and investigation, drawing on a wealth of historical material and treatments.

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Life of George Washington – Washington Irving


I have been reading the five volume work of Washington Irving on the ‘Life of George Washington’ over the last little while. Currently I am in the middle of the second volume. Though I am only reading two to ten pages a day and don’t view this reading exercise as particularly pressing, I am enjoying my reading experience very much. It is an easy to read book, with chapters divided into very manageable portions. As a whole, the five volumes make up about 2000 pages.

This work by Washington Irving on the life of George Washington covers the life of the first president of the United States, shedding much light on the life and times of Washington. Thus far I have covered the period of Washington’s early life, through the war against the French and Indians (in which Washington played an important role) and into the American War Of Independence (in which Washington led the fledgling nation’s army against the British). This biographical work seems to be an excellent life of George Washington, but also provides an insight into the players and the history of the times.

In short, this five volume work on Washington is excellent and I would highly recommend reading the entire work on an important person in, and period of, American history. The work is available at the Internet Archive and I have links to the five volumes on my website at:

http://tracingourhistory.com/history.html

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John Adams, by David McCullough


I have just finished watching the mini series ‘John Adams,’ starring Paul Giamatti as John Adams and Laura Linney as Abigail Adams. I found the mini series to be difficult to watch, as it was hardly brilliant drama despite the rhetoric on the DVD case. Not being American was perhaps a reason for my lack of enthusiasm for the mini series. I found it to be a disappointment as a viewing spectacle. But how true to the man and to history was the mini series? This is a question that now has my attention – for the portrayal of John Adams in the production was hardly that of a man to be admired.

Adams comes across as a self-centred, vain glorious man, with poor people skills and a terrible father and husband. He appears to seek his own advancement to the expense of those about him and also to be full of envy and petty jealousy. He also appears to be a somewhat poor diplomat and politician overall – even though he held the greatest office in the United States, as second president following that of George Washington.

So now I come to the book on which this mini series was based, ‘John Adams,’ by David McCullough. I am now going to read this book and see just how true to the book and actual events the mini series achieved. I find it difficult to believe that Adams could have been the way he was protrayed in the film – now I will seek out the truth for myself.

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Changing the World: November 22 – Thanks


The suggestion for today is to acknowledge and express thanks for those who have improved the human condition – for humanity in general and for myself in particular.

Today is known in the United States as ‘Thanksgiving Day.’ Here in Australia we know no such day – something which could be seen as both a good thing and a bad thing. Good, in that it is not another day commercialised and bad, in that there is no particular day for acknowledging our gratitude to those that have improved our lives, etc.

But why do we need a particular day for this – can we not be thankful and express our gratitude on a daily basis? I think we can. I am not calling for a false expression of gratitude and thankfulness, but that which is real and true – surely we can all find something to be thankful for? I know it isn’t hard for me to find plenty to be thankful for throughout each day.

 

A response to reading ‘365 Ways to Change the World,’ by Michael Norton