Algora Publishing

Building the Great Pyramid in a year; an engineer's report.

Fonte is a practicing engineer with a private firm and has some 30 years of varied hands-on experience ranging from commercial products to military designs. He offers a forensic-engineering exploration of the construction of the Egyptian pyramids. Through a close examination of the clues and relics left behind, and working under the assumption that the Egyptians were intelligent and creative, Fonte concludes that the Great Pyramid at Giza could have been constructed in four to six years by 4,000 workers — far less time than the estimate of 25,000 workers laboring over 20 years favored by most archaeologists. Illustrated with b&w photographs and diagrams, the text is academic but accessible to the general reader. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Crimes of punishment; America's culture of violence.

Psychiatrist Dorpat takes a stand against punishment on both moral and scientific grounds. Looking at the corporal punishment of children, prison incarceration of adults, capital punishment, and emotional (verbal) abuse, he argues that the psychiatric literature demonstrates that punishment is itself a form of violence that does harm to offenders and neglects the basic emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of victims. He recommends replacing America's punitive approach to justice with the restorative justice approach being used increasingly in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and elsewhere. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Ortega's The revolt of the masses and the triumph of the new man.

In this analysis of the social and political views espoused by Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) in The Revolt of the Masses (1930), Gonzales (philosophy, Barry U., Miami) shows how his perspectives on 'mass man' and philosophy as a personal tool for living are still relevant. With references to the existentialists whom he influenced and a glossary of terms used by Ortega, this study should be of interest to students of modern philosophy. His works in English translation are listed. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

White House special handbook; how to rule America and the world in the 21st century.

This rather idiosyncratic work is written by a man who claims to have been asked by unspecified "folks in Washington" (former CIA director John Deutch is named as having authorized the "operation") to distill his experience in covert operations and techniques of influence (gained while serving as a intelligence officer for the Soviet KGB and the Ukrainian National Security Service) for a briefing and set of instructions for the White House. This book is the result, providing advice on such wide ranging matters as managing the Cabinet, manipulating voters, negotiating with Congress, "securing world domination," managing secret services, using the FBI and the Mafia to maintain domestic control, military tactics, campaigning. It also provides bare bones demographic information about every state, quotes and political activities of every US president, and other information. The author's approach is suitably cynical for White House occupants, but one doubts whether this is truly "the book the President of the United States turns to the first day he steps through the door to the Oval Office," as the promotional materials claim. The possibility that it is meant as a wry commentary on current-day politics should not be dismissed, but even as such it remains an odd work. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Windows on Japan; a walk through place and perception.

Educated at universities in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Tokyo, Japan, Roscoe lived in Japan for 22 years as a student, journalist, and corporate researcher; he now divides his time between Auckland and Tokyo. As he walks from one side of the country to the other along a route connecting the ports of Niigata and Yokohama, he offers a series of reflections on the cultural, social and political mores of Japan past and present, and Western perceptions of the Japanese. Academic but accessible to "intellectually curious travelers" and those interested in Japanese culture, environment, history, language, literature, politics, the problem of racial perception and the memory of war. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)