Best Selling Books by David Brown

Pliny wrote of Babylon that "here the creator of the science of astronomy was". Excavations have shown this statement to be true. This book argues that the earliest attempts at the accurate prediction of celestial phenomena are indeed to be found in clay tablets dating to the 8th and 7th centuries BC from both Babylon and from Nineveh. The author carefully situates this astronomy within its cultural context, treating all available material from the relevant period, and also analysing the earlier astrological material and the later well-known ephemerides and related texts. A wholly new approach to cuneiform astral concerns emerges - one in which both celestial divination and the later astronomy are shown to be embedded in a prevailing philosophy dealing with the ideal nature of the early universe, and in which the dynamics of the celestial divination industry that surrounded the last Assyrian monarchs account for no less than the first recorded "scientific revolution". This work closely adheres to the original textual sources, and argues for the evolution on the basis of the needs of the ancient scholars and the internal logic of the divinatory and predictive systems employed. To this end, it offers, for the first time, a Mesopotamian contribution to the philosophy, and not only the history, of science.

Modest Musorgsky was one of the towering figures of nineteenth-century Russian music. Now, in this new volume in the Master Musicians series, David Brown gives us the first life-and-works study of Musorgsky to appear in English for over a half century. Indeed, this is the largest such study of Musorgsky to have appeared outside Russia. Brown shows how Musorgsky, though essentially an amateur with no systematic training in composition, emerged in his first opera, Boris Godunov, as a supreme musical dramatist. Indeed, in this opera, and in certain of his piano pieces in Pictures at an Exhibition, Musorgsky produced some of the most startlingly novel music of the whole nineteenth century. He was also one of the most original of all song composers, with a prodigious gift for uncovering the emotional content of a text. As Brown illuminates Musorgsky''s work, he also paints a detailed portrait of the composer''s life. He describes how, unlike the systematic and disciplined Tchaikovsky, Musorgsky was a fitful composer. When the inspiration was upon him, he could apply himself with superhuman intensity, as he did when composing the initial version of Boris Godunov. Sadly, Musorgsky deteriorated in his final years, suffering periods of inner turmoil, when his alcoholism would be out of control. Finally, unemployed and all but destitute, he died at age forty-two. His failure to complete his two remaining operas, Khovanshchina and Sorochintsy Fair, Brown concludes, is one of music''s greatest tragedies. Written by one of the leading authorities on nineteenth-century Russian composers, Musorgsky is the finest available biography of this giant of Russian music.

This book, the first serious analysis of the doctrine of the Trinity for many years, presents a defense against the conservative treatment of the Trinity as an impenetrable "mystery," and against the radical position that the doctrine is incoherent and therefore unacceptable. Brown favors "the founding of a new discipline of philosophical theology (or the widening of the horizons of the philosophy of religion) to apply more widely the type of penetration of theology by philosophy" that he exemplifies in his treatment of the Trinity. He argues for belief in an interventionist God (theism rather than deism), and contends that biblical criticism and historical research do not imply the abandonment of Christian belief, since "the historical original" should not be equated with "theological truth." Although historical difficulties must prevent any literal acceptance of the Gospel accounts in toto, "the true Christ" can be disentangled from "the historical Jesus" by philosophical method. Wide-ranging in scope, rigorous and candid in argument, Brown''s work will prove of interest to educated Christian laypersons and others beyond the boundaries of professional theology and philosophy of religion. Perhaps most provocative is Brown''s assertion that the Resurrection must be accepted as a literally true visionary experience, and that anyone who accepts it must be prepared to take seriously other visionary experiences, for example, visions of the Virgin Mary, even if he rejects them in the end. "It is certainly an astonishing truth that God should be so interested in a being of such vastly inferior powers as man," says the author. "But that clearly must be the implication of the doctrine of the Trinity . . ." To have reached this conclusion by means of philosophical argument is to have taken a major step toward the "complete penetration of theology by philosophy" that Brown calls for.

The issue of race has indelibly shaped the history of the United States. Nowhere has the drama of race relations been more powerfully staged than in the American South. This book charts the turbulent course of southern race relations from the colonial origins of the plantation system to the maturation of slavery in the nineteenth century, through the rise of a new racial order during the Civil War and Reconstruction, to the civil rights revolution of the twentieth century.While the history of race in the southern states has been shaped by a basic struggle between black and white, the authors show how other forces such as class and gender have complicated the colour line. They distinguish clearly between ideas about race, mostly written and disseminated by intellectuals and politicians, and their reception by ordinary southerners, both black and white. As a result, readers are presented with a broad, over-arching view of race in the American South throughout its chequered history.Key Features:*racial issues are the key area of interest for those who study the American South*race is the driving engine of Southern history*unique in its focus on race*broad coverage - origins of the plantation system to the situation in the South today

This book describes the bond valence model, a description of acid-base bonding which is becoming increasingly popular particularly in fields such as materials science and mineralogy where solid state inorganic chemistry is important. Recent improvements in crystal structure determination have allowed the model to become more quantitative. Unlike other models of inorganic chemical bonding, the bond valence model is simple, intuitive, and predictive, and can be used for analysing crystal structures and the conceptual modelling of local as well as extended structures. This is the first book to explore in depth the theoretical basis of the model and to show how it can be applied to synthetic and solution chemistry. It emphasizes the separate roles of the constraints of chemistry and of three-dimensional space by analysing the chemistry of solids. Many applications of the model in physics, materials science, chemistry, mineralogy, soil science, surface science, and molecular biology are reviewed. The final chapter describes how the bond valence model relates to and represents a simplification of other models of inorganic chemical bonding.

On 3 July 1940, soon after the collapse of the French front and France''s request for an armistice, a reluctant Royal Navy commander opened fire on the French Navy squadron at Mers-el-Kebir. Some 1,300 French sailors lost their lives.The late David Brown''s detailed account finally conveys an objective understanding of the course of events that led u

A unique book about a unique life chronicles a persistent journey from an isolated Appalachian area mired in deep poverty. Illegal bootleggers and nasty mountain villains haunt the young man''s family. A fundamentalist preacher condemns the young man to hell. As a four-year-old first-grader, he perseveres to academic excellence. Numerous episodes in his misspent youth ring outrageous with an abundance of original sin. The young man frantically struggles to find acceptance and eventually receives a surprise calling. Driven to find meaning in life, he battles against a social anxiety disorder and eventually speaks to audiences of thousands. He is the founder of a first-of-its kind publication for clergy and a clergy conference that renowned theologian Walter Brueggemann calls "a major piece of work that will stand when the history of the U.S. church is written. It must be providential that you were led from your start to that great work." Experience the epic travels from hillbilly obscurity to encounters with fame and the sacred. Paths cross with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, civil rights activists, U.S. senators, and world-famous musicians.

About the Contributor(s): David William Brown FBA is an Anglican priest and theologian who currently serves as Professor of Theology, Aesthetics and Culture in the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts and as Wardlaw Professor at St Mary''s College, University of St Andrews.

Once the world was under the authority of a single ruling entity, and a powerful and charismatic leader was elected to be its executive, it was certain that things would change. Unfortunately for humanity, the transformation was not for the better. When the Global Governance Group (GGG) announced its order that no subordinate governing body, company, trade union, organization, or individual could buy or sell without a government issued biochit, it was just another concession for many. For one man however, the implications became all too obvious, and he hatched a plan for the survival of his family and his friends. This narrative is an apocalyptic vision of the future that has at its core the hypothetical question: Could a man take the mark of the beast and still be saved?

Seldom has the world seen a man with the grace, style, and intellect of David Brown. Known in his lifetime as a journalist (The Saturday Evening Post, Harper''s, and Collier''s), a publisher (Cosmpolitan), an Academy Award winning film producer (Jaws, The Sting, The Verdict, Cocoon, Driving Miss Daisy), a Broadway producer (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Sweet Smell of Success, A Few Good Men), an author, a one-time astrologer, and husband to long-time Cosmopolitan head Helen Gurley Brown. Throughout his remarkable life he was a friend, acquaintance, and confidant of the world''s most powerful, most famous, and most notorious. With his remarkably perfect memory, this raconteur extraordinaire shares in intimate detail his personal encounters and experiences with a cavalcade of world famous personalities - from Mafia chieftains to world leaders, the reclusive Howard Hughes, the super-rich J. Paul Getty, William Randolph Hearst, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Kennedy, Irving Berlin, Paul Newman, Orson Welles, Steven Spielberg, Robert Redford, Darryl Zanuck, David, O. Selznick, John O''Hara, Carl Sandburg, Nikita Khrushchev, Frank Sinatra, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Salvador Dali, Irving Lazar, John Belushi, and scores of others.

This is the official Naval Staff history of the Norway campaign, originally published internally in 1951. It covers the period from early April 1940 to the completion of operations in June. The operation involved most of the Royal Navy''s ships in the Home theatre at the time.

In 1847, Samantha waits tables and serves grog at Logan''s Tavern in Campbeltown, Scotland. She joins the love of her life, the local Presbyterian minister, on an ill-fated voyage. The Reverend Charles Stuart is forced into exile (because of his zealous passion for the poor) and placed on an overloaded sailing ship to Wilmington, North Carolina. The ship barely survives the storm of the decade and runs aground near Kilmarnock, Virginia. Samantha and Charles join the efforts of the Underground Railroad. They live under the threat of death by hanging from plantation owners and their hired assassins. Inspired by Samantha, a great-granddaughter and a minister, who is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, uncover a conspiracy near Charlottesville, Virginia, that threatens democracy in the United States of America in the twenty-first century.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is the most up-to-date body of musical knowledge ever gathered together. The New Grove composer biographies have been selected from the dictionary to bring the finest of the biographies to a wider audience. Each has been expanded and updated for book publication and contains a comprehensive work-list, index, and fully revised bibliography, in addition to the definitive view of the subject''s life and works. The great traditions of Russian music began in the mid-19th century with Mikhail Glinka—the father figure for the next generations of Russian composers. His direct heirs were ''The Five,'' or ''The Mighty Handful,'' drawn together by Mily Balakirev, the teacher of two leading figures in the group: Alexander Borodin, creator of Prince Igor and quartets of an unmistakably Russian flavor, and Modest Musorgsky, creator of the greatest Russian epics of the lyric stage. Slightly apart from this group because of his more cosmopolitan approach to his art stands the most-loved of all Russian composers, the ever-appealing Tchaikovsky.

This book looks at the origins of the suicide campaign amid the concepts of Bushido, Japan''s self-sacrificing warrior code, and Shinto, the state religion. It follows the ebb and flow of major battles as well as tactics and U.S. response.

"Addie Pray, eleven, and her father are con artists who travel the South before they join a more sophisticated schemer who plans their ultimate con." *** "The death of eleven-year-old Addie Pray''s mother leaves her in the care of Long Boy, a man who may or may not be her biological father, and together they set out to con their way through the Deep South in the middle of the Great Depression."

150 years after his death Tchaikovsky remains a controversial & enigmatic figure. His enormous popularity as a composer has never faded, yet the character of the man himself continues to conjure up paradoxes. David Brown has drawn together a fascinating collection of reminiscences & contemporary documents, many of them never before translated into English. They provide a chronicle of Tchaikovsky''s upbringing in Russia & the early years of his career, as well as impressions of his extensive European concert tours. The memoirs of colleagues & pupils shed valuable light on the mysterious circumstances of his death. Illustrated.