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This work describes and interprets the continuing battles over the purposes, content, methods, and theoretical foundations of the social studies curriculum. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Comments from Distinguished Educators
An engaging, timely, and important historical account.Evans's book is perceptive and compelling, and should be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of social education.

~Wilson J. Warren, Western Michigan University,


Evans' delineation of approaches is vastly more complex and richer than those proposed by other scholars ...

~Donald Schneider, University of Georgia


Largely because it is a space for articulating competing visions of the "good society," there is no area of the school curriculum that is more contested than social studies. In his detailed and well-researched examination of a century of curricular and pedagogical reform efforts, Evans argues that the history of the field is largely a story of civil war over the purposes, content, methods, and ideology of the social studies curriculum. Evans's thesis that what began as a struggle of various interest groups has evolved into a cultural war against progressive social studies is convincing, and he points to the current, narrow disciplinary focus on history and the social sciences in today's schools as evidence. Evans concludes that the turf struggles in the field have contributed to continuing failure of curricular reform ... .Until now, social studies education lacked a satisfying, comprehensive curricular history; that this history has been written by one of the strongest critics of history-centered social studies education adds to the irony. Summing up: Highly recommended.

~E. W. Ross, University of British Columbia


Evans' work gives an historical review of the current struggle over the content and process of social studies instruction in the curriculum. It offers insight into the evolution of the current disengagement in social studies education in public school by identifying key events and people from his insider's perspective. The power of money, influence, and privilege fragment efforts for a common social studies position, both philosophically and pragmatically. Evans tries to bridge some of these differences by a shift in focus. His thesis is that social studies itself is not the target but rather the pedagogy of critical inquiry that is central to learning about historical events, political systems, social institutions, and global interactions that frame the content. With that stance, he is creating space for groups to find common ground for dialogue around issues of pedagogy. He offers multiple examples and descriptions of materials created for social studies education to make this a valuable professional resource.

~Reese H. Todd, Texas Tech University


Ronald W. Evans is Professor in the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University.He is the author of "This Happened in America: Harold Rugg and the Censure of Social Studies" (2007, Information Age) and editor of the "Handbook on Teaching Social Issues" (1996, NCSS). ... Read more

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This fourth volume in the series discusses such topics as building a sense of history in a first-grade classroom, teaching for understanding in a third-grade geography lesson, and social studies education in an urban fourth-grade classroom. ... Read more

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Affirms the power of writing to memorialize loss and work through grief. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Love Story
Dying to love is the most tragic, heartbreaking story about the strength of a couple faced with cancer and the will to live. Barbara is a strong woman who fears death and fights to leave behind lessons of love because she wants to leave the world knowing her family will be ok, especially her husband. The tragedy is how much she lived and loved life. It is the most intimate love story I have ever known. The love her husband has for her is the love we all want for ourselves. I have never known a greater love story.

Rose Lisboa

A Moving Story
In Dying to Teach, Jeff Berman presents a story that will touch anyone who has gone through a serious illness with a beloved family member. He is honest about his emotions and I found it quite moving. There is a section of photos in the center that made Barbara a real person - not a character in a book. It is also important reading for anyone trying to write meaningfully about personal experiences, as well as for teachers of writing. For the sake of full disclosure, I must admit that my daughter was a student of Professor Berman's, and I have heard him speak on this topic.

Jeff is the best professor I've ever had
In reading the other review of this book, I was a taken by surprise.As a past student of Jeff Berman, I can honestly say that the other reviewer's concern of students telling Jeff what he wanted to hear for fear of grading is absurd.His point is not to compliment himself, but to show readers how emotions have an important place in the classroom, and in writing, it is difficult and confining when professors expect emotion to be kept out of the classroom.Writing is theraputic."Teachers and students who are not ashamed to be moved to tears, who respond to reading and writing assignments with genuine empathy--are those who are most profoundly affected by education."I can attest to the truth of this statement.All of Jeff Berman's books will teach the readers how to become better writers and more empathic people in every day life.

The Loss of a Beloved
I wanted to like DYING TO TEACH more than I did, for the author, I firmly believe, wants to help others and unveil the compassion lodged within each of us like a beating heart.Unfortunately, the book is far too long and Professor Berman dwells on the tragedy of his wife's death until he comes up with thee idea of using it as a teaching tool, which I thought pretty crass.He says that this is what his wife would have wanted, but I don't know.He quotes copiously from his students' papers."I sought to transport [my students] to a different emotional realm, one that involved nothing less than the contemplation of life and death."

The fifteen students who heard Jeff Berman deliver his eulogy for Barbara might have felt otherwise, but they would have seemed like monsters if they responded in any way other than as they did.When he asked them, "Was it appropriate for me to read the eulogy for my wife in class?" 13 of his 15 students responded vigorously, Yes, Professor, quite appropriate.I feel that this sampling might have been skewed by grade concerns.And also common etiquette and human decency.So then he prints pages from his students' essays, all of them thanking him profusely for allowing them to cry and to feel.I hate to say Bah humbug, but if he cut out half the compliments to himself that his students felt compelled to write, the book would have been a heck of a lot shorter and a heck of a lot more appropriate."Teachers and students who are not ashamed to be moved to tears," he learns, "who respond to reading and writing assignments with genuine empathy--are those who are most profoundly affected by education."Case definitely not proven if you ask me.

And yet I hesitate before slating this book because I do believe some impressionable students and teachers might improve their empathy by reading it.In that way it would be a suitable memorial for the exquisite and charismatic Barbara.As Professor Berman reminds us, Emerson once said that a foolish consistency if the hobgoblin of little minds. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Aptly titled
Just what I, a newcomer to the subject of meditation, was hoping for --- history, descriptions of various methods, and all the hints and suggestions I needed to start my own adventure into meditation.If it had given pronounciations for the many foreign words, I would have given the book a 10. ... Read more

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Successful leaders don't rely solely on natural charisma and organizational authority as their tickets to success. Successful leadership is a learned art form and a developed discipline. You can master the art of leadership by examining the pitfalls and achievements of past leaders and penetrating the stories of our cultural and religious heritage. The Bible is the ultimate resource for learning by example: its stories of family relationships, political beginnings and even divine encounters provide valuable lessons about leading effectively.

In this empowering guidebook, Nathan Laufer walks you through the stories at the very beginning of the Bible to examine the portraits of leadership success--and failure--they contain. He reveals the life-affirming values that the Bible uses to measure its leaders beginning in the Garden of Eden; analyzes the ups and downs in Abraham's, and later Joseph's, leadership journeys; and scrutinizes the many challenges faced by Moses--and God--in the books of Exodus and Numbers.

Laufer draws out from Bible stories the lessons we can use every day--lessons not only of exemplary leadership, but also of failing to lead, leading with no direction and leading in the wrong direction or to a destructive destination. Through Laufer's interpretive lenses, these ancient stories come alive to inform and inspire our leadership today and offer us direction for the future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Decide for yourself
When it comes to books on leadership, consider whether you are comfortable with a leadership book that is frequently critical of Biblical figures.

This book really contains 2 major sections; one on biblical values in leadership which draws on many examples in Genesis, followed by a section called "The Ten Guiding Principles..." which moves to Exodus and onward. The following sections dealing with challenges and legacy, didn't have the quantity of material in the first two sections.

In the author's own words "Sometimes God in the Bible...evinces the same failed pattern of leadership more than once." In fact, many of the examples are highly critical of Biblical figures, including God. While I can certainly appreciate the author's position that the Bible describes real people, with real failings, after a while, it implied - if only today's leadership and management guru's were there to tell them the right thing to do... Just one example is on page 80 "it was not wrong for Joseph to take responsibility for the welfare of his own family, it was wrong for him to do so while impoverishing and enslaving the people of Egypt." He does describe some very simple, positive lessons from Abraham for providing hospitality to strangers and for trying to save the people of Sodom and Gemorah.

The second section of the book, with its 10 Guiding Principles draws mostly on the repeated mistakes that Moses and God make while trying to lead the Israelite nation from bondage to freedom. The principles themselves were fairly straightforward and are clearly presented. Still, I did not find them to be all that compelling, and would suggest that David Baron's Moses on Management : 50 Leadership Lessons from the Greatest Manager of All Time may be a better resource.

The overall theme of leading change is dealt with in the book, but I found the examples of God making so many mistakes a bit disconcerting and distracting, and in the end, I think I would find other leadership books, such as Covey's Principle-Centered Leadership (Your Coach in a Box) or Friedman's A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix may be more useful.

For a more academic and thorough treatement of Jewish leadership, I would suggest Hal M. Lewis's From Sanctuary to Boardroom: A Jewish Approach to Leadership

... Read more

Product Description
In today's increasingly culturally and socially diverse society, there is a need for teacher education to keep abreast of current trends. Verma aims to provide a basic introduction to the issues of inequality in teacher education affecting many of today's societies. It is obvious that in spite of the vast amount of time and effort given to this over the last two decades, very little progress has been made. In this climate, the authors of this book attempt to highlight examples of good practice worldwide, demonstrating how such practice can be maintained and enhanced. This book is intended for teachers in initial and in-service training, teacher trainers and administrators. ... Read more

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How could you be using ICT in your classroom? Are you exploring what ICT can do for learners?
The need for student-teachers and teachers to be technologically aware and competent is vital. This book provides a starting point for exploring the possibilities that ICT offers to schools, teachers and pupils.
The book provides practical tried-and-tested examples and advice and guidance. It covers:

• how to use ICT to support pupils' learning of concepts
• classroom management
• maximizing the achievement of individual pupils
• using ICT to help with common learning problems
• homework and classroom activities
• record keeping and pupil tracking data.

If you need a guide to using ICT across the secondary curriculum, start with this book.

Product Description
An exploration of how our culture is steeped in hidden lies. From our psychological roots to scientific anomalies, from our history to how we educate our kids. This book offers a well-rounded investigation of lies within a variety of disciplines, and their impact on our society. ... Read more

Product Description
A general introduction to the study of the human race. It discusses the development and variety of a wide cross-section of social groups, identifying the common factors of homo sapiens. It also observes evolving trends, such as the break-up of many societies through globalization. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A pedestrian survey
Don't get me wrong:trying to sum up all that is anthropology these days is a daunting task, particularly when one attempts to do so for a general audience.But while Chris Hann's effort admirably encompasses the domains of economics, labor, politics, power, symbolism, kinship, and religion, it too often falls short of the mark.

A typical section from this book could be outlined thusly:

1) "Kinship" (or "economics" or "labor" or what have you) used to be defined in a certain way, but2) Today we can't really define it with any precision, which leads us to speculate that 3) The concept might not even exist for any practical purposes; nonetheless, 4) Anthropologists of one school of thought feel it should be defined in one way, while 5) Anthropologists of another school of thought feel it should be defined in another way; and 6) Perhaps both schools are correct to some extent; and finally 7) Here's an example from my research in Poland to illustrate.

This format is fine for the first few chapters but it doesn't hold up well throughout the book.I also found Hann's prose oddly opaque, even though the author (keeping his general audience in mind) avoids technical language and difficult social science jargon.

"Teach Yourself Social Anthropology" could be useful to you if you're trying to bone up on the field, but I hope that somewhere out there the general introduction has gotten more skillful treatment. ... Read more

Product Description
Was Socrates black? How about Cleopatra? Was Greece colonized by Egypt? As absurd as these claims seem to be, they, and other "truths"are being taught today to college students across the country.

Not Out of Africa is the first book to debunk these claims made by the Afrocentric movement. Dispensing with political correctness in favor of historical accuracy, professor Mary Lefkowitz presents afascinating and scholarly look at each of these myths, meticulously dismantling them and explaining why they have propagated despite an overwhelming lack of real evidence. At the same time, she sounds a ringing clarion call that warns us all about the social and intellectualdangers inherent in suspending academic standards to indulge a political agenda.

Amazon.com Review
Wellesley classics professor Mary Lefkowitz takes aim at the basicclaims of leading proponents of Afro-centrism, in this expansion of her NewRepublic article exposing flaws in the argument that black Africans wereresponsible for the great civilizations of Egypt and Greece that broughtpraise from historians and criticism from Afrocentrists. Lefkowitz arguesthat the Greeks' African heritage touted by Senegalese scholar Cheikh AntaDiop is based upon a single dubious source and that Egyptians neverconsidered themselves black Africans, in fact, that they consciouslydisassociated themselves from blacks. She argues that the legacy of these twocultures remains so rich even foes of European civilization want to claimthat legacy for themselves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (157)

If its possible i'd rate half a star
It is no shock to see that many like this book. Racism will never die, not while uneducated, unwilling to progress human inhabit the world. This book as many other people have mentioned has no proof, as much as the fans like to think just because it is a "scholarly" person writing that it is factual, it is not. White people and brainwashed minorities have been trying to debunk anything not from the elites for yrs. If you chose to waste your money on this then so be it, but, if you are someone looking to change things for the better, to make this world a livable one for all your brothers and sisters, then do everyone a favor, do the author a favor and do not purchase this book.

Lefkowitz and her misuse of the ADL - Donations/Support gone Astray
Applying the Socratic Method we all should be asking ourselves a series of questions as to why Dr. Lefkowitz focused on Dr. Yosef A. A. ben-Jochannan.

Why didn't she focus on Cheikh Anta Diop or Theophile Obenga the scholars who are pillars of Afrocentrism?
(They are liguist, philosophers, historians and Egyptologist with multiple degrees and extremely documented works).

The reason may be because Dr. Yosef A. A. ben-Jochannan made a scholarly mistake as to when the Alexandrian Library was built and Aristotle's time of study, which is easily debatable and that can and was disproved by Lefkowitz.Lefkowitz received her Ph.d from Harvard in Classical Studies, where in which she would have been required to study the Greek language.That being the case why didn't she refer to the works of Greeks themselves?Why doesn't she know, or acknowledge that the following Greek thikers studied in Egypt: Thales of Miletus, Solon of Athens, Pythagoras of Samos, Xenophanes of Colophon, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, Pherecydes of Syros, Empedocles of Acragas, Democritus of Abdera, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle?

Dr. Lefkowitz should have been aware of the numerous writings by Greeks written on themselves or by their disciples.It is imperative that we as seekers of truth shout out truth and shed light on lies.

Sources:
Aristotle talks about his time in Egypt (Meteorology 352 b 20), Aristotle talks about Egyptians being the most ancient of people (Meteorology, I 14 352 b)

Phythagoras (Just read the Pythagoras Library)

Socrates (Plato, Phaedrus, 274 c-d)

Plato talks about Egypt in 42% of his work (Gorgias, Meno, Euthyphro, Phaedo, Republic, Phaedrus, Timaeus, Critias, Laws, and Philebus)

We have to search for truth ourselves we can't leave it in the hands of people like Dr. Lefkowitz because not all people are qualified even though they have Ph.d's. If we look at her previous books we see her passion and course of study truly are (which may not be well researched also): The Victory Ode : An Introduction (1976), Heroines and Hysterics (1981), The Lives of the Greek Poets (1981), Women's Life in Greece and Rome (1982) editor, with Maureen Fant, Women in Greek Myth (1986), First-person Fictions : Pindar's Poetic "I" (1991).


Martin v. Lefkowitz Libel Case

1. Lefkowitz won Round One on a motion to dismiss.

2. Martin won Round Two. Mass Court of Appeal overturned lower court -- reinstated case.

3. Lefkowitz won Round Three on a motion for summary judgment.

"Lefkowitz admitted that the offending words she wrote about Martin were untrue" but contended, successfully, that because Martin is a "public figure", as that term is understood in America's libel laws, he has to prove not merely negligence on her part in not writing the truth, but also that she was motivated by malice.

She claimed that Martin did not prove malice.

4.Martin has appealed.

Blah Blah Blah
[...]
Many people in America suffer from psychological fragility. Read the article above to see what Southern Europeanswere accomplishing approximately 1500 to 2000 years before both Egypt and Greece rose to prominence.

As the Pallet of Narmer unmistakably shows, Egypt appeared as a unified power after several hundred years of tribal warfare along the Nile. In other words, the glory of Egypt was the result of savagery, not some divinely inspired civilizational impulse . I can easily imagine Narmer, perhaps wearing a pair of canvas slippers and brimming with bravado, cleaving some rival's head with a heavy, stone mace, and then absconding with his victim's latest innovation in footwear. The point is that we could just as easily pin the charge of theft on the ancient Egyptians. For example, the wheel was not native to Egypt, yet they "stole" it from the Hyksos,improved it and used it during the reign of Ramses II to extend their empire far beyond its traditional borders. Thus, before you take credit for the "genius" of other individuals, you should first consider that they were vicious and ambitious colonizers who "stole" from others just as the Greeks "stole" from them later. Many of the imperial inclinations we despise so much today sustained Egypt for millennia.
So, in order to advance beyond the dangerous stupidities of the past, we must avoid the self-serving tendency to reinterpret the complexity of ancient history through the lens of contemporary experiences and the resulting paranoias and biases.

What's undeniably true is that virtually all people alive today are descended from peasants. This is a simple historical fact, and to believe that you're not descended froma peasant is silly and laughable. Just accept the fact that your molecules are no more "royal" than mine or some other person's.

Really?
The author systematically wages war on Afrocentrism all the while promoting Eurocentrism using the very same techniques she accuses her opponents of. Listening to hypocrisy is hard, sitting and reading through it is worse.

Our Common African Genesis, 2nd Edition
Our Common African Genesis traces the origins of modern humans and early civilization through genetics, linguistics, archeology, history, and the Books of Moses.Despite the predominance of the ancient Africans, they are persistently slandered in the Old Testament and, in turn, dismissed from modern history.
In the finger pointing the Hebrews contrived to rationalize the Exodus and Conquest, the sins of the world were dumped on Egyptians and Canaanites making them the most maligned race in history.Desecration of Our Common African Genesis continued unbelievably into the 20th century, historians deluding Egyptians were Caucasians, ranting that Africans developed no civilization, till 1996, the dementia complete, babbling their history obscure, their Aegean influence NOT Out of Africa.This literary genocide swept an entire race of people from history, the pen a continuation of Joshua's swift sword, psychopathic denial of the Hamitic gene flow in Genesis 10.
This Pious Fraud, aggressively marketed by Christianity and Academia, brainwashed us with sick beliefs about race, religion, and history, indeed, of ourselves and each other.The fictional Mediterranean Caucasians, really Ethiopians, the genetic sons of Ham and Cush, developed civilization long before Caucasians and Semites.Tales of the glorious Mediterranean Caucasians ironically are the most Afrocentric history in existence, quite opposite the authors' intent.The people that the Hebrews, Greeks, and others called Ethiopians are the same Dark Whites Toynbee said spawned ten civilizations.
The verdict may not be unanimous but the evidence is overwhelming that Africans begat the human race and Ethiopians begat Western Civilization, the Hebrews (Semites) and Greeks (Caucasians) very late `pretenders to the throne'.Indeed, it took four tries to get Western Civilization off the ground, with three intervening Dark Ages, all four grafted onto Ethiopian rootstock including the long taproot of the hybrid Judaic, Christian, Islam, and Hindu mythologies, yes, even schooling the Levites, Brahmans, Alexander, young Jesus, and Paul in the Ethiops celestial mythos and ritual.
Only by ignoring and/or suppressing the evidence, deriding the ancient Ethiopians, even denying their birthplace, can Lefkowitz and her predecessors and her reviewers make a case.Then our `White Throne' atop the `Great Chain of Being' was secured, nothing less than God's favorites, Evolution's crowning mutation, far superior to that other "ethnic group whose history has largely remained obscure".Case closed.
This is not mistaken or defective research.Fraud doesn't even adequately describe this crime.This is `literary genocide', eradicating an entire race of people from our history books, a deception of immense proportions, that began in the Old Testament, then took a new turn around 1800 under the pseudoscience of `phrenology', the bogus study of skull shapes, and its accomplice, the decrepit `ethnology', the study of `race'.Even though these pseudosciences were discredited by anthropologists and neurologists by the turn of the 20th century, their corruption spread into history books.It is this hoax that replaced `Ethiopian' with `Mediterranean Caucasian' that was so appealing to Western historians that it became canon.
Dr. Lefkowitz, I charge you with `abandonment of scholarship', `literary genocide', and `fraud'. Add your predecessors' and reviewers' documented testimony and we also have `conspiracy'.You didn't act alone.This is not simply a question of historical right or wrong or the shades of gray in between.The issue is `intent', the difference between `defective research' and `fraud'. Our Common African Genesis, 2nd Ed. ... Read more

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Do we believe in?Providing opportunities to students to explore?Valuing their understanding? Trusting students' strength?Making teaching-learning contextual? Developing collaborative and co-operative skills instudents? Trying to provide opportunities to developcapabilities instead of factual knowledge?Teaching to respect multiple perspectives? Creating learners' community of socially expertpeople? If No ?????????????..Please DoWe must knowSocial science is a discipline which gets itscontent from the society or we can say its contentis socially embedded. Keeping in mind the nature ofthis discipline, as social science teachers, we needto develop our pedagogy accordingly with due respectto where the epistemology of social science exists.The nature of our pedagogy must have a relationshipwith the nature of the content of social science. The present book will provide you a open platform tounderstand the pedagogy of social science in adifferent way with handful activities. ... Read more

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Teach Yourself Modern China is an essential guide to the 'giant of our time'. Informative yet engaging, it examines how China has developed from its imperial past to become, by the first decade of the twenty-first century, one of the world's greatest economic powers.Consider the key characters and events that have shaped the country we know today - the Chinese revolution,the world wars and civil war, the triumph of communism, Mao Zedong and his legacy, the Deng revolution and the Tiananmen Square massacre in order to unravel this mysterious history. Michael Lynch will then focus on the state of the country today and its future - in terms of its economy, politics, society and culture so that China's important place in the international world order can be fully considered. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a must read book
I recently visited China and had many questions.This book provided many answers in a clear manner.Very readable and it was hard to put down.A must read.Wish I had read it before my trip. ... Read more

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Ecological Futures argues that history can be used as a guide to possible socioeconomic, political, and ecological scenarios that will transform our globalized world. ... Read more

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Product Description
Introduces the Russian language, surveys its grammar, and provides lessons organized around social situations, such as dining in a restaurant, shopping, and traveling on a train. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A solid main textbook, but needs accompaniment by other resources
Five years ago, I began learning Russian with TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN. Though it was only through a combination of textbooks that I reached the point that I speak Russian, if not perfectly, at least comfortably most of the day every day, I think Daphne West's textbook was a good choice for my first exposure to the language. I should note that my copy of the book is the 1995 edition, which this listing describes. I don't know how much has changed in successive editions--I should hope at least the annoying plethora of typos in my edition has been corrected--but so many recent Teach Yourself publications contain the same information as in the past with just some new formatting and more timely financial and political information.

TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN begins with the alphabet. I found Cyrillic fairly easy, but those who end up struggling with it can obtain Teach Yourself Beginner's Russian Script as well. The meat of the book is a series of chapters containing a dialogue (mainly a story about the usual English tourist, here one Anna Prince) with following vocabularly, new grammatical points, and exercises. There is often a reading passage dealing with some aspect of Russian culture or history. While the grammar can be pretty heady for those who have no prior experience with foreign languages, I admire how the amount of new vocabulary and idiom in each chapter is kept manageable, unlike the avalanche found in each lesson of the mid-1990s Routledge's Colloquial Russian. At the end there's an appendix with Russian accidence, which is nicely substantial for a Teach Yourself book. I cannot comment much on the cassettes, as I've always been surrounded by native speakers of Russian who read the dialogues for me.

While this is a pretty good main textbook, it does not stand alone. In my experience inflecting languages require much more drill than isolating or agglutinating languages, but the exercises on Russian morphology in each chapter are few and not terribly rigorous. I'd recommend supplementing TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN with Basic Russian: A Grammar and Workbook by John Murray and Sarah Smyth (London: Routledge, 1999) which has plenty of fulfilling practice. I'd also recommend getting a picture dictionary, such as the Osborne one or similar, which makes learning new vocabulary of everyday items enjoyable. And, as with every self-taught textbook, the glossary at the end of the book is worthless and the reader must get a proper dictionary. The Oxford one is a popular desk reference, but I've always carried around Random House Webster's Pocket Russian Dictionary and been happy enough with it.

But if you want to get started on Russian, get Daphne West's textbook, supplement it with other materials, and don't forget to get plenty of conversational practice with native speakers, ideally a couple of hours a day.

Avoid this book!
I had the misfortune of using this book for an adult education course in beginning Russian that I recently took.I have since stopped using this book because I felt that the author did a rather sloppy and hurried job of trying to introduce the language.Because of the rapid pace that the book proceeded with, I felt intimidated by the Russian grammar.

Each chapter is crammed full of grammatical points, each of which is only sparingly covered and not at all reinforced into the student's mind.There are not enough exercises at the end of each chapter, so the student is forced to look for other resources in this regard.

The book also contains a number of typographic errors and misplacement of stress marks which only reinforces my view of how poorly this book was designed.

If you are looking for an introductory book in the Russian language, then I would definitely suggest that you look elsewhere.More student-friendly alternatives would include The New Penguin Russian Course and, my favorite, RussianAlive!

Not for use without Wade's grammar
This course is okay, although I did the 1st edition 1992 which had two problems this new edition hopefully doesn't have : firstly all the Soviet vocabulary (Leningrad rather the St. Petersburg etc.) but that willpresumably have gone in the 1996 edition. The second was the amount ofmistakes in the accent marking. Almost every page had one or two accenterrors. (It would be nice if the next reviewer could comment on whether theaccents are in the right place on, say, p240: predlagaet, Baikala,kilometrovii, lovlya)

A third problem which will still be with therevised edition is that Russian grammar cannot possibly be fully taught ina beginners book. Anyone studying Russian also needs Wade's grammar andeither Pirogova's verb book or the "501" or "750"Russian verbs books. An accented reader like "Innostranka" wouldbe a useful next step. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A solid main textbook, but needs accompaniment by other resources
Five years ago, I began learning Russian with TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN. Though it was only through a combination of textbooks that I reached the point that I speak Russian, if not perfectly, at least comfortably most of the day every day, I think Daphne West's textbook was a good choice for my first exposure to the language. I should note that my copy of the book is the 1995 edition. I don't know how much has changed in successive editions--I should hope at least the annoying plethora of typos in my edition has been corrected--but so many recent Teach Yourself publications contain the same information as in the past with just some new formatting and more timely financial and political information.

TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN begins with the alphabet. I found Cyrillic fairly easy, but those who end up struggling with it can obtain Teach Yourself Beginner's Russian Script as well. The meat of the book is a series of chapters containing a dialogue (mainly a story about the usual English tourist, here one Anna Prince) with following vocabularly, new grammatical points, and exercises. There is often a reading passage dealing with some aspect of Russian culture or history. While the grammar can be pretty heady for those who have no prior experience with foreign languages, I admire how the amount of new vocabulary and idiom in each chapter is kept manageable, unlike the avalanche found in each lesson of the mid-1990s Routledge's Colloquial Russian. At the end there's an appendix with Russian accidence, which is nicely substantial for a Teach Yourself book. I cannot comment much on the cassettes, as I've always been surrounded by native speakers of Russian who read the dialogues for me.

While this is a pretty good main textbook, it does not stand alone. In my experience inflecting languages require much more drill than isolating or agglutinating languages, but the exercises on Russian morphology in each chapter are few and not terribly rigorous. I'd recommend supplementing TEACH YOURSELF RUSSIAN with Basic Russian: A Grammar and Workbook by John Murray and Sarah Smyth (London: Routledge, 1999) which has plenty of fulfilling practice. I'd also recommend getting a picture dictionary, such as the Osborne one or similar, which makes learning new vocabulary of everyday items enjoyable. And, as with every self-taught textbook, the glossary at the end of the book is worthless and the reader must get a proper dictionary. The Oxford one is a popular desk reference, but I've always carried around Random House Webster's Pocket Russian Dictionary and been happy enough with it.

But if you want to get started on Russian, get Daphne West's textbook, supplement it with other materials, and don't forget to get plenty of conversational practice with native speakers, ideally a couple of hours a day. ... Read more