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Applied Survey Sampling, by Edward Blair, Johnny Blair

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Written for students and researchers who wish to understand the conceptual and practical aspects of sampling, Applied Survey Sampling, by Edward A. Blair and Johnny Blair, is designed to be accessible without requiring advanced statistical training. It�covers a wide range of topics, from the basics of sampling to special topics such as sampling rare populations, sampling organizational populations, and sampling visitors to a place. Using cases and examples to illustrate sampling principles and procedures, the book thoroughly covers the fundamentals of modern survey sampling, and addresses recent changes in the survey environment such as declining response rates, the rise of Internet surveys, the need to accommodate cell phones in telephone surveys, and emerging uses of social media and big data.

• Sales Rank: #833732 in Books
• Published on: 2014-12-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 8.96" h x .52" w x 7.79" l, .0 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

About the Author

Edward Blair�is the Michael J. Cemo professor of marketing and entrepreneurship and chair of the Department of Marketing and Entrepreneurship in the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. He has been chair of the American Statistical Association Committee on Energy Statistics, which advises the U.S. Energy Information Administration on statistical matters, and previously served on the U.S. Census Bureau Advisory Committee. He has been a National Science Foundation panelist, national conference chair for the American Marketing Association, editorial board member for Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, and Journal of Business Research, and instructor in sampling and survey methods for the American Marketing Association School of Marketing Research. His research interests include survey sampling and cognitive aspects of survey methodology.�

Johnny Blair is an independent consultant. Previously, he was a principal scientist and senior survey methodologist at Abt Associates Inc., where he directed the Cognitive Testing Laboratory. He has conducted research on sampling rare populations, measurement error in proxy reporting, and cognitive interviewing for pretesting survey instruments. He is a member of the Design and Analysis Committee, which provides statistical advice for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often referred to as The Nation’s Report Card. He has served on National Research Council panels to assess major government-sponsored surveys. His research publications include many book chapters, and over 50 articles in academic journals and in the Proceedings of the Joint Statistical Meetings of the American Statistical Association Section on Survey Methods. He served two terms on the editorial board of Public Opinion Quarterly and is a frequent peer reviewer for several other research journals.�

�

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Clear, Applicable, and Extremely Helpful
By drwho
Written by two authors with authoritative stature in survey research, this is a very useful book for survey practitioners.

The idea of drawing samples to study a population may seem obvious. In practice, however, many pitfalls exist. This book starts with sampling basics, covering how to define and frame the population, moving on to sampling and executing research. It also explains in detail how to conduct two perhaps most commonly used sampling methods, stratified sampling and cluster sampling. A big strength of the book is that it's very practical and crystal clear. The book explains arcane statistical concepts related survey sampling without using a single Greek letter! For example, the concept of Central Limited Theorem can be elusive to many, even experienced practitioners. This book uses a simple numerical example to illustrate it before discussing sample size selections. Amazingly clear. Wish I'd encountered statistics like that.

Coupled with another book by the same group of authors, Designing Surveys: A Guide to Decisions and Procedures, you pretty get all the references needed to have a practice in surveying.

Highly recommended for those interested in survey topics.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By Hugh M. Clark
Methodology described in English. Well done.

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[G974.Ebook] Ebook Download I Robot, by Isaac Asimov

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I Robot, by Isaac Asimov

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• Sales Rank: #6960286 in Books
• Published on: 1970-01-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback

Features

• Adult fiction, sci-fi, adventure, some mystery. A great classic from Isaac Asimov.

Most helpful customer reviews

93 of 100 people found the following review helpful.
The classic first short stories in the robot series.
By R. D. Allison (dallison@biochem.med.ufl.edu)
This is a collection of nine classic short stories about robots, each of which appeared previously in a pulp SF magazine. The stories contain Asimov's famous three "laws" of robotics as well as the positronic brain (consisting of a platinum/iridium sponge), now quite familiar with "Star Trek" fans. All of these have been great influences in both science and science fiction: 1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; 2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; and 3) A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Laws. It should also be noted that Asimov coined the word "robotics" in these stories, a term very common today. I really enjoyed these when I first read them as a teenager (my father had introduced me to Asimov's works). And, now rereading them many years later, I can understand why I enjoyed them. They are straight-forward science fiction in which a problem is presented and a solution posed. The first story, "Robbie," first appeared in 1940 (when Asimov 20 years old) in a slightly different form as "Strange Playfellow." Robbie is a companion robot for a child and the child's mother is apprehensive in allowing her daughter to play with it. "Runaround" (1942) is a story concerning a problem encountered by two trouble-shooters on a mining operation on the surface of Mercury. A robot has been given orders to retrieve some ore yet keeps walking in circles, to the detriment of the two human workers. They come to the conclusion that the problem lies with the three Laws and they have to find a solution. (This type of story [that is, of a problem presented needing a solution] becomes a common format for Asimov's science fiction and mystery stories.) In "Reason" (1941) the two trouble-shooters of the previous story are still on Mercury and have to reason with a robot who has been designed to take over the mining operation and energy conversion plant on Mercury. The robot has come to a conclusion that humans did not construct him and that his role is to serve the "Master" (the conversion apparatus). In "Catch That Rabbit" (1944), the two trouble shooters are on an asteroid attempting to train a robot that has control over six subsidiary robots. For some unknown reason, the robot ceases to function properly if no human is watching. "Liar!" (1941) is a story about a robot, still subject to the Three Laws, that can read minds. In "Little Lost Robot" (1947) a robot, which has had its first law modified, has hidden itself among sixty-two other robots and it has to be found. In "Escape!" (1945), a robot has to design an interstellar ship that may be hazardous to humans; yet, design it without violating the first law. "Evidence" (1946) is a story concerned with the problem of identifying a possible humaniform robot hiding itself among humans. The final short story, "The Evitable Conflict" (1950), takes place several years after the others on an Earth where much of human economics is directed through massive robot machines. There have been apparent stoppages and unexpected delays and the human overseers have to find out why. This story actually introduces the "Zeroeth Law" of Robotics: "No machine may harm humanity; or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm."

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Sci-fi classic - but you knew that
By Wormer
Classic Asimov, I'm not sure what you say that hasn't been said in the what - 60+ years it's been published. If you like Sci-fi, if you like Asimov, if you want to help fill in some of the background to reading the Foundation series or some of the other subjects that intertwine in later novels, this is one of them you go to.

I guess there is a point to make for reading it (or even re-reading it) in 2016 - we're talking about robots today, in our real-lives, in our near future. We're talking about sentience and capabilities and concerns on their independence and impact they'll have on our lives - it's amazing how much Asimov truly anticipated how it'd develop and put out a lot of the concerns and questions to consider. It is a timely read of the topic.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A fictional pre-history of Robotics
By Adam L. Kopcinski
Isaac Asimov's I Robot is a collection of nine short stories chronicling the history of robotics, as told by Susan Calvin - a robopsychologist - to an enquiring, faceless news man. The premise is merely preamble; its purpose the correlation of nine individual stories, previously published in a couple of sci-fi magazines. They feature the same recurring cast of characters, and as such reference and build upon one another.
Each individual story is entertaining, and sequentially, each introduces another aspect of robotics, or elucidates some greater point of robotic logic/reasoning. Much like the Foundation novels (and Asimov's fiction in general, I'm beginning to suspect) the stories deal with situations; problems and solutions. The great fun of reading Asimov is watching his fictional characters encounter crisis and work through them - extrapolating, deducting, improvising - whatever need be. And the solutions - besides being entertaining - are usually quite clever! It's sometimes hard to believe that one man could write so many clever stories...
Plotting aside, you can't help but fall in love with some of Asimov's characters. The "field" team of Mike Donavan and Gregory Powell are an endearing comedic duo. Susan Calvin is almost as cold and calculating as her robots, but is forced to reveal her tender, human emotions in LIAR! And the politician Stephen Byerley makes quite an impression...
Naturally, being a collection of short stories rather than a novel proper, some stories are stronger than others. RUNAROUND, REASON, LIAR, and EVIDENCE are particularly strong, well THE EVITABLE CONFLICT is a little weak, and serves more as a talking point or epilogue - much in the same way that ROBBIE serves as a whimsical introduction. Regardless, all nine stories do entertain you, and at the very least, introduce some interesting point on robotics. Highly recommended - Asimov remains an essential read to anyone with a passing interest in Science-Fiction.
Consequently, this book has almost nothing to do with the Will Smith movie of same title - save for the three laws of robotics, and character's names - so, be warned, you've been advised!

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[H526.Ebook] Ebook Free The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America--and Spawned a Global Crisis, by Michael W. Hudson

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Who killed the economy?

A page-turning, true-crime expos� of the subprime salesmen and Wall Street alchemists who produced the biggest financial scandal in American history

"It's hard to have a guilty conscience if you don't have a conscience. Anything that benefited production - that benefited me and benefited my wallet - I'd do it."

The sales force at Ameriquest Mortgage took this philosophy to heart. They watched the Hollywood white-collar-crime flick "Boiler Room" as a training tape, studying how to pitch overpriced deals to unsuspecting home owners. They learned how to forge signatures on mortgage paperwork and create fake documents in "cut-and-paste" operations they dubbed "The Lab" or "The Art Department."

In this stunning narrative, award-winning reporter Michael W. Hudson reveals the story of the rise and fall of the subprime mortgage business by chronicling the rise and fall of two corporate empires: Ameriquest and Lehman Brothers. As the biggest subprime lender and Wall Street's biggest patron of subprime, Ameriquest and Lehman did more than any other institutions to create the feeding frenzy that emboldened mortgage pros to flood the nation with high-risk, high-profit home loans.

It's a tale populated by a remarkable cast of the characters: a shadowy billionaire who created the subprime industry out of the ashes of the 1980s S&L scandal; Wall Street executives with an insatiable desire for product; struggling home owners ensnared in the most ingenious of traps; lawyers and investigators who tried to expose the fraud; politicians and bureaucrats who turned a blind eye; and, most of all, the drug-snorting, high-living salesman who tell all about the money they made, the lies they told, the deals they closed.

Provocative and gripping, The Monster is a searing expos� of the bottom-feeding fraud and top-down greed that fueled the financial collapse.

• Sales Rank: #880498 in Books
• Published on: 2010-10-26
• Released on: 2010-10-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 9.59" h x 1.31" w x 6.44" l, 1.34 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

From Booklist
Hudson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter who now covers business and finance for the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity, delivers a chilling account of the subprime-loan scandal, which nearly brought down the U.S. and global economies. Starting at ground zero of the scandal—Orange County, California (“Con men hate snow,” one Wall Street Journal reporter put it)—Hudson runs his expos� through its principal players: big-time lenders like Roland Arnall and Russ and Becky Jedinak, juiced-up salespeople who worked for such dubious lenders, Wall Street brokerage houses that supercharged the loans, politicians who weakened once-tough lending laws, and finally, most tragically, the victims themselves. As appalling as it is informative, Hudson’s tale, which hasn’t ended by a long shot, should find a large readership. --Alan Moores

Review
Magnificently and heartbreakingly told. . . . What I appreciated most about this tremendous, well-documented book is that it shows vividly that really filthy, face-to-face fraud and hard-sell bullying are the original ingredients, the required counters, in the increasingly abstract financial instruments that brought the economy down around our ears. (The Boston Globe)

Whereas much of the reporting of the economic meltdown has been focused on Wall Street, Hudson has a talent for describing what was happening on the ground. He takes us on a tour of the financial carnival tent pitched by subprime factories like Ameriquest… Did some people borrow beyond their means? Certainly. But as Hudson demonstrates, the public was no match for an industry that lived off deceit fueled by Wall Street. (Time Magazine)

As engagingly written as Michael Lewis' The Big Short (which chronicles the struggles the winners endured during the last bubble), as caustic and trenchant in its analysis of the dotty economic theories that underpin our bubble economy as Yves Smith's ECONned; and at least as cogent of the big-picture power politics as Simon Johnson's 13 Bankers, The Monster also does what those books don't: It reveals the inner lives of both the victims and the perpetrators of predatory lending. (Baltimore City Paper)

Hudson's book is a guide to the worst excesses of the mortgage business . . . [and offers] a deeper, truer understanding of the many-headed subprime monster. . . . [The Monster] succeeds by entertaining us with behind-the-scenes moments and personal stories from people trading their ethics for all-expenses-paid trips to Hawaii. (The Seattle Times)

Terrifically readable. . . . Hudson gives readers piercing insight into the booze, broads and cocaine that fueled the buccaneers in the mortgage game. . . . Though I thought myself too old to be shocked, the revelations here shocked me. Read it and weep. (Chico News & Review)

Michael W. Hudson's book-length investigative journalism piece on the subprime meltdown, The Monster, is both a brilliant example of skeptical business journalism done right, and a brilliant example of the storyteller's art… Hudson's book is a model for excellent investigative journalism. It's a book that should be required reading for anyone who says that the economic crisis was caused by greedy mortgage-takers who spent too loosely with their credit cards. (BoingBoing.com)

Essential reading for anyone concerned with the mortgage crisis. (Library Journal)

A chilling account of the subprime-loan scandal. . . . As appalling as it is informative, Hudson's tale, which hasn't ended by a long shot, should find a large readership. (Booklist)

Hudson is a master of context, supplying the pre-1990s history within the mortgage-lending business, Wall Street and the government-regulation realm. A knowledgeable, clearly written expos�. (Kirkus Reviews)

Mike Hudson is a terrific journalist and an even more engaging writer. The Monster is as captivating as it is deep, not 5,000 feet but 10,000. The book is a down-to-the-bone account of the genesis of the financial crisis and paints a visceral picture of the structural deficiencies in our financial system. Lehman Brothers failure is 10x Enron and 100x Long Term Capital Management. We cannot afford not to learn from the valuable lessons in this book. (Lawrence G. McDonald, co-author of A Colossal Failure of Common Sense)

Buy this book because Mike Hudson is a terrific reporter. Buy it because Hudson tells a vital and underreported story that somehow most every other journalist seemed to miss. But mainly you should buy and devour The Monster because it's a great read, a page turner in the fashion of the best true-crime non-fiction. (Gary Rivlin, author of The Plot to Get Bill Gates and Broke, USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty, Inc--How the Working Poor Became Big Business)

The Monster reads like chilling and compelling fiction. But the facts are true and the story is all too real. Millions of Americans were ripped off by devious people in pursuit of ever more profit, but that is not the biggest scandal. Amazingly, we have still not fixed the underlying problems of incentives, attitudes, and beliefs in our financial system. If we continue to shy away from real reform, American families are doomed to run repeatedly through some version of this awful cycle. (Simon Johnson, coauthor of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown)

How did we get in this mess? Michael W. Hudson's The Monster is a haunting, horrifying account of corporate skullduggery -- from the unregulated bucketshops of California to the hallowed halls of Lehman Brothers. No other book or article I have read so clearly identifies the human weaknesses and institutional frailties that created the worst financial scandal in American history. Hudson was one of the first investigative reporters on this story and he is still the best at tracking a nationwide collapse down to its first forged signature. (Elizabeth Mitchell, former executive editor of George Magazine and author of W: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty)

About the Author

Michael W. Hudson is a staff writer at the Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit journalism organization. He previously worked as a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and as an investigator for the Center for Responsible Lending. The winner of a George Polk Award, Hudson has also written for Forbes, The Big Money, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Mother Jones. He edited the award-winning book Merchants of Misery and appeared in the documentary film Maxed Out. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Most helpful customer reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful.
Demonstrates that the major subprime lenders engaged in massive fraud
By Michael Emmett Brady
The author has done an excellent job in demonstrating that the major subprime lenders,the great majority being concentrated in or near Orange County ,California,such as R Arnall's Ameriquest and A Mazilo's Countrywide,were engaged in a pattern ,repeated over and over again thousands of times,of deliberate misrepresentation,forgery and fraud.The goal was to misinform potential buyers seeking fixed rate loans so that they could be manipulated and maneuvered into signing variable rate adjustable loans with initial ,low ,teaser rates that would then increase dramatically after 2-5 years.The basic sales pitch was the old " bait and switch " gambit.

The author demonstrates that the major subprime lenders especially targeted older,elderly,single, black women with low incomes who owned their homes outright and /or had low fixed rate mortgages on their homes ,but who were either in poor health and/or seeking loans to upgrade /fix up their homes.The author provides numerous case studies demonstrating precisely how these black women were tricked and manipulated into agreeing to adjustable rate loans that dramatically increased their monthly payments over time.The same initial customer would then be victimized over and over again by affiliated subprime lenders who would claim that they could reduce the monthly mortgage payment .

The author shows how these firms were directly connected to the major Wall Street investment banks,especially Lehman Brothers.He then traces the securitization practices of the commercial banking industry and shows how the loans were spread and sold worldwide.

This book shows that the subprime real estate mortgage loan industry collapse was very similar to the collapse of the Savings and Loan industry in the 1988-1991 time period that resulted from highly speculative,Ponzi loan practices that started in the early 1980's .

I recommend this book for purchase.It is the first book to concentrate specifically on analyzing the subprime crisis as a criminal enterprise.

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful.
Strong account of predatory lending
By MT57
This was a strong book. Strong in the sense of well documented and researched, and strong in vivid detail and tone. The author says he has been covering predatory lending since the early 90's and I can believe it. He has many anecdotes, many stories of individuals being defrauded, and many interviews of persons who worked for predatory lenders. This is the first writing of any kind I can find to enable me to understand predatory lending, as opposed to just dumb subprime lending. This understanding arose when the author cited statistics that show 99.75% of these lenders' loans were not to purchase a house but to people who already owned a house. The book conveys in very strong detail the ways in which First Alliance and Ameriquest "preyed" on elderly, minority, sometimes incompetent homeowners and tricked them into putting their homes at risk for loans that were unnecessary, more expensive than called for and in many cases based on fraudulent documentation. There is no doubt that these are stories of outright criminal behavior and many more people should have been prosecuted for what they did (the owner of First Alliance and Ameriquest has died). Mr Hudson depicts thoroughly the business model of predatory lending, their hiring and training and sales practices, their advertising budgets and their lobbying prowess (he absolutely impales Deval Patrick, ACORN and many other organizations as being bought off by the predatory lenders). He provides real insight when he demonstrates that the owners of these businesses appear to take it for granted that they will only be in business for a few years. I was stunned that it appears to have been incredibly easy for someone who has previously run one of these companies and bankrupted it to set up another such business and go right back to defrauding homeowners. There should be some licensing or process that companies have to go through to get into that position. (I was reminded of another book I read recently called Dark Harbor about the mob dominating the NYC waterfront in the 1940s and 1950s, where the mob was able to obtain one union charter after another without any investigation of any kind).

The subtitle of the book refers to a gang on Wall Street but, although there was some content in the book that related to Wall Street, I would estimate it was no more than 20% and it was much less substantial and vivid than the dominant story about the predatory lenders. There was a page or two on rating agencies, about 20 pages on the relation between Lehman and First Alliance including a short summary of a trial that I found quite anticlimatic and a page that seems to have been taken right out of a recent book about Lehman called A Colossal Failure of Common Sense. I suspect there was some effort to position the book in buyers' minds as an anti-Wall Street book and while the author does have that perspective there just isn't that much content on that subject, compared to the detailed accounts of the predatory lenders fleecing their customers. Also, the majority of the book is set in the 90's (indeed, it begins in the 80's). Only the last 100 pages of the text are set in the 2000's. So I do not think such marketing is particularly accurate, which is ironic given the book's point of view.

A small point: when I bought this, Amazon's links were confusing the author, Michael W Hudson, with a Michael Hudson who is a different author.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
Explodes politically self serving myths of economics and rational choice
By Eggcrate
The previous reviewers have done a good job of explaining basically what The Monster is all about. However, I would like to highlight why the book presents a unique challenge to academic economic theory, particularly as it applies to public policy.

The foundation stone of Neo-Classical economics is that market participants are inherently rational, are capable of "discovering" the best available deals, and will quickly put destructive market participants out of business. This is the Revealed Truth of Milton Freidman, the bonkers Objectivist philosophy of the beyond bonkers Ayn Rand, the rigid simple mindedness of the economics texts by Gregrory Mankiw and the Harvard kids who have been force fed this abstracted, idealized, establishmentarian slop....

Micheal Hudson never explicitly sets out to torpedo theoretic economics, he simply sets forth the way a set of perverse incentives, aided and abetted by an utterly dysfunctional regulatory apparatus, could make an absolute, unrecoverable hash of the Ivy League worldview... one in which all markets naturally seek the most efficient (and in Friedmanite orthodoxy) most moral allocation of assets and talent.

Hudson instead shows a nested structure of economic actors that behave more like criminalized, methamphetamine soaked, reckless, soulless swine. It is abundantly clear that "incentive structures" can, quite easily, produce outcomes that have a high degree of local rationality, i.e. individuals maximizing their gains, while at the same time have a higher degree of systemic irrationality.... i.e. stuffing grossly fraudulent paper into the securitization system in wholesale quantities with zero regard for the ultimate consequences. Such as imploding the credit markets...

Frankly, Hudson's book should be a mandatory text in every introductory economics class taught in this country, because it dispositively proves that the Neo-Classical/Washington Consensus model is a broken model.

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[X239.Ebook] Get Free Ebook Power Electronics: Devices and Circuits, by V. Jagannathan

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It is designed for undergraduate students of electrical and electronics engineering and provides an accessible and practical treatment of semiconductor power switching devices and their use in several types of static power converters. The book emphasizes the fundamental principles and offers an easy-to-understand explanation of the operation of practical circuits. Beginning with the study of the characteristics of power switching devices, the text offers a thorough treatment of ac - ac converters, ac - dc converters, dc - dc converters and inverters, helping students understand how switching converters can be made to generate almost any wave shape and frequency, how power converters are used in conjunction with electric drives, HVDC transmission systems, and so forth.

• Sales Rank: #4603284 in Books
• Published on: 2011-05
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 9.25" h x 7.01" w x .0" l, 1.10 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 388 pages

Most helpful customer reviews

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
I had the first chapter and was pleased with the way it was written it was for ...
By Writer.
I had the first chapter and was pleased with the way it was written it was for me well written. will continue on where I left off on thyristors. Well organised chapters.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Five Stars
By Michael W. Kelly
Thank you

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[W769.Ebook] Ebook Download Sermons to the People: Advent, Christmas, New Year, Epiphany, by Saint Augustine of Hippo

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A superb new translation brings the words of Augustine the preacher stirringly to life!

When the great Saint Augustine was called from his country home to become Bishop of Hippo in the fourth century, his new responsibilities took him away from the solitude of his writing and into the glare of the public eye. The author of two of the greatest works of religious literature, Confessions and City of God, Augustine became a shepherd to the people, inspiring and enlightening them with his sermons. His skills as a speaker were as great–if not greater–than his skills as a writer. According to his friend Possidius, “Those who read what Augustine wrote on the divine topics do get something out of them. But those who saw and heard him in person–they were the ones who got heaven and Earth.”

Sermons to the People collects the homilies on the liturgical seasons of the Church Saint Augustine delivered over the course of his lifetime. This Image edition includes the first sermons in that vast collection: from Advent, Christmas, New Year’s, and the Epiphany. Newly translated by William Griffin, they address timeless concerns, including the problems of materialism and the intellectual difficulties of faith. Griffin renders the sermons with such immediacy, it is as though he had been present when Augustine spoke to his flock.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

• Sales Rank: #1478870 in eBooks
• Published on: 2002-10-15
• Released on: 2002-10-15
• Format: Kindle eBook

From Publishers Weekly
The Augustinian renaissance continues with this volume devoted to the saint's sermons from Advent through Epiphany. Griffin offers a lively introduction, describing Augustine's history and the ritual observance of the winter holidays in the fourth century, and then provides comfortable, "paraphrasal" translations of 23 sermons. It's a real treat to read them, for they remind us that although Augustine has survived for us as a writer-most notably for his Confessions and City of God-he was in his own day primarily a bishop and a priest, preaching regularly over a period of 30 years. Griffin writes that it is through Augustine's rarely published sermons that we encounter an impassioned orator, "revealing the real Augustine, not the one we thought we knew." The volume closes with three appendices containing essays that contextualize Augustine's preaching.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Augustine the theologian has shaped 16 centuries of Christian thought. Augustine the preacher has been largely forgotten. But as bishop of Hippo, Augustine sought to bring his complex Christian worldview to an audience of simple parishioners. In this book, Griffin brings a selection of those sermons to life for a modern audience. The result is anything but dry. Here we see Augustine's keen wit as he laments sleepy parishioners and imagines his flock as his "adopted tots in the Kindergarten of the Lord." Not a word-for-word rendering, to be sure, but an effective one, nonetheless. Despite the approachable language and fun tone, there is serious theology here, as Augustine grapples with mysteries like the Trinity and the virgin birth. While Griffin sometimes pushes the casual translation too far--it is difficult to imagine Augustine saying the Latin equivalent of "salvation'll"--admirers of Augustine's theology will be grateful to have this fine and fun version. John Green
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"These sermons come alive in Griffin's marvelous translation." –William Barry, SJ, coauthor of The Practice of Spiritual Direction

“While Augustine was writing landmark theology, he was also preaching earthy, colloquial, witty, Christ-honoring sermons to his African congregation. Now, thanks to this lively translation, he's preaching them to us.”
–Eugene Peterson, professor emeritus, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia; translator, The Message

“In this delightful translation, Mr. Griffin has recovered the Augustine's homilies, delivering them all the way into the contemporary idiom, where yet another generation might hear his living voice.” –Scott Cairns, author of Philokalia


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Patience Rewarded
By Stanford Gibson
"He'd never left that holy state while He was appearing to us as we were; that heavenly power was added to an infant body, and yet the earth's resources weren't any poorer...To them it's just plain embarrassing that God should walk around in a funny, ill-fitting body. To us, of course, it's a greatly encouraging sight." p 57

Griffen has compiled a rich resource of the reflections of one of the Church's great minds on one of the Church's great narratives. In a time of pithy refrains and a secular hijack of our season of worship this book is a refreshing resource. It just takes a little patience to get there. By a regrettable editorial choice he opens with a 47 page sermon on the genealogies and inner-marital chastity that Augustine was literally preaching for the second time because the first time he tried it his audience largely fell asleep - not good times. The sermons that follow however, soar with rich reflections on the temporal genesis of the God-man and the sublime intersection of the celestial and corporeal in the event of the incarnation.

One other note is that Griffen takes his `paraphrase translation' liberties to Eugene Petersonesqe extents. His adaptation of Augustine's Latin is often compelling but is sometimes just so contemporary that it seems a bit absurd or anachronistic. Regardless, these would be fantastic readings to integrate into either Protestant or Catholic reflections during the Advent/Christmas season. If you hunger for insights beyond `Jesus is the Reason for the Season' to center you on the Truth at the heart the Christian adaptation of the winter holiday, this is a great place to start...particularly around page 50.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
A Thoroughly Modern Augustine Does Advent
By Eutychus D.
There's no place like Hippo for the holidays. Especially when it's the turn of the fifth century and you've gotten yourself over to the cathedral early enough to score a good spot for the bishop's Mass. I'm telling you, that guy can flat-out preach.
Fast-forward 16 centuries. Many familiar with St. Augustine know him from his greatest written works, The Confessions and The City of God. Both are bedrocks in the Western literary canon, fussed over by students not only of literature, but also of history, philosophy and theology. But how many of us, his fawning fans included, know what it was like to have your ears tickled by the very voice of Christendom's greatest genius?
William Griffin thinks he has a pretty good idea. And he does a fine and fun job of putting his insights across in these translations of Augustine's Christmas-season sermons.
This is Augustine like you've never read him. Glib, pointed, playful, colloquial, streetwise: He'll say whatever needs to be said to get you to let the facts of Christ's coming open your mind, penetrate your heart and change your life. And, true to form, for all his crafty rhetorical flourishes, he doesn't speak a word or even think a thought that can't be directly traced to Scripture. We already knew that about the bishop of Hippo, but we haven't seen it relayed in quite this way before.
"Let's recognize this day for what it is, my dear Brothers and Sisters," Griffin's Augustine says of Christmas. "Let's pretend we ourselves are the day! Yes, when we were living unfaithfully, we were the night. Indeed the slip-sliding in our faith had made the nights longer and colder till day itself was about to be snuffed. That's how it was on the day Our Lord Jesus Christ was born. The shortest day of the year. The Winter Solstice. From this point onward in human history, the nights grew shorter, the days longer." John 1:9, anyone?
Just as Augustine was a dexterous and innovative interpreter of the Word of God, ever intent on making the Bible accessible to the widest possible swath of humanity, so Griffin shows himself a witty and creative interpreter of the words of Augustine. In fact, so breezy is the sermonizing here that many turns of phrase beg the question: At what point does Augustine leave off and Griffin pick up?
The latter drops some helpful clues. The largest single section of Griffin's informative and entertaining foreword is an apologia for his use of the paraphrasal method of translation, rather than the literal, in turning ancient Latin into contemporary English. It's an approach that allows him to present Augustine as he might sound were he alive today.
Naturally, it also permits plenty of leeway for artistic indulgence. "Neither [men nor women] should give the Creator the finger," Griffin has the saint saying, "for that horrible trick he played on them in the Garden."
The bishop of Hippo may well have been similarly jarring in person. But would he have used so low-brow an expression -- in a homily? I'm not sure, but I'm giving Griffin a pass on that passage and several others in the same vein because, on the whole, Augustine in this brusque, thoroughly modern voice is so arresting and thought-provoking. There are worse ways to get good theology. And I've seen no better way to absorb Augustine for Advent.
"The angel delivered the message," we read. "Kindly the Virgin listened to it. Against her better judgment she believed it. The conception took place. Faith in her soul. Christ in her womb. And that's all there was to it. ... What storyteller -- the great Isaiah included -- could do Justice to a birth like that?"

If Augustine wasn't up to the job, neither is William Griffin. But what a joy their combined efforts are to read -- make that hear -- as Christmastide comes each year.
David Pearson is features editor of the National Catholic Register.

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