What is especially interesting to me is the authors' view of how multi-ethnic society works in Greek Macedonia as compared to Bulgaria or Former Yugoslavia, and how the strategy of Roma musicians is different in these different countries. In Greek Macedonia the musicians play the music of all ethnic groups in order to maximize their flexibility and income. During multi-ethnic celebrations the musicians follow a strict policy of playing everyone's requests in the order requested, so that no one feels that they have priority. There is a fascinating description of an ethnically mixed wedding where the families have to adjust their various wedding traditions to accommodate each other, making it up as they go along to some extent.

The authors compare and contrast this with the approach taken by Roma musicians in other areas of the Balkans. In Kosovo in the 1980s the Roma musicians are said to have purposely selected music from traditions from other than Serbian and Albanian in order to avoid conflicts. In Bulgaria the wedding band tradition is described as leading to a new pan-Balkan "fusion" style which borrows from many cultures but still feels Bulgarian. Ultimately the motivation behind each strategy is the need of musicians to make a living.

The book is interesting reading from a North American perspective as well. Keil contrasts the multi-ethnic consciousness of Greeks, where the same person may have several types of ethnic and national identities simultaneously, with the concept of "multiculturalism" which he describes as slices of a pizza in which there are lots of ethnicities but everyone is either one thing or another. This raise the question of what is really going on in such immigrant nations as Canada and the United States.

The accompanying CD is a potpourri of sounds, including music of various types, and there is a section of the book describing the contents of the CD. Some of the track titles are Market Day in Jumaya, Afternoon at a Mahala Café, At Home in the Mahala, New Year's Party in Serres, Taverna Party at Nikisiani. The combination of the text, the many high quality black and white photos and the soundscape are successful in putting you into the experience, as much as this is possible. There was also a nice balance between Angeliki Keil's straight-forward and very readable reporting of the lives of the musicians and Charles Keil's more theoretical musings about ethnicity, the music and the role of the musicians. My only complaint about the book is its weight - it's printed on very heavy, glossy stock, no doubt adding to the quality of photographic reproductions, but it is so big and heavy that you pretty well have to read it sitting up. An alternate title could be, "Your Big Fat Roma Music Book."

That in itself is a rich and satisfying experience. But don't stop there. Read the text!

It tells of Roma (aka Gypsy) musicians who have cornered the market on live music in polyglot Greek Macedonia. While they are at the bottom of the social order, anyone who wishes a proper wedding, festival, or party of any kind hires these musicians. The musicians generally perform in trios, one playing a bass drum while the other two play the zurna - a double-reed woodwind found throughout Eurasia and Africa. Their repertoire is drawn from the peoples who live in the area, or passed through at one time, and is sometimes more Oriental, sometimes more European - whatever the customer wants.

Keil and Keil give detailed accounts of several performances - a baptism, a wedding, and a saint's day festival - tell the life stories of a dozen or so musicians & family, and recount the broad history of the Roma in the Mediterranean as well as presenting a more focused account of their sojourn in Greek Macedonia. Blau's photographs range from intimate portraits, to dancers in full party whirl, through street scenes jumbled or measured, to serene landscapes. Some of his shots are so strikingly composed - the cover image, for example - that the effect is both subjective (Blau's aesthetic) and objective (we're looking at things, out there, in the world). Steven Feld's soundscapes give us the living flow of sound. Not only do we hear the twin zurnas flying through drum rhythms, but dancing feet, shouts of joy and exertion, motors churning, sheep braying, and Stevie Wonder piped in through a tinny sound system.

Bright Balkan Morning is a milestone. See it, hear it, read it. Take pleasure in it.

My original decision to buy the hardcover copy of a previously unknown author was mainly because I am fascinated by Philip and Alexander of Macedon, while there are so many books about the son; the father has been relatively ignored by fiction writers.

This book turned out to be one of the best historical novels I have read (if not THE best). Because of the author's expertise in ancient warfare, I am not surprised to find the vivid account of battles and the military genius of Philip of Macedon. Beyond the military stuff, the book gives excellent description of the geological, religious, economical, and social realities of that era. This book brings me back in time more than 2,000 years ago, among the Macedonians and Greeks, I can feel and understand their environment, their beliefs, their everyday life, and their struggles; each men and women are creatures of their own time but have meanings for eternity. Among them the most vivid character of all is Philip of Macedon. This is the way a historical fiction should be: as accurate as historical textbook while at the same time vivid and fascinating as telling a great story. You feel you are there, as the history unfolds itself...

...The only problem? The book stopped at Alexander's birth. There are twenty more years of great battle and conquering that follows before Philip's death; I really hope this book has a sequel.

These are more than history book characters. That's why I liked the book so much. They spoke and acted like real people. They loved and hated with an intensity that stayed with me.

Historical novels such as this one take history and present it with all the relevance of today, the panaromic view of a movie, and the incisiveness of cafe table gossip.

I highly recommend Bloodlines to anyone who likes history and wants to know more about what came before Alexander's greatness.

One of the repeating themes in literature and biography is the difficulty that eldest sons have in succeeding in their fathers' eyes. Alexander the Great was a notable historical exception to the usual rule. His father was exceptionally able, and united the Greeks prior to his assassination. Alexander was a greater man, and this book explores the development of their relationship amid the backdrop of court intrigues and Hellenic politics. Plutarch's Lives is the primary source for Fire from Heaven, but Mary Renault has drawn from other post-Alexander sources to weave a compelling historical novel of what it might have been like back in Pella.

The Macedonians had a number of habits that some would be uncomfortable with today. These behaviors included killing as a rite of manhood, slavery, taking physical advantage of weaker people, plundering, polygamy, open bi-sexual relationships, raiding neighbors for pecuniary advantage, and sacrificing of animals to the gods. If any of these things distress you, this may not be the novel for you. These behaviors play a big role in the story.

Alexander's father and mother did not see eye-to-eye. Part of the reason was that his mother was probably overly politically ambitious. Another part of the reason was the his father rarely saw a beautiful young person he did not find attractive, and he was a man to act on his impulses. The book explores how Alexander developed his independence of character and action from both of his parents.

Much of the novel can only be guess-work, but the record is fairly clear that Alexander was able to command respect as a field commander by the time he was only 16. He also displayed a dislike for taking the easy way out, so his many principled stands make sense. The book also looks into his relations with his friends and colleagues, and leaves it open as to whether these were sexually chaste relations or not. The author's note leaves it up to you to decide what his preferences really were.

The book was most appealing to me before Alexander was butting heads with his father. One of the most revealing episodes though is one where Alexander saves his father's life, and his father pretends to be ignorant of the fact. Actually, their relations were probably harmed by this, because it made them into peers before they were ready to accept one another in that way.

If you are like me, you will find it intriguing that it could be difficult to be the son of a successful king, even if you are about to conquer the known world on your own. It was also interesting to read about what it might have been like to have had Aristotle as a tutor. The sections about Demosthenes also added to my appreciation of the role of an orator in Athens at the time.

If you are not fascinated by Alexander, you will probably grade this book down to about three stars. If you would like to understand Alexander a little better, you will find the insights here more accessible than Plutarch's and the novel to be very interesting. If you want to learn about military strategy, this book will be a one star effort for you.

After you finish reading the book, I suggest that you think about what kinds of experiences can help form the character of your children in positive ways. I also hope you will learn from the example here to let the relationship evolve easily as your children become ready for more responsibility.

Help your child create an inner spur to be the finest person of character your child can be!

A great book to read along with J.F.C. Fuller's 'The Generalship of Alexander the Great'.

Most treatments of his campaigns focus on the key battles and his use of the phalanx and cavlary to achieve victory. However Engels makes the point that the conquest of Persia was a potentially very difficult campaign. Generals such as Crassus, Antony and Julian were to fail despite having large well disicplined armies.

Engles shows that to maintain an army in the field in ancient times was difficult. Armies consumed food and water at a prodigous rate and all land transport was ineffecient. The remote location of Persia combined with its arid agriculture over time were its greatest protection.

Alexander had to think carefully about every stage of his campaign so that he could obtain food and keep is army in the field.

The key to this was initially water transport. Ships were the one effecient means of transport in the ancient world. Persia however at the time of Alexander had a large navy.

Alexander calculated every move to perfection.Firstly he made his own men carry their equipment rather than using servants or camp followers as was the norm with Greek armies. This made his army quick moving and lessened the mouths to feed. He then started his campaign before the Persians could use thier harvest to provision a fleet. Alexander was able to move his army through Anatolia siezing all the Persian ports and to put their navy out of buisness. He was then able to use his navy to supply his forces.

This book is masterful in explaining the campaign and it reveals the depth of Alexanders genius and the care of his planning. Invaluable for anyone interested in the area.

Imagine this:

You're Alexander the Great, setting out on campaign with your mighty army. Glory and profit await you if you succeed, and as you know from history, the real Alexander did succeed. His army was renowned for its efficiency, speed and lethality; his expedition through Asia was the longest military campaign ever undertaken; he fascinates military historians to this day.

But when you put yourself in his place, ask yourself what was required of Alexander to realize his achievment. Was his fame won through superior force of men and arms alone? Could he take his army anywhere he desired, at any time? Had he merely to set his stern, clear gaze upon a point on the horizon and say: "There we shall go"--or was there more to it?

Start with a mundane consideration: how do you feed your men? It's not as clear-cut as it might seem. Suppose you have an army of 10,000 men. Suppose, further, that each man's consumption rate is 3 pounds of grain per day's march. Now realize that this must mean just what the numbers tell you: each man of your 10,000 needs 3 pounds of grain daily, 3 times 10,000 is 30,000--so you need an incredible 30,000 pounds of food, each and every day. If you don't get this food, your men will weaken and die. There's no way around it.

A quarter million pounds of food over the course of a week's march isn't easy to come by, especially in Alexander's day, is it? After all, you can't have the food airlifted to you. You have no motorized vehicles to speed you along, either, bear in mind. Your own feet must take you, slowly and over rough terrain in hot weather, to your destination. If and when you reach and conquer a town, its food stores become yours; but such settlements are few and far between, and practice subsistence level agriculture, in any case. Do your men carry all their food provisions with them? Food isn't all that your men must carry, and a man's back can only bear so much. Do you use pack animals? They have their own food requirements, which are greater than a man's, and in less time than you'd think they will eat what they haul.

The fact is that waging war is never merely about raising an army and fighting an enemy; it's also about getting to the enemy without dying of dehydration and malnourishment along the way. How Alexander surmounted such problems of logistics--the supplying and transporting of his army--is the subject of Engels's fine book. With rigorous scholarship, utilizing sources both ancient and modern, including the most recent geographical and archaeological data, Engels shows that logistical concerns conditioned Alexander's every choice of strategy and tactics, timing and direction, necessitating the most careful, long-range planning. As Engels states, "a military route is not a mere line drawn on a map but a narrow corridor with sufficient agricultural and water resources in the immediate vicinity with which large numbers of men and animals can be supported." This is a fact of military planning of which Alexander had to be constantly aware. Engels does an excellent job in explaining it, and makes the subject of logistics much more interesting than I would have thought possible. This book is a much-needed corrective to earlier studies of Alexander the Great that oversimplify this aspect of his generalship of the Macedonian army.

Dr. Nick Papanikolaou

Two things to remember:

1. It is ironic that Greeks now "love Macedonia" when they tried to eradicate its very existence.

2. If Macedonia has always been Greek, why did the Greek government deny its existence until the 1980's?

I attended a jazz festival in Macedonia in 1997 and have the greatest respect for this country and its people. There are a lot of varieties of people there who get along. Newspapers show Macedonia as conflicted but people there are very casual and respectful and friendly with each other.

Back to this book. This book makes you want to be a peacekeeper.

The one major deficit in this otherwise well organized book is that there are no illustrations or pictures - especially the lack of organization charts for both the UNPROFOR and the two UNPREDEP missions. A graphic illustration of the funtional relationships would have helped illustrate some of his organizational points. A photograph of the monument at Cupino Brdo would have enhanced his fascinating discussion of the small conflict there between the U.N. and the small groups of Serbian soldiers who attempted to take it, to provide another example.

His discussion of the "U.N.'s "Blue Line" that served as a border was similarly interesting but could have been better represented with a map and would be better presented still in a revised edition with the differences between the monitored line and the recently fixed borders agreed upon between the Republic of Macedonia and Yugoslavia.

The book, although relatively new, could then already be enhanced with a second edition's discussion of the relative success of the mission given paramilitary incursions onto Macedonian territory by western trained paramilitaries, the same paramilitaries now attempting to train Macedonia to have a reasonable military capability. But, from the quality of discussion in his text, I am certain that any revised edition would also shine.

One general lack, but not so much the author's fault as few think about these things, is not considering the relative effects of programs put in place by the west under sanctions and external war conditions which were carried over into the post war period, such that the international community got used to dictating certain conditions to Macedonia that it does not dictate to other countries without requisite international rewards. However, he is one of the few authors to point out the functional inability of the U.N. to provide respite to countries under economic seige through Chapter 50 compensation.

A special feature of this book are its chapter summaries and end of text summarization such that it comprises, before recent events, a decent list of lessons learned on the mission. The only lessons learned that he seemed not to have covered at all is the geographic spread of the mission, which needed aome other geographic components. One criticism of his discussion of the CIVPOL in Macedonia, besides their tiny size, was that there was no discussion of the dynamics of changing the size of the CIVPOL operation or how it might better have been comprised.

All in all, a nice study.