Tao Te Ching: A book review by Bob Morris

Tao Te Ching: The Ancient Classic
Lao Tzu, with an Introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon
Capstone Publishing Ltd. (2012)

The definitive examination of what is “the timeless, changeless spirit that runs through all life and matter”

There is no shortage of outstanding translations of Lao Tzu’s ancient classic and an even greater number of commentaries on what he characterizes as  “the timeless, changeless spirit that runs through all life and matter…Being that is all inclusive and that existed before Heaven and Earth.”

Those who have read one or more of the volumes that comprise Tom Butler-Bowdon’s 50 Classics series already know that he possesses superior reasoning and writing skills as well as a relentless curiosity when conducting research on history’s greatest thinkers and their major works. For these and other reasons, I cannot think of another person better qualified to provide the introductions to the volumes that comprise a new series, Capstone Classics.

Unlike so many others, he provides more, much more than a flimsy “briefing” to the given work. In his 32-page Introduction to this edition of Tao Te Ching, Butler-Bowdon discusses subjects and issues such as these in order to create a context, a frame-of-reference, for Lao Tzu’s insights:

o  What is – and isn’t – “Tao”
o  Recognizing and then being in harmony with its power
o  The value and limits of worldly power, fame, and riches
o  The need for self-restraint
o  Why we should treasure simplicity, purity, compassion, economy (i.e. frugality), and humility
o  The importance of “not doing” (i.e. wu wei)
o  The limits and perils of “striving”
o  Tao Te Ching and Tolstoy’s theory of history
o  The unique value of timelessness
o  Tao Te Ching and Plato’s concept of “Forms”
o  Lao Tzu and Confucius

When concluding his brilliant Introduction, Butler-Bowdon acknowledges attempts by major scholars to understand – and then explain – classic works such as Tao Te Ching:

“Yet as Lao Tzu himself implies in the text (‘The learned men are often not the wise men, nor the wise men, the learned.’), scholars are usually not good at grasping spiritual concepts, and moreover the Chinese language with its five thousand characters is ill-equipped for expressing the abstract idea of Tao. [Dwight] Goddard was therefore not interested in providing the most pedantically correct translation, but rather to capture the essence of a work he loved.”

This Capstone edition uses the classic rendering of the Tao Teh Ching in Dwight Goddard & Henri Borel’s Laotzu’s Tao and Wu Wei, New York: Brentano’s, 1919. According to Tom Butler-Bowdon, Goddard’s approach is the one to take. That’s good enough for me.

The Wealth of Nations: A book review by Bob Morris

The Wealth of Nations: The Economics Classic
Adam Smith with an Introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon
Captstone Publishing Ltd./A Wiley Company (2010)

How and Why The Wealth of Nations is “one of the most important and influential books ever written.”

The title of this review is from the Foreword to this volume, written by Eamonn Butler (Director of the Adam Smith Institute), and continues as follows: The Wealth of Nations “transformed how we think about the nature of economic life, turning it from an ancient to a recognizably modern form.” Razeen Sally is Senior Lecturer in International Politic al Economy at London School of Economics and Co-Director of European Centre for Political Economy (ECIPE). In the Preface, he observes, “The governing principles of the Smithian economic system is ‘natural liberty’ (or non-intervention), which allows ‘every man to pursue his own interest his own way, upon the liberal plan of equality, liberty and justice.’ And as Smith goes on to say, ‘All systems of preference or restraint, therefore, being thus completely taken away, the obvious and simple system natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord.’”

Those who have read one or more of the volumes that comprise Tom Butler-Bowdon’s 50 Classics series already know that he possesses superior reasoning and writing skills as well as a relentless curiosity when conducting research on history’s greatest thinkers and their major works. For these and other reasons, I cannot think of another person better qualified to provide the introductions to the volumes that comprise a new series, Capstone Classics.

Unlike so many others, he provides more, much more than a flimsy “briefing” to the given work. In his 32-page Introduction to this edition of The Wealth of Nations, Butler-Bowdon discusses subjects and issues such as these in order to create a context, a frame-of-reference, for Smith’s insights:

o   Adam Smith and the world in which he lived
o  The Wealth of Nations (TWON): Its origins and influences
o  The major political and economic issues that it addresses
o  The meaning and significance of two terms, “wealth” and “nations,” in the book’s title
o  Contemporary works with which it was compared and contrasted
o  Adam Smith’s views on social relations
o  How a strong market “works”
o  Why specialization is “the key to prosperity”
o  Smith’s views on enlightened self-interest as opposed to society’s best interests
o  The crucial role of capital
o  How and why Smith differentiates (in TWON) a nation’s productivity and its system of currency
o  The respective roles of price and demand in a market economy
o  TWON)‘s “agrarian bias”
o  Smith’s views on government’s proper role
o  Correlations between personal wealth and natural wealth
o  Smith’s views on hum rights

There are dozens of others, of course, but hopefully these will provide at least some indication of the scope of Butler-Bowdon’s coverage in the 32-page Introduction. As indicated earlier, is to create a context, a frame-of-reference, for Adam Smith’s insights. He does so brilliantly and also in each of the other volumes in the Capstone Classics series that have been published thus far.

The Wealth of Nations: A book review by Bob Morris

The Wealth of Nations: The Economics Classic
Adam Smith with an Introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon
Capstone Publishing Ltd./A Wiley Company (2010)

How and Why The Wealth of Nations is “one of the most important and influential books ever written.”

The title of this review is from the Foreword to this volume, written by Eamonn Butler (Director of the Adam Smith Institute), and continues as follows: The Wealth of Nations “transformed how we think about the nature of economic life, turning it from an ancient to a recognizably modern form.” Razeen Sally is Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Co-Director of European Centre for Political Economy (ECIPE). In the Preface, he observes, “The governing principles of the Smithian economic system is ‘natural liberty’ (or non-intervention), which allows ‘every man to pursue his own interest his own way, upon the liberal plan of equality, liberty and justice.’ And as Smith goes on to say, ‘All systems of preference or restraint, therefore, being thus completely taken away, the obvious and simple system natural liberty establishes itself of its own accord.’”

Those who have read one or more of the volumes that comprise Tom Butler-Bowdon’s 50 Classics series already know that he possesses superior reasoning and writing skills as well as a relentless curiosity when conducting research on history’s greatest thinkers and their major works. For these and other reasons, I cannot think of another person better qualified to provide the introductions to the volumes that comprise a new series, Capstone Classics.

Unlike so many others, he provides more, much more than a flimsy “briefing” to the given work. In his 32-page Introduction to this edition of The Wealth of Nations, Butler-Bowdon discusses subjects and issues such as these in order to create a context, a frame-of-reference, for Smith’s insights:

o   Adam Smith and the world in which he lived
o  The Wealth of Nations (TWON): Its origins and influences
o  The major political and economic issues that it addresses
o  The meaning and significance of two terms, “wealth” and “nations,” in the book’s title
o  Contemporary works with which it was compared and contrasted
o  Adam Smith’s views on social relations
o  How a strong market “works”
o  Why specialization is “the key to prosperity”
o  Smith’s views on enlightened self-interest as opposed to society’s best interests
o  The crucial role of capital
o  How and why Smith differentiates (in TWON) a nation’s productivity and its system of currency
o  The respective roles of price and demand in a market economy
o  TWON‘s “agrarian bias”
o  Smith’s views on government’s proper role
o  Correlations between personal wealth and natural wealth
o  Smith’s views on human rights

There are dozens of others, of course, but hopefully these will provide at least some indication of the scope of Butler-Bowdon’s coverage in the 32-page Introduction. As indicated earlier, is to create a context, a frame-of-reference, for Adam Smith’s insights. He does so brilliantly and also in each of the other volumes in the Capstone Classics series that have been published thus far.

The Prince: A book review by Bob Morris

The Prince: The Original Classic
Niccolò Machiavelli, with an Introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon
Capstone Publishing Ltd. (2010)

How and why a leader needs to be both “a fox to discern snares, and a lion to drive off wolves”

Those who have read one or more of the volumes that comprise Tom Butler-Bowdon’s 50 Classics series already know that he possesses superior reasoning and writing skills as well as a relentless curiosity when conducting research on history’s greatest thinkers and their major works. For these and other reasons, I cannot think of another person better qualified to provide the introductions to the volumes that comprise a new series, Capstone Classics.

Unlike so many others, he provides more, much more than a flimsy “briefing” to the given work. As Butler-Bowdon points out, “recent research has focused on [Machiavelli’s] ethics and the fact that he was a genuine moral philosopher and well-rounded Renaissance man whose overriding wish was to be useful.” This obviously challenges the mistaken but durable perception of Machiavelli as being “evil” by those who have never read The Prince and know even less about the age in which it was written.

Indeed, as Yale’s Erica Benner suggests in Machiavelli’s Ethics (published by Princeton University Press, 2009), The Prince is “best seen not as a guide on how to be ruthless or self-serving, but rather as a lens to see objectively the prevailing views of the day, and to open the eyes of the reader to the motives of others.”

For this volume, Butler-Bowdon poses and then addresses key issues such as these in order to create a context, a frame-of-reference, for Niccolò Machiavelli’s insights:

o  The defining characteristics of the social and political forces of the period during which he lived and worked
o  The extent to which The Prince accurately reflects that period
o  The dominant influences (for better or worse) on Machiavelli’s career
o  Their impact on his efforts to advance that career amidst deadly perils and equally perilous opportunities
o  The unique contributions and heritage of The Prince within the development of western literature
o  Machiavelli’s articles of religious faith and perspectives political realities (e.g. his “success laws”)
o  His definition of “power” and how best to gain and then apply it
o  Girolamo Savonarola’s significance
o  The role of image and charisma in effective leadership
o  Machiavelli’s “final, powerful message” to our own times

There were so many passages in The Prince that caught my eye while re-reading it prior to writing this brief review. One was cited in its title (i.e. a leader needs to be both “a fox to discern snares, and a lion to drive off wolves”) and Butler-Bowdon cites another when concluding the Introduction to this volume: Reflecting Machiavelli’s basic philosophy regarding the division of causal power between and chance and merit, he states that, “What remains to be done must be done by you,” as ultimately “God will not do everything Himself.” To which Butler-Bowdon responds, “The Prince ultimately is a book of action, and demands of you the reader, to act without fear to achieve noble things, acquiring distinction and perhaps a certain glory in your own lifetime.”

As indicated earlier, Tom Butler-Bowdon’s purpose in this introduction is to create a context, a frame-of-reference, for Machiavelli’s insights. He does so brilliantly and also in each of the other volumes in the Capstone Classics series that have been published thus far.

Think and Grow Rich: A book review by Bob Morris

Think and Grow Rich: The Original Classic
Napoleon Hill, with an Introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon
Capstone Publishing Ltd. (2009)

The “Supreme Secret” of success: “Anything the human mind can believe, the human mind can achieve.”

Those who have read one or more of the volumes that comprise Tom Butler-Bowdon’s 50 Classics series already know that he possesses superior reasoning and writing skills as well as a relentless curiosity when conducting research on history’s greatest thinkers and their major works. For these and other reasons, I cannot think of another person better qualified to provide the introductions to the volumes that comprise a new series, Capstone Classics.

Think and Grow Rich was based on two decades of research conducted by Napoleon Hill (concluded in 1928) after being retained by Andrew Carnegie to complete an analysis of 500 of the most successful people in the United States and elsewhere. The title of his original report, Laws of Success, consisted of 1,500 pages in a series of seven volumes, in which Hill lists and discusses 17 “principles of achievement.” It is worth noting that this volume in the Capstone Classics series also contains both the “Publisher’s Preface to Original Edition” and the “Author’s Introduction to Original Edition” (published in 1937) and a list of those interviewed by Napoleon Hill over a 20-year period.

Unlike so many others, Butler-Bowdon provides more, much more than a flimsy “briefing” to the given work. For this volume, he creates a context, a frame-of-reference, for Napoleon Hill’s insights in a 16-page introduction in which he addresses subjects, themes, and issues such as these:

o A brief but remarkably insightful review of pertinent details in Hill’s circumstances when retained by Carnegie

o His magazine ventures, notably Hill’s Golden Rule and Napoleon Hill’s Magazine

o Hill’s DRAFT of a book, The 13 Steps to Riches, based on material introduced in Laws of Success

o Original title of DRAFT was changed to Use Your Noodle to Win More Boodle and then, finally and thankfully, to Think and Grow Rich

o Hill’s “four clear elements of success” (i.e. desire, faith, plans, and persistence)

o The moral and spiritual foundation of Think and Grow Rich

o 31 reasons why people fail

o The self-defeating aspects of personality that many (most?) people do not recognize

So what is “The “Supreme Secret” of success revealed by Hill in a later work, Grow Rich with Peace of Mind, published in 1967, three years before his death? “Anything the human mind can believe, the human mind can achieve.” Although it may now be fashionable to dismiss (often with ridicule) all such aphorisms, the fact remains that every success in life does indeed require an idea, an insight, that someone then makes a reality.

Thomas Edison was right: “Vision without execution is hallucination” but execution without purpose is merely effort without value. As Butler-Bowdon suggests, “Hill was saying that there were no limits to what a person can do [unless self-imposed], and history has proved it so thousands of times with the stories of any remarkable person.”

As indicated earlier, Tom Butler-Bowdon’s purpose in this introduction is to create a context, a frame-of-reference, for Hill’s insights. He does so brilliantly in this instance and in each of the other volumes in the Capstone Classics series that have been published thus far.