Jon R. Stone

Anthology of 15 articles testing Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance on a number of failed prophecies up to 1995. These articles describe the effects of failed prophecies within organized groups including Jehovah's Witnesses, Millerites, Shakers, Baha'i. The articles do not discuss prophecies spread through the broader society, i.e., Hal Lindsey's "The Late Great Planet Earth." These articles describe the creation and development of these groups and the story of prophetic show more failure. But these are scholarly, not journalistic, articles. show less

Jon Stone, a classmate of mine in undergraduate school, taught religious studies at UC Berkeley at the time of publication and is now a professor at CSU Long Beach. The idea for this book came from the experience of studying for his doctorate when he encountered many Latin words and expressions and began to keep his own list. He expanded that original list and organized it in the chapter-categories of this book:

Common Words and Expressions,
Common Phrases and Familiar Sayings,
Abbreviations, show more and Miscellaneous.

In addition, there is a helpful English-Latin index.

While this book may not make you a Latin scholar, it could help you to sound like one if you are laudis cupidis ("one desirous of praise"). There are literally thousands of phrases, expressions, and abbreviations in these 200 pages, and a handy pronunciation guide as well.

The book was named an "Outstanding Reference Source" in 1997 by the American Library Association. It is a worthy work omnibus rebus ("in every respect"). show less

I qualified as a reader of this quirky book, and enjoyed owning it for years.