Rating: 
Summary: An Incomplete Education by Judy Jones and William Wilson
Review: Pretty much sums up the feeling you get after paying for thousands of dollars in "higher" education - useless. A good short summary on the facts of a liberal arts education (although you might disagree with some of the conclusions). I would recommend it more so for curious high school students or those that didn't have the opportunity to attend college. But regardless of your education level, it is an entertaining read.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting facts - Annoying presentation
Review: Reading this book reminded me of dining at a fine restauraunt with an excellent menu and, unfortunately, extraordinarily annoying waiters that buzz about my head like flies - filling my tea at every sip, dragging on endlessly about the soups of the day, and continually checking on my status. Urghhhhhh! Just give me the food and shut up already!The authors of this book eventually wore me down with the presumtion that I would be more entertained with their apparent whit and comical sarcasm than with broadening my extent of knowledge. In fact, if one were to edit out the exra author-only-pleasing chatter, An Incomplete Education would be a surprizingly short read. However, in all fairness, I did find the mere girth of this volume to be an excellent support brace for a broken passenger seat in a 1975 Toyota Corona. So, I suppose if you drove a make and model such as this, and if your passenger seat, too, was broken, then I would have to recommend this book highly. Make sure you wedge it with authority between the frame edging and drive shaft hump - it seems to work best that way.
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Summary: Terrible book !
Review: The authors are way too condescending. The Title is totally misleading. They basically just try to be witty and tell you what they think is good and bad without offering any substance. I've never given a book 1 star before, but if I could give it less, I would. You won't learn anything, except the authors opinions on things. They critcize almost every work of art, invention or idea ever created.
Rating: 
Summary: Incomplete And Holding...
Review: The authors make a valiant attempt to encapsulate vast expanses of social, political, economic and religious history; complete with the appropriate personalities and technological advances. They barely survive the effort. While entertaining in most cases, they approach the material with a sarcasm (and at times a contempt)that detracts from their original intent.Case in point: "The Egyptians used the number zero (0), but did not know what they had". This statement effectively dismisses the intellectual achievment of the Egyptians in the area of mathematics and simultaneously implies a sort of ineptness. they then go on to praise Greek mathematical accomplishments. The authors ignore the fact that Pythagoras , the " Father" of Greek mathematics, studied in Egypt for 22 years. Pythagoras did not go to Egypt to teach anyone anything;he went to be taught by the best and brightest minds in the ancient world. More importantly, a cursory examination of the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus which is conservatively estimated to be 2-3 thousand years old, would have effectively put to rest the issue of mathematical primacy and origin. I assume here that the gratuitous put-down of Egyptian mathematical genius had the implied objective of establishing Greek contributions as first and greatest with respect to ranking and chronology on the world stage. Interesting...
I had other concerns about the book, but soon concluded that this was merely the authors take on the worlds institutions and personalities filtered through their Western education. The book is a selective distillation of what the authors consider the most important elements of their education which is, by no small leap of faith, assumed to be shared by the reader. Its well written, but incomplete and holding...
Rating:
Summary: Incomplete And Holding...
Review: The book is pretty great, and funny. Especially the observation about the French - "not team players" - puts so much in a nice neat nutshell. Anyway, one reader commented on an error - that the book claims that Alexander the Great was a Muslim. Actually, the book never said that, but it DOES say that Muslims consider Alexander the Great a prophet, which is accurate. And they consider him a Muslim as a result as they do Jesus and Moses.
Rating:
Summary: Correcting the reader from Charlottesville
Review: The book is pretty great, and funny. Especially the observation about the French - "not team players" - puts so much in a nice neat nutshell. Anyway, one reader commented on an error - that the book claims that Alexander the Great was a Muslim. Actually, the book never said that, but it DOES say that Muslims consider Alexander the Great a prophet, which is accurate. And they consider him a Muslim as a result as they do Jesus and Moses.
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Summary: Smug tone outweighs usefulness
Review: The flippant style mentioned by the previous reviewer is what hurts this book. It could have been a great reference, but the authors try to get cute in almost every single entry. Don't bother.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as I had hoped
Review: The idea behind Incomplete Education is brilliant. The execution is not. The authors try so hard to be cute and clever that they're annoying. After the first 30 pages i just couldn't stand it anymore.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and fascinating!
Review: The people here who gave this book a negative review clearly just didn't get it. This book is not intended as an education itself (hence the title), but as an introduction and overview that will hopefully send you off to learn more. But the best thing about this book is its wit. Saying that the authors should have dispensed with the comments and gotten down to information misses the whole point! I love this book, and recommend it to all my friends.
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Summary: The only thing I learned in college
Review: The thing I most remember from ALL my college courses is this book. AN INCOMPLETE EDUCATION is truly a wonderful supplement to any person's knowledge. This book is basically an intellectual history overview with a lot of helpful charts and guides. It's written in a very humorous tone, and it hits the humor target more often than not. If you feel that you lack knowledge, this is the book for you. It's not in depth, but it does tell you what you SHOULD know in all areas, including history, philosophy, music, art, and even film. My personal favorite features are the Latin abbreviations and the "Words you pronounce wrong but if you pronounced them right, you'd be considered a pretentious snob" feature. For a good time (and to increase your IQ), read this book. It's tongue-in-cheek, but it's a wealth of information.
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