ALL YOU WANT TO KNOW--GIANTS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT

Simon & Schuster has selected topics from the Knowledge Products line of informative cassettes for the All You Want to Know series. Recent titles cover topics of financial planning and the politics of the American Revolution. The narration is interspersed with readings of primary sources--letters, speeches, legal documents and news columns--read by a bevy of actors. Craig Deitschmann narrates The Giants of Political Thought, examining Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," and Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and Federalist Papers. These tapes are great with a few caveats. The narrative sections are read sufficiently, but the actors reading the source material are a mixed bunch, ranging in style from that of cheesy 1950's documentary announcers to television potato-slicer salesmen and Shakespearean wannabes. The packages also lack documentation on the identities of the authors and performers. Despite these gripes, the All You Want to Know series expands one's horizons. S.E.S. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 99]