Bridges: A History of the World's Most Famous and Important Spans

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In her follow-up to Skyscrapers, Judith Dupré has taken her initial concept and turned it on its side. Bridges, like its predecessor, is a large-format hardcover book that opens to an impressive span a yard across. The format lends itself well to the material, displaying the many exquisite panoramic shots of bridges in full splendor. The impressive black-and-white photographs convey the majesty, elegance, and beauty of these structures.

Bridges is more than a picture book, however. Dupré presents a chronological collection of more than 45 bridges, from early Roman aqueducts to the most recent accomplishments of this century. Each bridge is accompanied by text that, together with the photos, provides the reader with informative background, anecdotes, and cultural and historical context. For fact seekers, the relevant names and numbers are readily accessible. For the parents of inquisitive children, "cantilever" will roll from the tongue as easily as "tension" and "torsion."

Dupré quietly proclaims in her introduction, "The unassuming poetry of bridges reveals itself to those who would see them." The author manages to convey this very poetry by giving us the tools to understand the power and grace of the bridge.

Book Description

Introduction by Frank O. Gehry. Opening to a dazzling full-yard span, this panoramic tour introduces more than fifty of the world's greatest bridges in 200 high-quality black-&-white photographs and an engaging text that sheds light on the historical and technological background of constructions that range from the ancient Roman Pont du Gard to the newly constructed Tsing Ma bridge in Hong Kong.

Customer Reviews:

Magical books.......2007-09-27

I had a copy of this book in 2000 and lent it to a friend, but could not remember who. I found it when visiting the USA for the first time. It is simply the most magical and beautiful book in my collection, and from the front cover picture on the Internet, purchasers cannot see that it opens out and spans very very wide, just like a bridge in itself. I missed this book terribly, it is one of my treasures, so I was delighted recently to find that I could still buy it on Amazon. It will never be lent out again! I love the black and white photographs of all the world's most interesting bridges. Anyone would learn a great deal from it, and architects and surveyors would find it fascinating.

So often we don't even realize what we're driving on.......2002-04-22

Every day we traverse bridges in our daily lives, scarcely to give them thought. Dupre pulls back the veil and brings highlight to these engineering feats. From the simple to the revolutionary, we are brought on a tour of bridges through time, and around the globe. The superlatives are here: the longest suspension bridge, highest, oldest. But it's not a book about the superlative; it's about what moves us forward in our quest for technology, and for our ability to move across space in a timely manner. It highlights those bridges that mean something to us: where the Romans said "let's make a permanent way of moving water." Where politics came into play and tried to prevent bridges that we can't imagine not being there like the Golden Gate Bridge. Bridges become important to history such as the ones over the Rhine during the World War. And sometimes when we make mistakes and things don't work out like we planned - the most spectacular example being the Tacoma Narrows Bridge that lasted all of 4 months.

But as she shows in her book "Skyscrapers," there is an intertwining of form and function, and where man built up in buildings, he builds out via bridges. The book's design even emphasizes - where Skyscrapers was an extremely tall and thin book, Bridges goes for width, to try and bring the spans into the range of the printed page. Yet so often, the task is not possible, and even on the wide pages the bridge disappears into the distance.

The book looks at the engineering involved, but does not dwell on it. Rather it celebrates how the improvement of engineering practices have been able to move man forward. A veritable love poem to something that we often take too much for granted.

"Bridges" "Skyscrapers" "Churches".......2001-02-22

"Bridges" was the first of the uniquely-designed, well-written books by Judith Dupre' that I discovered. "Skyscrapers" then became a 'must-have' and now I'm eagerly awaiting publication of her "Churches" - these books contain marvelous black and white photo collections of subjects around the world, with a succinct and intriguing text about each. They invite repeated perusals, and I keep them, in their handsome jackets, where I can see and enjoy them again and again. Often, when I have a few moments, I like to reflect on the historical descriptions of these wonderous man-made miracles and re-study the photos. Of special interest may be the structures which one in fact has seen, perhaps many times. The books are well-indexed and provided with suggestions for further reading.

A bridge lover.......2000-12-19

I was a little disappointed in this book in that it really doesn't get into much detail about any of the bridges which are discussed. It's more of a "coffe table" book without out much informative depth. Nothing to really sink your teeth into. However, if you're not already familiar with any of the bridges covered in the book, or you're not a nut for bridges, then this book is a great introduction to a few of the most beautiful bridges to be seen. One neat thing that I did really like is that it is a very wide book which allows you a little better perspective of the true size of some of the bridges - you get long pictures instead of little ones of each bridge. That was kind of cool! My 5 yr old son loves "reading" this book to me!

Bridges is spectacular!.......2000-07-02

As a history of the world's most famous & important spans this wide, wide book is a spectacular hit! Lots of details, fascinating photos & information. A must for those folks in your life who think bridges are the coolest!

Bridges: A History of the World's Most Famous and Important Spans

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Bridges: A History of the World's Most Famous and Important Spans

Manufacturer: Tess Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Bridges That Changed the World

ASIN: 1579124178

Product Description

Written by the same author/designer team who produced "Skyscrapers", this book is a spectacle of stone, steel, wood and concrete portrayed in a unique and imposing size--page spreads open up to a full yard. All the world's great bridges are dazzlingly presented and described, from the ancient Roman Pont du Gard to London's Tower Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Tsing Ma Suspension Bridge in Hong Kong. 200 photos.

Book Description

As the human body moves, muscles contract and relax, creating subtle changes in body contours and shifting patterns of light and shadow on the skin's surface. Visualizing exactly what happens beneath the skin to cause these changes on the surface is an essential skill for artists, physicians, physical therapists, and body builders-for anyone who needs to understand the body in motion.

But how do you teach this skill?

Why not paint a live model to look as though his skin had been stripped off and then photograph him in multiple poses? From that idea comes Visualizing Muscles, an innovative aid to drawing, sculpting, and learning surface anatomy.

More than one hundred static and active poses are included in Visualizing Muscles. Paired photographs--one painted and labelled, one not--show how the simulated muscles produce the subtle lights and darks, hills and valleys, on the model's unpainted skin. Captions highlight the muscles called into play by a given pose.

Dr. Cody, who experimented with techniques for two years, pioneers the use of a model on whose skin muscles, tendons, and fascial sheaths are painted with scientific accuracy. Because of the elasticity of the skin and paint, the painted musculature expands and contracts along with the underlying muscles. Thus Cody's technique enables students of anatomy to visualize the muscles beneath the skin and the changes brought about by movement.

This 8-1/2" x 11" book contains 9 full-color and 221 black-and-white photographs.

Customer Reviews:

finaly..........2006-12-07

...exactly the surface anatomy reference ive been searching for. as a 3d artist it is essential that i reproduce human figure in an accurate and believable way for this you need effective reference. this book has it in spades.

One of the best Anatomy books for any Artist!.......2006-02-16

This is easily one of the greatest anatomy for artists books I've found. It covers various landmarks and on the opposite page uses a unique way to visualize the underlying muscle structure of the same pose. A must have book for any Artist!

Art study only ! (not technical reference).......2001-01-25

This book is useful for artists such as painters and sculptors trying to accurately represent a muscular male body in different poses (like greek sculptures - Atlas, The Thinker, etc). Every page shows the model in a different position comparing the same pose in the "buff" with and without the painted muscles.

excellent artistic reference.......1998-09-23

This book is extremely useful for anyone trying to master the interplay of muscle as it affects surface form

Very good male nude reference book.......1998-02-07

A fair sized book, it's unique in the sense that the male model has the relevant muscles and tendons actually drawn on his body. Nice concept but I don't think it really helps. Because the muscles are tendons and the skin is, well, skin, it stretches as a mass and not as fibers. I think the poses are useful though, good lighting to show muscle definition and tone and decent-sized photographs too.

Visualizing Muscles: A New Ecorche Approach to Surface Anatomy

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Visualizing Muscles: A New Ecorche Approach to Surface Anatomy
John Cody
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Anatomy | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Anatomy | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0700604251

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Visualizing Muscles: A New Ecorche Approach to Surface Anatomy
John Cody
Manufacturer: Univ Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KV8GDM

Book Description

Adding to the Trigun collection of fantastic television animation and dynamic manga, a new hybrid of the two mediums arrives to keep the experience alive. Composed entirely of frames taken from the popular Japanese animated television series, the Trigun anime manga books are enhanced with colorful sound effects and dialogue taken directly from the teleplay.

Book Description

Retired Macon Telegraph columnist Bill Boyd wasn't always Fat, Dumb, and Happy Down in Georgia. That's the name of his new book, but Boyd led a nomadic existence for the first 38 years of his life, first as the son of an Oklahoma sharecropper and then as a member of the United States Marine Corps. Boyd says a sergeant major used to warn career Marines: "Don't get too fat, dumb and happy here (at a duty station in Cleveland, Ohio). About the time you do, you'll get orders to go to Vietnam or Okinawa or some other enchanted land."

Boyd explains: "Three years was about all a Marine could expect to stay in one place. But I put down some roots when I retired in 1973, and, for more than 25 years, I have lived in the same town. And the sergeant major will just have to excuse me this time. In Macon, Georgia, I have indeed grown fat (like a hibernating grizzly bear), dumb (like a fox), and happy (like a bullfrog under a drippy faucet on a hot summer day)."

In 25 years with the Telegraph, he won more than 20 writing awards from various press associations. Nine of those awards came for the column he began writing in 1977. In all, Boyd wrote more than 3,500 columns and some of his best are included in _Fat, Dumb, and Happy Down in Georgia".

Like most columnists, Boyd sometimes wrote about the interesting collection of people that make up the Boyd family: Marvalene, a sharecropper's daughter and his wife of 33 years; Joe, now 28, an adopted son who teaches at Houston County High School; Wanda, 26, a foster daughter who is now a missionary and will fly home from Virginia for the book signing; and his only grandchild, Josh, 8, who appears on the dust cover of the new book with the author. However, Boyd captured a wide audience by writing about everyday people.

Customer Reviews:

If you like Bill Boyd you will like this book.......2000-10-02

This is a great book. If you were like me and grew up reading Boyd in the Macon Telegraph then you will like this book. I really don't know what that other guy was looking for when he said that the book was no good. Bottom line - This is a good book with good stories.

Mush corn columns..........1999-11-04

Is there any Southern writer that actually writes real-life, full length, humorous type stories anymore? Boyd has some talent, but I hate reading short columns over and over and over...write something with a little more "bulk" to it, please. You can do better than this.

Book Description

1876. A pioneering general account of the Karen people which draws on the author's own experiences in administering Toungoo, in Tenasserim, as well as on earlier accounts and observations to present a synthesis of information. Contents: Etymology of the word Karen-Character and Physical Characteristics of the Karens; Language; Education; Government; Origin; Religion, Mythology, Folk-lore, etc.; Rise and progress of Christianity Toungoo: its physical Geography and History; Nattoung, or Demon Mount; Reminiscences of an Annual Gathering of Christian Karens; Among the Tsawkoo Karens; A Summer Tour in the Bwe-Karen Country; Trip to the Gaykho Country; The Happy Hunting-Grounds of Meekyin; and Karennee, or the Country of the Red Karens.

The Black Parrot : A Tale of the Golden Chersonese

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The Black Parrot : A Tale of the Golden Chersonese
Harry Hervey
Manufacturer: The Century Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MX1JFA

The Golden Chersonese and the Way Theater

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The Golden Chersonese and the Way Theater
Isabella L. BIRD
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither
Isabella L. Bishop
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NPBCT0

The Golden Chersonese and the way thither

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The Golden Chersonese and the way thither
Isabella L Bird
Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

After a time I heard a cry of distress, and saw that the big one, whose name is Mahmoud, was frightening Eblis, the small one. Eblis ran away, but Mahmoud having got the rope in his hands, pulled it with a jerk each time Eblis got to the length of his tether, and beat him with the slack of it. I went as near to them as I dared, hoping to rescue the little creature, and he tried to come to me, but was always jerked back.

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The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither.
Isabella L., Bird
Manufacturer: G. P. Putnam's Sons
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Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000CQCYS

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MALAYA: THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE
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Manufacturer: China Inland Mission
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Down to the Golden Chersonese: Victorian Lady Travellers

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Down to the Golden Chersonese: Victorian Lady Travellers
Nancy Holmes
Manufacturer: Sono Nis Pr
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In eastern seas,: With a visit to Insulinde and the Golden Chersonese,
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A sympathetic snapshot of what your teen is brooding about

Raising a Thoughtful Teenager: A Book of Answers and Values for Parents
Ben Kamin
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Child Development | Babies & Toddlers | Parenting | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
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Health o Meter HDC100-01 "Grow with Me" Teddy Bear Scale for Babies and Toddlers

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Customer Reviews:

A sympathetic snapshot of what your teen is brooding about.......1997-10-08

There are not many books that discuss the teenage mind -- and take teenagers seriously. This book responds to the tough questions posed by teens on such topics as homosexuality, drinking, and the fear of nuclear or ecological disaster. The author refers often and in detail to his own religious perspective and outlook on world history as he discusses teenagers, but his love and respect for teenagers is universal.

Raising a Thoughtful Teenager: A Book of Answers and Values for Parent

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Raising a Thoughtful Teenager: A Book of Answers and Values for Parent

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ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ICNZJI

Raising a Thoughtful Teenager: A Book of Answers and Values for Parents-

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Raising a Thoughtful Teenager: A Book of Answers and Values for Parents-
Ben Kamin-
Manufacturer: Dutton Books-
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O6FO92

Book Description

Wanda Lorenc watched horrified as the first Wehrmacht soldiers stormed into Warsaw. Jan Porembski witnessed the mass executions of Polish civilians. Barbara Makuch became a courier for the Polish underground until she was caught and tortured. Jan Komski was thrown into the very first transport to Auschwitz and observed its rapid expansion firsthand. But, unlike the nearly three million other Polish Christians (and three million Polish Jews) who died during World War II, they survived.

Richard Lukas presents the compelling eyewitness accounts of these and other Polish Christians who suffered at the hands of the Germans. They bear witness to unspeakable horrors endured by those who were tortured, forced into slavery, shipped off to concentration camps, and even subjected to medical experiments. Their stories provide a somber reminder that non-Jewish Poles were just as likely as Jews to suffer at the hands of the Nazis, who viewed them with nearly equal contempt. Zbigniew Haszlakiewicz remembers being brutally whipped and tortured-hung by his arms and legs, hands tied behind, and repeatedly stabbed: "I prayed to lose consciousness, but it was impossible. The Gestapo soon tired and started to drink beer and smoke cigarettes as they sat at that big desk. And I hung like a hammock."

Lorenc tells of encountering starving Jews: "I broke an end off one loaf [of bread] and threw it to a woman in the group. An SS guard saw what I had done, rushed over to me and began to beat me with her stick. When I fell, she beat me with her boots. Two of my teeth dislodged and my mouth filled with blood. When I returned to the barracks, no one recognized me."

But Dr. Jan Moor-Jankowski also recalls: "One night they took a prisoner and hanged him. He died in front of our eyes. I remember seeing a tiny twig of a tree from the window. As time passed, I saw a bud on the twig and soon leaves came out. It was something that gave me hope."

Through the survivors' voices we also learn about the Polish underground, the Council for Aid to Jews (Zegota), the Jewish Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, and the Home Army's heroic battle during the Warsaw Uprising in late 1944. Lukas places the narratives in their historical context and Jan Komski's drawings capture the horror of concentration camp life.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

Customer Reviews:

Seldom-Mentioned Facts About the Holocaust (sensu Universal).......2006-08-03

Owing to obvious misunderstandings, the very title of this book needs clarification. The concept of "forgotten", not elaborated by Lukas, goes far beyond which side has done a better job of presenting its sufferings to the American public. It goes right to the heart of (1). Which side has the power and influence to get its message out, (2). Which side is in a position to control the very language of the debate, and (3). Which side has the political clout to have its sufferings enshrined in American educational law. As for (1), American Jew Novick pointed out in his book, THE HOLOCAUST IN AMERICAN LIFE, that Poles "never had the political, cultural, or financial resources to press their case." As for (2), George Orwell noted that those who control the language control the debate. Note contemporary Newspeak, in which there is no generally-recognized term for prejudices against Poles, only Jews (anti-Semitism), no special term for a massacre of Poles, only Jews (the pogrom), and no special term in existence for the German genocide of Poles, only Jews (the Holocaust). In this review, I use the term Holocaust (sensu Universal) to include ALL victims of Germany, including Poles. As for (3), are we supposed to believe that it is by accident that American children are required, in many US states, to learn about the murder of 5-6 million Jews in appreciable detail, as if it were something higher than the sufferings of others in WWII? Finally, the fact that Jewish spokesman have forcefully opposed the teaching about the 2-3 million murdered Poles alongside that of the 5-6 million murdered Jews (except perhaps as a footnote in order to deflect the argument) should serve as crowning proof that "forgotten" is FAR more than simply a matter of which side has done a better job of communicating its sufferings to the general public.

Lukas has done a great deal of commendable work to counter the foregoing trends. This book is an anthology of Polish survivors of German Nazi persecution, a persecution that cost the lives of 2-3 million Poles, including over half of Poland's prewar intelligentsia. WARNING: The descriptions of German methods throughout this book are often graphic, and may upset the sensitive reader. The content focuses on the September 1939 German conquest and five-plus years of occupation, the unrelenting German terror, the mass executions, Gestapo methods, the hellish German concentration camps, Jan Komski's paintings of Auschwitz (pp. 58-on), the atrocious treatment of Polish forced laborers (2 million of them), Zegota, the betrayed Warsaw Uprising, and the "liberation" of Poland by a new occupant (the USSR).

The 5-year survival rate for Poles at Mauthausen Concentration Camp was only 8 out of 200 (Antoni Palmowski, p. 109), and the several-month survival rate for Poles incarcerated at Auschwitz, following the foredoomed Warsaw Uprising, was still a small 300 out of 3,000 (Stanley J. Sagan, p. 163). Such was the starvation in the work camps of Flossenburg concentration camp that Polish inmates killed and ate a German shepherd guard dog that belonged to one of the SS men (Paul Zenon Wos, p. 217).

Some seldom-discussed German barbarities are mentioned throughout this anthology, including the bleeding of Polish children for blood transfusions to wounded German soldiers (Bozenna Urbanowicz-Gilbride, p. 198), and the sterilization of Polish forced laborers (Katherine Graczyk, p. 34; Bozenna Urbanowicz-Gilbride, p. 197). No one mentions the KL Warschau extermination camp, where some 200,000 gentile Poles were gassed and cremated Auschwitz-Birkenau-style.

Various incidental details, while not intended for this purpose, help rebut common Polonophobic mischaracterizations. For example, the well-worn tale of Polish cavalry charging German tanks, originating from wartime German propaganda, is once again refuted (Notes, p. 212). And, contrary to accusations, Polish Jews were actually walled off into ghettos by the conquering Germans (Barbara Makuch, p. 85), not by the prewar Poles. The shortage of food in the countryside (Jan Porembski, p. 134), caused by German confiscations, enables the reader to understand why some Poles did not help fugitive Jews, and even betrayed or killed Jews who stole food from them. Against the claim that the German-appointed Polish police were collaborationists as such, it turns out that 90% of them were involved in the Polish Underground (Paul Zenon Wos, p. 214). The Jews of Torczyn (near Warsaw) were initially trusting of the German conquerors (Halina Martin, p. 91, 99), adding rebuttal to the argument that Polish Jews immediately feared Germans, and that this (imagined) fear is what drove the widespread Jewish-Soviet collaboration in eastern Poland that occurred in the first stages of WWII. The actions of incarcerated Poles against incarcerated Jews, simplistically blamed on anti-Semitism, must be balanced by the actions of incarcerated Jews against incarcerated Poles (Dr. Stanley Garstka, p. 26).

Finally, consider the "All Jews Were Victims of the Nazis" argument, a common rationalization for the primacy of Jewish sufferings in American social studies classes. Antoni Palmowski (p. 113) describes the fate of Jews brought to Mauthausen Concentration Camp: "Early in 1945, new transports, mostly from Auschwitz, arrived...What was unusual was that the Jews were clean, blue and gray striped prisoner uniforms....The Germans began to treat Jewish prisoners much better than before. They even increased their rations. We joked that the Germans `smelled' the end of the war, which they realized by now they could not win." It is obvious that not all known Jews were slated for extermination, even among already-apprehended Jews, and the killing of every last possible Jew was clearly NOT a priority of the dying Third Reich.

Chilling Stories You'll Never Forget.......2005-08-27

Forgotten Survivors tells the chilling, moving stories of Polish people who suffered at the hands of the Nazis, who were taking over their country. The people in these pages come to life as you learn where they were at the time they, or their family members, were seized by the SS and taken to concentration camps. You learn how some managed to stay under the Nazi radar, how others tried to escape, how they survived to tell their incredible stories. I couldn't put it down. The author has done a tremendous job compiling their stories and presenting them with each one's individual voice. It's an important contribution to the history of the Holocaust.

Everything you never knew about the Holocaust.......2005-07-25

This book is a collection of gripping accounts of what real people experienced during this horrific chapter in history. There's the story of Jan Komski, who tried to escape from a concentration camp with a friend dressed in an SS uniform but failed. . .the story of Lilka Trzcinska-Croydon, who describes in detail what it was like to be transported in a cattle car and then transformed into a camp prisoner with a number branded on her arm. . .stories of families separated, children plucked out of their daily lives and sent off into a world of terror where they were confronted with endless harsh realities, where survival was the only goal. This book brings the Holocaust to life with sometimes moving, sometimes chilling, realism and honesty. The author takes great care to let each individual voice be heard. And each story is filled with such suspense, made even greater because each story is true. Though I'd always heard about the atrocities people endured during the Holocaust, this book gives a voice to some of those people who managed to survive against incredible odds. I highly recommend it.

First Person Accounts Important and Necessary.......2005-04-26

First things first: buy this book. Read it. Give it to friends. Require, before anyone talk to you about Nazism, about Polish-Jewish relations - or, for that matter, about heroism or human suffering - that they read it. Demand that lecturers, students and journalists know it before they attempt to speak with authority on World War II. If they aren't familiar with it, acquaint them. You may want to carry a copy for that purpose.

Many of us have sat around a dying fire, or an emptying bottle of vodka, while Polish loved ones recounted their WW II experiences. We've wanted others to hear these sagas before being quick to judge. We've used these narratives to inspire ourselves: "If he could survive that, I can get through this." Now such stories are available in book format. It's high time. What took us so long?

"Forgotten Survivors" presents twenty-eight, first-person accounts of Poles who lived through WW II. Now-and-then photographs illustrate each account; there are also fifteen Jan Komski drawings of concentration camp scenes. Tellers include former camp inmates, slave laborers, underground fighters, and Zegota members.

As much as I appreciate this book, and that is very much, there are aspects of it that either troubled me or will trouble others, or at least deserve comment here. First, of course, there is the title. These stories are powerful, and they are transcendent. They are valuable today, and they will be valuable as long as human beings face life-and-death challenges.

The polemical title does not best serve these accounts and their authors. The word "forgotten" implies that important audiences have ignored Polish suffering. Another way of understanding post-war discourse is to acknowledge that Jews have done an admirable job of broadcasting and canonizing their story, and Polish non-Jews have, for whatever reason, been less successful at this.

Our best strategy is to honor our own story, not blame others for honoring theirs. "Heroic Polish Survivors," would have honored the narrators in this book, without positioning them as a rebuke in a feud whose importance - unlike the stories themselves - is transitory.

"Christians" is also problematical. Some Poles were neither Jewish nor Christian, and suffered under Nazism; some were openly hostile to organized religion. Many Polish Socialists were not Christian and were heroic in their resistance to Nazism.

These Poles do not deserve to be "forgotten" any more than their Christian fellow nationals do. The term "non-Jewish" - one Lukas does occasionally use - acknowledges the impact of Nazi racial policy without eliminating the stories of non-religious Poles.

Readers concerned with ethnographic technique will be frustrated by Lukas' omission of his transcription method. The accounts do bear many of the hallmarks of oral personal experience narratives, including colloquial language and lacunae where readers expect orienting details.

But some editing surely took place; there are none of the pauses or repetitions found in raw transcripts. Too, two separate accounts use the rare words "hegira" and "leggings." One wonders if Lukas didn't insert those words into the accounts while editing.

With the exception of Irena Sendler, all narrators emigrated to Canada, England, or the US. An ethnographer will want to know how survivor accounts told by Polish emigres differ from accounts told by survivors who remained in Poland.

Most narrators are highly placed, white-collar workers: college professors and engineers, for example. These narrators are not representational of a nation whose wartime population was majority agricultural. I wondered, as I read, have we become so intimidated by negative images of Poles that every Pole who survives WW II must be shown to be a high status, model citizen?

In the United States, piety is observed in discussions of the Holocaust, as many Jewish writers have protested. Some readers will be shocked to read Poles who lived through the Holocaust speak of their Jewish neighbors less than reverentially; others may welcome the frank humanity in these accounts. At least two Polish survivors recount being slapped or beaten by Jewish police or capos. One survivor who risked her life to help Jews reports being annoyed by "those hands stroking their beards" during a tense meeting.

"Non-Jewish Poles were just as likely as Jews to suffer at the hands of the Nazis," reads the book jacket. Page one of Lukas' introduction implies that Poles as a group and Jews as a group "shared" - a word he uses twice - equal fates. They did not, and histories of the Nazi era in Poland must state that clearly.

It must be stated clearly because it is true, and it must be stated clearly because there have been attempts by the Soviets and by government and popular culture entities in the US to dejudaize the Holocaust. Irena Sendler's account acknowledges the difference in scale: "Hitler created hell for all of us in Poland. But the kind of hell he made for the Jews was even greater" (166).

Like others interested in the Holocaust, I have pored over hundreds of photos of Polish-Jewish victims, both those who perished, and those who survived. I've often thought to myself, "He looks Polish; I could never differentiate this person from a Polish non-Jew by their facial features alone."

Gazing at the Poles in Lucas's book, I didn't encounter a population completely alien to the Jews in other books; I saw heart-wrenching sameness. One Polish narrator reports that he "looked Jewish," and he exploited this in his underground work helping Jews.

He's not the only Polish non-Jew in "Forgotten Survivors" who looks very like the Polish-Jewish portraits of innocence, endurance, and courage in other volumes. Wordlessly, these photos testify: Poles and Jews are not so separate as many would insist.

In the end, it is the power of the stories that matter, and these stories are among the most powerful you will ever read. Not only Poles, or students of Nazism, but anyone interested in examining cruelty, heroism, and simple, blind, fate, will find this book rewarding, fascinating, and humbling.

Through the Eyes of Those Who Lived...........2004-11-27

One of the most neglected aspects of Nazi Germany's barbarous murder of civilians during World War II is the fate of Polish Christians. The paradox, of course, is that Auschwitz was first set up as a concentration camp for Christian Poles. This book is a collection of reminiscences of Poles who passed through the Inferno of Nazi occupation and lived to talk about it. Many of these people eventually immigrated to the United States: I had the privilege of knowing several of them. Their stories are gripping, their accounts almost unbelievable reminders of what man can do to his fellow man. Highly recommended.

Book Description

This practical book provides the detailed methodology and expert guidance required for measuring and manipulating cytosolic ion concentrations. In addition, the strengths, weaknesses, and pitfalls of various techniques are presented. It is an invaluable source for those needing an objective evaluation of current methodologies and for those contemplating setting up such procedures.

Key Features
* A one-source reference for measuring and manipulating intracellular ions and for comparing and evaluating current methodologies
* Includes overviews of
* Optical probes and reagents
* Fabrication and use of ion-selective microelectrodes
* Use of NMR spectroscopy
* Ionophores

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