Book Description
This book champions the arts as essential to the K-12 educative process. Exploring apparently oppositional approaches to the arts and their role in education, it provides both an overview of arts learning in and out of school as well as a set of "artful" lenses through which to regard non-arts teaching and learning. With strong implications for practice, the work celebrates inquiry and multiple perspectives as it explores a range of reflections on art, artistry, artists, art education, and the methods and results of arts-related educational research.
Featuring discussions and illustrations of selected works of art by children and professional artists, the text:
* Offers practical, arts-related strategies for improving teaching and learning in schools.
* Reaches beyond arts educators and advocates to include those who have no experience in the arts.
* Addresses a broad vista of settings for arts teaching and learning, including non-arts classrooms, schools that focus on the arts, community art centers, and art museums.
* Includes lessons learned from urban community art centers with a history of working successfully with, and providing safe havens for, disenfranchised students.
Customer Reviews:
All New Way to Think about it.......2005-12-02
Great book. Gives an all new way to think about the arts and schools. They should be everywhere in education.
Great Book.......2005-11-07
This is a book for educators and parents and teachers to be who want to know more about how they are really artists and they can make what and how they teach more like art. The students are artists too. This is about all of education and all teachers even though it is also definitely about art education. It is thought provoking and inspiring.
This book induces sleeping!.......2005-10-12
I'm writing this mostly for teachers who may get the idea to assign this book for a class. Please don't. It is terrible book that I, an art student, couldn't read for longer than two pages in a sitting. It felt over my head, because even though it is categorized as an art book it is in fact a psychology book. When I asked other students if they were having similar troubles with it, they all agreed, saying that even when they reread the paragraphs several times they still didn't grasp the concepts. The author is far too long-winded as well and feels that she must repeat the same thing over an over to drive the point home, when really each chapter could be reduced to one question. Moving on to the next point, a majority of the book is written in questions which makes it all the more difficult to understand.
Average customer rating:
- Enjoyable but disjointed.
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The Paisley Pattern: The Official Illustrated History
Valerie Reilly
Manufacturer: Gibbs Smith
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Instructional & How-To
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Fashion
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
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History
| Fashion
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Scotland
| Europe
| History
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General
| Antiques & Collectibles
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Textile Arts
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ASIN: 0879053178 |
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable but disjointed........2004-10-13
I enjoyed the illustrations and their captions and I learned a great deal about shawls, shawl making, the "paisley" pattern and Paisley the city. While this thin book appeared that it would be an easy read, I found the chapters rather disjointed from each other making the transition from topic to topic difficult.
Book Description
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Average customer rating:
- Why Wasn't This Book a Best Seller?
- Plenty of laughs...
- Know What This Is
- More male-bashing
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The Not-So-Silent Passage: How to Manage Your Man's Menopause
Cheryl Solimini
Manufacturer: Gibbs Smith Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Humor
| Entertainment
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Parodies
| Humor
| Entertainment
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Self-Help & Psychology
| Humor
| Entertainment
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ASIN: 0879057513 |
Customer Reviews:
Why Wasn't This Book a Best Seller?.......2007-08-29
Someone brought this book into work, and the women and men in the office were reading sections to each other and laughing out loud. Even as a middle-aged man, the target of much of the humor, I couldn't help but laugh at how dead-on so much of it was. I don't know how anyone could not find this book funny. And any man able to laugh at himself has got to laugh at this. The "Map of a Man's Brain" alone is worth the cover price. I really don't understand why this book didn't get more attention.
Plenty of laughs..........2003-10-03
I sure can't speak for the other readers here, but I sure laughed while reading this book ... a lot. Solimini has a nice touch and shows a deft command of a variety of subjects, even though the book is supposed to concentrate on male menopause. Unexpected punchlines always get me, like this one on Senator Bob Packwood: "His self-deluded jottings about stealing kisses, trying different hairstyles and tuning out boring lectures sounded oddly familiar. If Packwood hadn't mentioned Phil Gramm, you'd swear the journals were written by Gidget." Now, anyone comparing Packwood to Gidget obviously has a pretty good command of her material. The target audience for this book obviously is a little, shall we say, limited. I wouldn't buy it for someone whose husband just left her because Meg Ryan left a message to call her (even if the message turns out to be from Peg Ryan, his urologist's appointment secretary). And a few men probably have too much pride to open the front cover. ("A book on male menopause. Why would I need that, ho, ho, ho?") But those that do open the book and actually read it, I think, will enjoy it.
Know What This Is.......2002-11-14
This is female version of HOWARD STERN humor. While some of the humor was amusing and even on target, continuous overkill detracted from its readability. Ninety-three pages was more than enough. I threw it away rather than give it to my best male-bashing buddy.
More male-bashing.......2000-08-13
Yet another example of the subtle male-bashing pervading our culture. Yes, there is a male-menopause but it's not humorous, any more than the female version is humerous. There's some good information in here but it is swept away by the derogatory undertones. -sc
Average customer rating:
- 30 decidely average stills from the movie
- Not bad but it's missing somthing!
- A nice souvenir of the movie!
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Alien Resurrection Postcard Book: 30 Collectible Images
HarperPrism
Manufacturer: Harper Prism
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Movies
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ASIN: 0061055581 |
Book Description
Thirty full-color postcard images from the big blockbuster movie.
The thrills and excitement of Alien Resurrection, the fourth movie in the outrageously popular mass-appeal sci-fi movie series starring Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, jump right off the silver screen onto these full color postcards. Each exquisitely detailed postcard is an actual scene from the movie and gives viewers an up close and personal feel of the film and the action.
Customer Reviews:
30 decidely average stills from the movie.......1998-11-26
30 decidedly average stills from the decidedly below average movie. for a few quid more you can get the making of alien resurrection book that contains many far superior pictures and a heck of a lot of interesting reading. it's a blatant cash-in that i'd recommend people avoid...
Not bad but it's missing somthing!.......1998-10-31
The postcard book rocks except it dosn't have any realy good quality pictures of the alien or queen and it has no pictures of the newborn.
A nice souvenir of the movie!.......1998-01-29
This book consists of 30 nice photograph-postcards capturing dark atmosphere of the movie "ALIEN: RESURRECTION" very well.
Customer Reviews:
Good.......2006-05-20
Exactly as the title says , this book ads valuable new information to your bank of knowledge, all about the music industry and survival ion it. William Krasilovsky has produced a welcomed addition to all the things that you previously new, using a good structure and an easy step by step approach. However, if you want the complete picture then look for " How To Make A Fortune In The Music Industry By Doing It Yourself: Your Personal Step-By-Step Guide To Having A Successful Career In The Music Business. ... To Sell Music, Book Shows And Get Noticed!" By Ty Cohen, another high quality product that contains ALL that you need for a successful career.
Great book.......2006-05-16
This book isn't just good for aspiring hip-hop musicians. It's good for anyone who hopes to have a future in the music industry. Buy it... read it.... care for it. It's one of the best guides to getting started in the industry. I also recommend "The Music Business: How YOU can make $500,000 "or more" a year in the music industry by Doing it Yourself!" by Ty Cohen.
Attention Hip Hop Entrepreneurs:Necessary as a resource!.......1999-04-23
Success is about having the right information and then knowing how to and actually applying it! This is one of the books we recommend highly in our Hip Hop Entrepreneur Bookshelf on our website! It's not a "how to", but for those who want the facts about the details of contracts, publishing, royalties, etc. you can't be in the industry and NOT have this in your library..
--Walt Goodridge, President Hip Hop Entrepreneur Association (Walt is also author of Rap: This Game of Exposure and, The Game of Artist Management, The Hip Hop Entrepreneur Lists of Exposure, The Niche Market Report, and other success tools for the Hip Hop Entrepreneur)
The ESSENTIAL Companion to This Business of Music.......1998-04-10
Every time I purchase This Business of Music, I also purchase a copy of MORE About this Business of Music. The two books are a perfect compliment to one another with the best information available on the music business in one concise location.
Hip Hop Entrepreneurs need this book!.......1998-04-06
This book is one that we at nichemarket recommend highly in our Booklist for any Hip Hop Entrepreneur serious about a career in the music industry!
Average customer rating:
- The solution should not be printed below the diagram.
|
Sam Loyd and His Chess Problems
Alain C. White
Manufacturer: Fredonia Books (NL)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Sam Loyd's Best Picture Puzzles
ASIN: 1410101665 |
Book Description
Originally published in 1913, this unique work features close to 500 pages of detailed text, charts and diagrams on the legendary techniques and tactics of chess strategist and problemist Sam Loyd. The book goes into Loyd's chess techniques for play variation, bifurcation, duels, waiting move tactics, block threat techniques, focal actions, pinning, surprise moves and more. Truly an excellent reference book that will sharpen any chess enthusiast's skills and your insight for examining problem techniques and composition.
Customer Reviews:
The solution should not be printed below the diagram. .......2007-05-13
For Sam Lyod, the chess puzzle king, there is no need to comment. But one thing annoys me is that the solution is printed under each puzzle diagram,so one either set up the problems using a chess sets, or have to cover the solution hoping not to see the answers unintentionally. This would make the reader very inconvient!!I don't understand how such obvious thing the publihser should miss!!
Book Description
High Performing Investment Teams
"Although most leaders agree teamwork is important, few businesses effectively build collaborative, synchronized teams.
High Performing Investment Teams is an excellent guidepost for any manager striving to create a winning team and develop bench strength for the future."
—John W. Rogers Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ariel Capital Management, LLC
"Turning individual talent into team performance is the ultimate challenge for an investment organization, but also the key to building a sustainable investment franchise. Focus Consulting has captured the essence of how to leverage your intellectual capital for maximum and enduring success."
—Michelle R. Seitz, CFA, Principal, Head of Investment Management, Executive Committee Member, William Blair & Company, LLC
"Focus Consulting's work on behaviors of top teams is clear, effective, and practical. We recommend it highly for investment firms that are serious about world-class collaboration."
—Terry Toth, President, Northern Trust Global Investments
"Focus Consulting really understands that attracting and motivating talented people makes all the difference for asset managers. Their work is based on years of experience helping investment firms build strong cultures with productive behaviors."
—Scott Powers, Chief Executive Officer, Old Mutual Asset Management
"Focus Consulting understands the people aspect of the investment business. They know the investment business and how to make collaboration work."
—Harin de Silva, PhD, CFA, President, Analytic Investors
Download Description
High Performing Investment Teams ""Although most leaders agree teamwork is important, few businesses effectively build collaborative, synchronized teams. High Performing Investment Teams is an excellent guidepost for any manager striving to create a winning team and develop bench strength for the future."" John W. Rogers Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ariel Capital Management, LLC ""Turning individual talent into team performance is the ultimate challenge for an investment organization, but also the key to building a sustainable investment franchise. Focus Consulting has captured the essence of how to leverage your intellectual capital for maximum and enduring success."" Michelle R. Seitz, CFA, Principal, Head of Investment Management, Executive Committee Member, William Blair & Company, LLC ""Focus Consulting's work on behaviors of top teams is clear, effective, and practical. We recommend it highly for investment firms that are serious about world-class collaboration."" Terry Toth, President, Northern Trust Global Investments ""Focus Consulting really understands that attracting and motivating talented people makes all the difference for asset managers. Their work is based on years of experience helping investment firms build strong cultures with productive behaviors."" Scott Powers, Chief Executive Officer, Old Mutual Asset Management ""Focus Consulting understands the people aspect of the investment business. They know the investment business and how to make collaboration work."" Harin de Silva, PhD, CFA, President, Analytic Investors
Customer Reviews:
Highly recommended!!! An Insightful and Practical Guide to Investment Management Culture.......2007-08-20
This is an excellent book for anyone in a leadership position within the investment management industry. Although it is focused on people in investment management, its insights apply to any organization. Reading it will help you understand how emotions affect decision-making on investment teams and how to manage emotions so that they enhance rather than undermine your results. Although all of the material is very well done, I found the chapter on accountability to be the most useful for my own business as well as in my efforts to teach accountability to my children. Congratulations to Jim Ware and his co-contributors on their fine work.
A book on HR management for Investment/Trading Firms, "not" on Investment/Trading.......2006-11-08
As there's no table of content here on Amazon, I would like to take the priviledge to type it for you as below:-
Introduction: The Elements of Greatness
Ch 1 Investment Leadership: Building a Winning Culture for Long Term Success
Ch 2 Curiosity: Learning How to Learn
Ch 3 Accountability Part 1: Taking Responsibility
Ch 4 Accountability Part 2: Making and Keeping Agreements
Ch 5 Candor: Revealing, Not Concealing
Ch 6 Authenticity: Eliminating Drama
Ch 7 Awareness: Using Emotional and Intuitional Intelligence
Ch 8 Genius: Maximizing Your Contribution
Ch 9 Appreciation: Shifting from Entitlement
Ch 10 Fit: Investment Personalities and the Seven Behaviors
Ch 11 Decision Rights: Establishing and Clarifying the Rules
Concluding Thoughts: Measurement, Behavioral Finance, Integrity, and an Invitation for More
Obviously, though not that obvious before my purchase (that means I failed the acid test for a smart trader), it is a very niche book on HR management for Investment/Trading Firms, "not" on Investment/Trading. I am not qualifed to tell whether it serves its purpose well (that you may even be convinced to contact the author's Consulting Firm). However, I would like to warn potential buyers of the risk of a wrong bid.
p.s. Nevertheless, I like the passage below in Foreword by Michael J. Mauboussin, Chief Investment Strategist of Legg Mason.
Shortly after his retirement, Jack Welch spoke to a group of 5000 HR executives and delivered a message he was sure they would appreciate: The head of HR should be the second most important person in any organization. Anticipating some audience adulation, he was surprised when a strange hush filled the room. Prodding, he asked how many of the participants worked for firms where the CEO treated the head of HR and the CFO with equal respect. Only 50 hands went up. Welch was astounded. Ninety-nine percent of these companies emphasized finance over people! "If you managed a baseball team," he asked, "would you listen more closely to the team accountant or the director of player personnel!"
Book Description
With exceptional grace, Judith Thurman 's classic work explores Dinesen's life--her privileged but unhappy childhood in Denmark, her marriage to Baron Blixen, their immigration to Africa on the eve of World War I, and her passionate affair with Denys Finch Hatton. Until the appearance of this book, the life and art of Isak Dinesen have been--as Dinesen herself wrote of two lovers in a tale--"a pair of locked caskets, each containing the key to the other." Judith Thurman has provided the master key to them both.
Customer Reviews:
A little disillusioned over here. .......2007-06-27
Ah, so I finally finished this biography last night. I had fallen in love with Out of Africa and Seven Gothic Tales, and in reading her biography, I had hoped to fall in love with Isak Dinesen, the Pellegrina. Sadly, I fell out of it.
The fault is not in the biography. It's a fascinating life, and it was good to have the blanks filled in as far as her childhood, and what happened in Africa, the continent to which she spoke, and which spoke back to her. The popularity of her work, the American reaction to it, I found this all good reading. But you know, eventually, she turned into quite the old megalomaniac. Thurman shows us where it all came from. (spoilers ahead) Dinesen had always believed that she was special, and was infuriated by her family's insistence on equality, fairness and calm. She felt restrained by it. stifled, dismissed. She felt that the loss of her father was uniquely hers, that it mattered less in the lives of her siblings that their father killed himself. She wanted to somehow own or claim that.
And sadly, the circumstances of her erotic life seem to have warped her terribly. She had syphilis, and had to live carefully and chastely even while madly in love (though therre is a question regarding this as far as her relationship with Finch-Hatten). I can see how this would do a woman in, I really can. She spoke of syphilis as both the price and the source of her gift, a horrible bargain with the devil that made her a genius at telling tales. But the cost was high, and the damage was deep.
The warping took various ugly shapes as she aged. She tried to usurp her sisters and brothers in the eyes of their children, found her nieces and nephews disappointing in their love of their parents. She berated and belittled her most faithful secretary and companion, Clara. She asked for and received constant adoration from younger men, letting them bask in the glow of her admiration and incouragement in exchange for a strict kind of allegiance. She manipulated, bored, dominated, demanded, and through it all, she suffered the humilation of syphilis and aging. While young, she wanted to be the thinnest in the room. She died of anorexia, unable and unwilling to eat, addicted to amphetamine.
That's what I get for reading a biography. I should have just stuck to her work, because, in truth, that's all any writer owes the reader; the work. And that aspect of this life, the story of her writing, is well-covered and interesting. I don't regret reading Thurman's biography, and I think it's extremely well-written and full of specific, interesting information and theories. I just feel personally disappointed in who Isak Dinesen turned out to be.
"I Had a Farm in Africa...".......2007-06-24
Isak Dinesen will always be remembered for her farm in Africa, although she had much more than that, not the least of which was a talent for writing and an appetite for life. Why dames like this are not admired by the feminists , I'll never know. She had it all: dough, looks, energy, courage. Doris Duke here in the States is a possible American version of this kind of gal; maybe Katherine Hepburn succeeded in creating the film persona of this sort of aristocratic "liberated" women, with family money backing her all the way. It's easy to be brash when you've got a sugar daddy who happens to be a Baron. Still, while many of her class were happy to do nothing with their lives in style, this one had the guts to make an extraordinary life. Thurman has written a thoroughly researched, beautifully edited appreciation of this woman. She tells the story well, but also provides a very convincing analysis of Dinesen's lifelong commitment to the art of fiction. A fascinating biography.
story of an amazing Lady, living in tumultuous times.......2006-06-27
First captivated, despite the miscasting of Robert Redford, by the film "Out of Africa", I read on to find out who this woman was. I discovered she died the same year I was born, and lived through those marvellous decades that include WW1, the roaring 20's, the Depression, the boiling 60's and through to the 70's. What changes in the world she saw, and what stories she had to tell. I thought there was nothing left for me to learn about her; I've read her books & her letters, have visited her home in Rungstedlund, Denmark, watched documentaries about her, seen the films ("Babette's Feast", in addition to "Out of Africa", are based on her books). However, this biography is a revelation on every page. Minutely researched (obviously), Ms Thurman leads us through the details that explain why she did what she did, where she obtained her passion, and her compassion, and how she went from a sheltered Danish aristocratic life, to colonial Africa, and then to becoming a world-renowned author. Excellent read for all who love stories of the grand figures of the 20th century.
A beautifully written story of a master storyteller's life .......2005-02-21
This is a thoroughly researched and beautifully written biography of the life of a great storyteller. Thurman in telling the story of Dinesen's life, also presents a miniature guide to her work. She does an excellent job of portraying the character of Dinesen, the complex aristocratic independent mind, the romantic nature, the connection with a fairytale world of storytelling, the great courage and determination in making herself into a story when all appeared lost in her life. Thurman tells of Dinesen's childhood , her special connection with her father , the division between two families one wealthy mercantile, and the other more wild and adventurous. Thurman tells the story of Dinesen's long African adventure, the story of her marriage and its sad ending in divorce, and too the story of Dinesen's great love , Denys Finch- Hatton. The story of that love that plays a central part in what is arguably Dinesen's most memorable book , " Out of Africa" is a story of the man as hunter, adventurer, coming home to be feasted and entertained by his lover- storyteller Dinesen. This story which too ends with Finch- Hatton's death in a plane crash is at the heart of the first part of Dinesen's life. The second part after the African adventure is when she returns home and begins to make that writing life which would make her world- famous. The second -half of the story sees Dinesen more and more playing the part she has created for herself , as storyteller and personnage. It too however has its great human interest, especially in her relation to her mother ,her brother and her extended family. There is of course a vast world of detail I cannot begin to mention in this review. But Thurman tells the story with taste and a beauty as befits a true reader and lover of the work of Dinesen.
I believe it really does justice to the spirit of Isak Dinesen's life and work.
Thought provoking biography.......2005-01-10
Had I not seen the movie "Out of Africa" I would never had given any thought to reading a book written by a Danish woman of her life in British East Africa in the early 1900's on a coffee plantation. The movie was enjoyable and that provoked me to read her memoir. Getting beyond the fact that Robert Redford and Meryl Streep played the main characters, I became fascinated with the wonderful story and even more so the beautiful tapestry of language presented by the author in her book. A few years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Nairobi, Kenya and first on my list of places to see and things to do was a visit to Karen Blixen's farmhouse. The house and a small portion of the original lands remain intact as a museum. Although the area has been built up over the last 75+ years (the area is known as Karen in honor of the Baroness) there are still a few coffee plantations in the area and of course the Ngong mountains can be seen off in the distance. With this backround in mind I set off to read ISAK DINESEN : The Life of a Storyteller. I found the biography to be very comprehensive and exhaustively researched. "Exhaustively researched" not in a negative sense in that I found it fascinating to learn of the web of personalities that floated in and out of Karin Blixen's life including Hans Christen Andersen, President Theodore Roosevelt's son Kermit, Playwrite Arthur Miller, Prince Edward, George Bernard Shaw, Marilyn Monroe, Beryl Markham, Lord Delamere.... Moreover what she read and how much she read (and learned)are testament to what one can accomplish with 'self education' (especially so when there are no televisions or radios as was the case in the early days in British East Africa). The footnotes in this biography lead the reader into intriguing digressions. For sure this is not an adventure book nor is it more of "Out of Africa". Karen Blixen led a very interesting life and accordingly it is the stuff of a very interesting biography that is well presented.
Average customer rating:
- Memoir of a little known event should have been so much more
- Where the streets are mud
- A Private's View
- An Educated Man Serves in A Strange Situation
- A superb addition to the literature
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Fighting the Bolsheviks: The Russian War Memoir of Private First Class Donald E. Carey, U.S. Army, 1918-1 919
Neil G. Carey
Manufacturer: Presidio Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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When Hell Froze Over
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Russian Sideshow: America's Undeclared War, 1918-1920
ASIN: 0891416315
Release Date: 1997-08-12 |
Book Description
It was war at its worst.
Customer Reviews:
Memoir of a little known event should have been so much more.......2003-12-09
Tales of World War I are often the most overlooked in military history. Everyone knows the war happened; many know the parties involved; few even know the causes of that war. Yet, it typically serves as a footnote to its much bloodier, more devastating, and clearer cut offspring of two decades later. Those who know some of World War I do know that November 11th, 1918 served as the day of the armistice between the Allied and Central Powers, ostensibly declaring the end of the physical portion of the war and the beginning of the treaty negotiations. What few people know is that fighting involving the Allies continued almost a full year after Armistice Day, but it didn't involve any of the defeated Central powers. With Russia having had to withdraw from the Great War in 1917 because of the Bolshevik rebellion, many western nations looked to that country with fear of the new `red menace' that was being propagated by the Bolsheviks and Communists. As a result, during the dying days of World War I, the Allies sent what amounted to a police force to such northern Russian provinces as Siberia to contain the Bolshevik threat. Some skirmishes were fought, men died, but in the end, nothing much changed. The Bolsheviks still controlled all of Russia and sat as an impending threat to the west and the Allies who were involved in this action were disillusioned by the weather and the need to continue fighting well after their compatriots on the Western Front had returned home.
Very little has been written about this specific military action. However, one of the privates in the U.S. Army who served in Bolshevik campaign did keep an extensive memoir from beginning of basic training until being relieved from duty at the end of this action. "Fighting the Bolsheviks" is Private Donald E. Carey's remembrance of that difficult time. One of Carey's sons edited his father's journal and filled in the missing elements that would enable the reader to better understand what was happening there. Unfortunately, "Fighting the Bolsheviks" isn't a very good book. It's possible that this is because Donald Carey only intended his journal to be a personal or family record, but there's no getting around the boring, dry nature of the narrative and the events that take place. Carey does convey the monotony and misery of the environment he served in, as well as the tremendous displeasure he and his fellow American soldiers felt at being enduring the patronizing attitudes of their British superiors. The problem stems from Carey's preoccupation with needing to make constant reference to and commentary on things like the camp VD inspections, immoral actions (read: sex) by fellow soldiers, and his strong dislike for his British superiors. While the dislike of the British faction can be understood, Carey's obsession with the carnal behaviors of his fellow soldiers seems self-righteous and distracting. The first time it's mentioned and Carey expresses his revulsion for those behaviors because of his devout faith, we get it. We don't need to keep `getting it' throughout the rest of the book. It almost seems as though the battles fought are merely glossed over so that Carey can launch into another moral commentary about his colleagues. This is tremendously disappointing and renders what should an insightful look into a largely unknown event into a ponderous and tasking read. "Fighting the Bolsheviks" could have been so much more. It's too bad that it's not.
Where the streets are mud.......2003-08-08
PFC Donald Carey was drafted into the U.S. Army in the waning days of WW I. Instead of the fields of France, He and the 339th Infantry Regiment were sent to the icy plains of Northern Russia, to fight Lenin's Bolsheviks, in a place as unfamiliar to a Michigan schoolteacher as hardtack is to troopers today.
This excellent account of America's forgotten true "Cold War" with the Soviets is bound to captivate and surprise, as this conflict is generally forgotten or relegated to a few lines in foreign policy texts. (See George F. Kennan's excellent "Soviet-American Relations, 1917-1920, Volume II: The Decision To Intervene" for a fascinating diplomatic and military discussion of the American North Russian Expeditionary Force).
Carey's journal is lucid and revealing of a small town man placed into a larger and unfamiliar world that he deals with extremely well. The parochialisms of 1900's America do show, as he refers to some of his fellow soldiers as "wops", but he never denigrates them further, and learns from them. His penchant for temperance leads him to remark on the passage of Prohibition as good for America, as he also is celibate while overseas, unlike many of his fellow soldiers, who succumb to various venereal diseases.
All in all, a very good book on an obscure but still important chapter of American history.
A Private's View.......2002-05-11
If you're looking for an explanation of what the US and its' allies were doing fighting in Russia in 1918-1919, this isn't it. If you're looking for a book that relates what war is like for the men who actually fight and die in the front lines, this is a good start.
Carey was drafted and went with the 339th Infantry to Russia as a part of the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War. The common soldiers knew nothing of what they were doing there - most of the officers had no clue, either. His unit wound up under British command, and was put in the front lines with no clear mission or purpose.
This is a book about the day-to-day grind of Army life in WW1; the marching, the drills, the dirt, horrible food, and hard work.
This is a look at war from a private's viewpoint.
An Educated Man Serves in A Strange Situation.......2002-01-04
I am always on the lookout for "grunt" history that covers little known theatres and periods.
His unit was sent to North Russia to protect the vast stocks of war materials left behind on the docks when the Kerensky government lost power. They had already ceased active operations against the Germans but it was the Bolsheviks who signed the peace treaty in 1918. Since the Allies did not want the Germans to capture this booty materiel an expedition was sent made up of British, French, and US army and naval forces.
In the course of guarding the lines of communications, the allies brushed against the Reds who took to raiding them. The resulting hostilities poisoned US-USSR relations for many years and it was not until the 1930s that ambassadors were exchanged. On the other side, the Allies and Japanese forced landed and took over Vladivostok and advanced west intending to garrison the Trans Siberian Railway, and relieve the Czech Legion which had been formed from POWs from the Austro Hungarian Empire, since they could not march westward through the German Army to get home to Czechoslovakia. Remember, that before 1918, neither Poland nor CZ nor Yugoslavia existed as modern governments. All were carved out of the remnants of the German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian empires.
This Siberian expedition which ended up aiding the White Russians also served to alienate the Red government which won the Russian Civil War. Later on US troops who fought against the Bolsheviks formed a society of remembrance, a veteran's club, if you will, and held annual meetings, were thought suspect simply because they had touched Reds, and the federal authorities kept track of their activities for years after.
A superb addition to the literature.......1999-07-12
Fighting the Bolsheviks: The Russian War memoir of Private First Class Donald E. Carey, 1918-1919. Edited by Neil G. Carey. Presidio Press, Novato: Ca. 1997
This is truly one of the most important memoirs to come out of the so-called, Great War. To make it even more important, it didn't appear until nearly eighty years after the events. It, like the Elton Mackin memoir, is an extremely valuable addition to what we know about the ordeals suffered by the American soldiers so many years ago. In addition to some excellent personal photos, two superb maps and a chronology of events add to the value of this book, one of the few, about the famed "Polar Bears," the fighting 339th Infantry from Michigan.
Carey was a school teacher at the rather advanced age of twenty-five when Uncle Sam beckoned. Like most of his contemporaries, he was no hero, but he knew his duty and went-but not to France, where most of the action was, and where most American soldiers wound-up. No, his crowd was shipped off to North Russia. We had no declaration of war versus Russia so technically sending Americans to attempt to put down a revolution in a foreign country was fait accompli but not legal. Congress didn't like our intervention, and neither did the American soldiers sent there. Most to remain long after the war in the rest of Europe, the real war, was terminated. The lads didn't like it. But, they did their duty and were the first Americans to fight the Reds.
If you are a WWI buff, and so many people are now becoming that-as they realize what a confused, convoluted, and downright fascinating period that was-you will throughly enjoy this very personal memoir. It is great. Five stars at least. More if they are allowed.
Book Description
In the waning months of the cold war, shortly before an expiring Soviet Union finally disintegrated, a group of neoconservative policymakers and intellectuals began to argue that the moment had come to create an American-dominated world order. Some of them called it "the unipolarist imperative." Instead of reducing military spending, they contended, the United States needed to expand its military reach to every region of the world, using America's tremendous military and economic power to create a new Pax Americana. This book describes how the ideology of American global preeminence originated during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, developed in the 1990s, gained power with the election of George W. Bush, and reshaped American foreign policy after September 11, 2001.
Structured as a narrative, this account deals with government policymakers and outside advocates. It tells the story of the development of unipolarist ideology and its role in recent American Foreign policy. It makes an argument about the nature and problems of this ideology, emphasizing that an unrivaled superpower makes the whole world its geopolitical neighborhood. It offers a critique of the unilateralist militarism of the second Bush administration. And it contends that the problem of imperial expansiveness, though dramatically heightened by the Bush administration, did not begin with it. The problem is inherent in the anxiety of being a global hegemon.
Customer Reviews:
read this book.......2006-02-10
Imperial Designs contains the best information on the history and rise to power of the present US government. As it is written by an impartial historian, it is thus much more valid than Mr. Mann's Rise of the Vulcans, as Mr. Mann is himself a member of the Project for the New American Century cabal.
An interesting view of neoconservatism.......2005-06-10
Gary Dorrien has specialized in liberal theology. Now he addresses the issue of neoconservatism. He does not "argue that Bush is a puppet of the neocons and Cheney/Rumsfield." As the author says, the top Bush officials are not neocons. And Bush seems to have come up with ideas on terrorism and Iraq on his own. But Dorrien does criticize neocons for their dreams of Empire, their annoyance with the United Nations, and their hawkishness.
Is Dorrien right? Do neocons want the United States to be an Empire? What do neocons think of international law? More precisely, do neocons want the United States to be fair, or do they want us to throw our weight around to get our way?
I think the author makes some good and bad points on these issues. The problem is that we need to start with a couple of fundamentals. Political disputes, say between liberals and conservatives, involve agreement on some goals and disagreement on the means to achieve them or the nature of successfully meeting them. That is, most of us want American society to be just, fair, and prosperous. That could be a mutual goal. We could have totally different political ideas about what that goal might mean. Still, we would be speaking the same language, even though we disagreed. Those who wanted American society to be damaged or destroyed would not be able to truly agree or disagree with any of the rest of us.
Now where do I think this places those with some specific political views, such as the neocons? Well, I think some neocons might indeed want the United States to be unfairly biased in helping Americans rather than others. But they surely would not want to put it that way in a debate! Matter of fact, they would much rather put the shoe on the other foot, and be able to argue in favor of justice, fairness, and human rights for all against those who are explicitly against them. And that leads to what I call "litmus test" issues. It seems to me that the neocons have picked some issues of this sort. Dorrien recognizes this, as he points out that one neocon, Norman Podhoretz, has emphatically criticized Communism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Americanism. But Dorrien implies that these issues tend to separate the neocons from the liberals or paleocons. I think that misses the point. I think issues such as Iraq, Korea, and Taiwan might do a better job of drawing such lines. Communism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Americanism are, in my opinion, issues that neocons want to use to draw the line between being able to join the debate or not being able to do so. Those who strongly favor Communism, anti-Americanism, or anti-Zionist terror really are not in a position to constructively criticize liberals, paleocons, or neocons.
Dorrien does realize that neocons are sincere about these issues. If they are wrong, he encourages us to address their arguments rather than speculate about their motives. But he merely explains that these issues are important. He fails to address the question of where the line is between such issues becoming national in nature and merely being a facet of partisan politics.
I'm a liberal, and I am often in disagreement with neocons, on tactics, strategies, and goals. And I think we ought to oppose dubious or arbitrary American policies. I think we Americans can pursue a better foreign policy. But that certainly ought not mean supporting Communism, anti-Zionism, or anti-Americanism. I think Dorrien agrees with this. But he seems to confuse these "litmus test" positions with very partisan ideas about our foreign policy.
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Bird Life of Mountain and Upland (Bird Life Series)
D. A. Ratcliffe
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Birds
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ASIN: 0521331234 |
Book Description
This book describes the bird life of the various upland regions of the British Isles. However, unlike the other books that present upland birds, this is the first one to present the various species from an ecological standpoint. The book relates the bird distribution and abundance to the various environmental influences of climate, topography, geology, soil type and human land use. The book initially sets the scene by describing and examining the changes and bird fauna following the major climatic shift since the end of the Ice Age. The uplands are grouped into several main types - sheepwalks, grouse moors, deer forests, flows (peat bogs), maritime hills and high tops and the distinctive bird assemblages are described together with details of the natural history of the more important species. The final chapter deal withs the issues involved in the conservation of upland birds. The book will appeal to the informed layman and to the keen bird-watcher who wants to learn more about the life of upland birds and the ways in which they are adapted to their environments.
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