Customer Reviews:
The Best Baby Book Ever.......2006-08-09
I have a master's in maternal child nursing and 2 kid. I ran across this book in a remainder pile years ago and have since bought at least a dozen copies to give new mothers. This book does not prescibe a list of behaviors to raise your child, but encourages you to know your infant and develop an understanding of what that child needs. Over the years I have seen the "rules of parenting" change over and over-("start solids at 2 weeks, 2 months, six months.")-. Each new rule includes an explanation on how previous children had been destroyed because their parents had "done it wrong" Parenting is tough enough without this constant shifting of rules accompanied by heaping servings of guilt for not having followed this week's rule last week ( A good mother should have known the rule was going to change!) This book gives parents the tools to get past "Trivial Inconsequential Concerns" and really focus on loving and communicating with their baby to see what is truly important. There is even a whole section on what makes a baby laugh at different ages!!
A Great Intuitive Approach to Nurturing Your Baby.......1999-12-02
Instead of a "one size fits all" advice book this book does a great job of explaining the importance of responding to your baby as a unique person. Every child is different and by listening to their individual needs instead of trying to follow general advice one can connect more closely and meet the child's needs more effectively. As a simple example, this approach bolstered my resolve when relatives and strangers alike told me that my infant son needed to be dressed more warmly than he seemed to like. Now eight years old he has always been warm when most people are cold and resists wearing coats until the rest of us are shivering. This is just one small example of the cumulative benefits that come from reading and considering the perspective so beautifully described in this book. When in doubt listen to your baby and your heart.
Book Description
Following a skirmish on June 28, 1864, a truce is called so the North can remove their dead and wounded. For two hours, Yankees and Rebels mingle, with some of the latter even assisting the former in their grisly work. Newspapers are exchanged. Northern coffee is swapped for Southern tobacco. Yanks crowd around two Rebel generals, soliciting and obtaining autographs.
As they part, a Confederate calls to a Yankee, "I hope to miss you, Yank, if I happen to shoot in your direction." "May I, never hit you Johnny if we fight again," comes the reply.
The reprieve is short. A couple of months, dozens of battles, and more than 30,000 casualties later, the North takes Atlanta.
One of the most dramatic and decisive episodes of the Civil War, the Atlanta Campaign was a military operation carried out on a grand scale across a spectacular landscape that pitted some of the war's best (and worst) general against each other.
In Decision in the West, Albert Castel provides the first detailed history of the Campaign published since Jacob D. Cox's version appeared in 1882. Unlike Cox, who was a general in Sherman's army, Castel provides an objective perspective and a comprehensive account based on primary and secondary sources that have become available in the past 110 years.
Castel gives a full and balanced treatment to the operations of both the Union and Confederate armies from the perspective of the common soldiers as well as the top generals. He offers new accounts and analyses of many of the major events of the campaign, and, in the process, corrects many long-standing myths, misconceptions, and mistakes. In particular, he challenges the standard view of Sherman's performance.
Written in present tense to give a sense of immediacy and greater realism, Decision in the West demonstrates more definitively than any previous book how the capture of Atlanta by Sherman's army occurred and why it assured Northern victory in the Civil War.
This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book on the subject.......2007-07-04
Rich detail you can't find in the usual sources, and plenty of background, not just who went where when. I am a GA native so I really appreciate that.
Very enjoyable read.
Excellent Title on a Critical Civil War Campaign.......2006-02-18
In my humble opinion, Castel has written what I believe to be the best study of the Atlanta Campaign. While some reviewers seem to think that Castel spends much time criticizing Sherman's generalship, he also spends time criticizing Southern leaders - Hood, Davis, Bragg, Hardee, etc. Personally, I thought he was fair to both sides.
Another criticism other reveiwers have is the present tense Castel writes. This was the first time I have read a Civil War study in the present tense and quite frankly, I enjoyed it! Personally, I believe Castel's writing in the present tense helps the reader to better understand the situation the various leaders faced and makes the reader feel like he/she is actually there analyzing what would be the best course of action to take in a particular situation. Castel's writing style is free-flowing - you get a sense of what is taking place in the campaign without becoming bogged down into unnecessary details.
The battle descriptions lack the gore of other Civil War titles yet includes anecdotes of the various leaders and also common soldiers.
The only reason I did not give the book 4 stars is the same 'ole tired reason I rarely give 5 stars for other Civil War studies I have read - the maps. While the maps were okay, they lacked sufficient detail (battlefield terrain features, showing units at the brigade level instead of a more detailed regimental level, etc.) and were not enough. Since the Atlanta Campaign lasted about 5 months, I believe could have been many more maps and with more detail.
Comment aside, I heartily recommend Castel's book as the definitive study of the Atlanta Campaign. Read and enjoy!
Sherman's "ineptitude" wins the war.......2005-08-14
This book has many strengths and several glaring weaknesses. As a chronical of the campaign, it is thorough and well-written (though the present tense gimmigk gets in the way a little). Particularly strong is the author's tying the military action to the political maneuvering during this election year of 1864. The author shows that the behind-the-scenes action can be just as important as the actual fighting. For these reasons it is worth reading.
However, Castel demonstrated a singular lack of insight in some of his conclusions - an obvious previously-held dislike of Sherman perhaps clouding his judgement - it certainly gets in the way of the narrative. For example, after Resaca, Castel states that "one can only conclude" that if Thomas had been in charge instead of Sherman the entire campaign would have been over in a week. This is a singularly silly statement for a respected historian. If Sherman did something correctly, Castel states that it "was the only thing he could do"; if Sherman makes a correct decision it is "for the wrong reasons". Castel even resorts to gratuitous and unneccessary sarcasm in his treatment of Sherman.
In actuality, Shermans "ineptitude" moved an ungainly Army Group from Cattanooga to Atlanta in four months while constantly in close contact with an enemy army that, until Hood took command, was effectively lead. He captured the city of Atlanta and ended the campaign with a force that was still strong enough to split in two and fight the battles of Franklin and Nashville on the one hand, and, march to the sea and immortality on the other.
Very Meticulous and Well Done.......2005-06-10
Castel's study is extremely meticulous, and he never hesitates to interject his own opinions, which is a must for histories of these kinds to keep them from being dry rehashes.
Castel is critical of a number of decisions by just about every commander. While this could be referred to as "revision," I think it's simply bringing these characters back down to the realm of humanity. It is clear throughout the campaign that Sherman's strength was grand strategy and his weakness tactics. Too often in the romanticizing of the Civil War, the difference between the two is obscured. Instead of trying to drag Sherman's name through the mud, it's more an attempt at remembering that these generals were humans who made mistakes.
The only issue I had with the book was lack of maps and a few editing mistakes. The editing mistakes were mostly trivial, although at one point Castel says "The Army of the Tennessee did not have the offensive capability to inflict damage on the Union forces." Of course, the Army of the Tennessee was a Union force; Castel meant the Army of Tennessee.
The lack of maps was more frustrating. First, the maps of the theater were too spread out. The maps did not include corps or army positions, which was extremely frustrating when the armies got nearer to Atlanta and began to divide and hunker down around the city. Moreover, places discussed during battles did not always show up on any of the maps.
Regardless, this book is well written and does a very good job of recounting 1864 as a whole.
Truly Outstanding!.......2004-11-08
Decision in the West has been widely and lavishly praised, and it deserves every bit of it. Albert Castel has not only written the most thoroughly researched and most comprehensive history of the Atlanta Campaign, but has also done it with clear, captivating prose that flows easily across the page, keeping the reader enthralled to the very end. He uses the present tense throughout the book, which lends a fascinating immediacy to the story, even though we know the outcome.
Were I to try to sketch all of the many virtues of this brilliant book here, this review would be prohibitively long, so I will limit myself to two. First, Castel has written what is arguably the best, most objective modern account of the actual battles of the campaign. In the preface he writes that as he was researching this book, he was, "astonished, then exasperated, when, upon delving into the sources, I discovered that all of the existing descriptions of these battles, ...were to a greater or lesser degree filled with mistakes, misconceptions, and myths." His painstaking research reaches beyond the myths and self-serving memoirs of the participants, comparing all the available sources against each other to arrive as close as is objectively possible at the actual facts of these battles. He presents each battle and his analysis of it in a clear fashion, complete with easy to read, truly helpful maps. This alone would qualify Decision in the West as a must-read book.
Secondly, Castel provides a thoughtful reassessment of the commanders involved. His take on the Confederate General Johnston is the closest to received wisdom. He views Johnston as a skilled general when on the defensive, whose fatal flaw was being over-awed when outnumbered, and prone to surrendering to a defeatist attitude that assured his failure. General Hood fares better here than in most histories. Castel believes that Hood's major mistake was in consistently trying to accomplish too much with too little, but doesn't believe that he had much of any alternative, considering the situation that he inherited, and what his government expected of him. Hood emerges from Castel's book as a man who did as much as could possibly be expected of him with his admittedly limited talent.
It is the Union commanders who receive the greatest reevaluation here. General Hooker was hated by Sherman, and is usually greatly underrated by historians. Yet, Castel views him as one of the most effective of Sherman's generals during the Atlanta campaign, and presents evidence to prove it. General McPherson, personal friend of both Sherman and Grant, and greatly respected by both of them, receives the harshest reevaluation. Castel writes of him, "his record throughout the campaign demonstrates that in commanding what in effect was a large corp, he had reached and perhaps exceeded the limits of his military ability: he worried too much about what might be on the other side of the hill." After reading Castel's accounts of McPherson's missed opportunities, it is hard to disagree. Of General Thomas, Castel writes, "had Thomas's personal relationship with Grant permitted him to command in Georgia in 1864, almost surely the Union victory would have been easier, quicker, and more complete." He clearly believes Thomas to be the unutilized genius of the campaign. Finally, General Sherman appears more tarnished than golden in Castel's pages. He writes that Sherman was a general who did not like to fight, preferred raiding over fighting, and was unwilling to engage his full force. Though he acknowledges that Sherman accomplished what was expected of him, he gives ample evidence that he did not do it nearly as efficiently as he could have, and questions his reputation as a military genius, second only to Grant in the Union.
Decision in the West should be required reading for anyone with an interest in the Atlanta campaign. It is well written, fascinating, exhaustively researched, and thought provoking. It cannot be considered anything other than the decisive existing volume on this crucial aspect of the Civil War. It receives my very highest recommendation.
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The Dachau Defendants: Life Stories from Testimony and Documents of the War Crimes Prosecutions
Fern Overbey Hilton
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company
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Book Description
In the 489 Dachau trials, 1700 criminals of Nazi Germany faced American justice. Held in the old administration building of the defunct concentration camp, they began just weeks after the capitulation in 1945 and were completed on December 30, 1947. The defendants varied from major figures in the Reich, to doctors, engineers, and teachers, to farmers, students, and villagers. The crimes include the abuse or murder of downed American airmen and atrocities committed against victims of all nationalities in the concentration camps and transports.
This study concentrates on a selection of the trials that show a broad group of representative crimes and lend themselves to an understanding of World War II German culture. In proving that the average citizen could be as devoted a contributor to the Nazi cause as Hitler, it hopes to reveal something about those who would not stand up to him, who tolerated him, or who joined him. It addresses the disturbing reality that most atrocities committed in the Hitler era were the result of personal decisions made by others than the dictator.
Written from primary source documents such as letters, testimony, petitions, military records, physical evidence, and the official files and reviews of the trials, the case descriptions also provide defendants' personal details: upbringing, family life, education, career choices, their behavior during the trials, and their lives afterward. The study concludes with an appendix of all cases by number and defendant, divided by series, and a bibliography. It is illustrated with mug shots of the defendants and photographs of relevant sites and events.
Book Description
In the annals of mysticism, a few seers can match the lasting power and profound insight of Edgar Cayce. A clairvoyant philosopher of vast breadth and kindly demeanor, Cayce devoted his life to answering queries from tens of thousands seeking advice on their spiritual quests and personal affairs. His groundbreaking perceptions on the essence of healing, and on dreams, karma, and reincarnation served to inform and transform untold destinies.
Customer Reviews:
EDGAR CAYCE FAQs ANSWERED WITH HIS OWN READINGS ! (a must read for Cayce students).......2007-08-20
Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was a clairvoyant, philosopher, healer, minister, and one of the most famous psychics in modern times. Originally from Kentucky, and known as "the sleeping prophet", he was also a man of God who read The Bible once a year for every year that he lived. Cayce had the ability to channel information on a wide range of subjects while in a self-induced trance, and became a well-known celebrity later in his life. Because of his amazing ability to accurately diagnose medical illness and prescribe sucessful treatments, he was visited by thousands of people from around the world. No Soul Left Behind: The Words And Wisdom Of Edgar Cayce (2005) has been put together by Robert A. Smith, the editor of Cayce's memiors. The book is divided into fifteen chapters on various subjects such as Holistic Healing, Financial Advice, Tuning Into Spirits, Relationships: Love and Sex, and Jesus: The Man and The Christ. Each chapter consists of dozens of hypothetical questions that are answered by excerpts of the Cayce readings, each one numbered for further reference. The questions run the gamut, everything from "Many people go into business for themselves. What's your advice to them?" to "Knowing it happens to everyone, why are we so afraid of death?" and "Does the soul ever die?". These and the other questions in the book are answered directly in Cayce's edited words, and always in an intelligent, benevolent, and easy to understand manner. If you are a student of Edgar Cayce or just interested in learning more about this special man, this book can be useful and very enjoyable. It can also be very helpful for advice and information on everything from diet and finding happiness to financial matters. It's not for everybody, but for those who believe that some answers can be found through psychic channeling, it is very interesting, indeed.
Best of all Cayce's books.......2007-08-17
This is my favorite book along with There is a River. What i like about it is that it's easy to read, sort and understand. It's sorted in different categories so you can look it up real quick. And best of all, it's all questions and answers (quote directly from Cayce)...which is what i like. Unlike other books, where the authors simply talk about it without much of direct quotes...this book is sort of like a long interview with Edgar Cayce himself on all different subjects from health to incarnations to marriage. Definitely A++ read.
unreadable.......2006-08-06
Did I get a different book from the other reviewers? This book is unreadable. The editor did not interview Cayce, but cobbled together Q&As from other sources. It does not flow at all, and much of what Cayce is quoted as saying sounds ridulous in this format. Seriously, I wish I had not bought this book. It's so bad, I think I should get a refund. btw - I've read a lot of other books on this topic, so it is not the subject matter that I have an issue with, but the presentation. If you really want this book, don't buy it - email me and I'll send it to you for the cost of shipping.
A fabulous reference book on the Edgar Cayce material.......2006-02-25
This is one of the best reference books on the Edgar Cayce readings available. No Soul Left Behind is logically organized, easy to look up by subject, easy to read, and wonderfully executed! I highly recommend this book to both longtime students of the Cayce material and those just beginning to explore it. You won't be disappointed. And I love the title--it speaks right to my soul.
Ordered 3 copies.......2005-12-12
Marvelous book. Easy to understand. After reading the first chapter aloud to my husband, I ordered copies for my son, my mother-in-law and an astrologer friend in Wyoming.
Take my word for it. Less gobbedly good, easy to read format. I also wrote a review of it for fellow writers and posted it online.
Customer Reviews:
Fascinating But Flawed.......2007-08-28
Most books about the American Civil War take up battles and warfare. The few that concern the diplomatic and international repercussions of the war are usually about Confederate relations with Britain and France. Yet the relationship with Mexico was just as important.
The Native American Liberal Benito Juarez assumed power as President of Mexico in January 1861, just as southern states had begun to secede from the Union.
France's Emperor Napoleon III took advantage of the Civil War to send forces to occupy Mexico, and installed the brother of the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef, Archduke Maximilian, as "Emperor of Mexico". Juarez and his forces fled to the north of the country. When the Civil War ended in mid-1865, the United States was strong enough to put pressure on France, and Napoleon III withdrew his forces. Without that support, Maximilian's regime collapsed. He was captured by Juarez' victorious army, and despite the protests of European countries, the "emperor" was executed.
At the end of the Civil War, with Maximilian still in power, many Confederates fled to Mexico when their cause failed.
"The Lost Cause, The Confederate Exodus to Mexico" is about this often overlooked sidebar to the Civil War. Much of the book centers around Confederate Cavalry General Jo Shelby, who, refusing to surrender, led what was left of his forces south of the Rio Grande. They were joined by thousands of others who refused to live in a Reconstructed South with liberated slaves, or who were afraid of being imprisoned by the Union for their activities during the war.
The book describes their often difficult journeys through country filled with hostile Native Americans, bandits, and Juarista soldiers. The exiles were given colonies to settle near Veracruz, and had their own newspaper in Mexico City. Among their numbers were several prominent generals and governors, generally from the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. Many found their lives in exile intolerable, the colonies swamp and mosquito-ridden, and left. With the fall of Maximilian, the colonies were ravaged by Juaristas and bandits, and virtually all of the exiles moved on, most eventually returning to the re-United States.
This book is fascinating, but it is flawed. The style is uneven, and it could have used some better editing. There are a couple of places where the facts seem wrong. Rolle writes of the Confederate soldiers in Arizona and New Mexico who had designs on Mexico at the end of the Civil War. Yet after an initial invasion that brought Confederate troops as far west as Tucson, Arizona, in 1862 they were driven back, and Union forces occupied the southwest as far as West Texas.
Rolle says the commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, General Edmund Kirby Smith, went to Mexico separately from Jo Shelby. Other accounts of Kirby Smith's life say that after formally surrendering his command, he joined up with Shelby and they crossed the Rio Grande together.
At one point he implies that Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation after the adoption of the 14th Amendment, in 1868, three years after Lincoln's death. This is probably more likely sloppy writing than anything else.
The book also seems a bit too sympathetic to people who were after all deeply racist, going into exile rather than accepting the freeing of the slaves. It supports the traditional version of a Reconstruction of Carpetbaggers and Scalawags, oppressing the South after the war, rather than the more recent revisionist view that Reconstruction was largely positive but failed because of a southern backlash.
Book Description
The new media industry needs the producer who manages, the director with creative vision, and the writer who documents the development process. This comprehensive book is a practical, skills-oriented book for the producer, director, and writer of multimedia. It provides readers with a sound grounding in the concepts of interactive design, and then takes them through the step-by-step process of developing the multimedia product.
Written with a professional orientation, this book teaches readers how to create multimedia faster, better, and less expensively. It also can act as a procedure manual for the reader's company. Topics include: Interactive, non-linear, multimedia design; the development process; games and educational products.
For any multimedia professional, in particular CD-ROM developers and publishers.
Customer Reviews:
So-so book.......2003-05-20
Out of all the books I read for my digital media degree, this one was by far the best- and that isn't saying much. This author as well as other are making it all entirely too complicated. Straightforward writing is all that is needed and this book missed it by about 1/2 a mile.
Book Description
For hundreds of years black-tailed prairie dogs inhabited the Great Plains by the millions, improving the grazing for bison and pronghorn antelope, digging escape holes and homes for burrowing owls and rodents, and serving as prey for badgers, coyotes, hawks, and bobcats. This book by the renowned naturalist and writer Paul A. Johnsgard tells the complex biological and environmental story of the western Great Plains under the prairie dog’s reign—and then under a brief but devastating century of human dominion.
An indispensable and highly readable introduction to the ecosystem of the shortgrass prairie, Prairie Dog Empire describes in clear and detailed terms the habitat and habits of black-tailed prairie dogs; their subsistence, seasonal behavior, and the makeup of their vast colonies; and the ways in which their “towns” transform the surrounding terrain—for better or worse. Johnsgard recounts how this terrain was in turn transformed over the past century by the destruction of prairie dogs and their grassland habitats, together with the removal of the bison and their replacement with domestic livestock. A disturbing look at profound ecological alterations in the environment, this book also offers a rare and invaluable close-up view of the rich history and threatened future of the creature once considered the “keystone” species of the western plains.
Included are maps, drawings, and listings of more than two hundred natural grassland preserves where many of the region’s native plants and animals may still be seen and studied.
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- Complete Guide To Foreign Adoption
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