Freshwater Wetlands : A Guide to Common Indicator Plants of the Northeast

Average customer rating:
Freshwater Wetlands : A Guide to Common Indicator Plants of the Northeast
Dennis W. Magee
Manufacturer: University of Massachusetts Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Botany | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Botany | Biological Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
jp-unknown2 | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Field Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, and Rushes of the Northern United States

A Field Guide to Coastal Wetland Plants of the Northeastern United States

A Naturalist's Guide to Wetland Plants: An Ecology for Eastern North America

Newcomb's Wildflower Guide

Grasses: An Identification Guide (Sponsored by the Roger Tory Peterson Institute)

ASIN: 0870233173

Average customer rating:
FRESHWATER WETLANDS. A GUIDE TO COMMON INDICATOR PLANTS OF THE NORTHEAST
D. Magee
Manufacturer: University of Massachusetts Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WQ752I

Book Description

A mecca of botanical diversity and home to a wealth of wildlife, Kinabalu is also one of the most spectacular and accessible mountains in the world. With abundant maps and illustrations and practical, informative text, this guide enables the visitor to make the most of Kinabalu¿s unique attractions.

Book Description

What kind of animal was Moby Dick? Who built the world's first practical airplane? Filled with fun facts and educational tidbits, these fun and interactive flip quizzes encourage kids to explore science, math, animals, history, and geography. Each sturdy stand-up book contains 38 quizzes of increasing levels of difficulty, with six different subject categories. Whether competing against friends or reading on their own, children will find learning fun and exciting with these vividly colored quiz books.

Amazon.com

"My soul would be an outlaw," begins the storyteller in this short tale of the timeless war between Conformity and Rebellion, in the guise of the Master Timekeeper (a.k.a. the Ticktockman) and the renegade Harlequin. In a completely regulated society, where being a minute late here and there shortens your life accordingly, the Ticktockman is king; Harlequin is the jellybean joker who wants to knock him from his perch. Rick Berry's dark, lush illustrations magnify the force of a story that reminds readers of the best parts of George Orwell's 1984 or Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

Book Description

In 1965 Harlan Ellison introduced an unsuspecting world to The Harlequin, a non-conformist (and perpetually late) rebel in a future society where conformity and punctuality are the gods of a totalitarian world. Taking time to stop and smell the roses, The Harlequin becomes a disruptive diversion to an otherwise well-ordered, suppressed populace. And that's something their leader, The Ticktockman, can't allow. Honored with the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman has become one of the most reprinted stories in the English language, with the numerous foreign translations. (Color illus.)

Customer Reviews:

There Are Always Those Who Need To Ask.......2005-11-13

"not everyone can be sold into slavery quite so easily."

This coffee table edition of Ellison's anti-establishment classic will please fans {who will enjoy Harlan's new intro, "Stealing Tomorrow"} as well as making a wonderful children's book that serves to connote something crucial, yet, from what I've found, is sorely lacking in many children's stories: that is, "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman," with its mischievous, jelly-bean-bombardier anti-hero, is an insightful, modern parable of individual rights and freedom of expression.

As the dark stains of totalitarianism spread across the land, as the people are deceived into believing that relinquishing their civil liberties will result in greater safety and "security," as they are further lulled into obedience through deceptive, technological, dual-purpose conveniences, there need be now more than ever, young minds and spirits raised in full awareness of the illusory "reality" in which they exist. The hero of this parable is alive with the spirit of critical thought and non-conformity; this resonates quite well with my daughter, who understands his position of telling fascist bogeymen to "get stuffed." Ha, indeed.

In this particular version, the thematic 'Orwellian' "1984" substance of the story is presented in a way your child will understand. As I tell my daughter {who is learning to read and has an immense appetite for words} when she grumbles over school: "there are some fine things there to learn, and friends to find, but a school is an institution, and an institution, in some ways, is inherently repressive." Which is why, even at a tender age, many children instinctively don't care for being herded this way and that, or told when to stand or sit, or required to tow those many lines which deeply ingrain irrational attitudes of mindless submission to authority and conformity.

Harlan's timeless tale will also introduce your child to Henry David Thoreau: "He serves the state best who opposes the state most."

Buy a compilation.......2004-06-13

This is one of my favorite short stories ever but unless you're really into pictures and pretty books on your bookshelf buy one of his compilations (the Essential Ellison is excellent) and get more story for your money.

Tardiness is inexcusable..........2002-05-24

ýREPENT, HARLEQUIN!ý SAID THE TICKTOCKMAN is a session of uncanny fascinationýthen again, what else would one expect from Harlan Ellison anyway?

To say heýs unique is to say a liver is only slightly more evolved than a mitochondrion. Ellison has long since ejected himself from the primordial slop of literature we all wallow in, preferring to mutate of his own accord lest mutation screw up his plansýto be sure, this guy is proactive, and he has plans. Heýs always had them. And what are these blueprints, these documents, these nucleotide sequences and various schematics, what do they read, what do they say, how should we interpret them, how do we deduce their intent, are they hidden away in some lost Peruvian cavern located close to a golden Buddah-like idol sitting atop a precarious and sophisticated Rube-Goldberg system of weights and balances which, if disturbed, stand ready to shoot toxic needles at the next Indiana-Jones-like spelunker who thinks he/she is capable enough to actually wrest such valuables and then outrun the ponderous boulder sure to live up to its booby trap imperative? And even if such sleuthing is within the realm of statistical allowances, do we have any Rosetta Stones which would help us in figuring the stuff out? Whatýs it all about, in other words?

I havenýt the faintest conception; I am a mere zygotic intelligence before such gauntlet. But I can report the following: TICKTOCKMAN is a decisive foray into liquid enjoyment for any and all readers.

Ellison is a writer undaunted by the craft; he does not fear it, loathe it, supplicate it, genuflect or kowtow in the least before it. He could care less about preordained templates and/or stodgy traditions and/or heretofore preconceived cogitationsýthat isnýt he, he isnýt that. Heýs not afraid of words, is heroic- nearly quixotic- in the face of syntax. Like e.e. cummings, stylistic convention is not necessarily a hallmark, a touchstone for him. He is a wordsmith who exudes a nihilistic point of view towards the status quo of the industry and its orthodox formats; yes, but in the end, it is not deconstruction or de-evolution for its own justified sake that attracts him, rather, itýs what he can reconstitute from the wreckage and rebuild and restore to a shiny slick sheen with nascent purpose which attracts and pleases his sensibilities to maximum degree.

TICKTOCKMAN, like other works of the author, displays a narrative which could- and does- easily resonate between normal prose inclinations and extraordinary baroque poetic tendenciesýmakes thing captivating, to be sure. But lest one be lulled into thinking that itýs all simple sugars and no power-building proteins, the story does pack one heck of an allegorical punch. It is a tale where Time is no longer an abstract convention; instead, it is a concrete, cruel master, and it absolutely must be obeyed at all costs. The rules of this negative-utopia landscape dictate that everyone arrives at the appointed hour/minute/second, deviation is not only disallowed, itýs unheard of! The very fabric of culture, the specific mechanism of society, the clandestine workings of existence itself all depend upon it. As such, the populace is not necessarily a convivial lot; their lives are drab, dull, dilapidated. They need some fun, something lively, something impish and petulant and impetuous andýwell, they need a jester, a joker, a jabberwockyýa harlequin! Yes, they need Harlequin. And they get him, a little funny fool who tries to inject a bit of fun and games in this over-punctual world. Enter the Ticktockman- no, wait, thatýs a derogatory, an epithet, he actually prefers to be referred to as Master Timekeeper. He- it, whatever- will have none of this. He must put an end to the Harlequin and get the people back on time. Harlequin is never on timeýonly the Master Timekeeper is (or is he).

TICKTOCKMAN is as much an essay as it is a fable. Although one might think that Ellisonýs thesis is against any and all manner of imposition of efficiency, I myself donýt think it is proposing such a dogma. Things do need the lubricant of efficiency (writers need deadlines, for instance), but it must be a dollop of the right kind of tight-running initiatives; I believe Ellison is saying that there are so many stupid rules and so many obnoxious bureaucracies- both public and private- leading us down the path of anti-productive behavior under the guise of progressive thinking and time-management that one has to wonder if the sophists are actually winning. Who knows, maybe thatýs alarmist caterwauling, but Ellison is an alarmist, and he likes to caterwaul, and it is both enrapturing and empowering to see what heýs screaming about. And if you want an enjoyable way to prepare for the vocabulary section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test, read as much Ellison as you can- the depth of his lexicon exists in propinquity to the etymological collection of God Himselfý

Chaos can be rather lovely.......2002-04-09

And so the Ticktockman purrs...

And I join right in. It's wonderful to see a writer take so much joy in what he has been given to create with. Words. Language. Sound and the breath that supports it. That alone endears him to me. But Ellison doesn't stop there. He adds to the chaotic atmosphere dazzling characters. Everything in this world he has created seems so simple, but deceptively so. And then you get to what seems like a rather abstract ending, but it's so much more simple than that. Like I said, chaos. But mark my words, you will want to dance on jelly beans after you finish reading this remarkably memorable novella. And after that, you'll want to read everything else Harlan Ellison has ever written.

Emperor's New Clothes.......2001-03-29

This is good writing? A story dashed out in obvious haste with an obscure ending, stolen from 1984, using five modifiers when one will suffice, reflecting the author's dread of deadlines -- like the one he was under when he wrote this. At this price, it ain't worth it, even with the art.

Amazon.com

Frankly, this literary critic didn't expect Mick Foley's memoir of his life as Mankind (and his other wrestling personas, Cactus Jack and Dude Love) to hit No. 1 on Amazon.com's hardcover nonfiction bestseller list in its first literary bout. The cover is cluttered and confusing, and do we really need 500-plus pages of Foley's boasts? Yes. Foley gives his all for his calling, and he burns to tell his adventures. Take the famous tale of how he lost most of his ear (the bloody result is depicted in the 16-page color-photo section). It was in his 1994 bouts with Vader (Leon White): after getting a broken nose, a dislocated jaw, and 21 stitches in the first match, Foley did his "hangman" routine, wherein he catches his neck between the second and third ropes and spins them into a twist. "The end result is the illusion of a man being hanged by his neck while his body kicks and writhes in an attempt to get out... the man actually is hanging by his neck and the body really does kick and writhe in an attempt to get out." Unfortunately, in the prior match, Too Cold Scorpio had had the officials tighten the ropes, so Foley tore off his ear to avoid death by strangulation, like "a fox that chews off its paw to escape a trap." Foley also wrestles on 10,000-thumbtack mats with barbwire ropes and C-4 explosives, and earns the ultimate compliment: "The fans really like the way you bleed." Many fans also like the way his gory story reads. --Tim Appelo

Book Description

Mick Foley is a nice man, a family man who loves amusement parks and eating ice cream in bed. So how to explain those Japanese death matches in rings with explosives, golden thumbtacks and barbed wire instead of rope? The second-degree burn tissue? And the missing ear that was ripped off during a bout-in which he kept fighting? Here is an intimate glimpse into Mick Foley's mind, his history, his work and what some might call his pathology. Now with a bonus chapter summarizing the past 15 months-from his experience as a bestselling author through his parting thoughts before his final match. A tale of blood, sweat, tears and more blood-all in his own words-straight from the twisted genius behind Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic book!.......2007-07-16

Funny! Heartpounding intense and that's just the cover. One of my favorite non fiction books, of all time. So much thrilling insight into the "buisness". Gold in the form of literature!

Laugh, cry, get blown away with this spellbindingly heartfelt autobiography, with no ghostwriters attached!.......2007-07-11

Amazing that in a few weeks, Mick Foley poured his life and soul into 760 pages of notebook paper that would make it, lightly cut and without any major edits, onto book, and earn it's New York Times #1 Bestseller's List. If only it weren't for that Oprah! (readers of the book will understand)

Starting from childhood, he makes it quick, but sweet as he tells humorous stories about his friends, and the origin of the name "Cactus Jack", and his time in college, including the inspiration for Dude Love and the start of his wrestling career.

Foley's writing is so personal and engrossing that he easily captures our attention with riveting stories ranging from lying to his parents and almost getting caught skipping a bus to college in order to catch a wrestling show (the famous Madison Square Garden match between Jimmy Snuka and Don Muraco), to gaining the respect and friendship of ex-wrestler and trainer Dominic DeNucci and being taken under his wing, knowing Foley couldn't afford classes, by reducing his fee, and then not charging altogether.

Foley's tales of his independent circuit runs are definitely a grungy, and in some cases heartwrenchingly painful experiences, which his natural humor and goodnatured attitude help liven up and spare us the angst he must have felt, but without completely sugarcoating it.

All along the way, Foley maintains a very brilliantly hidden line between kayfabe and shoot, though focusing more on the shoot aspect (for nonwrestling fans, kayfabe means the "fake" world of wrestling, including storylines and gimmicks, shoot is reality) and readily admits his talent isn't in technical or even very good wrestling, but rather in taking bumps and making the other guy and himself look good.

From hellish stories of being stalked by crazed female fans thinking his real name is "Cactus Jack Manson" to wrestling in Nigeria and almost getting robbed by the corrupt government police, to losing out on a 3,000$ paycheck in Africa after the president of the country he wrestled in (who organized the event) was assassinated and the regime overthrown within weeks of his departure, Foley's wit and charm keep the story of his life so lively, you'd think it has to be fiction.

Moving on to his time in WCW, he recounts the horrors of the backstage mechanics, from Ric Flair's awful booking and the backstage team's failure to recognize great potential talent, and hiring college TV production students to man their editing, to Foley's disillusionment as the feud between he and Vader was played down, a massive bump taken by Foley which the commentators could have brilliantly sold was sardonically mocked with a derogatory statement like "that's got to be excedrin headache #9!!", and Cactus Jack being attempted to be turned into a childishly ridiculous heel that would have ruined Foley's career.

Then came Foley's run on the independent circuit, and shows for ECW, including full transcripts of some of his best, and in my opinion some of the best ever, promos, trying to be anti-hardcore and promoting WCW and trying to get Tommy Dreamer to go to WCW and be the pretty boy wrestler again.

From the independent circuit, to stardom in the WWF, Foley is never sparse on details about stories while on the road, his many friends along the way from Mr. Haiti in Africa, to Steve Austin and Steve (William) Regal, The Undertaker, Sting, Owen Hart, Vader, and of course Terry Funk. Virtually every stop from his career, including the Japanese tours, the King of the Deathmatch, etc, and the evolution from "Mason the Mutilator" to "Mankind the Mutilator" to "Mankind" and the use of all three of his gimmicks in the WWF to eventual WWF Championship gold.

Throughout it all, Foley never loses his charm or wit, or the incessant Al Snow bashing, with plenty of pictures scattered around the text and plenty of personal stories (like the time he shared a house with a junkie, a guy who was having sex with his girlfriend's 16 year old daughter, and the 16 year old trying to flirt with Mick) and stories with friends (like "Vader" Leon White's spendthrifting with hotels, or Owen Hart's penchanse for practical jokes) that his story never gets old or repetitive and when the story finally ends, you feel like you've known Mick his entire life.

This is THE shining example of a great book about a pro wrestler's life, and I hope his other two books are just as great.

The First and the Best..........2007-05-18

Mick Foley's "Have a Nice Day" is his first and his best. It is a whimsical journey in the life of one of the greatest hardcore wrestlers ever. Foley has always had the gift of gab, and it translates very well to the written page. Hysterical, insightful, and heartwarming.

Amazing insight........2007-04-19

If you are interested in the behind the scenes of wrestling, here's a great place to start. Mick speaks on his rise from childhood fan to wrestling superstar. He even talks breifly about the Boiler Room Brawl and his Cleveland promos! (I wish he would have went more in-depth on these topics, though.)

A Wrestler's Autobiography.......2007-04-12

See a different side of wrestling with this autobiographical book. You'll laugh your way through this brilliant work of art and ask yourself how Foley survived.

MANKIND: HAVE A NICE DAY: A TALE OF BLOOD AND SWEATSOCKS

Average customer rating:

MANKIND: HAVE A NICE DAY: A TALE OF BLOOD AND SWEATSOCKS
Mick Foley
Manufacturer: ReganBooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

Hardcore Diaries

ASIN: B000H2JL7Y

Have a Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks

Average customer rating:

Have a Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks
Mick; Mankind (Signed By Author) Foley
Manufacturer: ReganBooks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OESET6

Average customer rating:

Mankind, Have a Nice Day!: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks
Mick Foley
Manufacturer: Regan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NXXS4E

Average customer rating:

Have a Nice Day! (A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks)
Mick Foley
Manufacturer: Regan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF2X38

Average customer rating:

Mankind: Have a Nice day! A Tale of blood and Sweatsocks
Mick Foley
Manufacturer: Regan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UQW3O0

Mankind; Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks *Signed*

Average customer rating:

Mankind; Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks *Signed*
Mick Foley
Manufacturer: Regan Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NW7C1K

Average customer rating:

pathfinder on the loose

Good Parts, but mostly bad

Very Impressive

No men are Saints, angels with vice

Jake McNiece

FILTHY THIRTEEN: From the Dustbowl to Hitler's Eagle's Nest - The True Story of the101st Airborne's Most Legendary Squad of Combat Paratroopers
Richard Killblane
Manufacturer: Casemate
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Aviation | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | World War II | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Major Dick Winters

Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich

Biggest Brother : The Life of Major Dick Winters, The Man Who Led the Band of Brothers

101st Airborne: The Screaming Eagles at Normandy

D-Day with the Screaming Eagles

ASIN: 1932033467

Book Description

Now in Peprback for the first time.

Since World War II, the American public has become fully aware of the exploits of the 101st Airborne Division, the paratroopers who led the Allied invasions into Nazi-held Europe. But within the ranks of the 101st, a sub-unit attained legendary status at the time, its reputation persisting among veterans over the decades.

Primarily products of the Dustbowl and the Depression, the Filthy13 grew notorious, even within the ranks of the elite 101st. Never ones to salute an officer, or take a bath, this squad became singular within the Screaming Eagles for its hard drinking, and savage fighting skill--and that was only in training. Just prior to the invasion of Normandy, a "Stars and Stripes" photographer caught U.S. paratroopers with heads shaved into Mohawks, applying war paint to their faces. Unknown to the American public at the time, these men were the Filthy 13. After parachuting behind enemy lines in the dark hours before D-Day, the Germans got a taste of the reckless courage of this unit - except now the men were fighting with Tommy guns and explosives, not just bare knuckles. In its spearhead role, the 13 suffered heavy casualties, some men wounded and others blown to bits. By the end of the war 30 men had passed through the squad.

Throughout the war, however, the heart and soul of the Filthy 13 remained a survivor named Jake McNiece, a half-breed Indian from Oklahoma - the toughest man in the squad and the one who formed its character. McNiece made four combat jumps, was in the forefront of every fight in northern Europe, yet somehow never made the rank of PFC. The survivors of the Filthy 13 stayed intact as a unit until the Allies finally conquered Nazi Germany.

The book does not draw a new portrait of earnest citizen soldiers. Instead it describes a group of hardscrabble guys whom any respectable person would be loath to meet in a bar or dark alley. But they were an integral part of the U.S. war against Nazi Germany. A brawling bunch of no-goodniks whose only saving grace was that they inflicted more damage on the Germans than on MPs, the English countryside and their own officers, the Filthy 13 remain a legend within the ranks of the 101st Airborne.

Over 20,000 copies sold of the hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

pathfinder on the loose.......2007-02-14

I met the author at a paratrooper reunion,(the 26th infantry pathfinder platoon in 2006) and was amazed of how great a storyteller he was, he was a great featured speaker. But the fact that Jake is a natural storyteller shouldn't fool you, jake's adventures were quite real and even in the 1980's , my pathfinder unit was able to get away with some pretty wild antics as long as we did our mission well. This book is well worth buying or reading because it has the laid back style of jake himself. Men like jake helped us win that war and men like him are still around fighting and having adventures in todays airborne units as well. They make no apologies for killing anyone who is trying to kill their buddies regardless what anyone else thinks about it. The book is a unapologetic look at a wild trooper and his war and on that ground alone I would say buy it!

Good Parts, but mostly bad.......2006-03-24

I just would like to add that the book was a real letdown for me. There were some really funny parts in the first half of the book, while the unit was in training but when the unit actually went into combat in Normandy the book really went down hill fast.

Very Impressive.......2006-02-22

I just finshed reading the Filthy Thirteen by Richard Killblane and
found it very interesting. I actually went to church with Jake McNiece when I lived in Ponca City, Oklahoma. He was a very interesting individual. I have the highest regard for his efforts during WWII. The writing of this book isn't the best and it was difficult to follow at times since it jumped from first person to third person. Over looking the writing style I couldn't help but be impressed and appreciative of what the men in battle had to endure.
I would recommend this book if for nothing else than to get an upclose view of war.
I also read some previous reviews stating they doubted the validity of Jakes escapades. As I stated before I personally know Jake and his escapades mentioned in this book although seem over the top are quite true.

No men are Saints, angels with vice.......2006-01-31

First my excuses for my poor english. I'm Dutch.

This book is somewhat diffent from other memoires. But the great power of this book is the individual story.
I guess that for people who do not know european culture, geopraphy and history this will be a strange book. But I can follow the whereabouts off these men every step he writes them out. To (older)people in Holland these men were angels from the sky and after that heroes and normal men.

Best Parts in the book.

-Jump in Normandy. The psychological lonelyness that he discribes, the chaotic anarchy, determination, succes of failure, brillant. (unbelievable, never read it so honest, disobbeying orders and so forth)
-Holland, operation market garden Disaster. (also read the road to berlin, by Megallis)
-Best part, the enormous after-war vacüum.
-In general the human discription of man needs in the 'wild'. Shelter, good food, a drink and.....

Three drawbacks, the lightness which is used to talk about heavy dramatic scenes is 'strange'(but still natural)
Futher a lot of detail is skipped. Last thing is that you never get feeling that death is all around, sometimes it feels like a walk over.
But the graves are still here.

OVERALL INIQUE DOCUMENT,

Greetings drs.H.I.J.Versteegden

Jake McNiece.......2005-01-30

is one of the genuine crazies in the 101st Airborne's family tree. I met him at the Toccoa, GA, reunion of the 506th PIR after I came back from Iraq and he was happy to sign my copy. Yes, the writing is crude, yes, Jake loves to tell a good story, but if you want a dry day by day account of the 506th's doings, sit down with Rendezvous with Destiny instead. One, Bob Sink wasn't quite as stuck-up as Dale Dye played him, and second, why do you think Jake never got promoted and spent half his time at Toccoa in the stockade? There's a reason the pic of the old stockade there at the camp is captioned "Jake McNiece's command post" in the county historical society literature, his antics have been a running joke in Division circles since 1943.

I think it was the pics of the Mohawked, face-painted guys with the Thompsons when I was a real little kid that got me started on all this in the first place. Now I know the story behind it all, and I'm glad I met a genuine hero of an earlier time.

Book Description

The earthshaking news of October 1998 that General Pinochet had been arrested in Britain presaged two years of international interest in the case and its ramifications for traveling tyrants the world over. Now the General has returned home, but the media has continued to ignore the important story of how his detention lifted a stranglehold that had suffocated Chile's moral sensibility for a generation. Award-winning journalist Marc Cooper was a translator to President Allende until the coup of 1973. In this memoir he reconstructs the tense atmosphere of the final days of the Allende government, including his hiding and subsequent evacuation under armed UN protection. Twenty-five years later he returns and describes, in vivid street-level reporting, a country that is a democracy in name only and a society that has been transfigured by one of the most radical, armed capitalist revolutions of our time. Yet, he argues, spasms of protest that seemed like the last rattle of the snake may still presage the crumbling of Chile's status quo as Allende's heirs in the Socialist Party, albeit "renewed," sweep into the Presidency.

Customer Reviews:

READ ABOUT THE REAL 9/11 in 1973: HOW NIXON KILLED A DEMOCRACY.......2006-07-08

this book is essential reading for us as we reflect upon our own global piracy which now continues under a new illegitimate administration. Marc Cooper is an excellent author and reporter of truth, courageous in speaking truth to power. THis book should be required reading in any social studies and history class. This is our history of terror and domination. The bombing of the Presidential mansion in Chile 9/11/73 and our destruction of a society and the torture and assassination of thousands of innocent people and exile of thousands more through the brutal fascist military dictator Pinochet, and our continuance of such policy, must chill the blood and mind of any American concerned for truth justice and social progress of all people, which is the true American and Christian way.

UPDATE 2007:
Pinochet is dead and now people go around claiming, well, he only killed a couple of thousand people after all. It was only a couple of thousand on OUR 9/11, too, right?

Please get the truth. Get this book by Marc Cooper. We need to study this very readable and informative and TRUE account now, more than ever.

Cooper Vs Ignorance.......2004-11-13

Many of the reviewers below me point out that Pinochet strengthened the economy in Chile to the level where it became one of the more prosperous states on the subcontinent. He sure did. What's more, Mussolini made the trains run on time, Stalin ran a tight security service and Hitler sure did make some good roads.

Please.

Allende was elected by a narrow margin, so he deserved to be overthrown? Fair enough - let's kill old Bushy boy too, since he was elected by a very narrow margin. What Cooper takes aim at primarily in this book is this notion that Pinochet's brand of "fascism" was good fascism - that it's OK to, say, train alsatians to rape prisoners if they were a bit leftist and their candidate had screwed up the economy.

No economy is so important that mass murder is an acceptable way to rectify it. The fact that so many people on the right refuse to accept this simple moral fact makes me worry for the free West, and how much longer it's going to be free for if we can't acknowledge a simple thing like mass murder being morally wrong.

Bravo, Cooper, you've upset the pinheads.

Leftist trash talk about Pinochet and Chile........2004-01-04

This book purports to give a true view of Chile and the Pinochet regime. The author is a sixties radical who at one time worked as a translator on Allende's presidential staff. Warren Beatty endorsed this book as saying it cleared the distortions about Chile.

Where to begin?

I have never given a one star review of any book. Cooper's book deserves no star, because it is a distortion of any truth. I don't think the book is at all balanced with what I know about Chile. I know Chile as well as Cooper. My wife is Chilean and happens to be a socialist. I also have visited Chile many times and love the people and the country.

First, Allende won a very narrow mandate in the election of 1970.
He sought to radically change his country but introduced chaos into his country. He alienated many people including most of the middle and upper classes along with the conservative population of the countryside. My wife is from Curico, in the central agricultural region.

Allende also antongonized some powerful patrons such as the United States and ITT (which owned the copper mines in the north of the country). The United States contributed much of the foreign aid Chile received. What did Allende do? Nationalize the copper mines and invite Castro for a month long visit. Smart move--make enemies of those who contributed most to the Chilean economy. When the economy tanked, chaos was the result.

Workers demands became even more aggressive. Nationalization of smaller companies and agricultural estates were the result. Strikes and work stoppages were common. Economic decline was the result. Copper states that this was the finest hour for Chile. WOW--what a distortion. Economic decline and political chaos and he believes that it was Chile's finest hour. If one wants a modern day example of Chile in the seventies, look at Chavez's Venezuela.

Cooper is right in saying the Nixon administration helped in throwing Allende out of office. However Allende was going down a road which would have resulted in his overthrow.

The military sickened by the economic decline and political chaos overthrew the Allende regime. Pinochet was a reluctant leader of the coup. However, once the die was set, he embraced the coup and brutal crackdown. Over 3100 people died in the coup and the seventeen year dictatorship. Chile was not the worst dictatorship as Cooper would have you believe. In fact, Castro's dictatorship has been far more harsh in this hemisphere. Cooper does not want you to know that. That would distort his story.

Most Chileans believe Allende was an inept leader. Both Allende and Pinochet are divisive issues in Chile today. People don't like to argue the issues involving these two people. That is why Pinochet is not on trial in Chile. Perhaps in the future this may happen, but probably after Pinochet's death. But Cooper wants to rip open the scars of the past to try the crimes of the dictatorship.

One thing the dictatorship did do was set Chile as an economic powerhouse of South America. Where most of the other countries are failing presently, Chile has a thriving economy. Cooper does not want to credit the dictatorship with this. This would destroy his distortion. So he lies and lies and lies.

If I had to summarize the essentials of Cooper's book, it is leftist trash talk about Pinochet and Chile. I wish this book was more objective. It is not. Reader beware.

First hand account.......2002-10-21

Cooper provides chilling details concerning the Allende overthrow that otherwise would lost to history. This is an excellent first-hand account of one persons experience during that tumultuous time. Although Cooper provides a biased account of the political environment in Chile during this time, it nontheless is a true account, whether we Americans like to look at our complicity in these events or not. Bravo to Cooper, the truth shall set you free!

Cooper and Me: A Chilean Anti-Review.......2002-08-20

One can't help but wonder if Cooper would've preferred that Chile had ended up like, say, an Argentina or a Venezuela rather than the stable and prosperous (relatively speaking) country that it is today. There's a sense of profound resentment ... that permeates the entire book, revealed by the ... attempts to discredit the (yes, material) advances Chile has made in the past decade. It seems that Pinochet's main crime is not the horrific human rights abuses that occured under his regime, but rather the meteoric rise of Chile's economy and standard of living. For these successes, and the embarrassment they engender on the rest of the continent and in dinosaurs on the Left, Pinochet and the "Chicago Boys" can never be forgiven.

Customer Reviews:

A seminal and scholarly study of environmental history.......2003-08-10

The collaborative effort of Michael J. Chiarappa (Associate Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Western Michigan University) and Kristin M. Szylvian (Associate Professor of History, Western Michigan University), Fish For All is a seminal and scholarly study of the environmental history of the Great Lakes freshwater fisheries. Fish For All reveals how tradition, cultural heritage, economic livelihood, scientific background, and more, have affected the carefully dispensed allocations of these resources in the Great Lakes region. Stressing the importance of building coalition over common concerns such as water pollution, habitat degradation, invasion of exotic species and more, Fish For All is an extensive, varied, and an intrinsically interesting collection of testimonials that combine for a sweeping, comprehensive, and very highly recommended regional environmental history of Great Lakes fish and fisheries.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books