Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book with plenty of insight.......2003-06-14

I truly enjoy Mr. Fletcher's writing - a man who can so profoundly write about "doing nothing". As he goes off on his various hikes, he offers a tremendous amount of food for thought - around issues of environment, harmony, relationship and connection - just to name a few.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the outdoors.

:-)

A Classic for the Colin Fletcher Fan.......2001-02-18

All of Colin Fletcher's works reflect the wonder of the world around us. This is simply a fantastic little collection of some of his "mucking about" stories. Anyone who knows how to stop and enjoy life's simple pleasures will relate to this amazing man and his great books. A great addition to any nature lover's library.

A revealing book centering on spirit of place.......1996-06-28

Mr. Fletcher's SECRET WORLDS is a revealing book centering on spirit of place without revealing the geo-specific location of place. Though we may not know the exact location of a coastal valley somewhere in northern California or southern Oregon, we can sense the joy and exaltation of the author for his secret little valley with spruce and fir and cool, dark cliffs. How does he keep the location secret? By altering ever so slightly descriptive details of a mountain pass or the direction of high, snow-capped peaks. While there might be a certain amount of frustration for the reader who intends to retrace the author's footsteps, there is no frustration whatsoever for the deconstructionist critic who is sensitive about literary mapping--a process which may lead to the destruction of the place so admired by the author. An extreme deconstructionist stance leads to the condemnation of John Muir's writings on the grounds that they ultimately inspired countless millions of people to come and unwittingly destroy that which Muir describes (like Yosemite Valley). SECRET WORLDS will certainly not duplicate such a result, but it will, nonetheless, inspire the reader to that which is true, good, and beautiful in nature

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The Secret World of Colin Fletcher
Colin Fletcher
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K7HTHK

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THE SECRET WORLDS OF COLIN FLETCHER
Colin Fletcher
Manufacturer: New York Alfred A. Knopf 1989.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PVP0Y0

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Green Mountain mind trip.

The best introduction

Buyer Beware!

Best general guide to Vermont I've found!

Compass American Guides: Vermont, 2nd Edition (Compass American Guides)
Don Mitchell
Manufacturer: Compass America Guides
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books
New England | Northeast | Regions | United States | Travel | Subjects | Books
Vermont | States | United States | Travel | Subjects | Books
North America | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Travel | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Compass American Guides: New Hampshire, 1st Edition (Compass American Guides)

Compass American Guides: Massachusetts, 1st Edition (Compass American Guides)

Compass American Guides: Cape Cod (Compass American Guides)

Compass American Guides: Connecticut and Rhode Island, 1st Edition (Compass American Guides)

Compass American Guides: Maine, 4th edition (Compass American Guides)

ASIN: 0676901395
Release Date: 2001-11-06

Book Description

Created by local writers and photographers, Compass American Guides are the ultimate insider's guides, providing in-depth coverage of the history, culture and character of America's most spectacular destinations. Compass Vermont covers everything there is to see and do -- plus gorgeous full-color photographs; a wealth of archival images; topical essays and literary extracts; detailed color maps; and capsule reviews of hotels and restaurants. These insider guides are perfect for new and longtime residents as well as vacationers who want a deep understanding of Vermont.

Customer Reviews:

Green Mountain mind trip........2006-12-16

Vermont, another place I'd love to visit and the Compass 2nd addition Guide to Vermont took me there and certainly wet my appetite for a visit even more.

Compass Guides leap ahead of others through powerful photography and personal descriptions that compel the senses. Vermont comes alive through sumptuous color and spicy descriptions. I believe the book even helped me come to an understanding of the culture of this northern New England state.

Leveraging the experience and passion of local authors and photographers must be the secret to the quality of this series. You just won't find many guide books this rich and satisfying.

The best introduction.......2001-06-27

I'd lived in Vermont for ten years before buying this book (for my mom's visit). It is an impressive presentation of the character of our state. True, it's short on the often ephemeral details you'll need for a trip (the restaurants, the hotels). But in a day when most of that's available on the web anyway. What you get instead is a thoughtful description of how the reigonal differences emerged--a level of detail mostly ignored by the standard descriptions.

Buyer Beware!.......2001-06-11

This book is only good for overall knowledge of small towns in Vermont; every little town gets a small paragraph's worth of description. It is not very helpful if you are looking to visit and need more practical information such as where to stay, where to eat, and things to do. While it does list some lodging and restaurants, it is by no means comprehensive and you're left to do most of the leg work yourself. This book, in my opinion, was a waste of my money - I had to buy two more Vermont books to get the information I was looking for. Even the town descriptions are too short to be really helpful. This is more of an "Overview of the Splendor of Vermont" book.

Best general guide to Vermont I've found!.......2001-02-03

Well-written and full of wonderful photos. Also full of quirky little facts and insider info. If you are looking for a good book to educate you on the best state in the union (I hope to move there in the next couple of years), then this it. You won't be disappointed. It blew away every other guide I looked at (and there are quite a few out there). As far as I'm concerned, Compass American Guides sets a new standard.

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Vermont Guide, 2nd Edition
John Bentley IV
Manufacturer: Open Road
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1892975955

Vermont-A guide to the Green Mountain State (American Guide Series revised & enlarged, 2nd edition)

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Vermont-A guide to the Green Mountain State (American Guide Series revised & enlarged, 2nd edition)

Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000EADE1S

Product Description

A great EX-LIBRARY hardcover with plastic covered dust jacket; hardly read with various common library indicators

Customer Reviews:

cracking the SAT II: biology subject test.......2001-09-16

this book was NOT as helpful as i had hoped. my actual score was lower than what i had got on their practice tests. the amount of information is EXTREMELY little, much less than on barron's, and they had very few practice tests, not worth it. i suggest if you want to score high, buy barron's.

A pretty good book.......2000-05-24

I used this book and did very well on the SAT. Thank you somuch. HOwever, in some places it's a little lacking..

This is a great book. It is well written........1998-10-09

I loved this book. It's well written and easy to understand. Unlike othe books it teaches you only the things you need to know for the sat II-nothing extra. I had good results with this book.

Book Description

This book gives comprehensive treatment of all techniques presently in use for the analysis of colorants. The approach is practical and particular attention is paid to recent developments in spectroscopic, spectrophotometric and chromatographic methods.

Book Description

Tight and taut manifolds form an important and special class of surfaces within differential geometry. This book contains in-depth articles by experts in the field as well as an extensive and comprehensive bibliography. This survey will open new avenues for further research and will be an important addition to any geometer's library.

Customer Reviews:

A Durrell treasure chest.......2000-12-06

Here we have a marvelous collection of short works by Lawrence Durrell that should satisfy both beginners and older Durrell addicts.

We all know that, as the most brilliant member of a brilliant family, LD had an enviably interesting life, living all over the globe for more or less long periods and reflecting deeply on what he observed. This volume shows that he also had a fascinating inner life -- of the mind, the soul, the spirit. Edited by Alan G. Thomas, it contains letters and articles along with excerpts from early works that show the writer had lots of star quality even as a young man, even if the world didn't come to know about it till The Alexandria Quartet.

Durrel seems to have been capable of a very wide range of emotions and feelings. Mostly he had a childlike (but not childish) sense of wonder at the world and the great diversity to be found among people of various nations and climates. Also central to his emotional life is his sense of compassion...this becomes clear in the short memoir about J. Gawsworth.

The letters -- to such figures as Freya Stark, Theoldore Stephamides, his agent Anne Ridler, and even T.S. Eliot, among others, are written from a variety of locales and offer insightful comments, especially comparative observations, on places and people. He tries to get to the heart of the notion of identity, what it means to a Frenchman, say, to be French, or Greekness to a Greek. He himself was not exactly taken with Argentina and he had no love at all for its people, whom he rightly describes as zombies. Of course he loved Greece above all nations and is proud to speak Greek fluently. He probably would have had many good things to say about Yugoslavia but the blight of Communist dictatorship colors his reaction to life in that sad country.

Like most persons of high and genuine refinement, he is hopelessly enamored of French culture and civilization. Some of the finest pieces in this book deal with French writers and artists (Stendhal is the preferred novelist and gets a lot of attention here). But Durrell is also interested in more mundane, everyday pursuits like wine production, studies at a university, and political allegiances.

Still, Durrells strongest, most enduring love is reserved for Greece and the Greek people among whom he lived for so many years. Especially touching is the piece where he describes his return to the Island of Corfu as an acclaimed writer after a twenty year absence only to discover that his old friends and neighbors, whose lives he had described so beautifully in his writings, have now become infected with materialism, commercialism and the profit motive, and they even want to capitalize on his fame. They suggest he come back to the village and live in his former house so they can get more money from the tourists by showing him off to them.

Yet the timeless beauty of the Greek people and the earthly paradise they inhabit comes shining forth in very many pages of this splendid book, which was editied and published during the writer's lifetime.

A great read for Durrell enthusiasts.......1999-01-01

The book is a collection of letters, short works, and excerpts from larger works by Durrell. Of particular interest is 'Asylum in the Snow' & 'Zero', which were written around the time Durrell visited Henry Miller & Anäis Nin in Paris. The two short stories are remarkable for such a young writer, and give ample reason for T.S. Eliot's extremely high praise for Durrell. Feel free to email me to discuss this book.

SPIRIT OF PLACE-LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON TRAVEL

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SPIRIT OF PLACE-LETTERS AND ESSAYS ON TRAVEL
Lawrence Durrell
Manufacturer: E. P. Dutton & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IOHZNI

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Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays on Travel
Lawrence Durrell
Manufacturer: E. P. Dtton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NOC5CO

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Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays on Travel
Lawrence Durrell; Editor Alan G. Thomas
Manufacturer: E.P. DUTTON & CO., INC.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OL03IY

SPIRIT OF PLACE. Letters and Essays on Travel. Edited by Alan G. Thomas.

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SPIRIT OF PLACE. Letters and Essays on Travel. Edited by Alan G. Thomas.
Lawrence: Durrell
Manufacturer: Pan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000W2O21Y

Customer Reviews:

Very readable and well researched biography.......2007-08-17

I am presently reading a biography of every U.S. President in order. From browsing the reviews of Monroe biographies, Ammon became the obvious choice. I can gladly say that I was not disappointed. Ammon's biography of Monroe is comprehsive, well written, and superbly researched. Ammon's writing style is refreshingly easy to read and the information is very well organized. Monroe emerges as a very important President and, while not as brilliant intellectually as his two predecessors, certainly well suited to be chief executive and arguably the most important influence on American foreign policy until Theodore Roosevelt.

My criticism of Mr. Ammon's volume is that, despite adeptly describing the political life of Monroe and its importance to American history, the biography never succeeds at leading the reader to understand Monroe on a personal level. Perhaps this task is not possible given the research available, but this is the first presidential biography that I have finished feeling that I did not have an adequate understanding of the personality traits behind the subject's actions.

Minor President only by comparison to his predecessors.......2006-11-01

This highly readable book focuses on the foreign policy elements of Monroe's career almost to the point that it is more of a book on diplomacy than a general biography. The portions that detail his partnership with his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, especially the genesis of the Monroe Doctrine, are where it is at it's best. Unfortunately it gives short shrift to his relationship and feelings to his own slaves, even while giving a very good account of his activities around the Missouri Compromise.

a better than average presidential biography.......2006-05-21

James Monroe by Ammon
Over the last several years, I've read biographies of the first 40 presidents. I've usually used Amazon readers to guide my selections. At the end of this review is a rating of these biographies.

James Monroe was the last of the founding fathers to be president and he is one of most underrated statesmen and presidents. During the Revolutionary War he served with George Washington. Later he was minister to France and Secretary of State. Aside from Washington he is the only president to run for a second term without opposition. He was an excellent diplomat. His cabinet included John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun , and it can be argued this was the most effective cabinet and administration of the 19th century. Monroe is closely linked with fellow Virginians, Madison and Jefferson, and while he does not rank as a genius or philosopher with this pair, he was probably a better leader than either. Monroe's political style was to solve problems, be diplomatic, and develop consensus. Ammon's accounts of 12 hour cabinet meetings demonstrate this style of governance. Monroe also believed in a limited presidency . He consistently chose to respect the separation of powers, and at times limited his effectiveness out of respect for the Constitution.

Ammon's biography is better than serviceable. It shines during Monroe's early years and his presidency. The book often drags during the middle third. My sense is this is because Monroe was more of a peripheral figure during these years, and this biography tends towards a tangential sense of history during this section.

Bonus - You can see my reviews (SMR) for many of the following books, but here's a capsule summary
The BEST
Franklin Roosevelt - Conrad Black - captures so many facets of a great leader weaving his way through constant challenges, completely engaging writing; SEE MY REVIEW
Teddy Roosevelt - Edmund Morris - the best writing hands down of a presidential biography - Teddy himself was so much fun that its hard to miss with this subject
John Kennedy - Robert Dallek - detailed, balanced biography of a complex man, SMR
Lyndon Johnson - Robert Dallek - volume one is as good as Morris' Teddy Roosevelt in terms of story- telling and describing the complexity of an absolutely driven man. Volume 2 deals with LBJ's presidential years and the morass of Viet Nam - its well written but like the war itself, it goes on and on from one disappointment to the next. SMR
John Adams - David McCullough - great writing, perhaps a bit too favorable to Adams, but this is the book that got many readers to take a first or second look at our founding fathers
Warren Harding - Francis Russell - absolutely the best biography of a unqualified president - captures Harding's sexual scandals as well as the smoked filled rooms and corruption of the times and Harding's administration, SMR
Chester Arthur - Thomas Reeves - a great biography of an very corrupt politician and an incredible job of detailing the spoils system and New York politics, SMR
The SECOND TIER
Harry Truman - David McCullough - McCullough is always engaging, but it seems to me that he places Truman a little too high on the pedestal
Abraham Lincoln - David Donald - the authoritative biography of Lincoln, I felt like crying at the end
Jimmy Carter - Peter |Bourne - a good history of the time and an unflinching, thorough analysis of Carter Written by a Carter insider, but not afraid to criticize. SMR
Franklin Pierce - Roy Nichols - a well written description of a man who was simply in over his head, SMR
Martin Van Buren - John Niven - paints a pretty likeable picture of a man who many despised and distrusted, sifts through a great deal of detail about New York politics, and the Jackson and Van Buren administrations - subtly introduces the idea that most of Jackson's successful policies came from Van Buren
Grover Cleveland - Alyn Brodsky - a better than average biography, very well organized and readable, soft pedals Cleveland's personal indiscretions SMR
James Buchanan - Philip Klein - Buchanan schemed to become president for 30 years - Klein's biography gives a great overview of years of US politics and of Buchanan's scheming sort of politics, SMR
James Monroe by Harry Ammon
Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation - Merrill Peterson - a very thorough description of Jefferson and his times - much more emphasis on his politics and other works than his personal life, SMR
Andrew Jackson - Robert Remini - this is perhaps unfairly low - I read the one volume abridgement, and would have preferred the detail of three volumes
Gerald Ford - James Reeves - brisk writing and the best retelling of Watergate. A thorough description of Ford's developmental years and career prior to becoming president, but his presidential years are given less than 30 pages. SMR
John Quincy Adams - Paul Nagel - uncovers Adams' personality and depression in a very sympathetic way but covers Adams' failed presidency with only a single chapter.
Andrew Johnson by Hans Trefousse - a very good biography of a very complicated guy during the US`s darkest years - at times I had trouble keeping the many Reconstruction era politicians straight
Rutherford Hayes - Ari Hoogenboom - a good biography including Hayes' war years, rise to the presidency, and his years in office. Although the election crisis of 1876 is presented in detail, Hoogenboom tries a bit too hard to give Hayes a free pass. SMR
Ike Eisenhower - Geoffrey Perret - a workmanlike complete biography
Ulysses S. Grant - Feeley - a great biography of Grant as a general, but it really falls down (as did Grant) during the presidential years
Millard Fillmore - Robert Rayback - a good biography of a forgotten president who actually had some success in forestalling the Civil War
Ronald Reagan - Edmund Morris - the weirdest "major" presidential biography - the fictional and real narrative are confusing. Although Morris captures Reagan, so much time is taken up with childhood, adolescence, and acting that important parts of the presidency are glossed over. SMR
George Washington - Douglas Southall Freeman - I read the one volume abridgement of his seven volume monster. Freeman tells a great story, but he probably admires Washington too much.
NOT QUITE GOOD ENOUGH
Ulysses Grant - McFeely - This is a great biography of Grant's early life and Civil Wars years, but Feely seems about as disconnected from the eight years of Grant's presidency as Grant was.
James Garfield - Allan Peskin - Garfield could be a caricature of a post Civil War president - log cabins, Civil War general (not much of one), Ohio, Republican, and weak - Peskin writes too much about Ohio politics and not enough about the corruption of the times
Herbert Hoover - David Burner - A pretty boring read about a fascinating character during a fascinating time
Woodrow Wilson - August Heckscher - Wilson was a very complex guy. This book captures Wilson and his times but it is a pretty dry read
James Madison - Ralph Ketchum - just too dry - SMR
Calvin Coolidge - Robert Sobel - this never really grabbed me but it is written in an engaging style
William Henry Harrison - Freeman Cleeves - This biography is more than 50 years old. The narrative is engaging and Harrison had an interesting life; BUT, Harrison gets pretty much a free pass for his relationship with the many tribes who he evicted from the Northwest Territories. See the recent biography of William Clark for an more revealing telling of this aspect of Harrison's life.
VYING FOR THE WORST
Zachary Taylor - Jack Bauer - Taylor was an egotistical, quarrelsome, and paranoid guy who became president after winning several important battles during the Mexican War. Bauer does a workmanlike job detailing Taylor's life but he avoids a lot of the controversy by not making some pretty basic judgments into Taylor's character.
Richard Nixon - Tom Wicker - An odd book. Wicker writes with great insight into Nixon, but he seems to get tired of writing the book. Watergate is almost completely left out as is much of the last years of Nixon's presidency. SMR
James Polk Eugene McCormac - This two volume set was one of the most disappointing biographies I read, but there is little available as far as a complete biography of Polk. A political biography, that completely ignores Polk's personal life (slave-owner, ambitious wife, father). SMR
John Tyler - Oliver Chitwood - A poorly organized and overly apologetic biography of one of the leading candidates for worst president. Written in the thirties, this book is stylistically dated. SMR.
William Taft - Judith Icke Anderson The author is a disciple of the Fawn Brodie - psychoanalytic school of biography. Taft is actually a pretty easy guy to figure out, and he was quite open and honest about his feelings about his life and career. He didn't need this sort of biography.
Benjamin Harrison - Harry Sievers - This is dreck! Three volumes of hero worship. Harrison had an interesting life and was an ineffective president, but this set does little to engage the reader. SMR
William McKinley - Kevin Phillips - This is more of a long essay than a biography. Way too many aspects of his life are brushed over. I was left with far too many questions about McKinley, and definitely feel a need to find another McKinley biography. SMR

Excellent Review of Monroe's Career.......2005-09-26

This book provides an excellent review of the career of our Fifth president. James Monroe had a long and distinguished career of Public Service, so providing a complete and thorough examination of his career is a very daunting task. The author does a good job of detailing his career. The only slight critisicm I had was that at times it got to detailed.

A Solid Biography of a Hard Working Man.......2005-04-03

This book is an excellent biography of James Monroe. Having read biographies of several other founding fathers recently, I decided to pick this one up as well.

It is a very thorough review of our fifth president's entire life. I found that it did well to not focus on the Monroe Doctrine, showing him for who he was, not as history remembers him to be, as simply the author of the Doctrine.

This book portrays James Monroe as a hard working member of the Republican Party, who gradually rose through the ranks to become the evident choice as the successor to his friend and fellow Virginian, James Madison. Not because he was charismatic or a genius, but simply because he was a good man who served his party well, and would not cause infighting amongst other members of the party.

If you're looking to learn more about our early presidents, by all means, pick up this book. But if you're looking for a book about a charismatic hero of the revolutionary era, it certainly isn't going to be about James Monroe.

James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity

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James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity
Harry Ammon
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OEZWNM

Book Description

This book demonstrates how Egyptian efforts to acquire long-range surface-to-surface missiles in the early 1960s provide an important case study in the field of ballistic missile proliferation and carry important lessons for the present-day scourge of weapons of mass destruction. It first traces the history of the early Egyptian ballistic missile program, beginning with the successful recruitment of German scientists who had prior experience in Hitler's V1 and V2 missile projects. It then demonstrates how Israel directed its formidable security apparatus to collect intelligence on and defeat Egypt's missile ambitions and how this intelligence sparked a crisis in the Israeli leadership as Israeli officials anxiously debated strategies to grapple with this new threat to their national security and finally adopted a multifaceted approach that focused on intimidating the scientists and their families, appealing to the West German government to order the scientists' recall, and attempting to get the US government involved in the intricacies of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Drawing on material from recently declassified US government documents, this volume demonstrates how Nasser's missile program played an instrumental role in cementing the US-Israeli national security relationship and concludes with several important lessons for the global proliferation of ballistic missile technologies.

This book will be of great interest to scholars of proliferation, international relations, the Middle East, disarmament and security studies in general.

Nasser and the Missile Age in the Middle East.(Book review): An article from: Middle East Quarterly

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Nasser and the Missile Age in the Middle East.(Book review): An article from: Middle East Quarterly
Jeffrey Azarva
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Middle East Quarterly, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2007. The length of the article is 485 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Nasser and the Missile Age in the Middle East.(Book review)
Author: Jeffrey Azarva
Publication: Middle East Quarterly (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Page: 91(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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You can tell a tree by the fruit it bears!

A country with a lack of irony

Some contradictions already

Counters some arbitrary hate speech

Pity

Ministry of Lies: The Truth Behind the Nation of Islam's "the Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews"
Harold Brackman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

From Babylon to Timbuktu: A History of the Ancient Black Races Including the Black Hebrews

The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality

ASIN: B000HWYT44

Customer Reviews:

You can tell a tree by the fruit it bears!.......2006-03-01

Harold Brackman's work here brings several questions for a reader to deal with. What is/was the motive for even writing a refutation to the Nation of Islam's book? In analyizing the references and cross-referencing said references with the NOI book, it becomes apparent that Harold Brackman's sources are extremely faulty, outright distortions, with degrees of hyperbole mixed in.

The main question a studious reader must ask is, what is it about the jewish people, both past and currently, incites so much examination? This examination includes the scisms within jewish culture, how jewish people conduct commerce, the defense of the nation/state of israel to name few. Harold Brackman's work, we come to find out has been paid for by his jewish employers. That fact alone is cause for some skepticism as to the acurracy of his sources and his motives for writing the book. Corrolatively, one has to ask a similar question regarding the NOI research department in writing their book.
Since the jewish people's motives seemed to get attacked by various groups and individuals, it would be intelligent to answer the question, what precisely is anti-semitism, and is being jewish a racial category separate from the acrual religion of judiasm? Harold Brackman's work would have gone alot further in establishing a dialogue if the above questions had of been placed in his discussion, and answered cogently by jewish person's. Lastly, for the reader who is looking for a validation of vitrol against the NOI, Harold Brackman provides this activity. This work is not unbiased. As a reader of this work, I continually asked the question, is there a definition of racism clearly gleaned from this work or not. The answer was no! It would be much more sensible if jewish leaders convened an intelligent forum or conference, and addressed the NOI work to the public. If jewish leaders would do this, then this work might be taken a bit more seriously than simply a BLACK male scholar being used as a pawn in a very trecherous game.This book is not work it's purchase price!!

A country with a lack of irony.......2006-02-22

Obviously the author of the following quote is a .........?
"demonstrates that you don't have to be a white Christian to be a dangerous racist spreading lies and promoting genocide---he's actually the only non-white non-Christian that I know of who is doing so in this country"

Some contradictions already.......2005-06-11

I suspect, (and I am Man enough to say that I could be wrong) from the material presented here, that there is a huge degree of fallacy contained within the pages of this book. Let me point out a few things:
1)It was stated that (European)Jewish slavers enslaved only pagan white slaves, and that Jewish slavers ceased to be involved in 1000A.D., 500 years before slaveships started carting off enslaved Africans out of Africa. Yes, there were some Africans who sold out their own African Brothers and Sisters, in service to their White Massa. Yes, there have been cases of white-on-white violence and enslavement, but if European Jews ceased to be involved in the slave trade, and if they were not involved in the TransAtlantic Slave Trade,and if European Jewish slave traders had no part whatsoever in enslaving Black people, as this book states, THEN HOW DID A LOT OF BLACK PEOPLE all over the African Diaspora END UP WITH EUROPEAN JEWISH LAST NAMES such as WALKER, WINKLER, TURNER, COLEMAN, KAUFMAN, AND CONE? Malcolm X (and other Black and SOME White Historians) was not lying when he talked about how European slavemasters forced their names, particularly THEIR LAST NAMES, on African people, to signify their status as property of their WHITE slavemasters. Therefore, the purpose of the X is to signify the UNKNOWN AFRICAN NAME that Black people originally had before being enslaved.
2)There is a lot of emphasis on the Arabs enslaving Africans, and I've seen a lot of white people and IGNORANT Black people say, "Why do you Black Muslims claim the religion of your Arab Slavemasters? Don't you know that Arabs were enslaving Africans before the TransAtlantic Slave Trade?!!!" First of all, yes, there were, and still are some Arabs that are and were enslaving Black people. And there were some cases where some Africans had other Africans in bondage. However, this is NO COMPARISON WHATSOEVER to, and DOES NOT NEGATE OR DIMINISH the slavery that EUROPEANS unleashed on AFRICANS, ASIANS, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, OCEANIC PEOPLES, and SEVERAL OTHER PEOPLES OF COLOR. Why?
1)It was the EUROPEAN who developed and practiced CHATTEL SLAVERY, which is designed to reduce the enslaved to a subhuman state by nearly killing the slave - a state less than a dog. Howard Zinn even states this very same thing in A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
2)And before anybody says, "Well,there were Free Black people who enslaved Black people, or Indians who enslaved Black people brutally in places such as Louisiana", let me say this: YOU CANNOT have Non-whites enslaving other Non-whites without first having WHITES ENSLAVING NON-WHITES.
3)In the book, THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY, by Susanne Everett, she shows how GREEKS AND ROMANS were enslaving African peoples LONG BEFORE the Arabs even thought about it. The Arabs did not come into Africa until the 7th Century A.D. The Greeks came into Africa roughly around the 8th Century B.C., then the Romans came in roughly around the 3rd-2nd Century B.C. Obviously this would have been SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS (roughly around 1400-1500 some odd years) before the Arabs even touched African soil. Therefore, it is MATHEMATICALLY and TRUTHFULLY impossible and assinine to state, "well the Arabs were enslaving Blacks before the Europeans". Also:
a)on pg.15, Susanne Everett states:

It is an uncomfortable fact that the Greeks. . .
were UTTERLY DEPENDENT on slavery. THE ABOLITION
OF SLAVERY IN GREECE WOULD HAVE DISRUPTED THE
WHOLE FABRIC OF ITS SOCIETY. From the 6th century
B.C. in ATHENS and other
GREEK CITIES, slavery effectively replaced
other forms of dependent labor. For the Greeks
of the classical period (480-338 B.C.) it was
UNTHINKABLE THAT SOCIETY SHOULD BE ORGANIZED IN
ANY OTHER WAY. Plato's REPUBLIC was firmly based
ON SLAVE LABOR, although he drew the line, in war,
at enslaving his fellow Greeks - he advised
soldiers to 'keep their hands off one another
and turn their energies AGAINST FOREIGNERS'.

b)On page 17, there is a picture of a Roman slave
market, with 8 slaves. One of the slaves is a
BLACK WOMAN; the other slaves are Whites of
different ages, and genders.

c)On page 12, there is an excerpt from THE ODDYSEY,
dealing with slavery, and a caption which states
that,"Slaves in Ancient Greece . . .were none the
less the absolute CHATTELS of their masters. . ."

d)On page 25 is a picture of a statue of a Nubian/
Kemetan slave that was a house slave in a Greek
house. The caption reads, "The Household Slaves
Of Ancient Greece". A caption reads that the
statue is of, "a black slave boy probably bought
FROM THE UPPER NILE", and that he is leaning
against an amphora, a Grecian vase.
4)In the documentary, "A Great and Mighty Walk", The late great Dr. John Henrick Clarke talks about how the Ancient Africans were asking the Arabs to get their Greek and Roman slave masters off their backs. He says (and this is nearly an exact quote), "They (the Arabs) did get their European slavemasters off the Africans' backs - but the Arabs also REPLACED them on the African's backs". He goes on to show and discuss how the Arabs introduced Africans to Allah and the enslavement that they brought along with that.

5)Michael Bradley, a white historian, talks about the Hyksos, a EURASIAN predecessor of White Jews, who invaded Kemet in the 15th Century B.C. and enslaved several of the Kemetan people (who by the way, WERE BLACK AFRICANS). He speaks of the hypocrisy of how the Exodus story has been taught to have us thinking that White Jews were enslaved in Egypt, when it was actually the other way around - the Hyksos, predecessors of White Jews, unleashed a brutal enslavement on the Black Kemetans, for roughly 400 some years (Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm............), until they were driven out by the Black Pharaoh Ahmose I. By the way, this would have been some 1500 years BEFORE the year 1000 A.D., when European Jewish slavers "ceased to be involved" in the slave trade, as this author would have people to believe.
6)Before anyone yells out reverse racism or rants about this being "Anti-Semitic", let me quote Roman historian TACITUS who wrote this in the 1ST CENTURY (Hmmmmm. . .Who else lived in the 1st Century?Hint: he was hung on a cross):

"Many say that the Jews come from ETHIOPIA."

7)Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannon talks about the original Jews who were and STILL ARE of AFRICAN ORIGIN, in WE, THE BLACK JEWS.

I don't agree with everything Farrakhan says, but he does speak a lot of truths that ameriKKKa refuses to deal with. I also doubt that the author of THIS BOOK has studied Farrakhan or the Nation of Islam with any serious depth to effectively critique what the N.O.I. has said, shown, and proved. I also doubt that he met with Tony Martin to discuss what Tony Martin published, either; or if he did, he probably had a MONOLOG instead of a DIALOGUE with Tony Martin. I also doubt that he has studied the ORIGINAL origins of the Jewish people, as I have stated in points 6 and 7, above. And I SERIOUSLY doubt that what I stated above, could be refuted, which in closing, would render Harold Brackman's book faulty. Find out for yourself.

Counters some arbitrary hate speech.......2005-03-20

I think that it is worthwhile to refute hate speech. And this book does a good job of that.

As the author says, "the Jews have had it better than the Blacks in America, in no small part because of the historical advantage derived from the biological accident of white skin." Well, lighter skin. However, "if the Nation of Islam - in junior partnership with white racist antisemites - does somehow transform the U. S. into a country where Black-Jewish cooperation towards goals of minority rights and social justice becomes impossible," Jews and Blacks will both suffer.

The author says that "those who lie to us about the past foreclose our chance to shape the future."

There are numerous untruths in "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews." Brackman exposes many of them in this book. The untruths include claims that Jews "dominated" the slave trade in Medieval Europe, Africa, Latin America, and New England. In fact, Jews played a minor role in all these locations, while Arabs seem to have been the biggest slave traders in Africa. "According to the African historian J. E. Inikori, Arab slavers between the years 650 and 1900 drained Black Africa of 14.4 million people - more than most estimates of slave exports to the Americas during the 400 years of the Atlantic slave trade."

What about Southern Jews? Yes, there were some Southern Jewish slaveowners. In 1830, there were about 225,000 Southern families who owned slaves, including 322 Jewish families. About 59,000 of the families owned twenty or more slaves, including 23 Jewish ones. About 11,000 of the families owned fifty or more slaves including 4 Jewish ones. By the way, the author points out that some "persons of color" owned slaves too. These colored slaveowners "outnumbered the Jewish ones by fifteen to one."

I want all humans to be happy and prosperous, not poor and miserable. And I think we'll have a better chance of that if we value truth, justice, and human rights. This book is to be praised for taking a step in that direction. I recommend it.

Pity.......2001-12-17

It is truly a pity to see with what weak arguments this work is attacked. Since when must one attend a speech before rectifying bigoted distortions distributed on paper?

Book Description

How did American nature writers shape the environmental movement? To answer this difficult question, Daniel Philippon looks at five authors of seminal works of nature writing who also founded or revitalized important environmental organizations: Theodore Roosevelt and the Boone and Crockett Club, Mabel Osgood Wright and the National Audubon Society, John Muir and the Sierra Club, Aldo Leopold and the Wilderness Society, and Edward Abbey and Earth First!

These writers used powerfully evocative and galvanizing metaphors for nature, metaphors that Philippon calls "conserving" words. Integrating literature, history, biography, and philosophy, this ambitious study explores how "conserving" words enabled narratives to convey environmental values as they explained how human beings should interact with the nonhuman world.

Each of these writers, Philippon contends, understood "nature" through a particular metaphor that best fit his or her time, place, and personal history: frontier (Roosevelt), garden (Wright), park (Muir), wilderness (Leopold), or utopia (Abbey). When these writers perceived an injustice to some portion of the natural world, they used these metaphors--and were used by them--to found advocacy organizations, rally concerned citizens, and preserve threatened landscapes.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Utopian Studies, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 626 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Daniel J. Philippon. Conserving Words: How American Nature Writers Shaped the Environmental Movement.(Book review)
Author: H. Roger Grant
Publication: Utopian Studies (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Page: 396(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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