Ecology of Fresh Waters: Man and Medium, Past to Future

Book Description

This established textbook continues to provide a comprehensive and stimulating introduction to rivers, lakes and wetlands and is written as a basis for an entire course on freshwater ecology. Designed for undergraduate and early postgraduate students who wish to gain an overall view of this vast subject area, this accessible guide to freshwater ecosystems and man's activities will also be invaluable to anyone interested in the integrated management of freshwaters. The author maintains the tradition of clarity and conciseness set by previous editions, and the text is extensively illustrated with photographs and diagrams. Examples are drawn from the author's experience in many parts of

Phytochrome decay and reversal in leaves and stem sections of etiolated pea seedlings (Mededelingen Landbouwhogeschool Wageningen, Nederland, 67-14)
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Phytochrome decay and reversal in leaves and stem sections of etiolated pea seedlings (Mededelingen Landbouwhogeschool Wageningen, Nederland, 67-14)
C. J. P Spruit
Manufacturer: H. Veenman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Agricultural Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006BY1XA

Book Description

NATIONAL PARKS OF THE WEST
"Exhaustively researched and thorough. You'll find everything you need to know." --Family Travel Times
"An indispensable guide." --Family Fun magazine

The only guide you'll ever need to visit the best parks in the West
Here are all the essentials for touring 33 of the best-loved national
parks and monuments in the western United States and Canada. From where
to find a reasonably priced room and a hot meal to where to hike and camp,
Fodor's National Parks of the West not only describes what there is to see but also gives
you practical information and detailed maps. And you can use it to plan
vacation after vacation, year after year.
All text in this book was reviewed for accuracy by National Park
and Forest Service personnel. Sales of this book help to support the
National Parks.

Great information in every chapter
Driving tours with the most spectacular scenery--from rugged mountains to magnificent deserts
Extensive reviews of hotels, lodges, campgrounds, and restaurants--both inside and outside the parks
The best nature trails, backcountry hikes, strolls on the beach, and picnic spots for refueling
Best-in-one-day itineraries
Tips on biking, fishing, swimming, boating, rock climbing, ski touring, horseback riding, and bird-watching
Detailed information on geology, flora and fauna, weather, historic sites, and local festivals
33 easy-to-follow maps

The West's best-loved wildlands
Arches
Badlands
Banff
Big Bend
Bryce
Canyon de Chelly
Canyonlands
Carlsbad Caverns
Crater Lake
Death Valley
Denali
Glacier
Grand Canyon
Grand Teton
Jasper
Joshua Tree
Kings Canyon
Kootenay
Mesa Verde
Mt. Rainier
Mt. Rushmore
Olympic
Point Reyes
Redwood
Rocky Mountain
Sequoia
Waterton
Yellowstone
Yoho
Yosemite
Zion

Customer Reviews:

Jessica....aressted???.......2005-05-21

I thought this book was great.In this book Jessica is aressted for cocaine possesion!Will her boyfreind Nick Fox believe that shes not the one behind this?Elizabeth and Tom have broken up!Elizabeth tells Tom that his bilogical,new found father,hit on her and also tried to kiss her.Tom dosent believe it and he thinks that shes just lying becuase shes jealous that Tom is spending more time with his long lost,new found farther.Elizabeth is so heart broken that she finds comfort in the arms of someone shes known for a very long time.I loved the end,but I dont wanna give it away.I would recomnd this to others who are fans of sweet valley high.

Celine frames Jess for Drugs.......2005-03-08

Jessica is in jail for drugs,and Alexandra gets from a drug hotline it was Celine Whatever her last name was.She wanted to be in the sorority.When Jessica goes to trial,Nick gets the real druggist,Celine. Celine also,I think pretends to be Lila Fowler.

Another good SVU.......2002-10-06

Jessica has been falsely arrested for drug dealing!And it's her boyfriend,policeman Nick,who arrested her.Now he hates her!!!!!Poor Jessie!Can she prove her innocence?

poor jess.......2000-09-28

i thougt this book was way diffrent from the SVU series its really good and you feel ssooo sorry 4 Jessica Nick is being really horrible to her but he soon realises hes wrong Celine is really worried cos there r these men after her but she is pleased that Jess is in prison .Liz is as predictable as ever but she is sooo nice to Jess u can't help but love her .Anyway this book is ok but a deffinate must read

I can't believe it.......1998-08-27

I can't believe it !!!! Jessica has been arrested for a drug scandal and Nick Fox is the one who arrested her and he doesn't believe her when she's telling the truth. Alex is the only one who can get her out of trouble but the information on the calls are supposed to be confidential.What do you think will happen.

The Deerslayer Sweet Valley University The Trial Of Jessica Wakefield

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The Deerslayer Sweet Valley University The Trial Of Jessica Wakefield
Warpath
Manufacturer: New American Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

The Trial of Jessica Wakefield (Sweet Valley University Ser., No. 26)

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The Trial of Jessica Wakefield (Sweet Valley University Ser., No. 26)
Francine Pascal
Manufacturer: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Sweet Valley University | Series | Teens | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Viruses are increasingly recognised as the cause of acute gastroenteritis in man, particularly in children. This book provides overviews and updates on current issues relating to basic research, clinical diagnosis, immunology, epidemiology, treatment and prevention of infections with gastroenteritis viruses.

Data are presented and interpreted by leading research groups in 33 chapters spread over 6 sections. The book will be of interest to virologists, gut physiologists, immunologists, epidemiologists, vaccinologists, paediatricians and physicians (infectious diseases), and public health physicians. It will also capture the interests of medical and natural science students and postdoctoral scientists at various levels of their careers.

Book Description

Structural organization or disorganization in macromolecular systems has been an important subject of polymer physical chemistry during the last one or two decades. This volume summarizes the main lectures presented at the Osaka University Macromolecular Symposium OUMS '98 on Molecular Interactions and Time-Space Organization in Macromolecular Systems, where the following topics were discussed:crystallization kinetics, liquid crystals, phase separation, gelation, adhesion, complex formation, and self-organization, with emphasis on molecular interactions. Both these topics are hot issues at present and frequently are taken up as a main theme at a particular symposium. The present symposium invited leading theorists and experimentalists in these fields as guest speakers and is expected to attract the interest of a significant range of readers.

Book Description

P. D. James is "the reigning mistress of murder." -- Time

Private detective Cordelia Gray is invited to the sunlit island of Courcy to protect the vainly beautiful actress Clarissa Lisle from veiled threats on her life. Within the rose red walls of a fairy-tale castle, she finds the stage is set for death.

"Richly intricate and literate," James's second Cordelia Gray mystery "shows James at the height of her story telling powers" (San Francisco Chronicle).

Customer Reviews:

Disappointed.......2007-09-22

The Skull Beneath the SkinWay too much minutiae and not enough written on the plot to keep my interest. Very disappointed but will give P. D. James another try with Cover Her Face featuring Adam Dalglish. You can't beat Agatha Christie for being the queen of description in one short paragraph while James takes pages to show us a setting.

Playing at Murder.......2007-05-06

"The Skull Beneath The Skin" is the second (and presumably last) installment in the Cordelia Gray mystery series by P.D. James. Why there are only two Cordelia Gray mysteries is hard to say. James has bestowed her female detective Cordelia with the exact same rich characterization that has given her more prolific male detective its large fan base, and the plotting and mystery at the center of this tale are as rich and satisfying as the yarns she's woven for Dalgliesh.

Cordelia, a self-employed private detective, finds herself with an interesting case that actually involves humans for a change. She is hired by Sir George Ralston to protect his wife, the actress Clarissa Lisle, while she stays the weekend on Courcy Island to give a performance of "The Dutchess of Malfi". It seems that Clarissa has been receiving poison notes, not necessarily threatening, but enough to throw her of her game and make her fear for her life. Cordelia finds herself under the guise of secretary to the actress, a self-centered woman she finds herself disliking. And when Clarissa is found dead just hours before the play's performance, her skull bashed in beyond recognition, Cordelia finds herself at odds with the police who are called in to solve the murder and the desire to figure things out for herself. With the cast of suspects the party of people on the island, Cordelia finds herself racing against time to figure out which one is the murderer before he or she can strike again.

"The Skull Beneath the Skin" is richly plotted, with unique twists to the mystery and a satisfactory ending if not a resolution. Cordelia Gray is an extremely likeable character, her hesitations and second-guessing coincide with that of the reader. With James' expertise at writing mysteries, reading this last Cordelia Gray makes one wish that there were more stories with her, as one wonders how her private detective agency is getting along.

Cowards die many times before their death..........2006-11-13

A delightful mystery in the classical, Agatha Christie style, "The Skull Beneath the Skin" has all the features making it remarkable within its genre.

A young private detective, Cordelia Gray, who has so far been struggling to make ends meet with tasks like rescuing lost pets or tailing the husbands of suspicious wives, suddenly gets a real, albeit strange, assignment. It comes from Sir George Ralston, a husband of a relatively famous actress, Clarissa Lisle. Apparently, Clarissa has been receiving anonymous notes with quotations from plays by Shakespeare, Webster and Marlowe, which she appeared in. The notes are always revolving around death and can easily be interpreted as death threats, especially that Clarissa is obsessively afraid of dying.

Cordelia is supposed to accompany Clarissa for a weekend on a private island, the Courcy Island, off the Dorset coast where the actress would give a performance in "The Duchess of Malfi", staged by an amateur theatre company in a castle theatre belonging to the eccentric owner of the island. Cordelia is to protect Clarissa and see to her well-being as Sir George is unable to be present. There are very few people present during the weekend: the owner and friend of Clarissa's, Ambrose Gorringe, a collector of Victorian curiosities, some of them morbid; Ivo Whittingham, a theatre critic, deadly ill; Clarissa's cousin, Roma Lisle, an owner of the small bookstore; Simon Lessing, a teenage son of Clarissa's second husband; Clarissa's dresser and two house servants. Unexpectedly, on Saturday Sir George makes an appearance... And on Sunday the murder takes place.

The similarity to Agatha Christie lies in the novel's British style, although it is set at the beginning of 1980s, the isolated setting, narrowing the suspect circle, and the careful rendering of the character cast, each representing in an exaggerated manner a certain type. The plot is slow at first, as the background is set with detailed introduction of each character, but as it progresses, it gets extremely engrossing (I lost the track of time while reading). There is enough suspense, despite Cordelia proving useless at solving the mystery in a way satisfactory for the police and there is no formal punishment for the murderer... The literary quotations and the theatrical setting give a very neat general interest background, and the book is full of nice, postmodern allusions to mystery fiction, which are fun to discover. Other mysteries of the castle add to the charm of the novel.

A thoroughly enjoyable read for all fans of mystery!

A Book Dripping in Creepy Atmosphere!.......2006-06-22

Many people like their mysteries well balanced: Great plot; wonderful characters; terrific character development; almost indecipherable mystery; not too much blood; and outstanding writing. If that's your goal, this book isn't the best choice for you.

But if you like your mysteries to be focused in creepy circumstances with deeply flawed characters, The Skull Beneath the Skin will probably serve your purposes quite well.

I have both read this book and listened to the Books on Tape unabridged version read by Penelope Dellaporta. I strongly prefer the recording, which better captures the book's mood.

This is the second and last (for more than 25 years so far) mystery featuring Cordelia Gray who starred in An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. Since that novel, Cordelia has carved out a living running the detective agency that her ex-partner Bernie established, which agency now specializes in recovering lost pets thanks to the help of two part-time employees from Cordelia's old typing agency.

Cordelia's still having a hard time making a go of the agency. She's putting up a new plaque (that's hung crookedly) when her prospective client arrives, the husband of the fading actress Clarissa Lisle. Clarissa had observed Cordelia concluding one of her pet detective forays and saw something undefined that she liked. As a result, Clarissa has sent her husband to hire Cordelia to protect Clarissa from receiving any more death threats while Clarissa tries to resurrect her career with an amateur production of The Duchess of Malfi on secluded Courcy Island.

Cordelia is soon being stone-walled by Clarissa . . . but does succeed in intercepting several nasty notes. Also Clarissa turns out to be a pretty self-centered, unpleasant woman. As the stories are related to Cordelia, she's finding it hard to be professional about her responsibilities. The last straw comes when Cordelia is ordered not to guard Clarissa's door just before the performance. As you can imagine, someone kills Clarissa just then . . . and Cordelia feels totally embarrassed professionally. Despite a warning to "keep out" by the local police, Cordelia finds herself unraveling the twisted motives of those on the island and checking on their access to Clarissa's room at the key moment. The suspects make all of this harder by showing a preference to create a cover up.

All the time, you feel like even more of an outsider than Cordelia looking on at most unpleasant sights.

Cordelia does unravel the mystery . . . and finds herself challenged to avoid a great wrong. That crisis brings the book to a height of emotion and to a delightfully ambiguous conclusion.

Cordelia has a lot to learn about detection. Stopping murders is harder than finding wandering cats. But she has a keen intelligence and devotion to duty that serve her well.

But the real star in this book is the mood of decay, dissipation and collapse that Baroness James creates. It's very creepy!

If you were to gauge the book on the appeal of the plot alone, this would be a 2-3 star book . . . so if that's what you're looking for, keep looking. The plot is also sub-par compared to An Unsuitable Job for a Woman. Cordelia's role also isn't quite as interesting as that book. For reasonably long sections of this book, Cordelia all but disappears into the woodwork.

Watch out for the many allusions to the skull beneath the skin. It's a masterful use of imagery to set a truly appropriate mood for many dastardly deeds.

James is one of the best mystery writers ever........2005-10-22

I have just recently discovered P. D. James and at my age I should have discovered her long ago. Considering the quality of the mystery writing out today by most authors, it is an
extreme pleasure to read James. I plan to read everything I can by P. D. James. I am right now on her Cordelia Gray, Detective
and it is a cant put down.

Diana---The Last Word
Average customer rating:

Warm And Real

Pure Bull

Already a credibilty issue

Self-serving biography

With friends like this...

Diana---The Last Word
Simone Simmons , and Ingrid Seward
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Princess Diana | Royalty | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | England | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Way We Were: Remembering Diana

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Diana: Closely Guarded Secret (Diana Princess of Wales)

Diana Princess of Wales by Mario Testino at Kensington Palace: Princess of Wales

The Firm: The Troubled Life of the House of Windsor

ASIN: B000MKYKTA
Release Date: 2005-06-23

Book Description

During the last five years of her life, Princess Diana had one friend and confidante who was special to her. She was not part of Diana's social circle; she was not a family friend. That woman was Simone Simmons, a healer, who devoted herself to the troubled Princess.Simone formed a unique bond with Diana. They met almost everyday and spent hours on the telephone. Diana opened her heart and mind to Simone, who always told the Princess the unvarnished truth. No subject was taboo, and the two women discussed everything and anything, sharing laughter and tears over cups of chamomile tea. Since Diana appreciated and trusted her friend's candor, Simone got to know the Princess in a way no one else has ever done. With Simone, Diana felt confident enough to express her true self.In 1997, Diana told her friend she wanted her to write a book which revealed the truth about her, to 'tell it like it is.' This is that book. It is truly the last word.With her extraordinary insight into Diana's life, Simone captures the soul of the Princess and creates an intimate and rich portrait of one of the great icons of the 20th Century. In these pages, Simone describes how it really was: who among the royals was good to Diana and who was hateful; her need to be in love and to have an affair; her only fling-with John F. Kennedy, Jr.-at the Carlisle hotel; her real relationship with Paul Burrell; why she inflicted self-harm; how she wanted to move to New York or Los Angeles; how Mother Teresa hurt her; why her relationship with Dodi never would have ended in marriage; and her enduring love for Prince Charles.Though Diana was extremely insecure, with Simone's help and work she became strong and learned that she could heal others around her. DIANA-THE LAST WORD is the fascinating story of how she reached that point. It finally settles the unanswered questions of Diana's life and addresses the many revelations that have materialized since her death.

Customer Reviews:

Warm And Real.......2007-09-23

This is one of my favourite books about Diana, The Princess Of Wales.It is a genuine human book about a genuine human being.The ancedotes are what bring it to life such as Diana liking to wear blue nail polish but only on her toes.
I fail to see why others are so critical of this book perhaps it comes to close to the truth for some people

Pure Bull.......2007-08-25

This book is the worse form of petty gossip ever written. Definitely NOT historical, and should NOT be attributed to Diana's memories. This book should be called Simone Simmons: The lowest of the low.

Already a credibilty issue.......2007-07-10

I have not even read the book yet, and I find a huge mistake. The picture in the book that is labeled Hasnat Khan is actually Dodi Fayed. If you look at pictures of Khan and there are several online, you can see that he has fuller lips and straight thick hair. When you compare the picture in the book to pictures of Dodi you can see it is the same person.

If they can't even get that right or missed the correct name in the editing, you begin to wonder about the rest of the book.

Self-serving biography.......2007-06-10

Author Simone Simmons purports to be one of Princess Diana's closest friends, a "healer" and confidante who was constantly giving advice and comfort to the princess. However, she admits that she was not invited to Diana's funeral, and that at the end of her life, Diana was not speaking to her. Most of this book is a rehash of information which has been published in other sources and the quotes from Diana could be deduced to be her attitude in certain situations. As another viewer stated, she claims to be a big supporter of the princess, but she is also very critical of her. She devotes one chapter to her own trip abroad which she took to protest land mines and she says that she persuaded Diana to take this on as cause. This book seems to be self-serving and a pure profit-making project for Miss Simmons, as I don't see that the proceeds were given to one of Diana's many charities.

With friends like this..........2007-05-20

Simone Simmons claims to have been Princess Diana's closest friend, talking to her for as much as eight hours a day, every day, in the last several years of her life. They allegedly met when Di was seeking yet another "alternative" cure to her emotional and perceived physical ailments at a London clinic where Simmons was a contractor performing "faith healing." Simmons' ministrations finally "cured" the Princess, she claims, and she in turn taught Di her arts. According to Simmons, Di then launched herself around the world on public and private missions to offer her healing skills with fantastic success, also according to Simmons.

(I repeatedly make these attributions to make sure you know I take all of this with a bucket of salt. I have some familiarity with so-called faith healing and cannot discount it entirely, but I know nothing of Simmons' abilities.)

Simmons rehashes many familiar (and perhaps some new - I don't follow the Di saga religiously) tales of nasty Royal behavior, from the Queen Mother to little-known courtiers, and we learn they can be just as petty and hurtful as the rest of us - not exactly news after all of these years.

The biggest problem with this book is that while on one hand Simmons lavishly praises Di's abilities to connect with average people and to be compassionate - for example, lending her prestige and credibility to the anti-land mine movement, boosting it immeasurably - on the other hand she offers minute details of a insecure, often thoughtless, vain, immature, demanding, needy, promiscuous, spendthrift, somewhat lazy girl/woman whose attitude towards her beloved children inspires confusion: Was she an attentive mother or a mother who played with the tots when they were delivered by the nanny?

Di did, of course, have a very difficult childhood, which explains many of her emotional problems. But as the full list of her ills are fully related by her so-called friend one wonders who vetted her for marriage to the future King of England.

As Simmons (or her ghostwriter) is not that good of a writer, the book is a bit of a slog and this knife beneath the velvet glove doesn't add much charm to what might have been an incisive biography, given Simmons' knowledge.

Average customer rating:

Diana---The Last Word
Simone Simmons Ingrid Seward
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTK4TE

Writing on Trial: Timothy Findley's
<I>Famous Last Words</I> (Canadian Fiction Studies series)

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Writing on Trial: Timothy Findley's Famous Last Words (Canadian Fiction Studies series)
Diana Brydon
Manufacturer: Ecw Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Canadian Fiction Studies are an answer to every librarian's, student's, and teacher's wishes. Each book, about 80 pages in length, contains clear, readable information on a major Canadian novel. These studies are carefully designed readings of the novels; they are not substitutes for reading them. Each book is attractively produced and follows the same format, so students will know exactly what to expect:

• a chronology of the author's life
• the importance of the book
• critical reception
• reading of the text
• selected list of works cited

Don't assume we're too sick to work.(the last word): An article from: CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health

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Don't assume we're too sick to work.(the last word): An article from: CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health
Diana Capponi
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000G1T9D2
Release Date: 2006-06-05

Book Description

This digital document is an article from CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health, published by Thomson Gale on December 22, 2005. The length of the article is 923 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: Don't assume we're too sick to work.(the last word)
Author: Diana Capponi
Publication: CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health (Newsletter)
Date: December 22, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 9 Issue: 2 Page: 20(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

This is the story of the soldiers of Hardcastle's 3rd Battalion Mississippi Infantry from enlistment to the end of the war. It includes their mid-war incarnation as the 45th Mississippi Regiment and the role they played in Cleburne's fabled division during almost every major engagement of the Army of Tennessee.

Told as much as possible from the point of view of the private soldier, the book attempts to understand not only the causes of the Civil War, but the social and political factors that motivated the original volunteers to join and continue fighting to the end. The battles are discussed and analyzed in their strategic context with emphasis on the battalion's role in the outcome, including the specific Federal units they fought against and first person accounts from both sides about what happened. Twenty battles and skirmishes are covered in detail, highlighted by excerpts from personal diaries. Appendices include an annotated roster, the diary of Lieutenant Samuel Asbury, the story of Captain John Sloan, and the stories of the 3rd Mississippi Battalion's battle flag and the flag of the Duncan Riflemen. An extensive bibliography completes the work.

Customer Reviews:

Well written, thorough march with the 3 Battalion.......2006-03-01

Super read. Thorough and acurate. I followed my great,great grandfather's foot steps in 1862. Awesome expirence! Great study of a MS Battalion in our Civil War.

Complete and detailed as one could ask for.......2006-02-05

What started off as a family history project, ended up being an extremely detailed and informative account of the 3rd Mississippi Battalion ("Hardcastle's Battalion"). Formed at the end of 1861, it was renamed the 45th Mississippi Regiment in December 1862 because another unit, commanded by D.W. Hurst, had the same identification. The book relates everything there is to know about the battalion/regiment, including minute explication of their battles and movements, who they faced on the field, what other actions were going on around them, and, through letters and diaries, the responses of the soldiers.

Initially with the Army of the Mississippi and then the Army of Tennessee, their first major engagement was at Shiloh; they also were at Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Atlanta, Franklin, Nashville, and, finally, Bentonville, NC. Included as an appendix is the prison diary of Lt. Samuel Asbury, who was wounded and captured at Murfreesboro, TN, and spent a good part of 1864 at the Union prison at Fort Delaware. His diary indicates he had a pretty good time of it ("have been treated very well, had plenty to eat, & etc."). Also included is a complete annotated roster of everyone who served in the battalion, a major achievement in itself.

The book is a tremendous research source and covers a lot of ground in great detail; it also is entertaining (if accounts of men in war can ever truly be that) as Williamson quotes frequently from soldiers' letters and diaries relating the human touch ("Warm. Came out to Jim's for dinner, go back directly. Rec'd 4 letters from my Sallie.") An excellent regimental history.

Driving While Black : What To Do If You Are A Victim of Racial Profiling
Average customer rating:

What about the dead body they found in the trunk?

Life skills material

Very informative

This book meets its stated objective well

A Small piece of the Pie

Driving While Black : What To Do If You Are A Victim of Racial Profiling
Kenneth Meeks
Manufacturer: Broadway
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Legal | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
America | Race Relations | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Race Relations | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Discrimination & Racism | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0767905490
Release Date: 2000-05-16

Amazon.com

It happens every day: at a seemingly routine traffic stop, a cop approaches your car with his gun drawn. You're checking out some clothes in your favorite store and notice you're being followed by security. Dressed in a business suit with arm outstretched, you watch as dozens of unoccupied cabs pass you by. A woman clutches her purse and hurriedly crosses the street when she sees you walking down the sidewalk towards her. For many African Americans, Hispanics, Muslims, and Asian Americans, such incidents are known as DWBs--Driving While Black--or examples of racial profiling. Kenneth Meeks's well-researched and disturbing book details the origins, practices, consequences, and solutions to this problem. "From a legal point of view racial profiling is tricky to prove," he writes. "Seldom do investigators recover a smoking gun with fingerprints on it. This is why a national movement has been launched by politicians of color and civil rights leaders to mandate that law enforcement agencies keep statistics of whom they are stopping, questioning, detaining, and searching." There are numerous case histories in Driving While Black, including Samuel Johnson's terrifying highway encounter with the New Jersey State Police, Amy Bowllan's Amtrak nightmare in Baltimore, and Yvette Bradley's airline ordeal, all of which involved racial profiling on a number of levels. Along with the instructive horror stories, Meeks includes nonconfrontational tips on dealing with profiling: stay calm, carry identification at all times, take names, never run, and never go to the same precinct that violated your rights to fill out a complaint form. Informed and impassioned, Meeks's book is both a practical guide and a call to arms. --Eugene Holley Jr.

Book Description

A practical handbook for people who want to be safe and do something.

Racial profiling does happen. And while cases where victims find themselves looking down the barrel of a policeman's gun make the six o'clock news, dozens of less extreme, yet troubling, examples occur every day. Cabs that whiz by only to be seen stopping for "safer"-looking people just up the block; being asked for multiple pieces of identification when making purchases with credit cards; being followed around a department store by salespeople and security while never being asked if they need any assistance; being detained for hours and extensively searched in an airport or train station-- Driving While Black clearly defines the system officially known as CARD (class, age, race, dress) and offers advice about how to handle potentially life-threatening situations with the police, as well as recourse for readers who suspect their civil rights have been denied due to racial profiling.

A book written to save lives, Driving While Black is not just for people of color, but for anyone who likes to wear a baseball cap, baggy jeans, sneakers, and a tee shirt and finds they are often treated like a "suspect."

Customer Reviews:

What about the dead body they found in the trunk?.......2002-11-03

Kenneth Meeks wrote a book critical of racial profiling without bothering to answer the million dollar question -- why would police officers suspect blacks of commiting more crimes than other groups in the first place? Maybe because they do commit significantly more crimes than other groups? Meeks doesn't say. He just assumes cops are pulling blacks over for no other reason than their skin color. Even more puzzling is the idea behind his book. If most blacks are getting pulled over unjustly, then why does he need to write a book instructing them to remain calm? If the only thing you've been pulled over for is "driving while black," then you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

Most people uncontroversially accept that men are far more likely to be involved in a violent crime than women, but does anyone complain about citizens getting pulled over for "driving while male"? Similarly, the elderly are less likely to commit a violent crime than someone in their twenties or thirties, but does anyone write books about it with titles like "Driving While Young"?" Race is but one component law enforcement uses to access the profile of a suspect, along with age, gender, height, article of clothing, visible scars and so on. Law enforcement has a name for this process -- criminology.

Meeks provides some anecdotes of blacks and other minorites getting pulled over by the police for allegedly no other reason than being black or a minority. In some cases, the "victims" were charged with nothing, yet claim they were left humiliated by the incident. An analogy between the firearm a police officer carries can be applied to these situations. Just because a police officer misuses his firearm does not mean that police officers should not be allowed to carry firearms. A firearm, like racial profiling, is just one tool law enforcement uses to combat crime; and just because both get abused on occasion does not mean they should be done away with entirely.

Ultimately, racial profiling is just a statistical generalization. It's common knowledge that blacks and hispanics commit violent crimes with a greater statistical frequency than whites or Asians. In an article in the Atlantic Monthly entitled "The Crisis of Public Order," the author, Adam Walinsky, claimed that 85% of black males in Washington DC will be arrested at least once in their lifetime. Given those numbers, the probability of running into a black who's a potential -- or legitimate -- convicted felon in Washington DC is very high. Put it this way: would you rather your car break down in the middle of the night in Washington DC or in Burlington, Vermont?

If law enforcement was prevented from racially profiling suspects, crime would almost certainly explode, especially in urban areas. Blacks and other minorities would be the first to be affected by it, and they'd be at the throats of the police again, this time for "not protecting us." Blacks like Kenneth Meeks would be wise not to ignore reality. They do so at their own peril.

Life skills material.......2002-04-18

This book provides some valuable information, not only for Blacks, but other minorities, as well as people in lower economic communities. I am using it as a small part of a life skills curriculum, for at-risk youth. It certainly presented more concepts than I expected.

Very informative.......2001-09-06

Driving While Black give accounts of racial profiling that blacks go through in shopping malls, taxicabs, and being stopped by the police for no good reason. What I think was helpful was that at the end of every chapter were addresses that's included for victims that experience profiling to write, and complain.

This book meets its stated objective well.......2000-12-01

I think the earlier review by Mr. Cooper missed the point of this book: What to do if you are stopped by the police, and more importantly, what NOT to do. The book was not written as a dissertation on race relations.

I personally have not been stopped by the police because of my race (to the best of my knowledge). However, as a Black woman who commutes to an upper class Anglo neighborhood every workday, I thought the book was very well done and informative. The section on your legal rights when you are stopped is worth the cost of the book alone. There is also a chapter called "Living While Black", which contains helpful information about what to do when dealing with the police in everyday situations.

The author is also careful to point out that one should not just jump up and say "I've been victimized because of my race", but should be careful to gather information that will be needed when making an official complaint. This is the smart thing to do. Which is better: To conduct yourself well (even in the face of stupidity on the part of a racist officer or store clerk) and be able to make a strong official complaint later or to be "right", indignant, and get arrested, ignored (who will listen to the complaints of an "out of control", angry Black person?) or even killed? We must rise above and be better than those who are so ignorant and ill-bred that they behave shamefully.

Should we have to put up with racial profiling? No! Have we gotten to "the promised land" over the past few years by simply complaining that things are unfair? No! Mr. Meeks is not trying to solve all of America's racial problems with his book. He is arming Black Americans with the knowledge they need to deal with racial inequities. For this effort, I applaud and recommend this book.

A Small piece of the Pie.......2000-06-22

Mr. Meeks provides an excellent source of dissucssion on the topic of DWB. His use of stories to alarm and alert the reader are done in such away that it covers up the major problem that we are truely facing. Mr. Meeks un-intentionally creates a smokescreen - which blurrs the reader from trying to figure out how to solve the real problem- racism and prejudice.

The State of Missouri recently passed racial profiling legislation - requiring police officers to take down the CARD (Class, Age, Race, Dress) information of every person that is stopped. But the question that remains - and what this book does not answer or approach is what do we do with these numbers? These numbers will not tell us anything we know.

Even though Mr. Meeks suggest Civil Remedies to combat the problem - this is a solution - but many of the people who are victims of DWB are indigent and do not have the resources to challenge a police department.

Mr. Meeks provides the reader with a great way to deal with people when faced with DWB - his nonconfrontational approach provides us with a positive way to deal with the police and it can be used to other people we deal with on a regular basis.

My final comment on this book, is that it appeared to focus on Whites vs Colors - but we all have our prejudices. We all judge people by CARD standards.

Mr. Meeks book made a worthwhile effort on combatting the problem of DWB - but I think this issue is a small part of a larger problem.

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