The Footprints of a Wisconsin Lumber Executive: The Life of William Wilson, His Family, and the Company He Founded

Book Description

This is a compelling Nineteenth Century story of William Wilson who, starting from scratch, built a lumber empire, "The Knapp, Stout & Company" which, by all accounts, rivaled the biggest and best that existed anywhere in the world at that time. Headquartered in Wisconsin's Red Cedar Valley, it logged two entire counties and parts of several other counties, and had offices in a number of Midwestern states. Ultimately, the company did not survive. There are a number of factors which may have contributed to this devolution and these are each analyzed.

Book Description

The magical 1998 baseball season made celebrities of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa as they chased the legendary single season major league home run record. Fittingly, their success also refocused the spotlight on the men they were chasing (and eventually overtook): Yankee sluggers Babe Ruth and Roger Maris. This work reviews the life and careers of these four record-breaking longballers, with special emphasis placed on each of their record-breaking seasons. Appropriate mention is made of the record challengers such as Mantle and Foxx in order that the analyses may be seen in context. The four combatants are also studied side by side, comparing the various cultural and social conditions and changes in the game that may have affected each player's home run totals. Numerous unique and interesting facts and statistics are included: e.g., Ruth set the single-season home run record not once but four times and held the record longer than Maris did (despite the common misconception); Sosa held the record for 45 minutes after hitting number 66; Ruth outhomered every other team in 1927, but in 1998 Big Mac didn't come close to outslugging even one team.

Book Description

For aficionados of young German cinema - an absolut muct: complete documentation of Peter Schamoni's filmic oeuvre.

Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture
Average customer rating:

This ain't your parents' Black Cultural Nationalism

Whoýs Burden Is It?

Mostly Fails to Deliver

BEFORE THERE WAS ANYTHING THERE WAS ELVIS?

the question should be..........

Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture
Greg Tate
Manufacturer: Harlem Moon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 076791497X
Release Date: 2003-09-09

Book Description

White kids from the ’burbs are throwing up gang signs. The 2001 Grammy winner for best rap artist was as white as rice. And blond-haired sorority sisters are sporting FUBU gear. What is going on in American culture that’s giving our nation a racial-identity crisis?

Following the trail blazed by Norman Mailer’s controversial essay “The White Negro,” Everything but the Burden brings together voices from music, popular culture, the literary world, and the media speaking about how from Brooklyn to the Badlands white people are co-opting black styles of music, dance, dress, and slang. In this collection, the essayists examine how whites seem to be taking on, as editor Greg Tate’s mother used to tell him, “everything but the burden”–from fetishizing black athletes to spinning the ghetto lifestyle into a glamorous commodity. Is this a way of shaking off the fear of the unknown? A flattering indicator of appreciation? Or is it a more complicated cultural exchange? The pieces in Everything but the Burden explore the line between hero-worship and paternalism.

Among the book’s twelve essays are Vernon Reid’s “Steely Dan Understood as the Apotheosis of ‘The White Negro,’” Carl Hancock Rux’s “The Beats: America’s First ‘Wiggas,’” and Greg Tate’s own introductory essay “Nigs ’R Us.”

Other contributors include: Hilton Als, Beth Coleman, Tony Green, Robin Kelley, Arthur Jafa, Gary Dauphin, Michaela Angela Davis, dream hampton, and Manthia diAwara.

From the Hardcover edition.

Download Description

White kids from the 'burbs are throwing up gang signs. The 2001 Grammy winner for best rap artist was as white as rice. And blond-haired sorority sisters are sporting FUBU gear. What is going on in American culture that's giving our nation a racial-identity crisis?

Following the trail blazed by Norman Mailer's controversial essay "The White Negro," Everything but the Burden brings together voices from music, popular culture, the literary world, and the media speaking about how from Brooklyn to the Badlands white people are co-opting black styles of music, dance, dress, and slang. In this collection, the essayists examine how whites seem to be taking on, as editor Greg Tate's mother used to tell him, "everything but the burden" -- from fetishizing black athletes to spinning the ghetto lifestyle into a glamorous commodity. Is this a way of shaking off the fear of the unknown? A flattering indicator of appreciation? Or is it a more complicated cultural exchange? The pieces in Everything but the Burden explore the line between hero-worship and paternalism.

Among the book's twelve essays are Vernon Reid's "Steely Dan Understood as the Apotheosis of 'The White Negro,'" Carl Hancock Rux's "The Beats: America's First 'Wiggas,'" and Greg Tate's own introductory essay "Nigs 'R Us."

Other contributors include Hilton Als, Beth Coleman, Tony Green, Robin Kelley, Arthur Jafa, Gary Dauphin, Michaela Angela Davis, dream hampton, and Manthia diAwara.

"For some reason or maybe for none I put Marvin Gaye's What's Going On in my car CD and took myself back to the Sixties and projected myself with that same music on up to Mars. Whatever else Black Americans may be we have defined the past. It is our experience with capture, enslavement, emancipation, segregation, and redemption that will celebrate this living and save our souls. We will define the future. It is our willingness to forgive that both perplexes and confounds those who think they can braid their hair or drop their pants and know something about the splendor of being who we are. Everything but the Burdenlooks through both a telescope and a mirror. The images reflect and rebound. Sure they will take Gaye's anguish and make a commercial out of it for Radio Shack just like they took So You Want a Revolution to tell you to buy Nikes. But we're still here, still laughing, still loving, still deciding what looks good and what sounds right. We're still hugging ourselves, still making joyful noise. Still finding a way to be human and humane. It is not, after all, the blackness that has caused our loss of vision making us turn and turn in this tunnel of despair; it is the blackness that is showing us a way out."
   NIKKI GIOVANNI, POET

"While whites have long been ripping off black culture, there is something new under the sun. Greg Tate has put together an impressive collection of essays, an interview and even poetry that puts its collective finger on the new white piracy. A must read for anyone interested in the intersection of race and contemporary American culture."
   DALTON CONLEY, AUTHOR OF HONKY

Customer Reviews:

This ain't your parents' Black Cultural Nationalism.......2005-04-30

Tate's anthology is so badly needed that if it didn't appear, someone would have *had* to invent it. Why? The answer is simple. Black cultural nationalism is not simply an historical relic. It is a smart, vital 'movement', not the hyper-masculine, homophobic monolith it is routinely assumed to be. It has taken on new shapes & forms. At a time when Black neo-cons & neo-liberals, with the support of the majority of US body politic, are punitive anti-essentialists, asserting that all cultural production is a result of 'hybridity', the writers in this book are not afraid to point out, in a nuanced and intelligent manner, that white people are still taking whatever they like from Black cultures, and leaving the hard work to Black people. Filmmaker and sub-rosa genius Arthur Jafa's mindblowing essay, 'My Black Death' is a brilliant polemic which responds unequivocally to the book's assertion. If this crucial book fails to convince readers that Tate and the contributors are not kidding around, consider the (fairly) recent incident in which Eric Clapton, while observing the late Eddie Kendricks in a studio session, asked the engineer if he could go into the studio and look down Kendricks' throat, believing there was a *physiological* *thing* that would explain how Kendricks' was able to sing in the way he did. Consider why beloved English 'techno' heroes 808 State, in an interview with a UK music paper, said that, for them, making dance music invented in Chicago & Detroit by Black people, was the "the white kids' revenge". Urban legends? Heard/read from a source wholly unconnected to the events? No. It is apparently much easier to consider the fate of James Byrd, Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, and too many others as repulsive racist violence (and that's what those acts are) but stand idly by while Clapton, 808 State, etc., etc. go on with their hatred/envy of Black people. Please read this book. There will likely be very few other books like this in the forseeable future because they don't permit neo-liberals and conservatives to sleep well.

Whoýs Burden Is It?.......2004-05-11

In the midst of trying to keep it all together, Greg Tate and other contributing authors share their thoughts on the world today as they see it: whites trying to be black. The shocking sensation of pointing fingers and exposing what society may deem "The Great White Hope" is surreal, but embarrassing, nonetheless.

From entertaining thoughts of why certain whites deliver their own renditions of what it means to be black, to emphasizing the notion that they need to stay in their place and stop portraying something that they are not, EVERYTHING BUT THE BURDEN touches the sensitive, the desensitized and the current "victims" of society's finest.

To say the least, EVERYTHING BUT THE BURDEN is nothing short of controversial. With its own spin and opinions on topics ranging from music to art, this culmination of what it means to not have to endure the burden, while at the same time being able to capitalize and cash in on the black burden is done with superb writing style. Although the main focus is to vent and share opinions, it seems that giving these topics justification for discussion places the real burden elsewhere...

Reviewed by T. Belinda Williams
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Mostly Fails to Deliver.......2004-04-19

You can see in the aggressive, attitude-copping title and subtitle where Tate thought he was going with this book, but he doesn't get anywhere near the mark. A lazily-edited, not well thought-through mixed bag of essays, poetry, memoirs and anecdotes, it vogues with some heat but brings little light and few insights to the notion of white folks apropriating black culture. A few good, smart entries--Hilton Als, Manthia Diawara, a couple others--but the real problem is that Tate provided no editorial cohesion or coherence, no real sociological framework, historical perspective or philosophical focus. He just threw a bunch of pieces together and called it a book. It's a huge, important topic that deserves much more thought and care than this--which is how many other, better books treat it.

BEFORE THERE WAS ANYTHING THERE WAS ELVIS?.......2003-12-01

Remember the add for Elvis Presleys number 1s CD...................
BEFORE THERE WAS ANYTHING THERE WAS ELVIS?
Forget Ike Turner, forget Little Richard, forget Fats Domino.....Before there was Bobby Seal and Huey P. Newton and Malcom X there was Apple Computers PANTHER X software? Let's not start with Eminem or
Kenny G or Chuck Mangioni. Before there was Picasso there was no cubism? There are many issues brought up in Greg Tates "Everything But the Burden: What White People Are Taking from Black Culture" but 95 percent of the people don't want to see this...maybe the 5 percent always will. So much can be diss-missed or over looked when looking at appropriation from the appropriators perspective. It isn't about freedom that is in question here but privilege and power.....something easily misunderstood.....

the question should be.................2003-10-23

Why such a book needs to be written in the first place? What is it's social redeeming feature and how does it benefit the racial problems we have in this country? Of course the Roots of this book go much deeper, it's the USA version of the "Out of Africa "books. Those books insist that the Greeks, and others, stole the art, religion, philosophy, science and literature from Africa, apperently the Greeks were unable to come up with anything new without consulting with Africans first(of course we never find out which Africans). Now we are told that White Americans are ripping of Black Culture, that we want everything that is black; and that, Heaven forbid) that white Churches have even stolen Gospel songs. What this book reflects is cultural arrogance and gross ignorance. If anything, the Hip Hop, gang signs, sexualizing of black men or women and the worshipping of athletes show a distinct lack of culture. Of course the trend is to blame Whitey for both pushing and stealing from this culture; therefore absolving Black Americans from any responsibility for social degeneration. It might be more historically correct that Afro-Americans have been using and misusing European culture for the past 400 yrs. Besides, where and from whom, did the slaves learn the religion, songs and music to develop the Gospel Songs; I doubt that they brought them over from Africa.

Product Description

Get in-depth exam prep for Exam 70-271, a core requirement for MCDST certification, as you build real-world job skills. Updated to cover Service Pack 2, this kit includes 425 practice questions, full review, case studies, troubleshooting labs, and more

Customer Reviews:

My last hope for the test.......2007-09-05

I read other comments for this book that make me buyed..I hope so, but
this is not a cover all Windows book..So those optimistics comments for the test results, looks too good to be the truth..
I will comeback for comments after I pass or not the test.
Thanks

Great study guide.......2007-08-23

This book is a big help. It comes with awesome free practice testing software that you would normally pay lots of money for. I highly recommend this book.

Fairly standard MS test prep book.......2007-08-09

I find the book very useful as a guide but by no means an exclusive means of effective test preparation. The included CD's are also of marginal use. The sample tests are decent as well.

Great Technical learning investment.......2007-03-09

I am still studying the Self Paced Training Kit from Microsoft, and getting so much information out of it. It's a challenging coarse, and it's very informational. It's also bringing up solutions to quistions I've had.And getting you prepared for the technical inviroment we will be working in. I would recomend this coarse for anyone that is interested in a help desk career and the technical information it gives you. A definate 5 star coarse.

MCDST Self-Paced Training Kit 70-271.......2007-02-18

I recently purchased this book with CDs to prepare for the 70-271 exam. After reading the book and working from the CDs, I passed the exam on the first try. It required learning all of the 146 practice questions, then the 311 Measure-Up questions. My only frustration was that the CD questions cover all sorts of topics about Windows 98 to XP issues (dual-boot, etc.) and the exam is much more "Up-To-Date." However, the book without the questions would not have prepared me at all for the exam.

MCDST Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-272): Supporting Users andTroubleshooting Desktop Applications on Microsoft(r) Windows(r) XP, Second Edition

Average customer rating:

MCDST 70-272 Book
Shipping stinks
Good As A Reference Guide As Well....
Bloody awesome
WOW Great deal and Super Helpful

MCDST Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-272): Supporting Users andTroubleshooting Desktop Applications on Microsoft(r) Windows(r) XP, Second Edition
Walter Glenn , and Tony Northrup
Manufacturer: Microsoft Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0735622213

Book Description

Help maximize your performance on Exam 70-272, one of two required exams for the Microsoft Desktop Support Technician Certification (MCDST), with this all-in-one training kit. Fully updated for Windows XP Service Pack 2, this kit packs the tools and features exam candidates want mostincluding in-depth, self-paced training based on final exam content; rigorous, objective-by-objective review; exam tips from an expert, exam-certified author; and a robust testing suite. It also provides real-world scenarios, case studies, and troubleshooting labs for the skills and expertise you can apply to the job.

Customer Reviews:

MCDST 70-272 Book.......2007-08-23

This book, combined with the 70-271, and the practice exams included on the CD's were the best resource in helping to understand and pass the exam. Even more so then class time!

Shipping stinks.......2007-05-14

The item I received was in good shape, but it arrived over a week after Amazon's date of arrival. There is no reason why an item should arrive a week late.

Good As A Reference Guide As Well...........2007-04-18

I've been an A+ Certified Technician since 2001, but this book really gave me the edge I needed to fully understand more about Windows XP Pro and Microsoft Office hands-on installations, configurations, troubleshooting, securing and networking with other computers in a corporate setting.

I haven't taken the test for MCP yet, but this volume certainly has me ready to do so any day now, if you're looking to learn Windows XP Pro and MS Office 2003, drop everything you're reading and buy this book, and also, keep it real handy after you are "done" studying it, because is very useful as a reference book as well. I Hope this review will be helpful.

Bloody awesome.......2006-05-13

I took my test today and came close to maxing out, 972....study hard the reviews at the end of the book. When taking the test, read the questions AND answers carefully, kind of like the old school days, an answer may "look" right but it could be one word off. Keep the books, don't resell them, I've already gone back into 70-271 and reviewed a few things. handy to have on hand when you deal with it every day. Very thorough in my opinion. Just a humble IT geek working on his certs.....

WOW Great deal and Super Helpful.......2006-05-09

I just took this certification and found out that some of test questions were the same as the back of this book. If you go through the test bank in the back of the book and go through the lessons your sure to pass. The book also comes with 180 day trials of xp pro sp2 and office 2003 professional. Not to meantion you get a voucher for 15% off the exam. I will warn you that some of the exam questions are very easy and others are super tricky.

Book Description

The Chopsticks-Fork Principle, A Memoir and Manual by Cathy Bao Bean is about how she and her husband, artist Bennett Bean, raised their son to be at least bicultural. The author relates how she, an immigrant from China, figured out how to be herself as well as raise a son whose father did things like paint the lawn.

The Chopsticks-Fork Principle will circulate as a cult classic because of this family's rare combinations and as a ?popular? listing because it deals with ordinary family issues in a practical way. The book is pure, it is heartfelt, it is important. You must know about her Menopausal Theory of Cooking and how to persuade the Canada geese to live somewhere else.

Customer Reviews:

sweet & sour memories.......2005-02-28

Rebeccasreads highly recommends THE CHOPSTICKS-FORK PRINCIPLE for anyone interested in hybrid childhoods & bicultural lifestyles.

Cathy Bao Bean, an immigrant from China (circa 1950s), recounts how she figured out how to be herself while attempting to satisfy disparate cultural norms. Through her ebullient & articulate voice, we discover some slightly warped wisdom & a mess of good cheer.

THE CHOPSTICKS-FORK PRINCIPLE is a memoir about how to reconcile the expectations of families & society at large, & how to raise a child in a respectful context while also choosing the "path less traveled". Race, class, & gender issues interweave seamlessly in her wry & sly narrative, all spiced with the sweet & sour, the serious & hilarious.

She's an awesome lady!.......2003-11-04

Cathy came to speak at my college class today and I have to say she is an awesome lady with great insight on life. She's also very funny. She read some exerpt from her book and it really got the class laughing. Her concept of the fork and chopstick is ingenius, I loved it. Her writing style is also very descriptive and witty. If you like to laugh, you'll love this book.

I am very excited about reading this book. HAPPY READING!

wonderful stories and terrific use of language.......2003-04-25

This is a wonderful book, with great stories and intriguing perspectives. Anyone who is a parent would benefit from reading it. It provides an excellent window to education/learning, intergenerational harmony, and cross-cultural communication.

WISE, WITTY, WONDERFUL, WELL WRITTEN...BUY IMMEDIATELY.......2002-12-29

As a 60 year old who was sent to summer camp when I was 4 years old, went to public school in New York City until high school and then wound up commuting to Columbia College on the #4 bus because my parents considered me too young to live away from home; as the husband of an art collector who has never been encumbered by anyone's opinion of right or wrong; as a parent, as a son......it was pure delight to read this book.

Yes, we've known Bennett Bean for 20 years. We have collected his work, commissioned him to make a multi-media painting for our home and we have been working with him for four years on a carpet project......we understand and celebrate his sense of joy and adventure in making art.......and we did know his wife, Cathy, but not the way we know her now.

Cathy Bao Bean writes with style, grace, wit, relevance. I have sent her book to our children to read so they can see down the road of child-rearing. I have sent her book to friends my age so the see that they are not alone in their feelings.

This book confirms the notion that gems exist outside the normal publishing distribution channels......and how major businesses miss great opportunities every day.

WARNING, CAUTION: This book may cause you a problem. You will want to read it very quickly.....please do not do this. Savor it, read it very slowly.

DOUG ANDERSON

The Chopsticks/Fork Principle.......2002-12-25

Not a traditional memoir, The Chopsticks/Fork Principle is more of a love-letter to the author?s family, friends and to life in general. But it is never sentimental or maudlin. Ms. Bean has taken her Eastern heritage and blended it (not without some lumps and bumps) with her Western lifestyle, to create something greater than the sum of its parts. Her delight in what her life has brought her will sweep the reader into a special world that is, indeed, a very nice place to visit. Her wry, dry and sly humor, her sharp wit, her genuine wisdom and her slightly off-center philosophy of life and living, make this a rare treat - a truly charming book.
Cathy Bao Bean deliberately chooses to see the best side of people and, whenever possible, events. To do this, she has allowed time to mellow hurts and humor to cushion memories.
As someone who grew up in New York at about the same time as the author, I confess to being unaware of the discrimination against Chinese Americans, especially following World War II when many Chinese were mistaken for Japanese. Ms. Bean tells her stories with humor and subtlety, which gives them a resonance they might not have had in less skillful, or kindly, hands.
One of the author?s childhood stories really surprised me. At about the age of ten, her parents sent her to summer camp. ... Her tales of camp were a trip down memory lane for me, and a reminder of how shared experiences - especially good ones - create bonds between people, no matter what their origins or differences.
As a ?manual,? The Chopsticks/Fork Principle has much to teach about relationships with people, nature and community.
If you are looking for a meaningful gift for Valentine?s Day or Mother?s Day, this is a good one!

Amazon.com

In the early Middle Ages, driven by famine at home and the promise of wealth to be had in other lands, the Viking people exploded out of Scandinavia and set about conquering parts of England, Ireland, France, Russia, and even Turkey. Emboldened by their successes, the Vikings pushed ever farther outward, eventually crossing the North Atlantic and founding settlements in Iceland, Greenland, and eastern Canada.

In The Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga, some three dozen scholars examine the growing archaeological evidence of the Viking presence in the New World--including such items as a Norse coin excavated in Maine, runic stones from the Canadian Arctic, and farming implements found in Newfoundland. The contributors consider the sometimes friendly, sometimes warlike history of Viking interactions with the native peoples of northeastern North America (whom the Norse called skraelings, or "screamers"); compare the archaeological record with contemporary sagas and other records of exploration; and argue for the need to better document the Viking contribution to New World history.

"As an historical and cultural achievement," write the editors, "the Viking Age and its North American medieval extension stand out as one of the most remarkable periods in human history." This oversized, heavily illustrated volume celebrates that little-understood time. --Gregory McNamee

Product Description

The story of the Viking expansion west across the North Atlantic between AD. 800 and 1000, the settlement of Iceland and Greenland, and the exploration of northeastern North America, is a chapter of history that deserves to be more widely known. Norse discoveries in the North Atlantic are the first step in the process whereby human populations became connected into a single global system. The Norse, and their Viking ancestors, are little known, misunderstood, and almost invisible on the American landscape. Although Norse voyages were known since the early 1800s, the near absence of physical evidence of Vikings in the New World has rendered the information, and the possibility that Norse explorers reached the North American mainland five hundred years before Columbus, speculative, at best. Yet, discovery of a Viking site in Newfoundland in 1960 confirmed a pre-Columbian European presence in the Americas, and Norse artifacts found in archaeological sites scattered throughout the eastern Canadian arctic and sub-arctic, raise the issue of how far south of Newfoundland the Norse did explore, and what impact their contacts had on Native Americans. The term Viking is indelibly associated with seafaring warriors. Carpentry, and especially boat building, were skills known to all Viking men, and along with maritime skill, was the characteristic upon which Viking expansion and influence depended. Viking craft had an advantage over all other watercraft of their day in speed, shallow draft, weight, capacity, maneuverability, and seaworthiness, giving Vikings the ability to trade, make war, carry animals, and cross open oceans safely. The territorial expansion of the Vikings from their Scandinavian homelands began in the last decades of the eighth century, and started as seasonal raids on the British Isles. Those Vikings who ventured west settled the islands of the North Atlantic. Many theories attempt to explain what propelled Vikings outward from their northern homelands: developments in ship construction and seafaring skills; internal stress from population growth and scarce land; loss of personal freedom as political and economic centralization progressed; but the overriding factor seemed to be an awareness of the opportunities for advancement. By taking on lives as soldiers of fortune, Vikings could dramatically alter their prospects: becoming wealthy, reaping glory and fame in battle, and achieving high status as leaders and heroes based on their own abilities and deeds. Although there is reason for speculation about how far the Norse traveled south of Newfoundland, recent archaeological research provides a solid basis for understanding more about Norse explorations and contacts in the north. Archaeologists found Norse artifacts in early Inuit (Eskimo) sites in the Canadian arctic and Greenland. That people of the Dorset culture had begun to replace their stone blades with metal after AD. 1000 seemed curious, although understood when both late Dorset and Early Thule sites began to produce not only Norse iron and copper, but a host of other Norse materials. Soon Norse materials were reported from many eastern Canadian arctic and northwest Greenland sites dating to the Norse period. These finds suggest that Native Americans interacted with the Norse in a variety of ways: by casual contacts, scavenging Norse wrecks, or outright skirmishes This volume celebrates the Vikings epic voyages, which brought the first Europeans to the New World. In doing so, the ring of humanity that had been spread in different directions around the globe for hundreds of thousands of years, was finally closed. Even though Leif Erikssons was not the firstnor the lastvoyage of Viking exploration, nor did it lead to permanent settlement in the Americas, his voyage achieved an important and highly symbolic goal that made the world an infinitely smaller place

Customer Reviews:

A wealth of info on the medieval Norse reach across the ocean.......2006-07-24

This sumptuous and lavishly illustrated volume of 432 large pages, was published by the Smithsonian Institution in 2000 to coincide with the thousandth year, as close as we can reckon, of Leif Erikson's pioneering voyage to North America where he founded an outpost in "Vinland" that was used by subsequent expeditions until finally being abandoned after several skirmishes with the native inhabitants -- this according to the two pertinent surviving sagas.

The book is an impressive compendium of scholarship by 40 writers in 32 different articles, naturally from often different viewpoints. It gets a five-star rating not because I don't have disagreements with certain conclusions of a number of articles, but because of the wealth of information it contains on Viking/Norse life and legacies for anyone seriously interested in the topic. It's divided into seven sections, titled Viking Homelands, Viking Raiders (in Europe), Vikings in the North Atlantic (including Iceland), Viking America, Norse Greenland, and Viking Legacy. (The term "Viking" is ill-used as applied to Iceland and the farther lands -- or for that matter in Europe after about 1100 -- but the label seems irresistible to publishers in titles, even to the Smithsonian. At least Greenland gets a proper "Norse" label.)

Obviously it's not a work to be read cover to cover in one gulp. Since there are too many topics and regions covered in detail to look at closely in a review of any reasonable length, I'll focus briefly here on "Viking America," which presents eight major articles. Their topics range from Ellesmere Island in the High Arctic where Norse artifacts have been found, to, of course, Vinland in the far south (just how far south a matter of complex disputes often passionately held.) Too, it explores what the lore and the sagas tell us on one hand, to hard archeological digs on the other, both subject to interpretation. An interesting wrap-up article in this section is intriguingly titled "Unanswered Questions." The Canadian archeologist Birgitta Linderoth Wallace, who wrote two articles and collaborated on another, has been in charge of the famous L'Anse aux Meadows site at the northern tip of Newfoundland since its discoverers Helge and Anne Ingstad finished their work there in the late 1960s. With the Ingstads she believes the site is in fact the remains of Leif's settlement of Leifsbudir -- although others, including Carl Sauer, Erik Wahlgren and myself, have strong doubts on that score. But even if we're right, this in no way diminishes the importance of the site, as this is the first thoroughly, physically confirmed site of Norse occupation found in America. If I may register a guess, it might have been a strategically placed "way station" occupied for a few years by some other unrecorded Norse voyagers presumably from Greenland, which would open other intriguing questions. There's a good possibility that we'll never know.

Another engrossing article deals with the native peoples of these regions: the Innu, Dorset, and Thule Inuit in northern Canada and Greenland (it was the Thule "Eskimos" who remained after the Dorset and Norse were gone), plus the now-extinct Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland; a panel of four maps shows their respective areas of occupancy from AD 900 to 1500. Several articles in the America and Greenland sections look at contacts and relations between the Norse and "natives" (remembering that the Norse Greenlanders were no less "native" than the Thule, having lived in southwest Greenland for over 300 years before the Thule ever arrived in that region). One article includes a recounting of an Inuit folk tale as told to the Danish Greenland official H.J. Rink in 1858, of a bloody incident and reprisals between a group of Inuit and Norse hundreds of years before, complete with color illustrations drawn for Rink by an Inuit artist.

The above comments scarcely touch the surface of the riches to be found in this volume. The general tone is scholarly and carefully conservative in most respects (sometimes too conservative and one-sided in my view, as if the writers/editors were reluctant to delve much into matters subject to heated controversies except to dispose of them as quickly as possible). Nevertheless, all in all it's a most impressive compendium of fascinating information not obtainable elsewhere, and the editors and writers are to be congratulated for that.

A Great Resource!!!.......2003-12-08

For those interested in:
the history of an ancient people, the Vikings
the history of a people's travels and explorations
the history of a people's art, storytelling, and craftsmanship
the history of a people's society and everyday living

This book is for you. I constantly use references from this book in my writings, as it contains such detail that is just begging to be acknowledged. The images are fantastic, and continues to inspire! Historical enthusiasts, novice and veterans alike are sure to enjoy this book.

A great start.......2002-07-18

This great book takes you from western Europe and Russia to L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland in a gigantic arc of detail and archaeology. Many areas of great intrest such as the Isle of Man and the Shetland Isles are often overlooked in OTHER books but not this one. If you want to start learning about the Vikings disembark from here.

A touchdown.......2002-01-22

If you know only a little about Vikings, and want to know a lot more, this is the book to get. Lavishly illustrated, although, as another reader pointed out, a little big for bedtime reading or the train. I really liked the way the book recalls the entire Norse history -- from the 700s right up to the Minnesota Vikings. By the way, I got to sail for a couple days on the very ship depicted on the cover.

This gorgeous Viking book ranks with the best.......2001-11-19

What a complete package! Absolutely loaded with huge beautiful pictures of everything from ancient maps to medieval Scandinavian jewelry to charts of what individual experts think the Vikings dubbed "Vinland", this book has it all. Someone familiar with the subject will find it gorgeously re-introduced in this extremely professional layout, and yet anyone new to the subject will find this book to be inviting, informative, and fun to read. While this book doesn't dig quite as deep as either Jones' textbook-format "A History of The Vikings" or Haywood's geographically well-documented "The Penguin Historical Atlas of The Vikings", this is still like a huge compilation of every other Viking book I've seen yet, giving the subject the spotlight that it needs after so many recent discoveries. A very professional complete package for everyone.

Average customer rating:

Vikings the North Atlantic Saga
William W. And Ward, Elisabeth I. Fitzhugh
Manufacturer: Smithsonian
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GRO0EO

Book Description

For those who need to know statistics but shy away from math, this book teaches how to extract truth and draw valid conclusions from numerical data using logic and the philosophy of statistics rather than complex formulae. Lucid discussion of averages and scatter, investigation design, more. Problems with solutions.

Customer Reviews:

Lives up to its title.......2006-02-23

This book is really written to be useful practically, and in that sense it is very successful. It is also written very concisely, so it is likely that it will clear many doubts. However, there are almost no theoretical explanations at all. In this sense, it is not a book that contributes to the theoretical understanding of statistics; so don't expect to know more about theory of statistics using this book; instead get ``Principles of Statistics" by M.G.Bulmer. This is a book to keep on the desk to help do practical statistical calculations and make inferences.

Simple, clear, and hard-working.......2004-05-01

Maybe you're just getting started as a stats user, maybe you're only an occasional user who doesn't want to relearn the whole field just to get quick answers. In either case, this book might be one of the best around.

The first half of the book is background: a little probability, a little bit about sampling and experimental design, a little about the most basic and common statistics (means, quartiles, etc).

The second half of the book offers a number of basic parametric and non-parametric significance tests. Langley describes each one, when it is applicable, and how to perform the calculations. He doesn't stray far into the slick computing tricks of the pre-calculator days, so the structure of each calculation stays reasonably clear.

The only real weakness in this book is its lack of index. That is especially incovenient because the tables, a staple of most stats books, are interleaved with the text. The table of contents is descriptive, but doesn't replace an index. The other problem, and not really a flaw in the book, is that it's easy to outgrow this text. Even moderately heavy stats users need a bit more theory and background, to allow meaningful adaptation to new conditions. The author has chosen an audience, though, and has addressed that audience and its needs very well. If your skills are beyond those of the intended reader, that's not a fault of the book.

Basic, clear, and reasonably broad - it's everything that an ordinary, casual stat user could want.

If you only own one statistics book..........1998-12-11

If you only own one statistics book, this should be it! In than 20 years of working with laypeople, engineering and biology undergraduates and grad. students and medical students, this has proven to be the most reliable, intelligible and accessible single volume on how to treat experimental and observational data in a sound, statistically valid, way. Of particular value is a table in the back (Guide to Significance Tests) which takes a "leaf identification" approach to selection of the most appropriate test. Many good examples and problems with solutions makes this an excellent self study text.

Jonathan Black, Professor Emeritus, Clemson University.

Practical Statistics Simply Explained
Average customer rating:
Practical Statistics Simply Explained
Russel Langley
Manufacturer: Pan Books Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000I3Q2D8

Average customer rating:
PRACTICAL STATISTICS SIMPLY EXPLAINED
Russell Langley
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IOFLRU

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