The Power of Boldness: Ten Master Builders of American Industry Tell Their Success Stories

Book Description

During his remarkable 17-year career (1900-1916), Christy Mathewson was the dominant pitcher in the National league. His 373 wins will stand as the third highest total in baseball history. Mathewson was a gentleman, a rarity in the raucous world of baseball at the turn of the century, and a favorite among fans. Game-by-game, the remarkable career of this Hall of Fame hurler is analyzed. Interwoven are tales of his personal life and the colorful characters who were a part of baseball in the early 1900s-like John McGraw, Joe McGinnity, Rube Marquard, Bugs Raymond. Appendices give records and milestones.

Customer Reviews:

turn-of-the-century.......2004-07-24

I liked this book pretty much. It tells a lot about Matty's baseball career and opens a window into the National League from 1900-15. It doesn't tell very much about Mathewson's personal life though. All in all its worth a read if you like baseball history and/or Christy Mathewson.

Book Description

The artists of the seventeenth-century baroque period used spectacle to delight and astonish; contemporary entertainment media, according to Angela Ndalianis, are imbued with a neo-baroque aesthetic that is similarly spectacular. In Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment, she situates today's film, computer games, comic books, and theme-park attractions within an aesthetic-historical context and uses the baroque as a framework to enrich our understanding of contemporary entertainment media.

The neo-baroque aesthetics that Ndalianis analyzes are not, she argues, a case of art history repeating or imitating itself; these forms have emerged as a result of recent technological and economic transformations. The neo-baroque forms combine sight and sound and text in ways that parallel such seventeenth-century baroque forms as magic lanterns, automata, painting, sculpture, and theater but use new technology to express the concerns of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Moving smoothly from century to century, comparing ceiling paintings to the computer game Doom, a Spiderman theme park adventure to the baroque version of multimedia known as the Bel Composto, and a Medici wedding to Terminator 2:3D, the book demonstrates the logic of media histories. Ndalianis focuses on the complex interrelationships among entertainment media and presents a rigorous cross-genre, cross-historical analysis of media aesthetics.

Average customer rating:

Could have been more...

QUALITY PRODUCT THAT WILL NEVER BE USED

Midnight: City of Shadow
Fantasy Flight Games , David Griffith , Cos Koniotis , Anneth Lagamo , and Anthony Pryor
Manufacturer: Fanasy Flight Games
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1589941470

Book Description

As the Third Age came to a bloody close, one of the first victims of the brutal march of the Shadow's armies across Eredane was the city of Highwall. Since the First Age, the city and its Scholar's Academy stood as a beacon of hope and enlightenment in a darkening world. That shining beacon was shattered seemingly overnight as the fury of the Shadow in the North descended on the world. Now, a hundred years later, the city of Highwall lies in ruin. At the center of this desolation rises Theros Obsidia, a black tower of impossible size that was magicked from the earth and stone like a splinter drawn from flesh. This is the locus of Izrador's power in Eredane and the fortress of his legates, the Order of Shadow. Huddled around the tower are the camps and garrisons of the Shadow's hordes, along with the ruins and hovels of the city's survivors. Highwall has become a place of death and darkness, and only the bravest, most follhardy, or most desperate heroes dare to intrude into the heart of Shadow. City of Shadow offers detailed information on the ruined and occupied city of Highwall, a level-by-level description of Theros Obsidia complete with beautiful maps and illustrations, and in-depth information on the Order of Shadow. Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This product utilizes updated material from the v.3.5 revision.

Customer Reviews:

Could have been more..........2007-07-10

In the Midnight campaign setting, the dark god Izrador has conquered the lands of man. Upon the wreckage of one of the greatest cities of Eredane, the scholarly city of Highwall, Izrador had his minions erect his own dark capital, and the great tower of Theros Obsidia. A constant reminder to those who survive and still oppose of what has been and what is now.

City of Shadow is the fifth supplement for the citing describing the remnants of the city and the tower of Theros Obsidia, as well as the forces residing in it. It is important to note that while this supplement was written in the 3.5 edition era, it was also written before Midnight 2nd edition, and so some of the stat blocks, characters, and monsters do not follow the new additions that Midnight 2nd edition follows.

The front cover shows a dark side picture of the city with some orcs, legates, and some companions standing on a ledge overlooking it. The picture is nice and fitting, but I do not believe it truly captures the feel and surrounding of Theros Obsidia, especially when we take into account the later description of the city and its layout. Most of the interior art is taken over by maps (more on that later), and a smaller part with the regular high quality of dark, moody, drawings characterizing other Midnight products and the Midnight setting in general.

The book itself is divided into five chapters, and so I'll break them down for you:

Chapter 1 is a short, yet nicely written, history lesson of the city of Highwall, how it grew and prospered through the ages, its importance to the people of Eredane, how it finally fell to the armies of the Shadow, and how Theros Obsidia was founded on its crumbling building.

Chapter 2 describes the city proper, both a short geographical descriptions, and a note on how the city looked before it was conquered. A simple map with few buildings (most have been destroyed while the city was conquered) gives a general idea of what the city looks like, with several points of interests numbered and described. Most are described in a paragraph or two, perhaps also a personality to go along with it, rather dryly I think. Not much mood is built into these descriptions, and compared to other products in the Midnight line, has very few adventure seeds scattered around. Probably the most interesting place and organization described in this chapter is the Blackwood Company, a company of corrupt elves fighting for the Shadow; but this too, I believe, suffer from a lack of personality as the Company is described is general lines, and broad strokes only.

The resistance, meager as it is, is also described in this chapter, and introduces a new organization with a new prestige class, the Lightbearers. Again, not much detail is given. The last several pages of the chapter has an encounter table for Highwall, with stats for those described in the table.

Chapter 3 is all about the dark tower that was erected with the divine powers of Izrador, Theros Obsidia. The Theros Obsidia complex has two towers: Theros Obsidia Minor (rising just about 250 ft. in height) and Theros Obsidia Major (rising about 2000 ft. in height), the Keep surrounding the larger tower, and a dungeon complex bellow the towers. For me, both towers were unimaginative and uninteresting. I can understand the visual impressiveness of high, sky-reaching, dark and brooding towers... but I don't know, having barracks in the tower that has the soldiers running 60-100 ft. of stairs down to respond to an emergency doesn't sound like good design to me, or putting storage areas on the two topmost floors... though I might be wrong, and this might be very logical. And that is just the smaller tower.

The main tower, having 50 levels, is described with even a broader brush. The dungeon beneath has, among other things, a place for prisoners and a Demonarium (a dorm\prison) for allied\captures demons and devils of the dark god. And the Keep surrounding Theros Obsidia Major, mainly just tells us who lives there, how large the garrison is, and where such structures as the stables, the smithy, and warehouses are.

Chapter 4 was the best chapter in the book for me. It is this chapter that gives us a closer, in-depth look at the Order of Shadow and the legates, those evil servants of Izrador: his clerics. The chapter describes some of the daily rituals and costumes of the legates, as well as describes for us how Lesser Legates are recruited, trained and serve in the great hierarchy. Also described are the Soldier Legates (with their own initiation, training, and the service they provide) and the Temple Legates and their obligations. It is in this book (and it was later incorporated into the Midnight 2nd edition core book, and well as expanded further in almost every other Midnight supplement) that we were first introduced to the Black Schism that threatens to tear the Order of Shadow apart between the Cabal and Devout. Also were shortly described (and again, later expanded and incorporated) where other small sects and factions within the Order (The Harrowers, Sisterhood of Tender Mercy, and the Eyes of Izrador) that made the whole monolithic Order much more intriguing (and intrigue ridden), dangerous, and interesting. Too bad the list of Greater Legates at the end of this chapter did not incorporate at least a small part of that into itself, instead of jut giving us name, race, level, and location.

Chapter 5 gives general ideas for campaign for either good or evil characters and the mechanics for the new PrC mentioned earlier, the Lightbearer. This chapter could have been better used, possibly, by giving more adventure hooks rather than just bland ideas such as "Patrol", "Smuggling", or "Breaking the Mirror". Two more PrC (Harrower and Legate Martial) are available for download from the web enhancement on the Midnight page at the FFG site.

This book receives 3 stars because I do think that it has some interesting ideas and some good stuff in it... but not enough. Another problem of this book is that it is very limited as going into Highwall is probably one of the most dangerous tasks possible for Midnight heroes (not the most dangerous, but it is certainly in the top five), and even what it does describes it does only half-heartedly. A DM wanting to have his characters in Highwall, either as good characters infiltrating or evil characters working with the shadow, will probably be able to use this book, but only as a very general basis.

For people not running Midnight, I do not think there is anything to find here.

QUALITY PRODUCT THAT WILL NEVER BE USED.......2006-11-04

I just couldn't bear to give this product a 1 star. It's too well written and well designed and innovative and super-duper cool. So, why the low rating? Well, I let me explain the setting.

MIDNIGHT is a campaign setting where the Shadow has won. Humanity has lost, utterly and completely. The elves and dwarves are still resisting within their homelands but there is no apparent hope for victory. The dark god Izrador rules from his dark tower within Theros Obsisida with all the power of an uncontested deity. There is no power that can challenge him and he rules with an iron fist.

So what is the purpose of CITY OF SHADOW? I'm still trying to figure that one out.

It's a shame, because the city is so well statted out. From the cliffs at the base of Highwall to the city itself, to all the levels of Izrador's tower, you get the impression that this would have made a great citybook for PLANESCAPE. But in Midnight, the purpose is unclear. The PCs should have no chance of ever assaulting the fortress; even owning a weapon is a capital crime, let alone using it. An entire army would be needed just to penetrate the gates and that's not likely to turn up anywhere. Infiltration shouldn't really be an option either; it's hard to pull a fast one on an immanent deity. And speaking of ol' Izzy, he has no stats in the book because MIDNIGHT is not designed for anyone to ever be able to challenge him directly. So why are we concerned with his defenses on the penultimate level of his dark tower? And the corebook discourages playing evil characters working for izrador (the kind that might actually end up in the tower for legitimate reasons).

CITY OF SHADOW sends a mixed message; if the campaign world of MIDNIGHT focuses on the kind of world where a dark god rules all and is bent on crushing the last spark of resistance, there is no need for a sourcebook describing that dark god's fortifications. If the purpose fo the book is to allow for a campaign on infiltrating or an evil party that works for Izrador, then more of the book needs to be focused on that style of game and not on the overwhelming power of the cannons mounted on the cliffs. If the tower is just supposed to be background in an ordinary game, then, again, less on the fortifications and more on everyday life under the Shadow.

It seems that CITY OF SHADOW is a nice book, well-written and extensively developed. I just don't see its relevance or continuity with the game line that it is part of.

Midnight scenes and social photographs: Being sketches of life in the streets, wynds and dens of the city of Glasgow

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Midnight scenes and social photographs: Being sketches of life in the streets, wynds and dens of the city of Glasgow
Shadow
Manufacturer: Heatherbank Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

WEIRD TALES - March Mar 1947: The Hog; The King of Shadows; The House Beyond Midnight; Shadow of Melas; The Final Hour; The Nameless City; Cellmate; The Handler; Leonora; The Familiars - The Pigeon Flyers

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WEIRD TALES - March Mar 1947: The Hog; The King of Shadows; The House Beyond Midnight; Shadow of Melas; The Final Hour; The Nameless City; Cellmate; The Handler; Leonora; The Familiars - The Pigeon Flyers
Dorothy (editor) (William Hope Hodgson; Edmond Hamilton; Allison V. Harding; Roger S. Vreeland; Chester S. Geier; H. P. Lovecraft; Theodore Sturgeon; Ray Bradbury; Everil Worrell) McIlwraith
Manufacturer: Weird Tales - American News Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GVSRRQ

Product Description

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 - Step by Step - self-training course - CD, English

Customer Reviews:

It Helped Me.......2007-09-19

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 Step by Step This is a good book for an 76 year old man like me. It was a great help in teaching me to do a PowerPoint program. This is a good book for beginers. Its not perfect, but I could not find a better book for a beginner like me, I know as I tried a few of them including "For Dummies"

Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 Step by Step .......2007-08-31

Fast shipping. Book rec'd in same great condition as described on website. All in all, an A+ transaction.

Powerpoint 2003 Step by Step.......2007-05-18

As a beginer I have been able to understand the information and directions in the book with out any problems. Sometimes training books are to detailed for me to understand. The book is not. I am very satified with the book.

Great software and easy to learn.......2006-11-10

Without any previous knowledge of the program I was able to construct a slide show like a professional with a great variety of animations.

This should have been the manual.......2006-06-15

This is certainly as dry as a computer manual, so Microsoft could have included this as at least a PDF with PowerPoint. So did not do that and now they want you to buy this separately. That itself is reason to not buy this book and look at other alternatives.

My favorite others are:

How To Do Everything with PowerPoint 2003
Cutting Edge PowerPoint for Dummies
PowerPoint 2003 Visual Quickstart Guide

Paso A Paso Microsoft Powerpoint 2003/Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2003 Step by Step

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Paso A Paso Microsoft Powerpoint 2003/Microsoft Office Powerpoint 2003 Step by Step
Antonio Lirola Terrez
Manufacturer: Mcgraw-Hill Interamerica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Chemicals -- and the process used to produce them -- are a billion dollar business. Written by experts from major international petrochemical licensing firms, this innovative handbook details the latest and most powerful chemical processes used to create the most economically important chemicals in the world.

Average customer rating:

Robusto!

Praising a poison, ignoring its toll on humanity

Easy to read, but hard to believe

entertaining but partisan to point of silliness

History and Perspective that's Easy to Read

Tobacco: A Cultural History of How an Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization
Iain Gately
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0802117058

Amazon.com

Iain Gately's Tobacco is a sweeping cultural history of the world's most prevalent addiction, and it's probably the best book ever written on its subject. Gately begins in pre-Columbian America, where the natives made tobacco "their most popular gift to the rest of humanity," and continues through all the cantankerous smoking litigation of the 1990s. The story touches on just about every subject imaginable: tobacco in literature, the movies, and society. It would be wrong to call Gately an advocate of smoking, but he clearly takes pleasure, for example, in noting that Hitler's Nazis launched one of history's most vigorous anti-smoking initiatives. The book is full of delicious trivia: Many of Shakespeare's contemporaries smoked, but there's no evidence that the Bard himself did, and none of his plays make any mention of smoking; he "kept his writing a smoke-free zone." Nevertheless, reports Gately with a smirk, there is "archaeological evidence proving that smoking was going on around the Shakespeare household in Stratford-upon-Avon during his life." Smoking aficionados won't want to miss Tobacco, and it's a much healthier gift for them than a box of cigars. --John Miller

Book Description

Tobacco was first cultivated and enjoyed by the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas, who used it for medicinal, religious, and social purposes long before the arrival of Columbus. But when Europeans began to colonize the American continents, it became something else entirely -- a cultural touchstone of pleasure and success, and a coveted commodity that would transform the world economy forever. Iain Gately's Tobacco tells the epic story of an unusual plant and its unique relationship with the history of humanity, from its obscure ancient beginnings, through its rise to global prominence, to its current embattled state today. In a lively narrative, Gately makes the case for the tobacco trade being the driving force behind the growth of the American colonies, the foundation of Dutch trading empire, the underpinning cause of the African slave trade, and the financial basis for our victory in the American Revolution. Informed and erudite, Tobacco is a vivid and provocative look into the complex history of this precious plant. "A rich, complex history ... Deeply engaging and witty." -- Carmela Ciuraru, Los Angeles Times "Ambitious ... informative and perceptive ... Gately is an amusing writer, which is a blessing." -- Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post "[Gately] documents the resourcefulness with which human beings of every class, religion, race, and continent have pursued the lethal leaf." -- John Leland, The New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews:

Robusto!.......2007-05-21

I really do not understand the objections that other reviewers had to this book. Gately put together a lively, enchanting narrative concerning the history of tobacco. He covers a great many things and does not fail to include the words of those who once sung its praises. That's what should be done whenever one wishes to tell a "complete" story about anything. He does not self-censor his prose which is exactly what those of us most interested in the truth deeply desire. This book isn't titled "Quit Smoking," it's a cultural history of tobacco. Anyway, Gately presents statistics and analysis elucidating the dangers inherent to using the infamous weed. He outlines the positions of the state and depicts lung cancer as the private hell it clearly is. Smoking is a personal choice and there's no reason to ban it as the prohibition of substances has not met with much success over the years. I'm sure the author would agree with my conclusion but that does not mean he is depicting tobacco in a favorable light. This book was a serious page-turner and I enjoyed it very much. I recommend it without reservation.

Praising a poison, ignoring its toll on humanity.......2007-05-10

This book should carry a label - just like a cigarette box: WARNING ! Reading the next 370 can be hazardous to your (mental) health !
The author paints a rosy picture of smoking as a "pleasure", of tobacco as a stuff that brings out the best in soldiers, writers, hunters, lovers - hardly ever is it associated with something vile, deplorable. And of course the millions who have died and will die in the future are hardly worth mentioning. Those who warned against the dreadful habit through the ages (starting with King James I. who called it "dangerous to the lungs" - in 1605 !) are rdidiculed and belittled, the scientific evidence emerging after the 1950 landmark studies by Evart Graham and Ernest Wynder in the US and Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill is a mere footnote and not worth further elaborating. No, smoking is a wonderful experience - and haven't you heard it: "Tobacco has recently been discovered to protect against some of the most devastating ailments of old age, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease." So that superb pleasure is on the way to become a wonder drug ! It's an insult to the readers' intelligence.
A recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health estimates that approximately 1 billion (yes: BILLION) people will die of tobacco-related diseases over the course of the 21th century. Gatley predicts that tobacco habits (translation: rude and ignorant people forcing their fellow human beings to inhale carcinogens by exposing them to secondhand smoke) will be with us for centuries to come. Good Lord - or wise lawmakers everywhere - protect us from this dark future !
For a medical doctor and a historian like me, "Tobacco" is one of the must repulsive books I've ever read. It makes you wonder which Big Tobacco company sponsored it - or whether it was a joint venture by the whole industry.

Easy to read, but hard to believe.......2006-10-26

In the begining, the historical information was interesting and quite believable, but by the end accuracy and credibility were suspect. Perhaps an update to include studies released since the book's publication (i.e. the 2006 Surgeon General's Report on Secondhand Smoke) would correct the book's biased slant towards tobacco.

entertaining but partisan to point of silliness.......2006-09-04

A very entertaining and well written history, but the passionate arguments against government taxation and regulation of smoking (hot political topics these days) are hard to take seriously.

Gately denies that second hand smoke poses any danger at all to non-smokers. He is convinced that advertising restrictions, cigarette taxes, public smoking bans, and public service ads have no effect on how much people actually smoke. (They merely infringe on the "rights of smokers.") He ridicules the notion that cigarette smoke could be harmful to children.

His humor is usually enjoyable, but it is sometimes inappropriate (smoking-related deaths are actually a fairly serious matter), and it is sometimes hard to tell when he is joking. For example, he cites UK government data that smokers die 16 years earlier than non-smokers and talks about all the money this saves the government in pensions, adding, "It follows that it would be financial madness for the British government to ban smoking, and unless a better argument than its official estimated death toll of 120,000 smokers per annum can be found, smoking is unlikely to be prohibited in the British Isles." Is this funny? Am I supposed to laugh or cry?

Gately frequently comes across as a loving mother who has discovered her son is a killer and has not quite come to terms with the fact. She can't help wishing for him to succeed, even while acknowledging her sympathy is problematic and recognizing the irony of her situation.

Still, only a true tobacco believer could write in his concluding paragraph that "to the 1.2 billion smokers of the world, tobacco is not just a killer, but a pleasure, a comforter, and a friend... Tobacco has recently been discovered to protect against some of the most devastating ailments of old age, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. It has also been shown to guard against cancer of the womb.... Many great men and women have left elegant testimonies to their tobacco habits, which will be joined, I believe, with others made in centuries to come."

History and Perspective that's Easy to Read.......2005-07-07

I really enjoy these kinds of books. Unlike others that are painfully academic to read, this one moves along smoothly while providing the history and background on the cultural, social, agricultural, economic, and political aspects of this plant. Get some seeds and try growing your own - even if just for ornamental reasons.

Tobacco - Cultural History Of How An Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization

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Tobacco - Cultural History Of How An Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization
Iain Gately
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K1KMO8

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Tobacco - Cultural History Of How An Exotic Plant Seduced Civilization
Iain Gately
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RIVNJC

Average customer rating:

Lively and comprehensive--a tour de force.

A great cure for insomnia

excellent

This book should be read by every 8th grade student!

Couldn't have asked for a clearer explanation

Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy (Anchor Books)
Robert M. Hazen , and James Trefil
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 038526108X
Release Date: 1990-12-01

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Lively and comprehensive--a tour de force........2003-06-10

I cannot understand the negative review by the reader from Oakton. I did not find a "condescending tone" or "patronizing attitiude" anywhere in this book. On the contrary, I have great appreciation for the authors' ability to cover essentially all the fundamentals of modern science in a pleasant and stimulating way. What they have done is to produce a kind of "science for poets" course that would be suitable at the high school or college level. They focus each of the 18 chapters on a single great idea of science, e.g., ch.1 ("The Universe is knowable and preditable."), ch.9 ("Everything is made of quarks and leptons."), ch.16 ("All life is based on the same genetic code.").

Of course this is not as detailed as a textbook, but by the same token, it does not wear you out or stuff you to the gills with more than you can digest. Another very pleasant aspect is the absence of the usual arm-twisting you'd get in a course: none of those bloody, in-your-face "learning objectives," no tests, no homework, no lists to memorize. Since the authors are both college teachers, they showed great restraint and wisdom in shunning that assiduous approach, which most teachers (myself included) tend to deploy in their daily work. They give you enough to develop a broad outline, but not so much as to kill your interest. Three cheers for their demonstration of top-quality science teaching.

P.S. I found a smattering of errors in those few chapters where I was knowledgeable, but these are all minor and will hardly be noticed by most readers, let alone detract from the overall learning experience.

A great cure for insomnia.......2001-03-26

There are some books about science that ignite the imagination, sparking a lifelong fascination about the book's subject... and then there is Science Matters, which did a good job of convincing me that I will never be a scientist. From the very first pages of the book to the last, the authors' condescending tone rings through every word. Eventually (after about, say, page 5) the patronizing attitude that almost oozes from each chapter becomes unbearable. Unfortunately, matters are not improved by the dullness of the text, which, in spite of its relative lucidity, still has a potent soporific effect.

excellent.......2000-07-03

This book gives you as much information as a classroom textbook, but it is a lot more interesting. I felt this was an excellent book because there are not many books that provide as much information as this one and that are actually a good read. I had a hard time putting this book down once I started to read it.

This book should be read by every 8th grade student!.......1999-11-03

This book contains most basic knowledge and skills that almost any average person needs to get through life. This would make an excellent co-text at the middle school level.

Couldn't have asked for a clearer explanation.......1999-09-21

This is an outstanding book. It provides an understanding of the basic scientific phenomena that everybody should know. I'd have to say I came away from this book with more knowledge than from all my high school and college science classes.

Science Matters Achieving Scientific Literacy

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Science Matters Achieving Scientific Literacy
Robert Haxzen and James Trefil
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KDJAQ2

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Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy
Robert M. & James Trefil Hazen
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LAXW4U

Average customer rating:

Science Matters; Achieving Scientific Literacy
Robert Hazen
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000X6IG20

Customer Reviews:

Latin American mammalogy during the 1980s.......2005-08-15

According to the Preface, this book is a sequel to Mares and Genoways' (1982) highly successful "blue book," complementing it in aspects that were scantily or definitely not covered there; namely, history, biodiversity, and conservation. Of course, the latter two topics started receiving attention from mammalogists only during the 1980s, and the first one demonstrates the increasing maturity of the discipline: when one starts thinking about origins, ancestors and forerunners, becomes humbled by the foresight of the ancient few and the follies of the numerous contemporaries. Due consideration to the history of Mammalogy makes us all a little wiser and is therefore is a welcome complement in this book.

The book is organized into those three major sections mentioned in the subtitle, though conservation is split into policy/management and education, thus yielding four parts. Overall, history takes up 16% of the book; biodiversity (and biogeography) account for 35%, conservation policy/management (26%), and conservation education (23%). Each of the four sections is preceded by an overview that is translated into Spanish. Every chapter has a summary, which is also translated into Spanish. The presentation and format of the book is attractive, same as the typesetting. The quality of the graphs and photos (black and white only) is uneven, probably owing to the different means at hand to the contributors rather than to the publisher. All headings, subheadings, and captions are perfectly standardized, including references in the literature cited sections. The English text is remarkably free of typographic errors. In what follows I concentrate on the different sections and chapters that compose the book.

Part I: Historical background, consists of four chapters. Rollin Baker opens this section with an historical résumé of the classification of Neotropical mammals, from Columbus arrival until 1957. This is an excellent synoptic view of the progress made in classifying Neotropical mammals by taxonomists from many nations. Keith Sterling tells the story of Edward Nelson and Edward Goldman, who together did pioneering work on the mammalogy of Mexico. This is an interesting tale on two regular guys who were part of the infantry that developed the discipline in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Knox Jones analyzes the academic branching pattern of a single mammalogical root in the U.S., that of Joseph Grinnell of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California-Berkeley. Grinnell (1877-1939) indeed was an intriguing and charismatic leader of U.S. mammalogy, but what bearing has this chapter on Grinnell and descendants for Latin America? In isolation, none; in conjunction with the following chapter, very much. Grinnell was an undisputed leader of U.S. mammalogy yet he is not known for having used his academic substantial weight in discouraging graduate students or "disciplining" critics or strays. Quite different is the personality of those who Michael Mares coins as "sapos" (sic, Spanish in the original). They are uncontested leaders of the discipline, who use their heavy weight to hammer down on underlings and strays the notion of who is the boss. These "sapos" are truly interested in the development of their science, but they want to be the one, only, and undisputed authority in the field. His/her associates will always be just that (but at least they will have an assured survival under the beneficial umbrella of their mentor) and his/her imagined enemies will receive relentless pressure until they cave in, migrate or die (academically speaking) in utter isolation. Poker-faced, "sapos" conveniently use the argument of nationalistic pride and patriotic honor when dealing with potential intruders from foreign countries. Mares must have observed very closely the behavior of several "sapos" because he not only describes them in great detail, but also even provides a key on "How to recognize a sapo," which I found very perceptive.

Part II: biogeography and biodiversity, consists of seven chapters. It opens with the contribution by Michael Willig and Elizabeth Sandlin, wherein they compare quadrat and band methodologies for assessing bat species diversity gradients and turnover along the Americas. I found this to be an enlightening analysis focused on a relevant problem. This chapter is followed by the long and rambling research report by Carleton Phillips and coworkers. I found it overly technical, dealing with a biogeographical issue involving two species of bats in the Caribbean (is this Latin America?). Bruce Patterson examines the role of biogeographic theory in dealing with down to earth conservation issues. He makes the point that there is not enough time left for studying areas one by one (the empiricist approach), and that theory will have to compensate for missing time. In contrast, William Boecklen presents a rather despairing litany on the limitations of biogeographical models. His is a neatly packed state-of-the-art chapter that it should have preceded Patterson's chapter. Gerardo Ceballos and Daniel Navarro present a scholarly review of the diversity and conservation status of Mexican mammals. This is a solid piece of work that will likely represent a benchmark for future studies of the same type. Although more restricted in scope, the contribution of John Fa and Luis Morales is a good companion to the preceding chapter. These authors examine the conservation status of mammals in the Trans-Mexican Neovolcanic Belt, a complex physiographic area across southern Mexico. In a commendably short chapter, Kent Redford and John Robinson recycle old information for a new purpose, that of determining the park size that assures the continuous existence of at least 500 individuals of a given mammal species. The conclusion is that most Brazilian parks (the only ones analyzed) seem to have an adequate size for most of the species examined.

Part III: Conservation policy and management consists of six chapters. Virgilio Roig describes how desertification brought about by man since the Spanish conquest, has resulted in decreased distributional ranges for several of the most conspicuous mammals in the southern cone of South America. Cleber Alho and Thomas Lacher report another case in conservation, on pantanal mammals. Although no mammal species seems to be endemic to the pantanal, the interdigitation of xeric and mesic vegetation and of terrestrial and aquatic habitats results in a rich mammalian fauna, even richer than that of typical tropical areas. The chapter by Jose Fragoso, on the effect of logging on a Belize tapir, seems out of place in this book. This is a plain progress report. In contrast, Jorge Cajal offers a synthetic and painstakingly documented work on the past and current distribution of guanacos and vicuñas. Although Cajal concentrates on the Argentine setting, he places his findings in the broader scope of neighboring countries. The contribution by Jeffrey Jorgenson and Amanda Jorgenson refers to imports of CITES-regulated mammals from Latin America to the U.S. This is an interesting chapter that succinctly explains CITES and then examines the statistics on importations of live specimens and parts, products and derivatives of mammals. Alisa Shull describes the role of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in preserving endangered mammals in that country. Although this agency and its mission have nothing to do with Latin America itself, it is interesting to be informed about its charter and operational mode --particularly the process of "listing."

Part IV: conservation education, is composed of six chapters. Don Wilson proposes that OTS (Organization for Tropical Studies), a consortium of universities and institutions, physically based in Costa Rica and administratively in the U.S., is a paradigm for tropical ecology and conservation education programs. According to Wilson, there is much to be learned from OTS, and that the experience developed in over 25 years of existence "could easily be transferred to similar programs in other tropical countries." Thomas Lacher and coauthors describe how international cooperation is helping the establishment of a program in Wildlife Management and Conservation at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil). Although of rather local interest, this chapter will become useful in providing the baseline against which the success of the above mentioned program could be gauged. Patricia Morton's chapter is on how to carry out an educational campaign to develop awareness of bat conservation in tropical America. I found that the guidelines proposed by Morton were good and adaptable to many organisms. Jane Packard and David Schmidly tell us about the role that mammalogists should play in promoting graduate training that integrates conservation and sustainable development. Although the authors carefully restrict their advice to U.S. universities, I found numerous words of wisdom throughout the chapter that are perfectly applicable to Latin American universities. Paisley Cato analyzes the value of natural history collections in Latin American conservation. Cato does an excellent rendition of the myriad of information pieces that well sampled, well curated, and well-conserved specimens may convey to the astute researcher. The final chapter of this section (and of this book) is by Janet Braun and Michael Mares. They call attention to the concept that natural history museums should not be mere repositories of dusty objects, but should instead become instrumental in promoting the development of a conservation ethic. Probably most museums do some of this through their exhibits, in-house education and research programs, and the dissemination of results in the literature. Braun and Mares are of the opinion that museums should do more. They make a compelling case for the establishment of outreach programs that take museum exhibits to the people, instead of waiting for them to attend at its central location. They further emphasize the importance of children education, which at tender ages are more susceptible of marveling at the wonders of nature. When grown up, these children may become advocates or even benefactors of the museums that once took the bother of reaching out to them.

In closing, I think this is a worthy companion of Mares and Genoways' blue book, and complements its coverage in precisely those areas most needed of immediate attention.

LATIN AMERICAN MAMMALOGY. HISTORY, BIODIVERSITY, AND CONSERVATION.

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LATIN AMERICAN MAMMALOGY. HISTORY, BIODIVERSITY, AND CONSERVATION.
M. & D. Schmidly (eds.) Mares
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WQ1YUM

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