1963 And 1977 Oecd Model Income Tax Treaties and Commentaries: A Comparative Presentation

Book Description

Deady the Evil Teddy is going to be a real "Monsters of Goth" issue with some of the biggest names in spooky comics lending a hand. For instance, Roman Dirge (Deady Meets Lenore), Gris Grimly, Crab Scrambly, a very special Deady tale by none other than Neil Gaiman, and other shocking guests!

Book Description

Steve Silverman was looking for a way to add some spice to his high school lectures when he realized that weird and bizarre true-life stories would capture his students' attention. In fact, they worked so well that the science teacher then began posting his discoveries to his own Web site, which he dubbed Useless Information. Well-researched and clearly sourced, Silverman's unusual tidbits have gained a wide following.In Einstein's Refrigerator, Silverman collects more than 30 of the most fascinating stories he has gathered-tales of forgotten genius, great blunders, and incredible feats of survival, as well as answers to puzzling questions. Einstein's Refrigerator is a remarkable book with spellbinding stories. Whatever happened to the refrigerator Einstein helped invent? While it never became a commercial success, its underlying concepts became the basis for cooling nuclear breeder reactors.

Customer Reviews:

Truth is stranger than fiction..........2005-07-31

I have enjoyed reading this sort of stuff ever since I was a kid and that's 60 years ago.This book is a bunch of short articles about people and things that have happened in somewhat recent history ,which will never appear in history textbooks,but very interesting nonetheless. If you read some of the other reviews,you'll see what some of these things are.There are about 30 weird items covered in the book.So,no need for me to repeat.
The interesting thing to someone like me who has enjoyed this sort of thing is what has changed so much by the people who dig up and publish this stuff.
I first got interested in this trivia by reading Ripley's Believe It or Not!.His cartoons were a daily and weekly sort of thing in newspapers and read by just about everyone.He was the real inventor of this popular interest;that is he more than anyone else ,made it so popular.He travelled the world searching out the unbelievable,and because of that he was known as "The Modern Day Marco Polo".I have several dozen of his books and there are many Ripley museums and now even TV shows.Ripley was one of the most well known people and most interesting characters in the western world.There were many others who published similar stuff ;but none even came close to the 'master'.
A couple of things are interesting about this book.First ,the author is a relatively unknown and in no sense the 'bigger than life character' that Ripley was.Ripley had to travel the globe or depend on people to send him material.No need to do that anymore.A person needs only access to the net ,and away he goes.If you read something in Ripley,s,that would be about the end of it.Further information would be very diffult to come by,especially if one lived in a small town.With the sories in this book the author gives a lot of references which would lead one on to many ,many more, all from your desk and the net.
The author has a terrific web site 'Steve Silverman's Useless Information'jam-packed with similar stories.Oh,by the way,even though your local newspaper probably no longer carries the Ripley's Believe It or Not cartoons ,there is an excellent Ripley's Website that does.
I am glad someone still publishes this stuff as I've had a ton of enjoyment over the years reading ;Stranger than Fiction,Greatest Inventions,World's Biggest Blunders,Weird but True,Did you Know?,World's Dumbest Inventions,World's dumbest Criminals,World's strangest Places,and on and on. However,Silverman has shown how the Net has made the amount of this information that is available,virtually limitless.
As with everything,when something new comes along, something old disappears.
With me,it's the characters like Ripley who are becoming the thing of the past,and I believe we are all a little poorer for it.

Round Up the Usual Oddities: Useful for the Novice.......2004-01-24

This book would make an excellent introduction to those new to the field, but aficionados in trivia, historical curiosities, and other such lore are unlikely to find much here that they haven't read about elsewhere. Although the material is amusing in itself, this book is marred by two things. First of all, there are numerous factual blunders of an elementary nature (e.g. identifying "Wasser" as a Greek word) and a book like this obviously should be factually impeccable.

Secondly, Silverman's prose style is somewhat annoying. It is not hard to believe that his original audience was high school students. His efforts at wit are clearly tailored for a juvenile audience and occasionally make one wince with irritation (worst of all is his habit of ending every single chapter with the refrain "Useless? Useful? I'll leave that for you to decide.")

Jejune prose and puerile cracks are certainly the banes of this genre, as anyone with broad experience in trivia knows. In this way, Silverman isn't much different. Probably the best exception to this rule is Cecil Adams (_The Straight Dope_, q.v.), one of the pioneers of modern trivia writing. He writes for a more sophisticated (if not necessarily mature) audience, and his jokes are actually funny.

a great book with interesting short stories.......2003-12-05

my brother passed this book on to me when he left for college, and i carelessly threw it on a shelf. then one day i picked it up and i was fascinated! it has so many interesting and true stories. i couldnt believe that i had let it sit on a shlef for so many months. just to give you a bit of the flavor of the book, heres some of the articles names (and they are as interesting as they sound!!) - the great boston molasses tragedy, mike the headless chicken, bat bombs, the baby derby - just to name a few! since reading it, i have lent it out to many of my friends, and they all agree that it is a great book.

Mr. Silver is the very much best teacher ever........2003-06-02

I am exchange student, and I have mr silverman as my teacher of science in the 11th grade. He taght me that quarks come from a mommy and daddy, and that einstein liked to cook stuff and keep it cold. This book helped me learn to read better, with mr. silverman by my side the whole of the way.

Mr. silverman is also single and looking, ladies.

The Flip Side of Urban Legends.......2002-01-04

Everyone has heard of urban legends, those absolutly true accounts of apocryphal events which are truer with every telling. Usually, they represent an exaggeration, a fabrication or an outright hoax. In Einstein's Refrigerator, author Silverman serves up a host of stories collected from his Useless Information web site that sound much like urban legens, but aren't; each is absolutely true and substantiated. Ever hear the one about the guy who attached helium balloons to a lawn chair, then used a rifle to pop the balloons one by one to descend? Really happened! Or the one about the salvage company that raised a sunken ship by filling it with millions of ping-pong balls, inspired by a Donald Duck comic book? Also happened! The volume suffers though from a lack of cohesion; it is less a book than a collection of anecdotes. As a collection of conversation-starters or bet-settlers the book is at least as good as the compilations of urban legends from Thomas J. Craughwell and others and a pleasant diversion for those odd moments of down time.

Book Description

What distinguishes great creative non-fiction? The Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction defines it as writing that is characterized by "first-hand research, well-crafted interpretive writing, the writer's personal discovery or experience, and creative use of language or approach to the subject matter." Absorbing and revealing, the twelve pieces in this collection of fine creative non-fiction whittle away layers, revealing the core of human experience.

Katherine Ashenburg (Doctors' Daughters: Helen, Sue and Me) explores her favorite nurse novels, touching on the sensual pleasures of reading, and how books mark us in childhood, indelibly shaping our identities.
Douglas Bell (The Accidental Course of My Illness) illuminates the profound impact a devastating childhood accident has had on his life and his relationship with his mother.
Ted Bishop (The Motorcycle and the Archive) finds that his twin obsessions — riding motorcycles and cruising literary archives — are surprisingly intertwined.
A-A Farman-Farmaian (Hiding Places) tosses out most preconceived ideas about "home" and finds his own place in the wider world.
Alyse Frampton's portrait (My American Father) shows how misguided ideologies can squander a fortune and fracture a family (and still leave room for love).
Camilla Gibb (Foreigners) unravels her own foreignness through friendship with a "foreigner."
Matthew Hart's intricate deconstruction (Stealing Vermeer) of a notorious Irish art heist shows how theft brought new meaning to a priceless Vermeer.
Johanna Keller's memoir (Nocturne: Remembering Pianist Samuel Sanders) of her relationship with Itzhak Perlman's beloved accompanist becomes a cultural ghost story.
Chris Koentjes (The Pedro Guerrero Principle) takes a wild, youthful road trip into the heart of American culture at its most gloriously tacky and marginal, and comes home with a one of a kind meditation on innocence and experience as his souvenir.
Anita Lahey (Confessions of a Eulogist) examines the lost art of the eulogy and finds the power of words in the face of death.
Philip Marchand (Memoir) recounts his formative years in a 1960s therapeutic community and shows the contradictions between personal growth and self-involvement.
Ellen Vanstone (Post Traumatic Stress: How I learned to stop worrying about Conrad Black's evil plan to destroy Canada's universal health-care system and love my job at the National Post) hilariously reveals the strange undercurrent of sexuality at a staid national newspaper, wickedly satirizing its politics in the process.

Customer Reviews:

About the unique melding of real-world truth and art.......2003-09-21

Collaboratively compiled and edited by Moira Farr and Ian Pearson, Word Carving: The Craft Of Literary Journalism offers twelve quality essays drawn from contributors to The Banff Centre's Creative Non-Fiction and Cultural Journalism Program. A unique melding of real-world truth and art, works such as "Post Traumatic Stress: How I learned to stop worrying about Conrad Black's evil plan to destroy Canada's universal health-care system and love my job at the National Post" make for a thoroughly "reader friendly", thoughtful and thought-provoking reading experience that draws the reader into the depths of literary aspects of the craft of journalism and the real world pictured in timeless words.

Book Description

For more than forty years, millions of readers have delighted in solving Jumble, the scrambled word game. Syndicated in nearly five hundred daily newspapers, Jumble is surely the most recognizable puzzle in the world. So hop aboard the Jumble train with the newest Jumble book, and prepare for hours of puzzling fun!

Book size is 8 1/2" x 11."

Customer Reviews:

Jumble Junction provides hours of challening fun!.......2000-03-26

For fans of jumble mania, this collection of puzzles is a must purchase. The puzzle selections provide hours of intrigue and adventure. This book is a real challenge to the avid jumble-junkie.

Amazon.com

Like Rome, a complex Web site can't be built in a day. But your first Web page can come to life over a weekend, even if you know nothing about Web construction at the outset. Steve Callihan teaches you to create a simple but attractive Web page in five simple lessons. You can do it all over a weekend or over five evenings. And you'll learn how to go beyond the basics to develop your Web site into something special. The book includes a CD-ROM loaded with easy-to-use Web page construction tools.

Book Description

The number of Web sites on the Internet seems to multiply by the minute. If you'd like to carve out your own corner of cyberspace, but are not sure where to start, pick up a copy of Create Your First Web Page In a Weekend and you'll be on the right path. Inside you will learn how to create and publish exciting Web pages in no time at all! This book offers ample information on the most useful features of HTML and how to apply those features. Plus, the included CD-ROM contains many tools and templates to get you creating Web pages like a pro.

Customer Reviews:

Very Basic.......2006-06-27

Very basic info, I am not sure I would want to publish a web page I created only using this information.

If You Are a Beginner Get This Book.......2002-04-10

This is a great book!!! The author does a great job explaining what each tag does and also shows examples in the book. If you read this book starting on Friday, you will be able to construct a webpage on Sunday. My advise in regard to using this book as a guide is to type all the examples from the book into notepad and see how it comes out as you read the book. That way you'll have an easier time remembering some of the code when you create your webpage on Sunday (you can also use the book as a reference when creating your first webpage). If you already know basic HTML, then skip this book and purchase a book that goes more in-depth in regard to HTML such as a Sam's book(I just ordered the Sam's HTML & XML book, but I have not gotten it yet).

A killer companion.......2000-07-19

The best thing about this book for me was that it helped me toplan and organize how I wanted to design my page. It's a lot more thanjust how to go about making the web page. It also teaches you to know what you want and how you want to organize it...

Excellent-all the cookies are on the table in this one.......2000-06-08

This is a truly great find for the beginner. the book is a true teaching tool. well planned curriculum providing everything to make a premier first time web page. This book is not a Teaser.

Perfect for the Beginner.......2000-01-16

If you have never looked at HTML before, this is a great book to get you started. Expect no reliance on commercial web editors, this book tells you how to create your web pages in Windows Notepad or a similar text editor. The tools he gives you in this first book match and exceed what a novice would get using a template from a commercial web editor. If there is anything negative about this book, it is that it makes transition to a web editor harder. With the essentials this book offers, it is easier to pop into Notepad and make the change than to figure out the software. All in all, I don't think that is such a bad thing.

Learn HTML In a Weekend, 3rd Edition W/CD (In a Weekend)

Average customer rating:

Helped me learn HTML a little better
Not for me!
Learn HTML with this book!
Great starter book and reference
Excellent Beginner's Tutorial

Learn HTML In a Weekend, 3rd Edition W/CD (In a Weekend)
Steve Callihan
Manufacturer: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0761526943

Book Description

This updated edition features all new HTML tutorials and revised information on using graphics tools such as Paint Shop Pro ™and Adobe ®Photoshop ®LE, GIF Construction Set Professional, and Mapedit to enhance your Web site. Through a series of graduated tutorials, you'll quickly learn to create basic to intermediate Web pages. Then follow the optional tutorials of your choice to create frames, forms, image maps, GIF animations, and graphics special effects using software tools included on the CD-ROM. This one- stop reference covers everything you need to know to create and publish effective, attention- getting Web pages using HTML, XML, and XHTML.

Customer Reviews:

Helped me learn HTML a little better.......2005-09-06

A good book for someone that is starting out new trying to learn HTML. Good examples throughout the book along with CD Rom that comes with the book.

Not for me!.......2003-04-14

I expected creating a web page to interesting and exciting. This book is dreadfully technical and downright boring.

Learn HTML with this book!.......2003-01-17

This is the first book I've ever purchased on HTML - and it's still my most used. Though I learned it over many weekends, it was still just as effective. The lessons are the right length, and everything is explained very simply - but without oversimplifying or boring you. The files and (demo)programs on the disc are awesome. I still use some of the backgrounds from the disc today! And to dissagree with what another rewiewer wrote, you CAN learn how to make great, and partly complex webpages with this book. And yes, it is a beginners' book. But that's why it's called LEARN HTML in a Weekend; but like I said, I still use it as a reference book today. The extra lessons on working with graphics and other media are also great. If you are interested in learning HTML, or you've tried another book, and it didn't work for you, buy this book!

Great starter book and reference.......2002-12-31

After being given a project of designing & creating and complete web base document website for the company I work for I decided to start learning more about web development. I was pointed to the Weekend Course books by a friend and I must say that this particular book is excellent.

It is very well laid out and easy to read. I learned enough from this book to create a visual prototype of the final website interface in less than two weeks.

I definately recommend this book to any beginners or anyone that needs a good reference book.

Excellent Beginner's Tutorial.......2001-03-17

This 3rd edition is very different from the previous edition, which I skimmed in a bookstore. In this 3rd edition the author NO LONGER uses pre-packaged software (FrameIt and WebForms) to create frames and web forms, instead, you are taught using pure HTML, which is the way it should. I am somewhat new to HTML and wanted a book to teach me HTML in the shortest time possible. I completed this book in a weekend just like the title says, and found it to have a very personal yet concise style of writing that put me at ease with the subject. The author alerts you to many pitfalls and has excellent tips along the way. If a sentence brought up a question in my mind, sure enough, it was answered in the next sentence or two. This edition now comes with a short but excellent intro on Cascading Style Sheets and points you to sources on the web for more complete info...

Book Description

For centuries, the world has witnessed the development and use of increasingly complex and powerful military systems and technologies. In the process, the "art of war" has truly become the art of combined arms warfare, in which infantry, artillery, air support, intelligence, and other key elements are all coordinated for maximum effect. Nowhere has this trend been more visible than in the history of twentieth-century warfare.

Originally published as an essential "in-house" study for U.S. Army officers during the 1980s, this much revised and expanded edition remains the most complete study available on the subject. Rewritten with a much wider readership in mind, it both retains its enormous practical utility for military professionals and provides a valuable and appealing introduction for scholars and general readers.

Jonathan House, author of the original work, brings the story of combined arms up to the present, covering among other things Desert Storm, the war in Chechnya, and the rise of "smart weapons" and related technologies. He traces the evolution of tactics, weapons, and organization in five major militaries--American, British, German, Russian, and French--over 100 years of warfare. Revealing both continuities and contrasts within and between these fighting forces, he also provides illuminating glimpses of Israeli and Japanese contributions to combined arms doctrine. Expanding his insightful analysis of the world wars and the wars in Korea and Vietnam, House also offers much new material focused on the post-Vietnam period. Throughout, he analyzes such issues as command-and-control, problems of highly centralized organizations, the development of special operations forces, advances in weapons technology--including ballistic and anti-ballistic missile systems--the trade-offs involved in using "heavy" versus "light" armed forces, and the enduring obstacles to effective cooperation between air and land forces. (His strong critique of the "air superiority" propaganda that came out of the Gulf War is sure to spark some heated debates.)

Rigorously comparative, House's study addresses significant questions about how nations prepare for war, learn or don't learn its harsh lessons, and adapt to changing times and technologies. Unique in the annals of the literature on warfare, it will be the standard work on this subject for a long time to come.

This book is part of the Modern War Studies series.

Customer Reviews:

Oh! What it could have been........2002-01-29

This is, I hate to say it, a mis-titled book. More a history of technological and organizational innovation in the five major armed forces it covers, the book singularly fails to address, with detailed examples, how the weapons and force structures that resulted were used in combined arms systems on the battlefield.

It is odd that this is the case. The author obviously has a deep, well researched understanding of the subject supported by his own professional understanding of the material as a retired soldier. Those detailed examples are sitting in his brain. This makes his failure to get them on to the page less excusable and more unfortunate because his is virtually the only book availabe that makes an attempt to address this crucial theoretical aspect of modern warfare.

4 stars as a book on military evolution in the 20th Century. 2 stars as a book about combined arms. Average 3.

Book Description

Today, some 2 million American Indians inhabit the United States, less than 1 percent of the nation's population. Their origins have always been viewed from a 500-year-old perspective -- from the point of view of the Europeans who "discovered" the New World. Yet the true story of the American Indians begins some seventeen thousand years ago -- and it is past due for a telling that shows Indians as they are, rather than as westerners wish them to be.

Recent archaeological findings, newly discovered written accounts, and never-before-published records have contributed to a whole new understanding of our country's oldest ancestors. Drawing upon the latest research, as well as his own personal experience living among the Hopi tribes, acclaimed author and former Natural History magazine editor Jake Page covers all aspects of Indian life throughout the ages. From the Pleistocene era to Custer's Last Stand, the Trail of Tears to the Indian Civil Rights Act, the establishment of reservations to the negotiation of casino property, In the Hands of the Great Spirit reveals the astonishing endurance of a group of people whose experience is as varied as the world is old.

Customer Reviews:

A good overview of American Indian history.......2006-04-29

Here's a few of the big-picture historical items and individual tribe tidbits you'll find here:

Page 111-19, Anasazi cannibalism - has been confirmed by presence of human myoglobin in coprolite.
183, Indian tribal names - Comanche from the Ute "komantica," or enemy (Comanche is itself a Uto-Shoshonean language); Sioux is from the Algonquian word "naodouessioux," also enemy.
204 - The Cheyennes were the first Indians to leave the upper Mississippi woods for the Great Plains, before the Sioux, starting about 1680. They were at the Missouri in central North Dakota circa 1740 About 1780, after Chippewa attacks, they moved west onto the plains
224-25, British and deliberate germ warfare - Sir Jeffrey Amherst., in 1763 in the midst of the so-called Pontiac's War, suggested "inoculating" Indians with smallpox-infested blankets. Not done here, but at Fort Pitt in 1763, two Delawares were given blankets and a handkerchief out of a smallpox hospital ward, and an outbreak did soon start.
232, Myth of Iroquois confederation being a forefather to the Constitution - Ben Franklin, in the 1750s, in urging colonial union, cited the confederation of the Six Nations to shame colonials into doing at least as much. There is no influence link.
266, Hopi intratribal murders at Awatovi - About 1700, one group of Hopis (re)converted to Christianity at Awatovi. Soon the village leader thought that meant they had become witches and called on other Hopis to kill them, which they did.
325, origins of Ghost Dance - started by Paiute named Wodziwob in 1860s, promising world without whites, etc, but then his teaching faded. Paiute Wovoka had vision Jan. 1, 1889 during solar eclipse, starts new Ghost Dance, which urges working with whites, promises rewards in next life. Visiting Sioux take dance home, give "bullet shirt" and other anti-white adaptations.
359 Indians in BIA get first "affirmative action" in 1930s. Legality of affirmative action in BIA confirmed in 1970s, page 391.
384 - Ira Hayes was one of the six Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima.
366 - Hopi also served, as well as Navajo, as WWII Code Talkers. In fact, on a smaller scale, Comanches did the same in WWI.
405 - Fake Indian jewelry has become a big problem. In fact, one town in the Philippines renamed itself "Zuni" to try to skirt the law.
407 - Dream catchers are not a traditional Plains (or other) Indian artifact, but were created by them to, basically, cash in on New Age beliefs.
412 ff - Indian tribal casino revenues are estimated at $10 billion in the year 2000. Average annual payment to a casino-owning tribal member is about $3,000. Pequots and Mohegans in Connecticut account for about $2 mil of that $10 mil.

I could see rating this book at a 4.5, but it does try too much to be all things to all people, and so a nice solid 4 is a good rating.

Informative, but more of a reference work.......2003-09-03

Virtually any Indian group you are looking for is included here. It is certainly informative and has some interesting lines of argumentation about the origins of Indian arrivals in this hemisphere. I thought some of the commentary on modern Indian issues was well done too. Those interested in the land issues and casino controversies will be delighted.
My reason for a middlish rating is that it does drone on, and tries to cover too much. It is certainly comprehensive but maybe tried to achieve too much in 400 pages, as it plods in areas and loses its readability.
I do praise it for its balance, but feel it is more of a reference work than enjoyable prose.

Complex lives of American Indians.......2003-05-03

...Americans love the big picture, the bird's-eye view, the world under one roof. In fact, the pressures to condense and combine as such are as fierce in the book trade today as they are in the one-stop supermarket. Sometimes this leads, between the covers of a single volume, to a thin gruel of pallid generalization. On other, more rare occasions, it yields the virtues of good synthetic writing: broad-ranging, discerning, lucid, judicious.
"In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000 Year History of American Indians" by Jake Page happily does the latter. The book's hefty subtitle may give pause to general readers not prepared for extended time travel in Indian country. But the journey, all 400-odd pages of it, is well worth the trouble.
Mr. Page, a Southwest-based scholar and novelist who has written widely on Indian history, is well suited for the project. He brings with his lively prose a propensity for good judgment, a virtue in a field often marred by ax-grinders, whether they be the politically prehistoric or the politically correct variety.
The premise of "Great Spirit" won't surprise insiders ý that the people we have come to know as "American Indians" are an amazingly diverse and complex group of nations and tribes. In Mr. Page's hands, Indians are neither primitives nor victims nor New Age sages, but people who have struggled to maintain cultures and families in the face of disease, war, misguided federal policy, and, yes, even disputes with tribal neighbors and personal shortcomings.
Be it the traditional or multicultural kind, Mr. Page likes to subvert the received wisdom. Most native people in North America in 1492 were small farmers, not nomads. No, the political philosophy of the Iroquois Confederation didn't significantly influence the framers of the Constitution. Yes, there may have been mortal pathogens in the New World before Columbus (tuberculosis and syphilis), and imperial wars for hegemony weren't simply a European invention.
Mr. Page has plenty of critical ground to cover. The California Gold Rush, the Dawes Allotment Act, the Termination movement of the 1950s, all come under his lash for their catastrophic consequences, whether directed by Washington or fueled by large-scale demographics. Thankfully, he censures without resorting to the kind of shrill invective that often dominates discussions of Indian policy.
Nor is the author content with easy targets. He examines controversial claims that the ancient Anasazi practiced cannibalism. He considers charges that native peoples sometimes make bad conservationists, from "Pleistocene overkill" to the historic exploitation of deer in the Virginia tidewater. He reflects on the promise and the failures of the modern gambling industry. His judgment deftly avoids a doctrinaire stamp.
A huge (but unappreciated) difficulty for a writer who does a historical overview is the question of what to leave out. Major trends, from migration to settlement to allotment to tribal sovereignty, are given their due in a straightforward chronological plan.
While another writer might justly have done more on energy resource development or tribal enrollment issues (and less with, say, the unfortunate Chiricahua prisoners of war), the major contours of the book are sound and defensible.
Mr. Page's research, almost all of it secondary, is solid. It's rare to find a gaffe (though the Great Sioux Reservation is misplaced in eastern, not western, South Dakota). Then too, the current class action suit against the Interior Department over trust land royalties is mischaracterized, likely the casualty of a hurried pace in telling a big story.
What makes "Great Spirit" so valuable is Mr. Page's effort to bridge pre-and post-Columbian America. Most authors choose between archaeology and history when writing about native people, so intimidating does the combined chore seem. This tendency to choose one discipline or the other, however, has given us a fractured picture of the past.
Indian history, as a result, is commonly told as a two-act drama that recounts a "rise and fall" story, moving from native "innocence" at the beginning (archaeology) to the corruption of all that followed Columbus in 1492 (history). It's rare that we find a coherent "before" and "after" narrative in one book, as we do in "Great Spirit," especially in a work that suggests the complexities of cultural exchange with little or no moral posturing.
Even for those well schooled in the subject, "Great Spirit" has much to teach. The creative mix of tribes in the 17th-century Great Lakes region; the ambivalent Indian response to World War I, complicated by issues of citizenship and segregation; the forgotten presence of urban Indians; the promising yet skeptical project of the Indian Claims Commission, intended, so very much in the American grain, to settle ancient grievances simply by giving people their day in court.
"Great Spirit" is also a handsome volume, filled with fine pen-and-ink illustrations (though sometimes cryptically labeled and placed). Not least of the virtues of a book that covers 20,000 years of history is that it can fit in a small briefcase.
You'll never get everything in one book. But if you're looking for a lively and readable compendium in a single volume of what we know about native history, "Great Spirit" is an excellent choice. You may be able to put the book down along the way, but not, perhaps, without a sense of regret at the end. It leaves us, as all good histories do, looking squarely at ourselves in the here and now.

In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-year History of American Indians

Average customer rating:

In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-year History of American Indians
Jake Page
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000IZR6BS

Book Description

Phiip R. Reilly is a physician, geneticist and a lawyer. He is also a storyteller. His new book, The Strongest Boy in the World;How Genetic Information is Reshaping Our Lives, contains twenty engaging stories, each of which offers the reader a delightful excursion that will expand his world view. As tour guide, Reilly is passionately committed to ensuring that intriguing discoveries lie around every bend in the road.

Customer Reviews:

Strongest Boy in the World.......2007-01-11

I really liked the book, and it was a required reading for a genetics class. The author is a physician, geneticist, lawyer, and story teller. Therefore, it is flows and is easy to read. It also contains lots of interesting medical and legal details/depth. I passed this book on to my family for them to read.

Genetics in Your Life.......2006-11-10

I have been a medical geneticist for almost 40 years and I have been part of shaping the way genetics impinges on the daily lives of millions of people. Philip Reilly has made these genetic developments of the last 40 years into one of the threads that account for the fabric of our lives. His message is factual, easy to read and compelling, without sounding alarms. If you have any curiosity about whether or how genetics is relevant to your life in the 21st Century, this Dr. Phil can give you a most satisfying answer in "Strongest Boy," his sixth book. VM Riccardi

Understanding Genetic Information.......2006-10-30

Science has advanced quickly in completing genetic sequencing projects, including the Human Genome Project. The resulting information is being used while society is considering and making decisions about the complex medical, legal, and ethical implications. Philip R. Reilly's book, The Strongest Boy in the World: How Genetic Information is Reshaping Our Lives, addresses a wide range of issues related to genetic information, making it possible for us to explore them. Through the fascinating stories that he tells, Reilly presents relevant information that enables us to develop educated opinions. The Strongest Boy In the World is understandable by readers who are not science experts; the underlying scientific background is introduced clearly when needed. Reading this book can make us ultimately better informed to consider the dilemmas and to make decisions about the use of genetic information.

This book, like Reilly's previous book, Abraham Lincoln's DNA and Other Adventures in Genetics, explores topics that captivate our interest as they connect genetic information to our lives. For example, "the strongest boy" is a youngster with muscles that are extremely large. The chapter discusses how the phenomenon might have occurred as a result of genetics and then relates it to athletic performance. We begin to understand how elite athletes may gain their superiority as a result of their genetic makeup.

Reilly goes on to look at a variety of topics that affect us personally and arouse our interest. These facilitate discussing diseases with genetic origins, considering genetically modified food, and resolving historical mysteries. Reilly puts forth possible relationships between our genes and intelligence or longevity, he discusses the possible benefits of knowing the DNA sequences of animals, and he comments on how genetics is becoming pervasive in our lives. Finally, he presents controversial issues of DNA forensic databases, stem cells, and gene therapy.

Last year, I selected Abraham Lincoln's DNA as the text for the college course I teach, called The Social Impact of Genetic Information. This year I will use The Strongest Boy in the World. Non-science majors enrolled in the course were intrigued by the colorful stories that brought the important genetic issues to life. They mastered the subject matter and were able to analyze the underlying topics, research them further, and formulate opinions about them. I believe that my students will be better-informed citizens as a result of the overview of interesting genetic issues presented in these texts.

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