History Books

1. In 1930, 256 banks had failed and the cry was "where did our money go?" Oil prices for a barrel dropped from $1.43 to 10 cents. The economy was a pile of glue.

2. By Sep 1929, 1.5 million people were out of work. In 1930, 1,350 banks failed, going under with $853 million in deposits. The next year, 2,294 banks failed. In 1931, the Bank of the United States in New York with two million dollars defaulted. When the bank defaulted, twelve million jobs were lost or 25 percent of the work force.

3. In 1931, 28,000 business closed doors, both private and corporate. Money was not circulating. When the banks closed people scourged for food. People were starving. At the same time wheat was being piled up and wasted. On the Texas Panhandle, two million acres had been turned to sod. The wheat came in at 250 million bushels. Farmers were desperate to pay debt, but slowly bleeding out, for every five dollars earn they lost one. Milk, pork, and cattle prices dropped correspondingly as people were unable to pay price and commodity bust transpired, too much supply and not enough paying customers.

4. In 1931, there were thirty-three million acres stripped bare in the southern plains. The market price was 50 percent the cost for the farmer to break even. Normally, this inefficiency would have resulted in default and supply drops, but debt and speculation allowed prolonged oversupply, further exasperating the condition.

5. A two year hit Montana and the soil turned to fine particles and started to roll, stir, and take flight. Wheat dropped to 19 cents a bushel - an all time low. Tens of thousands had their savings swept away. The US food Administration set a price guarantee for wheat that set off a stampede transforming the grasslands and the price controls created long-term shortages. However, American capitalism was in a deep freeze.

6. By 1932, nearly two-thirds of the farmers face foreclosure, for back taxes and debt. One in twenty were losing their land.

7. In a cashless society people lived off home industry: eggs laid in coups, vegetables grown in garden, pigs slaughtered for bacon, and cows milked to feed young and old. Water from windmills provide irrigation means.

8. The Argiculture College of Oklahoma reported in their state during the wheat bonanza, sixteen million acres was planted in wheat and thirteen million acres left to seriously erode and this was before the drought and calcification of the ground. Neglect of the land was a significant contributor to the dust bowls. Abandonment caused from sudden price drops, commodity distribution problems, and easy money entrapment forcing debt repayment behavior that exploit natural resources.

9. High temperatures during winter did not kill off many of the pests. Epidemic insect pollutions flourish: grasshoppers, spiders, and centipedes invaded every living space.

10. Sitting Bull had predicted the land would get it revenge on whites who forced the Indians off the grasslands. He saw doom from the sky.

11. President Roosevelt ended agricultural free market economics for good. Roosevelt said: America had produced more food than any country in history, and farmers were being run off the land, penniless, while the cities couldn't feed themselves. The average farmer earned three hundred dollars a year, an 80 percent drop in income from a decade earlier. Government would try to shape the price and flow of food, to force prices up. Roosevelt had the government buy surplus corn, beans, and flour, and distribute it to the needy. Over six million pigs were slaughtered, and meat given to relief organizations. The Welfare state was born. Under Roosevelt, government was the market. The Civilian Conservation Corps built dams, bridges, retains, roads, and lakes and ponds. Roosevelt signed a bill giving farmers two hundred million dollars to help farmers facing foreclosure. The Volstead act permited the sale of 3.2 percent beer.

12. By some estimates their were 80 million acres in the southern plains stripped of their topsoil.

Let me preface this by saying that I love reading about history. Maybe my expectations for this book were too high, but I HATED it. 50 pages, 100 pages, 150 pages in I kept fighting the urge to put the book down and forget about it, but I kept hoping that it would get better. It didn't.

This book sucks. It was awful; horribly disappointing. It dragged and dragged and dragged, and when I finally finished it I returned it to the bookstore. I will never read it again and would not recommend it to anyone. There were a couple parts that were interesting, but most of it was mind-numbingly dull. Egan went into great (and in my opinion, needless) detail of the history and mundane details of many of the families, but not the kind of detail that contributes to the message of the book or gives you much insight characters.

There were too many narratives incorporated into the book, and it was difficult to keep the different families, individuals and cities straight, especially since many of their stories were so similar. I get it--everyone's animals died, nobody's plants would grow, dunes were high, and people had dust pneumonia. I wish Egan had further developed fewer stories; it would have made the book more engaging. He hopscotched between families, communities, politicians, and individuals constantly, making the book more difficult to read and appreciate.

It says it is "can't-put-it-down history" on the cover, but that is a complete lie. I honestly can't believe I finished it, it was so boring and I literally was able to read only 10 pages at a time because it was so utterly BORING. I expected more from this book. It read like a too-long chapter from a junior high history book. I have no doubt that the story of the dust bowl is fascinating, so I was extremely disappointed with this book.

I hate to use such a trite phrase, but there is no other way to put it: Mr. Egan makes history come alive. What was but a few paragraphs in my American history classes is related here as a very real and tragic event that happened to real people, not just faceless, unnamed masses. He truly portrays the overwhelming immensity of the Dust Bowl and its effect on the nation not only at the time, but even today. I highly recommend this amazing and enthralling story.

If you're hedging about reading The Worst Hard Time," thinking you already know everything about the dust bowl and the droughts on the Great Plains during the Depression era, don't. It's definitely not fiction and it's told by those whose families lived it. These people who settled and actually farmed in the areas of the Oklahoma & Texas panhandles were called nesters -- and for a while they had everything going for them -- until things went horribly wrong. This is their story, and while it's history, it's written in a style that makes you unable to stop reading (in my case, to stop listening -- I had it on CD).
The author has done an incredible amount of research and interviews, putting together the story of the Dust Bowl storms of the 1930s and their effects not only on the land, but on the economy, on people's health and mental state as well. After children started to die of dust pneumonia, for example, women questioned whether or not they should even be bringing more children into the world. Mothers had to put wet sheets over their babies' cribs, over the windows, and try to shut up any opening in their homes to try to hold back the wind (known as a duster) and its deadly cargo of dust. As things got worse and the economy started to dry up, some people took to canning Russian Thistles, tumbleweeds or yucca just to survive -- any livestock they may have had produced dust-laden milk. The food crop market bottomed out; farmers once prosperous from the earlier wheat boom were now selling off anything they could find just to keep their families fed and to try to hold the bankers at bay trying not to lose their farms. But the worst hard time began with Black Sunday, in April of '35 -- in which a gigantic duster blew and made the air so clogged with dirt that it was often fatal to just be outdoors since a person could choke to death due to the massive amounts of soil & dust in the air. Egan traces this period using the accounts of actual survivors of the time, and asks some hard questions regarding the root causes -- and questions and tries to figure out why people actually stayed rather than leave the miserable conditions. He also examines the government's role in finding solutions for these plains farmers.
The above is just a bare sketch of what's between the covers of this book. I HIGHLY recommend this one to anyone even remotely interested in the topic. I wouldn't necessarily call it an objective work of history (you can really feel the author's emotion throughout the pages), but it is history well worth reading. I wish more people would offer history done like this.

When I asked my Grandparents about the dust bowl, they would not say much at all about it - other than they had some crop failures - once I read this book, I realized how horrible a time it really was and that my Grandparents just wanted to move on with their lives and not think about those "Dark" times. This book tells what it was like from the perspective of many people who lived through the dust bowl - from the joyous beginnings to the tragic end. The scope of the dust bowl was incredible and the effect it had on people was heart wrenching. The author even discusses how the dust bowl affected different cultural groups, such as the Germans from Russia immigrants who were discriminated against during both world wars. Once you read this book, you will have a better understanding of the region, what happened during the storms, how the storms affected the nation as a whole, and how the Government started to realize it had to help our nation conserve our soil. The references are great and provide a stepping stone to more information if one is interested. A hard subject, a good read, and worth its weight when I took it on a 60 mile hike through the mountains of Washington this summer.

I've always considered my musical tastes to be rather broad, but I don't hold a candle to Tom Moon. His interesting (and thick) book "1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die" is far more than just another superfluous list of the "greatest songs of all time." Granted, musical taste is individual and personal, and not everyone will agree with every choice he's made, but there's plenty of variety, from pop and rock to classical and opera, from R & B and Hip Hop to Jazz and Musicals, and everything in between. He's even included lots of selections from around the world that will please the international listener.

I like the format of the book with the music listed alphabetically by artist or composer instead of ranked or grouped by genre, encouraging the reader to broaden their listening selections (there is a listing by genre in the back). Each entry, which is more often than not for a whole album, explains *why* he chose it and what he believes makes it worth hearing. My only complaint was with the format of each block of text, where three lines stretch across the page before switching to 2 columns - it gets a little confusing when you start the beginning of the second column. With each recording he includes notable other recordings from the same artist and also choices from similar artists. There's even a listing at the back that includes the works that didn't make the final 1000, but were close. And many readers will find the "occasions indexes" from the back of the book to be interesting, such as "romance enhancers," "play this for the kids," and "lazy sunday morning," among others.

Honestly, I was a bit skeptical, expecting just another compilation of songs, some I would agree or disagree with and most I would care less about. But reading his justifications made me want to give some songs and artists a second listen, or find others I'd never heard before. And I found myself not even feeling offended that many of my favorites didn't make his cut. While I'm not sure I'd agree with or even appreciate everything he's included, it's an incredible listing that is sure to broaden your musical horizons.

I gave this book four stars because while I have serious issues with the way the book is organized and the small type/font used, the book does list 1000 recordings and talks about each one in an effective manner.

Writing a book like this is an almost impossible task. After actually deciding on 1000 recordings to include in the book the author has to then explain why he picked the recordings. He does a good job in explaining what made each recording so great and why his readers should want to listen to the recording.

After discussing each recording the author then lists the Genre, Date Released, Key Tracks, Catalogue Choice (which lists one or more additional recordings by the artist), Next Stop (which lists a similar artist) and After That (which references a recording less directly related to the one listed.) This is a nice formula and makes for interesting reading.

The fact that the listings for the recordings are done so well makes the way they are listed all the more frustrating. The recordings are listed alphabetically by artist. This makes for good reading if you want to look up a particular artist and see whether you agree with the recording the author chose or if you want to see which artists are included or excluded. It makes it very hard if you want to learn about recordings in a particular genre.

For instance I like Jazz. I am interested in listening to someone new to me. Let's say I want to see which Jazz recordings the author thought were the best and read about them so I can go out and buy a new cd. In order to do this I would have to:

1. Page through the book and stop at the selections that talk about a Jazz recording;
2. Look up Jazz musicians I already know and see whom the author thinks is similar; or,
3. Go to the end of the selections where there is a "Musical Genres Index" on page 894 which breaks the music into Blues, Classical, Country, Electronica, Folk, Gospel, Hip-hop, Jazz, Musicals, Pop, R&B, Rock, Vocals and World. Within these genres the artists are listed alphabetically.

While option number three is the best option, I would have to mark the page where the Jazz category starts, look up an artist, go find the artist in the book and then, when I was done reading, go to the back of the book and start the process all over again and again and again.

It would have been so much simpler to include the recordings by category in the first place so a reader could learn about artists who recorded the same type of music by just turning a page. The author also includes an Occasion index, a Classical and Opera Performers Index and a General Index. The indexes are a great addition but force a person to go back and forth way too much. It would have been so much more useful to have the recordings listed by category.

My other complaint is the type size and or font. The first three sentences of each recording (as well as the introduction) have type the size of what I would expect in a paperback. Then for the rest of the recording description the type seems to get gets smaller and the spacing between sentences smaller as well. I am not an expert on type size or spacing so I can't tell if the font is different or if the type size is made a bit smaller (which is my guess) but in either case it is hard to read.

In order to list 1000 recoding in any detail in one book that can be carried around I know type size is an issue. Yet the book measures 7.5 by 5 inches and is about two inches thick. It is the size of a slightly large paperback. The book could have been made bigger or thicker in order to have larger type.

I don't wear reading glasses and my eyes have grown weaker with age but the type is much smaller than most books or any newspapers I have read. The smaller type makes this more of a chore for me. I do read a lot so I rarely have this problem.

I commend the author and publisher for creating this book. I agree with some of the choices and disagree with others. You expect this in this type of a book. Yet, the book would have been so much better if it listed the recordings by genre and had bigger type.

Something in me WANTED to give this book a mediocre rating--its part of a "franchise" of sorts (see 1000 Places to See Before You Die G), and generally I abhor glib and messy little collections of "the best" of whatever.

This book is different. Trust me, if you are a connoisseur of any musical genre, you will not be able to put this book down. It is, above all, the little meaty and nourishing and satisfying turns of speech that author Tom Moon uses in his entries which draws one in again and again. Examples: (Regarding the Beatles' "Abbey Road") "A parade of discards and song frangments waiting to be finished, it presents the Beatles cleaning out the cupboards, and tossing anything once deemed workable ... into one last meal;" (regarding Mahler's Symphony No. 4) "When... first issued ... some scholars derided conductor Willem Mengelberg's elastic, shape-shifting interpretation;" (regarding Procol Harem's "A Whiter Shade of Pale") "Brian Wilson thought he was hearing the music to his own funeral when it was playing." Fantastic writing, folks! This is one awesome book not only for casual browsing, but also true insight into an amazing range of musical genres.

Some other minor brownie points and/or beefs:

1. Well, everyone will find some things to quibble over. For me there are glaring omissions (e.g. there is nothing by Coldplay, the Moody Blues or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young). The "country" genre listings seem a little weak. Moon also seems to love a lot of early 20th century mono recordings of classical pieces. But this is really nitpicking.

2. I'm still not sure about the alphabetical organization scheme. Genre groupings make more sense, although there are problems with that too. In the end, there are serendipitous juxtapositions which make the browsing all the more satisfying (e.g., blues artist John Lee Hooker faces the page with Gustav Holst--Fatboy Slim next to Faure was also a hoot). Ultimately the alpha listings became no-problemo when I discovered the indexes in the back--by genre, geophraphy, you name it.

3. My favorite index is a kind of collection of super playlists called "Occasions Index", with titles such as "Get the Party Started," "Romance Enhancers," "Headphone Journey," "Superman's Earbuds," etc., etc. The deeper I burrowed into this fat little book the more impressed and hooked I became.

Out of all the music released in the world from opera to rock, R&B, classical, jazz..etc. you would think that narrowing them all down to 1000 essential recordings would be a difficult task. Well, it is! The good news is this book by Tom Moon does a wonderful, if not perfect, job doing just that! The minor bad news is, as you would expect, it only skims the surface of each respected genre. For example, as a rock fan, I found that a majority of bands discussed had one or two recordings listed when in fact they may deserve four or five if you like that particular artist. I do not want to quibble as this is a perfect book for music lovers and those interested in starting a music collection as it serves as a great introduction to music you may not be familiar with.

As a big fan of music myself who listens to many different genres my knowledge of classical is very limited. This book clearly defines the cream of the crop in classical for those looking to have a starter collection. Of course every person's tastes differ so it is up to the listener to take the next step and to pursue those recommended artists further. The artists are listed alphabetically, however, some of the classical recommendations are under the composer's name as opposed to the performer's depending on significance. For example Mozart will be listed in the M's as his compositions supercede the performances. The book does try to provide a solution to this problem by including two separate indexes for classical, one by the composer and the other by performer.

I own a similar book that lists 1000 essential listening recordings in classic rock so you would imagine that this book is really meant as a quick reference guide as opposed to being a definitive list. If you know someone who loves music as I do or someone looking to start their own collection and do not know where to begin, this is highly recommended. Even if your knowledge of music is more than the average person it stills makes for an interesting read. The author does a great job in each entry of listing the important tracks from the recording, the genre, the release date, similar artists and where your next stop should be to further explore the artist. Arguments can be made about selections but more often than not, this book meets and exceeds it's goal.

Are you tired of being assaulted by prefabricated, disposable music? Are you irritated by incessant media coverage of the lip-syncing teen flavor-of-the-month? Are you sick of music guides based on online popularity contests? If so, you need to own this book!

This is the rare book that completely lives up to its product description. It's interesting and well written. It will cause you to revisit stuff that has been submerged in your collection. It will help you to discover music that lies beyond your usual listening boundaries. Most importantly, Tom Moon is enthusiastic and well informed about an incredibly wide range of styles and genres.

The best aspect of this book, however, is that it reflects the taste and experience of one person. Let's face it: the Zagat's/American Idol/MySpace/Yelp method of mass voting ends up glorifying the lowest common denominator. Anything that is unique, quirky, or challenging gets buried and marginalized.

Moon, on the other hand, is able to establish a consistent tone and viewpoint that gives him the space to include both the expected (come on, you know Dark Side of the Moon, Kind of Blue, and Beethoven's Ninth are going to be included in a book like this) and the unexpected. For instance, Learning to Crawl instead of Pretenders? The Shape of Jazz to Come and not This Is Our Music? Take Ten over Time Out? This is where the strength of having a single author really comes out. When you disagree with Moon, you always know where he's coming from and you can intelligently decide if you buy into his perspective or not.

Other things I love about this book:

*While Moon writes most fluently about jazz, he has an unpretentious approach to classical music that is very refreshing. All too often, classical music writing is stuffy and pedantic (ever try reading through program notes at the symphony? No wonder people fall asleep!).

*The focus is on full albums, not just single tracks. Call me old school, but I think downloadable music has sent the record companies back to a 1950's mentality where albums are just a couple of hits surrounded by filler. That is not a good thing.

*Moon takes care to tell readers which edition or release to buy if inferior versions are on the market. He also recommends additional works by the composer or artist and, best of all, albums by other artists who might not spring to mind at first glance.

*American Idol really is killing music. Moon says it best in his review of Al Green's Call Me: "Thanks to the enormous popularity of TV's American Idol, the ideal of singing in this great land has devolved into a kind of extreme sport--empty athletic expressions, bombastic shows of brutal lung power." I second that emotion.


Anybody who cares about listening to music and collecting music will enjoy this book.



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Postscript:
Genre guides I enjoy and use often:
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Ninth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings)
The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and DVDs Yearbook 2006/07 Edition (Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Dvds Yearbook)
The New Rolling Stone Record Guide
Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984

I purchased this book for a college course I'm taking. The book came promptly and in excellent condition. Would definitely recommend...

This book provides wonderful baseline knowledge about process of film making from the fruition of an idea to the completion of a movie and beyond. What makes this book especially wonderful is its excellent array of examples.

I highly recommend anyone, student or otherwise, to stay away from this book unless you want to spend a lot of money on something that presents only about 15% useful and straightforward information. Also, most of the terms used in this book, while being unnecessary, are simultaneously made up by the authors, particularly because they are rarely or never used in the actual movie business. So again, unless this is a required book for your film class, go buy a seperate book for cinematography, editing, history, sound, or whatever unit you are studying. You'll probably find them to be more critical and explicit. That's my 2 cents. Pz.

3.5 stars

Though there are some memorable characters, I did not find this a compelling book at all.There are some great images, primarily dealing with the characters, the deaf yelling landlady, the large simple murderer, the hat boys, the dentist, the doctor, the very New England factory owner. In many ways I found them more interesting than the main characters of Ren and Benjamin and in some cases more sympathetic. Though reasonably developed, I never warmed up much to Ren or understood his actions, and I found Benjamin to just be irredeemably amoral.

The plot I found to be pedestrian and borderline confusing despite a paradoxical simplicity. Much happens with little explanation. Though there is a delightfully nasty twist at the end over all I found the story unsatisfying.

This was a brilliant work. Very well executed. Complex characters you can empathize with. Masterful plot twists. Hannah Tinti manages to outDickens Dickens with The Good Thief, and I am in awe of her writing abilities. I'm recommending this to anyone who appreciates dark Lit. Outstanding.

That is not to say that this is a bad book, because it most definitely isn't. But the characterization and description and especially the plot was simply not that compelling to me. I finished the book but it was a struggle, even though it has some really lyrical writing in places. I gave it four stars because the level of writing was so good even if the plot failed to engage my interest.

The Good Thief strikes me as one of those books that you will either love or hate. Certain elements are remarkably well crafted but others just left me cold. I guess this makes it a great choice for a discussion group.

First the negatives: I am one of those readers who cannot for the life of me get into a book unless I can relate to and/or empathize with the main characters. In The Good Thief, Ren is adopted by Benjamin, his "long-lost brother" who is actually a thief/con-man/grave robber/whatever is shady and profitable. On their first night together, Benjamin talks his way into the good graces of an honest farmer and then proceeds to steal his only horse and wagon. Such an evil act so early in the book left me totally apathetic as to what became of him in the end. It also left me with no trust of anything that that he said later on which means I'm still not totally sure that what I thought happened at the end really happened.

On the up-side, Hannah Tinti has a remarkable ability to use prose to create stunning visual tableaus. One scene I found particularly chilling was where a woman exploring a mine discovered the remains of several long-lost miners, skeletons posed to suggest that they spent their last hours huddled together in the dark for warmth. While I couldn't bring myself to care for Benjamin, my heart certainly went out to the miners. Another scene reflected a darkly comical turn when the subject of a grave robbery woke up in the back of the robbers' wagon.

Unfortunately, the ability to write great scenes does not extend to tying them together into a seamless narrative. The end result is a choppy story with less than appealing characters. Ultimately, I really didn't care that much what happened.

I was initially intrigued by the premise of The Good Thief; an orphan with a missing hand, a mysterious past, and an historical New England setting seemed like a solid combination. At first, I thought I'd found a solid first novel, and one that had a lot to offer the over-crowded young adult fiction section.

But The Good Thief isn't a young adult novel - or is it? I waffled back and forth between the evidence: a simplistic, almost fable-like writing style, a young child protagonist, and a bit of adventure and even mysticism thrown in suggested that this book would be best enjoyed by the YA crowd. Suggestive content and a lack of character development (strong characters are often the strength of YA novels) and a convoluted plot suggest otherwise. Frankly, it's as though Tinti simply couldn't make up her mind as to what kind of novel she wanted to write, and her editors did her a serious disservice by not guiding her onto one path or the other. This would have been a perfectly delightful YA book, but some of Tinti's choices make it seem like she was deliberately avoiding that path, and the story really suffers for it.

Perhaps most perplexing is the plot; at times bordering on random, readers may sense Tinti's desire to branch into magical realism, but she's never brave enough to fully make the plunge. She makes a few historical errors (e.g., twins weren't killed in 1800's New England, and tarring and feathering was fatal), and her setting never feels quite believable. One gets the sense that the fault is not so much with the novelist, but with the editor; some guidance here and there would have made this a much tighter novel, and eliminated distracting errors.

Tinti is not only working with rich material ("resurrection men" and orphans are just plain fun to read about), but she also delves into more heady subjects, like what it means to be good. If you suspend your disbelief and power through when the plot starts to feel a bit over the top, there's enough talent and ability here to make for a fun read.

'The Return of History' is virtually an afterdinner monologue. 'The Return of History holds that political realism is the order of the day but the book lacks arguements and fails to deliver a broad presentation of facts. The book more or less contains the sort of opinions one might glom onto after reading newspaper headlines.

The author, Robert Kagan, is a brilliant writer, historian and political scientist, much too bright to be a part of the Dick Cheney staff, yet he conceals those prejudices in his writing. He has become one of my favorite authors, and this book is a wonderful study of the history of America's expansionist foreigh policy.

In this book, Kagan offers a brief and concise overview of contemporary geopolitics in an increasingly multi-polar world. The hope at the end of the Cold War was that liberal values of democracy and capitalism would spread internationally. The resulting economic interdependence and shared prosperity would result in an end to historic conflicts rooted in differences in ideology, competition for resources or pursuit of power. However, over the course of the past 10-20 years US global hegemonic power has diminished as other powers have arisen whose national characteristics are not shaped chiefly by liberal values. Nations that are happily autocratic instead of democratic wield increasing power and have economic interests that do not always harmonize perfectly with the rest. Geopolitical alliances among many different actors become increasingly complex as support is sought to develop or maintain regional influence, protect ideology, pursue economic interests or maintain sovereignty. These diplomatic relations reflect more the many competing identities present in the geopolitical landscape of the 19th century than a contemporary vision of a world with one shared identity and one common pursuit. Happily, the book is not as moralizing and despairing as the title suggests. However, clearly the new global scenario revealed does present its own challenges that will need to be addressed by present and future leaders. The author does occasionally attribute current developments in the modern geopolitical landscape to his pessimistic fundamental beliefs about human nature, however these remarks are few and far between and the author does not overtly seek to make this the crux of the story. Overall, I found this a quick and useful read to bring one up to speed on current geopolitical happenings and would recommend it.

This short book reads more like a long essay than a book and focuses on the post-Cold War world. Like many recent books, this book is also concerned with the United States' current position in the world given the rise of China, the EU, Russia and Iran. The underlying thesis is that in the years to come states will align themselves not based on region or culture, but rather by form of government and foreign policy. In other words, the world's democracies will strengthen ties amongst themselves by way of economic and political ties while the world's autocracies (namely China, Russia and Iran) will further strengthen its bonds, thereby creating a counterbalance to western democracies. In many respects, such an alignment is already underway and there are no signs of letting up. Kagan suggests that liberal democracy has survived the most deadly century of mankind and it is stronger than it ever has been globally. He doesn't argue that democracy is the superior form of government, but he clearly recognizes that if the world is ever to succeed in its quest for worldwide peace and prosperity, it will be up to the United States and the rest of the world's democracies to get us there. But for the time being, post-Cold War dreams of global unity and cooperation have failed and history as we knew it has returned.

Reading Kagan after Zakaria's The Post-American World is refreshing. It feels as though I'm returning to the real world. This is partly because Kagan is an Historical Realist. It is also because Zakaria is an idealist. He may deny that classification, but he has faith in his statistics, trends and economic forecasts. He looks toward the future confident in what his numbers tell him. He has tasted European idealism and declared it good. The EU followed by a host if idealistic followers has been dreaming. Not only that, they have been operating as though their dreams were a reality. Marx dreamed similar dreams long ago. First he dreamed them and then someone made a reality of them. But things can go wrong when the rest of the world isn't dreaming with you.

Kagan, unlike Zakaria, looks at the present in terms of the past. He sees the return of 19th century power politics - something Fukuyama scoffed at. For Kagan, the EU experiment isn't working very well.

On page 20 Kagan writes, "So what happens when a twenty-first-century entity like the EU faces the challenge of a traditional power like Russia? The answer will play itself out in coming years, but the contours of the conflict are already emerging - in diplomatic standoffs over Kosovo, Ukraine, Georgia, and Estonia; in conflicts over gas and oil pipelines; in nasty diplomatic exchanges between Russian and Great Britain; and in a return of Russian military exercises of a kind not seen since the Cold war.

"Europeans are apprehensive and have reason to be. The nations of the European Union placed a mammoth bet in the 1990s. They bet on the new world order, on the primacy of geo-economics over geopolitics, in which a huge and productive European economy would compete as an equal with the United States and China. . . They cut back on their defense budgets and slowed the modernization of their militaries, calculating that soft power was in and hard power was out. They believed Europe would be a model for the world, and in a world modeled after the European Union, Europe would be strong.

"For a while this seemed a good bet. . . [but] with Russia back on its feet and seeking to restore its great power status, including predominance in its traditional spheres of influence, Europe finds itself in a most unexpected and unwanted position of geopolitical competition. This great twenty-first-century entity has, through enlargement, embroiled itself in a very nineteenth-century confrontation.

"Europe may be ill-equipped to respond to a problem that it never anticipated having to face. . . Many western Europeans already regret having brought the eastern European countries into the Union and are unlikely to seek even more confrontations with Russia by admitting such states as Georgia and Ukraine."

Kagan wrote his book before Russia invaded Georgia, but he saw that coming. He writes on page 24, "What would Europe and the United States do if Russia played hardball in either Ukraine or Georgia? They might well do nothing. Post-modern Europe can scarcely bring itself to contemplate a return of conflict involving a great power and will go to great lengths to avoid it. Nor is the United States eager to take on Russia when it is so absorbed in the Middle East. Nevertheless, a Russian confrontation with Ukraine or Georgia would usher in a brand-new world - or rather a very old world. As one Swedish analyst has noted, `We're in a new era of geopolitics. You can't pretend otherwise.'"

Will Kane threw his badge in the dirt and rode out of town, and the town didn't care. Frank Miller was dead. Who needs Will Kane? But then a few years later Frank Miller, wearing a ski mask, rises from his grave. He isn't dead after all. Quick, send for Will Kane. Does anyone know where Will Kane is?

Lawrence Helm
www.lawrencehelm.com

It does not take a trained eye to see that there are basic similarities between animals -- this is, after all what allows humans to "play" horses and dragons and cats with just a wee bit of makeup and costuming. Most mammals, birds, lizards, fish and even insects have a head, a body and various appendages stick out for locomotion, manipulation and catching prey. But are these similarities just apparent, or do they go deeper?

Biologist Neil Shubin documents the fascinating truth that human beings (and birds, bees, etc.) share fundamental body patterns with each other. And that these patterns are well-nigh ubiquitous. Shubin examines the common animal limb pattern: one upper bone, connected to two lower bones, connected to blobs of wrist bones, connected to a number of elongated digits. To make a bat wing, lengthen the digits and cover them with skin. To make a horse hoof, elongate the middle finger and fused the others into a solid mass. But our similarities go much deeper, and Shubin provides a fascinating tour through the world of embryology. It's here that scientists have discovered, by painstaking trial and error, the chemical messengers that form our bodies from formless blobs of cells. He discusses the Hox gene (found in humans, mice, fruit lies and much animal life) that programs an embryo's head-to-tail features. He shows how distance from ZPA (a patch of organizing tissue) determines the length of fingers, turning some into pinkies and some into thumbs.

The book is interesting, often exhilarating, and hard to put down. What's neat is the glimpse we get into the toilsome work of the scientists who collect, prepare and analyze fossils. It takes years of work, sharp eyes, luck and a knack for puzzle solving to piece together, say, the story of how mammals developed precise chewing - an ability that reptiles do not have. A tiny tooth found on a beach in Nova Scotia can fill in the gaps of how and when the transition from reptile-style toothedness and mammal-style dentition came about.

I had only two criticisms. Unlike Stephen Jay Gould, who tends to write far above the heads of intelligent readers, Shubin tends to write down a bit. Unlike Gould, Shubin avoids scientific jargon, to a degree that is curious. Secondly, he leaves some rather large gaps in his tale. While it is interesting that animals tend to have the same skeletal limb structure, why did they adopt this structure? Is the one bone/two bone/blobs/digits model the only one that works out of water? And why/how did the creatures begin to move in the direction of limbedness? In the ongoing debate between evolution and creationism, such insights would have helped answer the nagging questions that even proponents of evolution have about the mechanisms behind it.

Still, "Your Inner Fish" is an accessible and informative read about the personal process of collecting bones and the intriguing conclusions that science has made about our relationship with all (and I mean all!) animal life. The next time you listen to the radio, thank the ancient fish whose jawbones evolved into the bones of your ears. And give a thought to box jellies, with whom we share the basic mechanisms of sight.

Written in an informal, but informative style, "Your Inner Fish" communicates the relationships between living organisms and the coping strategies involved in the adaptation to a changing environment. This book was a joy to read.

Neil Shubin, codiscoverer of the Tiktaalit, shows in this book that to become a human you must first become a fish. Its a wonderful argument against the notion of `intelligent design'. Or would you call a car manufacturer intelligent who makes a Mercedes by first building a wooden coach? Nevertheless there is an unwholesome streak of creationism and anti-darwinism in Shubins otherwise lucid descriptions, a streak which seems to belong to US-American culture like Samba belongs to Brazil. For example, he criticizes Haeckels `ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny' understanding of the way evolution shows up in embryos when Haeckel "would compare a human embryo to an adult fish". But any changes in the features of an embryo - like going from fish to human - require the action of natural selection to have acted once. Now, natural selection operates on the reproduction success of an animal, and that means adults. Therefore, for any developmental stage of an embryo, there must have existed an adult creature that had evolved just to this stage; and when you trace the embryonic development, a fossil must exist at every level that had achieved just this stage. To understand the embyro, you need to understand Natural selection, which means you must understand the reproduction success of the adult. It does not suffice to compare the embryos of different species - their "blueprints" ; Shubin just loves to talk all the time about "blueprints", which is a typical design term. Tracing embryos runs parallel to tracing the fossils of adults.
For another example, look at the way he describes the recent research situation when it was found that "in many single-celled animals, much of the molecular machinery for cell adhesion, interaction, and so on is just not there", which "would seem to support the notion that the genes that help cells unite to make bodies arose together with the origin of bodies. And at first glance, it seems to make sense that the tools to build bodies should arise in lockstep with the bodies themselves." This idea makes sense, yes - if you are a creationist. If you think like Haeckel, this is nonsense because for selection to produce bodies there must have been a single cell animal with all the needed machinery existing. And as Shubin beautifully narrates, just such an animal turned up : the choanoflagellates.
Science has been kind to Haeckel, contrary to what Shubin asserts in the book.
Despite my reservations, I highly recommend his book because of Shubins genuine enthusiasm for his subject, and the wealth of new results that he presents. If it had more of Dawkins and much less Gould in it, it would have been splendid. The pictures are as miserable as I have come to expect nowadays in good books about science.

Through extensive fossil records and geneology, Mr. Shubin takes the reader through the development of single celled organisms (bacteria), multi-cell (jellyfish), bodies (worms), skull (fish), hands and feet (reptiles), three-boned middle ear (mammals), and finally, bipedal with large brain (humans).

We have in us anatomical design improvements that can take us only so far from our water borne ancestors. Mr. Shubin asserts if humans were designed from scratch, "we would not have to suffer everything from hemorrhoids to cancer."

If, like me, you have always wondered why the male scrotum tucks close to the body in chilly weather, "Your Inner Fish" is an excellent source.

Curiously, Mr. Shubin made no mention of how a Cro-Magnon was able to win the U.S. presidency twice; in 2000 and 2004.

I am enjoying reading this, 30 years after taking a course covering much of the portion of the book I have so far completed. The authors enthusiasm for the subject and articulate writing style would make this a good read for anyone with out a lot of biology background who wants to have a better understanding of form and function and how it came to be.

One of my favorite college texts. I was assigned this book for a course on National Security. My only issue with this book is that it seems to have been written in pieces. The first two chapters were very academic and I had to look up a LOT of words in the dictionary! The rest of the book (6 chapters, I think) was much easier. I liked the chapters on how Evangelicals and Hollywood effected militarization. Also, politicians are always saying they support the troops but don't enlist or let their children enlist.

Unfortunately, Bacevich's son died in combat recently.

The author is a Vietnam vet and admits to be a conservative and on the right and he fairly critisizes past Presidential offices and describes why America is on the warpath from past trends and decisions.

Andrew J. Bacevich's New American Militarism is an informative, insightful, methodical analysis of key influences that have created American militarism, of how it came to be as it is. It is careful delineation of the parts influencing how G. W. Bush and the current administration arrived at their current policy, and why they regard the use of force and the deployment of American military forces throughout the world as paramount components of our foreign policy, despite warnings to the contrary from the nation's Founders. From his description of Woodrow Wilson's original interventionist intent (a moral vision shared with both Carter and Reagan, manifesting itself in vastly different ways in their respective presidencies, and one that GW Bush would adopt after 9/11), to the impact on the public's psyche of the mass media and Hollywood, the long term investment in particular world views of the evangelical right, neo-cons and the officers' corps under decades of Cold War influence--he meticulously traces how the parts fit together, and who played what role. This writer found his narration of the on-going influence of Albert Wohlstetter, the RAND Corporation and Robert McNamara, and their subsequent impact on Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and Bush (II) to be particularly interesting. Simultaneously informative and frustrating was his description of evangelicals; it brought home the point that a thorough reading of Mark Twain's War Prayer would probably leave little impression on many of them.
His tying together of such seemingly disparate leaders as Carter and Hoover, Reagan and Roosevelt, Wilson and Bush, show recurring trends in how the government approaches the leviathan that is our armed forces. Bacevich describes a juggernaut used for global power projection, where all the principal policy players (presidents and presidential candidates, Congress, etc.) know that bigger is essential--as Carter discovered to his electoral dismay after delivering his Crisis of Conscience speech. (pgs. 100-102) Without falling into diatribe or invective against any of those he describes, it is quite clear who stands out as Bacevich's exemplars and who comes up short. We see the myriad influences that have lead to President Bush's Orwellian injunction that this country must go on the offense and stay on the offense, and simultaneously understand that is not a new concept with GW, as we see from C. Wright Mills' 1956 commentary on the subject, that "the only accepted `plan' for peace is the loaded pistol."
The author's description of the convictions of second generation neo-cons (heirs to the ideological likes of Podhoretz and Kagan), is instructive in that it is a mirror reflection of the current administration's SOP (American global dominion is benign and other nations necessarily see it as such, failure on the part of the US to sustain its imperium would inevitable result in global disorder, nothing works like force, commitment to sustaining and enhancing American military supremacy is essential and, a political realism is viewed with hostility, whether manifesting itself as a deficit of ideals or an excess of caution).
Bacevich sees that culpability for the current situation is cumulative, and while one or another of the players may share more responsibility for our current predicament, laying blame accomplishes nothing and does not address the issues and challenges our militarism confronts us with. The author makes it clear that (as Madison puts it) "...No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." With these points in mind, Bacevich offers in his final chapter, Common Defense, a plan of action--ten fundamental principles to abate present militaristic tendencies (heed the intentions of the Founders, revitalize the concept of separation of powers, view force as a last resort, enhance US strategic self-sufficiency, organize US forces explicitly for national defense, devise an appropriate gauge for determining the level of US defense spending, enhance alternative instruments of statecraft, revive the moribund concept of the citizen-soldier, re-examine the role of the National Guard and reserve components, and reconcile the American military profession to American society). (pgs. 208-221) I would include a final essential point in Bacevich's ten principles to avert expanding militarism--unceasing engagement, for it is only through consistent contact that we can hope to engage both our allies and foes. The indelible conclusion one draws from New American Militarism is that there are a multitude of issues that must be simultaneously addressed in order to curtain our reliance on overt militarism as a tool of foreign policy, but Bacevich also makes it clear that such a process of redress is possible. An excellent read for anyone in the armed forces, who has a family member in the military, or who has an interest in the symbiotic relationship between American society and its military.

The best books are those that challenge conventional thinking and have the intellectual weight to back up that challenge. This book is one of those. The author, a Vietnam vet and West Pointer, has the credentials and knows the military from the inside, which gives his argument particular strength and provides the reader with information not otherwise easily available. Is it really necessary that the United States have a military machine as large as it does? In these troubled times, that's a view that wins easy assent. But this book will make you think twice.

Judging by his track record, Bacevich might appear as a true-blue conservative, a West Point graduate, Vietnam veteran, and soldier for 23 years. He currently teaches at Boston University and has contributed to conservative magazines such as the Weekly Standard and the National Review. He was a former Bush Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. Nevertheless, his analysis of evolving military doctrines shows no bias for any party.

this book is great, and is very informative, however it is not the most recent edition of the book. the newer edition is much more thorough.

I was quite dissapointed with my purchase. The seller could have stated in his discription that the book had water damage. Pages were stuck together. I would have bought from a different seller had I known about terrible condition of the book.

The item was in great condition. This book was very expensive in the college bookstore. It is well worth going online to save money on these college textbooks.

I gave 4 stars only because I don't remember if there were any problems with the length of time between ordering and receiving, but the book was in perfect condition. Thanks.

we just got these books for my art history class, and this thing is amazing. color photots, detailed information, and interactive site. yeah, its nice

oh, and FYI im 14, not 13. i just didnt feel like registering with amazon lol

Left to Tell is a powerful story of one womens tragedies and survival experienced during the Genocide in Rwanda. This book brought tears and joy to my heart; it inspired me to know that through any horrible and life threatening experience a belief and faith in God will transcend all atrocities man will commit. It is also about how forgiveness can calm and soothe the soul so life can move on with peace in your heart.

I think this is an excellent book, I could not put it down. I ended up reading till 3 in the morning.

I had never heard of Immaculee Ilibagiza before I picked this book up in my local book store. I bought it after reading the back cover and I will never look at life the same again. Immaculee's ability to forgive is something we all should strive for; however, I think none will find the ability within themselves. It can only come from God, just like Immaculee's did. This book will make you cry, it will make you smile but most of all it will make you discard those petty little things that used to irritate you. I will keep this book and will probably read it again and again.

This book was truly life changing for me. When I find myself sweating the little things in life (i.e bills, pregnancy woes, hot weather)I remember Immaculee holed up in this tiny bathroom just praying and pleading for her life. She painted such a horrific picture I simply cannot forget. The killers were calling her name! What a humbling and amazing story she has to tell I literally could not put this book down..at the same time I was educated about how the Rwandan Holocaust all came to be..I had no idea what these poor people went through, the Hutus and the Tutsis became real to me. Who would have thought something like this still happens but this was just the 90's. In the beginning of her book, I smiled through tears as she described the tight knit Catholic family she was reared in--how strong and wise her daddy was, how much she loved her brothers with everything in her being, and how her mother was there until the end to protect her "babies". I was fortunate a few weeks after reading her book to see Immaculee speak at a local venue in Dallas. She was beautiful in person and her joy could light up an entire room. She was filled with the Holy Spirit and it was obvious how humbled she has been. I just kept thinking this woman has lost her entire extended family and she even had the grace to forgive those who killed her own. Forgiveness is the message I took from the book. Life is too short to carry the burden of not forgiving others who we think have wronged us. Excellent read with a message that will keep you thinking long after you read the book!!

I started reading this book before bed, big mistake on my part. I stayed up entranced by this book and continued reading until I couldn't stay awake. The first thing I did the next morning was pick this book back up and finished it. (Which only took a half hour)

I am absolutely amazed at Immaculee's ability to maintain her connection with God while surrounded by such hate. Immaculee shares her story of how she not only survived the Rwandan Holocaust, but how she forgave the killers of her family. This is an inspiring book which confirms how great humans really can be.