Eras Books

Having experienced schizophrenia firsthand in my immediate family beginning in the 1950s, I was interested in seeing what medical explanations are being explored and what progress has been made regarding this devastating illness. This book beautifully presents necessary background data on brain function and on basic chemistry and genetics, and then gives lucidly presented information about new strategies and treatments. Various fields of medicine, genetics, and chemistry are coming together to present the real albeit complex picture of what these awful illnesses are about and how we can work to live with them or overcome them. Mental illness must be liberated from individual guilt, shame, and social stigma, which are still very strong in human society. Only knowledge of the facts can free us from these crippling attitudes, and this terrific book goes a long way to help. The author's PhD in literature also adds a humanistic touch to a scientific work, which I deeply appreciated.

BRAVE NEW BRAIN follows up the classic THE BROKEN BRAIN, both written by Dr. Nancy Andreasen. She is a recent winner of the National Medal of Science, and a great thinker in the fields of medicine and philosophy of medicine. The book is written for the general public so they will become part of the great revolution of knowledge in the neurosciences. She details not only traditional psychiatric illnesses, but expands this view into the neurological illnesses. This is important as now psychiatry and neurology begin to merge, each developing a new respect for the field of the other. She details how psychiatry cannot solve all of our modern day society's woes, but must turn these over to individuals to seek answers. A recommended book for any public or private library.

As a society we face, is it medicine or out of my house. We have some knowledge of medicine but what we don't have is knowldege of what to do with our nations poor, we need to think about this. Walking is important for people on medications but they don't tell you about this. What they don't tell you is not to drink coffee's etc. Or that many over the counters in general are bad. Our knowledge continues to grow as a society, however, there are many things we don't know. Nancy C Andreason gives a good review of things, and a well rounded perspective of things in her Brave New Brain. I am interested in also her genetics research as well. I believe the NAMI which she has mentioned is not the best helping organization though, and there is not much outside support or resources to help disabeled people which I think we need more of, when they don't have there families anymore. We need to think about how we are going to house homeless etc.

Having experienced schizophrenia firsthand in my immediate family beginning in the 1950s, I was interested in seeing what medical explanations are being explored and what progress has been made regarding this devastating illness. This book beautifully presents necessary background data on brain function and on basic chemistry and genetics, and then gives lucidly presented information about new strategies and treatments. Various fields of medicine, genetics, and chemistry are coming together to present the real albeit complex picture of what these awful illnesses are about and how we can work to live with them or overcome them. Mental illness must be liberated from individual guilt, shame, and social stigma, which are still very strong in human society. Only knowledge of the facts can free us from these crippling attitudes, and this terrific book goes a long way to help. The author's PhD in literature also adds a humanistic touch to a scientific work, which I deeply appreciated.

Nancy Andreasen is one of the top researchers in the field of Schizophrenia so is a good person to write this book. This is a very good book on the underlying causes of schizophrenia and other brain diseases and prospects better treatments and cures based on this knowledge. Great reading for a person who wants a better understanding of how the genetics revolution is impacting our knowledge of mental illness. Writen for a layman with some background or interest in science and biology.

It's a shame Columbia University Press, like most university presses, charges so much for its books. But don't let that dissuade you here. This is a brilliant and important book.

In this book, Professor Woods looks at the Catholic Church in America during the first 20 years of the twentieth century, which roughly coincide with the pontificate of St. Pius X. The book gives you an idea of what it was like to be a Catholic before the deluge of dissent and disaster that afflicted us in the '60s. That in itself is something worth doing.

But Woods does much more here. He shows that the pictures people often paint of the pre-conciliar Church are not accurate. It was not opposed to all new ideas, etc. Catholics engaged with the culture, but unlike today they did not permit themselves to be overwhelmed by it. They even said that America needed to be converted to Catholicism - and other forbidden statements no one will ever hear from an American bishop today.

Now bear in mind, this is a demanding book. If you've read Professor Woods' delightful Politically Incorrect Guide to American History and are expecting something similar, think again. This is a serious scholarly work, as its many endorsements in respected historical journals attest.

At the same time, it is intended not only for academics but also for the educated general public. It shows us a Catholic Church in America in which Catholics actually spoke and acted like Catholics - shocking! Professor Woods is to be commended for this brilliant study.

This precisely written, well researched book compares and contrasts Catholic and Progressive intellectual thought during the early 1900's. On some issues, such as organized labor, Catholics and Progressives reached similar conclusions. On others, such as education, they could not have been further apart. On all issues, a great fundamental difference applied: does man exist to serve man, or to serve God? So, although both sides might settle on similar remedies for social problems, their underlying principles were so different that conflict was inevitable. Progressives viewed dogma of any kind as a social nuisance or something to be dispensed with entirely. Catholics naturally held dogma to be fundamental to a well-ordered society. Progressives (generally) viewed man as a servant of the state; Catholics viewed society as the servant of man. Progressives were primarily concerned with the advancement of the state; Catholics with the salvation of the soul. Woods does a thoroughly excellent job of articulating these and other philosophical differences. In doing so, he gives us a remarkably clear picture of that time in America, as well as allowing us to judge how things have progressed--or regressed--on issues like education over this last century.

I have just finished reading THE CHURCH CONFRONTS MODERNITY - Catholic Intellectuals & the Progressive Era by Thomas E. Woods Jr., taking the time to highlight in detail this excellent work for future reference in the fight for the heart and soul of the Church being waged by Catholics who know their faith, as opposed to those who are having it subtly stolen from them. Before I was even a third of the way through the book I had gone through a highlighter, which gives an indication of the importance of what Dr. Woods is saying to what is left of the Catholic world, post the ambiguities of Vatican II, in particular, post the efforts of those who would destroy the Church from within.

To be technically correct, in THE CHURCH CONFRONTS MODERNITY, hereafter referred to as CCM, Woods not only tells it like it is, but how it used to be, and, if the Church is going to survive as a viable institution in serving as the world's repository of Perfect Truth, Who is a Someone, not a something for salvations sake, which is the only reason for the Church's existence, how it must be again. Woods is right to persuasively insist that looking back to how Catholic giants in America confronted the modernists in the progressive era in combating the work of the devil is our only hope of escaping the modern catacombs in order to convert the world to the one true faith, per Christ's admonition to His disciples in the last paragraph of the Gospel of Matthew. THE problem, as Woods so clearly points out, is that "how it used to be," in reference to the Church in America, was orders-of-magnitude better than "how it is now" with the prospects for "how it will be" no better, if the lessons from the past are not learned.

The focus for Woods is on the Catholic intellectual critique of modernity during the period immediately before and after the turn of the twentieth century where defenders of the faith were plentiful because they understood what it meant to be Catholic in more than name only. This is to be contrasted with an institutional Catholic Church today that, for all practical purposes, is unrecognizable as Catholic, as a direct result of the dissenters being given carte blanche to destroy it from within with impunity. Woods is talking about a Progressive Era where Catholics knew their faith well enough to use what good they could find in Progressivism for the greater Glory of God, in particular, the Church that He founded upon the Rock that is Peter. Catholics at the beginning of the twentieth century understood that discipline is one of the highest, if not the highest forms of love, which is something parents must come immediately to grips with; else, they cease to be responsible parents. Similarly, the Church under Pius IX, Leo XIII, and Saint Pius X, understood this seminal Catholic Truth, which is a Someone, not a something. This was directly reflected in orthodox catechesis which helped formed the consciences of a generation of Catholic leaders like Thomas Shields, William Kirby, and Edward Pace, who fought the good fight against the likes of James Dewey, and other representatives of Pragmatism as it played out in ethics, education, and nationalism. These were not the unencumbered autonomous consciences of Kant but rather those of an economic and political philosophy rooted in the natural law as articulated by Catholic giants like Thomas Aquinas, consciences which were informed in accord with the infallible teaching Magisterium of Holy Mother Church on faith and morals, consciences which understood that faith and reason are married, not divorced, with faith enabling a reason, which, in turn, reinforced faith.

Woods in The Church Confronts Modernity describes how decidedly nonpluralistic Catholicism responded to the modernist assault on faith and reason, and, moreover, must continue to respond, to an increasingly hostile pluralistic intellectual environment. Catholicism insisted on the uniqueness of the Church and the need for making value judgments based on what it considered a sound philosophy of humanity.

Woods recognizes that the reason Catholics no longer know their faith is that the prime catechetical tool for teaching it to them, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, has been watered down such that many of the immutable truths of the faith are no longer a part of that sacred liturgy. Woods concurs in his Epilogue that Lex credendi, lex orandi, is more than just a pithy phrase. It is a foundational axiom for survival of the faith.

I highly recommend THE CHURCH CONFRONTS MODERNITY- Catholic Intellectuals & the Progressive Era, by Thomas E. Woods Jr. as a necessary addition to any Catholic library. - Gary L. Morella

Prof. Thomas Woods wrote an informative book on the steadfastness of the Catholic Church in these United States during the Progressive Era (c. 1880s-1919). The book demonstrates that the Catholic Church authorities confidently faced challenges from such concepts such as Pragmatism, the New Sociology, the New Economics, vague calls for "pluralism", etc.

Prof. Woods examined the "isms" Catholic authorities confronted in the latter part of the 19th. century and during the first half of the 20th. century. The first chapter informs readers of the Catholic confrontation vs. Pragmatism. The Catholic critism of Pragmatism was that this "philosophy" ",,, has no doctrines, save its methods." Prof. Woods did not overstate his case re Pragmatism in that the Pragmatists including William James were not nihilists. The disagreement was with the notion that one ideas or concept was as as good as another except for Catholocism. An unidefined view of life without clarity and moral absolutes was an obvious anathema to Catholicism. Yet, as Prof. Woods carefully explained, Catholic authorities used their long standing traditions, reason, and Scholastic Philosophy to effectively answer the challenge of Pragmatism.

The Catholic authorites also answered the challenge of sociology. Auguste Comte (1798-1857)who is considered the originator of sociology argued that religious creeds were of no avail. Yet, he stated that since religion could not be eradicated, there should be a worship of Humanity with rituals and practises that would be familar. The Catholic authorities did not reject sociology per se. Their arguement was with the inductive method and the collection of data. The Catholic Churchmen always argued against such inductive reasoning and favored deductive reasoning a la Scholastic Philosophy via St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1249). The Catholic authorities also argued that the major problem with modern sociology was that such studies reduced men and women to statistics to be be manipulated by technocrats.

The Catholic authorites had similar criticisms of the New Economics. The Canon Law established limits on economic aquisition and wealth. The basic premises of the Canon Law re contracts and economic activity were based on what the Catholics considered Natural Law or God's law. Again, Catholic authorities did not reject all of the newer economic theorizing. What was rejected, again, was the inductive method as opposed to deductive reasoning. Again, the Catholic intellectuals opposed the use of data and the reduction of people to statistics and factors of production. In fact, the Catholic authorities argued that economic calamities were due to what may be considered to two Cardinal Sins (Greed and Gluntony). Prof. Woods did use these terms which can be inferred from the sources in the book. Mention of Father Jaurez (1544-1618)could have helped explain the Catholic position. Brief mention of the Medieval Canon Law re economic relations could have made a very good book a little better.

The Catholic response to modern "education" (the word education is used very charatibly)was interesting. Prof. Woods made the point that Catholics again per se did not reject new teaching methods. What was condemned was the attempt to eliminate the Classics and Scholastic Philosophy. The emphasis on science, including false concepts of science such as physical exercise, sports subjects, etc. was rejected. Notice how any new college curricula is called a science to get acceptence. Again, the Catholic authorities saw men reduced to usefullness and robots rather than created in God's Image. The new education substituted utility for moral codes, philosophy, and proper living.

The chapter titled "Syncretism" is interesting. The idea that all religions should be reduced to one religion or combined in the name of religous freedom was contradictory. The idea of one religion without moral codes, concepts, liturgy. etc. was opposed by Catholics. The idea of a vague religion was perhaps the most restrictive religion in that it would tolerate no creeds, liturgy, theology,etc. The Catholics wished all men good will and mercy, but they would not abandon their Catholic Faith that had a 2,000 history.

The final chapter titled "Epilogue" dealt where the Catholic Church had been and where it was going. The Catholic authorities and lay people held to their Faith with a sense of confidence and self assurance. Yet, Prof. Woods stated that after Vatican II (1963), the Catholic authorities and laity lost their confidence and their nerve. Prof. Woods states that the Vatican II documents were badly written and vague. This is in contrast to pre-Vatican II councils whereby the Popes and Catholic authorties were clear, concise, and logical in their terse pronouncements. The apparent contradcitions in the Vatican II sources created internal strife in the Catholic Church and showed a loss of clarity and self confidence. Yet, this book was published in 2003 prior to the election of Pope Benedict XVI(2005) who has actively worked to restore the Latin Mass. The Gregorian Chant, to use Prof. Woods' phrase had the pride of place in the Catholic Mass and is now almost forgotten. Yet, within the last few years, the Latin Mass and Gregorian Chant have been restored in some parishes. In other words, there is the possibiltity of the confidence of Progressive Era Catholicism may be return which could not be forseen when Prof. Woods' book was published in 2003.

This book is useful for Catholics for obvious reasons. Furthermore the book is good for those not familar with the philosophical concepts mentioned in this review. Prof. Woods gave readers a fair and clear explanation of these terms. This book again shows Prof. Woods' clear writing style which makes it more accessible. This book is suggested for devout Catholics and students of the Progressive Era History.

Woods' book is an amazing display of erudition and insight in less than 200 pages. For too long, postconciliar Catholics have been led to believe that the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church in America was intellectually barren, reactively hostile to new ideas, and fully deserving of being labelled a "ghetto." Some scholars, such as historian James Hitchcock, had previously revealed problems with that view. But Woods has gone even further in exploring our not-so-distant past. He has systematically and thoroughly examined the American Catholic response to "Progressivism" and philosophical pragmatism in the early 20th Century and found that the response was cogent, coherent, intellectually sound, and orthodox. Not all Progressivist ideas were bad, and some of its "forms" could readily be assimilated, but the essential "matter" was rejected. The Catholic intellectuals of the time (to include the Jesuits at the magazine America) could tell the difference.

After reading this, one may feel that if the Church as a whole had taken a similar approach during the Second Vatican Council, and not simply kowtowed to modernity so much, the Church would not be in such a mess as it is now.

Put simply, this book is gracefully written, thoroughly researched, sober, and balanced--reminiscent of the great Catholic historian Christopher Dawson. Any American Catholic, seeing the disarray of a Church mired in scandal, dissent, and heterodoxy, and interested in the "old days" should pick this book up and read it. If he does, he may find himself asking at the end: "What happened to make it all go so wrong?"

A nice little book on the subject. Gives the reader a basic covering on a variety of dwellings of the period but unfortunately rarely gives more than one or two floors of a design that uas three or four without providing a full set. Also doesn't provide scale for some designs.

is a wonderful book that shows how homes were designed and built in the late 19th century. It covers a variety of victorian styles and has floorplans along with perspective views and elevations from a small 3 room cottage to a 36+ room mansion. This is a great way to learn about victorian architecture.

Though these houses purport to be "country houses and seaside cottages," there's little reason they couldn't have been built in any Victorian small town. They range from a tiny three-room structure to a rambling 10-bedroom Dutch Gambrel mansion (called in those days a "villa") to a "club house" (easily altered to private use), a lakeside pavilion, a Baptist chapel, a "stone rectory in Iowa," and a couple of apartment blocks, one of which eerily reminds me of a building not far from my former home. These buildings are primarily of the Eastlake or Queen Anne style, the original book having appeared in 1883, an era when the front stair-hall was often as big as any other room and used as such. You'll need a magnifier to make out some of the details, but if you have any interest at all in late-Victorian domestic architecture, you need to have this volume on your shelves.

This book has great illistrations and floor plans with elevations. It's a great way to learn about the way homes were built in the late 19th century. It also includes specifications for the builder. It contains many plans of many differt styles of victorian architecture from a simple 3 room home, to a 36+ room mansion.

Is a great visually informative book. It gives the reader a better idea of the way homes were built in the late 19th century. The book covers a wide variety of victorian styles and includes plans, perspective views and elevations from a small 4 room cottage, to a huge 36+ room mansion in the Caribbean. I recomend this book to anybody interested in late 19th century victorian architecture.

Very good read! Once started it was hard to put down. After finishing it, the reader is still caught up in the story. One of those books that make you glad you read it. The author has the reader wanting more. Would reccomend this book to anyone!! Will be watching for more books from her.

Twenty one envelopes in a secret panel of an old prohibition desk. In "Cranberry Lake: The Desk's Secret Panel", Juliette Dobbs finds a series of letters between two lovers from over seventy years ago between two lonely lovers - a desperate farm girl and an insurance man whose letters reveal their story and their story reveals a mystery of Juliette's own. A fine blend of historical fiction and romance, "Cranberry Lake: The Desk's Secret Panel" is enthralling and won't be easy to put down, making it highly recommended for fiction lovers everywhere, and for any community library collection pandering to romance or historical fiction.

This book is so real and makes you feel a part of the mystery the hidden letters in the desk. I could not put it down because the author was so descriptive that you felt like you were there. I haven't enjoyed a book this much in a log time.

Jo Ann Dematteo's describes her first novel as romance and historical fiction. It's much more than a depiction of the hardships endured during the great depression and the romance between the main characters, Charles and Mary Ann

It is also a mystery which required considerable research and investigation. After finding letters hidden in a secret panel of an old desk "Juliette tracks the lives of Mary Ann and Charles and in the process unlocks a mystery of her own."

The author makes it clear that she is Juliette Dobbs, the other main character in the novel who is telling the story and the one trying to find out what happened to Charles and Mary Ann.

I highly recommend this novel for its interesting historical data and because it reveals so much about the nature of man. It is entertaining and a pleasure to read. The author involves you in the hunt for Charles and Mary Ann and for many unanswered questions.

I was intrigued with the characters and the story line yet I was disappointed because the novel had to end.

You will agree with JoAnn that "what Juliette discovers will stay with the reader long after the last page is read"



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Cranberry Lake is a wonderful story of love and loss during the depression era which tested everyone's ability to survive. I couldn't put the book down once I started it and am still thinking about the characters.

I hope this author writes more books!

I have solved many mysteries of Depression Era Glass patterns on unmarked pieces through the use of this wonderful, well documented guide. Although this guide presents a small insert of colored pictures the bulk of the pages provide "drawings" in black and white which are actually quite helpful in determining the pattern you are matching. In addition, pattern names, manufacturers and years of manufacturing are provided.

As a dealer I find the value guides helpful and they are separated by item category, color and value range. The author is honest enough in the introduction to advise you to depend on other references for value accuracy in the ever changing market, particularly with the advent of internet auctions. This book has been extremely helpful as a reference guide and is a welcome addition to my glassware book library.

I found that the values were very helpful, but since mostly all that was shown pattern-wise was the plate, it was a bit difficult for me to identify some other pieces.

I have many other books that show depression glass and all of them are great. But this book shows the patterns in line drawings. Sometimes pictures of glass patterns are not as clear as they could be. This book shows a drawing of each pattern and lets you really study it. I found it very helpful in sorting out the initial confusion that new comers sometimes have. Now that I am an 'old pro', I still find myself using this book just to be on the 'safe' side.

Now in an expanded and fully updated fourth edition, Depression Era Glassware Identification And Value Guide, glassware specialist Carl F. Luckey is a straightforward guide enabling the reader to competently and confidently recognize and fairly price classic works of 1930s glassware artifacts. While most of the glassware illustrations are in simple black and white, Depression Era Glassware is impressively enhanced with an insert section of superb color photography, all combine to present a variety of patterns from the era in unmistakable relief. The price guide is extensive and lists price ranges for individual pieces of varying sizes. Depression Era Glassware is an excellent, indispensable, authoritative resource for dealers and collectors.

As a new collector of depression era glass, I found this book to be incredibly helpful with identification. The line drawings are clear - the reader has no doubt of the pattern (sometimes photos can be unclear due to the nature of glass). I also appreciate the value ranges given and, of special value to me, each pattern has info on what pieces have been reproduced or reissued.

I am a law student in the university of Plymouth and i would like you to send me some information that this book contains, concerning the subject of the separation of powers. Your advice will be of great help. Thank you.

First, to the reviewer looking for the doctrine of separation of powers: you'll find it in Montequieu's "Spirit of the Laws". Also check out "The Federalist", number 51.

Now then, Bagehot, like Madison, describes the operation of a modern liberal regime. The trick for founders of liberal government is to produce a government that permits the people civil liberties, but does not permit the people to abuse those liberties, or in the words of Madison, to create a government that is "democratic yet decent". Madison and the American Founders accomplish this end by so constructing the institutions of government that mens' selfish natures will be turned against each other ("ambition is made to check ambition"), rather than united in tyrannical concert.

Bagehot too describes the operation of a system of government that rules by the consent of the governed, yet which does so by restraining the vices of those who ought not to rule. Bagehot argues that the English government is moderate and decent because of a division of government into the "dignified" and the "efficient" parts, and a "noble lie" about the relationship between the two. It is this noble lie that permits the government to operate without the interference of those who would turn it away from the public good. But to discover the noble lie, you'll have to read Bagehot.

Warner Winborne

Professor of Political Science

Hampden-Sydney College

Hampden-Sydney, VA

This book stimulates the little gray cells. Every time I watch Prime Minister's Questions, the superiority of the Cabinet system over the Presidential system is painfully obvious. If Bush were subjected to the kind of scrutiny, in Congress, that Blair is subjected to every week in Parliament, he would have been exposed as an impostor long before supreme executive authority was placed in his hands. Refering to our Civil War, Bagehot wrote: "The notion of employing a man of unknown smallness at a crisis of unknown greatness is to our minds simply ludicrous. Mr. Lincoln, it is true, happened to be a man of... eminent justness... But success in a lottery is no argument for lotteries."

Well, we used up all of our good fortune in the 1860s. We've come up craps in this millenium.

If this is the unaltered version of the book of the same name and same author that I read about 30 years ago, it is a classic. It describes how the classic English Constitution worked, before Britain joined the European Union. Especially it explained how it worked without being written down, largely by constitutional convention which was morally binding but (quite often) not legally binding.

Walter Bagehot was a journalist and a social and political thinker of the middle Victorian period (1850s and 1860s). His classical work "The English Constitution" comes as a collection of polemical assays upon the structure of the British political system. Cabinet, monarchy, Houses of Commons and Lords, execution of political power, and the foundation of the systems of checks and balances are explored in the book.

Throughout the book a comparison and contrast of Cabinet system and the Presidential system (a.k.a USA) is a constant theme. Bagehot does not hide it preference for the Cabinet system, which in his view is a both more dynamic and more effective. One of his main points is that direct popular election is a myth, since most of the electorate are ignorant of the nature of the political power (and moreover are forced to this ignorance by the effective uselessness of the legislative debate in the USA as opposed to the UK). Moreover, a result of the direct election is a static Presidential term of 4 years, which allows the executive branch to execute almost unchecked control of the political process. According to Bagehot, the indirect electoral system of the Commons, where people vote for the MPs and they then select the PM amongst themselves produces a more effective government, which is more responsive to the popular will since it can fall at any time due to policy disputes. A hidden secret of British success according to Bagehot is a fusion of legislative and executive powers in the Cabinet system. In the latter chapters, Bagehot exposures two forms of power - the dignified power (in the person of the monarch and the lords) and the effective power as exemplified by the Cabinet. Dignified power serves as a façade of legitimacy under which the dynamic and opportunist real effective power can subsist. He follows through to explain how each of the minister of the government exercises its power for the common goal, what are the legal powers of the monarchy and how it is exercised indirectly via control of the composition of the peerage and the power to dissolve the Commons.

Bagehot's style is clear, flavorful, his knowledge of political process is profound (with a qualification of more so of British then American), his research is well done, and he is a master of dramatic tricks to keep the reader interested. I would recommend the book as both a scholarly reference, and a well presented popular case.

Holt describes the dark period leading up to the civil war brilliantly, with new ideas instead of the normal canned answers. He uses support from the great thinkers and leaders of the time including president Abraham Lincoln. Holt continues his famed career of historical insights with this amazingly insightful story of one of the most important topics in our nations history.

In The Fate of Their Country, Professor Holt skillfully and helpfully clarifies the vexed question of slavery extension, a controversy that played an important role in dividing North and South and setting the stage for war.

This is a relatively short book, and for a reason: Professor Holt wishes to acquaint a larger audience with some of the important issues that he has covered at greater length in some of his other work. Hence this accessible introduction.

What I find so interesting about the book is that it shows rather convincingly that debates over slavery extension were often not about slavery per se. The question of extending slavery into the territories became an issue of Southern honor: whether or not Southerners actually wanted to bring slaves into, say, New Mexico Territory (none were there by 1860), the issue became a matter of principle between sections of the country that had been so often at odds in the past.

The insistence upon slavery's extension into the territories was often a matter of saving face for the South rather than (necessarily) a matter of actually desiring to bring slaves there, particularly since neither North nor South seriously expected slavery to take root in most of the places over which they argued at such length.

Moreover, the subject of slavery extension came to symbolize all the differences between North and South, including controversies over the tariff, a homestead bill, internal improvement legislation, and the like.

Professor Holt is certainly not saying that slavery played no role whatever in the coming of the Civil War. But the issue has often been misunderstood, and it is Holt's aim to provide the reader with the evidence and the historical background he needs to understand the context in which slavery extension was debated. He concludes that irresponsible politicians, for their own narrow partisan advantage, all too often exploited the issue for demagogic purposes, with (ultimately) tragic consequences. A superb book.

I have been visiting Civil War battlefields for over 20 years. The more I learned about the war, the more I wondered how it had ever happened. Michael Holt's book discusses the issues that rocked the country during the 1850's. But it also discusses how these issues affected the thinking of ordinary people in the North and the South. It helped me understand why the events from John Brown's raid to the firing on Ft. Sumter aroused such anger in the country.

Michael F. Holt makes a great argument on past historical events leading up to the Civil War. He states clearly in the preface that he is writing this book to reach a wider audience. (And from the other reviews I can see he did!)

It is a resource book containing thoughts he previously used in his books on the Whigs and the 1850's, but if you're an American History teacher or professor this book could be used in the classroom. It is a great addition to my library and would easily work in an academic setting to hit on all the major "coming of events" before the War.

The only probably I have with this book is that Mr. Holt portrays John C. Calhoun as a radical. While me might have been in the 1830's by the Mexican War and the Compromise of 1850 Calhoun predicted the future of our Contry and in his address to Congress in 1850 urged for compromise over disunion.

I still would recommend this book to anyone who wanted some straight answers to the Antibellum period of United States history.

This short book by Michael Holt is the story of politics in America leading up to the Civil War. On the one hand, Holt makes a convincing argument that political leaders between 1820 and 1860 often acted out of raw political ambition rather than what was best for the country. In calculating the risk of taking certain actions Democrats, Whigs, and nascent Republicans took into account how their decisions would most affect their own political fortunes.

While principle sometimes played a part, this can be seen in Calhoun's staunch support for slavery no matter what and Republican's anti-Southern stance in 1858 and 1680, in too many instances all that mattered was how issues can be leveraged to gain the most support for you in the next election.

This is not a new idea in Civil War histories, but Holt makes an impressive case for it in just over 100 pages. The other theses of the book, the danger of sectionalism and the need to compromise, are also portrayed well. However, it is the danger of putting one's personal interests above the national that is the main lesson of this book. I don't believe another civil war is in any way imminent, but it would be wonderful if today's politicians would relearn that lesson. This book would be a great place for them to start.

"Inside the Adoption Agency" provides an informative description of the unique processes, challenges, and systems which influence international adoption. Her use of real life stories from around the globe illustrate important points and yield an engaging treatment of her subject matter.

Cristi Hillis, The CoMission for Children at Risk

This book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in international adoption-prospective adoptive parents and professionals alike. Written by Jean Nelson Erichsen, the cofounder of the first international adoption agency in Texas, it gives the reader a clear understanding of the history of international adoption, how international adoption agencies work, and the challenges they face on a day-to-day basis. One point that comes through loud and clear is the difficulty these agencies have dealing with the whims of foreign governments. The anecdotal stories that are added throughout the book to illustrate key issues help keep the reader's interest. The last chapter, Predicting the Future of International Adoption, is extremeley informative for anyone considering international adoption today. Its explanation of the Hague Convention, how it came about, and what its impact will be on future adoptions will give prospective adoptive parents a better understanding of where international adoption is going and what they may face on their journey to adopt their child.

This book is a concise, yet detailed book into the world of international adoption. The author does a magnificent job of outlining what prospective adoptive parents (PAPs) can expect...and what NOT to expect. She also provides tips/hints to avoid the traps set by unethical agencies (such as baiting parents with photolistings of adorable babies.)

I wish I read this book BEFORE we started our adoption journey in April 2006. We ended up loving and losing three sons by using a fraud in the adoption industry. The co-owner of the agency, Orson Mozes, has feld the country and is charged with 62 felonies. His wife and co-owner of the agency, Christen Brown, although not charged criminally is facing civil litigation(RICO).

You can read about our adoption nightmare [...]. I also have a blog devoted to fighting adoption fraud and there are many well-known advocates who are contributing writers on the blog: [...]

Well done! A MUST read for EVERY PAP!

I found this book very informative and easy to read. It provides a good insight into the adoption practice from all angles start to finish as well as historical information into organized adoption. We are adding this book to our new employee orientation as well as use their other book "How to Adopt Internationally". Inside the Adoption Agency provides information on the new Hague regulations. I highly recommend both books to families considering international adoption as well as agencies seeking training materials for staff.

Jean Nelson Erichsen has written a terrific book that is a must read for prospective adoptive parents and adoption professions alike. This short and clear writing is both a tool of education on the history of adoption and the long road that adoption supporters have traveled to provide for the world's children through adoption. It is also an accurate glimpse into the world of the adoption agency and the role that government's and media play in the process. This book provides excellent foundational information for prospective adoption parents as well. It is a reminder to all of us of the standard of practice that we must continue to raise the bar on so that children can continue to find loving homes and families of their own. Adoptive parents need education prior to beginning an adoption- this book is a great place to start. Grab a cup of coffee and sit down for a read that combines personal stories, humor, and factual information on what goes on behind the scenes of adoption.

A well-written history of the Texas Revolution and the events leading up to it. If you're already well-acquainted with Texas history, there's not much of anything new in this book, but H.W. Brands has an excellent eye for the telling detail and a good ear for the vivid quote that make the material feel fresh and lively.

What I especially liked about Brands' approach in this book is that he steers a commendable middle course between the traditional hagiography of flawlessly brave Texan heroes fighting evil Santa Anna for Liberty and the revisionist school of greedy white male slave-mongering mercenaries stealing poor Mexico's land. He shows both the strengths and warts of admittedly self-interested people on both sides of the fight who generally believed they were doing the right thing.

My main caveat for anyone who's well-read in early Texas history and is considering picking up this book for another perspective on the Texas Revolution would be that it takes 11 chapters and more than 250 pages of reviewing Texas colonial history (with the emphasis on Stephen F. Austin's colony) before the book finally reaches the actual outbreak of fighting. But, for someone who's relatively new to Texas history or could just use some brushing up on the subject, those 11 chapters do provide a surprisingly brisk and eminently readable account of Texas history from the first Spanish explorations up to the revolution.

Outstanding book, written with elegance and vigor. If you know the details already you will not find new revelations here, but Lone Star Nation is so well done that even if you aren't especially interested in Texan history, after a couple of chapters you will be. The audiobook, read by Don Leslie, is highly recommended.

Brands writes the "epic" story of these men who fought for Texas independence. He does not write over your head and does not leave the reader uninformed. He does not hold back details about the "mythical" Texas figures who are "larger than life" in most accounts. It is a simple and effective way to learn about the Texas Revolution.

Brands, without being multicultural for multiculturalism's sake, documents both the Hispanic and the Anglo contribution to Texas' independence. He does so without giving saccharine descriptions of either group's leadership or their ability to always get alone with one another, either before or after 1836.

And, in the years leading up to the Texas Revolution, he doesn't sidestep the slavery question either.

That honest eye is important, because in the last section of the book, he carries the story of Texas forward through 1865.

Brands does a great job of weaving the lives of Austin, Santa Anna and others together in a compelling fashion. His vivid narrative style makes you forget you are reading history, but rather makes you feel you are sitting around a fireplace listening to a master storyteller perform his craft with grace and ease.

If one wants to understand the debacle or "quagmire" know as the Vietnam War, look no further than this riveting account! In "The Making of a Quagmire," David Halberstam pin points all of the failures of the system years before the first official U.S. troops splash ashore at Danang, Vietnam. His account, a collection of observations about Vietnam under the Diem presidency, is refreshing while at the same time shocking in its findings. While many observers insisted that efforts in Vietnam were progressing so well from 1961-63, Halberstam sees the light. His expose of all the failings of the system includes candid words about the inept south Vietnamese leadership and the American advisors who grow increasingly frustrated with their mission. Most importantly though, Halberstam offers a glimpse into the life of a journalist caught in his own war of censorship.

Before reading this book, my knowledge of the Vietnam war was limited to the movies I had seen on the subject, until recently when a friend recommended this book to me after a brief discussion of the war, its political agenda and its intrigue. Making of a quagmire is an extensive and thourough account of the events in 1961 and 1962 that lead to the eventual full american involvemnt in Vietnam. Halberstam provides an unbeleivable and at times jaw-dropping first hand account of the political and military events of the period, and translates with remarkable skill the frustration of the vicious circle that was the american policy in Vietnam. A must read for any one with even a slight interest in the subject

Halberstam's work is a classic, outlining the dilemma that Vietnam posed to American policymakers in the early 1960s, and written in lucid, newspaper-reporting style. The author's perceptiveness is particularly striking when one considers that he wasn't even 30 years old when he covered Vietnam.

Unfortunately, this McGraw-Hill edition abridges Halberstam's masterpiece. Most of the essential pieces of the story remain, but much of the rich, colorful narrative, which makes this such a fascinating book, is lost. Hopefully, a complete version will return to print soon.

In the early 1960s, David Halberstam was a New York Times correspondent who initially viewed the U.S. political and military-advisory roles in South Viet Nam as a necessary stance against the Communist menace (as defined by Dwight Eisenhower's "domino theory" in Southeast Asia).

But his pessimism grew during tours of the nation, interviews with American military advisors and his concerns surrounding the corrupt South Vietnamese government of President Ngo Dinh Diem. His criticism became so much of a problem to the Kennedy Administration that the president himself lobbied NYT editors to have Halberstam yanked out of South Viet Nam if his reporting continued to run contrary to the government's optimistic pronoucements.

The abridged edition - to make the text more accessible to those not familiar with this history - is a classic retrospective on how Halberstam grew to question the policies of Diem and Kennedy. It also importantly takes the reader through a journey on how he had to walk gingerly through the web of censorship that is played out between the government & the news media.

I read this book when I was a Cadet at West Point. It changed the way I looked at U.S. policy.