David Sherman Books

Colonel David Hackworth was a soldier's soldier. Born too late to see active service in the crucible of WW II, he lied about his age and enlisted in the Army as soon as he could. Often credited as being the most decorated American soldier of his era, Hack was well-known within the U.S. Army for his courage, honesty, and derring-do exploits.

Hack ranks right up their with the U.S. Marine's Chesty Puller and Gregory "Pappy" Boyington as the sort of officer who is a pain in the a** to have around in peacetime -- but who is exactly the sort of leader you want when the bullets start to fly. It is impossible to read about Hackworth's battlefield experiences during the Korean War without getting a lump in your throat for the privations those poor guys suffered. (Many U.S. Army units were airlifted from the States via Japan directly into combat in Korea, still wearing their Class 'A' uniforms -- totally unprepared for the Korean winters and the raging fighting they found upon landing.)

Col. Hackworth's Vietnam experiences are fascinating, too. As he rose in rank he displayed an uncanny ability to call a spade a spade, and his dismay with how the war was being fought eventually led to his being personally cashiered out of the Army by the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army!

Buy this book and read it -- you're in for a real treat! Hack was the real thing, and his demonstrated courage and abrasive honesty make him worthy of study and appreciation by both junior and senior officers throughout the armed services.

Captain Michael L. Pandzik, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)

Great book! Hackworth was a true warrior stud. He was the essence of an instinctual soldier and was quite lucky to have survived so many brushes with death. I did find his conclusions interesting as he was not entirely correct. He became a liberal after Vietnam and predicted things that did not happen with the USSR, Central America, and more. He did give great insight into how bungled the Vietnam War was and what could have been done to "win" it.

Excellent Read......... Highly Recommended ... 5 stars

About Face chronicles the experiences of the youngest colonel serving during the Vietnam circumstances. The book itself begins in February 1951 with Hackworth facing the enemy in Korea and is divided into twenty-three chapters. About Face follows David Hackworth the length of his military journey from the days when as a young soldier nick-named 'Combat' he charged into the face of the enemy along a path to near ruin at the hands of disgruntled superiors. The work includes maps, author's notes, a foreword by Ward Just, an Epilogue and an Appendix including a Glossary, Index and final notes.

About Face is a well written page turner presented in language clearly understood by the typical reader. The book is certain to interest those who have any link at all to the Vietnam situation faced by so many men and women from our country. The book helps to demarcate what happened, when and to whom.

I first read About Face written by Col. David Hackworth during the late 1980s. I found it particularly helpful in helping me...a woman with little knowledge of anything military, understand better my children's dad, a land based Viet Nam combat vet and the problems he had to deal with before his death.

As the wife of yet a second Viet Nam combat vet, special forces, I suggest this book for anyone who wants a better understanding of the debt of gratitude and respect we citizens owe those who served during the action in Vietnam and those who willing to serve in The United States Military today.

Molly Martin
Reviewer

This book was an inspirational read. Even though it takes forever to read this book, it's well worth the time. Hack's experiences shared in this book changed my outlook on life, and my outlook on human interaction/organization.

I would recommend this book to anyone, as I'm sure his experience can be applicable to anything you will ever have to deal with in life.

One of the best books on the life of a true american warrior.

Judith Sherman's Say the Name can be seen as a theodicy that arises out of the Jewish tradition and in response to the events of the Holocaust. In poetry and prose we see, on the one hand, the horror of human evil, and on the other, the hope and meaning that arises out of tragedy in the form of poetic expression and imagination. Sherman a provides vivid and horrific account of physical pain, mental suffering, and moral wickedness. In a moving passage, Sherman recounts:

Today a woman runs suddenly from the Appell line--she runs towards the electrified fence. The dogs get to her before she reaches it. Screaming, she tries to put push the dog away...The animal is not called back, he attacks until there is no more movement. Every horrified one of us wants to rush and help--no one does. Silence. There are so many of us here, how are we so crushed into silence and inaction? The reason right there, in front of us--they watch us closely, provocatively, hand on the trigger and dogs at the ready--hoping for another futile sacrifice...We are filled with rage and pity and helplessness and are paralyzed by their brutality (102).

This passage confronts us with the reality of evil as experienced by Jewish women in German concentration camps. Based on this reality, it is not difficult to see how people who believe in God, and have a particular image of God, can question or call into account the God in whom they believe. Sherman's account reveals a questioning of the divine. Is God not outraged? Does God not hear what is going on? Indeed, where is God? "Where is the judge? Where are you, judge? Is there a judge?" (117).

Her response to these questions is to invoke biblical imagery and to invite God to come and witness, and account for the tragedy that has taken place. In her poem, "The Invitation," she invokes the imagery of Jacob's ladder and asks that God come down the ladder and witness the sights "not fit/ for Godly eyes/ not fit for thee/ is it for me?/ who will make it fit for Thee?" (118). Or again, having experienced so much pain, she requests that God take on her pain, "You have it/ and be/ branded" (122). Does God identify with our pain? Is God in solidarity with those who suffer? It seems that Sherman is inviting God to be present with the women beaten down by guards, chased by dogs, shot to death, and with those who have to witness these events without the ability to respond. It is a moving book in which the author has mustered up the courage to recount her experiences and to "say the name."

How can there be so much evil in the world? More pointedly, how can an all powerful and loving God allow such evil? Where is God? These and other tough questions are asked by Judith Sherman as she reflects on her time spent at the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbruck at the young age of fourteen. Combining narrative prose with short poignant poetry, Sherman walks the reader through the painful and emotional events, describing her sense of frustration at a God who has abandoned her and the rest of the Jewish people. Most accounts of the Holocaust elicit deep emotions and feelings and this book certainly does that, but in a unique way. The prose unfolds the details of her story and then all of a sudden you become struck by the overwhelming emotion and powerful insight of a short three or four line poem. This combination has a strong effect and throughout the book the poems remain clearly in your memory and serve to give more meaning to the details and descriptions of the horrendous struggles of a concentration camp.

With detailed descriptions, Sherman focuses on everyday objects, such as a pair of shoes, and transforms them from their ordinary status into things that have a greater significance and meaning. The transformation and emphasis on objects shows how Sherman's outlook on life has changed and through this outlook Sherman has finally been given the voice to tell her story, giving the reader the chance to connect to it in a moving and profound way. Reading this book will give new meaning to the themes of theodocy, family, memory, the human spirit, and most of all will give you a new outlook on life.

After having learned at length about the atrocities of the Holocaust in history class every year of middle and high school, and after hearing personal accounts from my many Jewish classmates about their grandparents in concentration camps, I felt almost overloaded with news of the horrors and wasn't particularly excited about reading another book about the Holocaust.

But Say the Name is different. Judith Sherman manages to convey the depths of despair and suffering that occurred during her time in hiding, in concentration camps, on a death march without any trace of stridency, but rather with her own quiet and simple words that are humbly defiant and moving. She communicated to me, for the first time really, how it feels to not have any control over what happens to your body, to be stripped of a voice, to be robbed of a name. This poetic novel, more than any other I have read on the topic, speaks to the psychological death as well as the physical one that the Nazis inflicted on so many millions. Judith Sherman resists both, however, and her spirit is evident in the fact that she was able to share in writing her deepest and most agonizing thoughts and memories about her experience.

Another aspect of the book is Sherman's relationship with God, which is a complex and vacillating one. In some passages it almost seems as if she is referring to a lover who has betryaed her, and she is filled with sadness, anger, longing, and ultimately a love that she will not forsake. She does not, however, blindly accept "the will of God," instead demanding over and over, "where are you?" If God should be praised for the blessings he gave her, then he should also be held accountable for his apparent abandonment of his people.

To read this book is to explore memory, theodicy, religion, family, genocide, the human spirit, and will leave you saying its name.

Say the Name is a powerful and poignant account of a young woman's experience in Nazi imprisonment during WWII. After years of silence, Judith Sherman was compelled to come out and tell her story, not only for herself and her family, but for the millions of other who had no voice. The unnamed victims of human suffering in camps like Ravensbruck cannot be put away with the history books. They are people who were made to be things, but they were not things. Sherman describes in her prose and poetry how the life that they had known before the war melted away, and was replaced by a reality that terrorized, brutalized, and destroyed. This reality was the dehumanizing force of the Nazi regime.

I wonder how an author who is so modest with her prose, who even wrote that "words fail" to capture the "monumental horror" of the Holocaust, is able to to move the reader with her words with such remarkable ease. Her voice resonates with the child, the daughter, the mother, the friend, and the person who had to ask God, "Why?". Sherman's writing, and especially her poetry, are evocative and elegant for sure, but I think that it is the place that she is writing from that creates this feeling of "being there' with her. Her pain and the pain of those she names is human pain. Their loss is human loss. As people we have lost something by allowing evil like this to exist in the world. It doesn't have to.

Her tale is not one of Jewish suffering but human suffering and survival. She recalls the ways she resisted the forces that sought to destroy her. Sherman's life was never the name when the war was over, which is to say that the experience never ended. However, she is able to take her pain and wordlessness and make something that helps others understand. I thank her for that. Sherman's book would be good for students of all ages and particularly those interested in the stories and history of the Holocaust. I guarantee this courageous little book will move you no matter what you're looking at it for. Her connections with human suffering are particularly intense regarding family loss, motherhood, friendship, the struggle with divine over the existence of evil, and the loss of the "ordinary things" we take for granted when we're home.

Judith Sherman's Say the Name is a survivor's account of a teenage girl's struggle with God and humanity in Ravensbruck concentration camp during the Holocaust. Sherman, now a wife, mother and grandmother living in the United States, writes her memoir some 50 to 60 years after the Nazi's carried out their "Final Solution."

Sherman's poetry and prose in this book reflect a loss of people, places and things that make up the fabric of a person's life, culture and beliefs. She is, at turns, angry and bewildered. She demands an accounting for these atrocities. But ultimately Sherman's quest for survival and her insistence on remembering the names of women who were killed conveys a sense of humanity and even of hope. This is Sherman's first book, and she is not a polished writer. She writes in fragments and one has the sense of poetry scribbled on napkins over the years and then included in the memoir. Her book is all the stronger for this.

1500, 2000, 3000, 5000, 7000!!! refugees in the company and under the command of our Marine duo, Haft and Spinner. Our band reachs Dartmutter to find it smashed and sacked by the Jokapcul armies.

They are forced further along the coast in search of a port to find passage back to Frangeria. Along the way the refugees runnig from the evil armies keep coming and joining the company.

They run the coast and reach the low desert and come upon the secrative desert men. At the same time they discover that the Jokapcul armies have landed on the coast. Haft and Spinner are joined by a fellow Marine who is a Sergeant, named Rammer. The problems of how to handle a troop of this size, train men to fight, escape the foes they are stuck between, and reach a port the can get passage back to Frangeria.

The problems mount, the enemies are engaged, the demontech is employed, another fine book in this series, leaves you satisfied, yet desperatly wanting the tale to continue and revealed.

The Lord Gunny says" DEL RAY WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!! This is the finest of the three tomes, giving history to my Marines travels! and ya pull the plug over a mild lack of gold pieces!! ARRGH!!!!! I order you to reinstate the histories and allow our Marine Duo to continue!!!"

To all readers of this series, the more you reccomend thes books the more they sell and the better chance DeL Ray will tap Dave Sherman and get him a deal to finish the series.

I have been waiting for years for more in this series! To to find out the publisher zapped it is a major dissappointment! Note to Mr. Sherman: find a new publisher!! Give us more Haft and Spinner! I think this series is just as good as the much ballyhooed HALO series! Haft and Spinner are like Spartans without the armour! Note to Publisher: there are a lot of Demontech fans out here!

I love this series. I bought all three books at once and read them all in one sitting, only stopping long enough to take bathroom breaks. I am most interested in finding out more about the demons. They don't really seem to be bound to help unless they like you or they think helping you might be fun.

This is a great quick read series of books. The characters are well developed and you root for them throughout. Unfortunately the series has been cancelled by the Del Rey publishing firm. Every fan of the Starfist series should give this series a try and hopefully if enough buy all three, as I did, the series will resume. Fans of SciFi/Fantasy military epics will thoroughly enjoy Sherman's work. I long for the day to read more of the adventures of Haft and Spinner, two marines who prove that great training and tradition can turn ordinary men into heros.

Spinner and Haft are still one the run from the invaders and still looking for a safe pot in which they can seek passage back to their home islands but that goal is looking more and more remote because their entourage keeps growing. Refugees keep joining their caravan and the occasional fighting man shows up from time to time as well. That's a good thing because they need all the fighters they can get with the bad guys in pursuit.

Having a couple of marine privates become feudal lords is not without its difficulties. This is especially true when their sergeant, long presumed dead, turns up. He naturally feels that the privates are still "his men" (they are) but the 7000+ camp followers and men at arms have other ideas on the matter..

The series seems no closer to reaching a resolution than after the last book but it is still a series of interest.

Be sure to definitely read this before your child's next IEP.

I've been dealing with IEPS and special education programs for my son for several years and this book still taught me a lot! It is well written, very easy to read, and covers almost everything you have to contend with.

Sadly, the quality of a child's special education program relies mostly on the parent's ability to advocate. This book will empower you to be a much better advocate for your child.

This book is a valuable tool for navigating the complex world of special education law and programs.

I'd also like to thank the author and editor for all their work putting this book together -- it is going to help so many parents and children!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has an autistic child. Some of the information has been so valuable and has helped me become aware of rights that I didn't even know existed. Don't believe that the school knows your child's needs better than you do. Arm yourself with the information this book provides. You are the strongest advocate for your child.

This is a very well written, informative book on being an advocate for your child within the school system. I recommend it highly!

This book is a must have, especially for those who have a newly diagnosed child with autism. If memory serves me correctly, US Rep. Dan Burton had a grandson with autism and he went to a school meeting because his daughter was having such a hard time getting an appropriate education... my point in sharing this is that you need to be prepared from the very beginning (being nice and/or influential is not going to do it for you, you need to be knowledgeable regarding your child's rights) and this book will do that for you. It is an easy read with many excellent templates for letters (some with the applicable law referenced), and it is a breeze to find just what you need. I also like that it is written especially for parents of children with autism. I have a 19 yr old now and wish I'd had this book a long time ago!

A thoughtful and comprehensive guide to the legal aspects of special education including IEP meetings, extended school year, least restrictive environment, section 504, and obtaining outside services. This is one of the top rated books for special education on our Children's Disabilities Information site because the discussions of the various special education aspects of autism are based on practical experience.

It is not a recap of the typical education system response! For example, topics include obtaining extended school year support, the importance of professional evaluations, and the problem of schools mislabeling children with autism as having mental retardation. Along with detailed guidance on special education, approximately 1/3 of this large format book consists of 60 example forms for most any contingency you might run into, such as requesting records, requesting test results and test protocols, complaints, and more.

This is a fascinating autobiography of two brother songwriters-- and believe me, you've heard all of their songs. From the musical Mary Poppins to sharing an academy award nomination with John Williams, the Sherman Brothers tell their marvelous story through pictures and anecdotes. This is a "must have" for anyone who loves music and Disney! Great Book!!!

Every one of the more than 250 extra large Disney scrapbook pages is filled with unique, full color memorabilia from Walt Disney, and Robert and Richard Sherman, the song writers that created a world of popular music. Everything from pictures and memorabilia of Annette, Haley Mills, and Julie Andrews, to Tommy Sands, 101 Dalmations, The Carousel of Progress, and the Enchanted Tiki Room are featured. Items are grouped by decades. You can spend endless, enjoyable hours just looking in this huge volume that weighs 4 pounds !! Well worth adding to your Disney or music or movies or entertainment library.

What a great book about in my opinion the best songwriters! The Shermans had the opportunity to be with Disney during what I believe was the peak of the Disney Co. Their songs have warmed the hearts of millions of people across the world. My mother had never heard of the Shermans but whenever I sing their songs she says "I love that song, I didn't know they wrote that..." I can count on their songs being family friendly and joyful. I love Winnie the Pooh was not at all surprised when I discovered who wrote the songs! I never get tired of reading Walt's Time. The pictures are great and layout is so different. It is fun to read the background stories that is behind each song. Such as A Spoon full of Sugar and how Robert's son gave them the inspiration. I know the price makes it difficult for some of us. I personally do not own the book, but I love to borrow it from my library. It is a must read for every Disney and Sherman fan out there!

Wow!, What a feast of fun! Here's the story of two of this century's most prolific and popular songwriters, the Sherman Brothers, finally cronicled in a superb scrapbook. Discover the Sherman Brothers' insights into the enigma that was Walt Disney, and learn of their dream job with this man.. who nurtured their talent, producing a sound that is truly instantly recognisable, the world over. These are the guys who created "the biggest word you ever heard", who left us singing of a "small, small world".. and gave lyrical life to a "fantasmagorical machine" called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

This is a lovingly remembered book by the Dick and Bob, put together with the help of a few amazingly dedicated fans. Bruce & David and Jeff have produced another gem of a book. With them, too much is never enough.. the photographic treasures, the office cartoons all give the impression of being invited to dinner with the Shermans. I was lucky enough to hear the Shermans at the piano for a preview of this book at a Disney fan's convention last year. That was a night I'll never forget.. as the brothers sang their way through the songs of my childhood. Now the feeling of that night (and my childhood) has been captured in print, and I can't be happier! Thanks guys, it's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious !

This book is truly the gem of my library... A beautiful look at the careers of Robert B. and Richard M. Sherman! Reading this book brought back so many memories! Little did I realize that so many of my favorite Disney (and even non-Disney) musical films all had one special thing in common... the music of the Sherman Brothers.

This wonderful book is formatted like a huge scrapbook... its fun to read, and just packed with rare photos, cartoons and other memorabilia that would delight any reader.

This is the tale of America's most decorated living hero. From his humble beginnings to his glorious career in the U. S. Army. A man destined to be one of the elite movers and shakers in the military. He became disillusioned with America's war effort in Vietnam and the "ticket-punching" pursuits of the manager-officers. He gave up his career and moved into self-imposed exile. This story is a must read for those interested in the development of the U. S. Army since WWII. It's a real wake-up call

I bought this book when I was about 11 years old and a big fan of "war stories". I am now approaching twenty and have read this book at least once a year since first purchasing it, to the extent that it is now in three parts and the photographs have fallen out. This book is an intense, gripping, readable but most of all honest and believable account of one of America's greatest warriors and his experiences...from the forested slopes of Trieste in 1946 to being chased around Washington DC by Army Intell goons in 1971, this book, while entertaining, will also teach you everything you need to know about duty, honour,bravery and honest patriotism, qualities that come hard to find in the era of Iran-Contra, Tailhook, Whitewater and the like... This book will make you laugh, cry and think. Please, read it.

Excellent book. Well written, easily read, thought provoking. Is long, but not cumbersome.

I first read 'About Face' written by Col. David Hackworth during the late 1980s. I found it extremely valuable in helping me...a woman with little knowledge of anything military, understand better my children's dad, a land based Viet Nam combat vet and the problems he had to deal with before his death.

As the wife of yet a second Viet Nam combat vet, special forces, I suggest this book for anyone who wants a better understanding of the debt of gratitude and respect we citizens owe those willing to serve in The United States Military.

Reviewed by: molly martin

I first came to hear of ABOUT FACE from a friend and fellow NCO in Korea. He said I might think it was good, Was that an understatement. I read About Face in one fourteen hour plane ride back to Korea. I've read it three more times so far and recommend it to all my friends deserving the title Non-Commisioned Officer. I truly believe that all military leaders should read this and take from it; Hack's wisdom and experiance dealing with the military, Integrity and soldiering.

KINGDOM'S FURY(2002) is the eighth book from the STARFIST series of 25th Century Military SciFi stories, about a company of Space Marines, who are sent to various planets to quell uprisings, or battle aliens.

This book, is basically a continuation of Book 7, in which the Marines of the 34th FIST have been sent to a backwater world dominated by religious sects, to repulse and invasion by the merciless aliens known as the "Skinks". The Skink technology is roughly equivalent to Human 25th Century tech, although some of it is way ahead, and some of it is behind.

Amazingly, this book is a standout in the series... there is interesting dialog or action on every page, and the subplots are quite detailed and interesting. The first few books in the series were quite good, but suffered from some obvious and serious (yet easily correctable) faults. Indeed, it was somewhat frustrating reading the first STARFIST books, because I knew they could have been much better... and some of the middle books from the series were actually below par - books 3 and 6 especially so. However - KINGDOM'S FURY avoids all the faults and stupid mistakes, and "knocks it out of the park". I'm happy to give this book a rare 5 star rating. BRAVO.

This is another masterpiece from David Sherman and Dan Cragg.
I woln't give anything away but the day it came I read the whole thing. If youv'e read the others you know you have to buy this one.

The 34th is still embroiled in its battle against the invading aliens on the planet of Kingdom and like most militaries, it has as much trouble with the politicians as it does with the enemies. They are also still doing so with élan, spirit de corps and good old fashioned jarhead toughness.

The aliens are quite different than your normal science fiction fare. They are amphibians and instead of using fancy ray guns, they use acid. They are tough and utterly alien but they are also up against the finest military tradition on earth.

The book feels the loss of Gunnery Sgt. Bass, apparently killed in the last volume, but there is reason for hope. A character who is probably him turns up for a few pages at the very end. Now I just have to wait for the next book to come in.

It's a good story.

Wow! I've read all the books so far in this series, and this one is the best one yet. I can't wait for the next books. That was a wonderful twist at the end (which I'm not going to say anything more about or it will be ruined)! Totally unexpected. The whole book was well written and the different parts were very well integrated.

It's the 25th Century, Humanity has settled dozens of worlds. The most dangerous species in explored space is other humans. The Confederation Marines are the descendents of the US and Royal Marines of our time. They keep order among the worlds humans have colonized. Life is good. The Religious Wars of the 21st Century resulted in Kingdom. Essentially, it is a reservation, where all the Religious Fundamentalists of all Religions have been "persuaded" to move.
It's a pesthole of constant religious war, but at least all the nutcases are in one asylum. The Confederation watches to make sure they can't escape from the planet.
And then come the Skinks - a bunch of xenocidal humaniform lizards who think that killing humans is great fun - and the survivors make good slaves.
The Marines show up, and the Skink Commander decides that he not only wants to defeat the Marines, he wants to humiliate and intimidate them. Trouble is, somebody forgot to tell him something - you can defeat Marines. It's difficult, but possible.
You can humiliate Marines. Difficult but possible.
But INTIMIDATE them? - that is a leetle bit closer to impossible...
This is a book of sweeping realistic vistas, from the Infantry "Line Animal" Grunt slogging in the mud, to Space Battle between 10 KM Starcruisers, to the internecine political wrangling on Capitol Hill.
The characters are three dimensional and highly believable.
Enjoy...and go back and get the rest of the series. It's worth it.

This book made the events that occurred come to life. I couldn't put it down.

Thorough research and good writing make this an excellent work of history. My great-grandfather participated in some of these actions and kept a diary. Reading Evans' book cleared up a lot of misconceptions I had formed from reading only my relative's private's-eye view from horseback.

It is not often that we get a completely packaged history in a single volume. This is one of the few books that covers the subject and provides the reader with the background, off the field issues, personalities and operations. Sherman's cavalry operations are not a bright shining example of Union brilliance. They do show what will happen when average or below average commanders with vague orders embark on overly ambitious campaigns. For the Confederacy and Joe Wheeler, this was a very bright spot after many reversals. That the cavalry was not deciding the Atlanta Campaign saved Sherman and defeated Hood.

Most readers will not know the personalities involved and the author takes time to give us both the background and relationships. This enables us to understand the why of many decisions. Sherman is not well served by his cavalry commanders, something for which he is partially to blame. In addition, Sherman seems not to have wished to invest the time to correct problems and/or settle issues that divided this arm.

Each operation is covered in detail with maps in the proper place. I had few problems following and finding the places on the provided maps. Battles have maps are at the right point, allowing the reader to understand the situation. You will need these maps, as the battles are not familiar. However, the author manages to keep the reader in the battle with the right combination of participant's accounts and good writing.

This book belongs in every Civil War library and is necessary read to understand the Atlanta Campaign.

The descriptions of the cavalry charges are wonderful and terrify'ing. I would have hated to be on the slashing side of those swords.

On the other hand the ablity of the South to repair the damage done by the raiders is remarkable. It made me realize the futility of distroying low grade rail and bridges. These guys would burn a bridge, and 3 days later it would be completely rebuilt. Not really slowing down the pace of the war at all. Sometimes the repairs were done before the raiders were back in camp!

It was incredible the amount of useless looting that went on. Soldiers stealing tableware & clothes only to toss it as soon as they were attacked.

Another great civil war read. (For those fans of wars in a bygone era.)

At only 226 pages for volume 1, this is a short collection of readings, which allows the teacher to assign interesting monographs or classics. What the text does it does well, such as to provide handy introductions to the readings, a few questions to consider for each source, provide maps and some pictures, end each chapter with provocative questions, and covers most regions of the world.

Each reading is two pages or less, and that allows students to get their feet wet in a nice variety of historical events, ideas, and personalities. While I wish some of the secondary sources would present a more complete history of their topics, they have been chosen well and many are selections from top scholars such as A.H.M. Jones on Rome and Euan Cameron on the Protestant Reformation.

Is it Eurocentric? Sadly, three of the fifteen chapters concern Europe from the middle ages onward, but Asia is also well represented, and one finds a chapter on the Mongols and nomads of central Asia. Central and South America is slighted, and Islam's chapter is too brief.

It is overpriced at around $53. For a few dollars less one could assign Worlds of History, ed. by Kevin Reilly, and get more sources, a longer text, better introductions, global coverage, and Reilly's expertise. But the Reilly text is the typical B/W, plain, and dense small paperback of 500 pages, whereas this text by Sherman is large size, full of colorful illustrations and maps, and easier for students to look at. Both books are viable options for world history courses.
Prof. Christensen, Biola University

This book is an excellent companion to conventional textbooks in a Global History course. The Introduction and "Consider" feature before each source helps the reader to pinpoint key ideas and important themes in the document as well as provide important background information which aides in the understanding of the source. The wide variety of sources focusing on various aspects of each topic help to provide a well-rounded view of the subject.

The last ice age that took place some twelve thousand years ago helped to create and shape Wisconsin's topography and create the varied landscape that is Wisconsin today. Wisconsin's 'Ice Age national Scenic Trail' is a one thousand mile footpath that traverses across the entire state and a popular outdoor attraction for legions of tourists and residents every year. Along these natural course are to be seen hundreds of beautiful lakes, expansive prairies, fertile farm lands, essential wetlands, Native American effigy mounts, the remains of oak savannas, and a cultural wealth of villages, towns, and cities. Magnificently showcasing the effects of continental glaciation (in some places the flow of glacial ice was as much as two miles deep) created a variety of geologic features including kames, kettles, drumlins, ice-walled-lake plans, eskers, tunnel channels, basalt bluffs, dells, and rock-strewn terminal moraines. Of special note is the ancient landscape of the Driftless Area which is devoid of glacial evidence. "Along Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail" is superbly illustrated study of this ancient causeway and is enhanced with informed and informative essays by Mike Dombeck (former chief of the U.S. Forest Service and a biologist on the campus of the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point); Robert Freckmann (botanist at the UW-Stevens Point); Paul G. Hayes (retired journalist for the 'Milwaukee Journal'; Randy Hoffman (conservation biologist, Wisconsin Department of natural Resources), Ellen Kort (former poet laureate of Wisconsin); David Mickelson (Emeritus Professor, Department of Geology and Geophysics, UW-Madison) and Sarah Mittlefehldt (environmental historian, UW-Madison). "Along Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail" should be a part of every Wisconsin school and community collection, and is enthusiastically recommended for anyone who has every walked any portion of this fantastic ice age trail -- or who would like to!