U Books

Mr. Bennett has a gift for making history come alive. It is very interesting and enjoyable to read.

Hi I highly recommend reading these american history books to ANYONE! The books are well written naratives of the United States unique and special place in history. While not bashing America as the great satan they at the same time the remain accurate in pointing out this nations flaws, which for the most part seem to consistently get righted. Evil flourishes when good men do nothing. ENJOY!!!

This series of texts should be required reading for all American children of high school age.
The writing is first class and the entire presentation flows in a professional, polished way. An excellent read.

I just finished Volume 1 and am amazed at the history I was never taught in public school. It gives a balanced view of facts and tells stories in an engaging way and shows the good while not hiding the poor choices that we made as a nation becoming. The characters were presented as real people wise and not so wise. We do live in the greatest nation on earth and can learn much from the deeds and misdeeds of those who gave much that we can enjoy the liberties of today. May we never forget and always be. Thank you Mr. Bennett. Looking forward to beginning Volume II.

America the Last Best Hope is the best book of U.S. history that I have read. It is well worth re-reading. Great reference book. Should be a required reading. D PurdyAmerica: The Last Best Hope (Volume I): From the Age of Discovery to a World at War

I was given this book as a gift from my son. I read it on an airplane and laughed and cried so much that at the end of the flight, the man sitting next to me said, "you are quite an emotional lady!" I bought a copy of this book for the lady that helped me when I got stranded when the flight was delayed a day. She read one of the stories in it while I was changing clothes and I found her in tears when I returned. It's a great feel-good book.

In this collection of stories from and about mothers, there is something for everyone. Whether you need to be inspired, comforted, or amused, whether if you are looking for a laugh or a cry you can find a story for your mood. The Chicken Soup authors always know how to pick a collection of stories that truly brings the subject to light, a tear to your eye, and a smile to your lips! This time, what a worthy topic: mothers. As a positive psychologist in private practice I certainly know the powerful and permanent importance of our mothers in all of our lives!

I CAN NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN! Some real tear jerkers too. A must for all moms.

my family got this as a gift about 8 years ago. I don't remember much about it but I remember the stories about the mother losing her son during a skiing accident, the girl who bought her mom bobby pins for her birthday and the story where they're celebrating a grandmother's birthday and she dies at the end of the party after seeing her entire family at the celebration.

AFTER READING THIS I AM REASSURED THAT GOOD HONEST BOOKS ARE FINALLY MAKING A COME-BACK!!!!!!

Dr Robert Ballard will forever remain the man who found the Titanic. In so doing, he became the world's most famous ocean explorer who found the world's most famous ship.

It is not for me to inform readers of the story of the Titanic. Almost everyone grew up knowing something about that ship - even if the finer points of information they thought they knew were inaccurate.

Having then achieved the outstanding feat of finding this elusive shipwreck, Bob Ballard has put together the most complete - and yet again "outstanding," tale of search, discovery and finally success, coupled with an accurate portrayal of the life and death of the ship itself. All the facts and historic photographs are there - and, speaking as a professional shipwreck historian, he really has done the most thorough job of work here.

Finally, he has put together the most (and I deliberately use that word again) "outstanding" collection of artwork created by Ken Marschall. I may be wrong, but it seems to me nobody had heard of this artist until the first editions of this book appeared - now he is a household name amongst those in the know.

From thousands of photographic images taken far below the surface, Bob Ballard created montage after montage of the various sections and profiles of the wreck (i.e. big photographs made up of thousands of little photographs) so that Mr Marschall was able to provide us with paintings which look like single colour photographs of this and that section which go together to make up the entire wreck.

I congratulate Dr Ballard on an excellent and professional job of work. Altogether, the most outstanding book for which 5 stars are not enough.

NM

This book describes the discovery of the Titanic in a perfect way. Besides telling the sad story of her maiden voyage, that ended so tragically, Dr. Ballard describes his own struggle to complete his long time wish to find Titanic. He talks about troubles raising funds, the tragedy of almost losing the discovery to another expedition and the very exhaustive and mostly boring search. But also about the joy of finally finding the wreck and his emotions during all of this. All this is told from a integer point of view, also crediting the other people for their part in the discovery. The book includes many photographs and two nice full-color foldouts of the wreck. This new edition also includes a chapter in which Dr. Ballard comments on more recent visits, conducted by others, to the Titanic and his views on the (commercial) salvaging of Titanic wreckage.

The ever interesting Titanic lives on.

The best part about this book is almost being there with Ballard as this great ship is seen again by human eyes for the very first time in many decades. And of course the great images (both the actual pictures and the illustrations of how the parts of the wreck are situated on the bottom) that this book contains.

Very worth while if great historic event in general and the Titanic in particular are among your interests.

I bought this book soon after the hype brought on by the film. I have always been a history fan. The stories surrounding the fate of the Titanic have always intrigued me.

I knew of Ballard from previous expeditions that he had done. I have seen his work on The Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel.

This book is well thought out. From the search in the early days to the actual discovery and exploration. It's amazing how Ballard was able to stick with it over the years and the difficult times.

The book is written more as a story than as a text book. Plenty of history. The underwater photos are magnificent. I read the book and just wonder at all the problems that they had to overcome. The setbacks. The failures. It's all here in an easy to read and follow book.

If you are at all interested in the Titanic and it's discovery, this is a good book to read.

This is a sensational book.I have read this one quite a bit.
I love the bit where they find the boiler on the bottom of the ocean.
It talks about the trials they went through trying to find the elusive Titanic.Nobody had seen that ship since it sunk in 1912.
I have always loved reading about that ship,something about the whole story has fascinated me.
I think the era it all happened in,as well as the beauty of the ship itself.It certainly had a mystique of its own.
To look at the pictures of the ship how it has deteriorated over time is very ghostly.To see objects such as dolls heads and boots realy shows you the tragedy that once happened on a very cold night.
The stupidity to push the ship full speed through an iceberg field maked the mind boggle.Playing dice with all those lives,and to top it all off the lack of life boats on board.
Dr.Robert D. Ballard became a legend himself after the discovery of the most famous ship to ever hit the waves.

This is a very well written story about the early days of stock car racing. It's a great story of the rock 'um sock 'um early heroes that you have never heard of before. Even if you never heard of NASCAR, this story is full of great human stories!!

This was one of the best books about the sport of NASCAR I have read so far. Great historical notes, and a story that will leave you wanting more. I only wish this author had a sequel to this very well written and intriguing tale of the roots of NASCAR and the men who started it all. I highly recommend this to fans for NASCAR and even those that are curious about the sport.

This is one of the best books I have ever read on car culture and history. This book is well researched and written. If you love cars, history, or outlaws this book is for you. I promise you will not be able to put it down once you pick it up.

Nearly 1 in 3 Americans is a NASCAR fan. Autoracing is now the second most popular sport in the USA, and it's on track (no pun intended) to take the #1 spot from football. Unlike football, you don't have to be a genetic accident to play the game. One of racing's appealing traditions is that an ordinary person--man or woman--can be a race car driver. And there are no Michael Vicks scandals. These and other reasons are why it's not just a "guy thing" but has, in fact, a huge base of female fans.

NASCAR is only one of the autoracing organizations in the country. But to most Americans, NASCAR is autoracing.

While everybody knows about NASCAR, most people are not aware of the profound change it has made in racing or in the profound financial benefits it has for any community that has been awarded the privilege of hosting a NASCAR track.

My high school is less than a mile from a quarter-mile oval track (non-NASCAR) that has run stock cars and late model funny cars for over half a century. I grew up around race cars, and worked pit crews on that track and at a major drag strip half an hour away. I had my own highly-modified street racers. My hopped-up Camaro did the quarter mile in 14 seconds. But my Dodge Charger did it in 12. Its very modified transmission was set up to shift from first to second when its very modified 500HP V-8 engine hit 7200 RPM.

Back then, racing was kind of an oddity. It's dirty and expensive, and you put in a huge amount of money and long hours, just to race for a comparatively short time on the track (or street). There was a certain "outlaw" quality to it (especially the street racing) and that was part of the allure for some racers and spectators. Most people weren't all that interested.

No longer is autoracing an oddity. NASCAR has changed everything about racing and, in the process, made it not only mainstream but culturally iconic.

Today, I live only a few miles from the NASCAR track in Kansas City. That track is a crown jewel and major attraction in this area. During a NASCAR event, hotel space within 70 to 90 miles is sold out--and that "blackout" lasts about a week. As Thompson pointed out, people don't show up at a NASCAR event for just the race. They show up for typically a week-long adventure, with a carnival and other attractions. NASCAR itself rakes in nearly $5 billion a year from just the television contracts alone. Thompson provided other staggering figures as well, but I don't remember what they are.

Warren Buffet, known for wise investments, made sure a Cabela's Sporting Goods (one of his holdings) was built on the NASCAR complex in KC. People arrive in massive numbers, and shop there. They buy appliances and other goods at other onsite stores also, during the NASCAR event. That massive influx of shoppers gives a healthy boost to the sales tax revenue here.

In short:

NASCAR has become a major element of our culture.
NASCAR is a huge, huge business.
Cities beg to host a NASCAR track.
The appeal isn't racing itself.
So, how did NASCAR come into being and how did its races become such "must see" events? That's the story that Neal Thompson exhaustively researched and skillfully told.

The research
Thompson's backnotes (showing the source for each quote, fact, or assertion) are 19 pages long, in annoyingly tiny text. It would easily fill 30 pages if printed in a normal-sized font. This, to support a 300-page book.
Thompson listed 50 people he interviewed as "primary sources." All of these people were key to autoracing or insiders in some other way.
The bibliography spans four pages, again in tiny text. It looks like he consulted about about 80 books.
There's a list of about 30 articles consulted for this book.
Thompson also decided to get information from films--11 of them.
Finally, he gleaned information from 14 Websites.
It would be hard to make a viable claim that this book is anything but authoritative. And that's a good thing, because Thompson's story and the official NASCAR line differ.

The start
NASCAR wants to present its events as family fare, and there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, this approach is one reason Bill France--the major force behind NASCAR for decades--was able to change the world of stock car racing so dramatically. But what NASCAR doesn't want people to think about is the fact that its roots go way back to the era of Prohibition. That was like today's era of Prohibition, with a few key differences.

The original Prohibition was against one particular class of drug, alcohol. Congress, at that time, did not have the hubris to enact drug bans without Constitutional authority. So, they passed the 18th Amendment in 1919 to ban the manufacture and sale of alcohol. This, of course, had the same ill effects as today's unconstitutional bans on other drugs--outsized profits for the drug dealers, violent crime, no safety standards in manufacture or distribution, pointless diversion of limited law enforcement resources, prison overcrowding (the USA has the highest prison population per capita in the world), and a huge loss in tax revenue.

In short, that law was so stupid and deleterious that Congress repealed it by enacting the 21st Amendment in 1933. They can't do that with today's other drug bans, because those aren't Constitutional to begin with.

During this period of stupidity, a cottage industry arose--mostly in the South, where people made their own booze from corn. They were called moonshiners. Because their liquor was illegal, they needed to outrun the police when making deliveries and when conducting other business related to moonshine. The drivers of those cars became the drivers in the early days of racing. Bill France, the cofounder of NASCAR who strong-armed everyone else into giving him complete control of NASCAR, was one of those early racers.

And it's here, with the moonshine runs, that Thompson begins the real story of NASCAR. We ride along with the crafty drivers in their modified Ford Model As, then Ford Model Ts, then Ford V-8s (that was the model name: simply V-8) during Prohibition. We see how things got even more intense after Prohibition (which simply served to let the genie out of the bottle, so to speak). Then came World War II, and we follow some racers through that time--during which autoracing was suspended to support the war effort.

After WWII, auto production changed. Ford didn't keep up with the times, and a flood of more advanced automobiles, made by other companies, began to show up on the racetracks. Dodge (Chrysler) dominated much of racing throughout the 1960s (Richard Petty drove Dodges), with stiff competition from Chevrolet.

Information not mentioned in the book
Ford had never optimized its cylinder heads for airflow. The ports were large, but weren't shaped properly to keep fuel suspended at high flow rates (the air was too "choppy.). The leader in cylinder heads, for quite some time, was Chrysler. In later years, master mechanics could rework Chevy and Dodge heads to precisely match characteristics all the way through the intake system--so it really didn't make any difference as long as you ran Chevy or Dodge. But in the drivetrain it made a big difference.

Chevys blew out rear ends and transmissions, but the Dodges were overengineered except for having lousy suspensions and chintzy interiors. On many tracks, you saw Chevys with Ford rear ends--and the Dodges often used Dodge truck rear ends for the same high durability.

Chrysler excelled in raw power. The first year Chrysler released the Dodger Charger with a 440 engine, it sponsored four 440-equipped cars in a race (I don't recall if that was NASCAR). Those cars took 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places. The answer to that was to change the rules so that a 440 would be too big to be legal. In street races, 440s would leave the vaunted Hemi cars eating their dust--because you could quickly raise the horsepower with aftermarket parts (not so with the Hemi). Interestingly, the fastest completely stock car in the quarter mile was a '72 Chevy Chevelle with a 396 engine and a gear ratio biased for the quarter mile.

Back to the book
Auto production wasn't the only change. Bill France changed the management and promotion of racing, allowing NASCAR to arise above all competitors to become the face of "stock car" racing to most of America. The myth surrounding the rise of NASCAR is intriguing, partly because it portrays Bill France in a "larger than life way." But the myth isn't nearly as interesting as the real story.

And, coincidentally, Bill France actually was "larger than life." He was 6 feet, 5 inches tall, had a booming voice, and had a way about him that made folks leery of crossing him. He was audacious, capricious, and self-serving. Those who had dealings with him called him a dictator. Red Vogt, the legendary master mechanic who was the lifelong friend of France, didn't like the way France took things over. But he was quoted in the book as saying nobody else could do it and it needed to be done. I don't recall the exact quote, but it's in there.

So, NASCAR got its start thanks to incredibly bad public policy. Amazing mechanics gave cars abilities to do things their designers never dreamed of, and drivers who learned their craft to outrun police were able to draw those abilities out to put on impressive races.

That was the start of racing, and Driving with the Devil shows us the various people and situations that brought it to where it is today. Which is why we're all familiar with the announcement that starts each race, "Gentlemen. Start...your...engines!"

This book was so engrossing, I crossed its finish line much faster than I had anticipated. If you don't rev up your reading with it, I think you're missing out.

I have never been a NASCAR fan, but this book is one of the best books I have ever read. Neal Thompson's profiles of the characters in his book gives me insight into my own family's history, most of whom lived in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee in the late 1800's. Thompson's book clearly highlights the "just want to be left alone" attitude of the people in that region.

ENCHANTING THE LADY - catapults Kathryne Kennedy into immediate stardom with this absolutely charming story. Like a bon-bon to be savored - this unusual and most engrossing paranormal romance will take your breath away and you will savor it much after you are done with the book!

London's late Victorian time is a time of magic. Where everyone practices magic and the higher the noble title, the more powerful the magic. Felicity Seymour needs to pass the magical test to retain her parent's holdings and the duchy. After their deaths, Felicity has lived with her Aunt and Uncle who have tried to train her for her testing - though it is evident that her parent's magic clearly didn't pass down to her, for she has no magical powers.

Terence Blackwell is a shapeshifter - his animal form a beautiful and regal lion. A spy for Price Albert, he protects the royal family and London from the Magic derived from Merlin's relics, which were scattered and hiden long ago. He is a hunter of relics - for relics have very dangerous magical powers in the hands of those that might use them for evil.

After smelling the scent of relic magic on Felicity -Terence concocts a plan to court Felicity in order to gain possession of this relic and destroy it. Much to his dismay - he falls for Felicity. Her guilelessness and innocence are something that Terence is unaccustomed to and he is further confused as he can't determine whether Felicity is the user of dark magic or the victim.

Take an enchanted London very much the likes of Harry Potter's and with the exquisite romance, passion and tenderness of Lisa Kleypas and you have a sure winner! Kennedy has crafted a marvelous novel. The main protagonists are solid and real. With fabulous secondary characters and additions such as "Daisy", which am sure you will adore! I can't wait for Kennedy's next installment in the RELICS OF MERLIN. What a remarkable and fabulous start to a great series!

I absolutely love historical romances--especially Regencies, and paranormal romances.This novel combines both is a wonderfully innovative way.

In this work, Titles in England are granted based on magical ability. True, it runs in families, but one generation of no magic and the family can lose everything.

This is apparently the case with Felicity Seymour, who comes from a family of great talent--enough to have the title of Duchess, but she does not have the family talent. She is withdrawn, and all but invisible--literally. She is raised by relatives-an Aunt and Uncle and an annoying cousin who terrorizes Felicity.

The Love interest Terence Blackwell, is a Shapeshifter (another faovrite genre!)Lion who has the title Baron by virtue of his shifting. However shifters are looked down upon by Society and tolorated only because the Crown Prince desires the presence of the Shifters as guards. Terence can SEE Felicity and this leads to the blossoming of thier romance. However, not all is as it seems, as Terence develops suspisions about Felicity and her family.

Combine intrige, desire, and Regency mores with more than a dash of magic and you have a truely spellbinding work. I can't wait until the next book in the series!

You just can't go wrong buying and reading any Kathryne Kennedy book.
Enchanting the Lady had me laughing, crying, and not wanting to put it down for a second. I could read it over and enjoy it just as much a second and third time. The story is unique and the characters are unforgetable. It has become a favorite book for me!

Victorian London is full of aristocratic magic. Felicity Seymour has to pass a magic test to inherit her family's lands. If she loses her duchy, what chance does this plain woman whom everyone overlooks have for marriage? None! Except this handsome baronet, Sir Terence Blackwell, is the one person in all of London to not treat her if she is not invisible. A scandalous shape shifter, the scorn of the magical aristocratic society, a man and were-lion with a deep purring voice, Terence would set any woman's heart afire. Terence smells some kind of magic surrounding Felicity, the ancient Merlin relic magic. In a hunt to discover the last remaining relics, Terence hatches a plan to marry Felicity and seek revenge for the past. Is Felicity innocent or has she bewitched him with a pretense, hiding her magical abilities?


Kathryne Kennedy's ENCHANTING THE LADY, a paranormal romance, set in magical London, captivates with its modern fairy tale echoes. The dark psychological family history comes face to face with love and an innocent heart and the transforming power of love.

After reading several of the other reviews, I feel that I am 'in the middle'. I enjoyed the book,finding the concept of magically earned titles, wealth, etc. an interesting and different take on the rather usual 'damsel in danger' storyline. I also found most of the characters to be a little flat, leading one to remember that this is first of all a follow a formula book. It was an easy read, and I will follow the series line, but am hoping that the promise shown by the author is expanded in future efforts.

The binding on my paperback copy also fell apart half-way through the book. While I found some of the writing less than crisp and the organization sometimes left me confused as to sequences of events, overall it's a wonderfully detailed history of how a great house came to be. I wish I had read it before I visited Fallingwater; it would have greatly increased my enjoyment of the house.

I have now read FALLINGWATER RISING twice, and I think it is one of the most well-written, readable, and engrossing books about any subject. What I like most about it is that even though Fallingwater is an inanimate object, we feel that it is a living thing; this is our emotional response to it. This book makes it clear that people made the building happen. People with all of their strengths, foibles, desires and aspirations. Each of these people come to life on the page, and Toker's delightful spirit of inquiry illuminates the writing and makes it sing.

Every "thing" you could ever want to know about Fallingwater is contained in this book -- and then some. It is an enjoyable, insightful book about an extraordinary house. The writing is convincing, intelligent and clear, covering a wide range of complex and contentious topics without ever seeming either simplistic or academic. For my tastes there was too much detail on some peripheral subjects -- such as Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead and the PR campaigns relating to Fallingwater. I didn't really need to be given lists of all the doo dads and art objects that were put on various walls and shelves at one time or another, but some of these matters are easily skimmed over. Despite its encyclopedic scope and thorough research and analysis, the book ironically fails to really get at the essence of the creative process that resulted in Fallingwater -- especially the contributions of EJ Kaufmann. How is it that EJ Kaufmann built Fallingwater and the Palm Springs Nuetra house -- two of the most extraordinary houses of the 20th century? In the end the essential mystery of Fallingwater remains.

I must say that as an architect who has been practicing for over 25 years, I have not read any book quite like this before that reaches so deeply into the creation of a master work such as Fallingwater. I have always "appreciated" FLW work but only recently have more fully understood what he has accomplished and created in built architectural works that to me borders on magical and genius at the same time. The glossy pictures alone only begins to reflect him as the gifted craftsman he represented. Living in Chicago I get to enjoy much of his work all the time. I'm still enjoying the book and must say your work here is amazing and a fitting tribute to an increbible individual and architect. Thanks for the experience. Jack Svaicer

I would give this four stars based on its intellectual content. The reason I only gave it two stars is because the trade paperback, which lists for $25.00, fell apart in my hands before I was halfway through the book. The entire first half popped out of the binding. By the time I finished the text of the second half, it too was on its way to popping out. This is unacceptable.

The book is quite good, telling us more than I at least ever thought to ask about America's most famous private house of the twentieth century. There is a good chapter on Wright, especially the fallow years leading up to this commission; there is also a very interesting chapter on Edgar Kaufmann who commissioned the house; and an interesting chapter on his son who later claimed a much larger role in its creation than Toker thinks correct. The travails of building the house and the work necessary to correct its serious defects years later are all covered. Also covered is the publicity mechanism that made the house famous. I would recommend this to anybody, not just to Wright's fans. And, if you have not been there, make plans to visit Fallingwater; the trip is worth it.

According to perpetual social and political critic James Bovard, the power inherent in government is alive and well; unfortunately, as he reminds us, they are not always necessarily accomplishing the people's will. Thus we find ourselves in circumstances in which governments are both larger and more powerful than ever before, while the individual citizen's ability to control and influence the course of his or her own life and liberty is becoming more and more problematic. In this stirring expose, the author explores how the federal government increasingly poses a threat to destroy individual rights and liberties in an attempt to preserve the fiction of government as superceding the citizen. Bovard wonders along with us how this state of affairs has managed to occur, and takes a thoughtful and impressive tour of the history of government control over individual liberties in an attempt to better understand it, and the future it presents for our cogitation.

Long before it was either fashionable or popular, conservative author Bovard was railing against the accumulating power and privilege of the crony-based capitalists who now seem to control the country. Here he draws blood from a dissection of the notion of state sovereignty, which he contends amounts to nothing so much as a glossy justification for the power elite's lust for ever-increasing power and privilege. Especially egregious in the author's view is the way the doctrine is being used to justify the behavior of others, to limit their rights to protect themselves, or to keep the fruit of their own labor. Indeed, all of this is food for thought. Moreover, Bovard is an interesting and quite eclectic scholar, someone who accomplishes both meticulous research and establishes the substantiation for his claims as he proceeds, and does so quite convincingly. He also seems to be profoundly well read, based on his wide use of quotations from such luminaries as Marx, Hegel, Rousseau, and Thomas Hobbes.

Thus, he manages to raise some thought provoking issues regarding our seeming need to regulate many aspects of private behavior (such as the use of pot) that we can neither effective enforce nor usefully demonstrate to be evil for the individual. Bovard argues quite convincingly regarding the potential dangers of allowing others to regulate our Constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties according to their own moral prerogatives. Bovard reserves special scorn for the so-called "Peter Pan" theory of government as the benevolent and paternalistic defender of the commonweal, and actively guides the reader through a critical review of the two hundred year history on the subject, a history he finds rife with examples through which government has repeatedly used its power to thwart rather than support the will and civil liberties of the majority. This is a splendidly researched book that reads well and which has some disturbing thoughts regarding the state of our polity. It is also one I highly recommend. Enjoy!

James Bovard is a bestselling libertarian author and lecturer, whose political commentary targets examples of governmental waste, failures, and abuses of power.
His Books:
The Fair Trade Fraud (1992)
Lost Rights (1995)
Shakedown (1996)
FREEDOM IN CHAINS: THE RISE OF THE STATE AND THE DEMISE OF THE CITIZEN (2000) Just finished this book and it is filled with examples of the "Statist" (politicians and bureaucrats) extorting money to facilitate their appetite for power and thus controlling as many aspects of life in these "United States"(separation into red and blue states does not make much difference). The research is excellent and the sources of "wisdom" are unrivaled. The EEOC and EPA appear to be the most outrageous of bureaus but closely followed by HUD and others; however, the Supreme Court clearly wins the "stuck on stupid" award between the three branches and the Senate is a clear choice in the Congress. Much of what Mr. Bovard relates is probably well known by the average political savvy reader, but his ability to back up his message with research, i.e. facts and sagacious quotes makes for an excellent read. Still, as one other reader stated, "What exactly can be done with the current apathy and addiction to the Welfare State by so many voters?".
Feeling Your Pain (2001)
Terrorism and Tyranny (2003)
The Bush Betrayal (2004)
Quotes:
"Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner." (1994). This is my favorite and another version could be a jackass (Dems) and an elephant (Republicans) fighting over "hay" (tax receipts) that does not belong to them. They then give some back to the "original owners" (taxpayers) after eating their "fill" (outrageous retirements, perks, etc.) and providing some to their "herd" (special interests). THIS ITEM WAS EDITED--From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia--LOG ON http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country." John F. Kennedy

"Your government knows your mind, and you know your government's mind." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." -George W. Bush (sometimes it is more honest to deviate from the script and speak from the gut!)

One would hope that a political tome written 7 years ago would become outdated; that politics might have changed since then. Sadly, James Bovard's "Freedom in Chains," is more relevant now than it was then. Despite a republican president (and congress) which, at one point, professed a "small government" platform, the size of the government has grown to unprecedented heights.

Bovard's "Freedom in Chains" not only documents the incursion of government into the people's liberty, but tries to dissect how this began. Not suprisingly, his first chapter points largely (but not exclusively) to FDR. With a careful eye, Bovard analyzes FDR's shifty rhetoric, which was able to effectively redefine the word "freedom": a word that used to mean "absence of coercion by the state," was now morphed to mean "safety provided by the state." Where we used to talk of freedom to buy and sell as one pleased, now we heard talk of freedom to buy and sell at "fair" prices as dictated by government. FDR (and others) were soon able to tell the citizenry with a straight face that freedom meant the ability of the government to take care of them via legislation.

From there, Bovard spends chapter after chapter highlighting examples of this paternalism run amok. "Cagekeepers and Caretakers" highlights how politicians use the idea that they were democratically elected to justify incursions into liberty under the guise that "that's what the people wanted." (And witness in 2004 the argument from the GW Bush camp that the president has a "mandate" from the people!)

In what might be the best chapter, "The Moral Glorification of Leviathan," Bovard documents how government has claimed for itself such things as: the right to tell farmers how much of what they can sell and at what price, the right to tell landlords that they may not discriminate by refusing to rent to drug addicts addicts (or any other group the government happens to like), and the right to tell companies what numbers of which "groups" they can hire. (A particularly great example was the government's failed attempt to mandate that Hooters employ as many male waiters as female waitresses!)

From here, we read documented accounts of government officials exempting themselves from laws the public is expected to obey (e.g. while it is illegal to lie to the police, the police may lie to obtain a confession!), etc. I confess that at this point, the book does become a bit monotanous. While an advantage to Bovard's "laundrey list" approach is its thoroughness in documenting claims, a disadvantage is that after so many examples, each one begins to lose its bite. (I must admit that after a while, I began to skim rather than read, as so many paragraphs began looking like ones I'd read before.)

Another small criticism is that I do not think that supporters of government's growth will be convinced by this book. In other words, this is not a book that argues forcefully that government growth is a bad thing in itself; rather, it documents the growth of government and assumes that the readers' symapthies will be against such trends. (For books actually arguing against statism, read Freidrich Hayek, Richard Epstein, or anything coming out of the CATO institute).

For all this, I must still give this book four stars. Bovard does an admirable job documenting abuses of government power and attempting to alarm an appallingly unalarmed public that a government unchallenged translates to a people unfree.

If you still labor under the delusion that the United States Government is here for your benefit, read this book. Mr. Bovard puts paid to that myth. Americans are now subject to such an unrealistic array of laws and statutes that every one of us is ripe for picking by some bureucrat looking to "get his numbers up". America has truly gone from a government "for the people" to one "against the people". Our constitutional protections are not worth the paper they are written on. If you manage to go through life without running afoul of some government functionary, you are indeed a luck individual. Read this book

I read this book when it was first published and as I was reading was half the time wanting to throw the book across the room. It was the frustration making me do that.

I re-read this book again and after 3 1/2 years of Bush I found Bovard to be very prophetic. What he said is even more true today than when he wrote it.

If you are concerned for that state of this country, don't just read this book, but think about and act on it.

Bovard is the anti- Micheal Moore.

Read this for a view of whats really happening.

Oh yes, DON'T throw the book.

If you are a fan of figure skating, this book is a definate must read. It opened my eyes to things about skating and competition that I did not know as a former figure skater. It is a wonderful tribute to the skaters of the 1961 U.S. Team.

In 1961, the greatest tragedy in U.S. figure skating history - and possibly world figure skating history - took place when a Sabena-Belgian Airlines Boeing 707 developed problems trying to land at Brussels airport. The plane nosedived into a farmer's field, killing everyone aboard. Among those on board were 18 members of the 1961 U.S. Figure Skating team, who were heading to the World Championships in Prague. This is the story of those skaters.
This book focuses largely on Laurence & Maribel Vinson Owen, as well as Stephanie Westerfield, who were the most well-known members, but also mentions skaters such as Laurie Jean Hickox and Doug Ramsay. It talks in-depth about the training & competitions they went through to become U.S. Figure Skating team members, as well as the terrible accident itself & how it affected U.S. Figure Skating at large - especially the rush to produce new skaters to replace those so tragically lost.
Journalist (and adult competitive figure skater) Nikki Nichols has done an excellent job in telling the very real stories of these people who were the Americans' best hopes for 1964, and never got to perform. Most of today's figure skaters have never heard the sad story of the 1961 US team, and this book is an excellent telling of their story. Highly recommended.

.......the Vinson-Owen legacy in its fifth generation.......?

This is the story of the 1961 American figure skating team whose plane crashed, outside Brussels, en route to the world championships in Prague, killing all aboard and changing the face of American figure skating forever. Previous reviewers criticize the author for relying so heavily on speculation, but for an event that happened nearly five decades ago and many of the people who could tell the story are deceased as well, I think she did an excellent job.

To me, the biggest scandal in the book was not the Laurence Owen/Stephanie Westerfeld rivalry, but rather the dissolution of Stephanie's family shortly before the crash. Her parents have both been dead for over 20 years and therefore cannot tell their stories, but to have a child who was a champion figure skater AND a budding concert pianist.....are there enough hours in the day?

Maribel Vinson-Owen didn't seem to be the most likable person (a vast understatement) but she blazed trails without realizing it. A Radcliffe graduate, the first woman sportswriter at the New York Times, AND she nearly destroyed her coaching career by allowing a black skater to practice at her rink? That took some guts. This skater, Mabel Ferguson, continues to promote skating to the black community.

This book is a quick read, and I ordered it at the library the day before seeing "We Are Marshall", about a plane crash that also killed 75 people. The Sabena crash officially had 73 casualties, but one of the passengers was pregnant and a farmer was killed on the ground by falling debris. It doesn't look like things have changed much regarding the treatment of crash survivors' families, but that's another book altogether.

Most of the 1961 performances can be viewed on You Tube.

I have known about the accident that clamed the us skating team lives and have written about it in class writing projects. I have to this the best and only book on this sad footnote in skating history that I feel has been been buried by the figure skating community for years I only wish this book came out earler. I highly recommend this book as a start in any research in this sad day in us figure history I only wish more would come out on this subject

I truly enjoyed this book. One of my best childhood friends died in the 1961 plane crash, her name was Laurence Owen. This book brought back many memories of a wonderful young girl taken far to soon. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Figure Skating. It gives insight to many of the wonderful people who died on that February day.

Can anyone give more detailed instructions on how to interpret this 'game'.

I find it interesting, but also a bit frustrating at not being able to fully comprehend the valuable message.

Thank you in advance everyone.

I have replaced my original book, which was handed down to me by my grandmother in the 1960's. Even for people that don't want to believe in fortune telling, this book and the way the Chinese have done it for centuries, amazes as it hits the nail on the head. The numerology is interesting also. Highly recommend it to all.

I read all the 5 star reviews about this book and I decided I should get one for myself to verify whether the reviews are true or not. I got my copy from Amazon.com last January. I was very excited to do my first reading the day I got it to see the result. All I can say is that this is truly an AMAZING BOOK! I'm always fascinated about the pyschic world and I wanted so bad to develop my psychic ability (if I have one). I have books about tarot card reading, scrying using crystal ball, dream interpretation, numerology etc. but sad to say none of those books helped me develop anything. But the good news is--I have this book now! I'm glad I did bought this book. After I received my first copy I bought 2 extra copies more. I found my very first reading very interesting and out of curiosity I wrote them down on a piece of paper to see which one will come true. Believe it or not, the book is INCREDIBLY ACCURATE! One thing I noticed about consulting this game board is that there's a balance of positive and negative reading. Good vibrations are fun to read but when it comes to the negative vibes I look at it as a warning signs for me....something I need to watch out for. There were several readings which actually happened to me couple of weeks after consulting the game board. Whether it's a coincidence or what--no one knows!...All I can say is that I wish I can give this book not only 5... but 10 stars! This is truly an INCREDIBLE book about fortune telling. Get a copy and see for yourself.

I bought the 1948 version with board included. I am truly amazed that this is the most accurate card book that I own. I have other card books that are not clear. I have been doing readings for friends and they have told me that mostly everything I have read to them is accurate. Hope this article was helpful. This is definately the one to own.

Within four days of my doing a reading for myself, six predictions already came true! This book is a reprint of "Gong Hee Fot Choy Book Of Fortune" but this reprint is easier to read.Most used copies don't have the gameboard. You can buy g.h.f.c. Book Of Fortune (which is still in print) and get the gameboard from that book then use this book, which is organized better, for readings.

Wonderful; very informative. Very useful!!!

This is a great book on breeds. Although, I believe that
the ASPCA's Complete Guide to Dogs was much more helpful in
my research on the breeds. Even though Legacy of the Dog has
200 breeds, I believe the ASPCA's Complete Guide to Dogs tells
you more of how the breed acts, and the amount of exercise the dog needs and energy they have, while the Legacy of Dogs seems to more tell you where the breed comes from and how they appear... It is a great book, but when compared.... It comes in second in my dog breed collection.

I bought this book because I had a gift certificate and had to use it up. Boy was I glad that I bought this!
This book has so many good pictures of so many different breeds, it is wonderful. There is the common breeds like the Golden Retriever and the Labrador and than there's the uncommon ones like the Neopolitan Mastiff and the Koohikerhondje. If you like dogs or want to do some resaerch, this book has alot of good info.

It is great!

Well, the cover did it for me, a beautiful example of the breed I own and love, the Irish Terrier. Great book, great photos, good listing of many non-AKC breeds such as the Cesky Terrier and Smoushound and many others.

Worth a buy!

This book contains fantastic photographs and brief write-ups of 200 breeds of dogs. I would have liked more information on each breed, especially info on temperament. The photos are top-notch, however, beautifully done. Definitely a good, though pricy, general guide to review when you are considering what kind of dog to buy.