Central America Books

Compiled and edited by James Marten (Professor of History, Marquette University), Civil War America: Voices From The Home Front is a collection of personal testimonies of individuals drawn from both the North and the South, from blacks and whites, from the young and the old, from males and females, in order to give the reader an accurate, overall picture of what American life was like for those just off the battlefield during the terrible years of the American Civil War. A sober and involving text, Civil War America is strongly recommended for both academic Civil War Studies collections, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in Civil War History.

Found this book very useful for my first year Modern History course in the University of New England (Australia).

This book is full of great photos of Cleveland and tidbits of Cleveland history. Highly recommend for anyone interested in the history of Cleveland. The genealogist will find this a great addition to their collection. Great for putting that family history in context.

Plenty of titles present exposes of the climate change coming: David Victor's Climate Change provides a political approach, debating American policy options in climate change and surveying the economic and social costs of changing climate conditions. Three contrasting perspectives are offered: one emphasizes the ability of wealthy societies to adapt, a second urges new attention to the defunct Kyoto Protocol, a third urges unilateral action creating a market for low-carbon emission technologies around the world. All provide important discussions.

"Coasting" is a great little guide of the beautiful Northern Gulf Coast from Appalachicola, FL. to Bay Saint Louis, MS. The author, a native of Fairhope, AL, gives great tips on finding the essence of this scenic area and its rich culture.If tourist traps are your bag, leave this book alone--you will not find them here! Instead, you will visit a home-owned and operated candy kitchen in Point Clear, AL; go on a quest for the region's best oyster Po Boy; find great bargains in shops and galleries off the beaten track. You will meet local artists, find the best beaches for bathing and shelling, and eat freshly caught Gulf seafood in dives and hole -in-the-wall bars. You will even find out about the best places to catch your own! So give "Coasting" and America's Third Coast a try. You will not be sorry!

Graham was a distinguished historian and political scientist at Vanderbilt and UC Santa Barbara. Sadly, he died just as it was time to go do a book tour in promotion of Collision Course, so the book got little publicity. As an expert on Congress and the workings of the federal bureaucracy, he is able to recreate just how we managed to stumble unintentionally into the current, highly contradictory, immigration and affirmative action systems. At a time when the nation was finally intending to help African-Americans, why did it suddenly import tens of millions of low wage workers to drive blacks from many workplaces? And if affirmative action was intended as compensation for slavery and Jim Crow, why was it extended to new immigrants, even illegal ones? And what does this portend for the future, when the "racial ratio" of beneficiaries from quotas compared to those who must shoulder the burden mounts ever higher?

It is clear from the preface that Robert Drexler loves Colombia. To that end, this allows the author the license to speak of the many wrongs in Colombia with absolute honesty. Drexler is a decent American...he correctly points out the grave mistakes in U.S. drug policy in Colombia. However, the interesting quality of this book is the insider information, the first hand accounts of history from someone serving in the American Embassy during the start of the war on drugs in the 1970's. Drexler is an outstanding diplomat. Additionally, his book is superbly written and extremely engaging.

Hats off to author Lois Markham, "Colombia: The Gateway to South America," is the best source of information on Colombia for students in grades 4-7. Markham is a clean, succinct writer who has written numerous books for children, including biographies of Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison and Helen Keller. However, Colombia is an extremely complex country and difficult to quantify.

Consequently, the author takes special care to present information in an accurate and objective fashion. Credit must also be given to Linda-Anne Rebhun, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Yale University who contributed an expert review of the manuscript. Markham touches all the bases in this small compact (64 pages) book. She explains the geography of the four Colombias; mountains, coast, plains and tropical rain forest. She details the two main Indan groups in Colombia; the Chibcha in the plateaus near Bogota and the Tairona on the Coast.

Markham also describes how Spanish explorers found Colombia in 1499 and how early Conquistador's sought riches and not the development of a nation. The Spanish controlled Colombia for three centuries until the first independance in July 20, 1810 and the final defeat of the Spanish by Simon Bolivar on August 7, 1819. Still and all, this book is much more than geography and history information.

The author does an outstanding job reporting intimate details of the people of Colombia, of the family life, festivals and food. She also researches education and recreation inside Colombia as well as provide brief biographical essays of the great Colombian artists; Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Fernando Botero, Jorge Isaacs, Jose Eustasio Rivera and Alejandro Obregon. This book also contains beautiful photos of the Colombian landscape and people, a one-page country map, a two-page synopsis of country facts, a glossary, suggestions for further reading and an index. Highly recommended.

Bert Ruiz

Wow, what a find for home schooling families and history teachers!

This reprint of a 1901 source reader in American history is the first in a series of four chronological readers that provide readings by the people of that time peoiod.

In Colonial Children you will read articles by Christopher Columbus, Two Italien Gentlemen, Governor John White, Captian John Smith, Anne Bradstreet, Colonel William Byrd, John Fontaine, Cotton Mather, Govenor William Bradford, Ben Franklin and others. These prominent people have left us with their impressions of Colonial America's discovery, wilderness,the natives, its growth, its children and its schools from their own journals, books and news articles.

The book is annotated to include pertinant historical data about who the writers were or where they lived. The writings were from 1000 AD to about 1790. The series also has a book about the Revolution and the Civil war.

Ms. Schlick is the uncontested expert on native American basketry of the Columbia Plateau (eastern Washington and Oregon) and she knows and has the admiration of many--perhaps all--of the current weavers. Her book finally puts a face and name on the creators of the baskets and sees them as individual artists. I can't believe this book has been allowed to go out of print--get it while you can.