Central America Books

The Prairie Tides: The Ebbs and Flows of an Era is the saga of the author's grandfather, who emigrated from Europe to find a new life and the changes of the Kansas society around him. Warmly written with gleams of insight into the wry intricacies of human nature, and illustrated with black-and-white photographs, The Prairie Tides is a gentle story of love, determination, finding one's place and raising a family. An exploration of how progress can come and go in cycles, and the satisfaction of hard work that far outshines the fanciest luxury, The Prairie Tides is down-to-earth wholesome American reading.

THE PRAIRIE TIDES is a simple, uncomplicated walk back in time. Author Don Larsen shares his memories and anecdotal snippets from a past he can still feel in his soul.

One handred and twenty years ago, Don's grandfather arrived in Kansas from his native country of Denmark. Andy became a farmer on the vast prairie and managed to support a family with his hard work and stamina. This book is the creation of an absorbing chronicle of family life told with humor, honesty, and facts.

It easily takes one back in time when gas was only two cents a gallon. Times seemed much more simple then. Young boys pulled pranks and most cars could only go thirty miles an hour. Most extended families lived in the same house and depended on each other. But things changed in the Midwest. Food production changed, children and grandchildren moved away. This story gives the reader a glimpse into the details that shaped Don's life. For readers wanting to feel like a part of the past and have some chuckles along the way, this one is for you.

This is a quick read about how American Defense has to change from the Cold War strategy to deal with other types of threats. I just returned from Europe and heard from European friends about their feelings on the United States. We are highly respected and looked up to as "the" power. We need to deal with the rest of the world accordingly. The authors give us some ideas as to how to do this.

The authors provide a coherent discussion of fully half of the security challenges facing us in the 21st century. They wisely avoid the debate swirling around the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA)-but deserve credit for their predecessor "offset strategy"-and simply note that the absence of "A List" threats gives us an opportunity to strengthen and maintain our traditional nuclear and conventional capabilities against the day when a Russia or China may rise in hostility against us. The book as a whole focuses on the "B List" threats, including Russia in chaos, a hostile China acting aggressively within its region, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and catastrophic terrorism. They note, correctly, that most of the spending and effort today is focused on responding to the crisis de jure, some but not enough resources are applied to preparing for the future, and virtually nothing is being done against the latest concept, that of "shaping" the environment through "forward engagement." Perhaps most importantly, they introduce the term "defense by other means" and comment on the obstacles, both within the Administration and on the Hill, to getting support and funding for non-military activities with profound security benefits.

Although others may focus on their discussion of Russia and NATO as the core of the book, what I found most helpful and worthwhile was the straight-forward and thoughtful discussion of the need for a new national strategy, a new paradigm, for dealing with potentially catastrophic terrorism. Their understanding of what defense resources can be applied, and of the impediments to success that exist today between state & local law enforcement, federal capabilities such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and defense as well as overseas diplomatic and intelligence capabilities, inspire them to propose several innovative approaches to this challenge. The legal and budgetary implications of their proposals are daunting but essential-their proposals for dealing with this one challenge would be helpful in restructuring the entire U.S. government to better integrate political-diplomatic-military-law enforcement operations with judicial and congressional oversight as well as truly all-source intelligence support.

Interesting side notes include 1) the early discovery in US-Russian military discussions that technology interoperability and future collaboration required the surmounting of many obstacles associated with decades of isolated (and often secret) development; 2) the absence of intelligence from the entire book-by this account, US defense leaders spend virtually all of their time in direct operational discussions with their most important counterparts, and there is very little day to day attention to strategic analysis, estimative intelligence, or coordination with diplomatic, economic, and law enforcement counterparts at home; 3) the difficulty of finding a carrier to send to Taiwan at a time when we had 12 carriers-only four appear to have been "real" for defense purposes; and 4) the notable absence of Australia from the discussion of security in Asia.

The concept of Preventive Defense is holistic (requiring the simultaneous uses of other aspects of national power including diplomacy and economic assistance) but places the Department of Defense in a central role as the provider of realigned resources, military-to-military contacts, and logistics support to actual implementation. Unfortunately the concept of Preventive Defense has been narrowly focused (its greatest success has been the dismantling of former Soviet nuclear weapons in the Commonwealth of Independent States), and neither the joint staff nor the services are willing to give up funds for weapons and manpower in order to make a strategy of Preventive Defense possible.

This resistance bodes ill for the other half of the 21st Century security challenge, what the author's call the "C List"-the Rwandas, Somalias, Haitis and Indonesias. They themselves are unwilling to acknowledge C List threats as being vital to U.S. security in the long-term (as AIDS is now recognized). I would, however, agree with them on one important point: the current budget for defense should be repurposed toward readiness, preparing for the future, and their concept of preventive defense, and it should not be frittered away on "C List" contingencies-new funds must be found to create and sustain America's Preventive Diplomacy and its Operations Other Than War (OOTW) capabilities. It will fall to someone else to integrate their concept of Preventive Defense with the emerging concepts of Preventive Diplomacy, International Tribunals, and a 21st Century Marshall Plan for the festering zones of conflict in Africa, Arabia, Asia, and the Americas--zone where ethnic fault lines, criminal gangs, border disputes, and shortages of water, food, energy, and medicine all come together to create a breeding ground for modern plagues that will surely come across our water's edge in the future. On balance, through, this book makes the top grade for serious bi-partisan dialogue, and they deserve a lot of credit for defining solutions for the first half of our security challenges in the 21st Century.

Peter Bergson (pen-name of Hillel Kook, nephew of Israel's chief rabbi during WWII) was one of the heroes of the Second World War. His efforts to rescue European Jews were instrumental in changing American policies; they led to the saving of hundreds of thousands of lives--and possibly to the establishment of Israel (there were only some 700,000 Palestinian Jews in 1948, many of them camp survivors). More famous rescuers, such as Raoul Wallenberg, were able to act in Europe because Bergson had conviced the Roosevelt administration to set up the War Refugee Board in 1944. Before Bergson's work, saving Jews was simply not a priority for the US government. After Bergson succeeded in persuading FDR and Congress, it became a war aim. American agents were active in Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey, among other places, making serious efforts to save lives. David Wyman deserves great praise for putting together previously unpublished documentation in a fascinating book. I only wish the cover had Bergson's photo on it. A must-read for anyone interested in the history of America and the Holocaust.

This is a powerful, moving, and very readable book. I saw one of the authors recently on a television talk show, "The Leon Charney Report," and was fascinated to learn that Jewish activists had campaigned --with some success-- to pressure the Roosevelt administration to rescue Jews from Hitler. In contrast with most other Holocaust-related books, "A Race Against Death" shows how some people did try to stir the world's conscience
regarding the Nazi massacres. It's the kind of book that gives you hope and shows how a handful of people can really make a difference. I strongly recommend it.

Jonah Raskin has put together what's been missing for all of us Jack London readers: a magnificent selection of London's writings on war and revolution all in one place. Raskin shows the paradox and political side of Jack London (who ran for Mayor of Oakland twice on the Socialist ticket) and gives introductions accessible both to people who have only read Jack's "dog books" and also to the expert on Jack London who is looking for an additional resource to expand his or her knowledge into a side of Jack we rarely see. I would highly recommend this book to the general reader who is into Jack London, the Jack London enthusiast (a must-have) and also to college instructors who teach Jack London's writings (or to professors who teach cultural studies courses on the America of London's time period). Bravo, to Raskin for having the boldness to show the real Jack London, a person of depth, thought and paradox.

London is a giant whose life squeezed in 40 years is astounding. Raskin, like a perfect docent walks the reader through first a beautiful intro capturing the texture and issues of his subjects life related to his politics then introduces each subsequent anthologized writing providing a comfortable and antipated view of the London texts. It is wonderfully modular allowing start and stop in bites. The ennui is palpable. It is a joy to read and ponder given the haunting presience and utter relevance to today's agonizing realities. William Bronston, MD

Photographing Innovation Art is considered one the wonderful natural world books. In this book, Art Wolf mirrors the virgin reforents area in elegant manner. Art Wolf knows quite well when and where to boast these rare places, animals, and plants that live in. His representation style is unequal to any other works, particularly in clear views, which express the theme he wants to convey in detailed natural views. It looks like hand made artistic works. Art Wolf has high skills and capabilities in views production. His views are wonderful and have natural beauty, which makes you feel, taste, and sees natural elegance and expressive views as we have seen in his previous works. The text and photo are complementary to each other. Both seek to achieve one goal- to save the area from surrounding danger as depicted in Wolfs work. Generally it is a wonderful book indeed by art Wolf. It makes us astonished by its expressive and moving pictures. He allows us see the photos from any angles to get different impression. This book is recommended for those who love unique natural world and high standards photos

A book that is spectacular to look through and educational in content. A Christmas gift that was truly special.

Rainy Season is an awesome book. If you havent yet read the editorial reviews on this page, DONT. this book will take your breath away, but they give away something important.
Rainy Season is immensely realistic- it is painted with the kind of details one notices in every day life. Lane's thoughts especially are written ultra naturally- ms. griffin doesnt try to emphasize the important ones or censor the less focused ones, they just come out the way anyone's would.
some of the reviews made a big deal about the whole panama canal issue in the book, maybe im just ignorant about the importance of it but i didnt find it to play an enormous part in the plot. It and the conflicts were definitely mentioned and described, but in the way that any 12 year old girl would describe her surroundings.
i don't want to give too much away, but i can't suggest enough that you read this book. it is meaningful and haunting and also just a fast-paced, enjoyable read. i found it randomly at the library years ago and read it without knowing really what it would be about, and therefore was stunned to find the story unfold. I know that I for one often am forced to be careful about what I read, trying as hard as I can to guarantee I'll enjoy a book before investing time in it. This is one book you can take the chance on without needing to know the specifics of what you're getting into. The book's more meaningful if you discover each page.
Enjoy :-)

Adele Griffin is a master of dialogue and puts together an incredibly compelling children's novel in a fascinating place -- the Panama Canal zone. The book is so well paced it just really builds steam... A fantastic book!

Is radio doomed by the Internet? When was its golden age? Is it a triumph of capitalist business or government planning?

In the course of telling tale after absorbing tale, Jesse Walker answers these questions and dozens of others in "Rebels on the Air."

Unlike most people who talk on the radio, however, Walker writing about radio doesn't come across as a simpleton. He is a very thoughtful appreciator of excellence as well as a fine diagnostician of failure. He understands the theory of radio as a business enterprise, and is unencumbered by a narrow ideology. He knows what happened; he is a master of fact. And he has insight into what might have happened; he is the master of the counterfactual. Further, being informed and no fool, he is as reliable prophet as any; it pays to listen to what he says.

From the beginnings of radio as point-to-point communication through its strange evolution to broadcasting, winding up in recent dispensations of "piracy," micro radio, community radio, and even the Citizens Band, Walker ushers the reader through a rogue's gallery of fascinating revolutionaries. Radio, it turns out, is not just a humdrum affair. It has featured strange people saying odd, perceptive and occasionally wise things, playing music other than top 40 or classical warhorses, turning listeners on their ears.

To most people, commercial radio and NPR delimit the narrow confines of the medium: to these, Walker's history will come as a revelation. To the knowing few who have heard (or at least heard of) Firesign Theater or Jean Shepherd or The Crazy Cajun Show, Walker is a sensible surveyor of diversity on radio, the ideal defender of both idiosyncratic entertainment and responsible "enlightenment."

Radio may usually be boring, but Walker's book is not. For anyone who cares about the medium or its messages, "Rebels on the Air" is indispensable.

So many other radio 'history' books just tell you all about what programs were on which corporate network and which DJs were indicted for payola -- without bothering to explore how radio broadcasting came about, where the innovations came from, and how and why most of the current spectrum has become so bland in the last twenty years. Jesse Walker gets into all this and more: he gives just about the best and most complete history of radio broadcasting's *true* pioneers, from spark-gap to internet: the underground and alternative radio movement. I thought I knew a lot about the subject (at least regarding pre-1980 radio), but Walker's book has five times more in it than I even knew existed -- and extends right to the end of the 1990s. I highly recommend this book!

I was first introduced to this book through a children's literature class years ago. It later became one of my daughter's favorite books. The pictures are well done and eye-catching. I'd highly recommend the book either as part of a classroom library or as part of a home children's library.

I especially like that the story is just a matter-of-fact story that happens to be in Puerto Rico. It's a good multicultural story that isn't focused on any any perspective, it's just telling a story. Highly recommended!

This is a great book about how villagers helped slave runaways to hide and start a new life. It has beautiful illustrations, good humor and it's based on historical facts. My daughter loves it!!

Mr. Stinson's Amazon review of this book is right-on! I've just finished reading the book and most of what I was planning to say is right in Mr. Stinson's review. Red, White and Blue Paradise should be in the library of every ex-Zonian who remembers the Canal Zone with fondness. It's an antidote to all the Marxist nonsense written about the Zone by the usual suspects. Herbert and Mary Knapp experienced the Zone, overcame their initial prejudices and wrote the truth about their time there. This isn't just an intellectual/political history. Life in The Zone is described in great detail. The book brought back many fond memories - I spent two years at BHS in the late '50's and even then I thought of the Zone as a paradise. This book now joins The Path Between the Seas on my bookshelf. I highly recommend Red, White and Blue Paradise.

Incidentally, although the book is out of print, the copy Amazon obtained for me was an ex-library copy in excellent shape.

Marshall S Thomas

I lived in the Canal Zone and moved away 14 years before I happened onto this book in a Nevada library. It is a jewel! Frank and Mary Knapp were two intellectuals from the Midwest who went to the Canal Zone in 1964, on the eve of the pivotal Flag Riots, to teach at storied Balboa High School on the Pacific side of the Zone. This book is at once an intellectual history of the Canal Zone and the its host Republic, and an account of the Knapps' own reluctant emergence from knee-jerk Liberal contempt for the Zonians. Like Isaac Singer's Yiddish ghetto, our extinct Canal Zone contains stories worth extracting. There are lessons paid up but yet to be learned. I think, for example, that the State Department's collaboration with a military dictator to discredit the Zone community, with the eager assistance of purportedly objective American journalists, was a precursor to the Justice Department's recent villification of anti-Castro Cuban-Americans in Miami. Frank and Mary Knapp are no crusaders, no polemicists. Their most important contribution may have been to re-introduce a meek objectivity and intellectual integrity to the scorched earth of Canal Zone literature. This book is not a magnum opus. But I hope it can serve as a re-orienting force, a compass, for authors of more ambitious future works about our communal Progressive experiment on the banks of the Canal that lasted almost exactly as long as the Soviet Union.

I bought this book out of my interest in Indian literature, but found that it resonated as deeply with my non-Indian womaness. Simple and clear, the writings take you all over the place and bring you back to yourself. Thanks to my Indian sisters.

I teach Native American literature. Since the publication of this book I have been unable to exclude it from my syllabus. Students almost unanimously have endorsed this choice, even when they had to shell out the money for the hardcover. Now that it is in paperback, no one should exclude it.

I only regret that an anthology of similar quality of organization, focus, and selection does not exist for male and female Native writers.