DEC Books

Anyone who is obsessed with steelhead fishing should read this book! My husband can't put it down. 3 times he's read it now and it stays permanently by his night stand. He has every book imaginable on fly fishing but this is the one he keeps wanting to read again and again.
He says it's the best book of it's kind.

This book is simply amazing. The title is absolutely perfect because Dec Hogan not only gives in depth and sound instruction on all things related to fly fishing for steelhead, he instills his own love for the sport into the reader. From the life history of a steelhead egg to his own history of how he became consumed with learnig everything he could.
Excellent color photography accompanied with diagrams and instruction, this book is a must have.

I've only read this book once from cover to cover. However, from the descriptions of the incredible life of the steelhead, the rivers, the methods, flies, and habitat protection (or destruction), it is easy to feel the same passion that the author feels.

"A Passion for Steelhead" is an instant classic, destined to fill the spot on every steelheader's bookshelf right next to Trey Combs' "Steelhead Fly Fishing." I was expecting this to be a good read for a slow winter day when the fish are locked down deep and it's too windy to cast. I didn't anticipate the impact this book would have on me. Dec Hogan's passion for the sport, his desire to learn and become an ardent student of steelhead on the fly, his aesthetic sense, attention to detail, boyish enthusiasm, and commitment to stewarding this irreplaceable resource infected me. And I thought I was already pretty darn infected!

The book includes a thorough coverage of the sport from the life cycle of Oncorhynchus mykiss to steelhead flies, casting, presentation, reading water, tackle, etc.

Highlights: 1) Dec's insights from his years as a steelhead guide are pure gold. 2) Looking at the beautiful color photos of his flies and reading his descriptions and philosophy of fly tying caught me off guard. We all know steelhead flies catch fishermen & a ball of yarn will catch the fish but I'd forgotten how important the angler's art is to the overall enjoyment we experience on the river. 3) The final chapter by Peter Soverel titled "The Future of Our Sport" broke my heart. In my lifetime the number of wild steelhead in my home rivers has decreased by 90 percent.

The one weak spot of the book is the chapter on spey casting. If you can learn to spey cast from text and line drawings my hat is off to you. I'd eliminate this chapter and throw in the DVD and some Greg Pearson watercolors!

I was fortunate to grow up in Idaho with a fly rod in my hand. From my house, I can be hip deep in the Clearwater or the Snake in fifteen minutes. Still, I sometimes become envious of my steelhead buddies who spend the whole month of October (or more) camped on the Grande Ronde. I don't have that much time myself but whenever I get the chance to learn from a fulltime steelheader, I jump on it!

"A Passion for Steelhead" is a genuine contribution to the sport of fly fishing that will infect you even if you're already infected!

An excellent look at fishing for one of the greatest and most difficult fish to catch on the fly. Dec really does have a passion for steelhead and conveys that well to the reader. One of the best books on the details of how to approach the water and how the fish respond to the fly. I really have enjoyed this book and will use it as a reference for years to come.

I can't add very much to the other reviews, but agree that this book is well-written history and deserves a five-star rating. While the author clearly admires Davout, he contributes clear and objective discussion on the various controversies in Davout's life (did he wish to be king of Poland, why he fell from favor after the disasterous Russian campaign, his conduct after Waterloo, etc.). My only quibble with this book is that it is a bit dry (but not overly so) and it would have been even better if the author had woven a bit more anecdotal material into the book.

Probably one of the best biographies written about one of Napoleon's Marshals, John G. Gallaher does a fantastic job bringing Louis N. Davout to life in a well written, superbly researched and very insightful biography. The author managed to intergated all facets of Davout's life into a single flow that provides clarity and understanding. The two previous reviews have spoken more then enough on this book so I won't go on. It was nice to read a great biography which did great justice on Napoleon's greatest corps commander (my humble opinion of course).

Louis N. Davout was the best of Napleon's marshals. Undefeated in over twenty years of almost constant warfare, he was incorruptible, thoroughly reliable, loyal, an excellent tactician and strategist, and a faithful husband. Balding, grim, wearing special combat glasses that fastened at the back of his head as he was hearsighted, his titles, Duke of Auerstadt and Prince of Eckmuhl, were for battles he won on his own. He led the best trained troops in the Grande Armee, 'and usually got the hardest assignments.' John Gallaher has told his story with accuracy, wit, and near-faultless research, from his beginnings as an unruly junior officer to the end of the Empire and his retirement. This is the best biography of the marshal, and the author drew on much primary source material, including the marshal's correspondence, to give us this undispensable volume. It is a great read, jam-packed with vibrant, valuable information about one of the best generals, not only of the Grande Armee, but in history. Napoleon was served by the greatest collection of military talent ever to serve one man, and Davout was the best of that sterling lot. This volume belongs on the shelf of every military history enthusiast, whether or not your area of interest in the Grande Armee. Few commanders in history were as successful as Marshal Davout, and John Gallaher has presented us with a superb biography of an officer who definitely possessed what Napoleon referred to la sacre feu, the sacred fire, the unconquerable will to win or perish.

This book is the long awaited reprint of John Gallaher's 1976 classic account of one of Napoleon's greatest Marshals, Louis Davout, 'The Iron Marshal'. According to David Chandler, Davout was "one of the least liked as a man, the ablest as a commander, and the most feared - and respected - as an adversary. He was also, from 1798, one of the loyalist of Napoleon's key subordinates."

This is an excellent biography of a Napoleonic commander. The book covers Davout's military career from when he entered the Ecole royale militaire in 1779, through the Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and finally his death in 1823. The narrative flowed along faultlessly although I would have liked more detail in regards to Davout's battles. However the author has covered these battles well enough and provided eight maps to assist the reader in following the action. Davout fought in numerous campaigns from Egypt to Russia and was successful always, his most famous battle being at Auerstadt.

Mr Gallaher has also supplied the reader with some insight into Davout the man with details of his relationship with his devoted wife and the tragedies of his children. You leave this book with a feeling that Davout was a man who did his all for duty (France and the Emperor) but never forgot his family. I loved reading this book and I felt it was not long enough (420 pages). I fretted about finishing, I wanted more, I did not want to put the book down nor finish it!

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves reading about the napoleonic period or anybody who enjoys a decent military biography. This is a great book about a great commander.

This book is a must. Though difficult to obtain, it is well worth the wait. It is a usual Gordon Prange Book: Well researched, easy to read, and without errors. Prange's relentless search, and also of his "sucessors" after his death, for the TRUTH about the the attack on Pearl Harbor, make this a must read. It belongs with Prange's other works "Miracle at Midway", "At Dawn We Slept", and "At Dawn We Slept: The Verdict of History".

This book dispells many myths (as do the other books) about the December 7th attack: FDR's "guilt"(he was innocent), Kimmel and Short's responsibility (they were scapegoats), The USS Arizona (a bomb NEVER went down the smoke stack). Prange's exhaustive research gives an accurate account of Dec. 7th.

This book is a must for anyone interested in the Pearl Harbor attack, and should actually be the FIRST book to read on the subject.

I cannot praise this book and his other works enough. He IS the authority.

Although Gordon W. Prange's At Dawn We Slept was a riveting book about the events that preceded and followed the attack on Pearl Harbor, many readers were disappointed by the very short description of the combat that took place over Oahu on December 7, 1941. Three other Prange books (which were actually completed by co-authors Donald Goldstein and Katherine Dillon)
chronicled the revisionist theories and Prange's rebuttal (Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History); the battle of Midway (Miracle at Midway); and Soviet espionage against Japan (Target: Tokyo). Finally, in the late 1980s, Penguin published Prange & Co.'s final volume, December 7, 1941: The Day The Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor.

To Pearl Harbor buffs, this is the gold mine for the most dramatic nuggets dealing with the raid itself. It tells the story of the attack's many phases from both Japanese and American viewpoints, including some heartrending recollections from military personnel and civilians who suddenly found themselves making an unexpected and sudden transition from peacetime to war.

Although Walter Lord's similarly themed Day of Infamy is somewhat more user-friendly as far as readability goes, December 7, 1941 is still a worthwhile entry in the crowded field of Pearl Harbor literature.

This is the centerpiece of Prange's (and Goldstein and Dillon's) Pearl Harbor trilogy. 'At Dawn We Slept' set the stage for the attack, and 'Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History' summarizes and draws conclusions. But this title, 'December 7, 1941,' tells the story of the attack itself, from the point of view of both American and Japanese planners, participants, and spectators.

Prange's research is stunning, and he presents his facts in a straightforward and non-sensationalist way. He doesn't point fingers or call names, he just lays things on the table. As someone who's read a fair amount of Pearl Harbor literature, I really appreciate that.

I recommend Prange's trilogy for anyone interested in serious Pearl Harbor scholarship. And if you're just looking for a fact-filled, yet easy to read, introduction to the event itself, 'December 7, 1941' is the title for you.

Highly recommended.

This book is one that every single medical student or history enthusiast must own. It gives particularly accurate insight on the life and work of one of the most brilliant and important medical geniuses of the "rebirth". With unsurpassed detail and beautiful arrangement, anatomy has not been represented in such an incredible and accurate way, given the context and the times in which Andreas Vesalius developed his research (dissection was outlawed and Galenus' theories on anatomy, which were based on animal anatomy, were considered dogma) and the extremely poor conditions and knowledge of the human body up until that point in time. Like all great scientists and researchers, Vesalius' recognition came after his death, but it is still a great way to honor him to get to know a little about his life and work, which this book does in such a fine way. The quality of the paper in which it was printed lets the reader get the whole picture and because of it's oppasity you can enjoy all the details as if you were looking at the original work. The price is also quite a bargain, which, needless to say, is a fair trait in itself. As a personal note, when I first read and saw some of the paintings within Vesalius' "De Humani Corporis Fabrica", that was the moment when I realized my destiny was in the medical profession; and years later I can see it was not a bad choice at all.

I first heard about Andreas Vesalius when I read about his work in BODY OF KNOWLEDGE. His drawings have been the basis for THE ATLAS OF HUMAN ANATOMY and GRANT'S DISSECTOR and other reference books used in Anatomy classes at medical schools throughout the country.

What makes his work incredible is to think the fascinating illustrations of the human anatomy were researched and drawn by Vesalius in 1543. His book has been called "one of the most noble and magnificent volumes in the history of printing" and "one of the greatest treasures of Western Civilization". More incredible is the manner in which he performed the dissections and the relative accuracy of the drawings which have survived to this day.

The introduction gives an absorbing and enlightening account of Vesalius' life in the first half of the 16th century. The book is for the curious and those interested in anatomy, art, graphic arts and printing. You will read and look in awe and wonder about the history and progress of medicine and science.

Andreus Vesalius, whom I speculate was a student of Da Vinci, shows the body in all sorts of poses, while in each page you see the body "drips" off its skin and muscles all the way down to the bones. Some masterful work and imagination employed here! Just marvelous! Taken from his monumental work De Humani Corporis Fabrica, which is still used today in the medical fields. Also included are plates from his Epitome of the De Humani Corporis Fabrica and Tabulae Sex. Essentially this is only the illustrations, but it also includes a lengthy introduction as well as excerps from the original text. Highly reccomended to the art student and medical student for this indispensible reference. Also a great book just to appreciate some amazing art. Some of my favorite plates are of the nervous sytem in which it is a full body posed standing upright. I imagine how Andreas created this, and also realized how well he must have known the body's anatomy in order to attempt such a feat. Awesome!

Did not read but am interested in a book on Italians arriving in the Port of New Orleans in early 1900 or late 1800. Anything available?

If your looking for a needle in a haystack, these volumes-"Italians to America" are a must for any Italian-American geneaology buff. Fortunately, I had a death certificate that had the place of birth of my grandfather. Using the index with variations of our last name, I recorded the information and proceeded to lookup every entry. On my second trip to the public library I found the entry and all information checked out. His age, city of departure and his place of birth. My only complaint was that the editors didn't have this information on CDs. It would be a marvelous reference tool. Here's hoping that they have second thoughts about updating their next volume and replace with CDs.

I am absolutely interested in the edition that pertains to the years between 1900 and 1925. Please keep me posted or send it to me when available

In 1987 in Oberwolfach Germany J. Husler and R. Reiss organized a meeting commemorating the work of Fisher, Tippett and Frechet some 60 years earlier. All the top researhers on extreme value theory were assembled and they presented some of their best work.
A picture was taken of the 47 attendees. The list included Simeon Berman, Ross Leadbetter, George O'Brien, Paul Deheuvels, Michael Falk, Janos Galambos, Laurens de Haan, James Pickands, Sid Resnick, J. Tiago de Oliveira, Richard Smith and my collaborators, Tai Hsing, Bill McCormick and Richard Davis.
I was very much influenced by the work in this volume. In fact the paper "On exceedance point processes for stationary sequences under mild oscillation restrictions" by Leadbetter and Nandagopalan motivated me to collaborate on a paper with Bill McCormick and Tai Hsing that was published in Advances in Applied Probability in 1991.

In 1987 in Oberwolfach Germany J. Husler and R. Reiss organized a meeting commemorating the work of Fisher, Tippett and Frechet some 60 years earlier. All the top researhers on extreme value theory were assembled and they presented some of their best work.
A picture was taken of the 47 attendees. The list included Simeon Berman, Ross Leadbetter, George O'Brien, Paul Deheuvels, Michael Falk, Janos Galambos, Laurens de Haan, James Pickands, Sid Resnick, J. Tiago de Oliveira, Richard Smith and my collaborators, Tai Hsing, Bill McCormick and Richard Davis.

I was very much influenced by the work in this volume. In fact the paper "On exceedance point processes for stationary sequences under mild oscillation restrictions" by Leadbetter and Nandagopalan motivated me to collaborate on a paper with Bill McCormick and Tai Hsing that was published in Advances in Applied Probability in 1991.

Helmut Schmidt's autobiography gives us a candid look behind the curtain of world politics at the highest level.
It shows us Schmidt as a shrewd, tough and cunning politician with a brilliant insight into political and economical world problems in the short as well as in the long run.

He saw the foreign policy of the Soviet Union as a continuation of tsarist expansionism (Witte: from the Ural to the North Sea). He understood also that the SU military budget constituted a heavy drag on the whole soviet economy.
For the CEE, he saw big problems ahead: a crazy agricultural regime, no independent military force and splintered economic and monetary policies. Only one of these problems has been partly solved today.
This book shows also the importance of think tanks: the Council of Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the London Institute for Strategic Studies, the Bilderberg Conferences and the Library Group which was co-founded by him.

H. Schmidt was also a brilliant economist with his magical rectangular: price stability, growth, high employment and foreign trade equilibrium.

His sworn enemy was US President Jimmy Carter. The latter wanted that Germany inflated its economy and that it stopped its export of nuclear reactors. He threatened to block the delivery of enriched uranium with the risk of an energy black-out in the whole of Germany.
H. Schmidt also opposed a recall of Western credits to Poland during the Jaruzelski regime. He knew all too well that a Polish revolution would have the same fatal outcome as those in Budapest and Prague.

This book contains valuable information on the Suez-crisis, hawk Brzezinski and Khrushchev.

A must for historians and for all those interested in world politics.

Interesting book by former German chancelor Helmut Schmidt about his experiences with nations and leaders while he was in power during 1974 to 1982. He is along with former French President Valery Giscard D'Estain the founder of the European Monetary Union (Ecu, later EURO) and thinks that most of the current brokers on Wall Street are crazy psycopaths, who drive US economy to a big crash!

I found this book in a library in Montreal 6 years ago. Since then, I don't know how many times it has helped me fixing problems by giving complete but simple explanations on the topic I was looking for.

The book gives quick basics on C then go on to talk about the VAX/VMS environment including a getting started section. It then talks about all the specifics of C related to VAX/VMS for the program structure, data types, storage allocation, pointers, structures, etc...

The chapter on the VMS debugger is usefull to figure out complex problems with C programs.

This books also talks about the RMS files, VAX C Run-Time library and other System services. There is also a chapter on DecNET as well as a chapter on some usefull products like CMS, DTM, LSE, MMS, PCA and SCA.

It even goes as far as talking about volume shadowing and so much more.

This book as it all! If you work with C on VAX/VMS, you need this book!

I found this book in a library in Montreal 6 years ago. Since then, I don't know how many times it has helped me fixing problems by giving complete but simple explanations on the topic I was looking for.

The book gives quick basics on C then go on to talk about the VAX/VMS environment including a getting started section. It then talks about all the specifics of C related to VAX/VMS for the program structure, data types, storage allocation, pointers, structures, etc...

The chapter on the VMS debugger is usefull to figure out complex problems with C programs.

This books also talks about the RMS files, VAX C Run-Time library and other System services. There is also a chapter on DecNET as well as a chapter on some usefull products like CMS, DTM, LSE, MMS, PCA and SCA.

It even goes as far as talking about volume shadowing and so much more.

This book as it all! If you work with C on VAX/VMS, you need this book!

The natural complement for The Professional's 2004 Appointment Book with the binder (isbn 097438352X), given that this is the second half of the year. It brings all astrological information I need on a daily basis, and the weekly lunations can guide me through the week with insight and inspiration. Really all I've wanted for a long time, with a professional look that I carry around and use in front of my boss or co-workers, without being embarrassed. My planner for life!

This is a facinating little book, published soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is a manifesto explaining the reasons why America chose to declare war on Japan, Germany, and Italy. It is mostly made up of primary sources, with speeches and declarations by President Roosevelt, Congress, Prime Minister Churchill, the Japanese, Mussolini, Hitler, and others. There are historical texts, including the Star-Spangled Banner, the Declaration of Independence, and minor quotes from Stephen Decatur, Thomas Paine, and others.

Caveat: at least once it uses the derogatory term "Japs."

There are 128 pages, the cover is textured, and the front has gilt stamping. Two of the product descriptions for this say it has black boards. My copy however is very dark blue. Otherwise, the product descriptions match my copy, which was copyrighted in 1941. This is a great book for history buffs, or anyone with an interest in World War II.