History Books

In 1991, I had the privilege of being a student at the School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth under the direction of then Col James McDonough. A man of deep reflection, he was also passionate about soldiers and ensured that everything we did as students in teh study of warfare and campaign design kept them in mind.

Now I am a university professor offering courses in US military history. Part of what I do is to expose my students to leadership and battle at the small unit level. There is no better book for that purpose concerning Vietnam than McDonough.

Every student takes something different away from this book because, unlike many assigned books, they read it. The book captures you right from the beginning. You really can't put it down. And, it contains more lessons about life and leadership than I can express here.

Knowing the author personally in 1991-1992 is special, for I saw in him then the character that had developed from his time in Vietnam. He tells it like it is, he means what he says, and he stands by his word. His book is more than just a memoir, it is therapy for a man who must live with the past, both for better and for worse.

Platoon Leader was an excellent read, and one I would recommend for all those enjoy military reading. I would especially suggest it to all junior military leaders. Entertaining and well written, the author discusses at length his role as a leader, and what he views as good and bad leaders. The aspect of the book I enjoyed the most was it allowed the reader to see leadership, on a small-unit level, working in real-world combat conditions. Unlike many books leaders read for professional development, it shows how leadership works when employed and doesn't just philosophize about leadership principles.

James McDonough provides an in-depth look at infantry platoon operations in Vietnam. This is a must read for anyone who intends to pursue a military career. The book is very graphic, but also very succint and to the point. McDonough doesn't waste time with superfluous details, every word is well chosen and critical to the telling of the story. Once you begin reading, you will not want to stop. It is a quick read, and well worth the time it takes.

"Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat," by James R. McDonough, chronicles the author's experiences as an officer in the Vietnam War from 1970-71. His platoon is charged with manning an outpost next to the village of Truong Lam.

This is a fascinating, well-written account. McDonough fills his narrative with vivid details that really made his story come alive in my mind. He doesn't flinch at describing the goriest and most horrific images of war. There are also moments of irony and bitter humor. Also noteworthy is the informative material about tactics used in Vietnam. And the author humanizes the story by touching on such "down-and-dirty" issues as the latrine his platoon used.

McDonough's story is populated with a compelling cast of characters. Particularly intriguing is his exploration of relationships among the various groups he encountered in the war zone--U.S. enlisted men, his fellow Army officers, Vietnamese military allies, enemy forces, and the many civilians caught up in the conflict.

While rich in scenes of combat, "Platoon Leader" goes beyond being just an action-packed war yarn. The book explores the ethics and morals of war. McDonough deals directly with the danger a soldier faces in becoming dehumanized by the brutality of war. He vividly portrays the struggle of a leader to remain wise and humane, yet also tough and resolute, under the most trying of circumstances. This book is both a profound meditation on wartime leadership and a powerful work of American literature.

As a junior officer I have an entire list of professional reading that I am trudging my way through, but so far McDonough has been by far the most enjoyable and has made the biggest impact on my own leadership style. Both Platoon Leader and Defense of Hill 781 are great books, but Platoon Leader is so far the best military memoir I have read. It has been over a year since I read this book, but the three things that have stuck with me are:
1. Do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.
2. Death in a combat zone is more about just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sooner or later your luck runs out, but you have the duty to your fellow soldiers to do everything in your power to protect them.
3. The stealing of a bottle of soda from a grandmother leads slowly but inevitable to the rape of her granddaughter. If you let your soldiers steal at all you are setting the stage for what atrocities they will commit later. You must always be vigilant in your discipline.

While I do not have combat experience, I am currently serving in Iraq and know second handedly that these concepts still hold true.

Other than the leadership aspect of the book, Mcdonough is just a great story teller and is able to make the book engaging and addicting.

No matter what you may think you know about Jeb Stuart's ride, you have to read this book. Its that good!!

Lets face it Lee lost the battle of Gettysburg. He admitted it himself, but he did have a co-conspirator. Due to his criticism of Lee, the fact that he wasnot your typical chivarlous southerner and becoming a Republican after the war Longstreet had been pick for that role. Everyone of the confederate corp commanders made mistakes. Cocky Hill letting Pettigrew go to Gettyburg with no idea of what was in front of him. Indecisive Ewell failing to attack Cenetery Hill when even Hancock admitted later that it could have been taken with a timely southern attack. And then there was Longstreet or what i like to call "The little train that couldnt" who whether right about not attacking the union postition or not certainly had a hand in that failure with his sulkying and perhaps even self fullfilling prophecy due to his lethargy and slowness. The mistakes these corp commanders made did not win the battle but only two if you want to discount that the federals won it lost the battle. Lee's ofder of pickett's charge and his incompetence in not properly overseeing Longstreets diligence in overseeing the attack especially Hill's corp lost the battle. Staurt was co-conspirator for these reason's. Would Hill have stumbled into a general engagement if Staurt's cavalry would have been there to report that it was federal cavalry and not militia in Gettysburg. There has been claims that there was sufficent cavalry left to Lee yet Stuart took every exceptional commander with him on his ride. What if he had left Wade Hampton to oversee that cavalry. As for Ewell he was getting reports that federal infantry was advancing up the Baltimore Pike It was confederate skirmishers and he was told that but how much did that and his ignorance of what federal forces were coming up because Stuart was not there to tell him contributed to Ewell hesitation. Not even Stuart can be blamed for Ewell not occupying an unoccupied Culps Hill. As for Longstreet and his suggested small flanking movement around the round tops and his larger one of putting the Condeferate force between Meade and Washington on defensible ground forcing Meade to attack. How feasible would they have been if Stuart would have been there to tell Lee where the federal forces were. Everyone of the corp commanders mistakes has the hand of Staurt on them. As for Picketts charge that was Lee's and Lee's alone so dont get the idea that this review is in anyway an attempt to exonerat him. Malvern Hill and Picketts charge showed he could perhaps be too audacious. Regarding this book hopefully it is the beginning of a movement that those Lee adoletors if they want to scapegoat Lee's failure at least it will go to the proper person. Stuart not Longstreet. I dont care about his brillance before and after the battle, i dont care that he died for his country. I dont care if he represented true southern chilavry. Jeb Staut made a monumental mistake in how he choose to obey Lee's orders by choosing a route that he could have foreseen the union army blocking his way north and his total lack of urgency in getting to Lee by chasing a wagon train half way to Washington. I have read Lee's order and while it may have given Stuart discretion in how he got there one thing was very clear in Lee's order. He wanted constant and up to date information about the whereabouts of the union army and he wanted him on Ewell flank protecting the army as SOON AS POSSIBLE and ladies and gentlemen him arriving on JULY SECOND just didnt cut it. So you Longstreet haters ease up and you Lee lovers if you have to blame someone i hope this book has at least given you the proper target.

Lots of questions answered regarding what Gen stuart did or didn't do at Gettysburg. Definitely added lots of light to dissipate the tons of heat present in the myths, rumors and inuendo surrounding Lees loss of the Battle of Gettysburg and who truly shared the blame for the loss--including rafts of evidence supporting the what and why of the blame. Gen Jeb Stuart comes off well--he was certainly not the villain of the loss.

As the last of George Pickett's men limped off the battlefield on the evening of July 3rd, 1863 it was clear the Confederate Army, after three days of fighting, had been defeated. General Lee, as the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, accepted all responsibility for the loss, but many, after the battle, blamed General J.E.B. Stuart instead. It has been 145 years since the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg, and the controversy over who is to blame for the loss has never abated.

Eric J. Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi have brought the case to trial in their book, "Plenty Of Blame To Go Around: Jeb Stuart's Controversial Ride to Gettysburg." The first half of the book is an inquiry into the facts of the case, as the authors present General Lee's orders to Stuart as exhibits. Their careful and diligent research has turned up many witnesses, both Union and Confederate, who add their testimony, and together, they form a narrative of the events following Stuart's departure with his cavalry, their ride around the Federal Army and their arrival on the battlefield of Gettysburg on July 2nd.

The second half of the book enters the historiography of Stuart's ride into evidence, and breaks it down into three phases. In the first phase, immediately after the battle and war, those immediately involved in the Confederate high command, and those involved in the ride, begin the finger pointing and placing of blame. In the second, the controversy continues, and heats up, during the post war years, as the participants continue quarreling with one another. Finally, after the passing of the participants, the debate continued into the 20th & 21st centuries, when the historians took up the argument. In all three phases, JEB Stuart had his supporters and detractors. The authors have done a fine job, presenting the evidence and arguments on both sides of this complicated issue.

Was the infallible Robert E. Lee at fault for issuing vague orders to Stuart? Did Stuart disobey, either willfully or unintentionally, Lee's orders? The authors, in their conclusion, deliver their verdict and find there is no one single person entirely to blame for the Confederate loss at Gettysburg. There is enough fault for every one. Or, in other words, there's "plenty of blame to go around."

"Plenty Of Blame To Go Around" is the definitive history of Jeb Stuart's ride to Gettysburg. Eric J. Wittenberg and J. David Petruzzi's outstanding research has produced a book that is truly a joy to read.

As a history of Stuart's epic ride, this book has no peer. As even-handed historiography of the critical aftermath, echoing for well over a century, it also no peer. I have two trivial criticisms: 1) the title isn't quite accurate, I think -- however many people were in the decision loop during those critical days, Stuart surely must have realized, at some point, that he had brought his command far from where it should have been; and, 2) the authors interrupt their clear narrative flow with repeated biographical digressions that should have been drastically curtailed or relegated to the endnotes (or both). The authors make the all-important point that Lee and his corps commanders marching into Pennsylvania had sufficient cavalry available for their purposes in the four brigades left behind by Stuart, but they failed to utilize these brigades properly and the brigade commanders themselves demonstrated little initiative. The biggest problem was not the absence of Stuart's three cavalry brigades but of Stuart himself, with his intuitive flair for scouting and delivering accurate reports to Lee.

This is by far the best book that I have read on any life transforming physical exercise including other books on this subject, as well as books on yoga and tai chi. The author writes simply and masterfully. He promises an easy to learn, easy to do "exercise", and delivers. This book has none of the New Age psycho-babble that mucks up so many other books on the subject.

This is a superbly written book. This is one of the best "how-to's" I've ever read, and I write those kinds of books myself.

When Qi Gong developed in China for more than 20 years, Chinese people finally find Falun Gong is the most effective. So there are more than 100 million Chinese people practice Falun Gong before the government's persecution.

But western society seems still enjoy the low level Qi Gongs.

Why not directly start from high level Falun Gong? It is not difficult. When you try, you will know.

There is an old Chinese saying: "Learn from the best".

Many of us want very much to do spiritual and physical exercises but never seem to find the time. This practice can be learned quickly from this most excellent book and takes only six minutes. I've been using the book for three months and have felt an increase in energy level, both physical and spiritual, already.

The author has written a clear & practical book, with compact and understandable information about Qi Gong in general plus some nice information about what it has done for him personally.
It has good instructions and a lot of black and white photos which are easy to follow.
I found the excercise sequence very simple to do. It is relaxing and indeed takes less then 10 minutes to perform.
I think this book is a great start for beginners. Anyone can do these excercises.
If you're interested in other, longer and more intensive Qi Gong forms, I'd like to recommend the book 'The Swimming Dragon: A Chinese Way to Fitness, Beautiful Skin, Weightloss and High Energy' by T.K. Shih.

I purchased this book back when it first was published, and have recommended it to many people who used to consider themselves to be rightwing conservatives. This book helped convince them that the right was wrong, and supported stealing with both hands, whether it is Corporate Welfare that ADM has taken for buying influence, or altering trade barriers to block out legitimate competitors, or simple illegal price fixing on a global scale, the ADM Corp led the way. Now that ethanol has offerred up a new way to steal from the public trough, ADM is again leading the way with the biggest 'snout' in the Government Trough.

Attorney Lieber deserves high praise for his objective, informative presentation of the antitrust criminal case vs. Archer Daniels Midland, the agribusiness giant, that ADM, its powerful lawyers and Clinton's Justice Department did not want published. To his credit, he continued to pursue this case after most reporters backed off and swallowed the dizzying spin and disinformation that ADM's CEO Dwayne Andreas and his aggressive lawyers gave the media, crying crocodile tears as the "victim" of an allegedly deranged ADM executive, Mark Whitacre, who became the FBI's mole, and made hundreds of tapes incriminating ADM executives fixing prices in world markets with their competitors. Lieber correctly smelled the stench of a cover-up and adroitly guides readers to make their own
conclusions after compiling evidence, omissions from court records, and other factors that allow readers to infer that the judicial process was compromised by ADM's widespread political
influence before the trial even began. Although Dwayne Andreas,
the infamous political fixer and king of corporate welfare, got immunity in a highly secretive plea bargain to Justice in 1996,
after ADM agreed to pay a record fine of $100 million, his son
Michael was convicted and imprisoned with Terry Wilson for a
mere 3 years, and Dwayne (thanks to outraged and courageous ADM
shareholders) finally resigned. Tragically, Whitacre was
convicted, fined and sentenced to a harsh term of 9 years
because of ADM's swift retaliation against him as whistleblower, for exposing to the FBI the ... corporate culture of
ADM...(anything goes-but don't get caught-and here's your big
bonus (not reported on books)to keep silent, the unspoken words
being that an employee would be fired and crucified if they
blew the whistle.
Lieber's chilling comment (p. 322)should concern every citizen
or future whistleblower who believes in due process and our rule of law: "It was expected that ADM's attorneys would savage the
snitch. What was highly bizarre in the world of criminal law was the way the Justice Department joined in the frenzy to destroy Whitacre. This was an aberration...the perpetrator was a
politically wired corporation whose law firm- the president's law firm- had unbridled entree and influence at Justice. The
mole's lawyer had none."
Lieber makes a strong case that this American corporate history- "one of the most important antitrust cases of the century"- should be closely examined. Rightly so. Why was the court record sealed, why were key witnesses (e.g., Wayne Brasser) not deposed, who could have validated Whitacre's claims that the hidden bonuses were a quid pro quo for engaging in illegal price-fixing? The author's appendices are very helpful. ADM and Dwayne Andreas not only have lobbied for years to emasculate our antitrust laws (the "Magna Carta" of free enterprise) but know that the massive soft money donations to key politicians can grease not only the wheels of justice, but also ensure that ADM continues to get huge subsidies for ethanol and other favors from Agriculture Dept. (high fructose corn syrup,peanuts) that have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
Rats in the Grain is highly recommended, and was a difficult book to write because of the case's complexity. James Lieber should be considered for a Pulitzer Prize.

I have not read this book, but it seems that the publisher's statement here at Amazon should include some mention of what this book can tell us that Kurt Eichenwald's exhaustive, prizewinning book, _The Informant_, does not. Eichenwald's book covers exactly the same material, and Eichenwald (the _New York Times_ reporter who covered the case) had the same access to Whitacre and other sources that Lieber had.

For obvious reasons, I would prefer not to give a "number-of-stars" rating to a book I haven't read. But Amazon demands it, so I've chosen a neutral "three."

Jim Liebert gets to the truth. Dwayne Andreas and others at ADM are not kind folks. Their ties with murderer/dictator Fidel Castro are real. Their contemptuous involvement with the illegal extraction of Elian Gonzalez from freedom and his subsequent delivery to slavery in Castro's communist prison is also very real. All in the name of appeasment to Castro. These people are stench and deserve to be imprisoned, if not worse. Thank you Mr. Liebert for telling the truth.

Lieber possesses a unique blend of talents to investigate the price fixing trial of the century.

The book chronicles ADM kingmaker Dwayne Andreas's rise to business and political power, charts the evolution of US antitrust law, and dissect's the testimony of key witnesses in the trial.

The chapters on the trial delve into ADM's chief defense: its executives were white-hatted American heroes intent on destroying an "Asian" cartel. You will find the race baiting and "we-are-heroes" defense surreal, especially since audio and video tape caught the conspirators red-handed and potty-mouthed.

Lieber presents shocking evidence to build a solid case that the US Justice Department often subjugated itself to ADM's political power and well-connected attorneys in the prosecution of informant Mark Whitacre for fraud and tax evasion. For example, Whitacre still maintains the nearly $10 million of ADM money he stashed in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands was "off-the-books" bonuses given to him by Michael Andreas with the approval of ADM president James Randall. Lieber provides multi-layered facts that endorse Whitacre's story.

The book's final chapters contain even more revelations: alleged document shredding by ADM chairman Andreas after the June 1995 FBI raid; ADM's hiring prostitutes to help steal competitors' technology; the never investigated role of ADM president James Randall--or Chairman Andreas--in price fixing conspiracies; the Justice Department's refusal to release public documents, and other sordid facts of sex, lies and videotape.

As you will discover in reading this book, justice was plea bargined away and the wishes of the Andreas crime family boss Dwayne were granted, one of which was sending Whitacre to jail for 10 years.

Lieber is to be commended for this historical document which will explain to generations to come how corporate crime destoyed our country.

Rebels and Redcoats is not the first book to read about the American Revolution.

I know this book has glowing reviews by others. But those readers already know the basic story. If you think you fit in that category, go for it. Fascinating as the first person accounts may be, the context of the war is sometimes lost.

The men who fought the War are not the most literate. Spelling and grammatical conventions of the late 18th century may be confusing to the modern reader.

A teacher or another reader to help with the story line would be good. Or read 1776: America and Britain at War, by David G. McCullough first. You'll get much more out of your reading.

The editor/authors do a good job weaving the tales told by various participants. The reader may find the differing styles confusing. An interesting alternative would be Joseph Plumb Martin's classic account as a teenage recruit during the Revolution.

What else can be said that has not already been posted? Scheer and Rankin nail this book! A must for anyone interested in our amazing revolution and the men / women involved in it. With actual written accounts from people who were there you could not get a more fact based account of what it must have been like. It is very rare that this book gets "dull" as some fear history must be. Written how all history should be - so that it touches you and makes you think of what it must have been like to live through such time, If you want to learn and enjoy history (esp. such an important part of history) get this book and "Angel in the Whirlwind" by Benson Bobrick = both are fantastic! A plus!

"Rebels and Redcoats" is a tremendously good read recommended for anyone interested in a history of the American Revolutionary War written by those that fought and lived it.

Authors George Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin have compiled, organized and edited a comprehensive collection of letters and papers that provide unparalleled insights into the war as it unfolds. Some of the participants, such as Paul Revere, are well known. Most, however, are not, including rank and file American and British soldiers.

The result is an extremely well written and compelling chronological history of the American war for independence through the eyes of those that won - and lost - it.

Lasting eight years, the Revolutionary War was both America's first long war and civil war. By it ends, four times more American had died (percentage wise) than in World War II. The war showed how hard it is for any nation, no matter how powerful and technologically advanced its military and economy, to defeat a people numerous, armed and far away, possessing strong allies, and fighting for their independence on ground of their own choosing.

Anyone interested in a first-hand account of a war that gave birth to the United States of America and changed the world should read this book.

Reads like a good novel. The first hand accounts woven into the narrative are well selected and perfectly integrated. A variety of perspectives was chosen and this is quite even-handed. There is enough detail to make it lively and interesting but not so much that it overpowers. Anyone wishing to pursue further personal study has broad cross section of topics, biographies and events to choose from. This is an excellent book and should be required reading for all high school and college students instead of the the race-gender-class dribble that is probably used today. 1000% better than Langguth's "Patriots".

This is a very good, readable history of the American Revolution. The book does a very good job of giving you the British side of the Revolution. I enjoyed the book, and so did my 13 year old son.

The only thing the book doesn't have is much material about the war at sea, but this is a minor shortcoming.

His abiding love of trees is evident in this deeply personal account of trees he's found and ...respected enough to photograph, research and write about. I bought this because we already had "Meetings with Remarkable Trees" and we were in no way disappointed. The photos are excellent, the trees selected really are remarkable, and the narrative is engaging. Not much else to say, both my husband and I love the book, and it's on the coffee table right now. We have had guests pick it up and also fall in love... attesting to the wide appeal of this photographer-naturalist.

A very nice book, with remarkable trees, however, from the cover I suppose I wrongly assumed they would be beautiful trees. Quite a lot of the book is spent on African trees of a very strange nature, and to my husband's suprise, very little was done on the banyan tree. I was looking forward to large, ancient trees myself. All in all, it is still a wonderful book, it just wasn't what we were expecting.

Great Book will enough the wonder hopefully they have it in the school systems or county systems

Trees are grouped by various, sensible categories that other books on trees might neglect: Giants: Gods, Goddesses, Grizzlies; Dwarfs: For Fear of Little Men, In Bondage; Methuselahs: The Living and the Dead, Shrines; Dreams: Prisoners, Aliens, Lovers and Dancers, Snakes and Ladders, Ghosts; and Trees in Peril: Do the Loggers always Win? and Ten Green Bottles. Pakenham's text is great fun to read, as can be viewed from those sectional titles, and individual tree titles such as "Tie up my feet, Darling, and I'll live forever" for the Bonsai tree that is the In Bondage section.

I suppose coffee table books really shouldn't be considered exceptional items to read - view, yes; read, not so much. This is an exception. Tolkien's Ents are invoked for a handful of trees, and rightly so; geography students who get a core borer stuck and (somehow) get permission to cut down what had possibly been the oldest tree in the world just to retrieve it are warned against; and, of course, it is mentioned that any fool can climb a gum tree. I've read this about six times this year, high time I count it officially.

In fall 2006, Lansing's forestry department planted a tiny gingko biloba tree between the sidewalk and the street in front of my house.
It had four and a half branches, all oriented in one plane like the candlesticks in a menorah. You could barely roast a wiener with it.
I scrambled into the house for a book I had bought, by sheer coincidence, the previous day -- Thomas Pakenham's "Remarkable Trees of the World."
Yes! There, sprawling across pages 110 and 111, was a gingko nearly 1,000 years old, still living in Tokyo, measuring 30 feet in girth and 66 feet high.
Pakenham, a British historian with Irish wanderlust and a gentle sense of drama, has traveled the world to photograph and research the history and lore of 60 of the world's most remarkable trees.
This oversize book, just now out in paperback, is so relaxed and un-sensational you picture Pakenham walking from tree to tree, a Haydn string quartet playing in the background, not minding the continents and oceans in between. It's a follow-up to another book that's just as good: "Meetings With Remarkable Trees," in which Packenham confined his wanderings to the British Isles. The response to "Meetings" was so warm that Pakenham packed his bags and expanded his search to global proportions.
Pakenham's style is that of a curious, intelligent pilgrim. He pairs generous full-page or double-page images of his subjects with un-fussy, lightly conversational background information. He clearly respects local lore and legend, but doesn't go overboard with it, nor does he bog the text down in scientific details. The result is almost a set of personality profiles.
The images are spectacular -- given the subject matter, most of them can't help it -- but sensitively chosen and framed, with an eye toward the unique setting, mood and attributes of each tree.
It's a low-key approach, but if this book doesn't awaken your sense of awe, nothing can. That little stick of a gingko in my front yard, for example, belongs to a hyper-ancient species/order/family that predates dinosaurs. Its peculiar lineage (it's related to ferns) is betrayed by unique, fan-shaped leaves that have no central fold.
Of course, trees have their own agenda, and don't care whether they get into a coffee-table book or not (it's tempting to think they'd rather not, insofar as books are made of paper). But it was hard not to think of Pakenham's gargantuan gingko as a thundering encouragement for my little tree's stressed-out, brown-fringed leaves and spindly trunk.
For one thing, Japanese Buddhists believe the gingko, not the Bo tree of India, was the tree under which Buddha found enlightenment.
If lore doesn't thrill, Pakenham serves up history and science. For example, a gingko 800 yards from the epicenter of Hiroshima threw up new sprouts even after the atomic bomb hit.
But enough about gingkos. In this book, the reader will meet a panoply of the world's most amazing creatures: General Sherman, a mega-giant sequoia in California that weights 1,500 tons and is probably the largest living thing on Earth; ancient teapot-shaped African baobabs out of a Dr. Suess illustration; the leaning Italian cypress said to have been planted by St. Francis; wind-lashed cypresses clinging to the rocky California coast; great oaks with hollows where 20 people can sit down to a banquet; bristlecone pines now into their fifth millennium of existence.
Some of these magnificent trees are near roadsides or chained off in parks, all but ignored by passersby. The wonder of this book is that it tunes the mind to the low-frequency, centuries-long chords only these creatures can hear. Looking at trees that have lived the better part of a millennium make you wonder whether there will be a California -- the home of a disproportionate number of these giants -- or a Lansing in 1,000 years.
My bet's on Lansing, which is far less likely to slip into the ocean before my gingko grows up.

This was an interesting read especially for us that have spent some time at sea ourselves. There are however weaknesses, in my opinion, which downgrades my rating. The author has taken some artistic license with his narrative. I would have thought he could have been more specific in regards to actual weather conditions. These must be available from records available to the company, the Navy or the routing service. The descriptions of the weather are too general. Another thing I found curios was a near total lack of a description of the contact and communications held between the ship's Master and the company - States Marine. There must have been volumes!

Still, all in all an interesting enough description of the events during those dramatic days. Not a pleasant way to spend a Christmas at sea.

This book is spell binding, excellently written and so full of history that it makes you want to reach out for more info.

A true story for our time and one that needs to be shared. If you want to know more about the Coast Guard and what it's like to be at sea, this is the book to read. I'm having trouble putting it down.

"Sailing into the Abyss" by William R. Benedetto is to the Merchant fleet what the "Perfect Storm" was to the sword-fishing fleet.

The book gives "arm-chair" sailors like me, uncontrollable shakes and chattering teeth even...with a hot cup of coffee in hand! Benedetto's writing abilities plunges the reader directly into the cold sea next to the unfortunate struggling seaman who has just abandoned his sinking ship.

This is the riveting story of the Merchant vessel "S.S. Badger State" that was taking its deadly cargo of bombs and munitions to Da Nang to help support our troops and the war effort in Vietnam. Shortly before Christmas of 1969, the "S. S. Badger State" runs into two gargantuan storms that seem to converge directly into the men and cargo of the "S.S. Badger State." The bombs break loose in their cargo holds, and then...
you must read the book!

The author is really a superb writer and nautical historian. However, he sometimes gives too many historical examples of similar events to intensify the fate of this particular ship and incident. His examples are extremely interesting but...often too long. These constant historical vignettes only serve to take the readers focus away from the main events at hand. Much of that ancillary information could easily be put into another book on historical ship wrecks.

William Benedetto deserves the highest praises for sharing his expertise and love for those who suffer peril upon the seas.

A truly good book and one that all sailors, past and present should read.

Aye--Aye Captain!

This book is superbly written. The amazing story of the SS Badger State is magnetic, and even more fascinating because it's true! I will recommend this book every chance I get, and I will keep my copy as a prized possession.

Very few people are likely to have heard of the loss of the American merchant ship Badger State at Christmas of 1969. She was carrying a load of bombs to resupply the Air Force in Vietnam, and a chain of unfortunate events--poor stowage of the explosives, carrying an insufficient amount of cargo so that the ship rode high, bad weather--combined to lead almost inevitably to tragedy.

Benedetto, in very simple and unadorned prose that is not bogged down by a great deal of nautical jargon, provides a workmanlike rendition of the last days of the ship and crew. He draws heavily upon the documented testimony of survivors before a Board of Inquiry and received very significant input from Charles Wilson, the captain of the late vessel.

He also throws in a great deal of material (which at times verges on simple padding) about the tragic experiences of many other ships of the U.S. Merchant Marine over the last two hundred years, particularly about their destruction by, or, in some cases, escape from, Axis forces in WWII.

A small number of black and white photos are included. The diagrams of the ship and of the bomb pallets would have been better placed at the beginning of the book for easier reference.

This is not a lyrical and haunting masterpiece of man's struggle against the hostility of nature, but it's a serviceable enough rendering of an otherwise forgotten disaster and a nice primer about the sacrifices of the merchant marine.

Daughter of a full-blooded Navajo father and white mother, Lori Arviso Alvord grew up on a New Mexico reservation in a family that took pride in its native heritage, but followed few of the traditional ways. She attended Navajo schools but never learned the language; she knew her clan relationships and enjoyed the security of tribal connections but seldom attended ceremonies or understood the depth of meaning in the Navajo concept "Walk In Beauty."

Such a person might expect to shed the remnants of tribal culture on leaving the reservation to become a high-powered surgeon, a career that by its very nature flies in the face of Navajo precepts like privacy and self-effacement.

Indeed, throughout her memoir, co-authored by Elizabeth Cohen Van Pelt, Alvord seems to straddle two worlds separated by an uncomfortable gulf. She first looked upon the deepness of that gulf at Dartmouth.

"For a girl who had never been far from Crownpoint, New Mexico, the green felt incredibly juicy, lush, beautiful and threatening." Unable to see the horizon, she felt claustrophobic. But the culture shock was worse. "I thought people talked too much, laughed too loud, asked too many personal questions, and had no respect for privacy." Navajos do not put themselves forward and cooperation is valued over competition. Not a good prescription for success at an Ivy League school.

At Dartmouth she began to feel her tribal identity more strongly and wonder if a kinaalda ceremony (a celebration of womanhood) would have helped empower her in such alien surroundings. But not until after medical school at Stanford, where she was forced to break numerous taboos (Navajo never touch the dead, for instance) and joined a profession where it is essential to ask prying, intimate questions and invade another's personal space at will, did Alvord really begin to explore the philosophical grounding of Navajo culture.

Becoming a surgeon at the Gallup Indian Medical Center, close to the reservation, Alvord notices that her patients do better when they are calm and relaxed, that harmony - even in the operating room when the patient is unconscious - is important for recovery.

She grows more interested in the Navajo philosophy that "everything in life is connected and influences everything else." To "Walk in Beauty" a person strives to live in balance, symmetry and harmony with everything and everyone else.

While this is an ancient precept, held in common with many other cultures and enjoying something of a renaissance in American medicine today, Alvord comes up with a particularly striking example. One of her surgery patients, a young woman, was the first to die of a strange illness that swept through the Navajo nation, killing 11.

A doctor working for the Centers for Disease Control, Ben Muneta, visited a medicine man, a hataalii, who told him "the illness was caused by an excess of rainfall, which had caused the pinon trees to bear too much fruit." There was "a significant deviation from the natural harmony of the world."

The medicine man showed a sand painting of a mouse and said that twice before in years of excess rainfall a similar disease had struck. " `Look to the mouse,' " he said. Weeks later the CDC determined that the Hantavirus was contracted from the droppings of infected deer mice. The deer mouse population had surged due to an excess of pinon nuts. "It was the rain."

Alvord's tone is quiet, reserved. It does not seem easy for her to describe the alcoholism of her charming father or the difficulties and generosity of her (married at 16) mother. Though she takes us to a nightlong ceremony for the sick and celebrates the strength her patients draw from medicine-man visits, she never explains why it takes her so long to visit a hitaalii during her own pregnancy. Or why she never approaches a medicine man to discuss cross-cultural treatments despite her growing conviction of the efficacy of the "whole body" approach.

While most of the book concentrates on her work and her struggle to reconcile cultures, she provides a wide, sad look at reservation life, beset by poverty and "white mans'" diseases. The long grief of history resides in the alcoholism and the self-loathing of so many - a balance that can never be put right.

At last Alvord leaves. Seeing it as the next natural step in her own "life trail", she returns to Dartmouth as a surgeon and a dean of minority and student affairs. At Dartmouth, she hopes, she can teach the Navajo "Walk In Beauty" principles to new doctors as well as working within the established system to bring better care to her own people.

I am full-blooded Navajo, I was taught to believe in my traditonal ways and it disappoints me that she has talked about very scared ceremonies.

Lori Arviso Alvord walks in two worlds. Raised on the Navajo reservation in New Mexico -- "the rez" -- she is the daughter of a Navajo man and a white woman. Carrying this dichotomy into her education and career, she went from the reservation high school to Dartmouth College, then found her path to Stanford University School of Medicine and a surgical residency in New Mexico.

As the first Navajo woman surgeon, she learned to integrate the science-based world of medicine and the spirit-based Native American culture. The importance of the singing cures, native healing practices, and other spiritual traditions was brought home to her when she observed her patients' outcomes. Surgical skill was often not enough when delivered without respect for the language, culture and spirituality of the Navajo patients.

The main focus of this memoir is Dr. Alvord's path to acceptance of the first Navajo principles: balance, harmony and wholeness, known as "Walking in Beauty." Along the way we learn a great deal about Native American history and culture, sensitively presented.

Dr. Alvord speaks of the cultural bases for Native American alcoholism and the prevalence of gang culture, monumental threats to the health and well-being of her people. The healing of these ills will never be achieved in the operating room alone, and many patients' stories illustrate this lesson effectively.

The outcome of Dr. Alvord's journey is signaled from the beginning, as is often the case with a memoir. While this may dilute the dramatic tension of her story, we're rewarded with a thoughtful and inspiring look at one woman's life and work, in all its contexts. I recommend this book to readers young and old who have an interest in the cultural aspects of medical care.

Linda Bulger, 2008

I picked up this book and I could NOT put it down. What a wonderful journey described here....how she interlocks traditional medicine with Navajo, how harmony and positive spirit is such a process in the healing world. You will not be disappointed with this read. I have shared this with all those close to me. Make it part of your list

--Dr Alvord writes about her journeys as a Native American student and physician. The book seems clearly designed for non-technical readers rather than the professional medical community, and there's little medical jargon. She uses her own difficult pregnancy and the death of a beloved grandmother as case studies in integrating Western medicine and Navajo ideas.
--On the one hand, it's worth reading this book just to hear such an inspirational story from such a role model. Dr Alvord tells her story with dignity and courage and she has many good ideas about listening to patients and integrating Balance and Harmony in our profession (although these ideas don't seem as radical or as rare within the medical community as she seems to imply, and I don't think she does anyone a great service by implying they are).
--On the other hand, the authors remained disappointingly abstract, even given the limitations of confidentiality and space. The stories of Navajo healing barely scratched the surface and the book was pretty scanty with practical advice that would help non-Native healers understand Native American patients. I'd love to have heard her perspectives on the magnitude of Native American health problems, how she handled the constant pressures of time and funding, or how she successfully used traditional Native American methods to help manage serious medical-social problems (i.e. alcohol use, diabetogenic diets, family pressures, basic compliance and responsibility issues, etc). In short, I'd like to have heard more about her successes.
--The book's perspective gives a good counterpoint to those who criticize Western medicine as too impersonal/sterile/uncaring/whatever, while they fail to demonstrate how to predictably improve things and still efficiently deliver technically competent health care to people with different levels of motivation and understanding. Western medicine works beautifully in its own niche, but it will be made to work less efficiently if we mess around with the wrong things. Perhaps medicine will improve if we balance the responsibilities of patients to live a healthy lifestyle with the responsibilities of healers to carefully listen to patients and then help them heal.
--This book did not practically help me to do this, so I cannot give it five stars despite my respect for her credentials. I do look forward to a sequel.
--Other books which may be of interest include Blessings (by Dr. A. Organick), The Dancing Healers, and Primary Care of Native American Patients.

It was a nice surprise to discover Dr. Seuss' "other" art, the art less known by the public. Theodor Seuss Geisel created wonderful paintings and sculptures, of which I was not aware prior to hearing about this book. Of course, his "other" art is just as imaginative and creative as the art seen in his children's books. "The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss" is a beautiful addition to my living room coffee table.

Betsy Hammer

A visually stunning body of work. This book shares rare and unusual images not seen in the series of children's books Dr. Seuss penned. Some of the images are dark and disturbing but then that's what makes it worth seeing. A wonderful and beautifully written forward by Maurice Sendak, another children's author, adds an interesting insight to the quirky and unique personality, of my beloved childhood hero, Theodore Geisel aka Dr. Seuss.

I recommend this book for kids and adults and anyone interested in animation or comic art.

this book is moving. in the way that a rainy day or a kitten effect your mood, this book too, will leave you changed.

i love this book.

This book gives you some of the everyday images from Dr. Seuss' children books and sketches for those characters, but also invites you into a secret world of other at that he created, some reminiscent of his popular books, but some much more abstract and interesting.

This book is a good buy for those who want to see more of who Dr. Seuss really was and what other art he created.

Ted Geisel, more widely known as Dr. Seuss, was a consummate writer and illustrator. His children's books have sold millions of copies; it is a near certainty that few children grow up in the United States without being exposed to Seuss books. This book contains some of Seuss's art that has not had a great deal of exposure. Most are paintings, although there are some works of three-dimensional art.
There are some very subtle messages in these paintings. On page 67 the image has the title "A Man Who Has Made an Unwise Prochess (sic)." A sad-looking man is walking from a distant building along a trail where there are sharp drops on both sides. The image caught and held my eye as I tried to determine what was so familiar about it. Then I realized that the man looked a great deal like Adolph Hitler. The eyes, hair, mustache and shape of the face all match.
Most of the other works contain characters similar to those that have appeared in his books. They are all well done, exuding a brightness and joy so typical of the Dr. Seuss books. Geisel was just as much an artist as he was a writer, perhaps even more so. If you examine this book, you may also reach that conclusion.

Let me first of all say that Rick Ridgeway is one of my favorite adventure writers. This book is focused on the area around Kilimanjaro and the current state of the conservation movement. Rick does a wonderful job of describing the area as he makes his way on foot from Kilimanjaro to the East coast of Africa.

One of my favorite aspects of this book is that Rick includes all the books he has used in his research to gain a better understanding of the history of East Africa.

If you love a well written adventure, with enough meat to make you want to dig deeper in understanding Africa - this is your book.

Author Ridgeway writes a well-paced narrative that smoothly ties together his personal adventure in eastern Africa with the area's history and culture, particularly in terms of its ecology, with focus on elephants as the defining megafauna of the area.

Ridgeway provokes thought on the future of Africa's large animals, the past fate of those large mammals that have already disappeared, and how we humans tie into all of this. His primary sources are the people who have shaped and continue to shape Kenya's game and wildlife policies; these sources give his writing the distinct tinge of veracity.

Recommended for any interested in travel, African history, or ecology.

Rick Ridgeway has written a very informative and entertaining account of his 300 mile hike West to East across southern Kenya in 1997. The walk was metaphorically in THE SHADOW OF KILIMANJARO beginning on the summit of that great mountain and spanning the different ecological zones of mountain moraine, foothills, savannah, scrub, desert, and finally tropical white sand beaches of the Indian Ocean coast near Malindi. More significantly Ridgeway writes about his journey in the shadow of others who have written famously on Kenya, most significantly Hemingway, Dinesen, and Blixen. At yet another level this story is set in the shadow of Kenya's colonial history and its current struggles as a developing nation trying to make its way in the modern world.

Ridgeway deals with all the relevant issues - ecology and the environment, conservation, domestic politics, the economy, tourism, the romantic literary images, the colonial legacy, the Mau Mau uprisings, cultural, ethnic, and social issues. And he deals with them in the way good travel writing should. Simply present the facts as you get them and let others speak their truths. No moralizing and very little contextualizing and therefore very refreshing.

The image of Kenya that emerges is that of a real country. Not too much of the fantasy and gloss of a romantic wilderness nor the equally unreal vision of warring tribes at THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. Just reality. Strengths, weaknesses, beauty, blemishes, issues, agendas, and concerns. All the things that face a people making their way on a rapidly globalizing planet. Although Ridgeway's Kenya is a very different place than the country I knew in the 1960's when I lived there in my youth, it's still as rich and as alive as I remember it and Ridgeway has done an excellent job of bringing it home.

I was so disappointed by this book I could not get through more than a couple of chapters. The author may know about mountaineering, but he seems to know very little about Kenya. Moreover, I found the writing to be ethnocentric and quite boring.

Combining moments of danger with moments of profound introspection, mountaineer/explorer Ridgeway details his journey from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro through the Tsavo game reserves to Mombasa, a month-long journey on foot, which allows him to experience man's primal relationships with the environment. Traveling with an experienced guide, two members of the Kenya Park and Wildlife Service, and two sharpshooters (in case of life-threatening danger), Ridgeway follows dry riverbeds across the savanna, seeking "tactile knowledge of Africa's wildlands and wild animals."

Far more than a search for thrills, the journey offers Ridgeway an opportunity to observe breath-taking vistas and the full panoply of wildlife, from the elephant to the tiniest of birds, paying equal attention to all. Mourning the absence of once-plentiful animals from the bushlands near Kilimanjaro, and the decline of species elsewhere, Ridgeway contemplates the long-term effects of colonialism, big game hunting, poaching, traditional tribal values, climatic changes, and tourism, as well as man's seemingly innate tendency to kill certain species into extinction.

Ridgeway, long a hunter himself, is an engaging author, both observant and thoughtful. A great admirer of hunter-turned-game-park-adminstrator Bill Woodley, whose two sons from the Park and Wildlife Service are on the journey, he provides a sensitive and impartial treatment of conservation issues. Extolling the work of elephant researchers Cynthia Moss and Joyce Poole, the latter of whom joins the group for part of the journey, he points out that they have acquired through study a kind of knowledge not available to hunters. Without preaching, he conveys "the big picture," making a compelling case for the fact that to preserve Africa's large mammals one must "fight fiercely not only to preserve, but even to expand, their wild habitat." Mary Whipple