Virginia Books

This book deserves the widest possible readership. Despite vicious attacks on him by various academicians
as well as by the truly loathsome SPLC, Cal State Long Beach Professor of Psychology Kevin Macdonald
has courageously continued to produce scholarly analyses of the power and influence purchased in our
country by Jewish wealth. He is especially insightful on the subjects of the Jewishness of the Neocons
(largely responsible for the disaster in Iraq) and on the long history of Jewish lobbying for unlimited immigration. Since the parameters of acceptable discourse about these and other topics are almost
entirely determined by Jewish sources (which are,as always, chiefly motivated by the question "Is It Good
for the Jews?"), it is especially important that brave voices of dissent from Zionist orthodoxy be available
to thinking Americans.

Having devoured anything written by Dr. Kevin MacDonald, the professor of psychology at the University of California famous for his trilogy on Judaism from an evolutionary perspective, I quickly coughed up the money for the limited edition of this book which one can get from the Occidental Press if Amazon is out (the book is published in three editions, soft cover, cloth and the limited signed cloth edition consisting of 100 copies). The book consists of a number of essays written by MacDonald in various magazines and on the net. It also includes the entire fourth book of his; "Understanding Jewish Influence", so I gave that book away to a friend since I now have it in cloth.

The content of the book is rather self-explanatory by the title; it consists of essays on Western civilization, Jewish influence upon the world and "anti-Semitism". All his sources are from the mainstream of America and the West, most of it written by various Jewish individuals. After the interesting foreword by Professor Virginia Abernethy, the first part of the book is "Jewish influence". This contains the full version of "Understanding Jewish Influence", as well as biographies of all the major neo-cons currently dragging the world into the pit with them through their control of the major parts of the US' institutions. To read of how connected to each other these people are through companies, organizations and marriage is really frightening. All these people are extremely ethnocentric, motivated by a single motto; "Is it good for the Jews?" These are the same people that daily tell the entire world that Europeans are evil personified and that any group coherence on our part is a case for clinical psychology. Talk about hypocrisy.

The second part is "Anti-Semitism", which contains two rather detailed book reviews by MacDonald, of Bendersky's "The "Jewish Threat"" and of a recent book on Henry Ford. The third part is on Western civilization, and among other things what makes this completely unique. MacDonald also delves into the concept of "White guilt", and how this very effective mechanism for controlling the political activity and way of thinking of the European populations can be countered. MacDonald also crushes some very dangerous myths, for example that the 1924 US immigration cut-off was somehow "racist" and why the genetic interests of Europeans are just as legitimate (of course) as any other group.

If you ever wondered why the entire world daily seems to get a bit more dangerous for Europeans, this is the book for you. Without having read these essays, making sense of this complex world of deception and ethnic struggle, will be impossible. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, I can simply say; READ IT! All the stars of the sky wouldn't be enough to grade this book.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN, some 1.4 billion people live in farm families that are largely self-provisioning in terms of seeds. In recent years, the skill and knowledge applied to the management and improvement of farmer-varieties has become more fully appreciated. Farmers have been found to employ taxonomic systems, encourage introgression, use selection and breeding techniques, multiply seeds, field test, record data, and name their varieties. It was not so long ago that these farmer-varieties were referred to, in scientific literature, as "primitive" or even "Stone-Age" varieties. They are still referred to by the rather disembodied term, "landraces."

The concerted collection of these materials for conservation and use in modern plant breeding preceeded by some decades any efforts to conserve or use the knowledge farmers had about their materials. Virginia Nazarea's book is at once a warm and loving tribute to farmer-innovators, and a practical guide to the study of "indigenous" knowledge of farming systems and farmer-managed biodiversity. She connects plants to people in ways readers will find difficult to forget, and shows that the existence of diversity in crops is linked with the health and diversity of human cultures. In a sense, they have co-evolved with each other.

Nazarea's field research focused on how people farm sweet potatoes in Bukidnon, Phillipines. In the course of this research she was able to collect 89 sweet potato varieties. Her book offers a detailed account of these varieties and their management. One particularly interesting table provides a compendium of indigenous cultural management beliefs and practices, and comments on each by a plant pathologist, entomologist, agronomist, plant breeder and plant physiologist. The result is fascinating and revealing. In response to the observation that Holy water is mixed with some cuttings so God will watch over and protect the crop, the plant pathologist replies, "purely fanatic," while the plant breeder comments that "water will be good for the cuttings."

Most important, the field research was a test of methodology. This is where the book shines. Nazarea offers a well-conceived, practical, step-by-step guide to researchers who wish to examine the interaction between traditional farmers and their crops. Though Nazarea is an anthropologist by training, this guide, interestingly and uniquely, will be equally valuable to social scientists, ethnobiologists, and agricultural scientists (particularly plant collectors and breeders). Nazarea is clearly sensitive both to the local needs and feelings of farmers as well as to aspirations and needs of researchers. The result is highly useful. In one light volume, the researcher has a complete and rigourous methodology laid out, from the types of questions to ask, to how to ask them and to whom. With slight modification to suit particular circumstances, most researchers may need little else to undertake work in this particular field.

Nazarea's "big" thesis is that "preserving local knowledge pertaining to traditional varieties of crops is complementary, and in many respects indispensable, to the maintenance of the genetic diversity of these crops." Some may argue that she falls a little short in proving its indispensability. Nevertheless, she is on solid ground, genetically and socially, when she demonstrates the importance of on-farm management and what she calls "memory banking" of indigenous knowledge. Equally, she is convincing in arguing that ex situ (genebank) and in situ (on-farm) conservation and management of genetic resources are complementary strategies. Nazarea's contribution is to the latter, both by providing a methodology for research, and an engaging, delightfully-written case study of its application. This is a book without peers in its field.

Literature on indigenous knowledge tends to be long on trendiness and idealism, but short on solid method and results. Nazarea's book is a refreshing corrective by offering a distinct operational program. Nazarea lays out a program for conserving cultural knowledge, step-by-step, with practical examples from one who has been in the trenches. The staggering loss of biodiversity is not just a biological loss, but a loss of human and cultural proportions. Nazarea makes the critical link between nature and culture: when plants go extinct, so does cultural memory. Not only does the world lose an inventory of plant materials, but it also losses a storehouse of knowledge for growing and using plnats. The implication is that attempts to store genetic materials in seed banks is a sterile and half-hearted exercise, because the loss of the cultural, adaptive knowledte has grave consequences for the future of the human species. Nazarea goes to the people at the margins for answers, and in the process, she turns science on its head, proclaiming that "diversity is actually the natural state of things." In that regard Nazarea's work is destined to become an anthropological classic, pointing the direction for the discipline for the next century. Nazarea breaks new ground in decision-making theory by showing the pitfalls of microeconomic models that assume farmers make either-or choices when selecting a course to follow. Instead, farmers use multiple criteria in making cropping decisions in order to spread out the risk against uncertainties of the growing season. This is a sophisticated decision-making process that defies the neat formulations of formalized economic models. In the end, Nazarea documents that women are the best safeguards of indigenous knowledtge through comaraderie and sharing. An experimental in situ conservation program run by the male hierarchy collapsed, but spouses and female relatives took up the work to maintain the plots. If Nazaarea's book is a defense of fuzziness, as she puts it, then less-defined, less-formalized structures of women may also be the best hope for preserving indigenous knowledge.

In the 1800s, a girl named Virginia wrote a letter to the "New York Sun" asking a very important question --- is there really a Santa Claus? This book is the story of that letter and the text of the complete letter and response.

Cyndy Szekeres lends her amazing talent for illustrations to the story of this letter. Virginia is a cute little kitten in a world of anthropomorphized kittens. Each page contains a portion of the letter or response, along with illustrations that tell a story all their own --- the story of Virginia's Christmas. Thus, this book works on two levels.

I have read this book as a child and as an adult read it to my children. This is truly a piece to read at Christmas time every year.

This realistic fiction book not only shows what kids go through during divorce, but also how to deal with it. Little Casey is definitely going through a hard time. Her mom and Dad are trying their hardest to get her through it. The nice illustrations by Deborah Bargo contribute to the setting and plot where she fakes the chicken pox for her dad to come back, hiding under a shade tree, or just staying with Elmer Elephant, her stuffed animal, to keep her comapany. The way the story was told could be a personal memoir or just to prove a point, but basically it was a normal book...told in sentences. I have read this story over and over again because my parents divorced when I was a very young age. If any childs parents get divorced, this book will help them through it, and be read over and over again!

This realistic fiction book not only shows what kids go through during divorce, but also how to deal with it. Little Casey is definitely going through a hard time. Her mom and Dad are trying their hardest to get her through it. The nice illustrations by Deborah Bargo contribute to the setting and plot where she fakes the chicken pox for her dad to come back, hiding under a shade tree, or just staying with Elmer Elephant, her stuffed animal, to keep her comapany. The way the story was told could be a personal memoir or just to prove a point, but basically it was a normal book...told in sentences. I have read this story over and over again because my parents divorced when I was a very young age. If any childs parents get divorced, this book will help them through it, and be read over and over again!

I PICKED UP THE STUDY GUIDE BY CHANCE AND THOUGHT IT LOOKED INTERESTING. THAT'S AN UNDERSTATEMENT! SINCE I'VE HAD THIS I HAVE BEEN IN A MAD SEARCH FOR THE BOOK. THE FIRST EXERPT IS ABOUT MARY THE MOTHER OF JESUS, IT LITERALLY GRABBED MY HEART I NEVER THOUGHT OF MARY WITH SUCH HUMAN EMOTIONS. YES, SHE IS THE MOTHER OF JESUS BUT MY YOUNG MIND COULDN'T GRASP THAT SHE HADE THE SAME THOUGHTS AS ME! SINCE THEN I HAVN'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN. I'M ALMOST FINISHED WITH STUDY GUIDE BUT I WILL PROBABLY READ IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN. PRAISE BE TO GOD FOR THIS AUTHOR'S UNIGUE SENCE OF RELAYING GOD'S MESSEGE THAT WE ARE NOT ALONE. MANY WOMEN HAVE BEEN WERE WE ARE TODAY. WHAT HOPE WE HAVE IN THE PROMISES OF GOD. I PRAY THAT EVERYONE WHO READS THIS BOOK IS TOUCHED THE WAY I HAVE BEEN.

THANK YOU , LORI GARBARINO

Used to books about Biblical characters, and especially those about Biblical women, being exercises in undisciplined and often anachronistic reading in of filler to what are usually Biblical accounts of sparse detail, I found myself again and again amazed at this book. The author has obviously lived with these women's stories in the Bible for a long time, listening to the flow of the Bible's overall narrative as well as patiently attending to every little detail its writers have given about these fascinating women and the men in their lives.

The author is also an uncommonly gifted story teller in her own right, and while those familiar with the Biblical accounts may think she's not understood this or that woman quite rightly, I suspect most will find her generally persuasive, and challenging even where not convincing on every point.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone, but especially to Christians longing to understand what a life lived in faith in God can be like. Would that someone could produce a book about the Bible's men to match it.

First-hand accounts of events in Medieval history are not easy to come by; reliable accounts are even harder. Odo of Dueil chronicled the Second Crusade, which ended in disaster with the seige of Damascus in 1148. Though Odo did not accompany the crusaders, he did have access to a great deal of first-hand testimony to the event, which only he alone recorded for posterity. Odo's account is also of high literary quality, making it all the more worth reading. Though this translation dates back to 1947, the writing is fresh and does not sound stilted. For more serious scholars, the complete Latin text is included.

The Second Crusade (1147-1149) was a disaster from the Christian perspective. Such a momentous disaster that most contemporary historians of the time did not write about what happened. The author of Chronicon Mauriniacense wrote that "(Louis VII) was not able to do anything useful, worthy or mention, or actually, anything worthy of France" and Otto of Freising says that since everyone knows the magnitude of the calamity and it is not worth repeating. However, Historians need sources to know what happened! The lack of other writings makes Odo of Deuil's De Profectione Ludovici VII in orientem an immensely important document. It also helps that Odo was the royal chaplain of Louis, accompanied him on the Crusade, and thus had first hand knowledge of the events.

Odo's motives are very interesting and very obvious. Ostensibly his reason for writing is to provide his abbot of St Denis, the famous historian Suger, with raw material for a life of Louis VII. However, his chronicle is anything but a dry list of events. His purpose is to put his sovereign in a good light, attribute the defeat to the Byzantine Greeks, and most importantly provide information so that other crusaders in the future do not make the same mistakes. He lays out the route they took, geographic detail, various opinions of various leaders, invents critics of events to further explain them, and how to improve transportation of supplies etc. The main flaw to the work is that the text covers only the first 3/4 or so of the Crusade. It is not known if the rest of the source was lost or even written.

The introduction to this volume is truly remarkable. It is to the point, provides supported reasons for the conclusions made, and information on the manuscripts existing and a summary of the historical events of the Crusade. The Latin text is also useful for historians.

Too many texas children know nothing about the heroes of our state. This is a book that every responsible parent (who call themselves Texan) should read to this little ones. Don't let the stories of people like Deaf Smith die due to the incompetence of our schools or the ignorance of our media. Take up the torch for your family yourself.

A good friend's fourth grader selected this book as a gift from me while visiting my new home. She was completely absorbed by it and stimulated to remember and relate to me the Texas history she'd studied in the past year. I read it, too, and found it a good tale, well told and well illustrated.

Realmente este libro es una joya, es un libro impertible para todos aquellos amantes de la literatura borgeana

Realmente este libro es una joya, para todos aquellos amantes de la literatura argentina y de la obra de Jorge Luis Borges, es imperdible

This book truly changed my life when I enrolled at the University of Virginia during the civil rights years of the 1960s. It was in many ways a roadmap for me during those contentious times. Nowadays whenever I see an old copy at a booksale, I buy it and pass it on. If only there had been hundreds, thousands, like it, the history of the south might have been so much better in the twentieth century. I remember hearing Sarah Patton Boyle speak on campus, and sitting next to her at a church service after President Kennedy was assassinated. I guess what I want to say is that so many books are paper and ink (and some of them tragic wastes of good trees)--and then there are the others. This is one of the others. I recommend it highly. In fact, I have recommended it to the Modern Library for their list of the hundred most important nonfiction books of the century.

Sarah Patton Boyle was a white person born into one of Virginia's "best families." During the 1950s and 60s Boyle became an activist for African American Civil Rights in Virginia. This book beautifully narrates Boyle's awakening to the plight of African Americans, and her response. An honest and forthright account, Boyle details the inner anxieties of a person moving from one world view to another. She chronicles her childhood and indoctrination with the repressive "Southern Code" that guided race relations in the South. According to Boyle, the Southern Code allowed whites to think of themselves as gracious and generous paternalists while economically exploiting African Americans. Not until the 1950s did she see how racist and dehumanizing the whole scheme was. When she did she became an activist in the Civil Rights movement. In the process she lost her belief not only in the goodness of white southerners, but in the goodness of humanity in general. She moved more towards an orthodox Christian worldview that stressed on the one hand the sinfulness of mankind and on the other the need for a strong commitment to love. This book definitely deserves to be considered a signigicant piece of Southern literature and a valuable resource for those interested in understanding the complex history of southern race relations. -Vernon Horn

Messina is a well-known name to vegetarians through her cookbooks, and to the science of nutrition through her scholarly articles. This book, though erudite and intended for dietitians, is valuable to everyone interested in vegetarian nutrition. I would recommend it to physicians, owners of diet salons, nurses, as well as every vegan who wants to understand the value of full nutrition. Great job!

Very thorough guide. Need to have a good grasp of nutrition concepts before tempting to read. Very helpful with up to date information any dietitian can appreciate.