Central America Books

This book is full of illustrations, paintings, political cartoons, photographs beautifully reproduced in a generous scale. Easily readable, with cultural references from slavery and native american relocation, romantic poetry and painting, "quack sciences" (phrenology), "women's problems". Highly recommended.

MADNESS IN AMERICA: Cultural and Medical Perceptions of Mental Illness before 1914 is a delectably readable, in depth investigation of mental illness during a time when few kind words for the clinically insane were in vogue. Psychiatry hadn't really evolved into a respectable zone of medicine until Freud and people with now well-defined disorders of the mind were grouped into madhouses and insane asylums populated by tertiary syphilitics, victims of brain tumors, and mentally retarded unfortunates. This 'untouchable' status left the population free to derive all manner of perverse etiologies from demonolgy to withcraft to religious punishment and that opened the door for not only charlatans but also for artists of every field to interpret whatever they wished. As the keenly gifted authors Lynn Gamwell and Nancy Tomes have researched and described in this lavishly illustrated tome, madness was a much maligned yet rich source of inspiration for scientists and artists alike. Extensive illustrations of the ghastly tools of the asylum doctors' trade are interwoven with beautiful and accurate renderings of the human nervous syatem and etchings, drawings and paintings by well known artists whose works were never thought to reflect madness until this volume. This book could (and most assuredly does) easily stand on its own; the fact that it accompanied an exhibition showing the drawings, instruments, and art inspired by madness during a learned physical documentary in 1995 only adds to the richness of this venture. Kudos to the authors, the publisher, and the curators for a true gift to the realm of scientifically artistic investigation.

Taussig starts with an impressionistic analysis of a Latin American spirit possesion cult and then uses it as a model to explain how the modern state relies on various mysterious incarnations as the basis of its legal system, economics, official history, even its highways. Mixes ethnography, political theory and cultural criticism in an often unsettling but ultimately convincing performance. You WILL believe in ghosts!

Taussig, as his career has progressed, has embraced more and more Nietzsche's dictum that cultural representation must - absolutely must - be inherently radical. The Magic of the State perhaps exemplifies this best - being of a different conceptual order than just about anything out there in large-press anthropology. However unorthodox Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man or Defacement may have been with their incorporation of the more literary voices in ethnography and cultural studies, The Magic of the State slips between orthodox and heterodox altogether - as it simply abandons anything resembling an enthographic model, and instead takes the form of a fictional narrative that might be called anthropological literature or, more accurately, surrealist anthropology...

If you can suspend your standard expectations of what state-theory should be all about, you will find Taussig's book extremely rewarding and even humorous in spots. If you remove the historical, traditional, and methodical bases of Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, and inject a generous helping of hallucinatory imagery, dada-esque playfulness, and representational experimentation (and maybe some steriods), you MIGHT come within several kilometers of describing Taussig's masterful book. But in this case, to describe would be to "write around," and this is certainly a work that should be "written with" and celebrated for the vistas from which it enables us mere mortals to see.

Agosin and Levison weave inspirational stories about intrepid women travelers - very well-written, insightful, and lovely.

Prof. Agosin is a well known writer on Latin America. This book poetically describes the transformative experience of travelling through the eyes of a varied group of women.

This book carries on the very fine writing from this author's previous work, Merging Lines. This is an exceptionally good history of railroads in America since 1970. It explains why we see which railroad companies are still operating and what happened to the likes of Southern Pacific, Western Pacific, Conrail, Southern, Rio Grande, etc. It is a very easy read and hard to put down. I look forward to the next book from this author.

Drawing from numerous sources, Saunders weaves the economic and political history behind Railroading As We Know It Today into a work that is all at once comprehensive, insightful and engaging. This is no less than the Definitive Work and I have been recommending it as such to colleagues.

Having been with the Rock Island and Conrail for much of the time period covered, I can also attest that he seems to have gotten the facts not only right, but also in perspective.

Henry Posner III

Chairman
Railroad Development Corp.
Pittsburgh, PA

Reading this book on Belize is a little like eating a coconut. First you have to get through the hard shell before you can enjoy the sweet nut. In this case, the hard shell is the academic context. Sutherland is a professor of anthropology at Macalester College in Minnesota. To the degree her book is directed to a professional audience, with arguments about the "core/periphery model," "ecocolonialism" and "global cultural flow," Sutherland risks losing the attention of the lay reader.

The sweet meats here are Sutherland's endlessly fascinating recollections of her own experiences in Belize, especially on Caye Caulker and on north Ambergris Caye. Sutherland's mother (the redoubtable Lois Peyton Hartley Sutherland Young) and other family members are long-time Belize hands, having first visited the country in 1971. Sutherland came to Caye Caulker in 1972, when the island had no telephone, no television, and no hotels. She has watched it, and all of Belize, change in just a decade or two from an isolated backwater to a place closely connected to the world by the Internet, pirated cable TV and an all-digital, fiber-optic telephone system.

This is also a primer on Belizean politics, economics, tourism, media and family life. Her chapter on "Flapping Around" is an eye-opener. Some may have a hard time buying Sutherland's theories that Belize "skipped modernity," jumping from developing country to "postmodern" nation and that some of the most creative cultural activity is going on "in the margins" in countries like Belize. But her delicious anecdotes of Belize since independence are reason enough to grab a copy of this book.

In many ways Belize has fallen into a black hole in academic literature. Who would want to study an English-speaking carribean nation located in the Yucatan? No many people see it as a serious topic, and that is a shame. I read this book before traveling to Caye Caulker several years ago. I found it very interesting, and the best academic book on Belize. Get the book if you ever plan on traveling to Belize...and who wouldn't want to?

For those of us born in the latter half of the 20th Century, large demonstrations in our nation's capital are common-place. The first item that leapt out from Ms. Lucy Barber's Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition was the fact that this right was not available until the last few years of the 19th Century!

It began with the so-called Coxey's Army march in 1894. No more than 500 demonstrators sought to access The Capital grounds to voice their demands for government-sponsored work projects. As doing so was against the law at the time, the leaders were arrested and the followers dispersed. The book then goes on to describe similar, ever larger events: The 1913 Women Suffrage Parade and Pageant; the 1932 Bonus Army March; the cancelled 1941 Negro March on Washington; the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the 1971 Spring Offensive.

All the actions are covered using an absolutely perfect format that entails describing the purpose, the people, the plan, the program and the aftermath of each event. But, the true value in Barber's work lies not in her detailed descriptions of the events, but rather its understanding and narration of the human condition that lead - in more cases than not - one individual to conceive, organize and execute the plan of action. It is in this aspect that the book reaches a transcendent level of explanation.

We learn of Walter Waters and his quest to aid those suffering from the Depression by obtaining the - for the time - grandiose sum of $1000 for veterans of World War One. After the request was rejected by the US Senate, his followers, known as the Bonus Army, were driven out of their encampment by armed troops using tear gas. Waters was a vet who fervently believed the government needed to deliver the fund early as a result of the stock market crash. What began as a delegation from Portland, Oregon grew to a nation-wide movement of which he was proclaimed leader.

A more revolutionary zeal gripped Alice Paul, the force between the 1913 Suffrage March. With a long history of agitation in England and the US, Paul felt the women's movement needed to rise from sedate tea-room discussion to action. Relying on the English suffrage cry of "Deeds Not Words," Paul cobbled together an alliance of women's groups to stage the event the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.

In A. Philip Randolph, we find a man conflicted by his passion to make the country he so loved more equitable. After some twenty years of an action-oriented aprroach to race equality, Randolph put togther a coalition of purely groups with the intent of staging a massive "all negro" march. But, the establishment - figuratively and literally in the form of President Franklin D. Roosevelt - cajoled and beguiled him into accepting the weak pablum of Executive Order 8802 in retrunr for cancelling the demonstration. This document called for the end of discrimination in vocational training, required defense contracts contain a clause requiring contractors not to restricty hiring by race, color creed or national original and that a board be estbalished to reveiw complaints brought about violations of the Order. In retrospect, we see clearly that Randolph achieved little or no real advancement in civil rights for his compromise

In addition to the other marches, this latest edition of Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition includes a epilogue that briefly covers more current episodes such as the Million Man March and then delivers a set of conclusions about the value and benefits derived from the actions of a few visionaries.

This book is fantastic. Barber tells great stories. The book focuses on five different marches from the last century, and each of them is fascinating and surprising. What she shows is how these dramatic events helped make marching an American political tradition. Her analysis of how everyone became obsessed with numbers is truly revealing. At a time like the present, everyone should read this book to understand both the power--and the limits of marching--as a political strategy.

I really love this book, and I use it in many of my classes. It gives a lot practical infomation about ancient Mayan times in a fun way for kids to enjoy!

Mario's Mayan Journey is a great book. It has a very realistic story and terrific pictures. I read it just a few weeks before going to the Mayan ruins.

For some reason, the impression this book description gives is that it only covers the Indian raids on the road ranches along the Little Blue River in August 1864. It certainly does that in exhaustive detail. But it covers SO much more. It basically covers ALL the Indian raid activity in Nebraska in the 1860-67 time frame including all along the Platte Valley as far as Julesburg. Biographies of all the major players are here too, no easy task considering most were simple pioneers that left a tough trail to follow.

The comprehensivness of this tome is incredible. The book is richly sourced and the footnotes highly informative. Maps are excellent, although throwing in one additional map showing all the rivers of Nebraska would have been nice.

This is a book so packed full of information that it needs to be read twice, because there's too much to digest the first time around.

Mr. Becher, my sincere congratulations. You've done a marvelous job. This was obviously a labor of love. Hard to believe this is your first book.

I have been a "student" of the Indian raids along the Little Blue in Nebraska in 1864 and have written and lectured on the subject for the past 9 years. Even my own publication falls way short of this new book. The history of the raids has needed someone to present it using no frills, no embellishments - just hard, cold facts supported by good documentation. The author has done just that and with the flair of a storyteller, the fascinating account of the events leading to and after the conflict is flawlessly unveiled in the book. The real heart of this book though is in Part II, presented in a nearly blow by blow "you are there" view of each of the attacks on stage stations and road ranches by Cheyenne and Sioux warriors. No other accounts have told this story with the thorough and painstaking examination given it by the writer. Drawing upon a vast body of military records, manuscripts, government publications, newspapers, periodicals, books, and other documentation, he has sifted meticulously through half-truths, outright untruths, shaded truths, and filled in with factual material where none was available or had been omitted in previous accounts. The remarkable research has resulted in a work that sheds a new and delightfully comprehensive light upon this period of American history.

For those who know (or wish to learn about) the whys and wherefores of the white-Indian relations from the time of the colonists and through the final conflict at Wounded Knee in 1890, it is put into perspective with this work. The book is divided into four parts, followed with an epilogue and appendices. Part I gives an overview of the development of white-Indian relations and interactions, presided over by government intervention from the 1600s up to the 1860s and the eve of the raid or massacre along the Little Blue. Unfolded in Part II is an amazingly accurate and detailed description of each day of the raid and immediate aftermath taking place from August 7th through August 19th. Beginning on the 7th, Cheyenne and Sioux warriors attacked numerous road ranches along the Little Blue and vast amounts of property and goods were destroyed. Commerce and travel along the route west from Missouri and Kansas through Nebraska and Colorado came to a halt. Hundreds of people were affected, many lost their lives, several women and children were captured and held hostage - some for as long at nine months.

Part III describes the panic and some levelheaded preparation and fortification of their homes by people living in the outlying areas of the actual raids. Accounting of press coverage given to the events, military campaigns to seek out and punish the Indians is given by the author before chapters on the captives and their unplanned for journey against their will.

For those interested in the ordeal and aftermath of the captivity of those mentioned, the book is a goldmine of information. Of the known captives (Lucinda, Isabelle and Willie Eubank, Ambrose Asher, Laura Roper, Nancy Morton, Daniel Marble) all survived and were released to military authorities. All returned home to relatives except Daniel Marble and Isabelle Eubank, who lived for only a short time after reaching Denver where they were brought by Major Edward W. Wynkoop, the commander at Fort Lyon in Colorado Territory. Nancy Morton was held 6 months and finally reached Fort Laramie in Wyoming, as did Lucinda and Willie Eubank who were brought there by their captors in May of 1865. For those interested in the history of the Sand Creek Massacre and Black Kettle's role in the events of 1864, it may be a surprise to learn that he was one of those greatly responsible for negotiating the release of the captives to Major Wynkoop near Hackberry Creek in western Kansas in September of 1864. Colonel Chivington and the First Colorado Volunteers ultimately attacked him and his fellow tribesmen in late November 1864.

Part IV of the book describes the aftereffects of the raids with concluding stories about many of the individuals who had lived in the valley of the Little Blue as well as others who impacted the story. Summation is given the Lemmon, Roper, Martin, Eubank, Morton, Emery, Mudge, Comstock, Baker, Artist, Gilbert, Hunt, Palmer, Bainter, Uhlig, Metcalf, Morrow, McDonald, Gilman and Marble families. What became of those military and governmental officials like Colonel Summers, Generals Samuel Curtis and Robert Mitchell, John Evans, and John Milton Chivington is discussed. A concluding chapter describes one former captive's return to the site of her capture that had occurred 64 years before.

Appendix A lists the known casualties of the raid, including those killed, mortally wounded, wounded and captured. This list is incredibly valuable for those trying to make sense of all the names and dates. Appendix B is a list of the military troop dispositions of company units and commanding officers. The photographs and illustrations are fine and their clarity is very good. Although a few typos crop up here and there in the text and one map on page 174 erroneously lists Nuckotte County instead of Nuckolls County, there is nothing about the book that needs much improvement. I loved the book and learned a lot from it that even I, after nearly 10 years of studying this topic, did not know.

No bookshelf of individuals interested in American west history should be without this awesome piece of research and easy to read style of writing. I highly recommend the book and give it my highest endorsement.

This book is one of the best books done on Maya art. Hundreds of well-done photographs. Looking at the photos in this book was the first time that it finally sunk in that Maya art is on par with the art of any of what is considered the "best" art from around the world. The articles interspersed with the art are interesting too. Well worth the money.

This important, lavishly produced book will more than satisfy all, including scholars, students and collectors, as well as the casual reader. The highly descriptive/photographic catalog of the comprehensive '98-'99 Palazzo Grassi exhibition (514 artifacts listed on 142 pages of 696 total) is worth the price by itself. The photography is absolutely superb, making this a fun book to just browse through. With more than 20 scholarly articles covering all aspects of the most current knowledge on the MAYA, this is the definitive "Must Have" book on this most amazing culture. Easily worth double or triple Amazon's price.

This is by far the best and most beautiful book on the Maya for the general reader that I have come across. I have traveled extensively throughout the Maya Area, and own several books on the subject, including classics such as "A Forest of Kings", "The Blood of Kings", Coe's "The Maya", and Henderson's "The World of the Ancient Maya". However, none of these volumes come close to Grube's massive, lavishly-illustrated tome in terms of spectacular photographs, wealth of topics, and breadth of scholarship.

Edited by N. Grube, a renowned Maya scholar, the book is a collection of articles by several experts on the Maya, each a specialist in some aspect of the civilization. The range of articles is wide enough to form a comprehensive general introduction to the Maya and their achievements. In addition, there are articles that discuss unusual topics covered only briefly, if at all, in the other books. Alongside the usual material on Maya history throughout the Pre-Classic, Classic, and Post-Classic, you will find delightful chapters on the role of caves in Maya religion, intoxication and ecstacy, war and prisoners, court dwarves, the meaning of the Bonampak murals, Puuc architecture, Tikal architecture and its influence, astronomy and mathematics, grave robbers, Maya Gods, cacao, obsidian, the Teotihuacan connection, the Spanish Conquest, and the Maya in the Colonial and Present Eras. Your reading will be greatly enhanced by the dozens of beautiful illustrations, many of them unique to this volume. Where else, for example, will you see large color photographs of the Rio Bec and Tonina ruins, of chicle gathering and looted sites in the Peten jungle?

While "Divine Kings of the Rain Forest" certainly does some justice to the divinity of its subject matter, it is relatively expensive. Moreover, since it is out of print, you might even have to pay more than the list price to obtain a nice copy. However, it will be worth every penny. It is truly a pity that this book is out of print. (Try used book stores in large cities, where you might be fortunate enough to get a good copy at half price, as I did.) This is definitely a volume to display, treasure, and savor repeatedly.

This is the best book I have ever come across on Mayan culture. It is a oversized coffee table volume, some 450 deluxe pages, each of which is covered with maps, illustrations and many, many photographs. Each period in Mayan development is covered in the chapters and the illustrations correspond neatly with the text. The text also does not veer off into the author's own opinions as these books frequently do. The first evidence of humans in the Mayan planes date to around ten thousand b.c., the book starts there and continues to the current Mayans (yes, their descendents alive in the world today, and that, too, is an interesting look). For anyone who thinks that civilization began in the Mediterranean, this book is clear evidence that it began on the other side of the world at the same time, if not earlier. It's a shame that the price and the fact that this book is out of print makes it less accessible to readers. For Mayan historians, this book is a must, but even someone with only a casual interest in the subject would find much of interest here.