Kentucky Books

Very easy reading, short book.

Wes Jackson describes a growing perspective that we need to interact symbiotically with the earth rather than considering the earth a "resource" at our disposal. He mixes philosophy with actual personal experiences to further illustrate the story.

The fact that he began the Land Use Institute in Kansas and is still and active participant lends credibility to his dialog.

I purchased this book because I have become very interested in agriculture and rooting it and our communities in the local ecosystems of the places we live in. I this book looked like it was going to be a good introduction to this. Well, it was a good introduction to the values of Jackson's practice but doesn't say much about the practice itself. But perhaps that's because trying to apply something other than principles from a book would be counter to the respect for local specifics that Jackson has. Either way the book is well written and inspiring, but i still wish there were more specifics.

A very interesting and thorough examination of the film-related work of mystery legend Raymond Chandler, creator of the ultimate film noir gumshoe, Phillip Marlowe. The books follows Chandler's career and work from pulpy dime detective story-writer, to novelist, to screenwriter. Chandler was an odd, cantankerous fellow who hated working in Hollywood, but the character he created is forever in the pantheon of American detective film heroes.

Is it possible for a book to be both invaluable and annoyingly almost unreadable? If so, this is the one. Phillips is absolutely on target in both his evaluation of Chandler's place in literature (High) and his fascinating comparisons of book to film of EVERYTHING the author wrote. Fans of Marlowe, fans of detective stories, fans of film noir, and film fans in general, will find a treasure trove within these pages. B U T.... Phillips writes like a student who has been given a writing assignment of "x" number of words and has to fulfill it. Either that or someone who is being paid by the word! Not only does he repeat the same information, often with virtually the same words, two, three, four, and more times within the book, he often does so within the same paragraph, and, on occasion, the same sentence! If you can, as I did, learn to spot this trend and skip whole passages as less necessary than a sequel to "Little Nicky", there is much to be gleaned from the book. Just resist throwing it against the wall in exasperation.

The U.S. prosecution of the Cold War was based on the strategy of containment which was designed to prevent the further expansion of international Communism. Essentially the U.S. and its allies wished to maintain the status quo as it existed in the immediate post-WWII period. The doctrine of deterrence (or mutual deterrence to be precise) was a key component of this containment strategy. Payne argues that this doctrine was based on dangerously incorrect premises.

The doctrine of mutual deterrence was in part a response to the terrible destructiveness of nuclear weapons. The doctrine was predicated on the premise that faced with destructive power of nuclear weapons no rational leader would opt for war. As this book makes abundantly clear there is no empirical basis for this premise. Human behavior is enormously complex and Payne argues that unless both sides have the same definition of rational behavior, mutual deterrence simply will not work. He notes that U.S. strategists assumed that the behavior and thinking of Communist leaders would mirror the U.S. approaches to nuclear war. This Payne notes was wrong. The availability of information since the collapse of the Soviet Union demonstrates that the Communist Leadership had a very different understanding of acceptable damage and rational responses than the U.S. did. He points out that as the Cold War developed the U.S. crated a doctrine of mutual deterrence based on developing accurate counts of the number and type of nuclear weapons possessed by each side. This method reached its logical absurdity, of course, under Robert McNamara and the ultimate deterrence doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). MAD was based entirely on weapon counting and evaluation without any reference to human (leadership) factors and so was in effect irrelevant.

The thesis of this book is that deterrence is effective if, and only if, it is based on a through knowledge of culture, ideologies and personalities of the leadership aggregate that is to be deterred. Payne correctly argues that military decision making is often based on non-empirical factors and is seldom entirely governed by a rational review of military strengths and weaknesses.

Payne is not ready to give up on the concept of deterrence however; he rather wants to build deterrent strategies that reflect actual knowledge of the subjects to be deterred. He does not believe that analysis of arsenals alone can be the basis for a real deterrent strategy. As far as he goes he is right. But one has to ask what about other factors that might affect a nation's strategic choices? Specifically what of the growing 21st Century phenomenon of international economic interdependence and the telecommunications revolution of the Global Network? Both have to be factors in national decision making processes, whether rational or irrational.

Keith Payne is no novice to the field of nuclear strategy. He famously argued during the Reagan administration that a nuclear war was not only calculable, but also winnable. Picking up this book, I expected it to follow the Herman Kahn school of analysis. How pleased I was to find I was wrong.

The title itself might have been a sign. The cold war deterrence system, as Payne describes it, followed mainly from Schelling's first analyses of two-party prisoners' dilemmas. Deterrence was an issue of determining the proper quantity of nuclear material to bring to bear on any given issue. Rational actors will realize the costs of any certain action and thus will or will not take action based on simple calculations. We can be assure ourselves of safety simply by dint of our arsenal.

Payne quickly and deftly undermines this simple understanding. He does this by introducing a simple but compelling concept - the gap between rationality and reasonability. Most traditional deterrence theorists viewed states as black boxes. They operated through mirroring - using our own calculations as a means to test enemy calculations. Payne argues that this is a dangerous assumption. Our own calculations are not transferable. Most states are narrowly rational; that is, they choose from a hierarchically ordered set of policy options based on cost-benefit analysis. Even rogue states can be rational. The problem is that many nations do not seem reasonable to us. Reasonability is the measure of how similar their conclusions are to our own. Payne presents a series of examples where states rationally chose policies that deemphasized national survival for other things - national pride, ideology, or religious fervor. A simple understanding of deterrence theory would not be able to deal with such a state.

Payne also makes use of the rich literature on psychological factors involved in crisis decision making. He attacks the viability of the rationality assumption quite convincingly, in my estimation. Decision makers often ignore information that goes against a course already chosen in order to limit the stresses involved with reappraisal. A whole series of motivated and unmotivated biases influence the clarity of decisions during essential (and highly tense) times. Hoping that messages will be received clearly might be too much to hope for.

In a following section, Payne presents a detailed case study of a hypothetical conflict with China over Taiwan. He uses a deep study of Chinese operational codes and psychological characters to propose a deterrence strategy that could work. Involved and hard to criticize.

After this, the book falters somewhat. After such a convincing and detailed destruction of deterrence theory, what can a state do to prevent nuclear attack? Payne is coy on this point, but reading between the lines one senses that he is a proponent of some form of missile defense. It's a logical step, but it's still not articulated in much depth. The only possible fault I can give the book stems from this lack of consideration for an alternative. It's not a very big problem with the book, but it still leaves one slightly unsatisfied.

That said, this is a superb book. The scholarship is impeccable and the prose is urgent, clear, and compelling. Anyone vaguely interested in strategy or nuclear policy must read it at once.

Prof. Spalding's little study of Harry Truman's coming to grips with the developing Cold War must enthrall some historians and Truman fans. While other writers are enlarging Truman's role in formulating the geographic containment of the Soviet Union, Spalding elevates Truman to mythical statuses of thought and action on a par with Lincoln's. At times she reduces Winston Churchill to but a glib flack for Trumanesque wisdom: "he invited Winston Churchill to give the Fulton (College) address (on the Iron Curtain) of March, 1946, relying on him to articulate and underscore the stakes of the Cold War to the American public as only Churchill could". George Kennan's spring, 1946 "Long Telegram" from Moscow was, Ms. Spalding opines, overshadowed by a 100,000 word tome written by an obscure White House aide in the name of close Truman confidant Clark Clifford. She admits that the Clifford report is "often overlooked or dismissed as overzealous anticommunism", yet credits it as "the theoretical basis of containment". Truman biographer David McCullough does credit Clifford and aide George Elsey for work on the President's announcement of the Truman Doctrine. Finally, Ms. Spalding trods the halls of Marxism, asserting the Trumanesque belief that Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito would have attempted to unseat Stalin as leader of the Communist Bloc if only Yugoslavia's army had been a tad stronger. A pretty thought, but if she is correct, Truman's view of 1948 Balkan events exaggerated the point of resurging Yugoslav nationalistic Marxism. She also fails to deal with US covert operations aimed at causing mischief in Soviet satellites.
A strong spin on still evolving respect for Truman, but one that left this writer not toally convinced.

Democrats struggling to develop a foreign policy vision in the post-9/11 world would do well to study Harry Truman's tough response to Soviet aggression following the Second World War. This book, based on years of primary research, is an excellent introduction to the subject.

I love this book because it preserves the rough edges that the music of everday people has. If JR learned the verse to a song that didn't rhyme, she didn't "fix" it. The melodies are often asymmetrical, the ballads often have odd twists to their stories, and the emotion is just pure.

If you're looking for a book of songs for the camp-fire, this may not be it. If you're looking for the real songs of Appalachia, look no further.

As an amateur singer of folksongs, country, and "oldies", I was looking for a book with familiar tunes and lyrics. Although I only recognized a few of Ms. Ritchie's songs, I found the histories of each song very interesting. I took a chance and purchased the book, not sure of what I was getting. What I got was a nice read about the history of song, and a new interest in a person who obviously has a passion!

One of the best general discussions about popular music during World War II currently available. Her presentation of the tensions between those who wanted a "war song" and those who supported a more evenhanded approach to records and sheet music is thought-provoking and unusual. Highly recommended.

Despite the efforts of several government agencies, and the willingness of many topflight songwriters, including Frank Loesser and Irving Berlin, no single song emerged from Tin Pan Alley during World War II that took the war as its subject directly. Berling's own "God Bless America," which became one of the great hits of the wartime era, was actually written at a time slightly preceding the entrance of the US into World War II. Kathleen Smith, the author of this study, whose name oddly enough suggests that of Kate Smith, the moon-faced and wildly popular radio star who made "God Bless America" a monster sensation, suggests that the reason for this is that, enraptured by swing music, the teenagers who controlled the chart did not want to buy martial tunes. They wanted love songs and they wanted music they could dance to. In this way the era seems oddly close to our own. The book's accompanying promotion materials suggest that a similar situation has transpired today, after 9/11 American musicians wanted to create a hit that would show the Al-Qaeda that we were unbowed, but despite the best efforts of everyone from Paul McCartney to Bruce Springsteen and back around again, from all shadings of the right and left, the song that is most mentioned as a result of the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center was that country number by Toby Keith about the red, white and blue, with the pugnacious lyric, "You'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A./ 'Cause we'll put a boot in your ass/ It's the American way." Some of the WWII would be hit songs expressed similar sentiments against the "Nips" and "Krauts" of Axis fame.

Smith is an okay writer but her book is somewhat padded, and Kentucky should hire a proofreader, it is trying indeed that Melvyn Douglas and Ralph Bunche both have their names misspelled.

From Cumberland Gap on the Virginia state line to the Mississippi River in the west, this guide features over 180 of the best hiking trails Kentucky has to offer. Each hike contains a trail map, detailed directions to the trailhead, a picture, and a brief description of the hike. Hikes range from 1 to 9 miles in length, covering all of the major hiking areas (and some not so major areas) in the state. Longer hikes are referenced in an appendix. The major drawback is the scant amount of information given about each area's geological or cultural history. Nevertheless, if you are looking for suggested hikes in the bluegrass state (such as I was), this is one of the better resources on the market.

Each of the books available on Kentucky hiking possesses a different strength. The strength of this guide has to be the volume of hikes described. From Cumberland Gap on the Virginia state line to the Mississippi River in the west, this guide features over 180 hiking trails in Kentucky. The guide covers all of the major hiking areas (and some not so major areas) in the state.

Each hike contains a trail map, detailed directions to the trailhead, a black-and-white picture, and a brief description of the hike. Hikes range from 1 to 12 miles in length, with the average at around 4-5. This guide is exclusively devoted to day hikes, but longer hikes are referenced in an appendix. The trail maps are hand-drawn, but since I have personally hiked many of the trails in this guide, I can tell you that most of them are rather accurate. However, they still lack details such as elevation changes, so you probably won't want to venture into one of the more remote areas described here without a better map such as a USGS topo map. Also, the authors have not measured some of the distances very carefully, as I have found some of the distances given in this guide to be somewhat over-stated.

In addition to the above, the major drawbacks with this book are the scant amount of information given about each area's geological or cultural history and the lack of detail in the trail descriptions. The author suffices with only 1 paragraph in introducing each hike, and many of the trails receive only 1 or 2 sentences in a description. Also, there is no trail summary at the beginning of the book, so it is not easy to choose a trail to hike.

In summary, if I were to own only one guide describing the "greatest" hikes in Kentucky, this would probably NOT be the one. For that purpose, I would recommend "50 Hikes in Kentucky" by Hiram Rogers (a book I have personally read) instead of this book because of its superior trail descriptions, maps, and ease of use. However, if you are looking for a more comprehensive guide to add to your library, this is a well-written, informative guide that deserves serious consideration.

Best known as the author of All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren wrote this short (114 pages) book after Confederate President Jefferson Davis had his U.S. citizenship restored in 1979 during the Carter Administration, some nine decades after Davis's death. When this took place, Warren returned home to Todd County, Kentucky for a ceremony honoring Davis's posthumous reinstatement. As it turns out, Jefferson Davis, like Warren, was also a native of Todd County, and this book is Warren's memoir, a reflection on the ironic, sometimes sad life of the only president the Confederacy ever had. This rumination was so engaging I couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting, captivated by the quality of story-telling and the poignant southern nostalgia it evoked.

This is a concise - 114 pages - but no less impressive and comprehensive look at Davis's life than some of the longer biographies out there. Warren, like Allen Tate before him, sees Davis as a great man but deeply flawed. He could quite possibly have won the War Between the States had he not been so rigidly dedicated to the principle of state's rights. He was too much the gentleman to do what was necessary. Lincoln, on the other hand, was a pragmatist, and had no qualms about suspending the constitution to achieve his means; he thought he was saving the Constitution by defying it!

A sad tale of greatness thwarted by principle. Warren composed this essay in honor of his fellow Kentuckian, whose U.S. citizenship had been restored that year - 1979 - by an act of Congress. Warren writes with verve, wit, humor, and insight.

GREAT BOOK! HARD TO PUT DOWN! Covers the "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy" John Hunt Morgan from Tompkinsville, KY to Greeneville, TN. This little book has more in it than a 800 page novel. If you are interested in Morgan's Raids or Civil War activity in the Kentucky - Tennessee area, this is a MUST READ!

Details details.. I wish this book had more of them. I was a bit disappointed in getting this hardcover to see that I could read it in a couple of days. The pages go by fast as they cover Morgan's daring raids throughout Kentucky and the north. I was hoping to get more information than the quick coverage of the events that Morgan and his raiders went through. I would have liked to get some insight from his companions in the field and also from his enemy. This book seems to summarize Morgan and probably isn't the best when it comes to dates and details. It is important to suggest this book for anyone looking to read about a different Confederate cavalry commander instead of Mosby or Stuart that doesn't want to get into serious details. Perhaps this book exemplifies Morgan himself. It was short and fast. Morgan started his command quickly and finished quickly.

I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderful book for people of all ages. Stephen Bishop was a great American explorer that most people have never even heard of. His adventures and discoveries deep in Mammoth cave are vividly described in a manner that will captivate the young readers of this book. This is a story of a man born into slavery who deserves the recognition he finally receives in this finely written story of his brief life. The detailed descriptions of Stephen Bishop, Mammoth cave and the turbulent pre-civil war era are enhanced by the excitement of his underground exploits and his quest for knowledge. Two thumbs up!

FL Booklover

Let's say you hear about a historical figure that strikes you as so interesting that you'd like to write a book about them. A book for children, say. When you make the decision to write such a book, two possible ways of proceeding are open to you. You can make your book a fascinating work of non-fiction that adheres strictly to the facts of the case. Or, you can take the already existing facts and use fictional dialogue to cushion the details of this person's life, thereby making it more interesting to your intended audience. Now, if you decide to go with the latter you've placed your book in a peculiar position. On the one hand, your story is about a real person who really existed. On the other hand, because you made up dialogue and situations that may never have happened in the way you've described them, your book is doomed to the fiction shelves of the library. Author Elizabeth Mitchell, when she learned the details of explorer Stephen Bishop's life, decided to go the fiction route. Personally, I feel that this was bad decision to make on her part. For while this book contains a multitude of wonderful details and facts about a fascinating man, Mitchell has couched her book in stilted dialogue and poor writing. She would have done better to stick to the facts.

Stephen Bishop was born a slave in the state of Kentucky in 1821. His owner Frank Gorin, owned the Mammoth Caves and needed a tour guide to schlep tourists in the busy summer months. Enter Stephen. Fascinated with the caves, Stephen proceeded to explore beyond the usual paths. As he did so, he would find more and more beautiful areas and hidden passages. He discovered blind cave fish (never before seen), huge gypsum caverns, and miles and miles of caves stretching under the land of Kentucky. He even created maps of the areas he had found that helped others explore as well. Though he died a short time after he was freed (at the young age of thirty-six), Bishop is remembered as being the first and most important guide of the impressive Mammoth Caves today.

The story is, as Elizabeth Mitchell rightly says, captivating. Cleverly, she has included Stephen's maps on the front and endpapers of the book. Mitchell also tells the reader, right off the bat, that she has reproduced his life with as much accuracy as possible and that the dialogue, "is not reproduced from any source". I commend Mitchell for her choice of subject. Stephen Bishop, rightly, deserves to be remembered for his great life and magnificent accomplishments. I personally believe, however, that an entirely factual book of this fellow would not have been out of place. Consider similar books about other people who lived in the 1800s. There is the book, "Phineas Gage", by John Fleischman. Here we have a beautiful non-fiction text with color photographs and engravings that is the perfect way to tell the story of a 19th century life. Think how wonderful, "Journey to the Bottomless Pit" would have been, had it been done in a similar format. When you read this book, you hear about eyeless fish and beautiful stalactites. Wouldn't it be great to see beautiful color photographs of them as well? Instead, you must rely on illustrator Kelynn Alder's black and white drawings. These pictures are nice, no question, but you can't help but wish that you could see the caves for yourself in a far more lively format.

You might argue that good non-fiction subjects have been given a similar fictional treatment to Stephen Bishop and that those books have been good. This is true, of course. There's just one small problem. Mitchell, for all that she is great at choosing the best details to highlight in her story, is not a good writer. Her language is stilted and cloying. Though the book is ostensibly written for kids between the ages of 9-12, the tone of voice taken here would be better for a seven-year-old reader. Stephen constantly is describes as being grateful to his master, proud that he has been chosen, and hoping that he'll do a good job. The wry sense of humor that Stephen had is mentioned here, but Mitchell's not adept enough to give us a taste of it. Worse, there are some truly unbelievable moments that are written solely to spell things out to child readers. Take this for example: "When he first heard the name `Underground Railroad,' Stephen wondered what kind of train could run for so many miles below ground". Mitchell doesn't seem to give Stephen much credit, and his abject gratitude and innocence makes him seem a very different person from the intelligent guide described by his contemporaries. Had Mitchell been a talented enough writer to pull off the additional passages in this text, the book might have worked brilliantly. As it stands, I yearn for the beautiful glossy-paged non-fiction text this could have been.

Will kids read this book? Not without some prodding. It's a fine story and a good adventure tale at times, but children will only ask for this if urged to do so. There is great potential in this material. I can only hope that a future author sees it and capitalizes on it themselves. A great story in a mediocre package.