Minnesota Books

MANGOS CHILES AND TRUCKERS: THE BUSINESS OF TRANSNATIONALISM focuses on local groups and individuals and how they foster creative methods in reaction to the global economy. Produce and trucking industries in Mexico are the focus, with Alvarez taking a studied approach on the impact global policies have on growers of mangos and chilies in Mexico, and those who transport the produce across the border. This isn't a broad overview but a precise tracing of connections between politics, nations, and different states as they react to economic changes. In emphasizing the importance and methods of control of the nation-state in the global process, MANGOS, CHILES AND TRUCKERS shows how people adapt to changing economic influences in their daily lives. Robert Alvarez is a professor of ethnic studies at UC San Diego, and his is a well documented, scholarly account.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

As the title suggests, Finn's model breaks the cycle of pathology inherent in the MMPI and allows the dissemination of information to be potentially less hurtful to clients. His model is feminist based, which means that there is always collaboration between client and therapist, which can only heighten the assessment experience. I love his model because it allows for the client to easily integrate what their results are into their own definition of their personality/identity. A must have for any clinician serious about doing objective assessment.

I have over 200 signed books on aviation and this book is one of the best. I believe it truly captures what its like to be a Combat Pilot and a Marine. These are the kind of stories that soon will be in the forgotten past without books like this. An easy read for the novice and professional aviation enthusiast alike. I got mine, now go get yours.
Semper Fi.

I read this book for a graduate course in Roman history.

Eleanor Goltz Huzar's very insightful biography of Mark Antony described him as a great general who was also chivalrous but politically outwitted and trapped. Within hours of Caesar's murder, Mark Antony moved to grasp the reins of power. However, Mark Antony was politically caught off guard by Caesar's will. The will named Caesar's grandnephew Octavian his heir apparent. Mark Antony, who was twenty years Octavians' senior, decided that this eighteen-year-old boy would be a minor nuisance and would not pose much of a threat to the leadership of the Caesarean party. Mark Antony, who learned well from Caesar, realized that if he wanted to keep political control in Rome he needed the support of the army. Mark Antony moved quickly to buy 6,000 veterans as a bodyguard and a nucleus to build an army. In the meantime, Octavian was shrewdly making political moves of his own.

Huzar viewed Octavian as a young revolutionary full of ambition. Octavian courted leaders of the Caesarian party as well as the rich supporters of Caesar. Octavian also made good on Caesar's promise in his will to give every citizen a payment of 300 sesterces. Octavian did this by hocking all his processions since Mark Antony had kept Caesar's monetary inheritance from him. Within three months, Octavian effectively raised a bodyguard of his own from Caesar's veterans and brokered a compromise with the Senate to gain their support as well. Octavian also learned well from his education and from Caesar how to gain and maintain power. Thus, Mark Antony, like Pompey, severely underestimated his rival.
Octavian made the first overture to Mark Antony and Lepidus and offered to share power. The three men agreed, and in 42 BCE they formed Rome's Second Triumvirate. With their proscription on their political enemies of between 100 to 300 senators and possibly thousands of knights, the Triumvirate not only began a political revolution but a social revolution in Rome as well. This Triumvirate was to last for five years. They divided control of the Empire as well as sixty legions among themselves, with all three men possessing a portion of Italy. The triumvirs defeated the last vestiges of the Roman Republic in the battle of Phillipi.

With no common enemy, the triumvirs would start to turn on themselves. Mark Antony had just started his amorous affair with Cleopatra, the Queen of Egypt. She supported Mark Antony's ambitions to rule Rome, which would solidify her political ambitions for Egypt as well. Huzar called Mark Antony's marriage to Cleopatra a mere "ritual marriage" even though she gave birth to his twin children. Huzar claimed that, "there is no sign of infatuation here," and that their marriage "left no political consequences" and that "Mark Antony was compelled to stand by Cleopatra to the end by honour and by principle as well as by the necessities of war." When one considers Mark Antony's many years spent in Cleopatra's court, his actions in Egypt which led up to his defeat at the battle of Actium in 31 BCE, and his ultimate suicide, he was either in love with Cleopatra or she truly was a "siren" as Roman propaganda described her. In either case, it meant that she duped Mark Antony. Regardless, the Roman Empire could not suffer by having one of its leaders under the spell of a foreign queen. Mark Antony's defeat and suicide meant Octavian would become Augustus and become Rome's first Emperor.

Recommended reading for those interested in Roman history, military history.

Fascinating collection. The Walker's were amazing collectors. The museum should be in THEIR name. It could not exist without their collection.

Colligan, et. al., have assembled a collection of articles about mass psychogenic illness, formerly known as mass hysteria. The updated name connotes a shift from the victim to an external agent as the cause of the action.

The articles encompass the wide range of historic cases, from J.F.C. Hecker's brilliant studies on the dancing manias of the Middle Ages through a mention of an early Industrial Age hysteria and the Phantom Anesthetist of Mattoon, up to the publication of the book in 1982.

This volume is an ideal starting point to study this fascinating subject.

Massachusetts residents who are more than casual bird observers will find this weighty reference a treasure trove of invaluable information: Collaborative compiled and co-edited by Wayne Petersen and W. Roger Meservey, the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas offers over a hundred grid maps almost two hundred depicting the distribution of all breeding birds, provides full-page accounts for all confirmed species, and includes nature art by John Sill and Barry Van Dusen. Add distribution maps and you have a superb contribution to the growing library of ornithological reference literature.

This book is an excellent resource for those familiar with author Maud Hart Lovelace. It's also a wonderful guidebook for the history of the Mankato, Minnesota area and life around the turn of the twentieth century. The brief bios of families that were involved with her books and the community at that time are very well done.

I first was exposed to Max Shulman (so to speak) in the 80s when I was in college, and a good friend gave me a copy of this book as a graduation gift. It is so hard to get across how creative, and how progressive, Shulman's humor was. He was a uniquely American voice, writing things that only Americans can appreciate at a deep level. At the same time, he was very progressive and his humor highlighted social changes that were beginning when this book was compiled. Finally, he was a master of the kind of humor that culminated in the one-liner fast-response type comedy that made the MASH series so popular. All that aside, though, Shulman was hilarious. A glance through the web for references to him shows him to have inspired many talented people, including Bob Newhart. An evening reading a Max Shulman book is to sink deep into a world that is an affectionate, yet unsparing, satire of things and attitudes American. You will laugh out loud, I promise. But, as he would say, I digress. I cannot understand why Shulman's talent is so underappreciated, and I would like to see his stuff in print again. Bottom line: get a copy of this book.

I am buying this book for my husband for Christmas. He has the entire rest of the Olson collection, and I know that this will certainly complement that. I would highly recommend any or all of the collection. Especially to anyone interested in the true spirit of the north,and all it symbolizes and embraces. Excellent work!!