Indiana Books

My wife and I are active volunteers in the local trolley museum and this book is invaluable in the restoration of some of the Brill cars we are working on as well as giving us a sense of the history behind those units in the museum's collection.

This book is fantastic - it's remarkably informative and the amount of research that went into this book is evident on every page!!

My cousin was a Marine from Indiana, who was killed at the Chosin Resevoir battle. It was very easy reading and interesting.

"Honoring Those Who Paid The Price": Forgotten Voices from the Korean War by Randy K. Mills (Associate Professor of History, Oakland City University, Oakland City, Indiana), is a candidly personal, movingly emotional, and informatively serious survey of a seemingly forgotten war that claimed approximately 54,000 American lives. Individual stories of those who served, those who died, and the loved ones who waited anxiously at home, fill this sober tribute. Highly recommended as testimony to the many souls who paid the highest price. "Honoring Those Who Paid The Price" is a welcome addition to Military History collections and would well serve as a template for similar books on other "minor" American twentieth-century conflicts ranging from Granada to Somalia.

I bought and loved this book a couple of years ago and it disappeared when a well meaning friend "borrowed" it for a school project. Mr. Lawrence, I've seen a million Indiana high school ball games and I grew up in the culture. I love your descriptions of the gyms and the pomp and ceremony surrounding Indiana H.S. basketball.I've seen pennies thrown at coaches and players in Loogootee, I've seen fights in the parking lot at Southport versus Tech in the 70's , I've seen future NBA players get the crud kicked out of them by future insurance agents (no embarrassing ID's,OK?), and I have seen my cousins battle my childhood friends in games that made my skin crawl with sheer emotion. I,like you, despise class basketball in Indiana .....may its' reign be short (Agh...years and counting) and boring.

Indiana holds a well-earned reputation as a basketball-loving state. And not surprisingly, many a book has been penned about "Hoosier Hysteria," the state's longtime love affair with its high school cage teams.

One might assume that this 343-page title would fit neatly into that genre. Indeed, there is much here to please the diehard Indiana sports fan. Virtually every school in the state is referenced by its enrollment, its team name, the age of its gymnasium, its noted alumni, and its crosstown arch-nemeses.

Yet the Hoosier Hysteria Road Book covers far more ground -- succeeding not only as a sports publication, but as an Indiana travel guide, a history book, and a humorously incisive work of sociology.

For some years, author Dale Lawrence has been the chief singer and songwriter of the Vulgar Boatmen, a critically-acclaimed rock band. As something of a sports outsider, he brings a unique perspective to the world he explores. He also offers prose that is observant, intelligent, and often borders on the lyrical.

On the dimmed lighting and atmosphere of a recently retired gym in Zionsville: "The game was played in a smoky haze, how I've always imagined watching a prizefight used to be. It was like having a dream about a basketball game."

On the horn in Columbus North's gym: "It's in stereo: two simultaneous but separate noises emanating from opposite corners. One is a sputtering BZZZ, like a novelty hand buzzer or an alarm clock on its last legs. The other sound is a sustained TOOOT, like a cartoon tugboat whistle. You can hardly believe it hasn't been replaced ages ago, and no doubt some misguided soul will someday do just that."

On Logansport's school mascot, ostensibly Felix the Cat: "The current live mascot is a rather paunchy incarnation of the famous cartoon character, which you probably wouldn't immediately recognize as Felix (or even a cat). With its mouth permanently screwed open to one side, it most closely resembles a bear doing an imitation of Buddy Hackett."

Reasoning that no game is complete without dinner afterwards at a local restaurant, Lawrence also devotes a fair portion of his book to recommending funky local eateries across the state. In fact, he seems willing and eager to review virtually any tidbit that wanders across his path. An ancient Presbyterian church in Williamsport. School pep bands. The lyrics of school fight songs. The crowds. The gyms. The popcorn at the gyms' snack bars. Public address systems. Game announcers. Call-in radio shows heard on the way to and from particularly distant destinations. All are dutifully considered with a mix of reverence and affectionate amusement -- a tone that steers thankfully clear of condescension and irony.

Lawrence has an evident and heartfelt love of Indiana basketball, and a passion for all things unique. In a world where the individual is being overtaken by the corporate, where chain stores are homogenizing the national landscape, where distinctions between peoples and places are fast disappearing, the Hoosier Hysteria Road Book is an homage to the singular and eccentric -- an invaluable celebration of those small, oft-overlooked differences that make our lives worth living.

The definitive source for anyone from Indiana who has contributed in any way to the art of motion pictures!

THIS IS A BEAUTIFULLY COMPLIED BOOK AND MAKES A TERRIFIC GIFT. SINCE MY HUSBAND IS FROM INDIANA AND IS A VETERAN ACTOR, HE WAS HIGHLIGHTED IN THE BOOK.

WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT I ORDERED 7 COPIES WHICH WERE DELIVERED PROMPTLY AND IN EXCELLENT CONDITION.

YOU WILL BE AMAZED HOW MANY CELEBRITIES ARE HOOSIERS.

I can give this book no higher praise than I have read it every year for the last 15 years, and have never tired of it. It describes my utopia.

The highly mannered style and aggrandized gaze of Nicholson's world nevertheless delights and enchants the reader with the silken kaleidoscope of sensory values pulled through narrow golden hoop of the written page. Indiana's lace-edged tintype history gleams with romance, mystery, substance. I am proud to own this signed first edition, and collect Nicholsons where others have imprudently overlooked them. The story begins as the hero enters the scene, nodding at the criminal foil, the stately and perfect heroine(American style if you please,) and the lifelong friend of the old school. Never again shall a writer look to the future and look back over the shoulder of American History with such finesse. A grand mystery, may Hollywood never grab it!

A must have for any collection of film and African American book collection.

"Imaging Blackness: Race And Racial Representation In Film Poster Art" is compiled, edited, curated and presented by Audrey Thomas McCluskey (Associate Professor of African-American and African Diaspora Studies). Professor McCluskey draws upon her years of experience and expertise when she was formerly the director of the Black Film Center Archive at Indiana University to present a series of movie posters for the 'race movies' that were a part of cinematic history from the late 1920s through the early 1940s when African-Americans were largely barred from mainstream Hollywood productions (except for stereotypical roles as maids, butlers, and comic relief characters), necessitating independent and small budget productions featuring African-American casts. Posters were a widespread means of advertising and promotion, designed to persuade members of the public to buy a ticket and see the film publicized by the images depicted in the poster material. "Imaging Blackness" shows the steady evolution of how African-American men and women were pictured on those posters in incremental changes that paralleled the discrimination and slow progress of change of the broader American culture. A fascinating approach to film history that accords with vigorous academic standards of scholarship, "Imaging Blackness" is an especially recommended addition to academic and community library African-American Studies and American Film History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Inden's book is commendable for giving a clear, thorough and courageous analysis of why scholars of many ilks have given the distorted image of India that we have today. The British wanted to justify their empire and loot, by positioning themselves as the civilizing force. The Germans built their "Aryan" identity as being at the center of history. The Jungians constructed the West as being rational and progressive, as compared to the 'world negating', irrational and mystical Indians. Post-independence Indian Marxists wanted to 'qualify' India for Marxism by having to prove its feudalistic character. All these served to build and solidify the theory of India as a sponge of civilization and with no agency to originate anything worthwhile. No wonder then that most treatments of India begin and end with caste and the multitude of social evils - all deemed too quickly to be its inherent qualities. Yet there is little coverage given to the appropriations by Westerners from India. Inden's book should be read by everyone with a serious interest to understand India.

To place modern scholarship on India in the proper context, it will be helpful to read this book. Inden dissects the colonialist prejudices of these scholars and shows how a lot about India that we take for granted is actually a construction of these Indologists.

One of the most astonishing and original works of phenomenology and continental philosophy to be written in many years! It should perhaps be read in tandem with David Abram's recent "The Spell of the Sensuous", another intensely original and ethical work of continental philosophy. Like Abram, Lingis is carrying the profoundly embodied and embedded insights of Maurice Merleau-Ponty into new and outrageously beautiful territory. These guys are exploring the ethically-charged landscapes that await us on the far side of post-modernism. Some of the most evocative philosophical prose I have ever read. In the space of a few years, these recent 2 books by Lingis and Abram are rescusitating the entire project of phenomenological inquiry.

It was my great privilege to read this book in manuscript form. Lingis already has a wide reputation as a master stylist and a unique philosophical personality. _The Imperative_ is his most systematic work yet, and the most reflective of his characteristic insights, which have up till now been dispersed among dozens of memorable essays and books.

The central thesis of the book is simple: the ethical imperative found in thinkers from Kant to Levinas is too narrowly focused on the realm of human interaction. Lingis argues that there are actually countless imperatives in the field of reality. In addition to describing the seductive imperative worked upon us by objects ("it looks delicious"; "it looks beautiful"), Lingis makes an original appeal to the work of Merleau-Ponty to show how a structuring imperative is already at work even in the most rudimentary forms of perception. In short, there is a new vision of Continental philosophy in this work, one that paves the way for a return to the things themselves after decades of textual-linguistic hegemony.

The names most often tossed about as the leading figures in American Continental thought tend to be _interpreters_, ace readers of Heidegger or Derrida who rarely attempt any speculative risks of their own. With this latest book, Lingis again proves himself a thinker of a higher caliber-- in fact, the most original writer in this tradition in the English-speaking world.

Prior to reading this I've always had an intense fascination with African Antelopes, particularly the Tommy(Thomson's Gazelle), Spring Bok, Impala, and Wildebeest. There is something so wondrous about their elegance, gentle beauty, and astounding grace, agility, and speed.

I've always wondered why I could never find ANYTHING pertaining to African antelopes, particularly Thomson's gazelle, without their presence being solely limited to food stock for roving predators. Literally, there are no PBS television specials or extensive research material on these wonderful creatures...

That is until I read, "In The Country of Gazelles." My goodness this book was the breath of fresh air that I longed for. Fritz R. Walther--unknowingly--wrote this book for me, I'm convinced. I love those speed racing little Tommies even more now. Walther, in his adoration for the antelopes, allows the reader to learn about an animal that everyone knows so little about. I've always wondered how, in the midst of numerous threats(predation being only one), these animals-gentle plant eaters-managed to survive, thrive, and proliferate, in the face of such gargantuan obstacles.

The end of the Thomson's gazelle installment, literally, brought a tear to my eye. Walther had so much respect and admiration for gazelles. It comes through in every word he writes. This makes me long for the day when I can take my own journey through the Seregeti and see a herd of Tommies for myself.

If you love Gazelles and tire of them spoken about in terms of predation...Then this is the book for you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

You would have to possess a heart and mind of stone to read this book and come away not only understanding gazelles much more deeply, but also falling in love with them. It is a fine gift to be able to both convey the factual nature of animals and their charm, and Fritz Walther has it. Walther is an accomplished and respected zoologist and ethologist, and fine illustrator and (if you read a little bit between the lines) a philosopher and poet as well.

Of all the field study/memoirs I've read this is my favorite. If you have a love of and interest in hoofed animals, you simply must own this book.

I have this book; it is a "must have" book for any one who was at ISSCH. I found it most helpful in "jogging" my memory. I was at ISSCH from 1958 -1962.

This book has been a great reference for me in may ways, especially for The Morton Memorial Class Reunion Web Site. It is an indexed listing of most all of the children admitted to the Home. From the very first orphans admitted in the late 1800's, on up to the children admitted in the late 1980's. It shows the name of the child, the county for which they came from, the date of admission along with the date of discharge. What is really helpful..is the fact that it shows the child's full name, along with the middle name. This is very helpful in locating individuals. I strongly encourage the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis, Indiana to update this book soon with the records of admissions of the children of the 90's...