Michigan Books

We just moved to Michigan and our family lives in Atlanta. This book provided excellent hints and tips on keeping our child entertained for the long trip. It is full of information for entertaining pit stops. Instead of searching for ways to distract our child, now we can take a quick look at this book and plan our trip easily.

In a former life, I supervised the compilation and editing of thousands of directory pages each year. So I know a bit about the problems and goals of such information-publishing. And this one delivers. Specific information, concentrating on its topic, consistently presented. Plus, a good portion of fun and advice. If you're hitting the road down that long stretch of I-75, this is a solid and worthy investment.

Brian Dunnigan has created a masterpiece about the creation of America through the lens of Mackinac Island. This book is a must have for all those interested in Mackinac Island, Great Lakes history and American Studies. For artists and art historians, his collection of works is a treasure showing the spirit of America through the eyes of the artists who lived during the early days of this country.

A Picturesque Situation: Mackinac Before Photography 1615-1860 is a massive, exhaustively researched history of the Straits of Mackinac, one of the first settled regions of Michigan and the primary route to Lake Michigan and the Mississippi Valley. Splendidly illustrated throughout with colorful maps, vintage artwork renditions of the land and portraits of notable historic figures, architectural plans from the era, and much more, A Picturesque Situation is a richly detailed resource, captivating to simply page through and thoroughly accessible to readers of all backgrounds. Highly recommended for public library collections, history shelves, and anyone interested in the cornucopia of stories behind this crossroads of frontier America.

Anyone who took Dr. Mark Perlman's courses on the history of economic thoughts will admires why he knows so much about the development of economics. His lecture notes are just like pieces of maps that lead his students into the Treasure Island of Knowledge. I am very happy to know that Mark and Dr. McCann have published their books. I would like to share my experiences with everyone who read the books.

Learning from Professor Mark Perlman was one of the best things happened to me when I was still a student. Since Professor Perlman had stopped lecturing on this topic ( in fact I was among those who attended his last series of lectures ), this book, along with an earlier publication in 1998, serves as an alternative to his interesting and thought provoking lectures filled with first-hand information about economics and economists. The course was an eye-opener for me and I highly recommend this book which covers the materials Professor Perlman put together for us.

This is not just another lighthouse story. Campbell's inspiration and primary source for the main character, Annie, (and her experiences) was a real person. Reading the book, you get a sense of both the beauty and the harshness of life on tiny Passage Island. Annie's deep love for the island resounds throughout. "Pocketful of Passage" is a book that everyone in the family can enjoy.

This story has all the heart of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Series, the thrills of Nancy Drew, and the added benefit of focusing on Michigan's history and lighthouses! Boys and Girls will both love this book!

These translations of Sappho are for me the most beautiful I've come across so far...

Lombardo presents each fragment on its own page, and presents them in thematically (in other words, not in order).

He has used ALL of the long and short fragments, and has intersperssed the flow with a few single sentence ones to offer a pleasing aesthetic feel.

He says that he did not use every single fragment because some of them are only one word and thus incomprehensible for poetic purposes (which I agree also)...so in total he presents over 90 of the fragments in the most beautiful renditions I've seen!

In Antiquity decent women were supposed to work in the kitchen and to raise their children, nothing more, but there were exceptions. More or less 150 years after Homer's Iliad, Sappho lived on the island of Lesbos, west off the coast of what is Turkey today.. (She went in exile for a short period due to political upheavel).
Sappho was already famous in Antiquity. Plato called her the tenth Muse and someone said her poetry was "as refreshing as a morning breeze".
Very small fragments - only three or four words - are not included.
Some of the best poems of Sappho are those that describe her loneliness.
(#62)
"But if you are my friend,
Go to a younger woman's bed,
For I will not endure an affair
In which I am older than the man."
(#73)
"The moon has set,
And the Pleiades
Midnight
The hour has gone by
I sleep alone."

While conventional wisdom might say that we have been in a golden age of conspiracy theories ever since the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Michael Pfau contends that conspiracy rhetoric has been prevalent in American politics from the time of the revolution. If we want to point to a time in American history where conspiracy rhetoric proved manifestly successful, then Pfau makes the case for that period being the eve of the American Civil War. In "The Political Style of Conspiracy: Chase, Sumner, and Lincoln," Pfau provides a trio of case studies focusing on three of the major figures who defined the ascendancy of the Republican Party. Richard Hofstadter's essay on "The American Style in American Politics" provides the foundation for contemporary conspiracy scholarship and Pfau's starting point in terms of rhetoric and social theory.

In Chapter One, "Problems of Interpretation: Approaching Conspiracy in Text and Discourse," Pfau establishes his theoretical groundwork, but also focuses on the example of William Lloyd Garrison, to show how the paranoid style and conspiracy discourse was on the fringe of American politics, setting up how his three figures will move the slave power conspiracy of the radical abolitionists into the mainstream of American political rhetoric. Pfau focuses on how aristocrats and demagogues were established as traditional conspiratorial enemies, the creation of powerful slave narratives at the center of this rhetoric, and the shared ideology of civic republicanism that Chase, Sumner, and Lincoln grew up on. As the Republic Party emerged in the 1850s, Pfau establishes their goal as being to seek the center of the mainstream and then looks at the chronology of the Republican narrative of the slave power conspiracy in terms of the rhetoric of its most prominent mainstream politicians.

Chapter Two, "The Slave Power According to Salmon P. Chase: Entering the Mainstream of Partisan Rhetoric, 1845-1854," examines a pair of texts by Chase. The first is his 1845 "Address of the Southern and Western Liberty Convention," a major landmark in the political antislavery movement (as well as of slave power conspiracy rhetoric), and the second is his 1854 "Appeal to the Independent Democrats," which drove the anti-Nebraska movement that would coalesce into the Republican Party. Pfau underscores Chase's achievements as a party builder and see his texts as being pivotal examples of party mobilization. Towards that end Chase employs partisan rhetoric, civil republican ideology, and conspiracy narratives, which looking at the audiences Chase has targeted.

Chapter Three, "Charles Sumner's 'Crime against Kansas': Conspiracy Rhetoric in the Oratorical Mold," reminds us that there was a reason why Sumner was attacked and nearly beaten to death on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Preston Brooks in 1856. That was the year that Sumner delivered his philippic, "Crime Against Kansas," which is what Pfau examines. After looking at Sumner's political evolution from Whig to Free-Soil Senator, the essay looks at the text of the speech that was largely forgotten once Sumner was brutally assaulted. The speech is largely imitative of oratorical tradition of conspiracy going back to ancient times, but Pfau is again able to show how such elements combine again with civic republicanism. Pfau is also attuned to the fact the speech digresses at points, engaging more in personal attacks and insults than logical argument, but the emphasis is on how Sumner not only details "The Crime Against Kansas," but also attack the "apologizes" for the crime as additional evidence. Although Sumner speaks of a "true remedy," his final part of the speech covers a lot of possible remedies on the Kansas question.

Chapter Four, "Lincoln, Contemporary Rhetoric, and the 'House Divided': Assessing the Judgment of History," presents an analysis of the best-known text in this volume. Despite the viewpoint of Southerners to the contrary, Lincoln was not a radical within the Republican Party. Pfau looks at this famous speech as one of the best-known slave power conspiracy texts, which implicated Stephen Douglas as part of the well-coordinated conspiracy to nationalize slavery, and which has been condemned by scholars and critics in the last century. What Pfau reveals, to no one's surprise, is that Lincoln's speech is constructed on a move logical framework than either Chase or Sumner as Lincoln stands in the present and evaluates the past. There is a key section in the essay on Pluralist Preunderstandings and the Reception of the "House Divided" speech that deals with Douglas as a protopluralist and also with pluralist revisonism by later scholars and critics who argued popular sovereignty might have been a better policy than what Lincoln advocated. In the end, Pfau is able to make a case for Lincoln as the last in a long line of hortatory civic republican rhetors who succeeded in part because of their practice of conspiracy rhetoric.

Chapter Five, "Lessons of the Slave Power Conspiracy: Conspiracy Rhetoric at the Center and Fringe," explores the broader ramifications of Pfau's findings and suggests future avenues of research. In mapping the slave power conspiracy formation Pfau is able to talk about both sacred and secular ideologies. After talking about the two traditions of conspiracy discourse, namely those on the fringe and those in the center, Pfau is able to move on to contemporary conspiracy discourse and look at those two traditions today. The final lesson of this volume is that the marginalization of conspiracy discourse that has presumed such rhetoric to be both logically flawed and ethically problematic is undercut by the fact this political style is now indigenous to the mainstream of American political discourse. By the time Pfau finishes his book, such a conclusion seems patently obvious.

Pfau uses Richard Hofstadter's seminal essay "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" are a matrix for his own study; except where Hofstadter sees the "paranoid style" as mostly at the fringes of political activity and rhetoric, Pfau sees it as central to this in the years leading up to the Civil War. Starting most notably with Salmon P. Chase, a politician from Ohio, the Southern slaveholders were inferred to be a group working to take over the Federal government to insure the perpetuation of slavery throughout the country, not just the South and some western states as the U.S. expanded. This repeated rhetoric strengthened the Abolitionist movement, and also effectively spread antislavery sentiment and prompted political alertness and activism to work against this alleged design of the slaveholders. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts picked up on this perspective spawned by Chase. In coming to Abraham Lincoln, Pfau paints him not to be the compromise, moderate choice of the Republican Party he is usually seen as, but another in the line of like-minded politicians fostering a picture of the slaveholders as a monolithic group bent on taking over the government. Lincoln was more subtle and artful in extending this paranoid style viewing the opposition as a threat to democratic, majority-rule government. Lincoln's "house divided" speech which is generally agreed among historians to have sealed his nomination is closely analyzed for its characterization of the slaveholders and cultivation of a "paranoid style" to thwart their aims. An assistant professor of Communication Studies at the U. of Minnesota-Duluth, Pfau casts much of American politics and history in a new light.

a brillant, insightful exposition of a fascinating subject -- a must read for historians and all persons interested in government regulation.

This engaging and colorful account of the history of U.S. food regulation provides excellent perspective for better understanding the recent spate of high-profile, food regulation trade disputes between the U.S.and Europe, and within Europe, such as the "Banana Wars", "British Beef", and "Genetically modified corn" incidents. A must-read for anyone who who has interest in the unique nature and psychology of government actions in dealing with issues around "our daily bread". This book appears to have been subjected to a very rigorous "peer review" and I expect it will become a classic reference work.

I have lived in Portland Michigan all my life, but until I purchased this book did I find out the incredible history of my town.

This book contains hundreds of outstanding historic photographs of Portland, Michigan. Highly recommended for any fan of Michigan history or local history. What really stands out are the many candid photos of townspeople from the 1890s. The camera captured them smiling and enjoying life (not stiff and stoic like we tend to think of people from that era).

Overall, a great book!

"A Portrait of Tradition" chronicles the history of the Michigan Marching Band, through spectacular photographs, in celebration of the band's centennial season. As the most visible symbol of the University, the Michigan Marching Band's unique mixture of tradition and innovation shine through in this beautiful 160 page pictorial. A "must-have" for anyone who enjoys one of America's great Saturday traditions-- the Michigan Marching Band.

This book is an exciting look into the history of the Michigan Marching Band. Produced in part by the band members, it has a unique and colorful examination of that which makes the band what it is today -- an organization of class, commitment and excellence. I truly enjoyed this book.

This is one of the best, perhaps the best, construction scheduling books available in the market. The book contains all important contents in this issue. The book is very easy to understand, therefore ones without knowledge in scheduling can understand readily. Moreover, it contains several advanced topics in scheduling, including PERT, overlapping networks, and time-cost tradeoff. The author, Robert Harris, is a well-known pioneer in this field and has been a professor teaching scheduling classes at the University of Michigan for many decades. I strongly recommend this book for everyone who wants to own an excellent scheduling book.

This book is one of the best construction scheduling books in term of quantitative analysis. The book does a good job on explaining the fundamental concepts of construction scheduling and further the concept to calculation part. Every concept is presented with examples and solutions, which are very useful. The contents of the book are:

1. Introduction. This chapter gives readers background in general about construction scheduling (such as resources, network, bar chart, and schedule).
2. Project Breakdown. This chapter is about deciding, preparing and organizing information (such as level of detail, activity data and constraints).
3. Basic Arrow Diagramming (or Activity On Arrow, AOA). This chapter is all about how to construct an arrow network (activities are represented by arrow shapes). If you don't plan to do manual calculation, he might want to skip this chapter. Moreover, commercial software these days does not use arrow diagram (AOA) anymore. However, redundant link, dummy activity (which is very tricky for AOA) and how/when to use dummy activity are well explained in this chapter.
4. Basic Precedence Diagram (or Activity On Node, AON). This chapter presents how to construct Precedence Diagram (AON) and show step-by-step how to eliminate redundant link.
5. Establish Activity Durations. This chapter is 5 pages long. However, I never read it. :P
6. Scheduling Computations for Arrow Networks (AOA) and 7. for Precedence Networks (AON). These chapters focus on the calculation of both types of the networks. The author shows how to use network diagrams (drawings) and how to use table (like spreadsheet but manually calculate) to calculate activity properties (such as early start date and floats). Formula for the calculation is well explained along with many examples. In both chapters, four types of floats and their formula are presented according to the type of the network (AOA and AON). In addition, the concept of using matrix (another kind of table) to update total float (TF) and free float (FF) is presented in the chapter 7. This matrix becomes handy when manual calculations of updating TF and FF are required. (You better get familiar with this matrix if you want to study one of the unlimited resource leveling concepts called Minimum Moment Method, explained later in chapter 11)
8. Communication the Schedule. This one is more like "How GUI of scheduling software (such as report format and bar chart) looks like 30 years ago". Surprisingly, nothing has changed much from today software. What a shame.
9. Project Control. This chapter discusses level of control, setting target scheduling, monitoring project, evaluating and forecasting project, control period, and updating project progress. This chapter shows you what can be done in term of project management and scheduling according to the knowledge discussed in previous 8 chapters. Moreover, it also guides readers to a new topic, Time-Cost Tradeoff.
10. Time-Cost Adjustments. This chapter presents the concept and the calculation of time-cost tradeoff analysis during pre-construction phase. The idea of varying crew sizes associated with their direct costs is discussed. A good example is used to demonstrate the idea and also the application of Fondahl's technique. Besides the concept of time-cost tradeoff which is well explained, I am not a big fan of Fondahl's technique because it is very tedious, error prone, and not guarantee an optimal solution. I suggest you to read the concept and try to use EXCEL to optimizing a time-cost tradeoff problem. Moreover, the author does not discuss cash flow analysis.
11. Resource Leveling. This is one of my favorite chapters since I am so into "resource leveling". This chapter discusses two different types of resource leveling which are Limited Resource Allocation and Unlimited Resource Leveling. For limited resource allocation, a traditional method (very simple and used in most commercial software) is explained. For unlimited resource leveling, the author uses an example to show how to level (reducing the fluctuation in resource required per day) unlimited resource by using Minimum Moment Method (MOM). Later, he furthers the leveling concept of single resource to multiple resources, and also demonstrates how to schedule activity so that the schedule will accommodate resource constraints. In brief, the author did a good job in this chapter compared to those in other scheduling books. Since this book was written in the early stage of construction engineering and management, the concept of leveling resources for multiple projects and the idea of leveling resource and still maximize resource learning curve are not discussed. In addition, later the author developed a new unlimited resource leveling called PACK which is more effective and less computational effort than MOM. Unfortunately, PACK method is not presented in the book. Last word about this chapter, MOM and PACK are most likely to outperform those resource leveling features some commercial software.
12. Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). PERT is a probabilistic scheduling method that calculates chance of finishing project within a particular period. This book as well as many other books probably say the same thing and show how the calculation of PERT. So, nothing is special. However, I would like tell you that these days we use simulation to get the same information from PERT with less pain. However, if you are old school, please read a method called Probabilistic Network Evaluation Technique (PNET). PERT only considers the longest path while PNET considers the longest path and other high independent paths with high variation in duration. Since variation exists in activity duration, the longest path may not always the critical path (hmm this sounds confusing).
13. Overlapping Network. From chapter 1 to 12, activity dependency is only described as finish-to-start relationship. This chapter introduces new types of activity constraint: start-to-start, start-to-finish, finish-to-finish. Formula and an example (which is enough) are used to explain the idea of overlapping network.
14. Selected Application. I never read this chapter since it is 30 years old.

The only major thing that is missing from this book is a scheduling concept of linear scheduling. Since this book was published when construction was not interested or not really appreciated the idea of maintaining resource utilization, eliminating resource idle time, the concept of scheduling linear project or repetitive project (such as high-rise buildings and highway projects) were not presented. Besides that, this book is an excellent book with cost of $60.