Wisconsin Books

Phelan's scrupulous research in primary sources in Colombia and a thorough reckoning of the secondary literature make this a "must read" to understand the late colonial society in Nueva Granada. He brings to this book decades of knowledge and research on the Catholic Hispanic culture that was the ethos for European culture in Hispanic America.
This is a work that treats both local history, the history of a region that formed a nation, and a broader culture that has an enduring impact on the hemisphere's cultures and history.

In 1998, I was fortunate to take an athropology class ("Inside/Outside the Middle East") with Prof. Dominguez at the University of Iowa in which we delved into the many layers of this text.

Not only are the ideas and concepts (the perspectives and variants of comprehension) facinating, the issues that arise provide an excellent basis for hours of debate and dialog.

Anyone interested in the complexities of Israeli society or in creative and exploratory anthropological methodologies should strongly consider adding this book to their collection.

Several vignettes of various lives taken from a seemingly magical summer eve in a masterfully described Finland countryside. This ain't no ordinary prose! While reading this book, I experienced emotions usually felt while listening to my favorite music, looking at a desert sunset or drinking a fine nut-brown ale. The words jump off the page, straight into your mind and create the most vivid, colourful images imaginable. Track down a copy of this book, it's definately a masterpiece!

Geneticists James Crow (professor emeritus of genetics and zoology, University of Wisconsin - Madison) and William Dove (professor of oncology and medical genetics, University of Wisconsin - Madison) have collaborated to assemble a compendium of more than 100 essays whose contributors survey the history f modern genetics research and the rapidly evolving and expanding science in Perspectives On Genetics: Anecdotal, Historical, And Critical Commentaries, 1987-1998. Every aspect of this specialized science is covered from Dr. Crow's Seventy Years Ago in Genetics: H. S. Jennings and Inbreeding Theory; to Burke H. Judd's Genes and Chromomeres: A Puzzle in Three Dimensions. Perspectives On Genetics is a benchmark publication and an essential, core title for all academic or community library science history collections.

Mahatma, the great soul epitomizes the meaning of a man who was possibly the greatest human being the 20th century has seen. Mahatma Gandhi was a modern messiah whose life became the message to the world. The message was truth and freedom through non-violence. Non violence is the most beautiful gift mankind has received since the existing of civilized evolution.
Violence, wars, terrorism and human injustice still focus the central issues of world problems. The constructive aspects of Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy can regenerate a world bordering on the chaos. Gandhi altruistic philosophy may appear to be a utopian ideal. However, if we want to find permanent solutions to life's problems, it is essential to adopt universal welfare as a central precept. Only an individual with considerable self-respect, unshakable faith in human nature and detachment can find sanity where alienation, soaring crime and unmitigated violence are ripping the society apart.
Today Mahatma Gandhi is no more a person, he has become a phenomenon. In his lifetime he fought for many causes; colonialism, racial discrimination, economic exploitation and the Indian Independence but predominantly human rights which was the pivot of his existence. His weapons were Satya (truth) and Ahimsa (non-violence).
Gandhiji's entire life was a powerful message for mankind. His every breath was dedicated to the pursuit of truth (god) in its most pristine manifestations, justice and liberty for man.
I will inco-operate (combining) both books Gandhi's Truth (Erikson) and An Autobiography, The Story of My Experiments With Truth (Gandhi) in my review, because this approach seems best suited for my topic and books. In these books Erikson & Gandhi write about the sin in his childhood which become a lesson for him and he learned so much from them that in future he became a successful man. These sins played a important role in his development. These books also tell the story about the life of Gandhi, his experiences, his mistakes and also about his succession & failure in life. They are about the power of truth & peace. These books tells that if the words fail to convience an adversary perhaps purity, humility, and honesty will. These books also tells his experiances with violence, to find the origin of Gandhi's militant non-voilence . These books also tells about the books which had a great effect on Gandhi and changed his life & perception towards it. These books also tells that he also took the vows of celibacy and poverty.
Erikson central argument is that the basis in Gandhi's later life he was madly rushing about doing good, and his trying to settle down, which never lasted very long, and he (Gandhi) also felt that he was always needed by someone or something. Also Gandhi learned by his mistakes, sins and unsuccessfulness develop himself into a great leader and a great man. Erikson also emphases on Gandhi's life.
Other author is Gandhi himself, in his own autobiography, his central arguments are, his sins, mistakes, achievements, truth-force, non-voilance, poverty.

Pickled Herring And Pumpkin Pie is a reprint of a best-selling nineteenth-century German cookbook by Henriette Davidis which was adapted for Germans living in America. From Milk Soup to Colored Sugar to Meat Pie, this outstanding culinary compendium blends recipes from both the Old and New Worlds, and presents a unique glimpse into a nineteenth-century immigrant's way of life. Pickled Herring And Pumpkin Pie is an superbly presented and mouth-watering repository of classic cultural recipes that have survived the test of time.

I am an avid reader of quilt history and found this book to be a remarkable sideline item. It deals very little with the actual quilt, but rather uses it as a jumping off point to study the life of a woman who owned it. It deals directly with the hardships and lifestyles of the women who settled the country through the story of one lonesome girl uprooted by marriage.

I've lived in Wisconsin for over 20 years, but never heard of John Dietz until I happened upon this book while searching the Amazon database. Anyone interested in U.S. history of this century, particularly big business/big government vs. "the little guy" will find this book fascinating. There can be no doubt that history does repeat itself: Waco, Ruby Ridge, et. al. are just late 20th century repeats of what has come earlier. I might also add that the book presents a very graphic picture of what pioneer life was like in the deep woods of northern Wisconsin, as late as 1910. Don't be too suprised if Hollywood makes a movie based upon this book about John Dietz and his family. It reads like fiction, but it's a true story. Well done, Mr. Landers!!

One of my favorite books by one of my favorite poets...a book you should buy for your friends who say they don't like poetry because they don't understand it.

Daniels takes images from everyday urban life, including the task of making 30 burgers and 30 fries, a child catching crickets for pay from his mom, and Digger, Daniels' representation of a blue-collar worker, waiting up for his daughter on her first date. The title poem, a description of the workers in each department of a department store, is absolutely fantastic--Daniels at his disarmingly direct best. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Among the last islands to be discovered by man were the Seychelles - an isolated archipelago in the Indian Ocean 600 miles northeast of Madagascar. Thus the transformation of a completely wild to a largely tame landscape has been compressed into the scant two hundred years since these geologically unique granitic islands were first settled in 1770. Reconstructing this change, Dr. Sauer presents an historical account of the islands' coastal vegetaton and the shaping of its distribution patterns by natural enviroment and human activities.

Of all oceanic islands, the Seychelles may have had the longest time for vegetaton to develop by purely natural immigration and evolutionary processes. Professor Sauer traces his postulated list of over fifty aboriginal plant species mainly to arrival by regular, long-range sea dispersal. Historical plant introductions have more than doubled the number of coastal species, and he attributes nearly all of these plant immigrants to deliberate transfer from Mauritius.

Dr. Sauer's conclusions regarding the processes by which the Seychelles vegetation were derived is preceded first by an introductory sketch of the islands' natural setting. He then carefully traces the history of human intervention from obscure beginnings to the present. The historical account is strongly influenced by Professor Sauer's conviction that the interactions of plants and man are of tremendous importance to both natural and cultural history. Special consideration is given to the origin of the coconut, the rise of coconut plantations, their present domination both of the islands' economy and landscape, and the dangers inherent in a near monoculture being practiced today [circa 1967].

Present distribution patterns are characterized by photographs, transects, and maps of sample areas. Species distributions are given in detail and then generalized on the basis of both physiognomic classification and of natural and artificial vegetation types.
--- excerpt from book's dustjacket