Illinois Books

This is a beautiful book with many photographs which bring back special memories to those who have a connection with U of IL. It will be a special treasure for anyone who attended the university. Many different aspects of university life are covered by Don Hamerman's fabulous photographs. A great gift for alumni, current students or those who hold a special place for Urbana/Champaign and the University of Illinois in their memories.

This is an absolute must have for Univ. of Illinois alumni who appreciate good photography. In talking with other alumni who have seen and/or own this book, the images bring up memories from their time on campus. It also tweaks the curiosity, because Hamerman shows a penchant for finding new perspectives (close-ups, etc.) that can be overlooked in the rush of campus life. Compared to other photography of the UI campus I've seen, this is very original. And Ebert's introduction is a nice read -- it ties in wonderfully to the book. I highly recommend!

Written in the late 1970s, this disturbing essay on Russian anti-Semitism provides - in hindsight - a clear example of one of the many corrupting, self-destructive forces that operated within the Soviet bureaucracy and contributed to the eventual collapse of the Soviet empire. The author, Grigori Freiman, was a noted mathematician, a professor, and a member of the Communist Party. His samizdat essay was a plea for fairness and justice in the selection of Jewish candidates for advance training in mathematics. He also warned that Russian anti-Semitism was undermining the future of mathematics in the Soviet Union.

Samizdat refers to the self-publishing of underground literature in Russia under Communism. A copy of Grigori Freiman's samizdat essay reached the United States in 1978. Southern Illinois University Press in 1980 published this small book, It Seems I Am a Jew, in cooperation with the Committee of Concerned Scientists. Melvyn Nathanson prepared the introduction as well as translated Freiman's essay into English.

It Seems I Am A Jew is less than 100 pages (even including the forward, introduction, and a three part appendix). The essay itself is riveting, and most readers will likely read this disturbing essay in a single sitting. I highly recommend Freiman's remarkable essay to a wide audience that includes essentially any reader interested in history, concerned with the current political situation in Russia, or concerned with injustice wherever it occurs.

The appendix will appeal more to readers that have an interest in mathematics. Extremely difficult test questions were reserved for Jewish students (and sometimes for testing non-Russians from the more distant Soviet republics). These questions were designed to ensure that all Jewish candidates failed, even Jewish winners of the Soviet Union's Mathematics Olympiad. By the late 1970s the mathematics section of the Soviet Academy of Sciences had nearly achieved the goal of Judenfrei mathematics.

The memoir of a Jewish mathematician. Freiman recalls the special obstacles he and other Jewish students of mathematics faced in the USSR. To get a doctorate in mathematics one had to pass an oral exam given by a member of the anti-semetic Stekov Institute. Only it seems if you were Jewish you got an especially difficult and in most cases impossible exam to pass. Because the exam was oral with no paper record of the questions asked, the examiner could easily fail the Jewish students by asking research level questions. A grim reminder of the policies of a terrible regime.

Jack Dempsey has always been my favorite boxer, , Randy Roberts did his home work before writing this wonderful book. He went into great detail, when Dempsey fought Firpo ,and when he lost his title to Gene Tunney.Anyone who enjoys reading about heavyweight champions from the past, will really love this book. i still go back and read my favorite chapters over again. Kenny Hetrick

Jack Dempsy: The Manassa Mauler by Randy Roberts (Professor of History, Purdue University) is a solidly written biography of the famous Heavyweight Champion of the World who held that title from 1919 to 1926. From Jack Dempsy's childhood and his rough-and-tumble beginning of a boxing career at 16; to his rise to the top -- and eventual defeat; to his retirement from boxing in 1940 with sixty-four victories (forty-nine of them by knockout), and more, Jack Dempsy: The Manassa Mauler is an excellent and very highly recommended contribution to Professional Boxing History, and a "must read" biography for dedicated fans of "the sweet science".

It is not often that you get to read about some of the interesting men who had their 'ups and downs' in creating the industrial history of the mid-west of the USA. Andrew Call brings to life a great guy in this respect: Jake Bunn (1814-1897). You can meet Jake and his family again if you read Stealing Lincoln's Body where he is just as interesting.
The writer helps us to learn and understand how business was done by such companies as: Illinois Watch, Sangamo Electric Co. and even the very obscure Bunn-O-Matic Corp. But more importantly we learn about the legacy of "honorable behavior towards creditors' during tough times that the Bunn banking family showed during the Panic of 1973.
This is a fine biography that reminds us of the importance of 'ethics and integrity' in business from a young first-time writer.

Though I find my usual tastes rest solely within the fiction genre, I was surprised by the excitement with which I turned pages through this author's first effort.

The book reads like a Who's Who Among American History's Past at times; traverse history during a turbulent, though defining, time as America itself develops from infant to industrial giant-with your guide Jacob Bunn. Resourceful, ambitious, and passionate, Jacob has his ups and downs (though overwhelmingly successful) as he risks business venture after business venture-always keeping his focus on integrity. From grocery stores, banks, and timepieces, to close personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, Jacob Bunn seems to have tried it all.

You'll be surprised to find out what you didn't know as the author drops historical names that can be directly or indirectly associated with Mr. Bunn (maybe even more surprised by some of the ways Jacob continues to influence everyday life in the present day). Colorful and educated conjecture, but never far-reaching hyperbole, each period in time is described thoughtfully and accurately.

A must read for any history buff, and a `gateway book' for all of those who aren't.

What better combo could there be? I'm not a student of law, but I still found this to be a facinating story about its history and importance. The descriptions of Larry Flynt are colorful and often times halarious. Fawell doesn't exactly come out looking like an angel either, but I found Smolla's treatment of both characters to be fair. Ultimately, the conclusion of this book are right on. Flynt and Falwell are both hustlers of the American Dream. They just sell their versions from opposite ends of the spectrum.

Rod Smolla knows how to tell a story. We all know Larry Flynt is colorful, what we didn't know is how brilliant his young attorney was in getting the Falwell trial heard in the "Live Free or Die State" when Hustler's distribution there was about 1% of its national sales. A must read for any staunch defender of the First Amendment.

Nolan Porterfield's 1979 Jimmie Rodgers is the definitive Jimmie Rodgers biography, a frank and honest look at a man who was determined to make the most of what he knew was going to be a very short life. Porterfield pulls no punches in the biography and spends as much time discussing Jimmie's weaknesses as he does his strengths. As a result, the story that he tells is even more astounding than if he had written a puff piece portraying Jimmie as the perfect superstar of his day.

Jimmie Rodgers did not have a great singing voice. He was not an exceptionally talented guitar player and, in fact, was not known to be a very good musician. He found it difficult to keep time when recording with other musicians and was nowhere near the songwriter that he is "officially" credited with having been. That lack of songwriting ability when coupled with Jimmie's difficulty in learning new material limited the number of recording sessions that could be scheduled during his short lifetime.

But Jimmie Rodgers was one of the great stylists of his day and he used his unique "blue yodel" and combined "hillbilly" and blues music in a way that continues to influence country music even today. He paved the way for the "singing cowboys" who became so popular in Hollywood movies after his death. Porterfield quotes music historian Henry Pleasants this way about the limitations of Jimmie's voice: "Well, great voices do not great singers make. Great singers are made by what musically creative men and women do with the voices God gave them." Exactly.

James Charles Rodgers, the youngest of three children, was born to a poor Mississippi couple on September 8, 1897. His father left a job with the railroad to farm the land on which the family lived in an attempt to provide a steadier living and so that he could spend more time with his growing family. But when Jimmie's mother died in 1903, Aaron Rodgers returned to the railroad life and the Rodgers children were housed with other relatives.

Jimmie, who spent much of his young adult life working railroad jobs like his father, never seemed to see his railroad wages as anything more than the money he needed to tide him over until his singing career blossomed. Despite that, Jimmie Rodgers will always be remembered as a "railroad man" because he billed himself for a long time as "The Singing Brakeman," an image that Hollywood used in the one short film recording that was made of Jimmy performing some of his songs.

Jimmie Rodgers was a man in a hurry. He knew that tuberculosis would kill him, especially if he did not spend weeks at a time in bed resting and recuperating from the effects of the disease that was killing so many of his countrymen. But Jimmie Rodgers was not one to spend his time bedridden and worrying about himself. He decided to make the most of the time he had, and only took to his bed when his doctors told him that he was near death if he refused to end his non-stop touring and recording schedule for a while, instances that became more and more frequent as Jimmie's neglect of his health began to take its ultimate toll on him.

"That old T.B." finally beat Jimmie Rodgers in May, 1933 when he died in a New York hotel room during what was to be his last recording session. Weak as he was, Rodgers managed to record thirteen masters from May 17-24, twelve of which were eventually released for sale. In a little less than six years (August 1927-May 1933), Jimmie managed to record only 110 songs, not a huge songbook by the standards of any major recording star, but one that is destined to live forever.

Jimmie Rodgers was a man who fought tremendous odds in order to live the life of his dreams. He was a musical pioneer who, although he could not finally beat the disease that killed him, held it off long enough to establish his place in music history. He survived the death of traveling vaudeville tent shows and the impact that the Great Depression had on the sale of his records. He was there to see the early days of radio and to suffer the effects of "talkies" on the kind of traveling live entertainment packages that made his living.

Nolan Porterfield has done a magnificent job of describing the ups and downs that Jimmie Rodgers suffered in his 35 years. In one sense, Jimmie did not have much to show for a music career that resulted in the sale of some seven million records and constant touring of the south and southwest parts of the country. At his death he had only about $4,000 to his name, the money that he had been advanced for his last recording session and the proceeds from the sale of a home. But, oh what a life he lived, and what a legend he has become!

This book gave more insight into Jimmie Rodgers than I have ever read. Very well written and a definite must for those interested in the history of true Country Music.

Edward Ives became interested in a ballad entitled "The Plain Golden Band." It was a popular ballad in the northeast and Canada's maritime provinces. Ives began hearing stories about the song's writer, and he began a research project to find out more information on Joe Scott. What's remarkable about this book is that Scott had died long before Ives had met him and Scott wasn't particularly famous. Consequently, Ives used oral history interviews and folklore study to discover a wealth of information about Joe Scott. This biography is such a vivid portrait of the singer that I felt that I had met him personally after reading this wonderful book.

This book is one of the best biographies of a musician that I have ever read. What is especially interesting, is that the musician was virtually unknown, and I have never even heard any of this musician's works. Yet, I came away from this book with a profound appreciation for Joe Scott and an even deeper appreciation for Edward Ives's writing abilities. Ives uses fieldwork techniques from folklore studies and oral history research to develop a life-history of Joe Scott, a ballad-maker and ballad-singer who was previously known only for penning a tune known only within a small northeastern region. Ives completes thorough research on Scott's life, pulling together information from obscure sources and from the commonplaces of local memory. He develops an in-depth biography in which he places Scott's musical creativity within the context of an interesting life. Ives not only demonstrates ways to glean fascinating insights from snippets of information but he also provides an incredibly interesting presentation of the results of his finding and conclusions. His conclusions about artistry, poetry, and creativity are intriguingm, and they are backed by credible and well-reasoned arguments. Ives is a first-rate writer, and the story that he tells about Joe Scott is reads like a first-rate novel.

After my initial dissapointment, (This book is not about the John Gardner who wrote the post Ian Fleming James Bond novels) I came to embrace this amazing book. Never has so much perspective been shoe-horned into such a space. The real gem in this book is the work of Kathy Vanspanckeren, whose winning personality and wit is evident on each page.

Robert Morace and John Gardner maybe be the big names that will draw in the public, but the real superstar work here is the work of Kathryn Vanspanckeren. She could edit the pants off a bonobo--and I've seen her do it! Her critical perspectives on John Gardner are so critical and perspective that they should be separated, expanded upon (maybe proof-read) and placed in a larger book, preferably with a picture of a her on the front. Because, as most publishers know, all the best books have pictures of chicks on the front.

I just finished reading "Every Woman Should Go to Law School or Read This Book," by Margaret Basch, J.D. When I first started flipping through it, I thought it might be boring, dry do-it-yourself legal advice. It wasn't.

While "Every Woman..." teemed with advice on legal research, finding a lawyer, some do-it-yourself tips and getting the government to do your legal work for free, it also carried messages of girl power. Basch encourages women to become powerful in their jobs by reacting "like a man." Men don't worry about hurting someone's feelings if they get promoted; they worry about what tie to wear, she says. Every woman should also know how to negotiate effectively, whether it's for a raise or a new car, and write effective complaint and appreciation letters. If that isn't enough, Basch finally solves the mystery of networking for women. (Hint: it's not in those "networking lunches.")

As a total law layperson, I'm going to recommend the book because it's easy to read, very informative and well worth the $.... It might be too basic for those who actually went to law school, but for me, it inspired me. I've even used some of the tactics to get a refund already!

Excellent, enjoyable book filled information for the independent or not-so-independent woman. Legal matters are not above your head, when you use this little book as a guide. Ms. Basch must actually be one of an endangered species...a smart, sympathetic, humorous lawyer. I read it, enjoyed it, and recommend it.

Stephen was my 2nd Great-grand-uncle. His brother William, my 2nd great-grandfather also served in the Civil War despite his brother's prostestations. I William's guard detail book from 1864. This is an interesting compilation of Stephen's writings from the Civil War.

"Jottings" is a wonderful, welcome addition to Civil War studies. This collection of newspaper columns by Sergeant Major Fleharty gives a vivid account of the 102nd Regiment Illinois Infantry during the American Civil War. The introduction written by the two editors provides a splendid biographical account of Fleharty. This book is well worth purchasing for any student of our Civil War but especially for those interested in Illinois' role in the war.