Michigan Books

Countless Americans patiently trace genealogies and histories through slowly crumbling archives and weathering marble, seeking answers to questions about the ones who preceded us. This is a story of the meaning of such a search to one searcher. As the book's title alludes, Recovering Ruth: A Biographer's Tale focuses on how recovering Ruth Edgerton Douglass' history affects her biographer, Robert Root. Parts of Ruth's journal are excerpted in Recovering Ruth, and those who are interested in reading her journal in its entirety can look to Time by Moments Steals Away: The 1848 Journal of Ruth Douglass, edited by Robert Root.
Root's task, as the book begins, is seemingly simple and straightforward: edit the 1848 journal of Mrs. C. C. Douglass for publication. The Michigan library catalog attributes the authorship to Lydia Douglass, the clan matriarch who lived to be an octogenarian. However, Root soon discovers that the journal was actually penned by the first Mrs. C. C. Douglass, Ruth Edgerton Douglass. This discovery compels him to reconstruct the people and places of the mid-nineteenth century Michigan frontier, from the then-booming young city of Detroit to the remote Lake Superior outpost, Isle Royale. Although his search begins in libraries and archives, he soon journeys to the places where Ruth triumphed over fears common to us all: loneliness, hardships, and loss.
In retracing her life's journey, Root travels from Detroit to Chicago to Lake Superior's Isle Royale. Root uses his carefully researched details to evoke the Michigan Ruth would have known. He describes their approach of Isle Royale thus: "At last the island begins to rise in the distance, a long thin line above the water that slowly thickens as we thump our way steadily across the waves" (109). His language not only shows the vastness of the Great Lake, but also the treachery and danger inherent in crossing the world's largest freshwater lake even for a modern traveler. Imagery such as this gives us insight into the courage and determination of settlers such as the Douglasses.
During the course of his timely yet timeless search, Root comes to realize that he is in search of the meaning not only of Ruth's life, but of his own. As Root says, "Perhaps I needed to recover Ruth in order to keep from losing myself" (xvi). History is comprised of a series of chance meetings and fortunate accidents not readily apparent by perusing a family tree. Our lives would be immeasurably different if our great-grandparents had decided that it was, after all, too difficult to make their way by wagon train westward to Kansas, if our grandmother had stayed home rather than attended a dance, if our father's soulful brown eyes hadn't met our mother's at a crowded wedding. Root directly acknowledges those subconscious murmurs: "Genealogy identifies lines of descent, who begat whom, the aftermath of events; what it doesn't recount are the myriad alternatives barely missed, the intangibles of attraction and attachment, the possibilities avoided, ignored, or rejected" (25). In recovering Ruth's story, Root sees the ways in which his own choices will impact the future course of history: a painful divorce, a hopeful remarriage, his beloved children.
Root's work serves as a window for us to view the interconnections between our world and Ruth's. As George Eliot wrote at the end of Middlemarch, "the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs." In Recovering Ruth, Root has recorded Ruth's historic acts and unveiled her hidden life.
This book was chosen by the Library of Michigan as a 2004 Michigan Notable Book.

The author not only feels and understands the love of research, he writes of it with eloquence and charm. It reminds me of sections of Robert Penn Warren's ALL THE KING'S MEN, the quest to uncover the hidden truth. Or Byatt's POSSESSION. It is that good.

This author understands history. This author understands style. There are literary references and refreshing asides. It is a marvelous book.

My only regret is that I could not obtain it in hardcover--a luxurious gold gilted edition, say, with easy-to-read print, its own ribbon bookmark, and an annotated index. But it reads fine like it is. Highly recommended.

There is a problem in getting going with alg. geo. To learn the geometry you need commutative algebra and to contextualize commutative algebra you need algebraic geometry. Mumford is an excellent book to get going without the need for the heavy prereqs of the more classic books like Hartshore or G&H. A really good read.

This is not however a terrific reference text, you'll need something else as a reference. Its much to expository and their is no index.

In a nutshell, reading this book is like reading the mind of a great mathematician as he thinks about a great new idea. Anyone interested in schemes should read it. But a review needs more detail:

The RED BOOK is a concise, brilliant survey of schemes, by one of the first mathematicians to learn of them from Grothendieck. He gives wonderfully intuitive pictures of schemes, especially of "arithmetic schemes" where number theory appears as geometry. The geometry shines through it all: as in differentials, and etale maps, and how unique factorization relates to non-singularity. There is a bravura discussion of Zariski's Main Theorem (the algebraic property of being "normal" implies that a variety has only one branch at each point) comparing forms of it from older algebraic geometry, topology, power series, and schemes. Mumford cites proofs of these but does not give them. In fact, this theorem was one of the first things Mumford could use, to get Zariski to respect schemes.

Many accomplished algebraic geometers say this book got them started. But you probably cannot learn to work in the subject from this book alone--you either have to work with people who work with it, or use some other books besides (maybe both). The other book would probably be Hartshorne ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY, which is far more detailed, has far more examples, goes very much farther into cohomology--and is very much longer and denser (though also clearly written).

Eisenbud and Harris GEOMETRY OF SCHEMES covers a lot of the same ground as THE RED BOOK, with fewer advanced topics but many more details and examples, including classical geometric constructions like blow-ups and duals to projective plane curves. They use slightly more category theory than Mumford, more like Grothendieck.

Probably none of these books will work for you unless you already know some algebraic geometry: how polynomials define a variety, the Zariski topology, what regular and birational maps are. There is more than enough in Myles Reid's humorously titled UNDERGRADUATE ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY and UNDERGRADUATE COMMUTATIVE ALGEBRA with vividly geometric ideas in slightly scheme-theoretic language.

The RED BOOK now includes the Michigan lectures, which are reputedly terrific, but I have not worked through them.

Compiled and edited by museum administrator Marcia Mason, Remember The Distance That Divides Us: The Family Letters Of Philadelphia Quaker Abolitionist And Michigan Pioneer Elizabeth Margaret Chandler 1830-1842 is the true story of a middle-class woman who left behind privelege in her early 20's to head into the wilderness of Michigan Territory with her brother and aunt. She became an enthusiastic abolitionist and activist for four years, until her unfortunate death four years later. Her literate and inspirational correspondence, most of which was written to family members during her years in Michigan, has been straightforwardly transcribed and presented, along with a smattering of letters from other family members concerning her life. Her tireless contribution to the abolitionist cause as well as her remarkable contributions has caused her to be viewed as a precursor to the more well-known Grimke sisters. A first-hand glimpse into a fascinating pioneer life.

Numerous letters to and from Elizabeth Margaret Chandler not only provide incomparable knowledge about the early days of the abolitionist movement, but also American Midwestern society of the time. One of the appendices is a list of the household effects relating to Chandler. But the book is of interest mostly for the sympathies and activities of the young Elizabeth Chandler regarding the issue of abolition. She died in 1834 before she was 30. The letters are written in the now-archaic language used by the Quakers of the time--e. g., "I thank thee my dear Elizabeth for thy large sheet or sheets so well filled for I believe there are several of thy letters yet unanswered by me...," from a lengthy letter by Chandler's aunt to her. The length of many of the letters, which go on for three or more pages, imparts to an exceptional degree the thoughts and activities of the individuals as well as their relationships with others. In her short life spent mostly in Michigan, Chandler contributed much to raising the consciousness of the region about the issue of abolition. The founder of the Logan Female Antislavery Society, she is also seen as an early activist in the fledgling women's movement. When she died, some individuals were moved to write poems about her. These are included in another appendix. The voluminous and varied materials brought together with editor Mason's deft sense of organization and worthiness is not only an invaluable source book on the little-known but influential Chadler; but it is a rich picture of individuals and their involvement in a major social issue of the time as well as their ordinary, daily activities and concerns. From the length and depth of the letters of Chandler and others she communicated with, the reader becomes involved with them as if they were subjects of a biography or characters in a historical novel.

"Respite for Teachers" is wise, humane, restorative, engaging, and a delight to read. The authors share with us their years of varied experiences as teachers, writers, and artists; this book is informed by, and influenced by, their own wide reading and deep reflection on the lives of teachers and on the meanings of teaching lives. It is also clearly influenced by the authors' having lived and taught in various locales and cultures. This small, well-written, very accessible book consists of a unique blend of thoughtful essays (e.g., "Difficult Students"), relevant poetry, wry "Pillow Book"-style lists (e.g., "Embarrassing Things," Things to Wonder At"), and evocative drawings. The book has a beautiful cover and an open, inviting layout. I highly recommend it.

As a teacher, I found this book to be reassuring. I could relate to the same worries and concerns the writers had with the relationships they had with students, colleagues and people in the community. It was written in a way that was easy to read and informative, with an awareness and insight that comes from years of research and experience in the field of language acquisition. Although written for teachers, it is easily accessible for anyone to read. You can pick and choose what chapter to read depending on how you're feeling -- something like `chicken soup' for the teacher's soul.

This book does for the subject of southern reform what J. Mills Thornton's Politics and Power in a Slave Society did for southern politics. We simply have to reevaluate out traditional approach to antebellum southern culture after this book. Absolutely not for general readers, who do not like such detail and a 57.50 (!) price tag, but essential for South historians.

Historians of antebellum reform have tended to divide their subject along sectional lines, with northern reform being considered normative. Antebellum reform in the North has been difficult enough to understand, so it should be no surprise that few scholars have dared to reconcile the reform impulse in the North and South. Even admitting that the reform impulse existed in the South has been a somewhat recent development in the historiography (for examples, see Anne Loveland's Southern Evangelicals and the Social Order, Stanley Harrold's Abolitionists and the South, and Janet Cornelius Duitsman's Slave Missions and the Black Church in the Antebellum South). Quist, however, tackles the problem head-on by comparing reform in two counties, one in Alabama and one in Michigan. That he finds significant differences should surprise no one. That he also finds striking similarities, however, may require us to do some rethinking about reform in the antebellum South. Just as in the North, he sees reform in the South as "compatible with the demands of market behavior." His study is truly pathbreaking in that it opens up new territory and problems to explore. Because of Quist, any comprehensive account of antebellum reform will need to incorporate the Southern reform experience. I highly recommend this work to students of antebellum reform.

LeBeau presents how to broaden perspective on the place of Indians in Michigan history. The four lessons centered on eroding stereotypes, primary historical figures, treaties, and maps as related to historical realties have implications on Native Americans in all regions and even this group as a whole in the U. S. LeBeau's aim is not to overthrow the decades of Native American studies, but rather to amplify and complement these for a more refined understanding of the history of Native Americans and its interrelation with American history. The book has the design of a classroom/student workbook; which it is meant to be. LeBeau brings into the picture of Native American studies different sorts of resources, with innovative and enlightening ways to question and examine these. With a Native American heritage, LeBeau is a former director of the American Indian Studies Program at Michigan State U. and is still active in academia and writing. The workbook-like book with a CD is suitable for high school through college courses.

Illustrated with color photographs, Rethinking Michigan Indian History is a resource especially intended for Michigan classroom teachers, as it especially explores the role that the Chippewa, Ottawa, Pottawatomie, and the twelve federally recognized tribes of Michigan played in state history. Divided into four main lessons, "Defining Our Terms and Exploring Stereotypes", "Challenging the 'Great Man' Theory of History", "Indian Treaties and the U.S. Constitution", and "How Historical Maps Influence Thinking about Michigan's Indians", Rethinking Michigan Indian History advocates change in conventional thinking and teaching practices in a non-confrontational manner. An accompanying CD-ROM holds printable PDF file versions of the graphic resources, handouts, and colorful maps on the copy-ready pages. Very highly recommended.

Readers of this book are drawn to a poetically rich narrative of a young boy's personal friendships and emotional maturation. Surreptitiously, a valuable history lesson is being absorbed about a culturally profound period in Wisconsin's past. River's Must Run brilliantly straddles the divide between a documentary and prose.

Dana Gretz, English Instructor Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College

A positively delightful story and one with considerable `food for thought.' While the principal confrontations are between loggers and dam builders, Dr. Kending gives us valid insight into the co-mingling of other groups--a bright young boy faces, and eventually joins, the adult world; non-Catholics share common problems and experiences with their Catholic neighbors, white families glimpse the culture of Ojibwa people and vice versa; townspeople meet their country dwelling friends; unlettered and formal school educated learn mutual respect; first generation immigrants assimilate into the new world--to name some examples. People of various ages and backgrounds will find things in Rivers Must Run to relate to. If you had the opportunity to roam the woods someplace in your own youth you can thrill to Ahmeek's summer experiences and even city youngsters will delight in this young boy's adventures complete with having real American Indian playmates. If you're old enough to remember back `before electricity' or `before motorcars' or when vast regions were not served by railroads you can relate to this tale which covers the advent of such life-changing technologies. There's even something for the scientist in each of us with veiled but authentic references to such things as sound Doppler, the difference between the speed of light and that of sound and the three-phase nature of alternating current power. To quote myself, "a positively delightful story which leads me to plead, "C'mon Paul Kending, when are we going to get another like Rivers Must Run?"

Do you know need a reason to buy this book? I can give you an excellent one -- it's called the Table of Contents. It lists 700 pages worth of Robin Hood ballads, plays and more. It has the earliest ballads and plays where Robin is merely a yeoman, the first play that casts him as the Earl of Huntington, and later ballads that give the "origins" of Little John, Maid Marian and Will Scarlet. Also, there's an introductory article on the history of the legend and complete introductions and notes to all the ballads and plays. The notes and introductions are by Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren, two top Robin Hood scholars. If you want to read the original tales of the outlaw, or if you are teach a course in Robin Hood, this book is an excellent buy. Just treat it with care. I notice my cover is fraying somewhat.

Before my professor pointed it out I hadn't really given much thought to where my knowledge of, and love for, the Robin Hood tales came from. Once I began to give it some thought, I realized it wasn't from books at all, it was from the Errol Flinn and Disney movies (such poor literary sources!). We all seem to know one or two Robin Hood tales, but Robin Hood is a much more complex character than those few tales would show.
I was also suprised to learn that no Robin Hood tales are included in the major anthology of English literature (Norton's), which seems odd to me, since the tales are classic English literature.
This collection of Robin Hood material is comprehensive, many stories I had never heard are here, and if you are looking to really learn about the literary sources for Robin Hood this is great (that is the publisher's purpose). This is not a children's storybook however. Much of the language is in the older forms of English, and even as an adult I sometimes wrestled with the language to understand it.
All that to say, that as a Robin Hood fan, I am thrilled with this book.

This is a great little book with many photos and facts about Romeo, MI, the town I've lived in for over 20 years. There were so many interesting facts and information I never was aware of! It's been fun to read this book and see photos from so many years ago.

Having most of my relatives still in Romeo,Mich. I found this book most enjoyable,lighthearted,and filled with facts I never knew about this quaint little town.It has a rich musical history with performances by many well known music groups,and is a virtual throwback to a more peaceful,simple time.I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever lived and/or visited this charming village.Kudos to David McLaughlin! A+!

Sarajevo: A Biography is the history of a proud city that persevered under terrible strife. Haven of learning in the Ottoman era; site of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914, causing World War I; host to the Winter Olympics in 1984; multicultural center under Tito; and by 1992 subject to the longest urban siege of the modern era, Sarajevo's story is a complex and tumultuous one. Sarajevo: A Biography spares no detail in Sarajevo's history, up to and including the aftermath of the 1992-5 siege and the citizens' efforts to rebuild and preserve a valued way of life. Highly recommended especially for world history and library reference shelves.

Dr. Robert Donia has written the best book in any language on the recent history of Sarajevo-- one of the most complex, fascinating, and misunderstood cities in the world. Dr. Donia, who has given extensive testimony as an expert consultant to the Hague Tribunal on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, has known Sarajevo intimately since the 1970s, and understands the richness, and the sometimes tragic complexity of its multi-cultural heritage. (Donia's first book, on Bosnia's Muslims under Austro-Hungarian rule, remains the defintive work on the subject.)

"Sarajevo: a Biography" is informed by a profound historical understanding and a broad human sympathy. It is mercifully free from ethno-religious bias or political partisanship, although, precisely for that reason, it will no doubt be attacked by bigots and and chauvinists of several persuasions.

For anyone hoping to undersand the tragedy of Bosnia in the 1990s, this is the second book to read. The first is "Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Tradition Betrayed", co-authored by Donia and his Ph.D. thesis advisor, Professor John Fine of the University of Michigan. (John Fine's books are also essential to an understanding of the region's history.) If Richard Holbrook had read Donia and Fine before negotiating at Dayton, Bosnia might be in much better shape today than it is.

Prof. William Hunt, Department of History, St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York 13617