Virginia Books

'Patrick (Knowlton) did nothing to deserve the outrageous treatment he received at the hands of the OIC (Office of Independent Counsel) and its FBI agents. He did nothing to deserve being yanked into this FBI debacle, having his life turned upside down, and having to endure this fight for his reputation. Patrick's only `crime' was reporting to the authorities what he had seen at Fort Marcy Park, consistent with his understanding of his duties as a good citizen.' (From the preface of 'Failure of the Public Trust, FBI Cover-up.com')

What Knowlton saw at about 4:30 pm, July 20, 1993, were all the cars that were in Fort Marcy's parking lot at the time, and none of them matched the photographs of White House Deputy Counsel Vincent W. Foster's car that were shown to him later by FBI agents. Meanwhile, Foster was lying dead in the back of the park. That simple fact is the genesis of this remarkable legal document, now available to the public as a book.

You will not learn in these 511 pages who murdered Vincent Foster or why, nor will you find a trace of any partisan swipes at the Clintons. You WILL see revealed in painstaking detail how the cover-up was carried out by the police, the FBI, and by our other major organs of power, not the least of which have been the news media. The greatest achievement of this book is the complete reconstruction of the evening of July 20, using in a very transparent fashion every available public document. Their method may be contrasted, as the authors point out, with Kenneth Starr, three-quarters of whose references are to supporting work by associates, work that is still kept secret. Following the drawings, the cast of characters, and the time line, as you read the book you can imagine yourself at Fort Marcy Park watching people come and go. You will get to see how, as the evening progressed, dried blood around a neck wound turned into wet blood from a mouth and head wound and how all the photographs taken of the original scene disappeared. You will also learn how utterly absurd is the story of the investigating officers that they visited the morgue before two White House officials got there and miraculously found two sets of keys in Foster's pants pocket, keys that they had somehow missed when they went through his pockets in the park. Apart from the patent absurdity of the story on its face, it cannot be reconciled with the time of connected events. And you will see solid evidence for the authors' claim that this is, above all, an FBI cover-up. They show that, contrary to the assertions of some leading White House critics, the FBI was heavily involved in the sham investigation from the beginning. Furthermore, the same FBI agents were key 'investigators' for both Robert Fiske and Kenneth Starr, thus making a farce of these prosecutors' putative 'independence.'

With this prodigious work John Clarke, Patrick Knowlton, and Hugh Turley have moved to the head of the line of those exposing corruption in America's major institutions. Every concerned citizen ought to read it.

Vincent Foster was murdered. That day on July 20, 1993, two men got out of a vehicle. There were a few other men there also. What did those men want so bad that day? That man kept on insisting that he didn't have it. Have what? What was so important that those men had to kill a man? To this day, I still would like to know what they were looking for. I think about it almost daily, wondering what the reason. That man that got shot that day, did not have a chance. It was obvious, he was set-up.

This is a extremely valuable and complete book on my new hobby.
The pictures of the art glass are perfect for help and the information on the Fenton family is very interesting. The book has helped identify Fenton glass perfectly.

This book provides an excellent history of Fenton. The photography and guides are very helpful for identification purposes.

Explanations of the Fenton evolution in glass making provide insight into glass making. Excellent for the novice or seasoned veteran. Nicely done!

Fabulous book for scholars of film, French literature, the novel and British literature. This is a gem - lovely analyses. Why can't any academics write this clearly and fondly about text any more?

This book has stood the test of time and deserves attention. A valuable resource for the serious student of film.

Claudia Wild's book is an indispensable guide to all of the best birding sites within a 200 mile radius of Washington, DC. It is a "must buy" for birders of all skill levels if you visit or live in DC, Maryland, or Virginia. She also covers Delaware, Cape May, NJ, and parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and North Carolina. Her directions are easy to follow and her writing style will make you want to read about favorite birding areas again and again. Most important, this book will make it easy to find target birding species (in the appropriate season). This book is a solid 5 stars !!!

Claudia Wilds has done a wonderful job of presenting lots places, including little nooks and crannies to find birds in the greater D.C. area. Directions to locations are detailed and generally accurate, with lots of helpful information.

Well written, and easy to understand. A wonderful guide for exploring the world of birds.

General Jones is well noted within the pages of this well written text. A must for any serious Civil War buff and historian. Scott has none a fine job

Scott C. Patchan's, "Forgotten Fury: The Battle of Piedmont", covers one of the most least-known but bloody fields of conflict during all the Civil War in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. And, the author does so in a highly-readable and definitive way.

Piedmont occurred while Grant was pounding Lee's army at Cold Harbor in June of 1864 and also followed soon upon the heels of Franz Sigel's much-publicized defeat at nearby New Market that May. Thus, this small but terrible engagement has suffered an undeserved obscurity until now--though it's ferocity and strategic importance should have prevented such a fate.

Piedmont was the key engagement in Union General David Hunter's thrust into the Upper Shenandoah Valley in early 1864. It had its inception in Grant's overall strategy of multiple, coordinated attacks in Virginia in an effort to tie-down Lee's Confederates and destroy them in the field that year. Though rarely graced with more than a few lines or a paragraph in most histories of the Overland Campaign, Hunter's efforts were vital to Grant's strategy. The Shenandoah Valley was Virginia's and Robert E. Lee's most vital source of supply--the "bread-basket" region of the "Old Dominion" State.

Without its crops, grains, livestock and recruits rolling eastwardly toward Richmond along the connecting Virginia Central Railroad, Lee could not keep his army alive for very long near the Confederate capital. Grant knew this and was determined to see the Valley in Union hands and it's supplies out of Lee's.

Many Yankee armies had tried to gain control of the Valley during the war, but all had failed to-date. Hunter's effort would be the most serious yet, and the rolling, picturesque fields at little Piedmont, Virginia would be where either success or failure would begin.

The battle itself resulted when Confederate General "Grumble" Jones' scratch force of Valley troops attempted to stop Hunter north of the crucial Virginia Central Railroad near Waynesboro. The battle started well enough for the Rebels who fought desperately to keep back Hunter's bluecoats. Casualties were extremely high for numbers engaged, and there was much hand-to-hand action. After see-sawing back and forth for sometime, Hunter's forces were finally able to exploit a weakness in the Southern battleline to turn the tide. The result--a Confederate defeat and retreat which opened the way toward Staunton and Gordonsville and the vital Virginia Central Railroad.

Mr. Patchan's narrative of how Hunter embarked upon his campaign and met and defeated the Confederates at Piedmont is expertly chronicled with a great deal of original, primary-source research as a base. The battle itself is a riveting and detailed story, laced profusely with accounts from soldiers on both sides who who remembered it as one of "the most destructive open-field fights of the war."

The battle had its own share of controversies as well, but the author does not shy away in the least from addressing each one with convincing arguments supported by abundant and creditable sources. Many time-honored assumptions about Confederate leadership at the battle are clearly rectified, and the engagement itself is shown for the first time to be what it was--one of the nastiest small encounters of the war in that region.

Any Civil War buff who enjoys good battle narrative will not be disappointed here; one "feels" oneself in the heat of the conflict reading this text. For those interested in the Civil War in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley or Grant's Overland Campaign against Richmond, this book is an absolute "must" read.

Theodore C. Mahr, former Natl Park Historian, reviewer and author of "The Battle of Cedar Creek: Showdown in the Shenandoah, October 1--30, 1864."

For anyone who is interested in comparative aesthetics, this book is an eye-opener. Showing and illustrating esthetic connections between typefaces and various designed objects, from architecture to clothing, the author points out developments and correlations in multiple areas of twentieth-century design. Typography is not an art in itself but part of a larger visual universe.

I was attracted first to the cover, which is exceptionally stylish and elegant. Then I was intrigued by the subtitle, The Unity of Typography, Architecture, & the Design Arts. This seemed to me to imply that the book would be of interest, not only to specialists in each of those fields, but to anyone interested in the aesthetics of one's surroundings. The content lived up to expectations, melding fashion, furnishings, architecture, and graphic design in an original but approachable, beautifully organized whole. I recommend it highly.

Those who have a passion for understanding the often complex, and sometimes, ambiguous, relationship between slavery and freedom in the colonial world will be pleased to read Anthony Parent's new work - Foul Means. This well written and exhaustively researched work discusses the aforementioned dilemma in Virginia from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century. The central argument is that the planter elite in Virginia, or "great planters," established America's racial dilemma. Modifying traditional colonial arguments, the author advances the thesis that planters were not conscious of their actions. "The analysis," contends Parent, "challenges the generally accepted belief that the shift to racial slavery was an `unthinking decision' on the part of a wide variety of aspiring planters who were responding to market and labor forces." (2) According to Parent, they knew that slavery was a pivotal cog in the colonial power wheel, and they carefully and consciously leveraged all available resources to tilt the balance in their favor. As for motivation, the planters were inspired by the ever shifting economic tides that existed between the New and Old Worlds.

The author emphasizes the importance of labor in the early American south and in England. The crown initially supported servitude in the colonies as means to promote and encourage economic development in the New World, but as Parent carefully articulates, the English economists came to realize the pitfalls of this arrangement. Charles II implemented this philosophy and "promoted the slave trade to preserve English labor for England." (60) The development of the slave trade became, in essence, more economically and lawfully viable for the crown.

Continuing with a tightly weaved chronological narrative, Parent discusses the role of tobacco as an impetus for class divisions in, and outside of, colonial Virginia. The lower prices of tobacco prompted the planters to look elsewhere for economic fervor. In short, they "promoted slavery as a remedy for the troubled tobacco economy." (81) The theme that planters were opportunists who monopolized each, and all, opportunities to suppress threats is well articulated by the author, and it is evident that their calculated manipulations shaped colonial America. Furthermore, their economic well being became a euphemism for freedom and the planters became so enmeshed with "white society in 1705," that they were "prepared to preserve racial slavery to the death." (129)
Highlighting the significance of slave rebellions, Parent is one of the first scholars to illuminate that insurrections "threatened the order of Virginia society." (172) He pays particular attention to the Chesapeake Rebellion and ties it to the dual role Christianity played in the early seventeenth century. Initially viewed as a way of controlling slaves and Indians, it later became a catapult (i.e., rumors of Christianity leading to emancipation) for prompting slaves to rebel against the white Virginia society. This interesting and insightful approach, paints a clear picture of how religion and freedom were interconnected entities in colonial society.

The only somewhat troubling portion of Parent's narrative was his constant referral to the ruling class in Virginia as the "great planters." They were not "great" in the pejorative sense, and perhaps the author struggled to label them. But were they really great at all? These elitist, such as William Byrd, had a large hand in creating an environment which supported and embraced racism. The lasting consequences of their actions have colored and corrupted American society for centuries. Why not assign a more appropriate title to these men, such as "economic tsars," or "colonial corrupters?"

The complexities of Parent's narrative touch on a wide array of facets, and in sum they advance a novel paradigm in colonial history. He convincingly demonstrates how slavery emerged in early Virginia history. Academics and peers should applaud Parent for this highly readable and carefully argued account of colonial history. This work should be required reading for all history students and economic historians.

"Foul Means" is a powerful expose' of the history of slavery in the Virginia Commonwealth. Because of its importance in earlier American history, one can say, "As Virginia goes, so goes America." Thus, in many ways this book traces the course of slavery throughout the thirteen colonies and beyond and provides a moving picture of the ruthlessness involved in the enslavement of an entire race.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction .

This true adventure story will curl your toes and your hair to think that four teenage boys accomplished this feat in 1971 and lived to tell the story. The book contains biographies of all four today and their perspectives of how they look at their adventure today. A great Read...

This true story is about four teenage boys who canoe the length of Texas' Guadalupe River. The foundation for this trip actually occurred as the boys were growing up in a small, central Texas town during the 1950s and 1960s.

The author begins the story by detailing the boys' idyllic childhood - that of building cities in a 20' by 20' sandbox, only to gleefully destroy them at the end of the day; playing baseball in a vacant lot; building forts; playing hide-and-seek; playing outside all day; riding bikes all over town; playing safely in the streets; and being watched by all of the neighborhood moms.

It is with this background, that Peter, Don, James, and Mark begin their journey down a 500 mile Texas river. The author tells the story by successfully intertwining the boys' journal entries, their current recall of the journey, photos and maps, and newspaper clippings.

The boys face several obstacles, including getting their parents to approve the trip. With the eventual approval and encouragement of their parents and a three-week training program by a well-known outdoorsman, the boys begin their 18-day journey on June 7, 1971.

The reader experiences the trip day-by-day through the boys' written journal entries. Their current recollections are added when needed. We learn of the good times, such as the exploration of an old hydroelectric plant and the warm reception by most folks along the trip. We also learn of the not-so-good times, such as the constant barrage of flies, ticks, and mosquitoes; the sunburns; the threatening thunderstorms; the "crotch" problems caused by walking and maneuvering in wet clothes; and the ever-present diamondback rattlesnake and cottonmouth moccasin. Most importantly, we learn the important life lessons that these boys learned during their journey - like the difference between bravery and stupidity when confronting a cottonmouth.

In addition to relying on the boys' actual journal entries and their own words, I like the fact that the author included the boys' current biographies and perspectives on their trip. I think that any young reader would benefit from the "priceless experience in teamwork, camaraderie, and self-reliance" that this book relays - especially when they see how the experience helped to create four exceptional men.

I would recommend this book to any young reader who is looking for real-life adventure and a sense of what the world was like during the late 1950s, the 1960s, and the early 1970s. They will learn much about preparation and execution of a dream; as well as, reflecting on that dream once it has been executed. As one of the boys states in the book, "The challenges may be different but the objective is the same ... set yourself a goal and achieve it...it will be time well spent and [will] give you stories to talk about for the rest of your lives."

This book is a fairly comprehensive look at the many old and historic structures in Fredrick County, Virginia. The main thrust of the book is to examine how the different waves of immigrants, new building technologies, and external events (such as the War between the States) have changed the construction and style of both public and private buildings in this region.

There is also an extensive catalog section (with photographs) giving a short history of specific buildings not otherwise mentioned elsewhere in the book.

"History Through Architecture" is grounded in a scholarly survey of historic buildings conducted in the late 1980s, and is much more than a look at the homes of the locally rich and famous. Ms. Kalbian's writing style is quite readable and although I find it more of a reference book than literature, I read it through cover to cover.

Well written, with extensive illustrations. This work chronicles building types from the oldest structures to the latest "I don't know what I'm building", cul-de-sac clogging, atrium stretching, doctor-lawyer-indian cheif McMansions and archituctural vomitus that Ms. Kalbian kindly refers to as neo-eclectic. Read this book so Joist Hite doesn't have to spin so fast.

This is the most complete authority on the systematics of Va. fishes anywhere. Cudos to Burkehead and Jenkins on such a comprehensive atlas.

Excellent. The most comprehensive regional ichthyofaunal guide to date