People and Society Books

Only a few pages with marks; rare and barely noticeable creases.. Over all a amazing buy- should be able to resell for close to same price.

If you wish to learn America's history this is the best option available in the market.

I have been teaching U.S. history at a few colleges and universities in Chicago and its suburbs for the past five years. This is the textbook that I have invariably assigned in the time; in fact, as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the late nineties, it was the text that my mentor used in the U.S. survey class in which I apprenticed for her. I have found that my students are generally enthusiastic about this textbook's focus on "ordinary" Americans, like themselves, who, as the book reminds them, make the history of our nation, as the elites have always done, usually by going about their daily lives. Thus, Nash/Jeffrey, et al, examine the effects of some critical historical developments (such as the American Revolution; the emergence of the Market Economy during the Early Republic; the long-running intersectional coflicts over the continued existence of and the often-advocated extension of American black slavery; and, the significant role played by the self-made, visionary President Abraham Lincoln in managing the Union's ultimate victory in the U.S. Civil War) on the average Americans who participated in them. Moreover, the authors attempt to show that non-elite Americans have often actively shaped their own destinies, and not just passively allowed the powers-that-be to manipulate them (think: the Regulator Movement of North Carolina's Backcountry in 1766; the Whiskey Rebellion and Shay's Rebellion after the Revolution, both waged by average Americans out to safeguard their independence from what they perceived as governmentally-perpetrated tyranny; the manner in which many Americans, as a result of the First Great Awakening, just threw out their tradition of submission and deference to their alleged "betters"; and, the way that ordinary white laborers and farmers voted with their feet, and set out over the Appalachians in the 1780s and on to both find land and to get away from their landlords, creditors and employers in the eastern states). This particular text's unique perspective reinforces my own claim, always made to the students at our very first class-meeting each semster, that the history of the U.S. is not simply a record of the so-called illustrious achievements of elite Americans (people to whom many students have trouble relating, let alone caring much about) that must be memorized, rather, that it is also, truthfully, the collective story of all of our families.

Carl Desportes Bowman tells it like it was in his account of the decline and acculturation of the Church of the Brethren, the formerly conservative wing of the Brethren Movement.

It's readable, enjoyable, but on the whole a very sad story.

As it becomes more and more difficult to provide information to those who desire it in regards to brethren history, Bowman has done a service to the Brethren movement. That he does not champion it but rather observes it is of great service. As one who traces my religious heritage through this body, i am grateful to Bowmam for the scholarly work which also manages to be an easy read. This book is for anyone with a great desire to understand the Brethren movement, it's roots, and its divisions.

Bowman presents good information which is not easily found in the Brethren History Books. However, when charting the demise of the Brethren Movement, he identifies the loss of peculiarness as the reason the group lost its influence. While he documents the increase of bureaucratic baggage to the denomination and the abandonment of the original simplicity of the group, he does not see this as causal in the group loosing its original impact. He does not hedge or create heros as other Brethren history works tend to do, which is a definite value to this work.

This outstanding book is not just about a make of cars which is represented in most museum collections. It is about the invention of the automobile industry. A compelling story well told.

Great fun to read about an industrial manufacturer located 'way off' the main path of industrial America -- in Upstate NY! I worked @ GMC Truck & Coach in 1966 so I am fascinated with auto/truck assembly-line detail (several pictures of the inside of the factory in Syracuse). But a large part of the book is devoted to the individuals who ran the firm as well as interviews with lowliest shop floor seasonal workers. The company survived and briefly thrived in a hostile environment -- geographically & economically. I would have loved to see photos included of the car's laminated wood frame! Also, toward the 1930's when they used bodies from Reo (in Lansing Mi) was a real inspiration in 'modular assembly'!

Mr. Powell has done an outstanding job to research and record so many fascinating aspects of the permutations of the company founded by H.H. Franklin.

This book holds your interest throughout its 400+ pages, and includes personal interviews with former employees who were part of the Franklin Automobile Company.

As President of The H.H. Franklin Club, Inc., I applaud Mr. Powell for his in-depth research, and encourage anyone interested in the Franklin Automobile and how early automobile companies were formed to read this book.

The Franklin automobile was produced in Syracuse, NY, from 1902 to 1934. They were the most successful air-cooled auto in US history!

Check it out!

This is a fairly good book on the subject of Yoruba masks and drumming. Contains good pictures of masks (Gelede) and is very informative with regards to ceremonies performed at the Gelede.

Is recommended reading for any of the followers of the Yoruba religion and to students as well.

I would have liked to have seen a more in depth review of the ceremonies and religious aspects of the Gelede, therefore I have not rated it a 5 Star.

Nonetheless, I would still read it all over again !

Quite frankly I think every student of Yoruba culture should own this book. While Gelede is the central object of study, the books touches on multiple aspects Yoruba and Orisa spirituality. The amount of information is so overwhelming that you will literally have to read it over and over again.

I do recommend this nice book to all those engaged in the practice of the Yoruba cult. The author gives a good persp- ective of what is behind the cerimony. Mo juba Iyami Osoronga!

The author, a late monument of the Jewish Enlightenment, has given us a vividly conceived and vividly written potpourri of Jerusalem realities. All aspects of the city's history are considered, and there is an especially well-conceived and concise run-down of traditional Arab life in Jerusalem. Everyone, including Black Hebrews and tiny cults from the Far East, have a place here, in the modernity of modern Jerusalem. But there's no doubt about who's in charge, and who the city belongs to. Millgram sees Jerusalem as a Jewish place, with all others accepted, as long as they remain subordinate. I once heard someone, I think Gershom Gorenberg, say that the fundamentalist Protestants of America view the Jews who currently hold HaAretz, prior to the Rapture, as something like "hobbits". The author's view of the Arabs is a bit like that.
Highly recommended as an educated and humane introduction to historical Jerusalem, as long as you keep in mind that an honest Zionist is your guide.

Rabbi Milgram was a devoted Jewish scholar and educator. His great knowledge and love of the City is everywhere present in these pages.
There are so many different was of seeing the Holy City. This work provides an excellent look at some of them.

This book has plenty of things to say about Jerusalem. As the author says, these are "curiosities" not "trivia."

We find out why Jerusalem became a center for Judaism but not for Christendom or Islam. We learn about the Crusades. About the Temple Mount, the Tower of David, and the Siloam and Bethesda Pools. And about holy places of the Jews, Christians and Moslems.

There is a section on the British in Jerusalem, which starts with Lord Palmerston's 1839 directive to the British Consul to exert friendly protection to all Jerusalem Jews, whether they be British subjects or not. It also tells of the increasing British antagonism to the Jews in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

There is also a chapter about the divided Jerusalem of 1948 to 1967, and Jordanian rule in the Eastern portion, followed by the reuniting of the city in 1967.

Overall, it is a good read about Israel's capital city.

I bought this as a spur of the moment gift for a friend who is Ojibwa and he said it was "nice....but". Basically to cut a long story short, he thought it "westernized" and a shame that it did not tell the stories in a more traditional way.

This book is written in such a way to document the historical value and so interestingly you don't even realize you are learing all along the way. I found the book accurate as to the stories as I remember the old people telling them.

Basil Johnson is a master story teller and writer. The legends are all deeply meaningful. He really transmits the spirit of the Anishinaubae in a vivid way. I hope he writes down a lot more of these haunting legends and that his hopes for the recovery of the Anishinaubae language and cultural traditions come to full realization.

The Matachines Dance is a fascinating part of life in New Mexico; it's a dance (performed annually in various parishes and pueblos) that seems to draw equally from European and native cultures, so much so that today it's performed with variations by both Hispanic Catholics and native Puebloans.
This book deals well with the traditional dances, and is especially nice to have if you're interested in the old culture of New Mexico's Sandia Mountains. The book talks about Carnuel, Tijeras, San Antonio, and San Antonito, all unique towns of the Sandias.
It's fairly well written, if dense at times, and I'm glad it exists, and happy to own it.

I picked up this book for two reasons: (1) I'd recently seen the Matachines performed, first by a Hispanic troupe from El Rancho, NM, and then at Jemez Pueblo, which presents both Spanish and Indian versions; (2) my Ph.D. dissertation was on medieval drama and the relationship between its themes and major societal concerns. This study answered many questions I had about the origins and history of the dance; in addition, her exposition of the meanings it has to the different groups who perform it was well-researched and fascinating. Starting with the same basic material, and incorporating many of the same elements (costumes, dance steps, tunes, etc.), Hispanic and Native American people living within a few miles of each other have used the dance to express very different concerns: pride in the Spanish conquest on the one hand, and ambivalence about it on the other. Rodriguez is evenhanded and objective, and presents the various dancers' points of view without gratuitious comment; her descriptions of the styles of different performing groups are vivid and clear. This is a thoroughly scholarly book, but readable too, and the photographs are well chosen.

Rodriguez looks at the Matachines dance as it is performed in two areas along the U.S./Mexico border. She discusses at great length the different structures, presentations, and meanings of this ritual procession dance to the people of these two areas, as well as examinig the Matachines' cultural background. Other books on Matachines contain similar information, but most stop short of the depth and precision of Rodriguez's work. Matachines is an old and extremely complex art form, and Rodriquez successfully tackles the task of discussing days' worth of variations in costume, execution, characterization, and finally the attitudes and beliefs of individuals in both communities towards their cultural dance. The many photographs work well to demonstrate and enhance Rodriguez's findings.

Russell Kirk (1918-1994) was a man of letters and a leader among traditional conservative writers and commentators. From his village home in Mecosta, Michigan he turned out scores of books, essays, articles and reviews on the history of political philosophy and on contemporary education, literary criticism, social/cultural criticism and economics. He even wrote short stories and novels in the gothic--ghost story genre. James E. Person, Jr., author of this volume, presents a brief biographical summary of Kirk's life and then discusses the various facets of Kirk's writings and philosophy. This volume should serve as an especially good introduction for those unfamiliar with Kirk. For those, such as myself, who have read
some of Kirk's books and other writings, it offers a good perspective on the entire Kirk canon. Those readers who are well acquainted with Kirk and his work can find here a helpful review. It includes a selected bibliography of Kirk's main writings and also a selected bibliography of other sources Person used in preparing this study of Kirk.

Anyone who is interested in conservatism must read this biography of the man who articulated the conservative philosophy in post WWII America.

This book is well written, well researched and is a good read.

Russell Kirk (1918-1994) was probably the premier conservative "man of letters" in 20th century America. He first gained national attention in 1953 with his publication of the CONSERVATIVE MIND. Kirk was the author of a large number of works, including history, literary criticism, cultural analysis, fiction, and even an economics textbook.

A central problem with understanding Kirk is the somewhat opaque nature of his writings. While it's easy to see what Kirk is against, it isn't always easy to see why, or what his solution to current political and cultural problems was. Perhaps because of this, Kirk is seldom quoted these days, and there hasn't been much in the way of secondary studies on his thought.

James Person has written a reliable overview of Kirk's thought (which also contains a modest biography of sorts). Person organizes this work thematically, hitting on the key areas of Kirk's thought (including discussions of his fiction, as well). My only gripe is that the book could have used a bit more editing. Sentences tend to drag on, and some of the writing is a bit "chatty" for a scholarly work. (Mr. Person hasn't heard of Orwell's rule about not using two words when one will do.)

In light of the current "conservative wars" I found portions of this book (published in 1999) quite interesting. I didn't know that Kirk's last foray into politics was in 1992 when he was chairman of Pat Buchanan's Michigan campaign. It's not surprising that Kirk is ignored by the neocon nitwits who run the conservative movement today. There is also an interesting story about how Kirk was attacked by certain Straussian neocons concerning his criticisms of Lincoln. Although Kirk disagreed with much of Lincoln's agenda, he called Lincoln a "conservative" and a "great man." Much to the consternation of the neocons, anything less than total support of King Abraham wasn't good enough.

Good resource for anyone interested in history, particularly the connection between earl Scottish settlers and their interaction with Native Americans. The book appears well documented and thorough, although a bit slow to read.

Scottish Highlanders, Indian Peoples is a loving undertaking to document and treasure the dual heritage of a familial group of people descended from Angus McDonald (who was Scottish) and Catherine McDonald, who was half Nez Perce and part Mohawk. The author describes his revised purpose in writing this book as follows: "This book was begun in the naive conviction that it would have an unrelievedly happy ending. Its comparisons between the modern Scottish Highlands and the modern Flathead Reservation, it was anticipated, would be such as to allow the book's closing paragraphs to contend that Highlanders and Indians, two otherwise disparate peoples linked by the McDonald family, are today overcoming the legacies of their respective pasts in ways which will allow both Highlanders and Indians to reinvigorate their cultures, their languages and much else besides. That may still happen. But to spend even a few days on the Flathead Reservation is quickly to discover that the task of linguistic renewal - to take a single example of the many such distinctions which have clearly to be made - is enormously more daunting here than in the Scottish Highlands...(p. 194)." The reality of the poverty of the inhabitants of the Flathead Reservation hits the author and the reader hard indeed. Nevertheless, after reading the history, which includes many moments of less than glorious deeds of the ancestors, one can only concur with the Salish speaker quoted by the author:"We have a saying...that as long as our songs are sung our people will remain here. And our songs are being sung today more than they have been sung for many years (p. 194)." Though the prose style of Mr. Hunter is sometimes tedious to untangle, his text is worth reading. Scottish Highlanders, Indian Peoples will appeal to special interest adult audiences both amateur and academic.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

Dr. James Hunter, one of Scotland's most respected younger historians, recounts here the story of the MacDonalds of Western Montana -- a family whose roots run deep on two continents and among two seemingly disparate peoples: the Nez Perce of Oregon and Idaho's great inland plateau and one of the most legendary clans of the Scottish highlands. On one level, this is a first-class genealogical detective story, with plenty of local color. But it is much more than that, for what brings these two far-removed pasts together is not only the mingled blood of today's Montana MacDonalds, but the striking and, in many respects, tragic parallels in their people's histories. Just as every schoolchild in Scotland knows the dark tale of the MacDonalds' massacre at Glencoe, and their struggle to survive and maintain their identity and dignity in the aftermath, so Americans are haunted by the uprooting and dispossession of the Nez Perce and their legendary leader Chief Joseph. Those par! ! allels strike us as we readers see the MacDonalds' saga unfold, and they raise for us fundamental questions about human nature and the forces that shape history. Jim Hunter's work in both print and broadcasting, which is well-known in Britain, achieves that rare balance between sound scholarship and great popular appeal. He is a meticulous researcher, yet his interests are first and foremost human ones, and the stories he tells best are always those of common folk. The fact that this book has been a best-seller in Scotland while also earning critical acclaim shows how well he succeeds at this delicate balancing act. For North Americans with an interest in genuine flesh-and-blood Scottish history, not the bogus romanticized article that features prominently in so many clan gatherings and Scottish games [after all, how many Scots-Americans' ancestors were REALLY lairds and ladies living grandly in castles???], this book will prove very satisfying indeed. We can be thankful that ! ! the Montana State Historical Society has now made it availa! ble to North American readers. Aye, it's a fine work, and at a bargain price to boot!

you can get videos that match this book by the author! Details available from PO Box 110 Faversham. Kent. ME13 9QA. England

You cannot learn Tai Chi from a book, but this book is a good supplement. It contains body positions with emphasis on hands and stepping diagrams for the Ching style. If you cannot get to a teacher, use it with Terry Dunn's video of the Yang Short Form. It is an exact match.

If you are crazy enough to try and learn Tai Chi from a book, this is the one to use. Big photographs on every page, footwork diagrams, etc.