Social Studies Books

I thought this book was pretty cool becouse it informed me with new infromation about the book such as it had 2 sister ships about the same size as The olimpic and Britantic. And it told me that there was a huge dock that it had to be made in and theat it could reach 30 knots, one of the fastes of its time. Over all I thought it was a pretty cool book.

I love this book it is very good!!! Nice pictures..they are in black and white.. Alot of nice information too!!!

This is a beautiful book. the pictures are outstanding & the information is total. It is a book you will keep out on the table in sight.

Very good. This book yells out"Hey,read me!". I would recommend this book to you. It has very good pictures that you would love.

In the trade, we refer to this as a book "printed as a remainder," i.e. a book intended to be sold inexpensively. But for an inexpensive book, Leo Marriott's "Titanic" is well worth having. Its selection of photographs is excellent and include real rarities like early construction photos of Olympic (it's worth noting here that a lot of the pictures printed as being of the Titanic, especially shots of her interior and many construction shots, are actually of Olympic. The reason is simple; Olympic was available for photography a lot longer than her sister ship was!), many of the famous Father Browne photographs (Browne, at the time in the novitiate and later a Jesuit priest, travelled from Southhampton to Queenstown on the maiden voyage and snapped away the entire time; Cameron paid tribute to one of his photos in his movie), and shots of the interior of an English hotel which is furnished with interiors torn out of the Olympic when she was broken up. Marriott also discusses the filmography of the Titanic disaster. Ignore the occasional typos; the book is well worth the price.

This is another great book by a terrific author. Daniel Helminiak has tackled life and its meaning from every angle and come up with wonderful insights and perceptions. After reading The Transcended Christian I felt enlightened, uplifted, and challenged. I recommend the book to anyone whose spirit is hungry for greater fulfillment.

As a Catholic with nineteen years of formal Catholic education and one who has worked extensively within the church, I found this book to be inspiring, encouraging and deeply moving. Daniel gives voice to my own experience of God and life. His insights are at once affirming and challenging. The Transcended Christian is a book that begs to be shared and would make a terrific basis for a discussion group.

Once again, Daniel has once again boldly told the story which needs to be proclaimed from the housetops. For anyone who wishes to embark on a serious journey of Christian faith maturity, this is a must-read, along with his other wonderful book (which has saved the lives of many), What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality. In this latest book, he unflinchingly states what has been on the minds of many sincere Catholic (and other) Christians who love the Church but wish to go deeper into the true message of Jesus, without the unnecessary layers of tired, outdated dogma with which the institutional church has burdened the Faithful. This book, as with his other writings, can certainly help one in the journey of, as he writes, "Achieving deep spiritual peace, knowng the mind of Christ, arriving at psychological and Christian maturity . . . ." In other words, he challenges all of us to "grow up!"

Daniel Helminiak's book The Transcended Christian was the right book for me at the right time. I have been struggling for years, trying to match faith with reason in Fundamentalist America, and this book did it. It isn't easy being Catholic, liberal, and a scientist; however, Daniel's calm, rational, warm, and earthy presentation of what it means to be a modern Christian, without pompous dogma and medieval magic, has saved my faith. It is an encouraging night light for those of us experiencing a dark night of the soul.

"The Transcended Christian" is one of the most important books I've read. It gives me a new sense of what church really means, a new perspective in the way I approach old beliefs, and a hope for the church and the world tomorrow.The two distinguishing characteristics of the book are honesty and clarity. The honesty is brutal and necessary. The clarity is total and all-pervading. Several quotes from Helminiak himself illustrate this."Spirituality has less to do with church and prayer and more to do with daily living.""Whether God is Trinity or not, the world still goes on and we are left to live in it.""Whether Jesus was truly God or not, we still need to live virtuous lives, and Jesus still provides a powerful example."As a lover of rich liturgy, I appreciate that Helminiak is not telling us to stop singing the hymns we know and love. But he is telling us to be aware of the liturgy of daily living. When we are conscious that the Heavenly Bread is on the altar and also in the pews in us and among us and our neighbors, we must get on with our daily lives, using this spiritual truth to love and respect believer and non-believer alike. Helminiak shows there is a spiritual wisdom that is ever the same ultimately for all religions and for those who do not believe at all. Once we get past the histories, the legends and the mythologies, we can share this wisdom with those who believe like us, differently from us, or not at all.There are many treasures in this book. I was particularly impressed with the profound meaning of "Body of Christ" which Helminiak develops and also with his ideas surrounding the Holy Spirit. I understand that when all is said and done the Holy Mysteries are still holy and still mysteries. But I have a new sense of where I am going with them in this world, here and now. I did not rush through this book, but read it slowly and thoughtfully. It was a beautiful and luminous journey.

Much of the time reading books from professional book publishers are like running through mud--lots of hard work and very tiring. Transgender Emergence is packed with excellent information that is written in an accessible style. I've learned a great deal and feel comfortable recommending the book to clients who are struggling with gender issues, including transgender and intersex.

This book is outstanding in every respect. The cover, however, I feel may unfortunately narrow its readership - "Therapeutic Guidelines for Working with Gender-Variant People and Their Families." I am a lay person who is fairly well read on the subject matter and I find that this book would valuable for anyone to read. It has the potential to help emancipate the transgendered population that is still stigmatized and oppressed by the medical profession and society including religion and politics. It certainly should be required reading for policy makers in the government, the legal profession, the justice system, human resource personnel, etc. The book is not only well researched and well written, it is easily understandable by anyone, meaning that no background in the field of psychiatry is required to be able to appreciate the material. The book is very up-to-date (2004). The Publisher would do well to advertise this book to a wider audience.

Lev's "Transgender Emergence" provides the most comprehensive outline and review of empirical literature pertaining to the assessment, treatment, and understanding of transgendered individuals to date. Any mental health professional working with the GLBT population MUST add this to their collection, as well as, provide Lev's work as psychoeducational therapy to patients and their significant others. Additionally, psychologists working in forensic populations or with issues of sexuality should review this book for an overview of the etiology, epidemiology,theoretical understandings, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of patients presenting with gender identity disorders or dysphoria.

Lev's work is a masterpiece and should be required by MA, PsyD, and PhD programs in diversity training. It provides a non-judgemental, well-written, and well-researched voice to a population which has been largely ignored by current literature and funding. I found "Transgender Emergence" phenomenally useful in researching and developing a model of best care practices for male to female transsexual inmates. Bravo Arlene!

Lev compiles a terrific anthology on working with transgender clients. Whether you are a health professional or mental health professional, Transgender Emergence offers the information and skills to be successful with transgender clients. This is a must-have if you work directly with this population.
-Brad Baranowski
Counseling Intern

I don't know what's more depressing - finally reading this book or reading all the full-starred reviews where everyone conflates sexual orientation with sexual identity.

This book is a basic introduction to the concept of trans identities. It has some clinical models, some heartfelt anecdotes and a lot of misinformation that perpetuates stereotypes and therefore violence. Like the ridiculous concept that all transmen were once butch lesbians. The author has taken one person's experience and extrapolated that to be all-encompassing. It limits horrifically what it means to have a trans identity and I can only hope that others will publish different experiences so that we are closer to seeing a more complex picture.

That said, it's better than what else is out there for care providers. If this excites people to know that transfolk exist and we don't as a general rule go about raping women and murdering babies, then that's a step in the right direction. Why we teach people to think different means dangerous and create a need for books that are way too basic is a bigger question and not one this book addresses.

It's ENDA again. And what happened prior to 1973 when homosexuality was still in the DSM as a pathology. It's a long slow road to make it into the common vernacular and to get through the checkout line without a snicker or an unwelcome comment or worse from an unaffected party. If you need hand-holding, this is your book. If you're ready for more comprehensive thought, read Whipping Girl by Julia Serano. It's got more meat without the pretty diagrams.

From a 10 year old girl: I loved this book! It was nice reading about how other girls live. It gives me courage to tell people about me and my life - and to write my own story.

I thought this was a wonderful, well thought out book. I really liked how it was girls,some my age, who helped and or had a hard trial, that they pulled through and have a great true story to tell. Make sure to get it!!!

This was an awesome book! I can't recommend it enough. The true stories inspire you to believe in yourself. If you need a break from fiction, try this book of TRUE stories that happened to real girls! You will laugh, cry, and say "I can't believe that actually happened!" Try it for yourself! You'll be glad you did!

I became so inspired by this book that I'm considering volunteering for a few organizations this summer. The stories that these girls shared was amazing. I even saw one of the girl's stories on TV in the news about a month ago! They prove to you how small things can make a big difference. They started small, and many got famous for what they did, inspiring many other girls to follow in their footsteps. Something as simple as reading to a group of kids in a hospital makes a huge difference, and it will always delight you to see smiles brighten up their faces. :v)

hi its me again I got that book 2 days ago and this is one of my favorite books they have sad,funny,happy, and scary storys there so good that I read this book about 5 to 6 times a day I recomend this book to tweens and preteens. have a nice day

This book will blow your mind. Quinones is able to totally take you into worlds rarely heard about before. Who knew there was a thriving basketball hotbed in Oaxaca that has been transported to LA? The whole genre of narcocorridos (basically, traditional Mexican "country" [ranchero] music with a gangsta slant) started in LA, too.

The topics of lynchings in rural Mexico, the popularity of telenovelas at home and in Eastern Europe(?) and the religious cult at Neuva Jerusalen are all so fascinating and far beyond anything anyone has probably imagined Mexico to be.

He has an inate ability to dig up and find the most fascinating stories in the most out-of-the-way places yet also show how they often are a microcosmic reflection of how Mexican society operates in general.

The question is: When is Sam Quinones going to compile a Tales 2?

IN MANY OF THE STATEMENTS THAT I READ I SEEN THAT MANY SAID A LOT ABOUT THE WRITTER WELL WE ALL HAVE MANY OPINIONS I PERSONALLY HAVE MY OWN OPINION I THINK IS ONE MY GREAT BOOKS THAT I HAVE TO READ IN MY FREE TIME LIKE SCHOOL OR JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE BUT JUST WANTED TO ADD THAT I LOVE CHALINO AS THE PERSON HE WAS A WHILE BACK WITH HIS MUSIC I ADMIRE HIM AS A FATHER AND I AM IN LOVE WITH HIS SON 4-SHO!!!

Another reviewer pointed out that Quinones' accounts are "researched", and this is true; he's done what he needed to do to find his facts. But I would add that the overwhelming note, for me, is that the man has "been there". I heard about "True Tales" from a reviewer of Elijah Wald's "Narcocorrido", and would now agree with that reviewer that the Quinones piece on Chalino Sanchez tells us a lot more about his world than Wald's book, valuable but a bit touristy, a bit arch, and a bit academic. There is an immediacy in these chapters by Quinones, of grittiness, suffering, delusion, terror, helplessness, of all the qualities of the many Mexicans Quinones met and listened to. His description of the lynching is the most direct, realistic and frightening I've ever read; this can happen anywhere, anytime. These stories are unadorned realities of Mexico and the Border, and the entire world as well.
As Edward Abbey said, of the same country, "this is the real world, muchachos, and you are in it."

It is clear from the book there is more than one Mexico. It's not what you think. The border is a focus but hardly all. Gangs are a focus. The book raises a major question. Is Mexico changing and how?Quinones presents many portraits from gangbanger singer Chalino Sanchez to the dead women of Juarez. Each sketch adds a different and fascinating dimension to a complex perception of what Mexico is. No other book presents that plurality as well. The book is a page turner, a fast paced quick read. It is not, however, superficial but in-depth coverage. It is fascinating.

This book is fantastic. I don't often actually buy non-fiction because I usually don't plan to re-read it. This is a rare exception. Quinones is 1st & foremost a great storyteller. You'd hardly notice that it's all true if it weren't for the fact that these tales are simply too good to be fiction. Quinones has a knack for noticing the seemingly invisible. The best example being the tale of Chalino Sanchez (who graces the cover). How could someone who completely misses the U.S. radar of popular culture become a folk hero and single-handedly create a musical genre selling millions of copies of albums in the process & then having at least 1,500 songs written about him? Quinones manages to make it sound perfectly believable. If you're anything like me you'll be mesmerized by these essays.

Well written and interesting, but not light reading for the average reader without a background in anthropology. Still, you will probably learn a lot, if you skip over the latin.

This book is an excellent, reasoned discourse on the evidence chain and the theories behind why large mammals in North America went extinct all at the same time - about 12,500 years ago. Before I read this book I had heard of the popular theories of why the north american megafauna went extinct, but had not heard which theory was most likely. Martin makes clear that the overkill theory has the greatest logical and evidentiary support.

it's important in science to keep an open mind about causes. Recently, more work has been done on an ash layer in the geologic record that suggests a great fire or possible comet explosion that may have occurred around the time of the megafauna extinctions in north america. I can believe that such an event had a contributing impact. After reading this book though, there is no question in my mind that n. american megafauna would have survived even a great fire or comet blast so long as they were not also subject to human induced causes.

The other great theories for ice age mammal extinction are referred to as 'overill', for disease-related explanations, and 'overchill', for cold climate explanations. Martin skillfully and convincingly refutes these theories for their unsound logic and lack of evidence.

It is clear to me now that the reason for this debate between overkill, overill, and overchill persists only because the evidentiary chain is not clearly in favor enough of any one of the 3. But the preponderance of evidence, and the soundest reasoning, favors overkill by at least a 10-1 compared to overill or overchill. I would expect future archaeological and paleontological discoveries to add to the evidence supporting overkill.

One final note: I am now a huge supporter of the Pleistocene park concept, and am hopeful that humans are able to rescue the remaining African and Asian megafauna from extinction with park reserves in Siberia and the Americas. I can envision now a park in Texas with asian elephants replacing mammoths, African or Asian lions once again bringing the lost American lion back to life, camels returning to their evolutionary American origins, wild horse herds, introduced threatened African or Asian ungulate species to stand in for their recently extinct American cousins, cheetahs returning, and even threatened tigers getting a second life as the replacement for now-extinct scimitar and saber tooth cats. I leave it to a zoologist to figure out how to replace a giant ground sloth, or even a Shasta ground sloth.

Other pleistocene park possibilities exist in other parts of the world. South america could easily see a return of elephants. The remaining ancestor of the short faced bear, which is the South American spectacled bear, is itself threatened and could use a reserve somewhere else in the world.

Enjoy this book!

Paul Martin makes a strong arguement for human caused extinctions of ice-age mammals including the mammoths through human overkill hunting behavior. Insted of presenting an idea without support, Martin provides extensive documentation to support his position. However, as intriguing as his ideas about human involvement in the loss of ice-age and post ice-age mammals are, it is difficult to believe that humans spread to every nook and cranny of north, central and south America causing the extinction of every large mammal grouping present. Questions also arise regarding the type of animal they might have hunted versus other available animals. Why would early humans decide to hunt to extinction the giant bison when smaller and presumably less dangerous bison were available? Why would they possibly hunt the American lion, sabertooth tiger or dire wolves when there was, according to Martin, a wealth of animals available for food, skins and bone? Obviously, something happened toward the end of the last advance of continental ice sheets and the early peopling of the Americas, but I do not believe overkill is the sole cause of the disappearance of large mammals of the Americas. A combination of factors including human most likely is the cause of their loss.

This is one of those books that may jolt the conventional wisdom implanted in your brain, especially if you are an environmentalist. First the negative...I thought the first 5 chapters, about one-half, of this book to be a bit boring, telling me more about sloth dung than I really wanted to know. But then the book picked up -- way up -- in interest.

The true "natural" environment of the United States, in Martin's view, existed 13,000 years ago before man got here and that it has been out of balance since. Martin comes down strong on the side that human beings were responsible for the extinction of many large mammals in the Americas about 13,000 years ago and his argument is persuasive. He also makes a strong case that human beings have lived in the Americas for little more than 13,000 years. This is a hot-button issue among archaeologists, but Martin's point is: if the Indians were here more than 13,000 years ago where are the signs of their presence? Not many, if any, have been found in a hundred years of looking.

His most interesting point and new to me was his proposals to re-people (wrong word, maybe "re-animate"?) the New World with representatives of the large mammals that became extinct. For example, why is that our government is trying to kill off the burros and wild horses in national parks? Horses originated in the Americas; they became extinct about 13,000 years ago. Why not allow them to reestablish themselves as a native species?

And then he really gets off on a speculative tangent, "rewilding America." Camels and Llamas lived in the United States until 13,000 thousand years ago; why not reintroduce them as native, wild species. Similarly rhinocerous, elephant, lion, tiger and other mammal species. To be sure the species of the mammals that became extinct are not exactly the same species that now live -- but close enough, in his opinion. An Asian elephant, he says, is closer genetically to extinct mammoths than it is to the African elephant.

Smallchief

Twilight Of The Mammoths by Paul S. Martin is a book I wanted to read because I wanted to see what the author had to say about the overkill idea. That Ice Age extinctions were caused by human invasion of the New World and not by germs and sudden change in the climate.
I have to say he did a good job not only of explaining and defending his hypothesis but at pointing out the weak points in the other theories of how the mass extinctions of the megamammals came about. The book is a solid read but somewhat dry. Lots of data on kill sites, pollen, climate changes and lots of dung.
He also takes a few chapters to talk about the idea rewilding the New World. In some ways that has already been going on so we may wish to take a controlling hand in the process.
Published in 2005 the information is up-to-date and hard to argue with. But who knows what will be discovered in the years to come?

I read excerpts of Eleanor Clift's "Two Weeks of Like" in Newsweek, where she's been a contributor for a number of years. Those selected well-written passages about a very sensitive event - the death from kidney cancer of her husband, Cleveland Plains Dealer Washington correspondent, Tom Brazaitis - made me seek out her book in hardcover. The work as a whole stands up to the strength of the Newsweek excerpts. The operative word in Clift's work is "juxtaposition" - the dignity with which Brazaitis spends his final days vs. how Terry Schiavo spends hers. Clift never comes out and editorializes about Schiavo's treatment, but by contrasting that experience vs. her huband's, she makes her point passively but no less passionately.

At the very least, anyone reading this book will surely react by wanting to have living wills and medical powers of attorney in proper legal order.

Eleanor Clift weaves personal revelations, interesting sidebars and her keen political insight from beginning to end in this engrossing memoir--it is a valuable tool for anyone dealing with the loss of a love.

Eleanor Clift has written a very thought-provoking book about her husband's death from cancer and its contrast with the very public controversy about Terri Schiavo's life and death at the same time. Questions about how we die and the right to choose that option in the face of terminal disease or being in a vegatative state are addressed. The courage shown by the terminally ill person and his or her spouse and loved ones is impressive. Eleanor Clift has always impressed me as a very caring and intelligent person and this book confirms that impression. A difficult subject treated very compassionately.

The other reviewers will speak better to the great qualities of this book, so I'll echo the best of them - a wonderful read that personalizes a national story with such heartbreaking and informative reporting that truly illuminates the theme that we are a country founded on questions in search of answers. A must read for any student of our political system as well as an enlightening introduction into the culture of hospice care. One of the most important memoirs published this year.

I wanted very much to like this book, and I did--but only somewhat.

The Terri Schiavo material began to seem like filler to me and made me lose interest in the rest of the book. I followed the Schiavo case rather closely when it was in the news, and I didn't buy this book expecting more re-hash of it--but that's what I got.

Reading this book is like eavesdropping on a family feud that is too interesting to turn away from, but also a little embarrassing. It would be easy to dismiss Bo Yang as a dyspeptic crank, if it were not for the 9 years he spent in prison for writing what he believed to be true. He was not writing for a Western audience, and he did not claim to present a fair or balanced view of Chinese culture. Let other writers praise the virtues of the culture--he wanted to challenge his countrymen to be better.

I read the Chinese version of this book 'Ugly Chinaman...'. I think and I do agree that certain points that Bo Yang had raised were true; such as talking loud in public, spitting in public, all those obnoxious behaviors, etc.

I once saw a Western guy (quite young, twenty something may be) spit in public in Hong Kong. He probably thought this was a normal thing to do so he was just following the culture here.

It was quite true that we cared about ethics inside the house, but very selfish once stepped out, as well as we're concerned about moral values. Whereas, the Western culture was just the opposite, they cared about people outside the house, but very cold with family members, parents, etc.

However, we are changing; we try to take into consideration of both because with better education from schools and the outside world, we try to be more conscientious about people around us and things all over the world. We want our future generations to take the world as one, no racists, discrimination, and best ever selfless.

Bo Yang did raise the problems we had in the past. But I am sure he also agrees that people in China are changing for the better. I think he, or we, never thought that these days, the top guys in the communist party are willing to open the door for trades and other things; though there are still lots of room for improvement. May be another 50 to 100 years we will be more objective, more open-minded, more advanced, more willing to accept objections, different points of views, etc.

Why do dictators, communists, crazies, psychos like Red commies in North Korea, ex-USSR, North Korea or Cuban dictator for life, Fidel Castro have an obsession with controlling the press or shutting down newspapers.

Does it have something to do with with Telling the Truth?

Bo Yang himself spent years in prison for criticizing the incompetent-idiot chiang kai-shek.

Why does China have the most elaborate Internet firewall in the world.

Does it have to do with fear of the Truth?

Bo Yang risk his own life and limb to write this book.

"The Ugly Chinaman" along with "The Private Life of Chairman Mao" is two of the most important books of the 20th. century. Both are censored in China. Why do they have censorship. Because they are afraid of the people knowing the Truth.

Do a search on Amazon. There is a book called the "Ugly American" and "Ugly Japanese" and now the "Ugly Chinaman".
All this is about telling the Truth.

True, there "some" who are Ugly American, Ugly Japanese and some Ugly Chinaman. Not everyone can be an Angel.

The many facets of Ugly Chinese culture are simply True. Spitting, talking loud in public, bragging are all cultural traits from the feudal distant past.

The Worst feudal-primative cultural trait is "dishonesty". The inability to be honeset and tell the Truth. This is a good book for Westerners and Chinese alike to read as China becomes an economic power.

As anyone who has done business with the Chinese. You just cannot "Trust" anything they say. Hence, without Trust, Honesty, Truth, it is impossible to do business in the long-term.

For any nation to be modern, advanced civilized, it must be open to understand what is: right-wrong, good-bad, feudal-modern, truth-lies, real-fraud.

"The Ugly Chianman" is a great book and must-read. It will be a classic for now and the future. These books are good for bull-sessions.

It is not a Physics books about physical laws for all times and all places. Cultures evolve over times. Virtually all cultures can be looked at with the half-half prism. Half-good, half-bad. Just as there are many aspects of Western society that are bad, there are many that are bad or evil.

It the difference between adults and little children. The ability to tell the difference between right-wrong, true-false, good-bad, good-ugly, truth-lies, truth-fraud.

That's what this book is all about. It's a starting poing for China and the Chinese to discuss what is good-bad, good-ugly, true-false, right-wrong about this culture or any culture.

It has been a classic, past and future. This is must-read and must-buy of a major commentary about the Truth and nothing but the Truth.

First of all let me gravely announce the obituary of the author Bo Yang:

Bo Yang died in hospital on 29th April 2008 of pneumonia complications at the ripe age of 88, at 1:10AM Taiwan local time (GMT+9) in Sindien City, Taiwan. He will be sadly missed.

I rate and recommend Bo Yang's "The Ugly Chinaman" highly, indeed second only to the Bible alone.

Each and every individual Chinese and all others who have any exposure or connection to the Chinese culture should read it at least THRICE. Have some background knowledge on Chinese history, open up your mind with a rational thinking . . . and you will actually WANT to read it over and over again. You will then wonder why Confucius has been regarded for millennia as the greatest Chinese philosopher ever. Now we have one greater than Confucius by leaps and bounds - Bo Yang.

Bo Yang was stating the grim fact that (at least part of) the Chinese culture has long rotten. So rotten that generations after generations of Chinese people under it are so much influenced that they have lost their own identities, lost their individual ways of thinking, lost their abilities to judge, lost the power to unite, and ultimately, lost their very own dignities.

He further points out the saddest and most appalling thing under this rotten culture: that any individual who dares to show his individual way of thinking or his ability to judge would be treated as an outcast, a "cultural traitor", a pariah of society, which, in ancient China, could be punishable by imprisonment of arbitrary periods. Or even death.

The author was NOT attacking the Chinese people in general. He pointed out that if the Chinese were to unite, the nation could well emerge to be the world's strongest and most sophisticated - but, alas, the Chinese could never unite! He was attacking those who oppress or otherwise take advantage of other fellow Chinese people under the guise of "Chinese culture" - in other words, those who use the (rotten) Chinese culture for their own interests but at the expense of others'.

The hypocrisy, the vanity, the slavish, servile characters, the noisiness, the greed for power (especially political power), the cruelty unleashed in order to achieve and maintain such power . . . ugh, all the vile scums, the dark qualities and the sinister aspects of the Chinese culture unveiled at Bo Yang's most eloquent flick of a pen. What a delight, and what a revelation on reading and repeatedly reading it!

All because the author was challenging us - the ethnic Chinese - to jump out of the rotten culture and improve on ourselves as a people, as a race, as a nation.

I read the chinese version and being a "chinese" who lived in a non-chinese country for 13 years, I was not awared of all the "bad habits" of the chinese until I read this book. This reflects exactly the point of the book, that chinese, being "soaked" in the pool of bad habits, do not critically evaluate them and think they are perfectly normal.

As well as spitting and shouting loudly in the public, most (but not all) chinese confuse the difference between patriotism and nationalism - most chinese (especially chinese parents) dislike chinese to speak anything bad about the chinese, yet most of the time, the fundamental reason is that they believe "chinese should not criticise chinese". In that respect, I believe the author has taken a very important step to start disentangling the often self-contradictory and convoluted aspects of chinese culture.

This is a book that I believe all chinese should read, chinese who grew up in non-chinese territories should also read it if they are to "understand their roots". If chinese wants others to respect them, then it will take more than just sending a few rockets to the moon.

What is most interesting about this book -- which centers on the poetry of the Bedouin tribe of Awlad Ali -- is not the poetry per se, but that it gives an insider's view of the craft of Ethnography. It shows, through the eyes of a skilled ethnographer, and almost by indirection and in reverse order, how meaning is attached to cultures by the people who live in them.

By peeling back the skin of the Awlad Ali culture - one of the nomadic tribes that once hovered around the edge of the Western Egyptian Desert -- we learn, not just "the ways" of this and similar Nomadic tribes, but more generally, the steps needed to attach meaning to the onion called culture. This analysis reveals, layer-by-layer, the structure and texture of the Awlad Ali worldview. It also reveals the various ideologies that supported its construction.

The Awlad Ali tribe is a society based on blood kinship, on honor, and on a kind of fierce tribal autonomy and independence. And however abstract these categories may seem, and however much they may seem settled at birth, they are in fact constantly being re-negotiated in the tribe's everyday efforts to survive: "lived deeds" in the Awlad Ali culture always trump ascribed status and words. The culture has especially derogatory names and references to those who talk, but fail to act.

Moreover, cultural meaning and societal rules remain close to the ground: that is, closely attached to survival needs. Ascribed status - that is patrilineal genealogy, maleness, etc. definitely have a pride of place in the culture, but these do not settle the matter of status once and for all: What one does with these is the final arbiter of ones position and status within the tribe.

As an American peeping into another culture, what I learned in a somewhat painfully indirect way is that most of rest of the world - even primitive tribes -- still speak and relate to each other in the language of humanity: poetry, songs, prayer, proverbs, folklore, tales, myths, etc. To them, these are not mere cultural trinkets, ornamentations and affectations, to be tossed about during holidays, or to be commercialized and then tossed aside, or just the colorful tools used to promote a particular kind of politics or political organization, but they are the real meat of human discourse. They serve as the actual conduits through which deep human feelings are conveyed and transmitted.

As a backdrop to our own culture, there are at least two lessons to be learned (indirectly and in relief) from this book:

(1) That it is possible to construct a cultural worldview (a complete cosmology of meaning) entirely without the need for a category called "race" or without reference to the idea of a "religion." The author, who was Christian and a partly-white female, lived in the home of the tribe she was studying for two years, which was nominally Muslim, but with all of the many intersecting categories of meaning: race and religion, were never mentioned to her or ever played a role in tribal discourse.

(2) That we Americans live in a social world that is bereft of normal meaningful human attachments and discourse. In comparison to the Awlad Ali tribe, we live in a world of greatly diminished humanity in which racism, acquisition of things, commodification and consumerization of those things, rationalizations and political spin, false piety, rationing of intangibles qualities, knee-jerk bipartisanism, sublimated hatred, and artistic shallowness, are substitutes for real meaning.

Is this all just an inevitable part of modernity? It is difficult to know, but we must be grateful to this author for showing us with great skill that there are other images of, and paths to meaningfulness.

Ten Stars

the book is written by an american woman with mideastern roots -- she provides great insight into the traditionals of the bedouin and arab worlds. I read this before I went to Egypt and it provided great foundation for understanding the culture of the town and village. I like her writing style -- she makes anthopological analysis interesting by explaining in the context of her interactions with the bedouins.

I agree with the other reviewers. It was the best ethnography I can remember reading. What struck a chord with me was her description and explanation of the women's submission to the men, that the submissiveness was valuable only when it was voluntarily given. The idea of women being submissive to men is not only Islamic, but exists also in Christianity.

Lila Abu Lughod, an Arab American woman, lived among the Awlad Ali tribes of the North West of Egypt for two years. Veiled Sentiments is the book she wrote on the lives and poetry of Awlad Ali. Abu Lughod field work was clearly not carried out from a "superior" stance; she sympathized with her subjects and dealt with them as equal human beings rather than inferior specimen or cultures. Abu Lughod attitude, intelligence, training and tremendous analystical ability helped her in developing great insight and understanding of this fascinating culture.

Abu Lughod analysis of concepts such as "hishma" was truly incisive and shed a great deal of light on the nature of modesty between women and men and amongst men and women. The analysis seems to explain behaviors and norms witnessed elsewhere in Egypt and indeed other parts of the Middle East.

An important thesis of Abu Lughod is that the Awlad Ali people often communicated in very conservative and modest way directly through words; they only said what was proper and fitted the norms. Yet a second mode of communication far more true and expressive was found in their little songs or poems.

Abu Lughod discussed gender relation amongst Awlad Ali at length and the relationship between women and the families of their husbands and the society at large. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it. For an excellent work on veiling and gender issues, I would recommend Leila Ahmed's Women & Gender in Islam.

"Veiled Sentiments" is academic. It is the outcome of the author's living in a Bedouin community in northern Egypt (the Western Desert) for two years, a feat of no mean proportions.

Lila Abu-Lughod came to a deep understanding of such aspects of the culture as blood ties, veiling and poetry not only because of her talent and training but also because she has ties to that culture. She calls academics like herself "halfies" because they belong both "inside and outside the communities they write about." She realizes that such a situation benefits them in terms of gathering knowledge within close cultures.

The veiling of women (or rather women's veiling of themselves) is an important topic because of recent events including world politics and of the ongoing research in feminism. It is also important because it is so often misunderstood and so difficult to understand even when it is explained.

After reading Abu-Lughod's renowned (in the world of academics) book, "Veiled Sentiments," I think I have a better handle on veiling than I ever would have had otherwise. It was not easy to absorb the concepts that surround it. That it took ¼ of a 315 page book to do it (a conservative estimate) is a testament to the intricacies of and the psychological motivations behind this cultural /religious practice.

Learning more about veiling alone made this study one well worth reading. But the surprise for both the reader, and-as explained by Ms. Abu-Lughod-the author herself is the discovery of this culture's use of poetry. To take it one step further, the insight into how societies in general (at least ours and that of the Bedouins) similarly use their poetry and relate to it.

Abu-Lughod finds that poetry is used somewhat differently among women in the Awlad ` Ali tribes than it is used by men. Because I am writing my own book of poetry called "Skyscapes: A Woman's View," I was especially interested in this aspect of "Sentiments;" it also was, by the author's own admission, an amazing and important cultural discovery. A group of women in China have their own secret language apart from the men; now this anthropologist brings to our attention how the poetry and veiling customs of these women reveal their emotions and are rooted in the traditions of a society in which they live quite separately from men.

Though this book is not meant for mainstream readers, I hope that many who have no ties to anthropology will make an effort to read it. I believe that women will find it especially interesting but men will also find pertinent information for today's political climate within its pages. No amount of travel could impart the depth of understanding of this culture, and-by extension-similar cultures that this book does.

(Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of "This is the Place..." )

This is a great book that captures the history of the formation of EPCOT based on concepts that were proposed. Some did not come to fruition. Some were put into place, but have now been replaced by others. This now reads as a history/nostalga book. It is still a fun read. The pictures are beautiful, and the text enjoyable. I have a version that shows ISBN 0810908190 published in 1982, 240 pages as listed here, but has a slightly different cover. I will try to load a photo.

This book is great is because it's from when Epcot Center was just opening. It was published before the park even opened. Some things it discusses never even made it to the parks! For example, there are beautiful sketches of the Africa pavilion in the World Showcase, which never came to be. This book is not what I expected, it's better than I expected. I think every Disney fan should have one in their collection.

This book is really good for the beginning-advanced disney lover. Go ahead and get it if you would really like it.

I have a copy of the book and love it. If anyone needs the larger book (over 200 pages) let me know, I have two copies and have an offer for 100-120 for it currently.

Kelly

I first read Walt Disney's Epcot Center right after the park had first opened. It's Awesome! If your a Disney nut like I am, you will definately like this book. It gives all of the ideas Walt Disney had for the Experimental Prototype Community Of Tommorrow.(EPCOT)