Nebraska Books

Guide For Developing And Evaluating School Library Media Programs focuses on program administration and personnel evaluations, advocating for the creation of school library media centers and proper procedures for contacting and maintaining relationships with a variety of media outlets. The informative text is enhanced with reproducible checklists to help the library staff collect useful information for launching an evaluation of their program. Of special interest is the chapter devoted to managing media center resources and equipment through collection development, inventory counts, collection mapping, and budgeting. The concluding chapter offers a means for analyzing or remodeling the physical setting of a media center. Guide For Developing And Evaluating School Library Media Programs is a highly recommended, core title for library science reference collections and for on-site use by school or community librarians regardless of the size of their facility.

A Guide to Nebraska Authors provides information on over 700 writers who can claim the distinction of being from Nebraska. Everyone knows about Willa Cather, but Cox and MacDaniels' painstakenly researched book makes the lesser-known but still widely published authors such as Anna Louise Strong, Sophus Winther, Dorothy Thomas and Mignon Eberhart available for public consumption. Robert Brooke's well done introduction, which draws out five important catagories in Nebraska writing, is almost worth the price of the book alone.

A formal review of this book appears in the July, 1996, issue of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register

Dhuoda's Handbook (written for her teenaged son William, who was effectively a hostage at the time)is a wonderful source for anyone interested in women and children in the Middle Ages. This fine translation is very readable, and gives us a look into the emotional world of a mother separated from her child - her fear, concern, anguish, pride, resentment, and resignation.

For students of history, the book has a great deal to show us, from Dhuoda's evident high level of education to the occasional fascinating details of her life story. Incidentally, this book also puts the lie to those historians who have claimed from time to time that medieval people did not grow attached to their children, or even that they did not love them! Although we know from other sources that Dhuoda's son's life did not end happily, we know little about Dhuoda herself beyond this book. In short, Dhuoda's viewpoint is a powerful and important one, and is easily accessible to the modern reader.

One of those books that just puts you in the time and place. A great perspective on labor in an important region of the country. A must for those interested in American expansion and our history.

Peters contends that much of philosophy in the twentieth century has had a decidedly non-metaphysical (or even anti-metaphysical) bent to it, and as a result, few students, even philosophy students, get a thorough grounding in the metaphysical ideas past or present. This slim volume sets forth the work of Charles Hartshorne, colleague of Alfred North Whitehead (whose 'Process and Reality' has become a standard for many theologians today) and metaphysical ideas of the past century. While this text was put together several decades ago, scholarly progress in this field tends to be rather slow and methodical, so the information is still valuable and fairly current.

Hartshorne's metaphysics is called neoclassical because it shares much with more classical constructs. The focus of his metaphysics is the same -- grand questions on a cosmic scale, including the nature of reality itself. The rationalist method is important, as Hartshorne searches for meaning that is consistent, making logical sense. Perhaps the most important departure from classic metaphysics is that Hartshorne looks as the process of becoming as more important than some notion of static, permanent being as the more fundamental piece. This is in keeping with the ideas of 'Process and Reality', and the more relational designs of theology and philosophy (not to mention the many other scientific disciplines in academia).

This is a metaphysics that strives to make sense of the world philosophically while being in concert with the methods, assumptions and discoveries of modern science, as well as other fields. Peters examines the methodological key, the ideas of reality and time, Hartshorne's neoclassical theism, and even ideas of aesthetics, which Hartshorne said presents basically the same problems as does metaphysic.

The final chapter looks at the basic axioms. Much in the way it is done with geometry, an examination of the axioms or first principles can help determine the value and structure of the rest of the system. Hartshorne read Emerson early in his career and became first convinced here that reason was key (I had a similar experience with Emerson). Another of Hartshorne's axioms is that 'to be is to be able to be known'. This follows up closely with the known gets contained in the knower. Other axioms are discussed briefly, but more development here would be most welcome.

Charles Hartshorne only recently passed away, over the age of 100, but the in thirty years or so he lived after the publication of Peters' book, his basic metaphysical framework remained the same This book remains a good introduction in many ways to Hartshorne's work. The bibliography is somewhat outdated and thin, but many of the references are still valuable. As this book is now relatively rare, if you have a chance to get one, do so.

Heart's Desire is an idyllic turn-of-the-century mountain village filled with eccentric characters who specialize in bizarrely comical events. The main romantic leads liberally share the stage with everyone in town as we find out why they moved to such an off-the-beaten-path location and how they scheme against railroad and mine operators to keep it that way. Infused with Mark Twain/Bret Harte style humor throughout.

A wonderful book of color photos taken mostly in the eighties and early nineties of railroad activity in Michegan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. There some historical photos from the fifties and sixties, including a super one (page 27) from 1956 taken at Durand, Michegan, the essential station photo, a parked car or two, people waiting trackside, smoke drifting up from the engines smokestack, station building, signals etc.

The photos of freight and passenger trains are taken through the seasons by thirty nine photographers, captions are explanatory without too much technical detail, the books landscape shape helps display the trains better than an upright format.

After looking through the book a few times I was aware that I could tell if it was a Greg McDonnell photo, to my eye he seems to have a knack of framing the train in the composion and all the elements in the photo work together. This is not to say the other photographers are not as good as McDonnell (the famous Emery Gulash has a great dock and diesel photo on page 130) but his work clicks best with me.

Railroad fans are very demanding customers, they want raw energy, speed, sharpness, detail and very little moody, out-of-focus stuff that other photographers might say contributes to their best work, I suppose railroad photographers are basically involved in the reportage style. This and McDonnell's other book 'Signatures in Steel' of railroading in his native Canada are as good as it gets for train fans. Highly recommended.

Reads like a lot of short stories grouped together to make the book. Parker is a unique person, trying to clean up the west. No Rooster Cogburn in here, but a lot of other people who are just as interesting. Good read and great for a history buff.

This was a very interesting study of how the war affected everyday life of citizens. The high rate of dissertion was due to many reasons but the higher duty that pulled the men was to the safety of their own family. When conflicted between duty to "the cause" and reports of starvation on the homefront, or of thier women and children being at the mercy of vagabonds, many men opted to honor the higher duty of their familial commitments. Very interesting to read about the lack of governmental support for fighting men's families; the women's resourcefulness in severe hardship; and how the soldiers' minds were focused on their children and their safety. If you want a fuller picture of the Civil War than what is presented by history books generally, read this book.