Indiana Books

The Glaciers' Treasure Trove: A Field Guide To The Lake Michigan Riviera by Jacqueline Widmar Stewart is a full-color travel guide to the sights, lakes, vineyards, state parks and other attractions of the area. Locations, contact information, extensive descriptions and photographs on every page characterize and enhanced this exceptionally useful, on-the-go, "pocket portable" traveling companion. A spiral binding and sturdy allows this handy reference to weather extensive use while one enjoying the best a Lake Michigan vacation has to offer.

I really liked this book. I have been visiting the Indiana-Michigan shoreline on and off again since the 1950's. I never understood the area as a whole until I read this book. It is truly a first rate resource -whether you are planning a weekend excursion or the whole summer along this part of Lake Michigan. I especially liked the spiral binding and the easy to read maps. The colors are magnificent. It is just the right size to keep in your glove compartment. I ordered three copies and plan to pass them on to my friends.

Obviously a labor of love. A must have addition to the collection for the serious lover of "the dunes". Finely researched from an author who has been there, soon to become the definitive study of the area. Well written, glorious photgraphs, many by the author herself. It serves the first time visitor well, yet also enlightens the veteran repeat visitor or resident. A great gift idea.....

This book opens up a midwestern treasure spot that is not well-known to most Americans but deserves to be: the sand dunes and beaches that are around the bottom of Lake Michagan. I lived in that area years ago and this book does a great job telling the story of why the place so special. The history is told and developers' mistakes are not ignored. But mostly the book is about the present and what's there now: good living amidst tremendous beauty.

Mark has found all kinds of wonderful stories about unexplainable things. My children even found some of them hilarious! I would recomend this book to anyone who enjoys good ghost stories.

I'm founder of the Northwest Indiana Society of Ghost Research, and Mark Marimen has successfully written a book about the ghosts, legends and myths surrounding Northwest Indiana. He adds true accounts, as well as fiction and blends them together nicely. Its a must have for everyone who loves a great ghost story!!!!.

I enjoyed the book very much being from northwest indiana near the places where some of the stories take place. Its nice to see alot of the ghost stories i heard as a child put on paper. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes good ghost stories.

Mr. Mariman did an excellent job of taking a taboo topic and making it enjoyable for any reader, from any state of the union.

Six years ago, I wrote my first review for Amazon, of Richard N. Frye's "Bukhara: The Medieval Achievement". Frye's work, concentrating mostly on the 10th and 11th centuries, described in detail how Turkic-speaking nomads combined with Iranian city dwellers and Arab bringers of a new religion to create a new synthesis in Islam in Central Asia, particularly in the city of Bukhara. That syncretic Islam later became most instrumental in the development of the Muslim faith in the Indian subcontinent. Levin's THE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLS OF GOD mainly describes the condition of music and musicians in the 1990s in the modern republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. That same Richard N. Frye provides a strong endorsement on the back cover. I too find that this volume is a worthy successor in the on-going "project" of bringing Central Asian history and culture before Western eyes. The musical world of Central Asia still involves synthesis and syncretism---between the West and tradition, between new conservatism and older tolerance, between Soviet atheism and local spirituality, between Islam and older religions which we might label shamanistic, and between so-called ethnic groups like Uzbeks and Tajiks.

Levin travelled around the region with a musical companion, Otanazar Matyakubov, who provided endless contacts and insights. Together they interviewed and listened to all the varied performers of Central Asian music, from a female pop singer to humble performers of classical styles, from healers in remote villages who used music in their rituals to performers at schmaltzy Jewish weddings in the transplanted Bukharan Jewish community in Queens, New York. Levin describes the surroundings in which he found each musician, tells of his travels in decrepit cars between ancient cities or by donkey through the dramatic mountain scenery of remotest Tajikistan. While a certain amount of detail may be of interest chiefly to fellow ethnomusicologists, those specialized observations are spaced throughout the text in such a way that the non-professional reader never feels overwhelmed. Levin provides a number of excellent photographs, maps, and most importantly, a brilliant CD which illustrates all the styles and instruments he discusses. The effect of 70 years of Soviet policies is often mentioned, and a reader can deduce the results of this assault on local culture, though I would have liked more direct comment. Moscow's insistence on creating discrete "nationalities" created virulent brands of Uzbek and Tajik (and so many other) nationalism where none had existed. It created separate, ethnic-based countries where none had ever existed. It even created "Uzbek" and "Tajik" music out of a formerly seamless Central Asian tradition. This Soviet policy ultimately resulted in the squeezing out of Bukharan Jews-prominent in the Central Asian musical world for centuries---because they were deemed insufficiently "Uzbek" by newly nationalistic authorities.

In short, this is one of the best books of ethnomusicology I have ever read. It would be of interest to anyone trying to learn more about Central Asia and must be required reading for anthropologists concerned with the area. THE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLS OF GOD also brings the region to life and underlines the difference between the materialistic, narrowly nationalistic present and the past in which musicians played out of devotion and love of God without trying to fit into some culture apparatchik's idea of "national music".

Mr. Levin writes about cultural survival and cultural decay in Transoxiana, as seen from the vantage point of traditional musicians. Combining his own traveler's tales with detailed but accessible musicological analysis, he examines the role of the traditional performing arts in the modern world of Uzbekistan, and the way that they have been subverted by the Soviet and successor governments. Engagingly written, without condescension towards the reader or the people of whom he writes, this book will reward readers interested in the cultural life of the region.

Mr. Levin has truly accomplished something noteworthy in this book. It is perhaps the best book from the often boring realm of ethnomusicological research that I have read in recent years. The breadth of understanding and acute cultural awareness brought out in the book is fantastic. It should find an audience among music scholars as well as the average reader, especially given the uncomplicated way Levin tells his tale. The addition of the CD to the book is truly complimentary unlike many of the other "multi-media" gimmicks so often offered to entice the buyer. This book is essential for anyone who seeks a clarity in writing about the musics of another culture.

This book is a many faceted report on the state of music in the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union, especially Uzbekistan. The author did his Ph.D. research in ethnomusicology in Tashkent on traditional court music called Shash maqam in 1977-1978. At the time, Levin was not as interested in this music as he had expected, which he later attributed to the Soviet cultural policies which extinguished the spark of vivacity from the Uzbek music. This book details many of the author's subsequent travels to Central Asia in search of traditional musicians who managed somehow to develop their unique talents within the stifling socialist milieu.

Levin provides much information about the artists, their music, and their poetry, which can all be heard on the accompanying CD. In the text itself, he rarely describes the instruments played by the musicians, referring to them merely with their local names. However, descriptions of the instruments can be found in the glossary at the end of the book, which I unfortunately didn't notice until I had finished reading. Occasionally, Levin's musicology terms get a little too thick for the general reader, but on the whole, the book is quite accessible.

The strongest aspect of the book is its description of the culture history of music in the Soviet Union. In my own brief travels to the Soviet Union, I was struck by how many people there were acquainted with classical music--how an appreciation of classical music stretched across the entire society. I never saw the dark side of this, however. In this book, Levin describes how centralized state policies governed even the field of music, changing and obliterating centuries' old traditions.

This is quite a book. If you can't find this book here (shh, don't tell anyone at Amazon!) you might be able to find it a bigger chain book store. If you really want to understand the beginnings of our civilization, and our search as humans for a sense of purpose and destiny, this is the book to read. The Bible has been at the center of this search for the sacred. Even for the non-religious, its story must be considered as quite a spectacular attempt by humanity to reach for that higher pinnacle. I would also strongly recommend the documentary based on this book if you can get ahold of it. I have set up a page on Romer at http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~pruffini/romer.htm. It grew out of a project for my English class last year. Much to my surprise, I have gotten e-mails from around the world by people who had a similar interest in John Romer and the Testament series.

Romer is quite a writer. If you have seen the television series, this book will provide further enriching detail, and should not be missed. Since he had to cover a few thousand years worth of history, Romer has packed each page with detail, presenting the reader with the sometimes daunting task of gleaning all of it before moving on to the next page. I found at times that I needed to reread pages, but not due to confusion. Rather, I felt a need to make sure that I got all of the material clear in my head so that I would remember it once the book was sitting on the shelf. Kind of the intellectual equivalent of using your finger to get that last bit of frosting off of the dessert plate. Romer is particularly talented at dropping you into the location, the time, and the culture that existed at the scene, and is careful to discuss motivations and feelings along with the technical detail. Indeed he helped me to understand many of the subtle nuances of the translation efforts of the bible, and how they related to church politics of the day. This is required reading for adult bible study, and a wonderful read to boot. I recommend that you read this prior to Wide As the Waters by Bobrick, as it presents essential background material. If you've already read Wide As The Waters, well . . . then . . . you should read this anyway!

John Romer it seems just can't write a bad book. This one concerning the story of the Bible is just fascinating to me.
Especially on the history of the Early Church, what with the politics and ecomonics that helped shape the Book of God that we
use today. If you approach it with an open mind you will find some really thought provoking ideas presented.
Altogether I really enjoyed it and commend it to you!

John Romer's Testament: The Bible and History is an accessible, interesting account of both the Bible in history, and the history of the development of the sacred text. Romer explores various issues according to the timeline of events, incorporating issues of archaeology, textual redaction, philosophy and sociology into the discussion.

Romer subscribes to the basic, academically-accepted division of authors for the Hebrew scriptural development (J, P, D, etc.). But instead of simply recounting the theories, he interjects personality into his discussion, talking about Ezra as a strong possibility for redactor, and going into the issues, personally and religiously, that would have impacted his work at compilation and redaction.

Romer also recounts a lot of legendary material. The gravesite of Eve, the pools and ponds of Abraham (including the carp of Abraham that is still caught and eaten to this day), the various sites identified as pilgrimage sites by Romans and then later Crusaders -- these bring up lots of extra-biblical folklore that is truly interesting when coupled with the Biblical text. 'In popular imagination they [Abraham's people] are condemned to bend under the Egyptian lash, make pyramids and palaces. But this vision, both of ancient Egypt and the foreigners who came to live there, is largely false, and serves only to distort our understanding of the Egyptian stories in the Old Testament.... For just as the ancient Egyptians in their day had thought the rest of the world to be somewhat primitive, so many Western historians have similarly regarded the ancient Egyptians; a part of an old colonial dream of sensuous cruelty mixed with simpleness. It is certainly a world that neither the ancient Egyptians nor Abraham ever knew.'

Romer does not say things like this to discredit or discount the biblical testimony; far from it, Romer is probably more sympathetic to the idea of divine inspiration than many modern scripture scholars. But he is careful to distinguish interpretation from text, historical development from poetical extension, and let both the historical record and the biblical texts speak for themselves, sometimes in harmony and sometimes in discord.

Romer's recounting of the original writing and compilation of the Hebrew scriptures is very interesting. The original need for a 'bible' arose in the face of repeated destructions, exiles, and, particularly, the destruction of the Temple, twice. 'The vice-like pressure of these two national disasters forced into being the Hebrew Bible, which is also the Christian Old Testament. But these disasters also affected the very identity of the God that the ancient books defined. For ancient gods changed when they were uprooted. These gods, with their cults and rituals, were bound into the life and character of the cities and civilisations in which they were first worshipped.'

The Bible became a way for the preservation of this way of life and worship, and in the end provided the primary means for the preservation of the identity of the people of Israel even when there was no geographic centre to call home.

Romer's discussion of the closing of the canon and subsequent development of the Bible in the Christian world is fascinating, too. From discussions of the early church fathers, such as Jerome, to the political intrigues over the vernacular translations of the Bible in the early Renaissance, he provides interesting details. Speaking of Jerome (during a discussion of the Latin Vulgate): 'At once a saint and among the greatest doctors of the church, Jerome was yet a man of whom it has been said that he was canonised not for his qualities of saintliness, but for the services he rendered the Roman church. Hot-tempered, outspoken, passionately devoted to his work and his friends, Jerome is certainly one of the most extraordinary figures in church history. And doubtless, it is due to this special temperament that his Latin Bible has come to be regarded by many people almost as if it were the unmediated word of God himself.'

Of course, many today (especially in America) see the King James Version of the Bible in much the same light. To ignore the background to the development of this Bible does it a disservice; yet, to discount the true inspiration that is apparent on the pages of the King James Version is also to do it a disservice.

From the Israel stela of Thebes to the motion pictures of Cecil B. DeMille, this book covers the large expanse of history humour and graceful prose, without getting bogged down in minute points. There is plenty to argue with in this book, but then, of which book on this theme is there not?

We use these books in business to get our service men where they need to be. They are excellent!

This atlas is shows all the small roads and some long driveways, has GPS longitudes and latitudes, marks places of interest for day trips, and is useful for traveling the back roads to see the real Indiana. My wife and I are retired and are not usually in any hurry to get somewhere. This means we can drive the back roads to most places we desire to end up. With this map we actually get where we intend to go and still see some very interesting parts of Indiana. These maps are in constant use by us whether referencing locations mentioned in the news or in the van going somewhere. A great purchase with many uses.

I really like this Atlas and have found it very useful for mapping out bike routes. It's great for finding the back country roads. Unfortunately, it doesn't distinguish between paved and gravel roads and the topographic information is useless, since the elevation line separation is 60 feet. In Indiana, 60 foot elevation changes can include entire hills. I've looked at other maps and atlases, and unless you want to buy several small, regional, topographical maps from the USGS this is the best book out there for the money.

DeLorme's new Indiana Atlas & Gazetteer should be a big help in tracing Indiana's tributary streams to Lake Michigan. It features incredibly detailed maps of the entire state, showing all its major highways, back roads, lakes, streams, and rivers in an easy-to-use book format. Topographic shading and GPS grids add an extra level of detail and usability to these maps to satisfy even the most avid outdoors people. The full-size, 11 X 15 1/2-inch paperback book is perfect for the car or truck, RV, fishing boat, or backpack. Bill Takacs, MidWest Outdoors Indiana, Feb., 1999

Indianapolis TV personality Dick Wolfsie is well-known in Central Indiana for finding fun, interesting human-interest segments for his station's morning show. Wolfsie continues this theme by digging up oddities from all over the Hoosier state that would interest any traveler who wants to stray from the beaten path. Wolfsie provides a description of the curiousity, organized by region and alphabetized by the town in which it is located. The book covers five regions and includes a map of that region that labels every town mentioned in that section of the book, no matter how small the town.

Examples include the RV museum in Elkhart, a jar museum in Muncie and the site of John Dillinger's first official crime in Mooresville.

Wolfsie includes addresses, phone mumbers, websites, e-mail addresses and contact names (some are only available through appointments). Rough directions from Indianapolis are included.

This book is amazing! It has many pieces of "useless" trivia - unless you stop and think about the uses of this knowledge. Did you know that a town in the Hoosier state seceded from the Union at the state of the Civil War? I didn't till I read this book - and I'm a major in that field with a wealth of knowledge on Indiana and the Civil War.

This book is really intersting and funny! It offers so much information about IN--things you never knew that are great trivia! Great for planning day trips in the state, too!

You'll enjoy this book even if you don't live in Indiana -- and you'll definitely enjoy it if you do. Packed with the odd and unusual, this book was filled with surprises even for me, and I've lived in Indiana for almost 20 years. Strange things you'll see along the road, folks who collect or build wierd stuff, bizarre legends and history... Dick Wolfsie explains them all with both wit and respect, and turns in a first-rate book that you should have with you on any daytrip you take around the Hoosier state.

This book is a wonderful history of the saving some of the Indiana Dunes for our use today. Dudley's pictures were used in the early days of trying to get the dunes set aside for future generations. It also is the history of landscape art in the late 1800's to the mid 1900's. The paintings are beautiful landscapes.

This book is a testament to the fact that, contrary to public opinion, there are more things than cornfields in Indiana. Indiana is home to a diversity of unique landscapes and habitats not the least of which are the Lake Michigan dunes. Reproductions of Frank V. Dudley's brilliant impressionist paintings bring this glorious landscape to the fore in this scholarly tome. We learn from "The Indiana Dunes Revealed" that Dudley's work stretches far beyond artistic endeavor. He was also one of the leading U.S. environmentalists during the first half of the twentieth century. The only thing better than this book is viewing Dudley's many sumptuous paintings or actually standing on the sand overlooking the lake. Dudley convinces this reviewer that I am actually on an Indiana beach feeling the wind blow against my face and the surf move beneath my feet.

Frank Dudley was a gifted artist who became passionately interested in the grass-roots campaign to save the Indiana dunes from predation by Northwest Indiana's steel mills, other industrial encroachment, and pollution. For years, he captured the wild beauty of the region on canvas and, as his fame spread, so did his message. His painting of the 1917 Indiana Dunes Pageant, a sweeping outdoor presentation that attracted over 25,000 viewers willing to trek across sand dunes to see it, remains one of the only eyewitness paintings of the event still extant. This book chronicles Dudley's development as a painter and his life in the dunes; the plates are superb, and if you were unable to view them at Valparaiso University's recent exhibition, this keepsake volume will be the next best thing to seeing his original works firsthand. As an aside, I went to the Dudley exhibit at Valparaiso University, where the book was selling at list price. A few mouse clicks later, I had ordered the book at a deep discount at Amazon.com. Three more days, and it was in my hands. It doesn't get much better than that!

The Indian Dunes Revealed: The Art Of Frank V. Dudley is written and edited by James R. Dabbert (Senior Lecturer in English, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago) with the assistance of J. Ronald Engle (Professor of Social Ethics, Meadville Theological School of Lombard College), Joan Gibb Engel (an activist and writer on Dunes ecology), i9ndependent art historian Wendy Grennhouse , and William H. Gerdts (Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Graduate School of the City University of New York). Frank V. Dudley (1868-1957) was a native of Wisconsin who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and eventually established a long exhibition record while dedicated more than forty years of his professional life as a landscape painter to the promotion and preservation of the Indiana Dunes - a unique geographical region enjoying state and federal protection while providing ecologists with a unique and truly 'living laboratory' for their studies. "The Indiana Dunes" is a team project that superbly showcases Dudley's life and work including 150 color reproductions of his paintings and another 70 black-and-white images. Because of the continual conflict between development and preservation over the decades, some of Dudley's paintings are the only record we have left of lost dunescapes. Also available in a hardcover edition, "The Indiana Dunes Revealed" is a splendid addition to academic library American Art History collections, and particularly recommended for supplemental reading lists in the areas of environmental studies and American Midwestern history.

Th title of this book says it all: its not just about the dinosaurs, but it also tells you about their world. Its a great read and suitable for all readers.

Despite the book's description above, clams, snails, ginkos, ferns and conifers aren't vertebrates.

No fear, the book itself doesn't make the same mistakes.

_Jurassic West_ by John Foster is a comprehensive overview of the geology and biota of the Morrison Formation of Jurassic western North America (roughly 150 million years ago). In this well-illustrated book with many pages of references, the author recounted what the formation is, the types of rocks it is found preserved in, what the environment was like, the history of the study of the Morrison (one of the most intensively studied of all Mesozoic ecologies, it has been explored for over 125 years), and what to me is the heart of the book, a complete list and description of all vertebrate animals found there and the ecology of that region back in the Mesozoic.

So what was the Morrison? It was an immense flat basin between about 30 degrees and 40 degrees north latitude, a floodplain located between highlands to the west and far to the east. Thanks to the western mountains, it existed in something of a rain-shadow and was semi-arid and mostly savanna, though did receive a fair amount of water from surface rivers from the mountains, some regions of rather high groundwater levels, and seasonal storms. Foster wrote that geologist Ralph Moberly proposed that the Gran Chaco Plain of northern Argentina is a very good analog for the Morrison, as it is a vast alluvial plain, well-vegetated with patches of forest scattered through savannas and between lakes and freshwater swamps (some of these bodies of water are seasonal). Most of the rain occurs in the spring and summer during the rainy season, while during the winter dry season some bodies of water become sun-baked mud flats. Of course, the Morrison's savannas didn't have grass, as like other flowering plants they had yet to evolve; instead there were open plains of ferns (more than 80 types are known) and cycadophytes and the scattered lone trees and patches of woodland (mostly around bodies of water) were _Sequoia_ (related to modern redwoods), araucarian conifers (similar to Norfolk Island pines), _Podozamites_ (similar to the kauri tree of New Zealand), ginkgoes, tree ferns, seed ferns, cycads, and horsetails.

Foster recounted the 90 known vertebrate species from the Morrison, including fish, frogs, salamanders, turtles (which were quite abundant), sphenodontians (related to the modern tuatara), lizards, a possible snake, champsosaurs (a crocodile-like group of reptiles - distantly related - that existed as late as the Paleocene), crocodiles (the most interesting was "Fruitachampsa," a long-legged, terrestrial housecat-sized predator), pterosaurs, and mammals, but the main focus is on the dinosaurs, ranging from the predatory _Allosaurus_ (most abundant theropod of the formation, nearly 75% of the theropod specimens) to the huge _Saurophaganax_ (a nearly tyrannosaur-sized allosaurid, only two individuals have been found and it appears to have been quite rare) to smaller theropods such as _Ornitholestes_ (possibly feathered) to the huge sauropods (ranging form _Camarasaurus_, the most abundant dinosaur of the formation to the apparently rare _Brachiosaurus_) to stegosaurs, the rare ankylosaurs (not uncovered until the 1990s), and smaller fleet-footed ornithopods like _Dryosaurus_ and _Camptosaurus_.

Foster wrote that the diversity of mammals was so rich that there were nearly as many mammal genera as there were all groups of dinosaurs combined, showing a real diversity in lifestyles, prey, and habitats. Some forms (_Docodon_) appear to have been semiaquatic like muskrats while others (_Fruitafossor_) were burrowers, showing many similarities to the much later evolved aardvarks and armadillos, with peg-like teeth, spade-like claws, and a robust humerus.

There was an unusually high diversity of large carnivores, both when compared with today and with other past ecosystems. Though the famed Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry in Utah is dominated by _Allosaurus_, five other genera of theropods were found there, which lived in the same place at the same time. Foster compared the theropods of the tyrannosaur-dominated Late Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation and found that the Morrison Formation showed "greater species diversity, less body mass range from smallest to largest, and lesser disparity from one species to next smaller" than at Hell Creek. While Morrison had six species greater than 100 kg (220 lbs) in weight, only three were at Hell Creek (and two of them - an ornithomimid and oviraptorosaur - lacked teeth, so the next "pure carnivore" after _Tyrannosaurus_ was a 35 kg or 77 lb. troodontid). _Tyrannosaurus_ weighs more than 10 times as much as the next theropod, while no such extreme disparity exists at Morrison, where the difference as shown on a chart is "strikingly gradual and steplike." Foster did speculate that perhaps different age groups of _Tyrannosaurus_ functioned in a similar ecological role as the many genera of Morrison.

Foster wondered why this "freak of the Late Cretaceous," an "anomalous Mesozoic carnivore on steroids," was so big; did it really need to be that huge to prey upon hadrosaurs and ceratopsians? Why wouldn't the gargantuan sauropods of Morrison produce "behemoth carnivores?" Foster speculated that adult sauropods and even older juveniles were practically immune from predation so theropods focused on stegosaurs, ornithopods, and smaller sauropods.

How did the theropods of Morrison survive together? Analyzing body size, tooth size, forelimb build, and relative abundance of specimens, Foster proposed that _Allosaurus_ was something of a generalist predator (perhaps even feeding at times on aquatic life such as large lungfish according to Bob Bakker), feeding on a wide variety of prey items, while the larger and more robust _Torvosaurus_ feed on larger dinosaurs and the smaller, more gracile but large-toothed _Ceratosaurus_ fed on midsized dinosaurs.

In contrast to the gradual progression in size ranges in theropods, the herbivores were generally either all very large or rather small, showing a marked "bimodality." Richard Stucky proposed that given the already open terrain of the Morrison and the probable habitat modification thanks to the feeding habits of the sauropods, herbivores were under evolutionary pressure to either evolve into extremely large sizes to be immune to predation or be small to hide in what little understory there was.

The book also has an excellent section on sauropod metabolism where he reviewed concepts like inertial homeothermy and fermentative endothermy.

Jurassic West - The Dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation. John Foster.
Jurassic West is one in a series from The Indiana University of Indiana's "Life in Past" volumes. Others have included "Carnivorous Dinosaurs", "The Armored Dinosaurs", "Oceans of Kansas" etc. These books in general were collections of research reports on new finding in the study of osteology and were of interest primarily to specialists in the field. Jurassic West however is of more general interest in that it accumulates a wide range of specialized information gained in the last 125 years of fieldwork at the various sites of the Morrison Formation. Not only dinosaurs are tabulated but the book covers all other types of vertebrates as well as invertebrates, paleoecology and several indepth sections of the geology of the Morrison. This formation is one of the most famous and productive paleontological sites in the world. It was formed as as a floodplain basin within a continant. Though semiarid in parts with sparse forests and surrounded by mountains it had constance sources of water: rivers, streams, lakes and groundwater. The time range in gereral lies within the Kimmeridgian section of the Late Jurassic. The Morrison itself consists of stratigraphic layers of various members (distinctive lithographic facies) and represents about 7 million years. The formation varies in thickness from 98 feet to 990 feet and covers a million square kilometers in eight western states. Most of the productive quarries, and there are some 170 of them, are in Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. The great and famous American dinosaurs are from such areas as Como Bluff, Dionsaur National Park, Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, Black Hills, Howe, Lakes etc. These have produced the giants: Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus (the most numerous) and Brachiosaurus among the Sauropods as well as such Theropods as Allosaurus and Ceratosaurus. This is all very impressive and when most people think of the Jurassic or the Morrison they think of dinosaurs. But as pointed out by Foster, the Morrison ecosystem contained many other vertebrate types along with invertebrates and a wide range of plants. What I found most interesting is that there are as many taxa of mammals as there are of dinosaurs. Both groups appeared about the same time in the Late Triassic, have had about 75 million years of evolution behind them and have about 85 miilion years ahead before the dinosaurs (non-avian) will bow out. After that the mammals will take over the land and invade the sea as the top vertebrate group. The Morrison also has a unique aspect in that it contains one of the smallest vertebrates of the time, the mammal Amphodon at 0.5oz. and probably the largest that ever lived, Brachiosaurus at about 100,000 lbs.
The book also has extensive coverage of the other vertebrate taxa found. Thus turtles (the most numerous fossil), ray-finned fish, lung fish, sphenodons,frogs, croccodylomorphs,pterosaurs and salamander are noted. It also goes into details of rock types, stratifications and formations. Foster then compares some animal guilds with comparable guilds that occur in other time periods. The Theropods of the Morrison Jurassic are more numerous in taxa, smaller in size with a more gradual size gradation than that found in the Hell's Creek formation of the Cretaceous with it's one huge Tyrannosaurus and few others. The analysis is provocative and fascinating.
This book is a very readable one and of interest to a broad range of biologicaly and geologicaly inclined audiences. It contains enough detail to be a reference book in addition to an approachable text for understanding the complicated biology and geology of this time and place.

This is an all around interesting read for those who are somewhat familiar with more intensive scientific research. Professor Schwimmer is obviously an expert on Crocodylians,paleontology, as well as plaleo-environments. All the technical descriptions he does of the different aspects of body design,dentition, habitat,study of bone damage(bite markings) etc., all show the extensive amount of research involved to make definitive conclusions about the animals living habits and status in the ecosystem. There was just enough balance between the hypothetical story in the beginning, and all the other hard science in the rest of the book(that backed up the hypothetical story), to make for an enlightening read. This shows the laymen just how intricate and intensive reanimating prehistoric ecosystems and animals truly is. And of course being interested in giant dinosaur eating crocs doesn't hurt either!

David Schwimmer's book stands as the most comprehensive look at the natural history of one of the largest crocodylians ever to roam the earth.

The opening chapter starts off a lot like Steve Alten's Meg. A hapless theropod winds up in the wrong place at the wrong time. While Meg's scenario was entirely fictitious (_Carcharocles megalodon_ was not around during the Cretaceous), Schwimmer's scenario is actually based off of some factual evidence. For the rest of the book, Schwimmer justifes his scenario by presenting evidence for the size, habitats and prey of _Deinosuchus_.

Schwimmer breaks up each of the 8 chapters into different sections on _Deinosuchus_. Starting with the semi-fictitious intro, then going into its chaotic taxonomic origin, when, and where it appeared, how big it got, what creatures it was related to, and who was preying on whom back in the Late Cretaceous. All the evidence is viewed objectively, with the author's view stated at the end. Some highlights include an interesting section of the 2nd chapter, which showed some of the bias seen in non-dinosaur/non-mammalian work. More often than not, the reason we know as little as we do about other ancient reptiles, is because of a lack of interest in them. One prime quote from that chapter (pg 29) really sums this up:

"Holland (1909) reported that, upon recognizing the animal leaving all these big bone fragments was a huge crocodylian: 'Mr.Hatcher immediately lost interest in the material...""

Thankfully, this skewed point of view has been slowly changing. If it hadn't, then this book would never have been written. Schwimmer also deals with the infamously inaccurate skull reconstruction that used to be on display on the 4th floor of the AMNH. This reconstruction and numerous pictures based off it, has been used in popular and professional literature to estimate the size and dimensions of the animal. Schwimmer shows how this inaccurate restoration came to be, and exactly what was wrong with it.

Replacing this misinformation, is the most accurate, and up to date measurments of the animal. While the old measurements had _Deinosuchus_ hitting lengths of 50+ ft (based off that inaccurate skull), the newer measurements only shrink the crocodylian down by ~11ft and weighing in at 8.5 tonnes in the largest individuals. While showing off size, Schimmer also shows the readers that there were two different sized populations of this genus. Eastern populations were smaller (~26ft and 2.3 tonnes) and more numerous than western populations. Schwimmer even compares these new size measurements to other giants from the fossil record. In most cases _Deinosuchus_ comes out on top compared to most carnivores of its time, or of any time (to help put things in perspective, this crocodylian was a full 1.5 tonnes larger than _T.rex_).

The book alludes to an interesting trait of fossil "supercrocs." As Schwimmer describes other large crocodylians throughout prehistory (an apparent "trend" in this group), one notices that fossil supercrocs suffer from the exact opposite problem that most large vertebrate skeletons suffer. There tends to be really good skull material, but little, or no postcranial material.

_Deinosuchus_ anatomy is thoroughly discussed. Schwimmers shows just how important crocodylian osteoderms are, and using traits of these osteoderms, shows that erect walking (aka "high walking") was possible in even the largest _Deinosuchus_ specimen. Schwimmer also spends ample time on the unique dentition in _Deinosuchus_. Most of the teeth were short, blunt and rounded. According to Schwimmer this was originally evolved for turtle eating purposes, and was later exapted towards dinosaur eating in the species (especially the western pop). Schwimmer also gives mention to the incredible force exerted by the jaws of these animals and shows that _Deinosuchus_ had the strongest jaws of any animal known to science regardless of time period.

Chapter 7 gives a fairly comprehensive rundown of the group of animals that lead to _Deinosuchus_. It is nice, for it shows just how taxonomically confusing the crocodylotarsi group is, while also going a little farther to dispelling the myth that crocodylians have changed little in 200 million years on earth. Though there was no mention of pristichampsids, or _Stomatosuchus_, Schwimmer does mention _Malawisuchus_ and the new Madagascar crocodyliforme, which had teeth and body forms similar to herbivorous mammals and dinosaurs. With all this variation and diversity showcased, it is somewhat disappointing to hear Schwimmer state that he doesn't consider the crocodylotarsi group to be as derived from basal archosaurs as dinosaurs and birds are (something I completely disagree with). Overall though, this chapter really goes far in highlighting the many different bodyforms that lead to _Deinosuchus_.

The final chapter of the book talks about what, exactly, _Deinosuchus_ was eating back then. Studying the dentition, habitats and evidence of predation, Schwimmer shows that turtles made up a large part of the diet for, at least, eastern _Deinosuchus_ populations. Schwimmer also shows that _Deinosuchus_ in both the western and eastern parts of North America, were not only eating dinosaurs, but were outcompeting the carnivorous theropods in the area (and occasionally eating them too). So, by the end of the book, one has come full circle.

Schimmer's writing style is reminiscent of my own. He doesn't dumb down the technical terms, but instead provides definitions for words and scenarios in parenthesis, or in an appendix (and occasionally goes off on parenthetical tangents like this one). The layout of the book allows one to either read it from cover to cover, or to just pick it up and look for a particular subject. If more info is mentioned later, or earlier in the book, the location is placed in parenthesis for easy reference.

If you're into ancient life, crocodylians, reptiles, or if you just liked National Geographic's: Supercroc special, then I highly recommend this book. _Sarcosuchus_ is cool, but _Deinosuchus_ is the supercroc that started it all. Kudos to David Schwimmer, James Farlow and all the other "Life of the Past" workers, for showing that dinosaurs weren't the only cool creatures alive millions of years ago :)

An interesting book, certainly worth a look by those who, like myself, have been fascinated by the original 'supercroc' for a long time. Nevertheless if like me you are not a palaeontologist you might find this book a little on the dry side. An early hypothetical meeting of eastern Deinosuchus and dinosaur grips the attention but after that the book seems to become very obsessed with a few areas; mainly the lineage of Deinosuchus, the investigation of eastern and western Deinosuchus and whether they were related and a certain amount on its evolution and diet. To my mind the mixture of purely factual peer-reviewed paper and hypothetical drama wasn't an entirely happy one. I felt there could have been more about the life-cycle of Deinosuchus; the western animals predation on larger carnivores; and deeper investigation in to why such a large, successful predator (the largest heavier than both T-rex or Giganotosaurus!), which had suppressed the development of larger dinosaur predators on the east coast died out before the mass extinction. The ending is also distinctly anti-climactic, even Scientific American / New Scientist writers end their articles with a bit more of a bang! It's still a fascinating book. It's obvious that a lot of research has gone into and I don't regret buying it, but I think it could have been a couple of chapters longer and filled in a few more blanks about the life of Deinosuchus in general for the benefit of us lay enthusiasts.

King of the Crocodylians: The Paleobiology of Deinosuchus written by David R. Schwimmer is a book about the giant chrocdylians that used to inhabit the eastern and western gulf coastal plains of the interior seaway that ran through the North American continent in the late Cretaceous period, also up the Atlantic Coastal Plain.

This in modern times relates to the Gulf States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida; and the Atlantic States of Georgia, South and North Carolina. The book explains that there were differences in size between the Western and Eastern species of Deinosuchas. And it is especially noteworthy that these Cretaceous crocodylians were animals reaching more than twice the body mass of any living Crocodylus or Alligator species.

A major focus of this book, besides the giant crocodylians themselves, is the unique ecosystems and conditions of these southern Late Cretaceous coastal habitats that enabled such crocodylian populations to develop and flourish for a significant amount of geological time.

This book is NOT hard reading, in fact, this book move right along as we read about the croc's diet, how it hunted and what it ate. There is a lot of anatomy in this book as we see skull fossil remains and teeth, while there is some comparative anatomy Deinosuchus was in a class by itself.

The contents of the book: The Life and Times of a Giant Crocodylian; The Early Paleontology of Deinosuchus; The Size of Deinosuchus; The Age of Deinosuchus; Deinosuchus Localities and Their Ancient Enviornments; How Many Deinosuchus Species Existed?; A Genealogy of Deinosuchus; and The Prey of Giants.

I found the book to be very informative, this is not light reading for children, but children from age 12 and older will be able to understand it. All in all, the life and times of a Giant Croc is the easiest way to explain this book.

If you are interested in how to prevent HIV, in community development work, or in what happens when academic ideals meet local community realities, then this book will stimulate, inform, surprise, and even galvanise you. This important book offers a unique view of the inside workings of an actual community HIV prevention programme as it unfolded. It details the failures of the programme, in order to insist that we must make much more effort to address the hard questions of economic and gender inequalities and political will. By making visible the everyday power dynamics among community members, stakeholders and project workers, the book makes a major contribution to understanding the problematic process of community development.

This is an exceptional and courageously written book. It is a'must read' for anyone involved in efforts to get groups of people to change their behavior. Limitations of public education efforts identified in this book can be applied to numerous public health endeavors. Without the insights of this author, we will continue to make attempts to apply programs that will fail because we have failed to understand the context in which the undesirable behavior patterns occur. This is a tough, sobering and realistic piece of work.
I also found it a pleasure to read, profoundly interesting, although often tragically so.

There are few books about AIDS that are worth reading, let alone reviewing. The vast majority remain constrained by the rigid confines of their conceptualisation, almost none daring to suggest that their conceptualisation might be wrong. The author of this book is one of the very few who dare do this and as a result has produced a book which is not only outstanding intellectually but should also be mandatory reading for anyone who has an interest in programmes that attempt to have an impact on any one of the multitude of epidemics of HIV infection. In fact it should be mandatory reading for anyone who has an interest in programmes that attempt to change the way people are in relation to what are called the development problems of today.

The book describes the author's experiences with a project that started out by trying to reduce the risk of infection by HIV amongst three groups in a mining town in South Africa - female sex workers, male miners, and young people. There were two approaches to doing this: peer education and the "promotion of partnerships between a diverse array of community groupings of stakeholders to coordinate and support the variety of local HIV-prevention efforts in such a way that maximized their overall cumulative effectiveness". The interventions chosen were all invested with the glowing approbation of the international `AIDS project' community as prime examples of what should be done in such situations. In terms of having any impact on the epidemic or on the sexual culture of the area the project has so far been a failure. The author analyses the reasons for this failure in a number of analytical contexts.

The author is very well placed to analyse the history of the project. She herself as a social psychologist had been involved in the township in 1995 in trying to understand the reasons why there is such a high prevalence of HIV infection amongst the miners and sex workers despite their obvious knowledge of the existence of HIV and the ways in which it is transmitted. The studies themselves form part of the opening chapters, and provide very good insight into the conditions of these people's lives and the enormous social factors that influence their lives and decision-making. The following chapters describe the way the project grew as a result of a drive from some local people for work that would affect the growing numbers of people with AIDS and from a group of scientists and professionals (including the author) who had an interest in the area. One chapter provides the initial theoretical justification for the various actions that were taken, with heavy leaning on the writings of Paulo Freire on the conscientisation side, Pierre Bourdieu for social capital, and on the experiences of peer education with sex workers in Zimbabwe of David Wilson and others.

The book will be invaluable for the discussion of the importance of the social context for behaviour, and indeed will be read by many for that alone. It also details the very many ways in which the project's ideals fell by the wayside (the rates of sexually transmitted infection in miners actually rose during the period of the project, there were many difficulties with the peer education approach for young people in school, the stakeholders were far from unified in their vision or even interest) or were partially successful (there were several changes amongst the sex workers), and again these experiences will be as interesting as they are familiar to many who work with such projects.

However this book goes far beyond such a discussion. She points to the inadequacies of our current theoretical and modelling frameworks for such interventions; to the fact that the stakeholders who were involved did not see themselves as part of the epidemic or as people whose behaviour had to change; to the fact that the designers and researchers of the project had much discord and competition amongst themselves; to the great mistrust that developed between the researchers and much of the `community'. In fact, although the author tries to scotch the problem with the definition of `community' by stating that in this case the term `community' refers to the people in a geographic area, the tension behind this definition continues throughout the book as it is acknowledged that only a few of the many individuals and groups in the area were in fact being requested to change their ways - the paternalism and continued power of the `senior' stakeholders continuing throughout.

The value of the book is still more. The lessons drawn in the concluding chapter smack of a level of desperation in the author to find lessons, and this may perhaps be the only weakness of the book. In these lessons the author still struggles to keep the idea going that somehow in a better world the interventions could have had an impact if only people had carried them through according to the wishes of the project designers. The deep question the author raises in the mind of the reader is whether such approaches can ever work in relation to an epidemic (as opposed to being valuable for a few individuals or groups). This question is not actually present in the book (although there are numerous hints of the author's disquiet concerning the mismatch between the daily reality of people's lives and the wishes and interests of the project managers) but it hangs over ever sentence as did the sword over Damocles. As for Dionysius in relation to those who wield power, it is a question hanging over all those who praise mindlessly the black art of development.

Superb study of an HIV/AIDS prevention programme in a South African township. Focussing on mineworkers, sexworkers, young people and (political)stakeholders.
Using several concepts of the social sciences, like empowerment, critical consciousness and social capital, she describes and analyses behaviour of the aforementioned groups in relation to the HIV epidemic in South Africa.
Making use of findings from 'The Summertown Project' she comes to a clear and lively story of the choices people from a marginalized community make.

I used this book for my final thesis on a research I did at an AIDS project in South Africa. It helped me to prepare myself on the things I was going to experience and to put my research in a broader perspective.