Indiana Books

That is, write another engrossing history of the Bolshevik Party in revolution. This volume picks up seamlessly where his earlier "The Bolsheviks Come to Power" left off. For those of us who enjoyed his lucid and - at the time - groundbreaking reconstruction of 1917, this volume dealing with the revolutionary aftermath of October has been too long-awaited.

Although the writing gets dense at times, those interested in the subject will find a fascinating wealth of information on just how confused, ad hoc and improvisational were these early days of "Communist conspiracy" and "scientific socialism." Rabinowitch begins with the early negotiations between the Bolsheviks and other parties on the limits of inclusion in the new Soviet government, and concludes with the first-year anniversary of the October Revolution. Throughout the narrative his focus is on the moderate Bolshevik faction and how it was marginalized by Lenin, as well as the pressures of civil war.

Realistically, however, Rabinowitch does not idealize these moderates nor overindulge the what-ifs of historiography. In outlining the transformation of Bolsheviks "from rebels to rulers" he keeps us aware of the harsh realities of civil war that made compromise and negotiation seem suicidal. And it must be remembered that attempts by moderate anti-Bolsheviks, to promote democracy and counsel conciliation on the White side, were brushed off by rightwing army officers and Western advisors who were determined to crush Bolshevism at all costs. With the narcosis of civil war gripping all parties it's very hollow indeed to berate the Bolsheviks alone for being dictators and fanatics, or expect them to rise above these circumstances. This is Rabinowitch's conclusion and is a refreshing counterpoint to the ideologically-driven anti-Bolshevik school led by Richard Pipes and Robert Conquest.

Written by Russian and Soviet historian Alexander Rabinowitch (Professor Emeritus of History, Indiana University Bloomington), The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd is an in-depth historiography of the Bolshevik Party's first year in power after the revolution of November, 1917 that so profoundly affected Soviet history and politics throughout the twentieth century. The Bolsheviks in Power denies the entrenched view that the party's severe ideology immediately changed the Soviet political system into one of brutal authoritarianism; rather, it is revealed that the Bolsheviks struggled to hold on to power amidst a sea of political, social, economic, and military crises, causing the oppressive regime that rose from it to appear virtually ad hoc. Issues discussed include the swift decline and fall of moderate Bolsheviks; the creation of the ruthless Cheka, the Bolshevik-Left SR alliance, and much more. Enthusiastically recommended as an addition to college library world history shelves.

Since it was originally written in the early 1900s, I don't imagine too many people nowadays have read this book without having heard of it through the 1985 Richard Pryor movie adaptation. But if you enjoy the film, as I do, then I'd recommend the novel if you can find it.

About all I'll say in comparing the 2 versions is this: the one and only similarity is they both center around a man named Montgomery Brewster having to dispose of a certain sum of willed money within a specified time period, without telling anyone why, in order to be eligible for a larger fortune. That's it. The novel's amounts are different, Mr. Brewster's profession and friends are different, and even the reason for the whole game is totally different - more complex and interesting in the novel, I thought. So it follows that Monty's methods of spending his money and the adventures, setbacks, and romances he experiences along the way make the novel a completely different story. Without giving away the book's ending, I will say that's different too, but equally satisfying.

Basically, if you're hesitant about tackling the novel because you're afraid it's just an outdated version of a story you already know, don't be. Read the book and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The 1985 movie was great, but Brewster's methods are far more diverse and humorous in the book. Notable highlights:

-Brewster befriends a pair of muggers by insisting they steal everything, even the $300 they overlooked in his right pocket.

-He hosts a luxury cruise for 50 to Europe, and the guests stage a mutiny to curb Brewster's inexplicable generosity.

-An Arab sheik tries to steal Brewster's fiance in Egypt, but is shot in the head while absconding.

A possible detractor: the book has far more dramatic content than the movie. This is not simply a comedic vehicle. It is thoroughly absorbing, nevertheless.

This is a must read for anyone interested in Northwest Indiana and/or the South Chicago suburbs. I use it as a reference when exploring the "Region". I have also used it as a gift for friends that grew up here and have since relocated.

I went to a book signing when this book was first printed, a few years ago and purchased this directly from a store and had it signed by Ken Schoon. I have lent it to several family members, who swore they'd return it and I had to retrieve the book from their house. If you're from the NW Indiana, you'll be amazed at the detailed facts about the area and even specific landmarks that still exist today, like "Ridge Road" in Hobart, was the ridge of lake michigan, where the indians had a path. Stuff like that. I highly suggest this book.

Bronner presents the life histories of four carvers from Indiana as resources for understanding woodcarving's appeal. The book is a detailed study of chain carving, and the description is so thick that a reader could actually learn to carve a wooden chain by reading this study of an popular folk art. What makes this book so interesting is the way in which Bronner connects the carvers' biography with woodcarving to ascertain important values within the carvers' lives. Throughout the book, Bronner uses folkore scholarship to provide important insights into ways in which an individual's early life experiences provide a base for creativity during the twilight years. At times, his analysis is speculative, but Bronner's interests are intriguing and provide interesting ways to think about creativity and aging.

This book shows the breadth and scope of meanings that are carved into wooden chains by Indiana craftsmen. Folklorist Simon Bronner begins his study with a simple question: Why would anyone spend hours and hours carving out wooden chains? The answers that he finds show that simple questions often have complex answers. Bronner provides a glimpse into the souls of the carvers as he reveals the significant aspects of the aesthetic and emotional dimensions of life history that are crafted into the art of the carvers.

Great book detailing Chicago and northern Indiana passenger rail services. If you have some or little knowledge of the area this is a great read with lots of pictures. If you are expert on the subject you will find it lacking but still with great pictures.

Commuter railroads have been a key element to the grow and prosperity of American Midwestern cities for the more than a century. Co authored by railroad experts Patrick C. Dorin (Superior, Wisconsin) and Andrew T. roth (Belvidere, Illinois), "Chicagoland Commuter Railroads: Metra & Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District" is a profusely illustrated history of suburban rail passenger train services that played a critically important role in the grow of the Chicago Metro area. Beginning with a succinct review of the various commuter services that crisscrossed Chicago and its suburbs before the development of the Regional Transit Authority, "Chicagoland Commuter Railroads" continues with providing detailed information about the routes, train frequency, passenger numbers, and physical equipment associated with the commuter railroad. While most of the illustrations are historical black-and-white photographs, of special note is the Color Photo Gallery wonderfully showcasing individual commuter trains. A welcome and seminal contribution to Railroading reference collections in general, and Midwestern Commuter Train History in particular, "Chicagoland Commuter Railroads" is especially recommended for academic and community reference collections, as well as the private collections of railroading enthusiasts and history buffs.

This is a both an engrossing and at times exasperating text on the most obscure part of highly obscure text. Perhaps the most discussed and commented of all of Plato's dialogues (including the Republic to which it bears a closer relation than often aknowledged), the Timaeus justaposes discourses on the origin and nature of the city with a long discourse on the origin and nature of the Universe suggesting an analogy which is, however, never made explicit! At the heart of this unique cosmology, mixing naturalist and supernaturalist elements is the description of this "third kind", the "chora" called variously the 'receptacle' or the "nurse or being", and since Aristotle, interpreted as "unformed matter". As several other current commentators, Sallis disagrees with the Aristotelian co-option and seeks to elaborate a vision of the chora more in tune with Plato's intentions. His efforts, though commendable in many ways, are not entirely fruitful --- at least as I can judge them --- in that he does Sallis does not provide a palpable alternative "theory of the chora" and so ends up, once again mystifying the platonic intent. But Sallis exhaustive analysis of the structure of the dialogue alone makes the book worth reading since it uncovers one of the most intriguing of Plato's notions (inherited from Heraclitus), that of a "palintropic turn", a certain narrative archway in the construction of explanatory discourse which may indeed provide a clue in the understanding of what the cora really is. This Palintropic Principle suggests that an Idea "shines forth" when the path of inquire that leads back to it reproduces its begining in the reverse order of its original deprecation. Though Sallis does not articulate this reflection his book strongly suggests that this is what makes it possible to assess the chora from present day language. Contemporary Physics is already following this return path and disengaging the chora from its aristotelian materialistic "defamation" and understanding it as (dynamic) spacetime "background". Plato rides again.

The Timaeus is a very difficult dialogue, and one that has traditionally been interpreted as offering a modification of certain aspects of Plato's "Theory of the Forms," through the introduction of a "demiurge" or divine artificer and the "chora" or prime matter for creation. Sallis does not take this traditional approach. He does not see the Platonic dialogues as documents that present a Platonic "doctrine," and he does not see the dialogues as advocating a "Theory of the Forms." Instead, he sees the dialogues as complex, dramatic texts in which complex ideas are developed and studied in subtle (sometimes subterranean) ways. Sallis's approach (already revealed in his earlier Being and Logos) amounts to a radical re-reading of the Platonic corpus.

Sallis's reading of the Timaeus is slow and careful. He takes his cues as far as possible from the indications in the text itself. His practice is to see how the text, in its development, sets up the matrix in which other aspects of the text can come to have significance. The text is observed in its self-referentiality, in its false starts and unfulfilled promises, in its repetitions, in its gradual adumbration of meaningful topics. Where others might rush to grasp the "doctrine" being put forward, Sallis lingers over the preliminaries-he follows the seemingly endless outpouring of detail, of apparent triviality, with meticulous care, being interested in reading the text, rather than passing beyond it to an idea. The result is a new Timaeus, a Timaeus oozing with formerly unnoticed significance at every point, a Timaeus clearly pervaded with the problematics of the figure that is the central subject of Sallis's book: the chora, that "nurse" or "receptacle" of becoming that is introduced midway through Timaeus's account.

Basically, the discourse about the "chora" shows that this "receptacle of becoming" simultaneously makes possible the opposition of being and becoming and undermines its primacy. The discourse of the chora brings us back the radical singularity of our place, our earth, our bodies. In his study of this theme, Sallis also reconsiders the relation of phusis and techne, the nature of the city, the nature of eros and, (the central philosophical issue of the book) the nature of beginnings in the context of philosophical method.

This is an excellent book, offering a fresh, new approach to this classic text of Ancient Philosophy. Its extended reflection on the question of beginning will also be of interest to students of Hegel, Heidegger and Derrida.

I thought this was a great read! Here is an article I found about the book from the August Gannetteer:

"Indy staffer bares basketball player's 'sole'"

Probably the only thing you know about Chuck Taylor is that his name appears on a shoe. Abe Aamidor wants you to know why.

The Indianapolis Star reporter has penned "Chuck Taylor, All Star"(Indiana University Press), a biography of the man whose name became synonymous with the Converse basketball shoe that bears his signature.

"I learned that Chuck Taylor was the most famous name in sports no one knew anything about," Aamidor says. "There had been no biographies written about him, and some people thought the name was fake, like Betty Crocker or Juan Valdez. I felt there had to be a story to tell."

Aamidor was granted access to Converse's corporate archives and Taylor's stepson gave him permission to visit the Port Charlotte, Fla., home and estate of Taylor's second wife to collect materials. He discovered correspondence between Taylor and legendary University of North Carolina coach Dean Smith, as well as UCLA's John Wooden. Smith wrote the foreword for Aamidor's book and Wooden "was by far my best living source."

The three-year project also took Aamidor to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio - Taylor was coach of the Wright Field Army Air Force "Air-Tecs" basketball team during World War II - and the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

The book, Aamidor's third, has brought him national attention, with interviews on ESPN2's "Cold Pizza" and syndicated radio shows "Sports Byline USA" and "The Bob and Tom Show." Aamidor has also penned two college-level journalism texts, "Real Feature Writing" and "Real Sports Reporting."

by Ryan Corazza
Indiana Daily Student
Published Wednesday, March 22, 2006


His signature resides on the ankle patch of perhaps the most popular shoe in American history. He's a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame and mingled with such basketball legends as John Wooden, Red Auerbach and Dean Smith. But up until now, nobody knew the true story of Chuck Taylor.

Enter Abe Aamidor.

The former IU adjunct professor and current feature writer at The Indianapolis Star spent three years digging up the facts and filtering out the myth of Chuck Taylor's life to write the first-ever biography on the Columbus, Ind., native.

"I was excited to learn there was never a book written about him," Aamidor said. "It was kind of like finding a gold coin in the street and nobody's around -- you just pick it up."

Because Taylor played in the pre-modern era of basketball that newspapers did not cover much and Converse misled the public about which pro teams Taylor played for, there was a lot for Aamidor to discover.

"Part of the mission was to debunk the mythology," Aamidor said. "There was a lot of junk in the standard brief stuff on Chuck's life, but there was also a lot that wasn't talked about."

Taylor was born in 1901 and spent most of his early years in Azalia, Ind., and Columbus, Ind.

He never played college basketball, which before World War II was the most watched and publicized level of the game. Instead, Taylor became involved with industrial league hoops, more prominent during the 1920s than professional basketball.

Taylor was also a great basketball coach -- a part of his life that is often overlooked, Aamidor said. He coached the Wright Field (Ohio) Army Air Force "Air-Tecs" of the U.S. Army's Special Service Division. The team toured the country playing college and other military teams and is regarded by some as the best service basketball team in history, winning more than 90 percent of its contests during the 1944-45 season.

"All the good players from colleges that were already playing pro ball were drafted (for military service)," Aamidor said. "In those days, you didn't get a deferment from the draft because you were a great ball player."

Instead of being well-known for his coaching abilities, Taylor became most famous for his relationship with Converse and its "All-Star" shoe. Although stories range on just how Chuck became involved with the company, he most likely became a salesman for Converse in 1921 and after proving to be a valuable asset to the company, his name was added to the All-Star patch in 1932.

One way Taylor marketed the shoe was through the "Fundamentals of Basketball" clinics he put on throughout the country. These clinics were put on at high schools and small colleges and on average drew about 300 to 400 guests.

"Before World War II, football and baseball were the big sports," Aamidor said. "So, in the clinics, he explained the game to a lot of people who weren't familiar with it."

Taylor promoted the shoe in a variety of other ways, ranging from traveling with the Converse All-Stars basketball squad to personally contacting and visiting owners of small-town sporting goods stores.

"In a way, his dealings were a bit shady, but he was ultimately honest and likeable," Aamidor said. "Nowadays, every photograph is airbrushed and any statement made is through a spokesman and interviews have to be granted. While Chuck's ways weren't perfect, they were much more honest."

Ryan Corazza
Published Wednesday, March 22, 2006

The book begins with an excellent demographic background of Cincinnati and the surrounding area and gives the reader a true feeling of the baseball climate in SW Ohio, in 1869 and now. I found the interviews with Sparky Anderson, Buddy Bell, Johnny Bench, Brooks Robinson, Bernie Stowe, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and a host of others insightful and enlightening. This is no typical historical biography of the Big Red Machine. This is an indepth look at what made the Machine tick and how it accomplished the amazing feats it did. This book is a must for the true Reds fan and baseball lover.

The author of Cincinnati and the Big Red Machine is one of the world's greatest writers and my father. He is Robert H. Walker; not Robert Martin Walker as per the above interview. I'm sure that Robert Martin Walker is a talented author as well, but I think an interview with my Dad would be much more interesting on this subject. He has a great sense of humor too. It's a great book and I'm glad to see it listed.

"The Classic Hoagy Carmichael" by John Hasse was published by the Indiana Historical Society in 1988. Hasse began the research when working on his Ph.D. at Indiana University, where Hoagland Howard C. had received his undergrad & law degrees.

Hasse compiled memory-provoking photos along with satisfying notes about the many recordings included on 3 CD's. There is an excellent bibliography and a 'select' filmography that will lead fans down another poignant bi-way. This is a marvelous collection for which Indiana University. Indiana Historical Society and Smithsonian Collection of Recordings deserve heartfelt thanks.

Hoagy Carmichael absorbed ragtime rhythms, primarily from his pianist mother who played often for fraternity dances. Music contributed greatly to his self-confidence while growing up. His early inspiration as a composer came from Bix Beiderbecke, fellow Hoosier & cornetist.. "Stardust" was one of the earliest of Hoagy's popular songs of which he wrote several hundred (& the lyrics for almost 60 ). Melody was one of his strengths and made his work unmistakable: "The Nearness of You," "Skylark," "Rockin' Chair," "Georgia," "Ole Buttermilk Sky." Hasse wrote "his melodies are memorable and hummable" and he was known as a musical Will Rogers, and loved for his nostalgic themes and regional folk sounds. "CAN'T GET INDIANA OFF MY MIND" !

Hoagy said this about his quirky singing voice: "my native wood-note and often off-key voice is what I call 'flatsy through the nose.' " His delivery was intimate and compelling. He asked once if the songs of the twenties were considered to be classics because they were old /OR/ "because they are often still fresh, strong and real?" Several of his tunes are classics, and in this collection some are interpreted by different artists, the most numerous being six versions of "Stardust." Allow plenty of time to enjoy "Lazy River," "Rockin' Chair," "Two Sleepy People" with Bob Hope, Ethel Waters singing "Bread and Gravy," and "Blue Orchids."

We, the listeners continue to relish our good fortune! With producer John Hasse, Reviewer mcHAIKU wishes for each of us "REPEATED AND INCREASINGLY AFFECTIONATE HEARINGS." That quote of Hasse is filled with loving appreciation of Hoagy Carmichael's craft and his impact on American music.

There are so many recordings of Hoagy Carmichael songs here that it's hard to know where to begin.

The Music: This box set is a phenomonal collection of fifty-seven songs performed by jazz greats from 1927 to 1984. In addition to early and later performance by HC, you'll find Louis Armstrong, Mildred Bailey, Ray Charles, Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Ethel Waters and many, many others. Some of these recordings you will just not find anywhere else as they were found in the Indiana University HC Archives.

The Book: Written by John Edward Hasse, Curator of American Music at the Smithsonian. This 64 page paperback is loaded with information and photos. Three mains sections: "The Man", "The Musician", "The Recordings". The first two section are relatively brief.

The third section contains the major reason for this book's existence. Here you'll find details of each recording. For starters: who played what, where and when and the label and number it was released on as well as who gave permission to include it in this set. Following that introduction is information about each song and its recording. Fascinating stuff.

Then, to round things up, there are recommended other recordings, thumbnail bios about lyricists and collaborators, a select filmography, bibliography and discography. Each of these occupy a page more or less but it's enough to get you going if you are so inclined to further research.

The Box: There are multiple versions of this box set available. LP, cassette, CD. All come in the same size 12x12" box. All contain the same book.

Availabilty: Searching Amazon, you'll find this set listed under both books and music. I know it may look like it's unavailable in the music section. This is not out-of-print. It is available from both the Indiana Historical Society and the Smithsonian Collection of Recordings.

Other information: Hoagy Carmichael fans: Visit the Indiana University Hoagy Carmichael website! It is loaded with information, photos, interviews, correspondance, music clips, etc!

Highly recommended!

While we all anxiously await Lingis' _The Imperative_ (forthcoming, Indiana Univ. Press), which promises to be his most systematic philosophical work to date, _The Community of Those Who Have Nothing in Common_ offers a tantalizing glimpse of where 21st century philosophy might take us. Lingis is probably the most serious philosopher of the American "Continental thought" scene, and BY FAR its most talented literary stylist. The time to discover his books is NOW.

This collection of essays is perhaps Alphonso Lingis' most reader-friendly work. The main force behind this book is the idea that individuality is linked to mortality. Each essay is connected by theme, and the final "chapter" presents the problem of death: possibilities left behind, unfulfilled and almost meaningless in the face of "the end." I highly recommend this book to anyone who has read Georges Bataille.