Oklahoma Books

"Money: The Human Conflict; A Survey of Monetary Experience," is a great historical account of the effects a monetary economic class structured society has had on the human being, human culture, and society itself. If you are examining the viability of capitalism for the future of civilization this is a great place to start. Even if you are merely interested in humanity's employment of money as a resource distribution management tool, or tracing our historical trend for perpetual warfare relative to monetary systems you will learn a lot from this excellent account of humanity's economic history by Elgin Groseclose.

Elgin Groseclose is an excellent prelude to the ideas presented in "The Venus Project," of Futurist, industrial designer, and social innovator Jacque Fresco. It is not about the planet Venus - it is about the future of human society on the planet earth. You may enjoy examining the work of Jacque Fresco and how he takes his understanding of incessant human conflict over money/weath into a novel theory of a society designed without the use of money, debt, credit, or even mandatory bartering but instead, employing a concept thoroughly developed in his book "The Best that Money can't Buy," and his movie, "Future by Design," of a global resource based socioeconomic system for managing resource distribution to satisfy all of the needs of the humand being in society in a more humane and ecosystem friendly manner.

The Best That Money Can't Buy: Beyond Politics, Poverty, & War

Ther Montana Cree Book was in Excellent condition, was delivered in good time and was very professional about the deal.
Thank you.

This account of the Vigilantes of Bannack and Virginia City is well documented and verifies, or, is verified by, Dimsdale's account of the vigilantes. My great-grandfather, Bob Dempsey, was a citizen of Bannack and had a ranch between Bannack and Virginia City. He was not involved with the members of Plummer's gang but somewhat on the fringe of things. My grandfather James Dempsey married Ellen LeCompte in Virginia City. Williams was the leader of the vigilantes but did not want his name used in the Dimsdale account. This account is accurate and can be verified by historical records available. Vi

Prompt service. Very interesting book. It was a gift and the recipient was very pleased.

Jane Jayroe's book, More Grace than Glamour, is a touching and beautiful story of a young girl, celebrity, professional, mother, wife and friend sharing her amazing story with love, humor and warmth as she reveals the joys and highs/lows of her life. It is filled with inspiration and tributes and I highly recommend it for any person who is seeking delightful, inspirational books to read. It would, also, make an excellent gift for friends, sisters, daughters...... actually anyone!! I loved reading it and have shared it with many friends and family members. Norma Ferguson, Enid, Oklahoma

Gilbert Fite's "Mt Rushmore," (1952), like the great monument, is a superb piece of work and lives up to Professor Herbert T. Hoover's description of it, (to me), as the best on the subject.

I have read two new excellent books this year on the monument ('Mt Rushmore:An Icon Reconsidered' By Jesse Larner, and 'Great White Fathers' by John Taliaferro) but I agree with Hoover that Fite's work, now over half a century old, is still the best, in regard to the politics and construction of the 'Shrine of Democracy.'

Professor Fite, a South Dakotan historian now retired in Arkansas,has an easy and engaging style of writing that appeals to the general reader, as well as obvious research abilities that make him repected by his peers.

He brings to life the major players behind the creation of Rushmore monument: Doane Robinson, the lawyer turned- visionary historian who dared to dream of a great monument; Gutzon Borglum the brilliant but irascible sculptor who created something unique for the national memory; the able administrator John Boland whose financial skills were essential for success as was his humility and ability to withstand the bile and denigration of Borglum; and the political skills of Congressmen William Williamson, Francis Case and, in particular, Senator Peter Norbeck, arguably South Dakota's greatest senator and governor whose name is forever connected with the best in conservation principles.

Fite's description of Norbeck's Iron Mountain Road as ensuring the most spectacular framing, or telescoping, of Mt Rushmore by the use of three different tunnels is spot on and brought back warm personal memories of my visit in October 2001. This road plus the earlier Needles highway,together with Custer State Park and game sanctuary remain Norbeck's monument.

There are some great photos of the the early work at Rushmore and of most of the men mentioned above, including my favourite of Doane Robinson, taken in his later years. It seems to epitomise the author's description of him as "mild and even tempered" and reflects why "through the years South Dakotans had come to love and respect Doane Robinson."

Fite is understandably tough on Borglum, who could be very unfair to people who disagreed with his views, while recognising his genius,(although Taliaferro's book goes into greater biographical detail of the sculptor, his family and Ku Klux Klan background), and chronicles the financial and political struggles of the project as well as the dissenting voices to the monument.

Mt Rushmore is indeed a place to reflect, in a dramatic setting-a monument for the ages, representing the greatness and best traditions of America. However, it should also be mentioned it has been created on stolen land and the two newer books mentioned, as you would expect 50 years on, do detail Indian perspectives and grievances, and the other notable events in the history of Rushmore, since Fite's work was produced.

However, as I write this review on the second anniversary of an evil and barbarous terrorist act, it is worth reflecting on that the men of Rushmore were essentially builders-unlike the wreckers and destroyers of the Taliban whose contribution to history was to smash the great Budhist statues of antiquity because they were not monuments of their faith.

Like Mt Rushmore, Professor Fite's book is well constructed and makes us think of peoples and values of worth. Highly recommended.

What the amazon reviewer fails to disclose are the moments in this book that make it vivid: There is a queasy and scary scene where Charley escapes being gang-raped (while in male garb, no less), and another where she limps to a surgeon after being shot in the leg during a mugging! In fact, she gets shot a couple of times throughout the book!
You can read this book in one sitting and believe me, you'll want to--it's that riveting!

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The wonderfully named Cuthbert Morton Girdlestone first published this guide in 1948. It has been frequently re-issued, also under the title Mozart's Piano Concertos, and gone through several editions, though all versions I have seen are basically identical.

At the time it first appeared Mozart's piano concertos were not as widely known and performed as they are today (no complete recordings of the entire canon were available, for example), so if Girdlestone appears to be making a special plea for their recognition, he had ample reason. With several volumes of trenchant analysis of the Viennese Classical composers and their output now available by such luminaries as Charles Rosen, Girdlestone's work may now seem old-fashioned to the point of raising smiles, an impression only reinforced by the handwritten musical examples (not very well coordinated with the text, incidentally). It is amusing to read the Concerto in B-flat major K. 450 described as "a well-bred gentleman," and such examples of what might be called musical anthropomorphism crop up frequently. Girdlestone was not a trained musical theorist and when he tries to talk of technical matters such as harmony or key centers he is fuzzy and at times downright wrong, no small matter with a master of tonal harmony and musical form. He also denigrates the musical worth of the early concertos in what seems an unnecessarily harsh manner, and his insistence that a benchmark of quality for a piano concerto be "collaboration" between the solo instrument and orchestra, by which he seems to mean dialogue and contrapuntal combination, is dogmatic as well. By his standards, for example, the so-called "Coronation" Concerto, K. 537, is an inferior work; but Rosen and others have pointed out how its compositional techniques anticipate those of Beethoven and subsequent early Romantic composers of piano concertos.

Nevertheless, Girdlestone's passion for Mozart's music, and his recognition that its charm and grace does not preclude deep and profound emotion, override his frequently flawed analysis, drawing the sympathetic reader in. It is hard not to agree with, or be moved by his statement that the piano concertos are a medium by which "we penetrate... into the inner sanctuary where the harassed and overworked man [Mozart] found afresh the radiant life which never ceased to spring up within him." In addition, his placing of the piano concertos within the context of Mozart's entire output is interesting and frequently provides valuable insight into the composer's general aesthetic. When my first copy of this book finally fell apart I searched for another copy to replace it, and found it here on Amazon. I recommend that all musicians and music lovers acquaint themselves with this pioneering, loving musical guide.

This book was actually written by my great aunt. My understanding is that there were only 50 copies ever published. It was only intended for family members. I have a copy of my own and treasure it like it were made of gold! Lorena's brother Benton Wilcox helped with editing and offering guidance on chapter content. Some of us in the family are talking about getting the book reprinted. It would sure be great to pass it on to our children and grandchildren.

It would be hard to fully understand recent and past work on shotgun performance and patterns without first reading this book. This is not entertaining reading, it is technical stuff for those who want to better understand shotgun patterns. I am glad I purchased and read it.