Historic Books

Book uses unique overlay technique that allows the reader to see what a historical site looks like today as well as what it looked like in its prime. Excellent reference material for pilgrims to the Holy Land. I bought it in Israel and bought three more for friends when I got home.

This handy little spiral-bound book has thick pages and wonderful photographs of historic sites in Israel. It is a virtual tour book of ancient Israel. The plastic graphic overlays for each page lets you see what the same scene might have looked like in ancient times. This is an excellent study help that allows you to visualize the buildings and places in the time of Jesus. The back of each page provides explanations of the historical and religious significance of the site. The rest of the book includes a glossary, a brief synopsis of ancient history, and maps to pull it all together. Though published by Frommer's, I would suggest that this is wonderful study guide for any student of the Bible, not just travelers to the Middle East. From the fortress at Masada to the church at Kursi, this collection gives you a tour of ancient sites and transports you to that world in a way other books cannot.

Trying to picture the past is often diffcult. This book is an outstanding reference and visual aid for anyone touring or studing Israel. Each of the major sites is shown today and with an overlay of it's former glory.

I grew up in Kentucky and traveled as a nurse for 4 year. My last assignment was truly the best one and was in a state other than Kentucky. Although the company I worked for gave me a going away gift, I wanted to leave them with something that would connect us and they would be able to see pictures and learn something about where I was from. I chose this book and it was a solid gold hit! They loved it. The book is so bautiful and the pictures are breathtaking! Highly recommend this book and the photographer's work.

This book is filled with outstanding photography from Kentucky, the beautiful Bluegrass state! You will find pictures of the famous landmarks in the area, as well as ones of more remote and hidden treasures you might otherwise never see! In fact, on page 49, you can see a good old-fashioned baptism in a creek, conducted by the church where I attend! This book is much less expensive here than on other online purchasing sites, as well! You will not be disappointed! Enjoy!

Stunningly beautiful photographs of the history and character of the commonwealth of Kentucky. A must have for the Kentucky collector.

Stephen Turnbull's JAPANESE CASTLES IN KOREA 1592-98 is a pick not just for military libraries but for any specializing in early Asian history. The focus on Japanese-built castles and Korean fortifications follows the design and use of key fortresses and joins the publishers' 'Fortress' history series.

I travel for a living and love these books. Easy packing, entertaining airport reads and educational. I have purchased many and will continue to do so.

Stephen Turnbull's Japanese Castles in Korea is definitely one of these weird unknown subject matter that is worthy of Osprey's Fortress Series. In this short book, Turnbull managed to give a pretty good summary account of history of Japanese castles that were built during Hideyoshi's Korean invasion between the years 1592 to 1598. The book explained how these castles were built initially to support the invasion, support the supply lines, to control and policed the area around it and finally to support the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Korea after Hideyoshi's death.

Stephen Turnbull managed to do all this in this short book with clarity and understanding that don't bogged the reader down. Turnbull also stated that Japanese castle designs at that time proves to be quite capable of withstanding the might of the Ming armies from China. From what I understand, lack of artillery consideration appears to be the major weakness of the Japanese military when defending their castles. Still, three major sieges of Japanese castles in Korea all ended with Japanese victories. And according to the author, the Japanese forces also adapted Korean cannons to their defensive lines as well.

Interestingly, the author also spent few paragraphs describing how these castles were built and the hardships of the impressed Japanese peasants and Korean workers forced to worked on these fortresses. Brief outline of the war in Korea was given but the readers would have to wait for the Turnbull's Campaign series (Samurai Invasion of Korea 1592-1598) book coming out in July 2008 on the subject to get greater details or read a book already published by him on the subject (Samurai Invasion) that came out in 2004.

Like all Osprey books, this book come well illustrated with very useful drawings and illustrations of these Japanese castles and their designs. Turnbull also inserted many black and white photos of the remains of these Japanese castles, mostly only their stone base remains while using castle parts from Japan to illustrated what they could have look like in Korea as well.

Overall, this book covers a subject that is beyond the common knowledge of most people in the English speaking world and despite of the shortness of the book, I found this book to be utterly interesting in terms of information given.

There are other charming books written about the jewel-by-the-sea, La Jolla, but this one adds a special touch that enhances our beautiful resort with fascinating facts from the past. Famous names such as Irving J. Gill, the architect, Ellen Browning Scripps, Charles and Anne Lindbergh, Gregory Peck, and Cliff Robertson, to name a few.

The world renowned Scripps Institute of Oceanography with its pioneers, such as Roger Revelle, is one of the many outstanding features and facts of a well written record of our paradise-on-earth village.

Though not a native of La Jolla, I have visited it since 1938. I moved my residence here in 1985.

I have sent this book to family and friends out of town who have also become intrigued with this Town with the Funny Name.

Indeed, anyone, anywhere, interested in history and the arts will open a book filled with them.

There are other charming books written about the jewel-by-the-sea, La Jolla, but this one adds a special touch that enhances our beautiful resort with fascinating facts from the past. Famous names such as Irving J. Gill, the architect, Ellen Browning Scripps, Charles and Anne Lindbergh, Gregory Peck, and Cliff Robertson, to name a few.
The world renowned Scripps Institute of Oceanography with its pioneers, such as Roger Revelle, is one of the many outstanding features and facts of a well written record of our paradise-on-earth village.

Though not a native of La Jolla, I have visited it since 1938. I moved my residence here in 1985.

I have sent this book to family and friends out of town who have also become intrigued with this Town with the Funny Name by Max Miller.

Indeed, anyone, anywhere, interested in history and the arts will open a book filled with them.

Signed: Leigh Sherman, member of La Jolla Branch of National League of American Pen Women since 1984.

My husband is very impressed with Patricia Daly-Lipe's book, so much so that I haven't had a chance to read it yet. He has read a number of books about our home town of La Jolla and found this one to be truly superior to the typical tourist offering. The overall quality of the book is demonstrated by the breadth of the topics covered coupled with the knowledgable glimpses of La Jolla offered by several resident authors.

This is a very handsome book - of great interest for architectural buffs or historians. It pairs two great architects - Robert Venturi and Irving Gill - in a unique, engaging, and informative way. The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (in La Jolla, California)is one of the finest small museums in the country, well worth a visit to see outstanding architecture as well as cutting-edge contemporary art.

This is an outstanding book for anyone interested in the work of two great architects - Robert Venturi and Irving Gill. The combination of their work at the museum in La Jolla is masterful, and this book gives a fascinating look into the museum's history and Venturi's thought processes as he sought to restore the historic "Scripps House" while expanding and modernizing the Museum of Contemporary Art. A great find - makes me want to visit La Jolla and see it for myself!

Buy this book even if you've never been to the La Jolla museum it describes. If you've been to the museum, it's worth buying to give you pause to reflect on what you've seen. This book offers both the history and theory behind Venturi's reshaping of a wonderful museum in an attractive location. Those of us who remember the museum in the old days have got to be impressed with what Venturi has done. Although this text is all too brief, it provides the illumination needed to appreciate more fully this California classic.

After a decade together their ardor had cooled. It was then, in 1900, that Bernhard Berenson (he later dropped the "h" in his first name) and Mary Costelloe married, placing imprimatur on a symbiotic partnering that lasted until her death in 1945. The civil ceremony in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio united an unusual pair. He was a polylingual bon vivant; she spoke grade school Italian, which remained virtually unimproved throughout her 50+ years in Tuscany.

Art historian, critic, and, as he preferred, connoisseur, Berenson was a Lithuanian Jew who established an impressive reputation as an authority on Italian Renaissance painting. "The Drawings of the Florentine Painters" and "The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance" are among his better known works.

A widow with two children and also a writer, Mary was a Philadelphia Quaker who addressed her husband archaically. Reporting to him on their home's refurbishment, she wrote, "So thee sees the main things (except the electricity) are done." When construction went awry: "Thee wd. rage at the way the red fire-place is put up."

For Berenson, she was sometimes a catalyst, often a goad who collaborated with him on his written work, and patiently assisted in endlessly revising his lists of Italian paintings. They shared a penchant for extravagance, acquisition, and a tendency to overlook each other's infidelities.

In A Legacy Of Excellence William Weaver has rendered a graceful drawing of privileged turn-of-the-century life. His perspective is the Villa I Tatti in the vineyard strewn hills between Florence and Fiesole. Once the Berenson's home, it is now the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies. Recent color pictures as well as archival photographs enhance this well documented history, while exquisite reproductions of Berenson's art collection add to its luster. When first leased by the Berensons, I Tatti was modest compared to its imposing villa neighbors. Previous tenants eschewed modern conveniences; there was only one bath, no electricity or telephone. Mary engaged 40 workmen to begin rudimentary improvements, hoping to provide Bernard with a salubrious atmosphere in which to study and collect. Apparently she succeeded. He amassed photographs and books - his Fototeca eventually held 300,000 items, his library 50,000 volumes. Works by Giotto, Sasseta, and Lorenzo Lotto were included in his art collection.

With an income derived largely from commissions on art sales, Berenson was employed by the English art dealer Lord Duveen to give his seal of approval to the Renaissance paintings Duveen sold to monied Americans, notably Frick, Kress, and Mellon.

Weaver, a thorough author as evidenced in Marino Marini, overlooks a significant aspect of Berenson's connoisseurship: the substantial sums he earned in the picture trade later brought Berenson's impartiality into question, resulting in the downgrading of many of his attributions.

Nonetheless, when the villa's 20th century owner, a wealthy English eccentric, died childless, the cash strapped Berensons obtained a loan to purchase the estate only through the intervention of an American friend.

Once they owned the villa, Mary engaged architects to plan further refurbishing, as well as the building of magnificent formal gardens. In years to come I Tatti would be visited by Edith Wharton, Walter Lippman, Yehudi Menuhin, Adlai Stevenson, Gertrude Stein, who, as Mary put it, swam in a nearby artificial lake "clothed only in her own fat," plus a host of that era's literati and glitterati.

Often separated during World War I, Mary stayed at the villa while Bernard worked and romanced in Paris, where he had become friends with Matisse, Gide and Proust.

Postwar unrest in Italy presaged the rise of fascism, which Bernard vehemently and vocally opposed. His stance caused him to be considered untrustworthy by many Italian intellectuals and some influential Americans. Expulsion from Italy seemed probable, but it did not occur.

In late summer of 1944 war again reached Florence. Bernard wrote in his diary, "Our hillside happens to lie between the principal line of German retreat along the Via Bolognese and a side road...We are at the heart of the German rearguard action, and seriously exposed." Miraculously the villa was unharmed by its German occupants.

While Mary wanted the villa and its 75 acres left to her children, Bernard was adamant that their beneficiary be his alma mater, Harvard University. Although Mary persistently derided his dream of "a lay monastery of leisurely culture" as "a wayside inn for loafing scholars," he bequeathed the villa and grounds, his library, and works of art to Harvard.

Initially, the University was somewhat daunted by his demanding bequest. Native Florentines viewed their new neighbors unenthusiastically, dismissing them as more "anglo-beceri" (becero literally meaning boor), as earlier Tuscan based English and American cliques were known. That was to change with the disastrous flooding of 1966.

Members of the national and international art communities selflessly responded when an irreplaceable portion of the world's art history was jeopardized. I Tatti became a focal point of that aid. Art experts performed herculean salvaging tasks - delicate glass negatives from the Uffizi's Gabinetto Fotografico had to be rescued from the muck. It took over a week for the 30,000 slides to be bathed then laid out to dry.

An air-lift of enormous drying-machines organized by Harvard's Renaissance art historian saved countless books and documents from the Biblioteca Nazionale. I Tatti housed as many art experts as possible; others were guests only long enough for a hot bath.

The Center's dedication to minimizing the flood's devastation altered its image in the minds of many Florentines who had previously viewed it with a shrug. Strangers became colleagues and friends. Today, fifteen students are nominated annually to study at I Tatti, while according to a stipulation in Bernard's will, the library is open free of charge "for all students of Italy and other countries." Scholars from dissimilar backgrounds walk together along impeccably raked gravel paths, where they "speak the same language; the language of the Italian Renaissance." Bernard Berenson's dream came true.

As the author of the recently published Geoffrey Scott and the Berenson Circle, I can tell you that this history of the Villa I Tatti is an exceptionally beautiful book about a most fascinating place. William Weaver, the most important of today's translators of Italian fiction and a great stylist, has written an exciting history of a most exciting place. It would make an ideal gift for any Italophile.

The newly married art historians Bernard and Mary Berenson made their home at the Villa I Tatti near Florence in 1900. In the following years Mary, supervised the rebuilding of the villa and the creation of its elegant gardens. The Berensons pursued their work at I Tatti over a period of nearly six decades, and here they entertained a remarkable circle of friends :art historians ( Kenneth Clark, John Walker, John Pope-Hennessy), writers (Edith Wharton, Alberto Moravia), political thinkers (Walter Lippman, Gaetano Salvermini), musicians (Yehudi Menuhin) and countless other visitors from every part of the world. At I Tatti Bernard Berenson assmbled a choice collection of Renaissance art, including works by Giotto, Sassetta, Domenico Veneziano, and Lorenzo Lotto. He also formed a prodigious art historical research library and photograph collection. When he died in 1959, he bequeathed the house, its contents, and the gardens to Harvard University as a Center for Renaissance Studies. This book documents the colorful life the Berensons led at I Tatti, the rich intellectual atmosphere they fostered there, and the spirit that continues and is nurtured by the Harvard Center. Berenson was associated with the famous art dealer, Baron Joseph DUVEEN (1869-1939) who noticed, early in life, that Europe had plenty of art and America had plenty of money, and his entire astonishing career was the product of that simple observation (S.N. Behrman, Duveen). The American plenty has been well invested in I Tatti, as the superb photographs by David Finn show. William Weaver has lived for many years in Italy, reporting on the Italian cultural world for American and British publications. This book has also a detailed alphabetical index, showing the quality of the research made by the author. Jan A. MORTELMANS.

As an American who lived in London for 15 months, I thought I knew every museum in and around the city. But Ms. Kaplan's beautifully written guide introduced me to several unkown gems. What makes this guidebook so appealing, and unusual, is that in addition to decribing the museum's contents she tells you the story of how the museum came to be. Ms. Kaplan's fascinating anecdotes put the museums and their collections in the appropriate historical and political context making for a more meaningful visit. I also highly recommend her books about Paris and Berlin.

Beautifully illustrated and written, Kaplan reveals the real London -- the London most first-time visitors don't get a chance to see using traditional guide books. I highly recommend it for a more intellectual and quirky view of this eccentric culture and people. This takes you to a world way beyond the norm you never would have seen otherwise. I use her guides for all the cities she chooses to write about --

Rachel Kaplan's delightful guide provides timely support for museums off the beaten track in the wake of the recent move to make many of London's larger and more famous entrance-charging museums, including the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, free of charge. The books provides a wealth of information about the content and appeal of the museums, yet also fuels the readers' desire to see for themselves. The one problem, almost inevitably with this type of volume, lies with the subjectivity of the selection. Some museums, such as the Museum of London, are arguably too well known to merit inclusion, whilst others, including the fascinating Horniman Museum in Forest Hill, are inexplicably absent. Nevertheless, an admirably wide range of museum types is presented, catering to a diverse range of readers. It is useful for numerous demographics, from those looking for a child-orientated outing that involves more than looking at dinosaurs to those who might want an unusual alternative to tours of stately homes.

Despite the Horniman Museum quibble, inclusion of quirky South London venues including the Dulwich Picture Gallery, the Cuming Museum, the Bramah Tea and Coffee Museum and the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum provides a laudable exception to the prevalent North and West London bias exhibited in virtually all London guides to tourist attractions and events. Whilst the three latter entries are marginal collections that deserve the praise and exposure they receive here, the Dulwich Picture Gallery is a highly significant art collection. This book forms a useful supplement to familiar general publications, such the Rough Guides, which do not have the space to enter into such textual and pictorial detail on individual collections. Kaplan's elegant and deceptively simple prose distils an extraordinary amount of scholarship into a compulsively readable form. It is an uncommon pleasure to read a guidebook marked by such a rigorous intellectual element as well as clear evidence of comprehensive first-hand knowledge and enthusiasm.

As a volunteer reader at a children's shelter, I purchased this book for many reasons.
First, the illustrations. The very talented Mr. Santoro knows his audience. The children wanted to look long and hard at the pictures. Each turn of the page was met with "oohs," "aahs" and "cooools" from my young audience.
Second was the storyline of the skyscraper watching the changes of the surrounding territory and what those changes meant to the skyscraper.
The third reason (and deciding factor) was the storyline of the little boy who was inspired by the skyscraper and followed his dream.
After reading this story to the children I ask the questions, "What changes in your environment have changed you?" and (my favorite) "What in your life inspires you the way the skyscraper inspired the little boy?" The answers make for a lengthy and inspired session. I wish I could describe the looks on the kid's faces as they think about the questions.

However, here's a story of why I felt I must write a review of this book:
One day, after reading this book to the children, I packed my bookbag and headed for the door. Before I reached the exit, a child who rarely reacts to any book (or anything for that matter), stopped me and said, "You know, I actually liked that book. It was good." He turned around and walked away, following the other children into the area that is 'for residents only.' I stopped in my tracks and thought, "Now, THAT is a great review of a good book." You had to be there.

I already have scott's first book, "Isaac", and just got his newest book, the Little Skyscraper yesterday. This book is wonderful! The illustrations are captivating and colorful, story line is simple, and easy to follow. Children once again will love this book, as well as the parents. You'll cheer when Jack comes back and saves his old friend, the skyscraper. This book is one to put under your tree this year, and in your collection.

In an age where technology is moving us ever-faster into the future, as well as the uncertainty that has been brought with war, people are turning more and more to the security and comfort of the past, of things closer to home, of memories that bring joy and peace to their hearts. The Little Skyscraper does exactly that. It conjures up images of a simpler society, simpler life where it was routine to help others, where character, integrity and hardwork were still the keys to success. Where the old was not destroyed by the new -- but where the value of both was seen and combined to make a better world. The Little Skyscraper learned he didn't have to be tall and ultra-modern to make an impression -- that the greatest gift he had and could offer was just to be himself. The easy-to-read text and wonderful illustrations present this valuable lesson in a way that will bring readers back to this book again and again!

Very clever and wonderful poems. I had this writer for a workshop and he's brilliant in person.

I strongly recommend this book of poems for anyone that enjoys the clever phrase or image.

Bouvier finds an ebullience and often amusement in ambivalence. No Hamlet is he, riddled with doubts. He gets above the ambivalences by a bright, sometimes almost mocking style. This obviously does not get to any answers, or even any ways out of the ambivalences. But it surely presents an unfamiliar, entertaining view on this common state. Bouvier can write, "If we touched hands, it was too much. We touched hands. It was not enough...We lost ourselves, we found a house. We found a house, we lost the house." ("The House In Order") He ends "Somebody Stop LaSalle, "To the left and right fantasies. Come amok with me." The insouciant style yields fetching, occasionally intriguing wordplay.

The beloved writer and editor Judith Moore used to recommend Geoff Bouvier's writing as a perfect balance of the spare and the sensual. When I heard that he had published a book of poetry to follow on the heels of his award winning chapbook, EVERYBODY HAD A HAT, I thought, "About time," for that book came out some years ago. Some of the "HAT" material shows up again in LIVING ROOM, the new and ample collection from Copper Canyon Press, but it is supplemented by so many new poems that what remains is only an impression which, in its new context, becomes merely one of a number of opening doors. Heather McHugh has contributed an introduction which got me a little bogged down, and eventually I abandoned it, not because she's an inadequate critic, nor because she is unenthusiastic about Bouvier's writing; no, it is merely that she has her own slant on things and I wanted my experience to Bouvier's writing to be free, at least, of that tendency.

So then why now am I giving my reactions? Well, for one thing, I'm afraid that books like Geoff Bouvier's fly under the radar and not enough people know of this unique work. He lives in San Diego, and he works outside the academy, so for many readers, he just doesn't exist. In "Not Pathetic Ebough Weather We're Having," he steps back from the scene described almost as a technician. "Read the trees' confusion," it begins, in what I take as an imperative, a voice ordering us to read. (But it might also be a slangy use of the past tense, the initial word 'I' omitted as in naturalistic speech, like "Went down to the store today.") His poems are so brief you could almost count the words, and such compression, like the great weight borne down on coal, that turns it to diamond, makes emphasis key. "A sun's frown's funny on warm orange pumpkins." What is with the article "A"? How many suns are there anyway--why not just say "The sun"? It's a suggestive method which Bouvier uses like a grandmaster, to divert us out of preconceived notions into a place where answers disguise themselves as executioners.

When the real "I" makes a belated entry into the poem, naturally I assume it's the real Geoff Bouvier. However the rules of modernism intervene, pulling at my sleeve, asking me to consider that, perhaps, just perhaps, this "I" is an authorial invention. "But I won't feel for it until winter worries away snow." The poem ends somewhere else, on a "field of sweaty February," far away from its vision of pumpkins hot, hot, hot. Just so are we transported, as readers, away from the page itself and into another space mental or physical. Now I'm getting more Heather McHugh than I wanted, but you get the general idea.

My 7 year old son, Aaron, and I have just finished reading Macon Treasures Remembered. He was totally fascinated with it! What a wonderfully done work. It was so special to me to be able to tell him about the town in which I grew up.

This book has been needed a long time! The photos are spectacular! The anecdotes tickle your tastebuds for more. It makes you want to go on a tour of each home and learn more. Thank goodness these authors preserved the memories of times past and talents shared of people who cared about building a city of warmth and beauty in which to live out their lives and for generations to appreciate over a hundred and seventy years later. A great book to sit with by the fire and take a journey back in time and be inspired for today.

This is a wonderful book. Venture into the world of antebellum Georgia as you relive the characters and mansions of beautiful, historic Macon, GA--the city that Sherman by-passed but General Layfayette visited. The authors and photographer have taken extraordinary pains in recreating the old South. Outstanding photography and dynamic history. Every home should have one gracing their living room coffee table. Excellent Christmas present for people who have everything.