Associations and Clubs Books

The author is very knowledgeable, but he writes like an apologist for OMG's or Bikies as he calls them in Australia. The majority of his arguments defending the bikers is based on statements from the members in the club, so people who live on the fringes and flaunt the law are given instant credibility by him. Reads like a textbook, but not an informative one. His bias shows through and through, a little more objectivity would not hurt his next book.

As others have pointed out, this book probably is more relevant to the aussie bike scene than anywhere else. Clearly written by an outsider, it reads like a term paper and is full of factual errors.

The book does provide some good information, slightly dated but informative none the less. However, the sole concentration of this writing is on the Australian 1% community. The title is slightly misleading.

I found this book first-rate. It was exciting from cover to cover. Arthur Veno, takes you through the lives of Outlaw Bikers or bikies as he refers to them. Some of the customs he speaks about made my jaw drop. I was sorry to see the book end. If you love reading about the biker culture, this is the book for you.

This book is one of the few that I have read that didn't have the sensationalistic jargon attached to it that so many other's of it's type often do. It was just a good, solid and informative read. Although I feel that the author defenitely has/had an agenda, it was, in my opinion still a well written tome. It was also refreshing to get the view from the other side. If you are interested in the outlaw motorcycle culture at all, I think it is a must read.

Though never a member of any fraternity,I have always had a passing interest in what they were all about.The author claims that the Freemasons are the world's oldest secret society.Whether that be true or not;it has existed for a very long time in one form or another. He makes a good attempt to trace it roots back to the building of Solomon's Temple.With all that has happened since that time,all the histories that have been written,all the organizations that have existed,and on and on;it is unlikely that complete agreement on all the history of the Freemasons will ever be resolved.Heck,the author shows that even the Freemasons have widely different views. What we seem to find is that there were organizations from Solomon's time and probably even before,and without doubt organizations of Masons exist today;how they got from there to here is intriguing.
I have read quite a bit of history,from Ancient times to the present and Masons,Templars or whatever form or organization was involved at any particular time;there is little doubt that they existed and played important parts in all areas of history.Remember, it is the people who belonged to them is what was important;even moreso than the organization itself.
Yes,they are a secret organization,not unlike many others. Yes,there are many things said about them,both good and bad.Yes ,they have been maligned and persecuted by just about every country and organization imaginable.All one can really say about that is;"Well,join the club!"
The author has set out to show as fairly as possible the history,aims and whatnot and ,rather than make any judgements,leaves the reader to make up his own mind as what to make of it all.
Quite honestly,I didn't think he exposed any sinister secrets. Heshows tha Freemasons had major involvement in the development of the United States and Canada.Whether you look at Political leaders,businessmen,Scientists,Mosicians,leaders in the Arts,Medicine,Generals or any other walks of life;you will find men who believed in God,and wanted to do all they were able to serve their country and fellow men.Of course,this was not onlytrue of Freemasons;many other people and organizations had similar aims and also were subjected to similat persecutions and misrepresentations.
If one reads this ook with an open mind ,one would come to the same conclusion as did Abraham Lincoln did in my title.
Organizations,down through the ages,with the highest of principles and aspirations have had problems with human failings amongst its members,and have been maligned for all kinds of reasons The Freemasons seem to be no different.
I thought the list of Famous Masons the author provided shows that Freemasonry cuunts some of the finest people who made tremendous contributions in the development of the United States and Canada.
Maybe we are all better off by thinking about what these people saw,believed and how they led their lives;rather than looking for something sinister in the organization. This applies to many other fine organizations as well,and I doubt that any of those Famous Masons listed would disagree.

This book does not contain much that hasn't already been exhausted in previous books. I read this book the day after finishing Jasper Ridley's volume on Freemasonry, and it seems like the author of this book (for the most part) paraphased Ridley. I recommend Ridley's book. Also, there are some incorrect statements- one being that the eligible age of joining DeMolay is 13. The correct age is 12. That was not well researched. A simple visit to demolay.org would have fixed that problem. As a senior DeMolay and Master Mason, I prefer reading books on Masonry by Masons. Among the great authors are S. Brent Morris, W.L. Wilmshurst, and Allen Roberts. Also recommended are the books by John J. Robinson, who became a mason shortly after writing his 3 books on Freemasonry.

Before I get to the subject matter, I must say that this book definitely should have been edited much better. There are small, but distracting mistakes quite often. Secondly, the way this college professor cites his sources is disappointing. It is difficult to find where he gets what from unless he comes out and says the author's name in the text, which is not incredibly often. If his "Titles for further reading" in the back is his bibliography, 17 sources from the same publisher? I agree with one of the other reviews. There is not much here that I haven't heard already. It is a wonderful book for beginners who have no clue what masons say about their own organization or if one wants masonic gossip. Personally I would have enjoyed a more balanced book. Why not get perspectives from those masons who have quit the order? Instead of spending gross amounts of time on telling us names of people who were masons and showing us small insignificant branches, why not ellaborate on groups like the illuminati? Thats a pretty major group not even touched. It might be more controversial? This book pits the gossip of ages against what well-rehearsed masons say about it. It doesn't give any well-thought-out arguments against masonry any real heed. It would just be nice to get an honest discourse instead of this off kilter type of research.

Like many before me who have writen reviews on this book I to am a mason and I found this book extreemely useful in my studies.
If you are a Mason, wishing to become a Mason, or just plain curious then I higly recomend this book.

This book is a must for any persons who are interested in secret societies. The information provided by this book will not only help readers understand the history of Freemasons; it also paves the way for scholars and investigative reporters in comparing secret societies of the West and the East.

This is a must read for anyone wanting to start an investment club or who is thinking of joining an existing club. While some portions of the book, at first, may be a bit overwhelming for a new investor, it all comes together easily and clearly. The questions to ask potential members, brokers, and others all help to insure that if your club is not succesful, it will be because of the market's performace and not your structure.

Everything you need to know about investment clubs. You don't need to be part of a club to profit from this book. The one down side is that the writing style can be heavy going at times. The authors know their choosen field but the worked examples could have been better layed out. The book is full of tips and tools for the would-be investor. This book is the current standard when it comes to this subject.

The strength of this book is that it's quite easy to read. The book is a great resource for beginning investors who are interested in forming an investment club. It can make for a great present to each member of your family. My brother got me this book as a present, and I finished it in a night; the following morning, we had devised a way to start a family investment club. I find myself contantly referring back to this book, especially the Apendices; the Glossary provided is rich with terms every investor needs to know--if you don't know the lingo, how do you expect to make any money?

This book will give new clubs information on reading annual reports, preparing and using N.A.I.C. tools such as the Stock Selection Guide and more. This is the Investment Club Bible.

This books shows you how to get started with an investment club. Such clubs are great educational opportunities, yet I have never seen an investment club help its members learn about options. In today's troubled markets, hedging with options makes good sense. THE SHORT BOOK ON OPTIONS explains how investment clubs can use options to generate the "expected" profits more quickly. Get both of these books and establish your investment club as one that reaps additional profits using options.

About a quarter of the way through this book, I was ready to toss it. I am glad I didn't. It suffers at times from mind-numbing detail and Jeal occasionally assumes knowledge I doubt most readers possess (particularly 19th century British military minutia). The pace is very slow through most of the book - not surprising considering the volume of information covered. And I do NOT recommend it as a first book on Baden-Powell! Tackle Russell Freedman's much more readable "Scouting With Baden-Powell" or spend a week with William "green Bar Bill" Hillcourt's long but less-scholarly "Baden-Powell The Two Lives of a Hero" (written with Olave Baden-Powell, the General's wife). But the reader looking for the most comprehensive and balanced treatment of Lord R.S.S. Baden-Powell should read this book. I have a much better feeling for and understanding of BP as result of reading this book.

The text is primarily chronological. However, when dealing with specific aspects in Baden-Powell's life, he sometimes discusses issues and recounts all the related incidents, which can be somewhat confusing because it interrupts the chronological flow. I found myself having to stop reading to put these "breakout" incidents into chronological synchronization with things already discussed.

The illustrations and photos are excellent. The photographs are grouped into three sections on higher quality paper. They will make little sense until you read the text referring to them. I really love BP's illustrations! They are sprinkled throughout the book (and in the original hardback edition called "The Boy-Man", are on the inside covers). The footnotes are copious but very difficult to use, numbered by section, not chapter, all at the end rather than at the foot of the pages and without referring page numbers, and many referring to documents by a code name which is keyed in a bibliographic section. The index was only marginally useful, rather short for such a large book, and limited in scope. I feel as though Jeal could have made this the seven-volume "Compleat Life Of Baden-Powell" had he wished. At times, while reading this book, I wished he had (and at other times this thought sent chills down my spine).

The thing that put me off was Jeal's amateur psycho-analysis of the inner "Stephe". This permeates the book and distracts from the narrative. Perhaps in reaction to the slanderous assertions of other biographers, Jeal asserts that BP was a repressed homosexual. I found most of his arguments unpersuasive and reject this suggestion. He also implied that many Guide leaders were lesbians. Since his evidence of this was sketchy at best, I found it distracting. Yet he did not go into detail about the trials of Oscar Wilde and the resulting intolerance of homosexuality, which is important to the context of this issue. Another example of this unfortunate tendency of pseudo-psychology is in the epilogue ("Curbing the Beast and Reclaiming the Child"). Jeal suddenly begins discussing a darker side of Baden-Powell that was barely hinted at in the rest of the book. He attributes this darker BP to repressed childhood anger and a "lost childhood". It felt as if this was added on in the epilogue because he needed to say something about it and had neglected it through the rest of the text. These forays into psychology are the greatest weakness of this book.

Jeal's discussion of the Seige of Mafeking is nuanced. His treatment of Baden-Powell is obviously sympathetic, yet he also wants to show BP "warts and all." Jeal digs into the letters and diaries of not only Baden-Powell and his family, but even BP's officers and their families. As the book goes on, he relies more and more on interviews with people who were there, which gives the text a ring of authenticity that I did not find in other BP biographies. (For instance, he lists the inhabitants of Outspan in BP's last days as a result of an interview with one of the employees.)

In the later sections of the book, the detail is again dense and Jeal returns to psycho-analysis, but it does not (to me) seem as heavy-handed as in the beginning of the book (until the epilogue). I had not appreciated the conflicts and fitful starts of the early Scouting movement, and the power struggles that nearly wrecked it. I was dredfully ignorant of his home life and last years. I think Jeal was harsh with the two primary women in BP's life: his mother and wife. He paints both of them as unscrupulously domineering and cold. But his treatment of the end of BP's life is poignant and tender.

He addresses issues raised by other biographers and explains how he believes they are wrong based on documents and interviews in the five years he worked on this massive tome. I found this very interesting, but would rather have these things dealt with in their own chapter near the end, rather than scattered through the text. An example of this is his treatments of militarism in the early years of the movement and BP's opinions of the Fascist leaders Mussolini and Hitler.

The question of militarism could have been better addressed. The concerns and fears that the youth of the British Empire were weak and needed character building were concerns and fears felt around the world at that time. There were other similar organizations rising around the world at the same time. Jeal did not address the massive changes around the world from 1850 to 1950. The world had turned on its head economically (the rise of the middle classes and rich merchant barons, and the reaping of colonial economies), industrially (invention and commercialization of automobiles, airplanes, etc.), religiously ("Awakenings", new religious movements such as Mormonism, Christian Science, and the Salvation Army, and wide-spread atheism), politically (National Socialism and Communism) - in nearly every way. People were grasping for something larger than themselves to save them from being lost in the changing world. Jeal could have done more to place the events, particularly after the founding of the movement, into a context larger than the British Empire. He relates the world-wide travels of BP, but (with exception of the US) does not go into much detail on BP's relationships with Scouting organizations in other countries.

My conclusion from this book is that Baden-Powell was an ordinary man upon whom was thrust greatness. The picture that emerges is a complex man. BP was a social climber, not a good student, at times flighty, and a bit of a clown. He would take others' ideas to enrich his own. He was not above stretching the truth if it would make a better yarn around the campfire (or in a book). He was a man with feet of clay. He was an idealist. His concern for young people was quite genuine. He tried his best to be the role model for the movement. He created the greatest youth movement ever seen, almost without wanting to. He breathed into it the Soul of Scouting, which carried it around the world. He indeed did his best to do his duty to his country and all the Scouts of the world.

An excellent read. I was impressed at the volume of information Jeal had at his disposal in researching the book. With all the references he had I cannot but think that this book IS the definitive history of Baden-Powell. Yes the book does raise some controversial questions about Baden-Powell but Jeal does not attempt to label Baden-Powell in any way; instead presenting to the reader facts from people close to Baden-Powell including extracts from Baden-Powells own diaries. The reader can draw their own conclusions. I found Jeals book to be an excellent read and an wonderful insight into the life and culture that existed during Baden-Powells life, and in particular, his army career. The worldwide Scouting movement owes Baden-Powell so much and I think every scout leader should read this book. I did!

Tim Jeal was given unrestricted access to the unrivalled family archive by the great-nephew Mr. Francis Baden-Powell. There are many pictures in this book that cannot be found anywhere else. Tim Jeal spent five years of research prior to writing this book. There are FIVE pages of acknowledgements which include, British Scout Association, Mr. J L Tarr (Chief Scout Executive of BSA) and numerous other sources. Mr Jeal was born in 1945. He attended Westminster School and Christ Church in Oxford. His previous biography of David Livingstone was honored by the literary editors of The New York Times and the Washington Post. He lives in north London with his wife and three daughters. Tim Jeal was cognizant of the gap that existed in Lord Baden-Powell's not having a full and objective biography. He spent five years on research. He was able to obtain unique access to people who knew Baden-Powell and to a huge amount of unstudied private papers of Lord Baden-Powell. This is an EXCELLENT book and the many references from Baden-Powell's Diaries and Letters give candid and honest information that cannot be found anywhere else. A must read for those who are interested in having access to information not normally available and making up their own minds.

Actually the full title of this book is Baden-Powell, The Boy-Man. This is a well researched but dry treastie of the founder of Scouting. You get the strong sense that Juel knows very little of Scouting and was writing the book more from the point of having been a fellow military officer. What is sad however is that Juel seems to be taking part in a relatively recent phenomenon in our culture to shatter our hero figures. We now know George Washington did not really cut down the Cherry tree and Abe Lincoln was manic depressive. Juel want's everyone to know that B-P had his faults as well. In much the same vein that some historian muckrakers spend their time in an effort at character assination, Juel has devoted the thrust of his effort into a character assination of B-P. Anyone who is interested in Baden-Powell could find many other books in print that are far more readable than this one (Green Bar Bill Hillcourt's Two Lives of a Hero comes to mind and it is available right here on Amazon). Despite its relatively recent release the book flopped and was quickly discontinued, Scouters would not waste time or money reading it, scout shops would not carry it, and it is, after all, a dull and uninspired effort at best. The Boy Man & the Character Factory (by Rosenthal) are two B-P Books Scouters would do well to skip.

This is a very thoughtful, very provocative look at Scouting -- not only the Boy Scouts of America as an organization, but the experience of being a Scout for one troop of boys and their adult Scout leaders. The book keeps details of this experience in the foreground -- you really get to see what the Scouts do at their summer encampment, hear what they have to say, the kinds of jokes and stories they tell, and so on - but it also examines these details for what they reveal about young boys becoming older boys and older boys becoming men. All this works because the book is a good read, not only as a story (of one troop's summer camping adventure) but also as a meditation on adults and kids, American life in these modern times, and so on.

Some readers and reviewers may try to pigeon-hole the book as a critique of Scouting, or focus only on the policy issues (i.e., how the BSA has handled issues of God, Gays, and Girls), but that's way off base. The author certainly gives some attention to these issues and he is critical of some official BSA positions. But he's also clearly sympathetic towards the Scouting experience, and he's smart about what's going on for kids of Scouting age. A fan of scouting who's taking a close look and asking important questions that go well beyond Scouting in their implications. Highly recommended.

This was the best book I ever read.It was very exiting for me to read.I loved that book,and I would prefor to read. It would be a good book report.

Mechling approaches his subject in an extremely scholarly fashion, which makes the book a bit schizophrenic between a journal article or thesis and a popular non-fiction-type of read. As it was published by the Univ. of Chicago Press, this isn't surprising. Some excellent nuggets on leadership and its various meanings; interesting sidelights on current controversies. However, nothing that would give a reader a sense of what scouting would be like or the type of boys scouting attracts/serves. A very fly-on-the-wall approach that allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

Excellent study of the Boy Scouts at the turn of the century seen through the experiences of one troop at summer camp. Mechling's compression of twenty years into one narrative can be slightly confusing in places, but works well overall. Though he makes no effort to hide his personal views (supported by sociological reasearch and his own experiences as a Scout), he carefully illustrates the complexity of the issues confronting the organization as it heads into its second century. I could have done without the Freudian analysis of teenage boys' relationship to their bodies, but otherwise it's a very thoughtful and thought-provoking book.

This is more of a "coffee table book" than a serious history. Nice photos.

This is a very interesting history of Scouting as it began in the United Kingdom and what it has become there today. What was Boy Scouts is now, in Europe, just Scouts and includes boys and girls and makes no distinction in sexual orientation. It is also a much more urban organization.

This book is full of interesting and useful information and great historical pictures about the origins of Scouting and its spread around the globe. On pages 186-187 it lists many countries and how many registered scouts there are in each of them. Indonesia is by far the largest with over eight million scouts (8.9 million). The United States is second with 6.2 million.

Another section of the book provides a paragraph or two of how scouting functions in various countries around the world. And in the appendix there is a chronology of important events in the history of the scouting movement.

If you love scouting, this is a very nice book. However, for Americans with our more conservative approach to Boy Scouting, some portions of this book will seem a bit odd. However, this book is about the GLOBAL view of scouting over history and our BSA is only a portion of it, no matter how much its culture and history matter to us here in the USA.

This is a curious book I bought after my tour of Alacatraz. It features roughly 50 pages of recipes from the recipe boxes of the women who lived on Alcatraz -- not prisoners, mind you, but the wives of the guards and workers who lived on the island with them, a total "civilian population of about 260.

Most of these recipes reflect 50s era cooking tastes and techniques, where canned mushroom soup and cornflakes are staple ingredients. About half the book consists of deserts, in case the soup-and-meat recipes don't rock your world. I confess, I have never made any of the recipes in this book, although I have eaten many these dishes or similar when visiting my grandparents and other older relatives.

There are multiple recipes for tuna casserole in this book, which begs the question, which woman of Alcatraz made the meanest tuna casserole? Was it Mrs. Bettsy Clark, with her pointedly titled "Tuna Fish Casserole;" or Mrs. Bea Rychner, with her more literary "Tuna Surprise"? With the Women of Alcatraz Cook Book, you get to be the judge.

Other recipes worth a gander include:

Noodle ring
Swedish meatballs
Macaroni ring
Yum Yum Meatballs
Barbecued Spareribs and Sauerkraut
Sauteed Cucumbers
Porcupines
Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
Gum Drop Cookies
Potato Doughnuts

Unlike some recent cookbooks that present such recipes only to poke fun at them, this is the real deal. And let's face it, there is just no denying a good tuna casserole.

This book was a fantastic find for me, I love collecting old Army Wife stuff. This book's copyright is from 1942 if that tells you anything. My copy was an old library book that was last checked out on NOV 26 1945. A lot of the information is obviously outdated, however, manners will NEVER be old-fashioned, and that's why I love collecting these old books!

Founded in 1820, the Cambridge Conversazione Society could have boasted, had it not been a secret society, of such distinguished members as James Clerk Maxwell, Bertrand Russell, John Maynard Keynes and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Unlike most secret societies, this one, at least until 1914, when this book's account breaks off, was wholly admirable. Its purpose was not to strengthen the bonds between the members of a ruling class or to provide a launching pad for privileged young men on the make. Its purpose was--incredibly--to promote the search for truth by encouraging intellectual honesty. W.C. Lubenow here provides the definitive history of the Society's glory days. This book will appeal to all those who are interested in the history of Cambridge, in the British intellectual elite as it was prior to WWI, in the secularization of British society, or in British eccentricity. (Although it's true that Roger Fry, Desmond MacCarthy, E.M. Forster, Leonard Woolf and Lytton Strachey were members of the Society, only the more serious-minded Bloomsbury fanatics need open this book.) Physically, in its paper, binding and typography, the book is most attractive.

David Shields' Civil Tongues and Polite Letters traces the development of the concept of civility as evidenced by the formation of social rites and their corresponding literatures in British America. Shields argues that just as Americans developed their political and legal traditions to accord with traditional British values, they also defined their concept of civility and genteel culture from metropolitan European ideals of fashionability. He explains that these socially acceptable forms of public discourse originated in the taverns and coffeehouses of 17th century England as the bourgeoisie and minor aristocracy came to replace the courts of nobility in dictating desirable behavior. The valuation placed upon politeness, gentility, and especially wit remained hallmarks of upper and middle class society throughout the development of colonial culture in the 18th century, and served to unite colonists in an otherwise still developing society while it provided a means by which to discuss their differences as well.

Using the letters, poetry, and published essays of the new gentility, Shields begins his study in the male dominated taverns and coffeehouses of early 17th century England, where merchants, professionals, and landowners congregated to discuss business and engage in pleasurable diversions. By mid-century, these social gatherings had expanded to include upper class women as their locales shifted to include more fashionable spas. The pretentiousness, licentiousness, and irreligious nature of spa culture came under attack by conservative observers in the 1690s, but even critics of the bourgeoisie employed the same literary techniques to express their disapproval. Similar literary cultural sparring was carried on between Quakers and socialites in Pennsylvania, "sensible" women and misogynistic critics of feminine culture, college students, and political rivals in the colonies. Indeed, perfection of literary graces became the ticket to social inclusion throughout the metropolitan cities of the New World, and even as society divided into clubs and associations of specialized interests, the upper classes were all marked by the same concepts of civility.

As a professor of English, Shields' work is heavily marked by literary interpretation unusual to more standardized histories, which may prove frustrating to some historians. Nonetheless, he has clearly shown that the culture of politeness was critical as an American institution, especially in the early years of the Republic when Americans were still debating which other standards would become hallmarks of nationality. Especially enlightening is his treatment of female essayists and social arbiters. In most studies of upper class American culture, women as independent and original thinkers have been treated as practically nonexistent, and it has often been asserted that we cannot divine their motivations and aspirations because they seldom left written commentaries. Shields has proven that assumption to be patently incorrect, and social historians of other fields would do well to incorporate the evidence he has provided into more general studies of early American life.