Scouting Books

Scouting on Two Continents is the autobiography of one of the greatest scouts who ever lived, and is packed with his incredible adventures. The stories that Burnham tells are simply amazing--hiding in plain sight and yet avoiding capture, floating on a river past an enemy camp, and knifing through unknown terrain crawling with bad guys and somehow managing to get back home in one piece.

Burnham's stories are riveting, but his presentation is humble. His writing style is detailed and to the point, making his adventures all the more believable. While generally exuding the confidence that he must have felt while on most of his missions, Burnham doesn't neglect writing about his fears and failures. Through them we see the side of a man who absolutely hated returning from a mission without success, but at times knew that that was all he could do. He also presents himself as a man who was at times too brash, taking unnecessary risks to perform feats that served his ego but not his mission.

Burnham's book also provides a glimpse at the history of the Old West and of the wars in Africa around the turn of the 20th century. His insights are valuable, but racism creeps into many of his judgments about the enemies he fights.

Overall, this book reads well and is full of fantastic adventures, but it will only be appreciated by the reader who takes the time to carefully read and understand the man and the societies in which he lived and fought. It is not riveting like a modern thriller, but rather because its stories are true, personal, and well-told.

I would give this book the highest recommendation for senior Scouts and Scout Leaders. Others who would thoroughly enjoy it would be militry history buffs, those interested in South African history, the Boer Wars, and those interested in the late 19th century England.

From this book you get a real since of who BP was, why he materialized into what he became, his passion, and why he was not only Knighted, but granted the title of Lord.

Inspirational how a simple man - with cunny, wits, and wisdom lived two impressive careers, one in the British Military, one in Scouting. The book neatly discussed the cross-over of the two fields, and the how and why the military and scouting greatly differ in many aspects. The text flowed nicely, read easily, and was of appropriate length for reading within a few hours.

Having read several biographies recently of Baden-Powell the founder of the World Scouting Movement. I must admit I prefer Freedman's little book to the larger and more authoritative works. Freedman writes with an easy style that makes reading a pleasure. The illustrations are original photos or B-P's own drawings, and add flavor to the text without being distracting. This is not a critical nor a comprehensive biography; it is a sympathetic treatment of Baden-Powell omitting any serious controversies and taking Baden-Powell's own writings at face value. It is a very good introduction to Baden-Powell for anyone with little or sketchy knowledge of "the Hero of Mafeking" and "Chief Scout of the World".

Like most biographers, he pays most attention to the time in South Africa (the Seige of Mafeking), and the founding of the Scouting movement. Still, we get a good picture of the mischievous student who prefered the woods and rivers to classrooms. We meet the wheeling-dealing soldier and sometime actor and dancer,in India, Afghanistan, South Africa, India again, and back to South Africa.

Freedman focuses on the story of the little town of Mafeking where BP's new regiment of fresh, untrained soldiers were surrounded by a much larger (3-4 times as large) group of better trained and equipped enemy soldiers for 217 days. For 217 days the clever leader Baden-Powell was creating new ways to bluff the enemy or to raise moral among the townspeople and soldiers as they slowly ran out of food. This is a celebration of Baden-Powell at his finest.

And after you are the toast of the entire British Empire, what do you do for an encore? Why you begin a new life and create the most successful youth movement in history. One can almost feel BP falling by accident into beginning the Scouting movement. You can feel his tentative excitement building as he realizes he has found, in the scouting teachings he had been developing in the cavalry, the key to young people's hearts and minds.

The end of the book moves very quickly, too quickly, from the founding of scouting, to his wedding and new family life, to the great world Jamborees, to his final days and burial in Africa.

I read this before I started Tim Jeal's and "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt's biographies of Baden-Powell. Please pardon me if I make some comparisons. This book is 218 pages of text compared to Jeal's 596 pages and Hillcourt's 417. Freedman, in acknowledging his souces, admits that he used 10 of B-P's books and many of his papers (inluding some not on exhibit), several periodicals, and 7 other related books from the Baden-Powell Library, as well as interviews with Mr Tabori of London about Scouting in the '30s. Jeal's book was 5 years in the making referring to 35 of B-P's books, about 220 other publications, many private collections of letters and papers, and uncounted interviews, culminating in nearly 50 pages of footnotes alone. Hillcourt wrote in collaboration with B-P's widow and refers to 65 of B-P's books and collections of papers, and unnumbered other books and volumes of private letters and papers, detailed in 24 pages of footnotes. Jeal was writing for an academic audience. Hillcourt was writing to a scholarly reader. Freedman appears to be writing for a secondary school audience. And I highly recommend this one for all but the serious student of Baden-Powell.

Scouts And Spies Of The Civil War by William Gilmore Beymer (1881-1969) is an amazing collection compiled from both primary and secondary sources, including interviews, diaries, journals, letters, remembrances of family and friends and more. First published at the turn of the nineteenth century in an effort to present a realistic portrayal of spying efforts by both sides during the American Civil (as opposed to overly romanticized "cloak and dagger" accounts in popular fiction and imaginations of the time), Scouts And Spies Of The Civil War has superbly weathered the test of time and is now presented with a new, eye-opening introduction. Edited for contemporary readers by William B. Feis (Associate Professor of History, Buena Vista University), Scouts And Spies Of The Civil War continues to be a welcome and recommended addition to Civil War Studies academic library collections, and Civil War buff reading lists.

Drawing upon ancestors notes, Zane Gray reconstructs the agony of America's initial transmontane western movement of the frontier away from the original colonies into the OHIO Valley where Indians and Whites contest for souls and Wetzel, and Indian hunter, pursues his cause in a most dramatic fashion. The book is a riveting account of true adventure the veiled backdrop of which is the continued occupation of the teritory occupied by British and Americans. An excellent introduction to further study of the the then misunderstood goal of Manifest Destiny.

Anyone who thinks they know anything about baseball need to read Eddie Epstein. The Delaware grad is, in a word, a genius. Way to go Eddie - how about a sequal.

An amazing look inside the new frontier of baseball. Super scout Andres Reiner was ahead of his time.

This is a very interesting and fun book to read. Serious Wild Bill fans will enjoy all of the excellent pictures that help bring Wild Bills life alive. The limited text explains each picture well. People with just a passing interest in the Old West will enjoy this book for all of the original pictures. The pictures diffently speak a thousand words. The book also follows Wild Bills life in a step by step process so you get a good feel for the order of things that happened in his life. This is a must have book for all Wild Bill fans and any Western fan who enjoys period pictures.

Rev. Phillipp Karl Eidmann provides a fine introduction to Buddhism in this handbook for Boy Scouts seeking the Sangha Award religious emblem. Rev. Eidmann's little book is far more detailed and rigorous than are the manuals provided for many other religious emblems in Scouting.

It should be noted that the book is written from the peculiar perspective of the Buddhist Churches of America, a sect representing the Japanese strain of Pure Land Buddhism called Jodo Shinshu or Shin Buddhism. The meditation that is so critical to some other strains of Buddhism is largely absent from Shin Buddhism. And the celibate brotherhood of monks, or Sangha, of other Buddhist traditions is replaced, in practice, by a married priesthood. As a consequence, the choice of the name "Sangha Award" for a Shin Buddhist award is somewhat puzzling.

But so is the very idea of a Buddhist religious award in Scouting, given the fact that most Buddhists - Shin Buddhists included - cannot confess the faith in God that the BSA's national leadership deems critical to participation in Scouting.

Be that as it may, this is a nice little book. I recommend it highly.

Eric Alan Isaacson

Through the media, we frequently hear about problems associated with athletes, such as drug abuse, illiteracy and low graduation rates. This book is written for the young athlete to help him or her avoid such pitfalls. It addresses issues such as steroid abuse, alcohol abuse and date rape. It also discusses NCAA requirements and athletic scholarships. In addition, it offers great tips on networking, budgeting, studying for exams effectively and maintaining self-discipline. With all of the pressures that young people face today, it is great to read a book whose purpose is to steer young people in a positive direction. I highly recommend it.