Adams Books

Pam's family "journey" was similar to mine. My children lost their father when they were ages 6 & 4. I was pregnant with my third. I wish Pam's book had been available at that time, for it was so difficult to explain everything to my children. The way this book is split into sections for the benefit of children and adults alike makes it a great tool to have at a time when everything in the world seems so confusing. My children are now 18, 16 & 11, and all three of them thoroughly enjoyed the story. My advice to readers is if you've experienced a loss, purchase this publication for your child and yourself!

Pam Adams has written a book that will help both children and adults in grieving a lost loved one. There are activities for a child to complete alone (recording special memories of good times with their loved one) as well as activities for the adults in the child's life to complete with him. There are sections that explain the grieving process and tell the child what he might expect to feel, all the time reassuring him he is not alone or different in the ways he responds to the loss. There is also assurance that life will get better and the child will be able to cope and function.
I bought my first copy as a gift to a 10 year old child at my school who recently lost her mother; I intend to buy another copy as a donation to my church library.

This book will be very helpful for adults working with children who have suffered a loss, as well as for children themselves. There are sections to record special memories of the child's lost loved one, as well as inspirational stories of others who have lost important people in their lives and have gone on to live positive lives. Although it was written for a boy, it is also useful to girls. I bought mine as a gift to a child at my school who recently lost her mother; I intend to buy another as a gift to my church library.

I think this book could be good for both grieving children and adults. It contains materials to help encourage and inspire, such as stories about others who have dealt with loss, as well as writing exercises to encourage children to let their feelings out.
It is designed to help anyone dealing with any type of loss realize that they are not alone in the feelings that they experience.

I must write to recommend this book. Pam Adams did a great job in writing her son's story and struggles in dealing with his grief over losing his father to suicide without dwelling on the gory details of suicide. It is a book of hope and is very uplifting while giving excellent advice to children for dealing with their feelings of grief. It can be used to deal with grief over many things - it is not specific to suicide. If you work with children, you simply must have this book!

It seems to me that magic is just another form of positive affirmations/prayers/spiritual practice. I enjoyed reading this and still refer to it every now and then.

Just when you think every possible book on Wicca had been published already.Along comes this fine book on Wiccan spells and interpretation.This spellcraft book is ideal for camping sabbaticals and day-hikes in the wilderness.It's not weighty enough for a serious ponderous look.Yet,it can not be dismissed as a feather-weight either.You can't even use it as a 'Pagan Breviary' really.You can use it as quick resource for your heathen inspirations and ideas for Wiccan devotional ritals.Do yourself a favor,and read a copy of this excellent wicca-craft book.Bright Blessings & Blest Be!

I bought this book for my daughter who chosen the wiccan path. She really enjoys it almost as much as I do being a green witch. She said it is great for those who are new to the craft as well as to those who have been practicing it their entire life. I often see her reading this book when I go to visit her, infact she has opened it so much that the cover is wore out!

It's a quite nice book that explains lots of things about wicca etc.
Great for beginners in Wicca :) i know it helped me a lot

This book is very useful, and definitely helpful for those who are new to Wicca, and those who have practiced it for years.

This is an epic poem of some ten thousand lines composed by, arguably, Poland's greatest poet. It is a bucolic tale of country life with the background of the preparations for Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812. It's also a love story of sorts, with undertones of "Romeo and Juliet". There are star-crossed lovers, feuding families, comical characters, loyal retainers, and a mysterious begging friar. It's all quite well done, and even though I'm not particularly into sing-songy rhyming verse, the attraction of the story, and it's thinly-veiled air of Polish patriotism, kept me reading on to the end. If you enjoy little-known Polish literature (at least little-known in this country) you will enjoy this book.

In recent years many of the East European authors and artists have been rediscovered by the dominating Western sphere of writers, artist, and the litterature critics. This book is one of the jewels resurfaced in the circles of scholars and historians, but also among the everyday reader. The story is a description of the then social sphere of the society, where people are born within a class and are influenced by it, regardless of they likeing it or not. This is realism and romanticism at best, entangled in a passionate embrace. A delight to read.

This Polish masterpiece reads in English rendition as it was written in English in the first place ! I thoroughly enjoyed over again the story, even more so than in original Polish. Kenneth McKenzie has done a superb job to keep the rhytm, rime and the emotions so close to the original. This timeless piece is a must to everyone who enjoys a great reading adventure, where the highest human values are treasured. Our contemporary writers and poets can only dream to approach the greatness of Adam Mickiewicz. To bad that this book is so little known in the world.

It is a masterpiece , national poem of Poland.It portrays polish society in early XIX century , its turbulant existence and longing for freedom .His other works include " Konrad Wallenrod" and "Oda do mlodosci" but You can also check other polish writers , like Henryk Sienkiewicz , author of the famous "Quo Vadis " , Czeslaw Milosz or Wladyslaw Reymont , all three, Nobel prize laureates .You will never look at Poland the same way .Enjoy reading.............r.c.

Mickiewicz's 'Pan Tadeusz' is a very well written and engaging account of Lithuanian provincial life during the Napoleonic Era. Yet, it does fall short of the level of masterpiece, and 'Pan Tadeusz' doesn't possess quite the same timeless quality as Pushkin's 'Eugene Onegin' or Goethe's and Heine's epic poetry. Yet, I highly recommend it, and it is well worth the read, both for its glimpse into a long-lost time and place and also for Mickiewicz's elegant prosy.

There are books galore about spirituality, covering many aspects from simple How To's, to the mystical insights of past and current masters. Most of these have one thing in common: they are all written by a teacher targeting a student willing and eager to dive into the deep ocean on questions about life and the divine.

Far fewer are the books which cover the deep longing, the seemingly never-ending search for answers from the perspective of the student, and the many strange paths this sometimes can take during a lifetime. The Quest Seeking The new Adam is such a book. Written as a series of often strange encounters and the ensueing conversations with a native American medicine man, this story follows the tribulations of a man called Adam - a seeker.

This short novel so very well illustrates the agony, frustrations, and doubts of the beginning seeker, and it follows through all the way to the slow acceptance and understanding of who and what we are truly are, ending in the climax of the great inner revelation, the first glimpse of the divinity we are.

And the teacher, the "Old Man" as he is known in the story? Though naturally comming from the Native Americam Indian traditions, his teachings are universal, as all divine truth must be. This universality is exemplified in one of the names by which he is known: Phanes. A greek name - and true to the name he frequently uses the greek myth of Prometheus to help bring understanding to the student.

The latter alone is a good reason to read this short story, but certainly not its sole quality. As a seeker my self (and who is not, at one time or another?) I was able to easily empathize with the character of Adam. It could just as easily been me in this story, and not some distant personae. When I started reading this book, I was unable to put it down until I had finished it from cover to back. Though many of the concepts in the book were not new to me ("Thou art God", being perhaps the most important, and sometimes shocking one to some), the path itself taken by Adam is certainly different than my own and others, and so can give many an insight to the reader.

This book is not for casual reading, but for all seekers in the world, both beginners, and for those who may have already journeyed some distance. And as such, I would recommend it to any one, any time. A book I most certainly will read more than once.

With "The Quest Seeking the New Adam" Norman Wilson has created a modern vedantic epic in which a 21st century noble prince or son questions and receives instruction from a contemporary sagacious brahmin or an aspect of the deity. In a smoothly flowing narrative he introduces the reader to many of the great questions and ideas of philosophy and modern science and makes them accessible to almost everyone. I am eagerly awaiting his next effort.

If you have read and enjoyed Pirsig's, best seller, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," you will love Dr. Wilson's "The Quest Seeking the New Adam." Being at the stage of my own life where I am questioning what's really important, I found Wilson's book to be enlightening. It renewed my interests in self-discovery, mythology, and cosmic spirituality. Well done, and well received.

The Quest Seeking The New Adam by Norman Wilson is a well-written, easy to read, and thought provoking book about looking for the "I" of the "who am I". In this book, Adam asks his spiritual quide, Phanes, some of the universal questions that he hopes will lead him to the answer of who he is, why he is, and what his purpose is for being. As Adam journeys to transcendence and the search for his soul-self, so too, did I follow with some of the same questions. Norman Wilson weaved adventure and humor through Adam's quest. In my profession as a psychologist/therapist, the personal journey of the spiritual or soul-self is very important to knowing who you are. This is a must read for those seeking their own quest of the self.

The Quest is an adventure and success story that comes from a man's search for his inner most place in the miracle of life. A stimulating search begins with him as a child and developes in an amazing way thru exciting experiences with "characters" he meets along the way. It stimulates your interest in mythology and how one's life is related to it. An ultimate struggle that grows from bizarre adventures! And has a fulfilling triumph. It is a story that makes you feel happy to be part of this life in which we all seek to be complete. Be sure to read it and you will appreciate the result. My thanks to the author, Norman W. Wilson.

...this author did to the spy thriller--don't be put off by the number of pages, each is fast-paced and the writing style is both accessible as well as being completely original--with all the hoopla over Brosnan quitting the Bond series, Broccoli and co. could do no wrong using this character and series as a template--HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Quiller is a spy who uses his wits. His body and mind are his weapons. The stories are seen through Quiller's eyes. If you like tense spy dramas, the Quiller books are the best and Adam Hall is a master. We want more!

I have never read such an action packed book. Nor has my heart raced this much. This is an excellent spy book. I love that Adam hall chose first persson for this book. It gives you a better understanding of the character. And Quiller is an unforgetable character who uses his wits to get out of tight situations. Without that you know this character could not have survived in the depths of Russia. A good read, definetly reccommed it. And yes it is hard to find in the bookstores. Can't understand why this work of art isn't being ordered.

There is not a better writer of espionage anywhere. Read these books

Absolutely right, Quiller is one of the best literary characters & the only espionage character who didn't end up totally ridiculous or pathetic or just plain unreal. Quiller though, with his meticulous task solving a cerebral activity together with his ability in close combat ooze reality. This one has a special twist to it: from the very beginning we sense (through Quiller's thoughts) that there's something wrong with this mission & not because of the usual danger attached to such things. Just sit back & follow him in the maze of dnager while he unravels step by step the mystery & realizes how those who he should be able to trust betrayed him. (And then check out Quiller's Run for the immediate follow-up: Hall hardly does this, but he must have thought that this issue needed to be resolved.)

I don't know about making it a movie though. It's the reading & Quiller's inner thoughts that make it such a perfect read. Trabslated to action it may lose part of it's appeal - &who's going to get all that karate right without turning it into Crouching Tiger or something?

Of the three Straight Dope books I've read so far--this is the third in the series--I would say that this is the best one yet.
Cecil Adams is hilarious, even if Wikipedia claims he is a committee and not an actual individual...which I hesitate to believe. Slug Signorino's drawings are just perfect for the material and often laugh-out-loud funny. And in conversations lately, thanks to reading this, I feel as if I've had a lot more to say than I ever have before.
Five stars for "Return of the Straight Dope."
Another great read in a series of great reads.

The second book of Cecil Adams' Straight Dope is here...
A good follow up for the fabulous first part and full of astounding data...
Get ready for hilarious laughter and information absorbtion...

You have to love this guy - he gives you quality information and manages to do it in an entertaining way. He has found the perfect middle ground with the "Teaming Millions" who maintain endless dialogue over the weighty issues of life- He asserts his knowledged when challenged, ( even on the rare occasions when he gets it wrong)and injects a healthy dose of humour into the process to entertain us .

I have all these books - they are great - I just wish they were bigger

If you don't know who Cecil Adams is, its unlikely that you will find yourself purchasing this book. As the lucky initiated know, Adams has been writing his weekly column, "The Straight Dope" for alternative newpapers for nearly thirty years now. Adams is a good-natured arrogant know-it-all who uses reader questions both to show off his knowledge and flex his keen sense of humor. He is at the same time both hilareous and informative. He also tackles plenty of subjects that mainstream journalists will not touch. For example, in this book he discusses the little known practice of eating the human placenta. There is no one quite like Cecil. And for that we must be thankful.

Cecil Adams is a hoot. It's that simple. I'm the first to admit that his style may not be for everyone. If you don't enjoy the smart-alec humor of David Letterman, the irreverence of Saturday Night Live, and the take-no-prisoners approach of James Randi, than maybe the "Straight Dope" isn't for you.

For the uninitiated, The Straight Dope is a weekly newspaper column (appearing mostly in local "freebie" papers such as Madison's Isthmus) wherein Cecil (the smartest human alive) answers all manner of questions put to him by the "teeming millions." Do fish breathe? Do birds pee? Are there really 57 varieties of Heinz Ketchup? No question is too trivial for Cecil, and he applies a surprising degree of scholarship to all queries, mixing it all with a sharp-tongued wit and repartee with his correspondents that will leave you laughing out loud, guaranteed.

The books, numbering 5, collect the best of his columns into loosely organized chapters and include occasional updated information since the questions and answers were originally printed.

A few examples from 3rd book (Return of the Straight Dope, 1994), which is the one I happen to have from the library right now:

p. 338: Why do stars twinkle? Cecil supplies the correct answer, embedded as always, firmly within his razor sharp wit: "Ben, you amateur, stars don't 'twinkle.' They exhibit 'stellar scintillation.' The Pentagon isn't going to fund a damn twinkle study."

p. 63-64: A straight-down-the-pipe debunking of Uri Geller, as only Cecil can do. James Randi (whom Cecil sites as a source) has nothing on Adams. This is also a good example of Cecil's "dialog" with his readers. A reader wrote in to tell of his first hand encounter with Geller years before, and why Geller couldn't possibly have faked the spoon bending (or whatever) because this reader never took his eyes off the spoon, yada yada. Adam's reply shows his appropriately skeptical approach to such situations, where he stresses how many supposed "experts" were completely bamboozled by Geller's slight of hand and misdirection.

p. 349: The inertia of air, as seen in the helium balloon in a car experiment; p. 146 if you toss a ball in the air while inside the cabin of a flying airplane, does the total weight of the craft decrease by the amount of the ball's weight? (no, and he does a great job handling the physics involved).

The "Straight Dope" collections are a skeptical reader's delight, and totally entertaining to boot. I highly recommend them for casual reading, but don't be surprised if you learn something along the way.

By the way, there's apparently some debate about whether Cecil's a real person or not. I don't have an answer ... but it doesn't matter to me. The books are well written and right on target scientifically.

One more tidbit (this one from the straightdope.com web site), to a reader who asked what the deal is with Nostradamus, Cecil replied: "There are two schools of thought on Nostradamus: either (1) he had supernatural powers which enabled him to prophesy the future with uncanny accuracy, or (2) he did for ... what Stonehenge did for rocks. I incline to the latter view."

Cecil goes on to give a more detailed (and very accurate) response re: the whole Nostradamus thing, showing again his serious attempt to combat the epidemic of silly pseudoscience that so many of the "teeming millions" seem inclined to accept at face value.

And that really seems to be the bottom line for Cecil, and the best reason to read the column and the books.

I am a private school elementary teacher, and was given this book as a gift by one of my students. It is a superb introduction to the state, and especially appropriate for children in the third grade and above. Many of the subjects that are included in the book are part of the Rhode Island curriculum, and many of the places included are field trips that our class has attended.

The writing is clear, crisp, and clean, and the drawings are age appropriate and very engaging. I highly recommend this book as an adjunct learning tool about Rhode Island, as well as a fun introduction to our state. I plan on recommending it as a text book for our school system...

Even though I have lived in New England for years, I learned a great deal about Rhode Island from RIAtoZ. The illustrations are charming, and the text makes this much more than a typical kids book. It's written from the perspective of someone who knows and truly loves Little Rhody. There should be a book like this for every state in the Union!!

We had Adam come to perform his Acme Miniature Circus at our Theatre in Brookline MA. He brought some books to sell, and I wanted to comment on how great the books are. Our patrons really loved them. We get a lot of kids and parents as patrons, and they all thought the book was fabulous. We are not even in Rhode Island! The book is entertaining, informative, and well worth getting.

From beginning to end, a wonderful book filled with interesting tidbits to get you started on an adventure in Rhode Island. For being the smallest state in the Union, we have a grand amount of history and Rhode Island A-Z is a perfect introduction to local landmarks. Just trying to drive around finding everything in the book is entertaining. Well written with clean artwork,
I highly recommend this book for young and old alike.

We got copies for all of our friends because kids really seem to like it--the coloring part is really, really well done, and they like having the history stuff read to them (unless they're old enough to read it, themselves).

Highly recommended.

Actually, this looks like a WONDERFUL course! As a homeschooling mom of 3 very bright girls, I give this a thumbs up. All the kids can use this course, despite their learning differences. My 8 year old and 9 year old READ way above their grade levels with wonderful comprehension - but ask them to spell "comprehension" and they're lost! This course with CD is a great tool to use for my sight readers AND my phonics reader. We're looking forward to completing it. Grade: A+

Whether you are learning or teaching, the techniques used in "Spelling Power" are very simple to use. Instead of the ole' Study, Test, Study method- you are encouraged to do the opposite. The first day is spent taking a placement test (about 10-15 minutes) to see where you start. The next day, you administer the test of ten words first, and only study those words that were incorrect. There are many study ideas, and games that help with the study process. The next day you give the next test of ten words, along with the words that were missed the day before. If more than 5 words were missed, then you only administer the test with the incorrect words, otherwise I could see how self confidence would be an issue if you had a 30 word test by the end of the week. We use this book with our 8 and 10 year olds. They no longer dread spelling, and have a great feeling of accomplishment by the end of the week when they can prove that they have "mastered" between 20-50 words. The reason that I gave this book a "4" instead of a "5" is because the teachers guide in the front (which is a necessity to read) is 100 pages of Blah, Blah, Blah, You need to plan on either a couple of hours of UNINTERUPTED reading (yeah right, not in this house) or, do as I did and use a highlighter and skim at 15 minute intervals. The book also comes with a CD rom, which I couldn't get to run on either of our two computers. The publisher is sending me a new one though. All in all we like this program, and even though it's $50, (for a Spelling Book!) It's not just a spelling book, it's 15 minutes a day towards being a sufficient speller which can be used all they way through High School. I recommend adults take the placement test and try it for yourselves, you will be surprised. I know I was.

Great book, very useful for diagnosing where your child stands in his/her knowledge of the rules of spelling. Once you've used the tests to see at what level your child spells, you have lots of creative ways to reinforce and upgrade their skills...this book is fantastic! I recommend it not only for those parents who homeschool, but for those parents and students who want a great teaching tool for improving spelling acumen in preparation for a spelling bee.

Although the program is designed for ages 8+, I bought it for my homeschooled 5 year old who has been reading since age three. The results were immediate and he is whipping through the lessons painlessly. Minimal time required per lesson, only 15 minutes for the student and 5 minutes for the teacher. I highly recommend it, though it is expensive.

My now fourth grader was using another spelling program in 1st grade and got really burned out. It was the traditional study the list all week, write the words, pre-test on Thursday and test on Friday. She and I both hated it! Since we switched to Spelling Power, she asks "Can I do my spelling first?" Everyday, you test them over a designated list of words. When they have spelled 3 wrong, you stop. They study the words they missed using a 10 point study program (all lined out in the record book they use). The next day, they first re-test on the words they missed, and then go on to the next set of words on the designated list. The placement tests show you exactly where to start and where your child is according to grade level. Although it is designed to use starting with 8 and up, I am using it with my 6 year old, too. She was jealous of her sister getting to do this spelling. She does great! We just move slower. The teaching of study skills is powerful! Get this program! Don't be overwhelmed with the text. Take the time to read it before you ever start. On a daily basis, no preparation is required. Annually, you give placement tests. That's it!

What Michael Minns does here is to unravel the IRS from within the legal system. In addition, critical historical information on tax protestors and others is painstakingly documented. I find his style of presentation engaging and his impact as an outstanding figure on the US legal scene compelling. This book and his commentary on the actions of the IRS is must-consume fare for the generation that demands reform and transparency from the IRS and government in general. People of all political persuasions will appreciate Minns' message, and his historical perspective.

This is a brilliant insider look into the American judicial system. I can't believe he was allowd to publish so much unvarnished truth. I will buy anything this man writes!

Reprinted in a new Millennium Edition, Michael Minns' The Underground Lawyer is comprehensive, highly detailed introduction to the American legal system, written specifically to be understood by lay people. The next best thing to a law school education, The Underground Lawyer covers everything from criminal law to bankruptcy. A must for anyone with immediate need to quickly learn more about criminal or civil law, the judicial system, the role of the attorney, constitutional rights, bankruptcy, wills, or any other aspect of American jurisprudence.

As a litigator myself, I understand the overall complexities of "the law". However, I can't know everything about every aspect of law, so I refer lots of friends and clients to the Underground Lawyer to answer the questions I can't

Twenty years ago, I lost my husband in a crash. I was a widow at 25 and I wish I had had the underground lawyer then. This book is a real lifesaver when there's legal trouble around.

Jacobson provides a great deal of the formation of whiteness and how it has changed through time. It shows how the construction of a white race came about in America from Anglo Saxons to all Euroepans. It shows how legislation and attitudes about white ethnic groups and Jews have changed through time. It also takes a good look at how whiteness has been transformed by contacts with other races through non-European immigratin, civil rights and America's colonies such as the Phillipeans.

In *Whiteness of a Different Color,* Matthew Jacobson draws upon congressional legislation and discourse, historical documents and memoirs, and popular culture in an attempt to explain racism's affect on immigration, American domestic and foreign policy, and the self-perceptions of various racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Jacobson mentions in the preface that it is his hope to move into the foremost rank of immigration experts with this book, and I think that he accomplished what he set out to do. Eloquently written and thoroughly researched, Jacobson, who is obviously very liberal, argues his points in such a way that any person with common sense would agree with him, given the evidence and excerpts included in the book. Everyone involved in American Studies or American History would be well advised to pick up a copy of this book.

Matthew Frye Jacobson 's Whiteness of a Different Color tells us all how we got into this mess. The book is subtitled European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race. "Alchemy" is correct. It means that the "base metal" of Nordic, Alpine, Mediterranean and even Western Asian "races" were turned into the "gold" of unadulterated white status. Jacobson explains how "whiteness" was created by colonial elites for the purpose of defending the state from Indian invasions and slave insurrections, and continued by the American republic in order to create a sense of unity in its polyglot European immigrant population. In 1790, United States naturalization law granted citizenship to "free white persons" -- which meant, mostly, those of Anglo-Saxon descent. As the U.S. population became more culturally mixed beginning in the 1840s, with an increase in immigration from non-Anglo Europe, the nation experienced "a fracturing of whiteness into a hierarchy of plural and scientifically determined white races."

In other words, people who came from Ireland, Poland, Germany, Italy, Greece, and Jews from Russia and other Slavic nations all became, by virtue of the "melting pot" ethic, "Caucasian" whites. But, the creation of whiteness was - and still is - by no means an easy, continuous process. The Celtic, Nordic, Alpine and Mediterranean "races" were abolished in favor of the myth of one homogenous "white" race (with the adoption of the "scientific" term "Caucasian" providing a new legitimacy to the honorific "racial" term "white."

Jacobson contends that traditional historians have deliberately dismissed the "racial" distinctions of the 19th century and before as "misuses" of the word "race." Of course they didn't mean that Irish, Germans, Bohemians, Nordics, etc. were separate races; they just didn't know what they were saying. This is a courtesy not given to mulattoes. Jacobson, however, shows that there was no "misuse." "Patterns in literary, legal, political and graphic evidence" show that the perception of race was very different from the standard rhetoric promoted in today's U.S. I have a sense of deja vu here. As stated in Lawrence R. Tenzer's The Forgotten Cause of the Civil War, mainstream historians' inability to acknowledge the fact that 19th century Northern "whites" saw predominately European slaves as "white," makes them deliberately blind to the role "white slavery" played as a cause of the Civil War. Few historians wish to deal with the fact that, while "white" privilege in various forms has been a constant in American political culture since colonial times, whiteness itself has been subject to all kinds of contests and has gone through a series of historical vicissitudes.

Jacobson divides the history of whiteness in the United States into three great epochs:

The nation's first naturalization law in 1790 (limited naturalized citizenship to "free white persons") demonstrates the republican convergence of race and "fitness for self-government"; the law's wording denotes an unconflicted view of the presumed character and unambiguous boundaries of whiteness.

Fifty years later, however, beginning with the massive influx of highly undesirable but nonetheless "white" persons from Ireland, whiteness was subject to new interpretations. The period of mass European immigration, from the 1840s to the restrictive legislation of 1924, witnessed a fracturing of whiteness into a hierarchy of plural and scientifically determined white races. Vigorous debate ensued over which of these was truly "fit for self-government" in the old Anglo- Saxon sense.

Finally, in the 1920s and after, partly because the crisis of over-inclusive whiteness had been solved by restrictive legislation and partly in response to a new racial alchemy generated by African-American migrations to the North and West, whiteness was reconsolidated: the late nineteenth century's probationary white groups were now remade and granted the scientific stamp of authenticity as the unitary Caucasian race - an earlier era's Celts, Slavs, Hebrews, Iberics, and Saracens, among others, had become Caucasians so familiar to our own visual economy and racial lexicon.Legal History of the Color Line: The Rise And Triumph of the One-drop Rule

"Whiteness of a Different Color" is a marvelous work of modern scholarship. In this excellent work of historiography/history, Jacobson explores the American conception of racial "whiteness" and how it has changed over time. This book won virtually every major scholarly award in 1999, most notably the American Studies Association's Award for the best book dealing with American istory and culture.

In the 19th century, "whitness" was reserved for Anglo-Saxons, and descendants of immigrants from the British Isles. Slowly, the concept of whiteness evolved to include Northern Europeans and Scandanavians, then other white gentiles, then Jews. Jacobson traces two major influences for this change -- assimilation into the American mainstream and the need to rectuit other "whites" to help polarize the nation between white and black. The previous was common in northern industrial centers and large cities, while the latter was especially prevalent in the Jim Crowe south.

This is a modern study because it takes unconventional themes such as the arbitrary construction of "whiteness" and explores it, as opposed to the more traditional form of research, which would include choosing an historical event and studying the facts. "Whiteness of a Different Color" is about people's conceptions, and misconceptions, rather than specific facts. Reflecting on that subject, I wonder if that isn't what's most important.

WHITE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR by Matthew Frye Jacobson is an excellent historical summary and deconstruction of the social construct called "the white race." Anthropologists, sociologists, demographers, and historians like Jacobson who study race and ethnicity have suggested over and over that even if race differences exist they are not fixed (the definition of white has changed over time and no consensus has been formed concerning it's constiuent parts). The biological sciences provide no evidence that race exists. Humans with different hair color, skin color, eye color, eye shape, and/or other "race" characteristics straddle all the "race" groups.

Jacobson uses a variety of written sources to make his case --that "non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants and their children were perhaps the first beneficiaries of the modern civil rights movement." He has compiled evidence from many historical legal cases involving various individuals who attempted to establish evidence of "whiteness" in order to obtain U.S. citizenship or some other perq reserved for the "native white race." He points out that the legal evidence is conflicted. Are Armenians white or aren't they? How can Japanese with a white skin be nonwhite and Italians with a dark skin be white in one set of court proceedings and the reverse found in different courts on different days?

Jacobson includes information from literature, news journals, and other written sources to illustrate that authors as diverse as Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad and Mr. Hearst of newspaper fame all offered an opinion about race at one time or another, and that while everyone started out assuming they knew what it meant to be white, most soon discovered the operational definition was another matter. There is not now nor ever has been a consensus on what it means to be white.

I enjoyed Jacobson's book very much and I think it is an excellent qualitative analysis. However, I have a few concerns: 1) Race is a contentious topic, but mixed race is even more troublesome. In 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau identified more than 60 race groups in the U.S.; While Jacobson alludes to this issue, he might have discussed it a bit more as it supports his idea that race is a nebulous notion; 2) In discussing the acquisition of civil rights, Jacobson makes the mistake many men make--Black men had the vote and basic rights many years before women of any color; 3) Jacobson begins his history with 1790 and assumes (as did many) that the so-called Anglo-Saxons were a monolithic group--they were not. The early settlers were a diverse lot from many nations and included landed gentry, endentured servents, and prisoners who worked side by side with slaves in Georgia and other colonial penal colonies until the Revolution. I have read that Jews funded the Revolotion, Poles and French trained the military (a highway in VA is named for general Pulaski); and that the first person to die in the Revolution was a free Black man named Crispus Attucks. 4) Jacobson starts the civil rights movement with the acceptance of "non-white" immigrants to "white" privilege, but evidence suggests that the U.S. Revolution was about the rights of the property owners or Aristocracy. Not until Andrew Jackson did the "common" man get the vote. Black men got the vote 30 years later and women got the vote in the 1920s although many rights were not accorded them until recently. The history of the U.S. is the history of the Civil Rights Movement for all human beings and as Americans we should be grateful for our rights.