Blanc Books

The 'cliffhanger' serials of the early French cinema are the inspiration for celebrated French illustrator Jacques Tardi's graphic novels. Beginning with "Adieu Brindavoine" in 1972 Tardi depicts a world combining Jules Verne with Emile Zola.

This 4th album of the Adele Blanc-Sec series reunites the plucky Edwardian journalist with characters from her previous adventures as well as polishing off characters from the Brindavoine thriller "Le Demon des Glaces" (This is the original, untranslated French version.) The mummified corpses of murder victims are found hung on various monuments near the Louvre. A mysterious visit from an eccentric scientist studying immortality is followed by an assassination attempt by an ailurophobic hitman and leads Adele to a fatal crisis in a pyramid.

Marginally better than the preceding album but not nearly as good as the first two.

I bought this book prior to going on my first professional photographic gig at the site of Isthmia, Greece. The book is extremely helpful for the novice with a great introduction to light and depth of field. Although featuring examples from the author's experience with American excavations, the methodology provided in the book is universal -- props, accessories, and lighting tricks. One of the most useful tools the book provides is a series of crib-sheets that you can cut out and paste on card stock that will fit in your camera bag. These sheets cover everything from reminders for object photography to how to take care of your lenses. My only real gripe with the book is that it is extremely biased and opinionated, which is fine (I guess) if the intended audience was not at the novice level. Comments like "stay away from motorized film advances -- they are loud and are prone to breaking," smack of old-school elitism and are no longer really valid. This book gives some exceptional information on photographing every aspect of an excavation, but like reading stratigraphy, to really glean the best data, you have to be a careful reader with some experience in photography.

This story is set in the savage, frozen North. Two men with a dog sled are transporting a long box. Wolves are near, they haven't much ammunition. [Believable?] What will happen next? Chapter 4 tells what happened to the wolf pack. A wolf pair learns to rob snared rabbits. London describes the life of a wolf, and how the world appears to a young cub. Does this society remind you of humans? White Fang's relation to Gray Beaver is like the feudal system (Chapter 13). The story continues with the adventures and life of White Fang.

London describes life during a famine, when the lack of prey causes hardship and death for the predators. [What does this tell about London's outlook on life?] Chapter 16 shows London's characterization of "Beauty Smith" [who is like a villain in an Ian Fleming novel]. You might think London was an animal lover protesting against the use of dogs as draft animals. Or does "White Fang" symbolize human society (Chapter 17)? At the end of the story the Blessed Wolf gains favor with the Scott family. [But why did the other dogs do nothing in the night?]

In "The Call of the Wild" a city dog learns to live in the frozen forests of the north. "White Fang", born in the frozen north, relocates to sunny California. They are imaginative stories that appealed to readers in the early 20th century. [I wonder if biologists would approve of the details of a wolf's life?]

I have always had a profound interest in the history of American labor and particularly, the struggles that have taken place over time in labor. However, this book did absolutely nothing to add to my knowledge on the subject or even inspire me to read more about the themes within the book itself. I was extremely disappointed with the editor and his lack of understanding and attention to true detail. Perhaps the better title of this book would be, "Myths and Legends of U.S. Labor in the 20th Century." This is certainly not a history text of any kind. If I wanted to read radical fiction, I could have read a "Star Trek" book or something like that.

I'm one of the editors, so of course, this is a great book. It's probably most useful for historians, labor educators, and those interested in US labor radicalism. The book has some classic articles by radical scholars and activists (Harry Braverman, James Matles of the UE), combined with some recent scholarly work by radical historians and activists (Joe Trotter, General Baker). I've included the table of contents for you to examine. JH

U.S. Labor in the Twentieth Century: Studies in Working-Class Fragmentation and Insurgency

John Hinshaw and Paul Le Blanc

Part One: Overviews: The Working Class Still Matters

1-2. Overview.

3-16. Paul Le Blanc and John Hinshaw, "Introduction: Why The Working Class Still Matters."

18-42. Harry Braverman, "The Making of the American Working Class."

43-78. Sherry Linkon, Bill Mullen, John Russo, Susan Russo, Linda Strom "Working-Class Studies: Where It's Been Lately and Where It's Going."

Part Two: Diversity, Insurgency and Fragmentation

79-80. Overview.

81-92. Dan Georgakas, "Ethnic Organizing: A Double-Edged Sword."

93-105. David Riehle, "The Appeal to Reason and the Mass Socialist Movement Before World War I."

106-119 David Demarest, "Representations of Women in Narratives About the Great Strike of 1919."

120-132. Joe W. Trotter, "Reflections on the Great Migration to Western Pennsylvania."

133-168. Karen Olson, "The Gendered Social World of Steelmaking: A Case Study of Bethlehem Steel's Sparrows Point Plant."

Part Three: The Opportunities of Labor Radicalism

164-165. Overview.

166-209. Paul Le Blanc, "Revolutionary Vanguards in the United States in the 1930s."

210-236. An interview with Genora Johnson Dollinger by Kathleen O'Nan, "The Role of Women, and of Radicals, in the First Sit-Down Strikes."

237-277. Robert Korstad and Nelson Lichtenstein, "Opportunities Found and Lost: Labor, Radicals, and the Early Civil Rights Movement."

278-313. Manning Marable, "A. Philip Randolph and the Foundations of Black Socialism."

Part Four: Affluence, Possibilities and Problems

314-315. Overview. 316-331. Lizabeth Cohen, "Working-Class Studies/Working-Class Lives: A Historian's Perspective."

332-354. Mark McColloch, "Modest But Adequate: Standard of Living for Mon Valley Steelworkers in the Union Era."

355-397. Ed Mann, "We Are the Union."

398-439. John Hinshaw, "Black Workers' Struggles for Jobs and Civil Rights in Twentieth-Century Pittsburgh"

Part Five: Applying the Lessons of the Past

440-441. Overview.

442-455. Elaine Bernard, "Why Unions Matter."

456-480. Irwin Marcus, "A Century of Struggle in Homestead: Working-Class Responses to Corporate Power."

481-494. James. J. Matles, "The Role of Labor Today: Reflections on the Past Through Light on the Road Ahead."

495-515. Peter Rachleff, "Seeds of a Labor Insurgency" "1996: Change and Continuity."

516-526. General Baker, "The Struggle for Survival."

527-531. Biographies of Contributors

I am a historian and find this topic to be extremly fascinating and important in US history. However, this book came up EXTREMELY short. The topic was poorly covered and the book was an extremly boreing read, even for a nonfiction history study. Also John Hinshaws editing left a lot to be desired. This could be one of the worst jobs of editing I have seen in my 40 years as a professor of history.

It's a pretty good book overall. There are a lot of tutorials for all aspects of Office to help you learn everything possible about Office.

Full title of book was not represented on the web site. Book was part of a series and not the version we needed. We had to send back AT OUR EXPENSE.

If you have read any works on David Lynch this one will come as a crushing disappointment.

Sections on the works of Lynch are rendered in language we would expect from the webpages of alt.culture. The authors clearly love Lynch's work, but this doesn't excuse their inability to ground their comments in any form of cultural discourse.

While it does cover some of the more obscure areas of Lynch's work (particularly the early stuff) the reader will garner little more than trivial tidbits. A beginner's guide to say the least.

C. James Brown

"The Mad Scientist" is another of noted French illustrator Jacques Tardi's graphic-cliffhanger tributes to the early French cinema. Unfortunately it is not nearly as good as its predecessors.

An unexpected invitation to a seance leads Plucky Edwardian journalist Adele Blanc-Sec to the revival of an ape-man frozen in Siberian ice since the Pleistocene era. Unfortunately one of the attending scientists is a "Savant Fou" who plans to turn the surprisingly well-bred Picanthropus into "Le Soldat d'Avenir" (this is, of course, the untranslated French version) and use him as a model in creating an army to recover the lost glory of France.

Tardi just seems to be going through the motions with a cliche anti-war theme and perfunctory 'cliffhanger' moments. Although not entirely passive Adele has to be rescued throughout the story and the rather mean-spirited burlesque on police inspector Caponi seems unnecessary. I was also dismayed, though surprised, by the true identity of the "Savant Fou".

I thought that the book was kind of hard to understand and i also thought that it was kind of useless in the begining. After you get throught the first 10-12 pages it gets kind of fun to do. I would recomened the book if you are just starting to learn desktop publishing

If you were looking for inspiration, look elsewhere. This is a dry, uninspired academic study of the (yawn) history of stairs, etc. Looks like a basic first year arch text. Few photos. I don't need to know the basics of code. I thought from the description that I would get a juicy book with cutting edge stair design and details for a variety of applications. Pen and ink drawings of ancient ruins instead with some limited photos of some interesting installations, but hardly worth the price.

I have typed many reviews on Amazon. For most of the things to which I have given bad ratings, I typed the review with disappointment or frustration or sometimes even amusement. This is the first negative review I have given for a product that has made me angry on multiple occasions (most recently, about 15 minutes ago).

Suppose you were taking a college algebra course and you had multiple classes and curriculums to choose from (and therefore different algebra textbooks for each class). Wouldn't you be thrilled to get the class that used the textbook without instructions? Unless you're an algebra-fan, probably not. In fact, a normal person would never intentionally take on any task or project of any kind that they were unfamiliar with unless they had a clear, concise set of instructions to guide them.

This textbook contains no such instructions.

There are many different Microsoft Office textbooks out there, and most of them are probably far more helpful than this one. I would ask any professors who read this to choose a more student-friendly textbook for their curriculum.

For college students who come across these words, I strongly recommend avoiding the purchase and use of this textbook. If you need to take a computer course that requires this textbook, then I would recommend choosing another course with a better text. I would recommend avoiding professors (and I'm sorry, but I have to say this) who are careless enough to choose this textbook or, for that matter, any textbook that fails to provide instructions on completion of the coursework therein.

Please, save yourself the frustrations and anger that I now have to deal with.