Caldwell Books

I had to chuckle a bit at a suggestion that Grudem's Theology was better than Ryrie's Survey book. First, Ryrie's is only 192 pages, Grudem's work is massive. So, you need to compare apples to apples. Packer's work (whom I think does a nice job indeed), is a better comparison.

If you know you are a Grudem fan, then, yes, you may not like Ryrie's more biblical theology. Grudem who is Charismatic-leaning, and 5 point in his central belief's (hard to imagine those two together, isn't it!?) has much to commend it. Clarity and consistancy are two things Grudem does not attain. But, still, the large volume can not be compared (even if one liked his confusion) to a Survey book.

Ryrie's survey book is perfect for a solid introduction to theology... or better yet, to lead a small group study through. Good stuff through-out.

JJ

Dr. Charles Ryie has done a fine job that is even understandable for the youngest of believers in Christ to know and examine true Bible doctrine as the Holy Scriptures teach. I not only enjoy this book but I am a beneficary of the Ryie Study Bible as well. God has truly gifted this man and made him a blessing to those in the christian community who want a real proper true and solid deeper yet simpler teaching of the Holy Scriptures.

Charles Ryrie does an excellent job of wading through some difficult subject matter and making it readable. It is by no means as thorough as some Bible surveys; however, for the vast majority of people, it is excellent for explaining what the Bible says about the character of God, the doctrine of sin, angels and demons, election vs. free will, etc. Since Ryrie is a dispensationalist, some of his bias does show through in the area of eschatology. This being said, the book is worth reading.
If you've never read the Bible before OR if you have read the Bible, but don't understand what it really teaches, I recommend this book as a great start. As with all books on the Bible, check out the verses (quoted by the author) in the Bible. You may disagree with some, but your position will be better defined and you'll come out knowing a lot more about the Bible.

This book covers several Biblical doctrines that most people enjoy discussing. The research with scripture references are well outlined and easy to follow. This book makes for a great Wed.night bible study or small group study.

This was required reading for a Bible class I took. It was OK, but Ryrie is a dispensationalist, cessationist, and occasionally anti-nomian. The book is well written and easy to follow, but I still must pick up a pair of those "secret decoding eschatology glasses" so I can understand the premillenial madness suggested by dispensationalists... start with Revelation and go backward? For better doctrine I would recommend Wayne Grudem's "Bible Doctrine" or Bruce Milne's "Know the Truth", or even "Concise Theology" by JI Packer.

A 15 year old boy named Billy Calder, son of a British soldier and a Mohawk woman leaves school to join Tecumseh, the chief of the Shawnee. In Ohio they attempt to forge an alliance with many Indian nations to keep Americans from taking their homeland.

This is a book for more say a reader that has some knowledge of American History and a desire to learn more about history. It was enjoyable to read about a true historic event with a character in the book exactly my age. You may tend to think that Billy is a fictional character but he is not. This makes the book more enjoyable for teens to read.

The book was very well written and gave an accurate portrayal of what life was like during the Indian's struggle to keep their homeland. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an adventure in a historical fiction novel.

One morning in the middle of a snow storm, a man showed up on his horse at this cabin.
This mans name was Tecumseh. He wants to ask Billy Calder a question. So he ask Billy if he wanted to be a translator for his warriors. So Billy said ok. The next day they left and went to Fort Detroit. Billy talked to every one at the fort. The Indians are having a war since the Americans want to take their land for ever. So then they have big war with the Americans. I can't really tell you any more else I will ruin it.

I would recommend this book for both boys and girls. If you like to read war books or action books this is the one. Or if you like history books like me.

The part I disliked is when the Americans would burn the good people's houses and then would kill them.
The part I liked is when the Americans and Indians fought. Since I like action.

One morning in the middle of a snow storm, a man showed up on his horse at this cabin.
This mans name was Tecumseh. He wants to ask Billy Calder a question. So he ask Billy if he wanted to be a translator for his warriors. So Billy said ok. The next day they left and went to Fort Detroit. Billy talked to every one at the fort. The Indians are having a war since the Americans want to take their land for ever. So then they have big war with the Americans. I can't really tell you any more else I will ruin it.

I would recommend this book for both boys and girls. If you like to read war books or action books this is the one. Or if you like history books like me.

The part I disliked is when the Americans would burn the good people's houses and then would kill them.
The part I liked is when the Americans and Indians fought. Since I like action.

Let me start by telling you a brief summary of this book. Billy Caldwell is a 16 Year old boy who travels with an Indian Chief name Tecumseh. Billy ventures out with Tecumseh and fights the Americans. Now, I'm not a big war fan. This book is really slow. It took me 1 month to read. This book starts too get a little better toward page 185 out 227. That's 185 pages of boring. I like books like Harry Potter that aren't so real. This book is like Indian Captive. Be warned. You might like it, you may not. The names are very hard to pronounce.

Crossing the Panther's Path is a historical fiction story about a 16 year old boy named Billy Calder. Billy is part Mohawk, from his mother, and part Irish, from his father. Billy's father is a captain in the British army stationed at a fort near Detroit. Billy was educated by the French near his father's fort. One night it was like a small blizzard and an Indian chief and good friend of Billy's father came. His name was Tecumseh. (The Indian leader at the battle of Fallen Timbers) Tecumseh was talking about a future plan to win back his home land, the Ohio territory. Billy soon became Tecumseh's translator to make peace talks with the Amercicans who stole the land from the Indians. Expecting British help, Tecumseh gathers warriors to take back his land.

Likes- True story
Dislikes-Story names (hard to pronounce)
Recommended for everybody who likes true stories

I'm in an MBA program right now and still refer back to this book for my intermediate accounting course. I'm a tough judge on books, coming from the UC system, and let me tell you - this is one of the best written textbooks I have ever encountered. Period.

hi i bought 2 books from these people for the first time in the past two weeks and i got the book on time and it was in great condition!
thanks

First of all I paid for 2 days express shipping. The book came after 5 days.Then I did not get your guide to an A which is a free pakage that comes with a new book.The point of buying a new book was just because of this pakage.I am not very satisfied with the service.

Best book so far for teahing accounting. This is the book for learning accounting.

My accounting professor was awful and it was this book that saved my grade in the class. It provides very detailed explanations and summaries of each concept it covers throughout the chapter, not just at the end of the section. The accompanying working papers and study guide were also very informative and helpful.

First off, I want to echo the other reviewers in my praise for the book. The background in economic history was valuable to me and helps put the work that Hayek did into perspective. Though it may be "academic" (any look at the philosophy behind economics is probably not for the same audience as more instrumental books -- like "How to be successful" or whatever). That being said the book is well written and if anyone is interested in the influence of positivism on economics, the division of psychology and economics into separate disciplines, the roots of socialism and other foundational material, this book presents that information in a logical, clear way.

It cautions at the beginning that Hayek's work was complex and interdependent. There is a tendancy to take a paragraph by Hayek from one place and use it as a representation of the whole, like the blind men and the elephant. I would suggest strongly that to call him foundational in the current US conversativism is probably wrong. One clue is that as an extra to the "Constitution of Liberty" there is an essay by Hayek called "Why I am not a conservative."

Hayek was fascinated with "knowledge" in the sense that somehow humans manage to coordiante activity and believe that we share knowledge, but in reality it is not possible. Each of sees what we see and we do not see what others see. Somehow, unconsciously, we have evolved a way of being able to use the knowledge of others as well as our own.

His argument against socialism was basically that it breaks some of the ways of knowing what others are doing. A standard definition of Economics is that it is about how people make decisions in conditions of scarcity. In other words, there is an assumption that there is never enough to go around. If you think about it, even people with virtually unlimited amounts of money still compete with each other for status and other such things. We are all often in a position that if we choose X, then we cannot have Y.

Hayek thinks that that decision should be left up to the individual. He says that the mistake that people who believe that scientific central planning make is that they believe there is more of a consensus that there is. Someone's choices wind up overriding other's choices. There is more to it than this, but this is the basis of the argument. It is simple and not really one that falls easily on a liberal/conservative spectrum.

It is, however, probably the source of the claim that he is "conservative." Maggie Thatcher was a fan of Hayek as was, apparently, Ronald Reagan. It can be construed that the opposite of governments actively trying manage economies is lazie fare, hands off, anything goes conservativism. But that would be a misreading of Hayek and simply because a conservative likes Hayek's arguments about one topic does not make Hayek a conservative.

There is another point where Hayek would probably diverge widely from current "conservatives." By popular demand the borders in the US are getting tighter. For instance, it is now difficult to come back and forth from Canada, foreign graduate students are looking elsewhere, the "conservative" governor of California (himself an Austrian and alledgedly a fan of Hayek) is supporting vigilanties to prevent border crossings from Mexico. It does not seem that this is condusive to "knowledge" in the sense that Hayek uses it, as something that is distributed throughout humanity.

Hayek's greatest interest was in how we each take our little snapshot of the world and interact with others to build stable social structures without any direction. It is not that someone decides that we should have a structure like such and such, we find that these structures are there and we can all recognize them. In a way, he is talking about the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith. Somehow we coordinate activity so that I can be writing this right now on a computer I got somewhere, a DSL connection and so on and I have not talked to the people involved with making it happen, they have not talked to each other and no one directed them to do it.

Hayek is interested in the rules that make that happen. Now we talk of complex adaptive systems and the idea of "spontaneous order" is widely studied to day. Current work on "connectionist networks" now mention Hayek. He was way ahead of his time.

I also want to point out that even though some call him "the father of libertarianism" he was not against governments making rules that cause markets to function better, for instance, regulation against monopoly. Libertarians were up in arms against the threatened breakup of Microsoft, something Hayek would not have been against in principle.

I hope more people will read this book. It is remarkable how many ideas we think are brand new have been around for a while. This book helped me understand how they got sidelined. It is really a lively book, filled with people as well as ideas, which is important, because sometimes politics trumps insight. Hayek's remarkable ideas are just beginning to be widely noticed and recognizing what is happening is an exciting benefit of this book.

I do not know who the target audience was here, but it certainly was not me, and I am a big Hayek fan. This book is way over my head. Perhaps a doctorate in economics or philosophy would make this work easier to read, but I don't think the average intelligent, interested reader will want to struggle though this material. It never comes up for air.

Tasked with the need to understand a contemporary, conservative thinker in a doctoral course on social justice, I was enriched by the professor's suggestion that I focus on Hayek. In due course I came upon this book by Caldwell. I wish to echo the earlier reviewers praise - this book is everything an intellectual history should be. The reader will become intimately familiar with the historical antecedents to Hayek, the academic, cultural, and historical milieu in which he worked, and the likely future his ideas will have.

I approached this book as a complete novice. I had never heard of Hayek, and frankly, reading this book stretched my 18 hours of undergraduate economics about as far as they could be stretched, but I was left with an astonishing respect for this economist turned political theorist. How is it possible that Hayek could have escaped my notice for 50 years?

One hundred and thirty pages are devoted, not to Hayek, but to Austrian school economics (i.e. - subjective value, marginalism, entrepreneurship) and its founder Carl Menger. Caldwell introduces key figures in the Austrian school at length (Bohm-Bawerk, Wieser, and Mises) as well as the chief protagonists of the school (German historical, socialism).

Into this fray comes Hayek, an ambitious but not a particularly aggressive academic. Any attempt at summarizing Hayek's thought is easily criticized, but from my personal perspective, Hayek seems to have been a master at synthesis. He linked what today would be called cognitive psychology with philosophy to produce an epistemology that is foundational to all his subsequent work. Further, he linked this epistemology with social evolution to explain social advance, social stability, and social institutions and values.

Epistemologically, Hayek understood human beings to possess a subjective ignorance. He denounced the "rational economic man" as a fiction, but asserted the importance of the free market supply/demand pricing mechanism. Without this pricing mechanism, economic planning was doomed to inefficiency and competitive disadvantage while the individual was cast adrift without any objective anchors with which to make decisions. Without the freedom to pursue subjective goals, however ignorant, there was no individual liberty.

It was from the random and chaotic subjectively ignorant decisions of the individual that social institutions evolved (i.e. - order out of chaos). The fittest of these social constructs prevail over time and form the framework of stability essential for the maintenance of a free marketplace and for the subjective projection of future value.

Hayek was awarded a Nobel Prize for economics in 1974 and the American Medal of Freedom in 1992 by then president George Bush, Sr. After spending a semester reading about this man and his ideas, I have become convinced that Hayek is a foundational thinker undergirding the conservative resurgence in America during the past 40 years. It is unlikely that there will ever be a finer intellectual biography than that provided by Caldwell. Everyone interested in social policy, social justice, and contemporary trends should become familiar with this book.

One last warning, Caldwell writes as an academic for academics. Footnotes abound, and there are four appendices directed at specialists. A lay reader will frequently realize that he cannot appreciate all of the subtle points that Caldwell is making. Despite these facts, this is a readable book worth the effort.

This is one of the best non-fiction books I have read in a long time. I have no idea how I came to buy this - I rarely read biographies, consider myself left-wing, am a computer programmer who was educated as a physicist (so have no background in economics), and only vaguely recognise his name - so must assume someone recommended it to me. Whoever that person was: Thank-you!

I think there are two things that makes this such a good read. Most important is the subject matter - Hayek seems to have been a pretty smart chap who was interested by, and contributed to, a wide range of subjects, at a time (the latter 2/3s of the twentieth century) when a lot was happening. And because he kept shifting fields and, to some extent, revising his opinions, you get to watch the evolution of a wide range of disciplines.

So this book touches on subjects like scientific methodology; emergent behaviours; how money acts as a way to signal information; the foundations of economics (do you have to assume everyone is "perfectly greedy", for example?); models of consciousness; evolutionary biology and group selection - interesting problems that are relevant today, presented in a historical context that is extremely helpful in understanding their peculiarities. Maybe it sounds crazy (or stupid), but until I read this book I had no idea how history could be so useful, relevant and informative.

Much credit must also go (my "second reason") to the author - I think this is impressively well written. Caldwell is a very careful guide who takes pains not only to justify what he says, but also gently directs you through what could be a terribly confusing and complex journey by identifying common threads, summarizing discussions, and repeatedly placing everything within its proper context. Please write another book (how about Popper?)!

On the plane to and from the Southern Economic Association meetings in San Antonio (including a 3 hour delay in Dallas on the way home) in November I had the opportunity to read the best book written in Austrian economics in a generation -- Bruce Caldwell's Hayek's Challenge (University of Chicago Press, 2003). Caldwell, as to be expected, is a master historian of thought and constructs a narrative of Hayek's evolution of as a thinker that is simply better than any alternative account. And, in the process, Caldwell tells the story of the development of Austrian economics from Menger to today better than I have ever seen. This is a phenomenal work of scholarship and a beautifully written book. The book represents the history of economics as it should be written --- a subtle treatment of economic doctrine, contextualization of the evolution of argument within its broader history of philosophical, political and economic debates, and engagingly written. As far as economics goes, this book is a page turner. It is nothing short of a brilliant. Bruce Caldwell has written, in my opinion, the best book in economics for 2003.

The story of Jesus as seen through the eyes of his disciple Judas Iscariot. Heavy emphasis on the politics surrounding the minestry, betrayal and death of Jesus Christ. The well intentioned Judas is, himself, betrayed because of his very human nature.

Anyone who enjoys reading, fascinated with Christianity, or simply is Christian themself will take pleasure from this detailed, descriptive, accurate depiction of the Life and Death of Jesus Christ. While the termonology might take you off guard at first, and while I agree an previous understanding of the segmentation of Judea and the way in which it was positioned under Roman rule during the life of Christ can help, there is no requirement to take an apprecation from "I, Judas." Personally, at a time in my life when the world did not make much self, this book was one of the first things to interest me in the Person of Jesus Christ, and since then I have become a deep and committed Christian, and a future priests. The authors are in my deepest thanks and gratitude.

The idea of telling the world most famous story from the point of view of the most hated character in history is brave and good. Judas, the man Dante put in the last and most hideous circle of hell -that destined for the worst traitors- is here just a man, but not a mediocre man. By the time when Jesus was already preaching, Israel was in political turmoil (hasn't it always been?). Several political factions were conspiring against Roman rule. Of them, the zealots were one of the most radical.

Judas, apparently, was a member of this group and, simplifying Caldwell's plot, seems to have sincerely taken Jesus as the future King of Israel. This he would accomplish by political and revolutionary action. As Jesus refuses to take real action to depose the Romans, Judas gets disappointed and finally betrays the man he thought would lead them to victory, but instead kept on saying strange things, uncomprehensible for a man of action like Judas. I think no one can take away from Caldwell (a writer I don't really like) the merit of having written the story from Judas's point of view, in a reasonable and plausible plot. Just for that, it is worth reading it.

This is definitely not the most exciting book around. It's not going to have to staying up late to finish it, eagerly turning the next page. But it will get you thinking.
I love reading historical novels of this kind (especially with a religious or philosophical theme) that look to put a new slant on common beliefs and that get me thinking about things or relating a little better to historical or religious figures. I found this to be one of those novels.
However, although there is a lot of great information in this story and the authors have given a passionate and sympathetic insight into the life of one of Christianity's greatest "villians", it's important that readers remember this is an interpretation of events intermingled with opinion. I don't think this would be the best book for someone who is not familiar with the Greek scriptures. It would be easy to mistake a lot of the authors' conjecture for fact. Some points that are raised during the book though are very insightful and I recommend this book for all Christians, especially those faithfully submitting themselves to the teachings of their church instead of the teachings of the bible. The repeated insistence by Jesus himself that he is not God but God's son is one such point and I applaud the authors for highlighting this. That they also raise the question of Jesus' true birth date, a long held misnomer for Christians who celebrate it on Dec 25, is another good point.
Bottom line, this book would have got more stars from me if it wasn't such a slow, dull read for three-quarters of the novel. It did pick up speed towards the end though and so it's worth struggling through.

it's a good story. and i like the fact that we are told the story from Judas' point of view. you get to see the politics surrounding christ and you see that judas isn't evil, just a man, a patriot. but the writing style is boring, slow, and dull.

Set in his familiar sandy hills in the Savannah River Valley, Caldwell presents another piece to what he called his Cyclorama of Modern Southern life. The tragedy of Southern race relations after Emancipation is allegorized in the lynching of a young black man for the rape of a white sharecropper's daughter.

The closest thing to a main character is the Sheriff of the county, Jeff McCurtain. McCurtain is convinced to "keep the lynching politically clean." Representing the political powers of the inter War South, McCurtain is afraid to stand up to the people in the name of the law. As he tries to avoid contact with the lynch mob, he also seeks out a Black man who he considers "harmless" and therefore shouldn't be mixed up in the whole lynching.

Characters represent the three commonly thought views of Black Americans held by Southern whites at the time. The rich landowner wants the sheriff to catch the suspected racist, so as life can get back to normal and other blacks will keep working his plantation. The catalyst of the incident, a politically involved woman who may be sleeping with the pastor, is circulating a petition that all blacks should be rounded up and sent back to Africa. Yet the third is a man in the mob who is against the petition:

"The best way is just like I said. String one of them up ever so often. That'll make all of them keep their place. Hell, if there wasn't no more niggers in the country I'd feel lost without them. Besides, who'd do all the work if the niggers were sent away?"

Caldwell appears to have his finger on the pulse of white social-economic view of black Southerners. Like the helots and the Spartans, the backward stagnant economic system of the interwar South is based on white Southerners keeping black Southerners in virtual economic servitude.

"Trouble in July" is the most real of Caldwell's novels in his "cyclorama" that I have read yet. The allegory is not too far from the tree as the almost surreal characters in "Tobacco Road" and "God's Little Acre." However, it does not have the full emersion in the world of the sand hills that the other two have. One almost expects the end where McCurtain begins to question his own actions during the story.

All in all I find it not a great work. Its subject matter is more important to the modern reader than some of Caldwell's other works as he like Ida B. Wells, throws the Southern view of civilization upon its head. Additionally, it reminds us why the words of people like Kelly Tilghman, the Golf channel anchor, and Bill O'Reilly (declaring he would lynch Michelle Obama if there was evidence) are so dangerous. People are quick to join mobs and the law is slow to challenge what seems the will of the people even if it is against the very things we stand for.

Written after the enormous successes of Tobacco Road (1932) and God's Little Acre (1933) and the critical and popular failure of Journeyman (1935), Erskine Caldwell's Trouble In July (1940) is an earnest but listless novel which addresses the lynching of Negroes in the Deep South. Taking place during the period in which it was written, the novel is neither a black comedy burlesque like Tobacco Road nor an example of the more private, pseudo-surrealist fiction Caldwell produced with Journeyman or some of his many short stories of the era.

Instead, Trouble in July attempts and fails to achieve a finely poised balance between realistic fiction and a kind of Keystone Cops comedy. But pointed exaggeration at every level was Caldwell's forte, and the novel, which was written with difficulty over a period of several years, is redundant, flat, predictable, and anticlimactic, despite the piling up of several reoccurring cinematic plot devices, such as the worst possible person walking in the door or phoning at the absolute worst time. In Chapter Six, heavily put-upon sheriff and protagonist Jeff McCurtain conceives a plan to escape his duties by inventing a threatening posse of masked bandits, only to find himself held at gunpoint by an identical gang in reality.

Trouble In July features several politicians who are only concerned that the lynching, which they see as inevitable and acceptable as long as it reflects "the will of the people," not turn public opinion against them, a sheriff's deputy whose great joy in life is "hunting possums between midnight and dawn and tracking down runaway Negroes at every opportunity," vigilante gangs for whom the routine killing of blacks is the umbrella answer to most of life's problems, a religious zealot who is outraged that bibles depicting Christ as a black man are circulating in the Negro community, a signature-gathering campaign to "send all the Negroes to the country of Africa without delay," a black character, the object of the lynching, who is little more than a wide-and-wild eyed caricature, and, among other Caldwell stock characters, a fifteen year old uneducated white girl with an inordinate appetite for sex and attention.

God's Little Acre used a similar formula, but that novel, Caldwell's best, was fraught with tension and conflict, and, as a result, contains one of the most suspenseful and poignant climaxes in all of American literature. Perhaps due to the seriousness of its subject, Caldwell's creative exposition in Trouble in July is cautious to the point of being half hearted, and as a result, the novel, which is never quite believable on any level, creeps and crawls tentatively towards its conclusion rather than galloping confidently ahead.

Hatred, bigotry, lust, lynchings and mayhem all take place in the ole south. After reading trouble in July I ran out and bought "A PLACE CALLED ESTHERVILLE", here again Caldwell displays just how good his writing & story telling skills are. I read "TROUBLE IN JULY ABOUT 13 YRS. AGO. The book was lent to a friend and never returned. I was delighted when I saw that the book had been reprinted, I plan on purchasing another copy. This book has stayed on my mind for years. I wish Caldwell was still alive so he could write more of these novels with stories from the land of dixie. Trouble in july will move you and bring you close to tears, trust me and keep a hankie close at hand.

one of the best books written about the ole south filled with bigory, passion, rape, hatred, i lent this book to a friend about 10 yrs. ago have been trying to get a new copy since then. erskine caldwell is at his best. don't miss this one

Sheriff McCurtain has a problem. It appears that a negro boy has been accused of raping a white gal. White folk in Flowery Branch can't allow that to happen and so a lynch mob forms. In times of crisis such as this the sheriff does what is politically correct; he goes fishing. This time McCurtain finds himself the fish on the hook who just can't get away no matter how hard he tries.

In this masterful piece of literature, Erskine Caldwell unravels before our eyes the pathology and terrorism of lynching in the south. No one could do a better job for Caldwell is a white southerner who grew up in an environment in which lynching was a common form of entertainment. Trouble in July goes deep into the psychology of what makes common white men into brutes and those who work for them into victims.

Like many men McCurtain finds it easier to ignore what is going on rather than try to contain the trouble. The more that he tries to wash his hands of the affair the worse it gets. Those in power see the political and economical ramifications of the act and call on him to jail the accused. After all,McCurtain is their political puppet to be manipulated at will.

Such an intriguing drama exposes the hypocrasy of the law and shows how fear can make even the most honest of men betray their basic values of justice. Fear reduces the "negro" community into one that becomes terrorized and beaten into submission. Fear allows the upholder of the law to allow things to get out of hand merely because he wants to be voted into office next year.

Although the characters are simple; their motives, thoughts and values are complex as they struggle with their consciences in carrying out their heinous acts of cowardliness. You have laid out before you the ugliness of a system that dehumanizes everyone involved. The foreward by Bryant Simon in this edition gives us the background which gave rise to this novel. According to Simon, the author has made a significant transition in his work by revealing the south's racism in a straightforward manner. He doesn't hold back the punches.

Caldwell has given us a masterpiece about American Terrorism at its zenith in the United States. You will be repulsed, angered, and yes, fearful as you follow the crowd. Our author won't let us become mere voyeurs. We become the lynch mob, the negroes, the soiled politicians and all that is sick in southern terrorism. Read this outstanding work, feel the terror and learn about overcoming the mob psychology in your life. I was deeply moved by Trouble In July and you will too.

I found this book very interesting. I found links to my dad's family through three of his grandparents. I was not surprised to find Coopers my paternal grandfather's family but I was very surprised to find my paternal grandmother's family, both sides, Crocketts, and Rosses. I also found links to my Harvey cousins. One of them has had his DNA tested and found it very interesting indeed. I will definitely look for more research on this subject. This book was interesting and gave me some very good leads to follow.
M Cooper

The DNA evidence in this work only includes DNA-Y 12 markers. Everyone in the business knows that the 12 marker is ONLY used to disprove relationships. It takes 37 markers in a Y-DNA test to prove a relationship!

This was a very interesting book that stirs one to question the status quo of written history. DNA studies are confirming oral traditions and rewriting history as we know it. The book includes DNA evidence, Documents and records of the surnames in Scotland, that I have not seen elsewhere. Much more than pictures and what of, like, coulds, maybe.
.Many pictures of Churchs, Cemetary stones, Architecture. A valuable resource for you studies of Scotland and Melungeon Heritage

I requested this book for my birthday present. I have been very pleased with the books I have read written by Elizabeth Hirschman. I am not disapointed with this book. It has very detailed information. (I descend from the McArthurs,Campbells,Stuarts,Farquarsons, Mitches,Watsons, and a long line of High Stewards of Scotland. I also have some Jewish family lines (Brocks, Wideman). My Fridman family was always accused of being Jewish, but DNA testing has proven a Viking,Anglo-Saxson line (unless the I1a Haplogroup, some time in the future, is found to be Hebrew). This book is a very good source of information for the home library. Thank you Elizabeth and Donald.

Janine Lockwood

If you want to read some history of Europe or some history of Jews in Europe, you can find better books at better prices. If you want to read about the history of Jews in Scotland, this is definitely not the right book. It is so full of could be, like, and maybe, but very little facts. I will give just a couple of ridiculous statements. "He had a hat, beard and large nose and therefore he must have been of Jewish decent." How many people, back when these portraits were done, did not have hats and beards? "They had Hebrew names. Like David, Adam, Jacob, etc." Come on. How many millions of Christians give their children biblical names. This book is a waste of money.

I jumped when I first saw this, mainly because covers and artwork inserts from the magazines adorned my bedroom and office when I was younger. Larry Elmore was my favorite at the time, but then Todd Lockwood came along and changed everything.

I for one agreed with another reviewer: Not enough sauce. Dragon was a staple of RPG fandom for 30 years, and I felt the collection was a little light. Several of my more favorite artists were scarcely mentioned, and I thought a lot more attention was paid to the more recent 3rd edition art than earlier works from the 80s and 90s. For God's sake, add another hundred pages and give it some meat!

I bought this as a gift and my wife was very pleased. She was a avid reader of Dragon magazine and loved the art!

I've always been impressed with the high quality of the artwork in my D&D books - especially with the new generation of artists, like Wayne Reynolds and Todd Lockwood. The Art of Dragon Magazine holds to that standard.

A nice retrospective of 30 years of Dragon magazine cover and interior art, The Art of Dragon Magazine includes work from Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Brom, and many others, chronicling not only how D&D fantasy artwork has ebbed and flowed over the years, but how tastes and interpretations of classic characters have changed. Also, this book is chock-full of art. Neatly separated into broad categories (such as "magic" and "dragons") you'll find artistic interpretations of daring rogues, fiendish liches, gruff dwarves, and many other characters and settings that will fire your imagination. All of the art is well reproduced and clear - not blurry, and the book is put together well.

There are only two items that I feel keep this book from getting a five-star rating: first, it is too brief; while there is a large selection of art, one can't help but feel there are more gems out there (I hope a second collection is in the works!). Second, some of my favorite artists (most notably Todd Lockwood) are not as well-represented as I might have liked. Overall, however, fans of D&D, as well as fantasy art enthusiasts in general (including those who enjoy the annual Spectrum collections) will be pleased to add this to their libraries.

While many of the picures within are visually stunning, I felt they left out some of the best artwork in favor of some rather crude ones. All in all I'd say I liked about 30% of the artwork in the book, and I wish the other 70% could have been exchanged for better works I've seen in past issues of Dragon. Maybe there will be a volume 2.

In this collection of fourteen short stories, Caldwell continues his allegory of the proto-Capitalist South found in God's Little Acre, Tobacco Road and Journeyman. Each short story is a humorous look at the issues facing the South with one foot in the mythical Antebellum and one in a modern world for which it is not prepared.

The stories are told through the eyes of a twelve year old boy who is an innocent reporter of the upheaval of the world around him. The actions of his part-time farmer "old man," his down-to-earth mother and the black man, Handsome Brown do not phase him as out of the ordinary. Instead Caldwell allows the readers to analyze the validity of their actions.

The "Old Man," Morris Stroup, is a chip off the old block of Jeeter and Ty Ty. He is constantly finding ways to mortgage his future for a quick buck. In one instance Morris is willing to use his old love letters and all his wife's recipes to bundle paper to gain a few dollars. In another story, Morris steals the capital of his neighbors just to earn some money from the scrap iron buyer. Caldwell uses Morris to show how the South of Caldwell's day appeared unwilling to invest in its future.

Caldwell also shows the virtual servitude Blacks were held in. The Black yard boy, Handsome Brown, is constantly forced to do what no white man would attempt. In one story he tries to run away from his predicament with his only way out being the man who is dunked in the dunk tank at the fair. The Old Man wins Handsome back but only by spending his son's twenty-five cents to do so, mortgaging the future of the South.

The tales are pointed and funny. The reader is left to marvel at the stupidity of Morris Stroup and the other whites. Meanwhile, the narrator, the New South, doesn't see that its funny, but merely the way things are. Great Book and the next one to read after Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre.

Equal parts burlesque, farce, and tall tale, Erskine Caldwell's interrelated short story collection Georgia Boy (1943) finds its author near the peak of his writing talent. The fourteen stories are narrated by young William Stroup, the observant only child of a poor Georgia family. While the endless string of shenanigans William reports clearly demonstrate his father Morris' stupidity, sloth, and immorality, objective William never offers an opinion on his father's behavior. As the stories progress, it becomes clear that while he mildly sympathizes with his hardworking, frustrated, and put - upon mother, William actually admires his father's outrageous breaches of acceptable behavior.

Like Jeeter Lester of Tobacco Road (1931) and Ty Ty Walden of God's Little Acre (1933) before him, Morris Stroup is a daydreamer constantly on the lookout for pie in the sky and any shortcut to prosperity, no matter how absurd, outlandish, or illegal. In fact, the Stroups stand somewhere between the Lesters and the Waldens in terms of socialization; while they are not as backward, uneducated, and dispossessed as the poorest - of - the - poor - Lesters, the Stroups lack the Walden's daring - do, ingenuity, marginal prosperity, and relatively strong interrelationships. Like the Lesters, the Stroups live in a house divided: since the extraverted Morris is constantly misbehaving on a grand scale, William's mother ("Ma") finds it necessary to constantly be on her guard against her husband's latest transgression. One of the book's hilarious running jokes is Ma telling William to "go in the house right this instant and shut the doors and pull down the window shades" so she can confront Morris alone with his latest deception, chase him with a broom, or throw any object available in his general direction. Like most men and teenage boys in Caldwell's fiction, Morris thinks with his reproductive organs first and his stomach second, his mind a distant third.

When Ma is not suffering due to Morris's behavior, Handsome Brown, the black "yard boy," is. Handsome lives in a shed on the Morris property and receives only food and occasional secondhand clothing for his work. The much - harassed Handsome, however, shows far more common and moral sense than any other character in the book. Handsome, who has a slight lazy streak of his own, also does most of the work around the house, while Morris "hasn't done an honest day's work in ten years." While Morris is clearly a fool in every sense, Handsome is only a fool in Morris's ignorant opinion: Morris unquestioningly considers Handsome a lesser being strictly on the basis of his race.

But Morris is an archetypal fool extraordinaire, ridiculously bringing one avoidable disaster after another upon his head. A pure fool, Morris is incapable of learning from his mistakes or perceiving his own culpability, lacks foresight entirely, and regardless of the outcome of his actions, still manages to have a high opinion of himself as a hail - fellow - what - met, kind, light - hearted individual. The stories of Georgia Boy abound with loaded, riotous situations, most of which, though not all, have been precipitated by Morris.

As in his other fiction, Caldwell excels at characterization, even while his men, women, and children tend to run to type. Caldwell had a genius for comedy that stretches the boundaries of probability without ever going too far. Like a fourteen - story illustration of F. Scott Fitzgerald's statement that "there's no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind," Georgia Boy is a warm, touching, and uproarious examination of the large and small foibles of man.

This book is a novel / short story collection. The book involves a poor Georgia family: an ignorant but pleasure seeking husband, his nagging, hard-working wife, their young teen-age son, and their black workman ( who is treated as a thankless slave ).

Each chapter in the book, is not related to the previous, but are simply episodes of humor in ignorance. Their father's money making schemes are a stitch. Their are also some sobering stories as well, but mostly it is a funny book. I found myself really attached to the family at the end and enjoyed the book quite a bit. It is typical Caldwell writing here.

Readers who were struck by the bleakness and power of Caldwell's Tobacco Road will find something very different in these almost homey, amusing reminiscences of a seriously dysfunctional Southern family. The book is structured as a series of self-sufficient vignettes, detailing separate incidents in the everyday lives of these very everyday people in the early 20th century. The father, Morris Stroup, is lazy, thoughtless, possibly a womanizer (only the Grass Widow knows for sure), certainly a thief, frequently a drunk, and willing to turn his hand to anything except honest work. The mother, Martha, is appropriately harried, cantankerous, demanding, and dictatorial. She takes in wash to help make ends meet, but she bitterly resents the fact that she has to do so much hard work (that she considers beneath her) just to make up for her husband's shortcomings. So what's a boy to do, but just try to stay out of the way?

The stories are told from the viewpoint of young William, but he is rarely more than an observer. Handsome Brown, the `Negro yardboy', gets stuck doing the really dirty work, and gets pretty short shrift from both grownups, although he and William are great pals. He bears the brunt of most of the book's physical humor, and some enterprising student could probably write a good paper about racism (or just plain southern stereotypes) using this book. Despite the nostalgic, Wonder Years viewpoint, there's an undercurrent of pain and frustration that makes us sympathize with these characters even when we see them behaving pretty badly, as when Pa comes home drunk and starts breaking the furniture, or Ma's endlessly distressing over what the neighbors will think. Caldwell's picturesque prose paints some hilarious pictures - the goats on the roof, and the attack of the shirt-tail woodpeckers stick in the mind - but the actual belly-laughs are few and far between, and too often the characters come off as more pathetic than lovable. As a result, the pleasure one might derive from these slapstick antics is tempered by the misery and poverty that these luckless people seem doomed to live in. Fans of southern literature will find this book fairly light reading, however, since many American authors (Faulkner, Twain, Harper Lee, etc...) have dealt with the foibles, follies, pain and pathos of these kinds of characters far more effectively.

I am an exercise instructor for children and I didn't think this book was so great. It didn't have enough poses to teach a class.

"The Girls' Yoga Book: Stretch Your Body, Open Your Mind, & Have Fun!" by Michaela Caldwell introduces the reader to using yoga to revitalize one's body, mind, and mood. Chapters discuss how to create a yoga space, enact basic poses, control one's breathing, improve balance and more. Simple and colorful illustrations make The Girls' Yoga Book an easy-to-use springboard to get started in this physically and mentally fulfilling practice.

I LOVE this book! The language is spot-on for girls--there's no "dumbing down" here, yet the core teachings of yoga aren't glossed over either. The package is tons of fun, with amazing, colourful illustrations of real girls and easy-to-follow instructions for each yoga pose. I highly recommend it--especially for girls who might want to begin a yoga practice but aren't sure they want to take a class with a "bunch of women."

If you're a mom with a preteen / teenage daughter, it's a great way to learn about yoga together.

I liked this better than most "adult" books on Yoga. Definitely work a look for adults new to Yoga as well as girls.