Campbell Books

This is a great read for those who are admirers of the late great Joseph Campbell. Mr. Johnson presents an interesting autobiographical book that focuses on his growth and understanding of the "ultimate concerns" of life, and how Joseph Campbell influenced his spiritual and intellectual evolution.

I have read all available books authored by Campbell and would love to see more books written by his admirers on the subject of his effects on their lives.

I give this book five stars, not because it is "perfect" in some ultimate sense but because the author has achieved a presentation that was the best I think he could have done.

Anyone unfamiliar with Campbell's work should read a few of his books before reading Mr. Johnson's peon, in order to appreciate the wisdom that Mr. Johnson imparts.

After having tried to get through Bulfinch's _Mythology_ with little luck, this little book came in very handy! It contains much of the same myths (although not as many), but it comes with a photograph every single time you turn the page. Depicted are paintings, statues, etc. that show various mythological figures. Remembering the myths was hard, and if you're more of a visual person, then these pictures really help you remember. And plus, the paintings are absolutely beautiful, and many of them are in full color. A nice companion to the Bulfinch _Mythology_--but I still haven't gotten to it yet! A delightful way to learn about mythology if you have a hard time with just text and need a little visual to perk things up.

This book was a great introductory to coin collecting for my 8 year old boy. I even learned some details I had not known after 40 years of collecting.

This refers to the paperback edition. Robert Campbell joined Ashley's Fur Trade Expedition in 1825, and this little book gives his own account of his adventures in the American West up to 1835. Although Campbell is cited in many historical and biographical books, documents, manuscripts and journals, he has somehow eluded notoriety amongst the more famous mountain men and fur trappers of his day. After reading this book, one can easily see that he played a very significant role during this time period. Even though the book is only sixty pages, there are many interesting stories and events which Campbell relates to the reader. The historical notation and introduction are also well done.

Touch Wood by t. Winter-Damon
Holding Hands by Charles L. Grant
Lodgings by Colin Greenland
Breath by Adam Corbin Fusco
Heart Flesh by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Ten O'Clock Horses by Paul Lewis
Funny Weather by Steve Lockley
For Love of Mother by Yvonne Navarro
Eight Limbs by John Brunner
Little Lessons in Gardening by Karl-Edward Wagner
His Own Petard by Spider Robinson
SPOIL by Stan Nicholls
Dead Man's Shoes by Charles le Lint
The Coffin Trimmer by Bill Pronzini
Steps by Stella Hargreaves
The Owner by Michael Marshall Smith
The Woods Be Dark by Bentley Little
Traffic by Simon Ings
The Mouse by Neil Gaiman
The Ghost and the Soldier by William Relling, Jr.
Oracle Bones by Garry Kilworth
Borderlands by Christopher Evans
The Wager by Thomas F. Monteleone
Mysteries of the World by Stanley Wiater
Splints by D.F. Lewis

David Campbell's book is a very well-researched application of the thought of Jacques Derrida and Emanuel Levinas to the decisionmaking in the former Yugoslavia...a topic once again sadly in the news owing to troubles in Kosovo.

Campbell argues that the very visible failures of the West in the war in Bosnia and the 1995 Dayton peace settlement was due to a very deep conceptual failure of policymakers...a failure that came with their education, and that they might regard as wisdom.

This is to oversimplify national affairs down to a misunderstood "identity politics."

Real identity politics would respect what Campbell describes as a basic moral demand the "other" makes upon us, with his different needs and views. Campbell's ethical view is that the "other" makes a moral demand upon us even if his suffering has "nothing to do" with us.

Campbell bases his deepest views on the thought of Levinas, an interwar thinker who radically departed from Western philosophical traditions in that Levinas regards ethics, not metaphysics, as fundamental to philosophy. There's a glimmer of this in Kant and in literary thinkers like Clives Staples Lewis, but Levinas is one of the few Western philosophers to show how mere coherence of thought depends on respect for the "other."

The deconstructive turn in philosophy is to center difference, and borders between people as the focus. This was not an attempt to be cute, or post-modern, on the part of the French beginning in the 1950s; instead, it was a serious response to the fact that placing concepts like man at the center hadnt liberated people in the period 1900-1950. Instead it had led to the Holocaust and the Gulag, for when ordinary people are told to implement some concept like man they immediately triage people into the prime and the secondary and the marginal examples of man. They simplify and the result is that people get hurtfrom downsized in corporations to killed in camps.

Western policymakers, educated outside this tradition, instinctively abhor this as "soft" thinking. Instead, the Kissinger school of *realpolitik* was brought to bear in Bosnia. In part, this simplifies complex and multidimensioned ethnic issues into Serb/Croat/Moslem, when even a hard-nosed mathematician can see that if intermarriage is permitted there are many more combinations possible.

This has had the result of further violence, both resulting from Dayton and now in Kosovo. However, for Americans to criticise this violence seems to get them in a confusing zone where "all parties are guilty", including the Bosnians and the Albanians.

Campbell helps to sort out the "bad" guys and the not-so-good but better guys by showing how the West, the Serbs and to an extent the Croats were able to victimize a state which, for all its real flaws, expressed respect for the ethnic Other in its constitution, and made an effort to live up to this committment.

The book IS hard going at times, but this reminds me of a statement Chicago's "Fast Eddie" Vrydolyak, made when a reporter made a suggestion about race relations: Vrdolyak said "yer talkin' Martian." Simplicity, in a complex world, can be as ideological as undue complexity.

The Volume 23, Number 2, Quarterly, 1996 Alaska Geographic issue, Native Cultures In Alaska offers an informed and informative introduction into the daily life of modern-day Native Americans of Alaska. Full-color photographs and a variety of vignettes and anecdotes about tribes such as the Aleuts, Yup'ik, Tsimshian, and more make Native Cultures In Alaska an engaging tribute and fascinating wealth of insight into enduring cultures and traditions that would enhance any personal, school, or community library Native American Studies collection.

I liked reading the story and thought that it was interesting. I was able to follow along through-out the story and always new what was going on. It was fun to see how she would be able to keep Clover and not have to sell him. She have to come up with a way to stop her grandma from selling Clover. The story wasn't that long and didn't take forever to finish.
In the story, Nattie has a good luck lamb. His name is Clover. Nattie's grandma wants to sell Clover, because they need money for the winter. Grandma doesn't think that Clover's fur is any good. Nattie doesn't want her to sell her good-luck lamb, so she has to think of a way to keep him. If you read this story, you will find out what happened and if Nattie was able to keep Clover.
Brandon M.

This book is more than just great pictures-of which there are many.It provides an excellent history lesson on the introduction of figural elements in Navajo weaving, including the stories behind the popular Yei, Yeibichais and sandpainting weavings. There are 170 full-color examples of weavings that illustrate this book, comprising one of the most difinitive surveys of pictorial weavings. The book is boken out into nine sections, such as "Birds, Flora, Fauna", and gives an imformative look at each style's evolution. The authors also reviews the impact Western civilization has had on weaving styles, including the introduction of trains, cars and buidlings. It has helped me date rugs in my own collection as well as those I've considered purchasing. It really is a "must buy" for rug enthusiasts.

If I had to limit my reference library to one book, this would be the one. From scribing a waterline to rigging hammock netting on the bulwarks, it gives the modeler the information he needs.