Field Books

This personal momoir adds to the body of World War II history.

Very interesting book. we know the author and have heard his of his experiences during the war. The book is informative and interesting, they were a brave bunch of men. Highly recomend it to everyone.

Paratrooper Robert L. Wilson lived the experiences in this book. It tells of a pivotal operation during World War II that abruptly ended German-Nazi domination of the European continent. Historically, Operation Varsity was overshadowed by Patton's push across Germany. Wilson and his co-author son give full credit to those courageous ground troops commanded by Patton and Montgomery, but the focus of this book is on the lesser known paratroop action.

In December 1942, Robert L. Wilson joined the Army. At that time, Parachute troops were a fledgling group. When approached to join this elite group. Wilson agreed. The training was rigorous, but young Wilson fully ascribed to the Parachutist's creed, which said in part:
"I realize that a parachutist is not merely a soldier who arrives by parachute to fight, but is an elite shocktrooper and that his country expects him to march farther and faster, to fight harder, to be more self-reliant, and to soldier better than any other soldier."

In March 1945, the 464th Parachute Field Artillery Battallion joined several other Paratroop divisions in an unprecedented airborne drop into Germany. No enemy force since Napoleon had effectively crossed the Rhine River but Operation Varsity changed that. The paratroopers had been told to expect a 50% casualty rate because the Germans knew they were coming. That day, 17,122 paratroopers landed en masse to do battle with the Germans for control of their territory.

Paratroopers and planes faced heavy artillery flak, anti aircraft cannons, and small arms fire. On the ground, under grueling artillery fire, the 464th swiftly assembled Howitzers airdropped with them. They were the first airborne artillery unit to fire a Howitzer east of the Rhine, and surely earned their place in history that day. Meter by meter the Paratroopers and their Howitzers blasted a path through the Germans dug in along the battle's perimeter. Man to man and hand to hand, for one full day then two, paratroopers who survived hacked their way through the German lines. The paratroopers had been advised to take no prisoners, but hesitated to kill first hundreds, then thousands of surrendering German troops. Instead, they utilized German prisoners to pull cannons and dig foxholes. This continued until all fighting ceased and thousands of Nazi soldiers lay face down at their feet in a posture of surrender.

Robert L. Wilson's first hand report of his training stateside and in France, culminating with the Rhineland battle, is a fascinating story. This is a precious history of unsung American heroes from an aging generation of warriors. What truly magnificent men these were! I highly recommend A Paratrooper's Panoramic View to mature readers of all ages.

There are obviously other books on this topic, but I think Ms Daniels covers her material in such an intelligent way that one can feel confident by starting off with just this one.

That's what it should be called. This book is packed with pilates exercises that can be done in one's home. My fiancee and I practice pilates together using the details found in this book.

What I like especially is the way the author provides more challenging and similarly less challenging variations to suit the fitness and flexibility level of the user.

I highly recommend this book...over 300 pages, dozens of exercises, plenty of photos, easy to follow. It's also value priced...in this day I am glad to a useful book priced reasonably.

This a great guide to get a full Pilates work out at home!
The design of the book makes it easy to follow along.
PLUS has the added benefit of a section of Feldenkrais exercises. Using the Feldenkrais methods, I have reached new levels in my Pilates workout. I highly recommend this book!

Quantum field theory has been applied to many different areas of physics, and has done a fairly good job of explaining the phenomena in these areas. When applying quantum field theory to a physical problem one usually takes a pragmatic attitude, and ignores the many existing difficulties in its formalism. Quantum field theory has yet to be put on a rigorous mathematical foundation, but this has not deterred its use in a myriad of applications, with condensed matter physics, the subject of this book, being one of them. The author has done a superb job here, since he emphasizes the physics behind quantum field theory, and not just the formalism. Anyone interested in quantum field theory, and especially those outside the "oral tradition", will definitely benefit from its perusal.

That quantum field theory is similar to statistical mechanics is used extensively in this book. Loosely speaking, one can view the quantum field theory of a system in a certain dimension as a statistical mechanical system in one dimension more. This simplifies calculations considerably, and in condensed matter physics things get even easier since a lattice is present, thus allowing one to deal more transparently with the problems with infinities that will always appear in quantum field theory.

The author gives an overview of quantum field theory in the first part of the book, it being assumed that the reader already has a strong background in it. The calculation of correlation functions is the main goal of the book, and to facilitate this, the author introduces the path integral formalism. Wick's theorem, the tour-de-force of calculations in quantum field theory is then derived. Explicit calculations are done for a bosonic field in an external field using the now ubiquitous mathematical identity that "the determinant of an operator is the exponential of the trace of the logarithm of the operator. One should remember when reading these pages that the considerations are purely formal since no mathematical justification has been given for the path integral measure. Perturbation theory and Feynman diagrams are discussed (of course) and the infinities that arise in perturbation series are dealt with using regularization procedures. Since the author is dealing with problems in condensed matter, where a lattice is present, he labels quantum field theories as "universal" if there is no dependence of the correlation functions in the lattice. Since regularization procedures are obviously dependent on the lattice spacing (the "ultraviolet" and "infrared" divergences), physical quantities that depend on this are called "non-universal" by the author. The standard characterization of a theory as being "renormalizable" is reserved for those where the perturbation expansion can be reformulated so that non-universal quantities appear as a finite number of parameters. This leads to a formulation of the "universality hypothesis" and the renormalization group. The author states the Gellman-Low equation, and shows that the behavior of the Gellman-Low function graphically. The properties of this function in predicting asymptotic freedom and phase transitions are discussed in detail. The O(N) model is used to illustrate some of the phenomena exhibited by quantum field theories, such as symmetry breaking and the origin of Goldstone bosons.

All of these considerations involve only bosonic quantum field theories, but the inclusion of fermions is done in the second part of the book. The discussion here is also more physical, as the author discusses electrodynamics in metals, the treatment however being non-relativistic. This is remedied though later as the author treats quantum electrodynamics. The Schwinger model, and the origin of anomalies as a screening of the electromagnetic field is discussed, and this discussion is more physically motivated and better appreciated intuitively than the one based on path integral measures. The famous Boson-Fermion equivalence in (2+1) dimensions is discussed in terms of the Aharonov-Bohm effect. This is an interesting discussion and one that is somewhat unorhodox, as it is usually not presented in this way. It clearly shows the physical meaning of adding the Chern-Simons term to the Lagrangian, presented in most books as being merely a mathematical device.

Spin systems are the subject of part 3 of the book, with the author noting at the beginning that such systems are complicated to study due to the commutation relations of the spin operators. The emphasis is on disordered magnetic systems, and the presentation is crystal clear from a physical standpoint. The role of continuous symmetry in the nonlinear sigma model, and the breaking of discrete symmetry by short range quantum fluctuations is discussed in detail. The reader is also briefly introduced to the physics of doped antiferromagnets.

The last part of the book is the most exotic, and one that is better understood from a mathematical standpoint. The physics of (1+1)-dimensional quantum systems has turned out to be more of a mathematical playground however, as it turns out to have many experimental manifestations, as the author points out many times. In addition, his treatment of the quantum field theory of the free massless bosonic scalar field shows that even a seemingly trivial action can have non-trivial properties in terms of its correlation functions. Perturbing this action by a cosine term gives the sine-Gordon model, which is exactly solvable, and its connection with conformal field theory is shown by the author. The famous Kosterlitz-Thouless transition is also treated in fair detail. The Ising and spin 1/2 Heisenberg models are discussed in terms of conformal field theories and bosonization. The reader thus gets a physical motivation for the consideration of conformal field theories that have resulted in an enormous amount of research in the past decade. And, also, the reader can see clearly the origin of Kac-Moody algebras and non-Abelian bosonization in these and latter discussions on current operators. The Kondo problem, dealing with a magnetic impurity in a metal, and one of the most difficult problems in condensed matter physics, is treated here in detail in one dimension at half-filling.

This book gives a fairly comprehensive and very comprehendible introduction to conformal field theory as seen from a condensed-matter theorist's point of view. The review of the book from Book News given above actually describes it very well. The only things that could be added are a warning that there are typos in the text and a praise to the author for the superb (as always) illustrations, which he drew himself.

The author gives a fuller treatment of the subject in his new book "Bosonisation and Strongly Correlated Systems", which, quite unfortunately, has not yet come out in paperback and is prohibitively expensive in hardcover.

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Although this book is from 1979, and would appear to be replaced by the recent book Shadish, Cook, and Campbell, _Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs_ (2002), it is actually not redundant with the newer book as it explains a number of issues clearly that are omitted in SCC.

"Quasi-Experimentation" carries on the work begun by Campbell and Stanley in "Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research." Beginning with a discussion of the positivist origins of science and evaluation research, it details a range of quasi-experimental approaches suitable to "real world" research, together with statistical techniques applicable to each. The book includes a realistic assessment of the barriers to randomization in natural settings, including the observation that true randomization is rarely used unless there is a marked power differential between the researcher and the subjects. The book is thoughtful, well-written, and invaluable.

This is a "must-have" book for anyone engaged in field research or a student of field research methods. The approach is to maximize validity of research findings based on a number of considerations in the design of field research. Examines the pit-falls made by most new and inexperienced field researchers and evaluators. Before you conduct your next program evaluation, design an applied research study, or start to collect dissertation data, read this book!

This book has lots of ideas for unique quilts, combining piecing and applique techniques. Some of the directions may be a little
hard for beginners to follow, but it's definitely worth the effort.

I thought this was a great book. My son who is 10 years old worked on it with me.. He did the applique and I pieced the other pieces. In one day we got most of the squares done. The book was easy to follow and the results are wonderful.. He loves his quilt and I am proud to make it...I reccomend this to anyone who wants to work with their children.

Quilts For Wilderness Kids Of All Ages needlecraft and quilting expert Debbie Field is a thoroughly charming array of simple, practical, easy-to-follow, wilderness themed quilting patterns and applique templates. From the Bear Hugs Pillow to the Wolf Pack Quilt and the Woodlands ABCs Quilt, the patterns are each soothing, colorful, inventive, and make for wonderful finished quilts superb for home use or gift giving. The instructions are so simple and straightforward that quilters of all ages and skill levels can understand and follow them without difficulty. Quilts For Wilderness Kids Of All Ages is enthusiastically recommended for quilting enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels.

When I first became interested in falconry, I, like most people, wanted to learn everything I could on the subject. This book covers several aspects of falconry, such as the history and the raptors used in it, and moves on to many personal stories. This is NOT a "how-to" book. Bodio has delivered a wonderfully entertaining and quite creatively written book that I highly recommend to any aspiring or long-time falconer. You won't be disappointed!
--Lauren

Mr. Bodio has written an outstanding overview of modern falconry. He manages to convey what it is about falconry that makes falconers put up with the heartache of hunting with raptors. As a bonus, Mr. Bodio's writing is a joy to read. It is both funny and informative. This is definitely *not* a how-to book, but instead gives a good overview of what falconry is like, and what a prospective falconer can expect.

Stephen Bodio is one of my favorite writers--definitely my favorite nature writer--and this books captures the essence of the ancient sport of falconry. This is not a manual; it's an essay that helps to explain why anyone would go through so much effort just to share in the privilege of hunting in partnership with a wild animal. (No other modern sport allows one to do this.)This is a book that can be read and enjoyed by anyone, falconer or not, but the falconer will appreciate some of the insights Bodio has--for instance, when he describes the infamous goshawk. I recommend this to anyone who wants to learn what falconry is, or who is seriously considering taking up hawks. It is fun, it is informative, and it will stay with you for a long time.

When you read this book you won't be reading a history book that puts you to sleep with dates, places and a few well known people. You also won't be reading the stories about these people from the author's point of view. You will be reading stories from the people who lived them. Raisins and Almonds and Texas Oil is well written and very well researched. It is easy to understand. You don't have to know of or be involved with the Jewish culture to enjoy this book. The people and events come to life in your imagination just like the stories your grandparents told you. You can relate to the people this book is about because they came to East Texas from all over the United States. During the depression "you went where the hope of a job was". That happened to be the East Texas oil fields. Picture if you will a small town going from a population of 500 to 10,000 almost overnight! What an exciting time it must have been.

"Raisins and Almonds" provides a vivid newsreel of the migration of Jews to the East Texas oilfields. It is a book textured with portraits of colorful characters and their improbable adventures. One of my favorite anecdotes is about a penniless diamond dealer. He displays his precious stones in rent space in a drugstore window, then winds up selling a diamond to Stanley Marcus. That's a Texas-sized story.
Until reading this book, I was unaware of the Depression-era chain migration of Jews from Oklahoma to the Kilgore-Longview region. It is reminiscent of the California Gold Rush (and it is the reverse of the Grapes of Wrath). Jewish youngsters who had gone to religious school together in Seminole, Okla., ended up being merchants and pipe-and-supply dealers (and possibly bootleggers) in Kilgore and Longview.
The chain migration of "boomers" is but one of the sociological patterns that emerges through this book's lively memoirs. Another common pattern is for women to launch the synagogue rather than men. Discussions about the lack of anti-Semitism in Kilgore reflect the egalitarianism of the frontier -- in this case, an oilfield frontier. This egalitarianism comes through at Mattie's Dance Hall where everyone socializes. There does not seem to be a "five o'clock curtain" in the oilfield communities.
The book's frank discussions of intermarriage are a realistic aspect of Jewish life everywhere. What is more remarkable is the cohesion of the Jewish communities detailed in this very readable book.

Jan Statman was able to capture the personal stories of how many Jewish people came to East Texas during the depression. They came to this G-d forsaken place, where one would never expect to find other Jews, with the attitude that they would somehow observe their Judiasm and make a living for their families. And they did.
I started reading, and couldn't put this book down until I was finished. I could hear and see in my mind the all of the families she wrote about. I knew that these stories were similar to those of second generation Jews everywhere. They did whatever they had to in order to be successful in this wonderful country, just as their parents had when they left Europe to escape religious persecution. Both were survivors, and proved it.
This is a remarkable book that reminds us of why so many people immigrated to the USA...Here, in America, even in Kilgore, TX all people who were willing to take a risk could make it. The American Dream come true.

Very few books are written about these brave soldiers. This book not only gives a good history of the Rangers it has some excellent in country photos as well.

Ron Field's book provides an excellent overview of LRRP/LRP/Ranger doctrines and missions in Vietnam. The narratives have been provided by those who participated in the actual missions and includes most of the LRRP/LRP/Ranger units which fought in Vietnam. Through the verbiage, extensive photos and excellent artists renditions, and even sections on equipment and uniforms, the reader gets a lot a information in a single book. A couple of our team's missions were included and the author faithfully depicted them as they occurred. An excellent contribution to the growing literature on special ops in Vietnam.
-Dave Hill, formerly of Co.F/52nd Inf(LRP), 1st Inf. Div.

This is an illustrative book well written and true to fact. The information was obtained from those LRRP Rangers who were inserted in the midst of enemy units as 5 and 6 man Special Operation teams. This book is about the men who volunteered to get a piece of the action...and they found it. I know, I was unit one of them.

SGT. T. Yoshimura CO H (Ranger) 75th Infantry (aiborne) Vietnam 1970-1971

5 Stars is not enough for this excellent book. I read this book for a entrepreneurial course a year ago. However, it was after the end of school that I fell in love with this book. It is truly helpful for anyone with a passion for business and entrepreneurialism.

Look for me in the future, Chris Philippi, future CEO.
I will be starting a marketing consulting firm based in Northern NJ soon. Be on the lookout, this book has that kind of influence.

As a fifteen year veteran of entrepreneural ventures (all reasonably successful) and after scouring through scores of books on assessment, planning et al, this book leaves me speachless.

Explore the pages and you'll find yourself happy you found a modern, practical and valuable resource. Buy it, worth it's cost after 15 minuets!

I teach a course in Managing a Consulting Practice and consult to a wide range of organizations. This is probably the most practical resource I have come across that includes everything - from beginning with an idea for the business, to the basics of starting a business, to what it takes to plan for and run a successful business. The book is full of practical examples and short "Personal Workshops" (e.g., "Personal Workshop 24: Setting a Price Structure"). The book is a great resource for someone who has business experience but has never started or run a business, as well as someone with a great idea but no business experience. I highly recommend this book!

This book shows so much insight to both beginners and veterans in the field of reptiles. It shows what they eat, where they're found, and most importantly, what they look like and if they are poisonous or not. A great book for a beginner herpetologist.

This is a wonderful little book! I bought this for my 4 year old son, and he just loves it. He is not yet able to read, but really enjoys the beautiful photos. It also comes with a reference card that has thumbnails of all of the most common reptiles. So that if you see one, you can find it quickly. He looks at it for hours. It's a fun learning tool.

This is a wonderful little book! I bought this for my 4 year old son, and he just loves it. He is not yet able to read, but really enjoys the beautiful photos. It also comes with a reference card that has thumbnails of all of the most common reptiles. So that if you see one, you can find it quickly. He looks at it for hours. It's a fun learning tool.