Wang Books

Let me first describe what this book is, because I did not know when I ordered it, but I was pleasantly surprised. If you have read the Tao Te Ching you know that it is broken up into a lot of "chapters" each consisting of a short blip of wisdom. This book is broken up into these same chapters, with the Tao Te Ching text first, then Wang Chen's commentary discussing how this verse applies to leadership, thus the description of it as martial Tao Te Ching. Sawyer then comments on each chapter of the text.

This is a book that is about Taoism more than anything else. Sawyer's commentary in the chapters discusses Wang Chen's interpretation of the Tao Te Ching, and in this commentary you will find most of what is discussed previously in the introduction, so read the background information on who Wang Chen was and the time in which he lived, and skip the rest of the introduction.

This book does bring up some interesting ideas about war and peace in relation to Taoism in an abstract philosophiocal sense, but this is mostly a book about Taoism (which is why I like the book) rather than a manual on the theory of warfare or a history of Chinese warfare as I thought it would be. If you want a history of Chinese warfare, look elsewhere, and if you want theory of warfare start with a copy of Clausewitz's famous treatise "On War," then learn about the Lanchester equations of combat (search the internet), and go from there.

Ralph Sawyer is a leading scholar of Chinese warfare and has worked extensively with major military agencies, so he's the perfect author of choice to translate The Tao Of War, a martial version of the Tao Te Ching. The original author Wang Chen was a 9th-century Chinese military commander sickened by carnage and began using the ancient Tao Te Ching for peaceful purposes: his interpretations produced the first reading of it as a martial text of strategy, and Ralph Sawyer's in-depth interpretations go far in placing its military importance in modern Western hands.

As discreetly acknowledged on the back cover, this book was originally published in hardcover as "The Tao of Peace." That edition, published by Shambhala, clearly identified itself on its cover as a translation of a work by the T'ang Dynasty general Wang Chen (about 800 C.E.), a product of one of the classical periods of Chinese history. The Westview Press version is a little harder to recognize for what it is.

In both versions, it is in fact a translation, with an introduction and commentary by the translators, of "Tao-te-Ching lun-ping yao-yi-shu," one of the more unusual of the many surviving Chinese commentaries on the "Tao Te Ching" or "Lao-Tzu." ("Daodejing" and "Laozi" in the current Pinyin transliteration; the Sawyers continue to use the familiar Wade-Giles system.) The "5000-character Classic" (as it is also known, and as Wang Chen sometimes cites it) was of exceptional importance to the T'ang; the supposed author was officially an ancestor of the dynasty, the Chinese roots of which were often questioned.

The Westview edition has been repackaged, slightly revised in references to the title, and expanded by a section of "Further Reading" which is in effect a catalogue of the translators' other books on Chinese military thought for Westview, rather than for study of the "Tao-Te-Ching." (For some suggestions, see below.)

Ralph D. Sawyer explains in the Preface that they have also provided a translation of the "Tao-Te-Ching" itself, which uses Wang Chen's apparent readings and parsing of the text, and so differs from the many earlier translations, and from the Sawyers' own understanding of the book. Each of the eighty-one chapters consists of a passage of the Lao-Tzu, Wang Chen's explanation of its application, and the translators' explication of its (mainly military and political) context and significance.

The two alternative titles of the translation reflect the thrust of Wang Chen's commentary equally well, although the choice seems to reflect the markets served by the two publishers. As is the case with many Shambhala publications, the volume is rather thin on references, although Sawyer's Preface does mention some important translations of the "Tao Te Ching." Since he explains that the book is directed at ordinary readers, he might have expanded some of these brief comments in the Preface -- the ordinary reader may not be familiar with, say, the difference between the Ho Shang Kung and Wang Pi texts of Lao-Tzu, which he mentions in passing. (These are two early commentaries, whose approaches and textual readings mark the religious and philosophical approaches to the book; the received "Wang Pi" *text* of Lao-tzu, by the way, seems not to correspond completely to the one implied in his commentary! For relevant bibliography, see below.)

Wang Chen and his "commentary" are the main focus of the book. The Sawyers attempt to show how the general connects his views to a book usually treated from religious and philosophical perspectives. The question of whether Wang Chen is correctly interpreting his canonical text is, of course, of no great concern. The commentary is a common form for expressing original ideas in many cultures with strong text-based traditions, Hebrew and Sanskrit, for example, as well as Chinese. This commentary is an attempt to find a consistent basis for humane and effective government. It was intended to replace the T'ang tendency for random shifting between ruthless interventionism and quietist failure to govern. Whether this instability in policy was a cause of the dynasty's difficulties, or a dangerous symptom, is another matter. Having a contemporary analysis of the dynasty's problems is only part of the book's considerable interest.

The secondary literature on the Taoist classic is very large, and the number of translations continues to grow. The Sawyers' work offers an unexpected reading, and does not require a wider knowledge of the base text to be appreciated on its own terms.

Those seriously interested in the textual problems of the "Tao-Te-Ching" can now consult the recent technical edition and translation by Rudolf G. Wagner, "A Chinese Reading of the Daodejing: Wang Bi's Commentary on the Laozi with Critical Text and Translation" (2003). Together with Wagner's "The Craft of a Chinese Commentator: Wang Bi on the Laozi" (2000), and "Language, Ontology, and Political Philosophy in China: Wang Bi's Scholarly Exploration of the Dark (Xuanxue)" (2003) it was published in the State University of New York (SUNY) Press "Chinese Philosophy and Culture" series. They are significantly more difficult than "The Tao of War," or almost any of the readily available translations of Lao-tzu.

SUNY had also published Alan K. L. Chan's "Two Visions of the Way: A Study of the Wang Pi and the Ho-shang Kung Commentaries on the Lao-Tzu," in its older "Series in Chinese Philosophy" (1991), which, although slightly antiquated, offers a fascinating comparison of two of the earliest of the competing philosophical, political, and religious interpretations, to which Wang Chen was adding.

I purchased this book because, as the cover states, it seemed to be the perfect companion to Sawyer's excellent translation of the Art of War. I'm afraid that claim isn't very accurate. On the surface this book does appear quite promising--Sawyer has translated ninth-century commander Wang Chen's commentary on the classic Tao Te Ching and has even retranslated the source text itself; and a Taoist-military perspective on the nature of combat and conflict is certainly enough to catch one's attention. The historical importance and timelessness of the matter treated provide further value to the work.

So why only 3 stars? Well, my first problem involves the organization of this book. Sawyer provides an introduction to Wang's commentary in which he briefly addresses historical details and the purpose of composition, and then moves on to address certain salient issues within the text. I found this introduction basically worthless, however. Sawyer appears to be merely going through the motions here--his scholarship in this introduction is lacking compared to what he did with the Art of War--and much of the introductory text consists of quotes and summaries from the pages to come. In other words, it offers little new insight; if you're going to be looking at extensive quotations, why not just read the book itself? I realize that criticizing the introduction usually doesn't offer much information about the text as a whole, but in this case I believe it does. I say this because the book follows a format of Tao Te Ching > Wang Chen > Sawyer, with each offering an interpretation of the previous one. So the issue here is a trait characterizing the entire work: we see Lao-Tzu's original Tao Te Ching text, which is then interpreted in a military- or government-centered nature by Wang, whose commentaries are then either explained or expanded upon by Sawyer. This is no bad thing, and within the book proper the translator shows his extensive knowledge of the material. Nonetheless, I don't see why this would be of value to the average reader (toward whom the book is obviously aimed). Wang provides a unique reading of the Tao Te Ching, but what it seems we have here is primarily multiple layers of commentary that come off as, well, filler. And that's my main reason for the low rating. Not much here seems essential to understanding the text: it's nothing other than multiple commentaries on a single source and there really isn't a need for extensive explanation. Sawyer does his best to work with what's there, but honestly, what's there isn't very interesting. Much is written but not much is actually said.

I have a hard time envisioning this book being necessary for greater appreciation of either Sun-Tzu's Art of War or the nature of conflict in general. Sawyer's translation of the Art of War is ostensibly geared toward the business-politics world, and the Tao of War masquerades as a perfect complement to Sawyer's previous successful translation. I fail to agree with that assertion. With a more scholarly introduction and wider scope, this book could be quite useful to students of Chinese philosophy or military history, or to those eager to read new interpretations of the Tao Te Ching. It does not, however, strike me as successful when one considers its purpose; it comes off as an attempt to capitalize upon the commercial success of Sawyer's other books. The cover in particular emphasizes this: no mention is made of Wang Chen, only Sawyer's name appears on the front, and what is a mostly unrelated book is made to resemble the Art of War. This may work comercially (as well as follow classic military principles of deception) but I find it rather misleading for the average consumer.

So, to conclude: if you're deeply interested in Chinese military history, I would recommend this book as a supplement to your studies. If you enjoyed the applicability of Sawyer's Art of War and are looking for something along the same lines, well, you won't find it here, and I recommend you to look elsewhere. Still curious? Buy it used if you must. It shouldn't be too difficult to find unwanted copies.

Tht book examins all levels of China's society. From problems in the economy to how problems are dealt with by the government. The author also summarizes the basic structure of the Chinese government. The range of issues dealt with in this book are an excellent beginning to further investigate China's situation.

"Understanding China" ties together China's geography, recent history, its relationship to Taiwan and Hong Kong, its diversified population, and more, in a way which is easily comprehensible to any reader. What's more, it is thoroughly enjoyable.

This book is considered an introductory overview to China. Well, I have a master's degree in East Asian studies and I still found this book enlightening. The book does an excellent job at explaining China's societal and political structures and how those structures effect the state's decisions and policies. In doing so, the author does not get much into the culture and history of the nation. In this way the book is unusual and, dare I say, unique. To some, the book may seem rather mechanical, but its structural approach serves to reduce bias and prejudice. Too many books purport to explain the entire Chinese nation culturally, but the country is simply too heterogeneous for that approach to be very effective. Other books define China as a slave to its history, but history is just one of many variables. That is why I appreciate the rather mechanical approach this book takes to explaining China's politics and society. That said, however, it might serve the newcomer to Sinology well to read other texts on Chinese culture and history as a primer to this book.

Mr. Starr does a good job of covering the economics, politics, and geography of China. It is a great introduction to this developing country. Having recently spent a year in China as a teacher, I agree with most of Starr's findings. Starr demonstrates how China's economy is rapidly growing, but perhaps not fast enough to head off future problems such as food production.

Excellent theory and full of tremdous resources (and references) for anyone in the Electrochemical Field

This book is a good starter book for people who are interested in taking electrochemistry. This book explains an overview of equations used in electrochemistry. You will have to go to Allen J. Bard to get a more fundamental approach to electrochemistry. However, this book is useful to jog one's memory about a certain instrumentation used and quick equation look up. This book really helped tremendously while I took my electrochemistry course.

Wang did such a nice job on this one. He is an artist, Wang, such an artist. I love Wang. I love Wang until the day I die!

Lihua wang, L.A.c.'s Chinese Home Remedies: Harnessing Ancient Wisdom For Self-Healing presents over a thousand remedies blending traditional Chinese medicine with ancient folk remedies. From apple slices used to relieve itchy skin to curing a hangover - or preventing one - and dealing with depression, an A-Z organization makes it easy to locate a common condition, while 'do and don't do' cautions, food remedies, exercises, Chinese herbs and tips on when to see a doctor make each listing valuable. A recommended pick.

I am glad I bought this book. It's got a pretty good variety of pains and illnesses and most of the instructions are simple and easy to do. The meditation exercise it described helped my anxiety attacks and the yeast treatment for acne did seem to reduce my friend's acne. Overall, I found the book very useful.

I got the book as a birthday gift. After leafing through it, I admit that I had my doubts about some of the treatments listed in there. I never imagined that the needles on the hairbrushes can work like acupuncture needles. After I tried it for my knee pain, to my surprise, it worked. I haven't had the opportunity to try other treatments in the book (thank god), but I will keep it handy just in case.

This is not intended as a survey of copyright, although it does succeed admirably in introducing nonlawyers to the field and defining the major themes for those already in the field. Its primary focus, however, is upon several key cases and key issues, which are explored in detail, partly through the eyes of some of the major participants. This is of course a bit dated, and it is, alas, out of print. But if you at all interested in reading an overview from the undisputed master in the field, track down and read this book. Whether you're already into copyright or just wanting to find out about it, you'll come away with an enriched understanding of copyright.

-Edward Samuels, author of The Illustrated Story of Copyright

Copyright's Highway is not an overview of or introduction to copyright law. Rather it gives clearly written descriptions of the histories of some influential court cases relating to copyright and slanted towards copyright issues on the internet. Despite the title this book is very much slanted to the celestial jukebox and away from Guetenburg - after the second chapter we are in the 20th century.

Goldstein presents the history of copyright law in the US through court cases and not laws. The three cases described in great detail each with a chapter to itself are Williams and Wilkins vs the United States in which it was ruled that libraries can make xeroxes of copyrighted material, the Betamax Decision and a discussion of a lawsuit in French courts in which Ted Turner was blocked from showing a colorized version of The Asphalt Jungle in France. With the exception of the French case, which shows how US copyright law is based on very different principles than in Europe, these are cases that are getting alot of attention right now as people try to make sense of the internet. Trying to reconcile US copyright with copyright laws elsewhere is a big issue but not as pressing as for example whether I will be arrested for downloading all those mp3s. Many other cases are discussed in less detail. The selection of cases is excellent and it would benefit everyone to understand these cases.

The final chapter of Copyright's Highway looks to the future and gives various speculations about what will happen with copyright on the internet. Here the idea of the Celestial Jukebox, a sattelite from which all information in existence can be accessed by people on earth for a price, is described. Other issues include the pending lack of historical data because electronic publications can be modified and restrictions on copying can contribute to there being one source for any document, so older editions are not available for comparison. This chapter ties in the history Goldstein has described with restrictions and freedoms that will affect us in the near future. It may also date this book as time passes.

I reccommend Copyright's Highway to those who want a better understanding of current issues in copyright and how we got where we are in relation to copyright. It is very readable and presents detailed facts in an entertaining way.

My background is economics and finance and not law. Maybe because of that I found this book to be wordy and a little long-winded. The author approaches the subject from a lawyer's perspective. The book could have been better if it the author went into less detail on the one or two court cases he highlights and spent some more effort exploring some interesting concepts he introduces. Economic concepts like public good and private good, complementary and substitute goods, monopoly and copyrights, the role of the marketplace, and the intersection of copyright with natural rights were hinted at, but never fully developed. The highlight of the book is his chapter on the two cultures of copyright. Economists and lawyers sometimes fail to give the proper weight to how culture affects outcomes in society. Overall this is an interesting book that could have been better if the author was more pointed in his writing.

"Both new in concept and timely in publication....Bring together, for the first time, the fundamental of atomic scale crystal structure and chemistry... A cutting-edge text at the forefront of the modern materials revolution"

- Professor David B. Williams, Lehigh University, USA

"Unique...focuses specifically on the intrinsic connections among several crystal structure systems and their evolution behavior...Fills a gap left in the field ... This book will be a basic reference in the domain of oxides which are to be the basis of functional and smart materials"

- Professor C. Boulesteix, Universite Aix-Marseille, France.

"In materials science the spotlight is on functional and smart materials, since they are important components for electronic devices. The textbook by Wang and Kang summarizes all types of known functional materials and describes the structure evolution problems. A large section of the book is devoted to structural characterization focusing on transmission electron microscopy, the main field of expertise of the author. The book is extremely valuable for materials scientists working on functional oxide materials, studying the structure, structure evolution and defects. It may serve also as an interesting textbook for teaching since it gives a good overview of this field which is of increasing importance. The clarity of its writing style should make it ideally suited for graduate students."

- Professor Manfred Ruhle, Institte of Werkstoffwissenschaft, Germany

The authors consider the atomic scale crystal structure and chemistry of oxides with physical and chemical properties that are sensitive to changes in the environment such as temperature, pressure, electric or magnetic fields, pH, and optical wavelength. They explain relationships among different structures and explore approaches to characterizing and synthesizing these important components for electronic devices.

"... this book is a unique, cutting-edge text on smart materials ... it is recommended as an adjunct to device design books used for engineers as well as scientists during the development of smart devices and structures" .

I am half way through the six "Jungle Novels" and I find that Traven is a bit of a mixture of Hemmingway and Steinbeck, with a James Michner approach to historical narrative. This is the best way I have found yet to see inside prerevolution Mexico; to understand why it happened and why Mexico is the way it is, in many ways, today still the same.

Land and Liberty is all they wanted. It was something that most had prior to colonialism. Most of us today were lucky enough to have already been born with these rights having been fought for and defended against by previous generations. [Of course some could argue that we have only a facsimile of land and liberty even today as most never own their land (e.g., mortgage) and liberty is a relative term.] Anyhow, this book is the last in the 6 part series. The culmination of all previous books ends here. This is the guts and glory and revenge of the indians on the landowners and government. Tierra y Libertad!

This book is the sixth of Ben Traven's Jungle Novels. If you read all six, you would have completed around 1500 pages. Is it worth it? I would like to answer that question by reflecting on "General from the Jungle" and then reflecting on the entire series as a whole.

General From the Jungle is about revolution. It is about the strategy of warfare and the strategy of reaching the hearts and minds of peasants. It tells the tale of 600 debt slave Indians who emerge from totally inhumane work conditions on mahogany plantations to take over farms and villages until they hear that the dictator of Mexico, Diaz, has escaped to England.

Many of the characters from previous stories are here again. Cleso, Modesta, Andreas are all here. However a new character, Juan Mendez arrives, a young Indian chieftan with military training, who leads this rag tag band to victory after victory against the federales and rurales.

But remember that Traven's idology drives the story and many of our old friends from the previous novels only play bit parts, since the general and the revolution are actually the main characters. As General Mendez wins small victory after small victory, ever increasing military forces are sent against him. It is the psychology of the defeated Mexican military officers that offers fascinating reading in this final novel. As Traven brings the book to an end, he must bring nasty disgrace, complete misery, and painful torture to the Mexican military officers that are defeated by the revolution. The final chapters of the book are fascinating and painful to read since Traven must establish a sense of justice by balancing the evil done ot the Indians with the violence of disgrace against the Mexican military officers. Men have the ability to paln and implement the most disgraceful and demeaning tortures for each other which wring the last drops of human dignity from the victims. The book is fascinating and the final third is so engrossing that you can't put the book down.

Once you have finished the 6 books however you can look back at the strengths and weaknesses of this massive literary work. There are real strengths to this series. Traven's writing is spare and to the point. Yet he spends time telling the reader about the culture and psychology of the oppressor and the oppressed. You will understand debt slavery and the minds of the masters and slaves thoroughly when you finish the series. Traven was driven however to illustrate his world view and ideology and thus his characters are somewhat like puppets to illustrate his views about dictatorship, and racism, and man's inhumanity to his fellow man.

The 6 novels shine brightest when he allows himself to fully explore man's inhumanity to man. Here Traven knows the depth of sadism and the depths of depersonalization for those who are victims of abuse and torture. Traven recognizes that those in power become just as miserable as their victims when power corrupts them and enhances their sadism.

Thus in the end, it is when Traven wishes to make an ideological point that he ignores character and his writing is at the weakest (despite the fact that his message is extremely valid). It is when he has man face man in psychologial confrontation of oppressor and oppressed, victim and torturer, master and slave, that he reveals his exceptional insight into the depths of human cruelty.

This final novel deserves 5 stars and the entire series deserves five stars also. These books are underestimated masterpieces.

I ordered this book because I was taking a course on Unix... and once I got it, I realized that I wasted my money. I was expecting the 'with X' part to cover programming with X windows, or motif. It is just on how to run xterm pretty much. One of the key things that you will notice is that man pages are more informative than this book. For instance, the section on sed, awk, and grep. It is very vauge in covering regular expressions and use of any of the languages. Besides man pages, much of the information can be found on the internet as well. If you have no idea what a man page is, or how to even use telnet... then you should consider getting this book. For someone who needs to know how to login through telnet, or how to use chmod, then this book is fine. But for what I would consider an 'advanced' view of Unix, I would look toward the internet. So if you have used any *nix before, its pretty useless. Unless you have an anal professor who absolutely requires you buy this book, don't.

If you're a beginner, an intermediate, or an expert, you'll
use this book. It won't gather dust on the shelf. Just look
at the table of contents and you'll want it. It also has the
most complete appendices of any book I've seen on the subject.

This book is used in 'UNIX & C' course in CSE dept. of Inha Univ. that I went to. I also read this book and I'm always read this book whenever necessary. There are several books about UNIX for beginning users in bookstores, I found that this book is by far the most informative, readable, helpful and well organized in both breadth and depth. All the other books looked just so so. APUE by R. Stevens has been very popular since that book is really great book, 'An introduction to Unix with X and the Internet' also should be very popular if many people know this book are available. Whenever I don't understand about some topic in Unix clearly, I read this book about that topic, get almost clear understandings, and finally I'm deeply impressed that this book is really great book. Both for beginners and for professionals, I think this book is really a must-have if one is concerned with Unix. I am also pleased that this great book is written by Asian person, knowing the fact that GRUs live everywhere in the world. ;-) About 550 pages of great information on Unix, this book should be retitled to 'Unix fundamentals bible'. Buy this book, and you won't regret. This book deserves its worth even if you are just having it, not reading steadily.

This book looks if it is specially designed for beginners... It provides quick, easy answers and maybe too easy for me, but I love it.

As long as you know enough to point and click this is a very good tutorial for beginners. Instead of scratching your head and wondering, "What's this?" you can at least get the Windows monster to fly before crashing it.

As with all good "for dummies" that came before it, this reference gives you pointers on the most useful aspects of Microsoft's office programs and it does it with a sense of humor.

Perhaps there is no better evidence of the decline of interest in contemporary playwriting and playwrights in the all but forgotten (except among theatre aficionados) work of Lanford Wilson whose many plays incuding "Talley & Son'' ''Serenading Louie,'' ''Balm in Gilead'' "Lemon Sky," "Madness of Lady Bright" "Fifth of July" and many others (some of which I acted in as a young teenager in the 1960's/early 1970's) when playwrights were respected, talked about, and considered a vital part of the American cultural scene. The Mound Builders, among Wilson's best plays, is a meditation on culture, seeing the past through the eyes of the present, and the ineffable changes in perception a society and culture goes through in trying to understand the past. Perhaps you may find an L. Wilson play performed somewhere by looking through American Theatre magazine, but since his name is no longer a 'draw,' theatres don't 'draw' his plays into their repertory. It's a sad thing. That other Wilson, August, whose decalogue of African American History is still 'news' will I believe also be fated to the dust bins as well. There are already essays being written about his 'failure' to fulfill his promise. It is a sad time in theatre when these writers no longer matter--more out of marketing decisions than anything else. But when the P.R. person and the audience development director become the most important personnel at the regional theatres (with very rare exceptions), playwriting is now--if anything a training ground for future screenwriters. When Paula Vogel's play "How I learned to Drive" won the Pulitzer, she got phone calls from every 'major' university theatre school in the U.S. offering her a job as full-time playwright professor. It's doubtful something like this would have happened when Lanford Wilson was being read and produced. It simply displays the market-driven environment we live in now--where fame trumps substance, or at least, creates such a 'spin' that it's very hard to consider what is substantial with an unbiased eye.

Winner of the Obie Award in 1975, Lanford Wilson's play details the excavation of Jasker Field by archaeologists as they try to solve some of the mysteries of Native American temple mounds from 700 - 1000 A. D. This is frantic work, as a nearby lake is rising, and a planned interstate, under construction, is scheduled to bury the site. Wilson creates a cauldron of emotions by housing all the principals in a farmhouse belonging to Mr. Jasker, whose son Chad enthusiastically awaits the arrival of the interstate and the expansion of the lake, which will give him valuable "waterfront property."

As traces of civilization are uncovered at the dig, followed soon after by the discovery of artifacts and bones, the tensions inside the house grow. Each of the main characters has problems--a previous emotional breakdown, a pregnancy, the unwanted attentions of Chad Jasker, a divorce and loss of personal direction, alcoholism, irresponsibility, and professional stress--and the viewer cannot help but make comparisons between the seemingly structured lives of the mound builders and the chaos in the lives of their present investigators. The "resolution" to the drama proves to be far more "uncivilized" than anything the early civilization might have contemplated.

The intensely confessional atmosphere inside the farmhouse, as the characters reveal their problems and conflicts, requires that actors play their parts with subtlety to avoid stereotyping and melodrama. The weakest character in the play is, unfortunately, the important character of Jean Loggins, gynecologist-wife of one of the lead archaeologists, who tries to help D. K. Erikson, an alcoholic and insecure writer who is the sister of the project director, resting at the farmhouse to "dry out." Loggins, unfortunately, is so fraught with her own problems that it is impossible to imagine her as a hard-driving medical school graduate with a specialty career, and this limits the realism and increases the melodrama. D. K., however, is a tough woman who views life with a cynical realism, and her gradual transition from angry recluse to a more "civilized" persona is a key aspect to the drama.

Dealing with the age-old conflict between preservation and progress, which is still at issue thirty years later, Wilson shows that the strong traditions and culture of the mound builders--their civilization--have much of value to offer modern man living in a more multicultural and chaotic world. Mary Whipple

A group of archaeologists, racing against time to unearth an Indian burial mound before it is immersed in a man-made lake, discover instead the secrets they've buried in their own hearts. As enamored as I am of Wilson's entire oeuvre, this is the piece I consider to be his masterwork. I've worked on his plays as both an actor and a director, and the more you dig, the more they open up -- bottomless wells of depth and perception. THE MOUND BUILDERS is possibly the most exquisite play to be written in the last quarter of the twentieth century. It's thrilling, complex and deeply human, utterly mysterious and achingly sad.