Wang Books

This is an interesting work on William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame. Touched on only briefly in most histories, Clark was quite an enigmatic person who figured prominently in early American and early Missouri frontier history. The subtitle, Shaping of the West, is quite appropriate as Clark, as Indian Agent for Missouri, negotiated numerous treaties with the Osage, Missouri, Fox, Sac, Winnebago and other contemporary Indian tribes.

Landon Jones does not spend too much time on the epic, 1803-1806 transcontinental exploration, choosing instead to focus on the other aspects of Clark's life. Brother of General George Rogers Clark, William is intimately connected in the Trans Appalachian West's Indian wars with the Shawnee and various other Lake Country, Northwest Indian tribes which culminated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers. This start sets the tone for the rest of his life which was spent fighting, evaluating, negotiating and moving Indians as America's frontiers rapidly moved across the Eastern and Midwestern United States.

For 50 years Clark and his family are directly involved in the early stages of America's Manifest Destiny, in the sweep of American history from colonial Virginia to the conquest of the West. No one played a larger part in that accomplishment than William Clark.

Book came in timly manner as described. Would buy again.

Reads like a Time or People magazine story -- both politically correct and boring.

What impresses immediately about this biography is the fact that it's a FULL biography and is not just concerned with the famed Lewis & Clark Expedition (only one of the ten chapters deals with it). Clark was born in 1770 (one of his older brothers was George Rogers Clark, the "hero of Vincennes" during the Revolutionary War), and took part in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 (it was on this campaign that he first met Meriwether Lewis). Resigning his commission from militia duty two years later, he retired to the family farm in Kentucky (near present-day Louisville). It was here that Lewis contacted Clark in 1803 proposing co-leadership roles in the expedition to the Pacific Ocean. Clark was the chief mapmaker on the journey, and also was preferred over Lewis as the one to negotiate with the Indians.

After the successful completion of this extraordinary exploring venture, Clark was named the principal Indian agent at St. Louis. He established Ft. Osage on the Missouri River and began dealing with Native American concerns, building a reputation as a fair, friendly, and compassionate (for his day) agent. He was present at Prairie du Chien during the late 1820s to help conclude major treaties with various tribes. He died in St. Louis in 1838.

Clark has been praised often as a brave and able explorer, and a successful Indian agent. He was human, though, and there were dark sides to Clark as well, which Jones is willing to point out. Once when he had "trouble" with one of his slaves, he paid a man 50 cents to whip him. Tens of thousands of Native Americans were forcibly removed from their lands while he was Indian agent, most notably the Cherokees, who were made to walk to Oklahoma from their lands in the southeastern US along what became know as the "Trail of Tears" because of the death and misery endured along it. Heroes, like everyone else, are not cut from a single cloth, and whether the reader thinks of Clark as a hero at all, Jones provides a balanced and fair account of Clark's life on which to decide.

I highly recommend this book. William Clark is presented as a highly capable and effective leader. He comes across as a strong and determined soldier, an amazing traveler and explorer, and a friendly man. But his prejudices (like nearly everyone of his generation) against African and Native Americans are described in striking detail.

Lewis and Clark's Voyage of Discovery is only briefly described, and other books have told the full account of this story. Instead Jones concentrates the first half of the book on Clark's developmental years including his military service in various Indian conflicts prior to the expedition and his other preparation just growing up in the wilderness (I grew up in Kentucky, and Jones does a great job talking about Harrodsburg, Locust Grove, and Louisville). A sidelight story of his brother George Rogers Clark's campaigns against the Indians and his later struggles with managing the Northwest and with alcohol and poverty is fascinating. The last half of the book is informative and profoundly disturbing. Holding various administrative positions in Missouri, Clark was often the most powerful man in the West. He was responsible for the US's management of Indian affairs, and Clark signed more than 35 treaties with these tribes. There is a sameness to the ethnic cleansing that Clark helped perpetrate.

Jones kept me engaged throughout the book. Clark doesn't come off as a deep thinker or a complex man. Instead he is a creature of his times, and white Americans were extremely effective in our cruelty as we took control of the West . At times Clark rises above the rest - his treatment of Sacagawea and her son - but at times he is a cold hearted bastard - his relationship with his famous slave York.

Clark lived a long and full life. One particularly enjoyable (and very well done feature of this book) is Jones' willingness to digress as he discusses the many people whose life Clark touches . The list is long and I appreciated these brief descriptions of de Tocqueville, Anthony Wayne, Thomas Hart Benton, Lafayette, William Henry Harrison, Black Hawn, Tecumseh, and many others.

I had to purchase this book for a history class focused on pop culture of 1890's - present. In my opinion Kasson does an amazing job really reviewing the social changes that Coney Island had initiated in the United States. Warning: I did not find this book very stimulating. It was very factual and upfront with no glamourous words inbetween. But "Amusing the Million" was very educational. Kasson showcased the true importance of Coney Island in a way that I had never seen it presented before.

Amusement parks that began to exist during the turn of the century served as venues for fun and excitement as well as helped to release the repressed from the gentility of the Victorian Age of the nineteenth century. John Kasson examines the social and cultural ramifications that occurred in American society in his book, AMUSING THE MILLIONS: CONEY ISLAND AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY. In his study, Kasson shows how the American landscape became playgrounds, especially in New York, which extended the use of recreational space, New York's Central Park, and expositions that commemorated and celebrated the American historical past, Chicago's Columbian Exposition of 1893. They magnified the cornerstones and building blocks of the city, and the behavior that was exhibited with the rising middle class, which attracted a mass audience. The city became cosmopolitan and modern where many engaged and frolicked, and helped to unlatch social, racial, and economic boundaries that were bestowed upon many individuals; they also helped to rejuvenate cities through urban planning.

Indeed, Kasson explores the world of imagination. The amusements ran the gamut from a Barnum and Bailey atmosphere to reveling along the boardwalk amongst exotic and unusual exhibits that coveted Coney Island's Luna Park and Dreamland Park. And within the text Kasson highlights those who helped architect this unrestrained environment of excess, such as Frederick Law Olmstead, Daniel H. Burnham, George C. Tilyou, Frederic Thompson, James Gibbons Huneker, and Maxim Gorky. Undoubtedly these were elaborate and spacious constructed palatial playgrounds of pleasure full of materialism and consumption where many gathered for pure utopian enjoyment. According to Kasson, these amusements also served as an outlet for artists and painters whose works did not particularly belong in museums. However, they reflected the modernist and realist genres of the art world before they came into vogue, and they depicted "technological, urban, populous, egalitarian, erotic, hedonist, dynamic, and culturally diverse" images that the public were not accustomed to (88).

Overall, this is an interesting trip down nostalgic memory lane. Through the revealing pictures and detailed narrative, Kasson shows readers how Coney Island at the turn became a form of liberation for an array of classes. In essence, this is a good source to refer to when studying or reading about the American Dream as it relates to amusement parks that transcended social and cultural change in American society.

This book was not really what I expected it to be.Rather than giving interesting insight into what went on at Coney Island;it is more a book about why it came into being,why at the time,and why at that location. The book seemed to run out of steam and ended abruptly without completing the story of the reasons for the demise of it all.
Sure ,the book is about Coney Island;but similar Amusement Parks ,although none as large or famous,sprung up all over America and even Canada. And that doesn't even take into account all the State Fairs,County Exhibitions,National Exhibitions,travelling Fairs,Circuses and Sideshows,
These were all much the same in nature,differing mainly in size and duration.Their reason for being and the reason or them becoming a thing of the past is all the same.
The book suggests that they started in the mid-1800's is stretching the point somewhat as Fairs of all types were around for many centuries and only differed in how big they were,how far people travelled to them ,how much new inventions became incorporated and how long they lasted.
It seems that throughout history people loved to gather for just about any reason,but generally some sort of amusement along with the hope of "seeing something new". Thus there were Races,Exhibitions of animals,crafts,products for prizes or sale,Auctions,Magic shows,Plays,Sporting events;and on and on ad infinitism.
This happened at Stonehenge and before,at the Roman Collisium,and Religious Celebrations. It didn't take much to create an event;heck, even a "Hanging" was enough to get a huge crowd out.
The same sort of thing continues today.So instead of taking the Subway to Coney Island or some other Amusement park;we go to the great Theme Parks,National Parks,Sporting Events,Concerts,Casinos,Vegas,Nashville,Ski Hills,Cruises,or even events and locations around the world,such as World Fairs or the Olympics.
The old adage "The more things change,the more they become the same" applies to Amusement Parks,just as it does to everything else.
I suppose the greatest change is in the ease of travel,the amount of disposible income available,and the introduction of TV where everything can be brought right into the living room. That doesn't leave much but the Thrill Rides,the Smells and Sounds ,the Crowds and the Outdoors; but that's coming too.
I for one still like to "Go to the Fair" and still do here in Toronto.The Canadian National Exhibition continues to run for 3 weeks in August:however it gets poorer and tackier every year and who knows how much longer it will continue.

If you are reading this book, you probably fit into one of two categories. 1. You are a local from the region surrounding Coney Island or 2. You were assigned the book as required reading from a college History class.

While Kasson has certainly done his research on his subject, he struggles at times to find a story with some drama where very little drama exists. To make things more difficult, the reader is subjected to a sort of bastardized version of early twentieth century verbage throughout the text. For example, Kasson is particularly fond of the word "gentry" and uses it and other arcane terms frequently in presenting the story. Most likely, the intent was to give the reader a sense of the period in which the story occurs. Unfortunately, the effect is confusing, dry, and alienating rather than engrossing. Kasson does sucessfully connect individuals who have their own places in history to Coney Island, which is most likely why the book is cited so frequently in other books (132 at latest count) regarding this segment of history. The book is very difficult to read cover-to- cover. It appears that the auther intended for the reader to skip back and forth throughout the text. The final pages end with a one sentence wrap up and a picture. It is almost as if the author himself lost interest in his subject and called it a day. File it somewhere between an antique store and your Grandparent's family photos. Nice for a curious Coney Island history buff. Otherwise, a pretty dull and tedious read.

In these times, when entertainers bare body parts normally kept strictly covered, it is hard to believe the cover photo of this book was considered rather racy a century ago. It shows a line of girls on the beach at Coney Island where the skirts on their swimsuits have been raised to reveal the shorts underneath. Considering that they also appear to have full-length tights on underneath the shorts, to modern eyes, they look overdressed. There were many social commentators at the end of the nineteenth century that argued that the egalitarian social structure of Coney Island was debasing the social fabric of the nation.
Which was nonsense, as Coney Island was the most conspicuous example of the dramatic social changes taking place in the United States. By the turn of the century, the people were generally no longer rural tillers of the soil, having been transformed into urban tillers of the machines. Furthermore, by this time, the social distinctions between the upper and other classes were being blurred. As the author points out, at Coney Island, many of the stiff social restrictions came down. People who otherwise would not speak to each other became friendly and shared rides, beach water and other amusements.
The members of the compressed urban society craved simple and inexpensive recreation and Coney Island provided it. Therefore, as Kasson points out so well, it was a phenomenon that grew out of a social need and in many ways served as a social release. People could, for a very small fee, leave their crowded dwellings and engage in a day of escape. Everyone was equal on the rides and the beaches, so at least at that location, social distinctions disappeared.
Until I read this book, I had never considered the amusement park as a barometer for social change. However, it is now clear that Coney Island was a metaphor for a dramatic change in the social fabric of the nation and from this book, you can learn many of the details.

Cute little gem. Easy enough. A bit boring, but maybe that's Marx's fault and not Singer's. The last chapter is the best: a great overview of what Marx got right and what he got wrong.

The first thing that ought to be noted is that Peter Singer's contribution to the Very Short Introduction series is really a recycling of a volume he wrote way back in 1980 for the old Past Master's series. So far as I can tell, the only revision in the book is a few changes in tense to bring this edition beyond the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was something of a shock--or at least a surprise--to realize that what I thought was a new book was in fact an old one.

Notwithstanding, Singer's Marx is a very good introduction. After a brief biographical sketch of Marx--which dispels the myth of his living and dying in penury, by the way--Singer examines his early flirtation with Hegelianism, his reflections on alienation and history, and his political economy. It's in his discussion of the last two topics that Singer excels. I've found no better text for introducing concepts such as "species being" and "labor theory of value" to my undergraduate students. Singer returns to Marx's understanding of human nature and it's relationship to alienating modes of production in his final chapter, "Assessment," and concludes that human nature probably isn't as pliable as Marx supposed. But it's also clear that Singer is sympathetic with Marx's critique of capitalism.

A good introduction for absolute newcomers to Marx--which, these days, is probably everyone under 30.

The Past Masters Series is a concise, lucid , aythoritative introduction to the thought of leading intellectual figures of the past whose ideas still influence the way we think today. ... sees Marx as a philosopher, rather than as an economist or social scientis. ' an admirably balanced portrait of the man and his achievement' says Philip Toynbee, Observer.

Very little of the text is devoted to analyzing Marx's most important work. For example, a total of one chapter (~30 pages) is devoted to Das Kapital, Marx's seminal work.

On the other hand, excessive attention is paid to unimportant aspects of Marx. For example, most of the book is spent analyzing Marx's philosophical background, his obscure earlier works, his philosophical predecessors (Hegel & Feuerbach), and the effects of his doctrines. The chapter devoted to Singer's mediocre economic analysis is as long as the chapter devoted to Das Kapital!

Although the book has some good material, that good material constitutes only ~30 pages.

I am doing an MA in political science and my professor screwed his nose up a bit when I showed him this, because Singer is not a name that one associates with Marxism. I bought it because I liked his anthology on Ethics so much. I must say that I don't agree with some of the conclusions that Singer draws in his assessment of Marxism at the end of the book, but his strength is his ability to write at a level that is easy to understand. He avoids jargon where possible and that in itself takes a lot of the mystery out of this stuff. I recommend this book as a good place to start when looking at Marx.

As some others, I got introduced to this play via "Honey pot", the movie, where Rex Harrison is staging a similar plot. I enjoyed the movie and for years wanted to read the play. Unfortunately, it is not translated in Finnish and not included in our literary studies. Finally I bought this edition and read it last Summer.

I must say the language took some effort at first. But when I got used to the old English, I enjoyed the play immensely. The plot twists and turns, people's greed makes them silly when they think they are cunning, and in the end justice is served - to some extent. People do not change or get much wiser as centuries pass on, do they...? Deserves to be read, definately, and - hopefully - translated for us Finns, too, by someone much better than me.

Well, I liked this a LOT more than I thought I would. I assumed that Jonson would write plays like Shakespeare, and I am very selective about which Shakespeare plays I really enjoy (namely, 'Othello'). But this, this is such a good book. I don't even usually like reading plays. Let me explain why it is so good:
Firstly, although Volpone is caught out at the end, the whole of the play is a gloriously satisfying dance of mind-games andpure hedonism. For vicarious living, it's great. I, for one, wish I was as clever as Volpone. For those who take delight in the sheer style and talent of people who thoroughly enjoy life, this is a play for you. Admittedly Volpone is a completely amoral character, but the satisfaction in his plots comes because those who he is punishing are immoral themselves. I have to admit, perhaps I wish I was so amoral because of the consequent enjoyment.
Secondly - I love how many levels this play works on. It is simultaneously both a homage to and a mockery of traditional morality plays - everything seems to have worked out by the end, but when the results are thought through, the end is not satisfactory. Good has not triumphed over evil as in traditional morality plays; evil has sabotaged itself, a subtle but important difference. Celia seems to have been let off, but in that era it is likely that her tripled dowry will be owned by her father and she will become a disgraced divorced woman.
Thirdly - Peregrine is wonderful. He is the dry, cynical person who knows exactly what's going on and has sussed every plot - this character should be in every play.
There are two very small, insignificant reasons why I have not given this 5 stars. Firstly, I wish that Volpone had gotten away with his schemes. Secondly, I dislike a few occasions involving Sir Politic WouldBe when the scenes just get too ridiculous for words (tortoise shell!). But otherwise, this play is a laugh - but also clever enough to work on many different levels (spot all the parallels and opposites in the play e.g. Lady WB and Celia) and to be taken seriously if need be.

This comedy is so entangled that a fox would lose his cubs in the multiple loops and traps that are conjured up by all the characters. It reveals how the rich are greedy and want to become richer at the expense of their fellow richmen. It exposes how the politicians are nothing but windbags, would-bes as Jonson calls them. It points out how some women are nothing but flytraps that know everything, that say anything, that have the last word at any time ever. It also shows how a conjurer of tricks aiming at trapping others and taking possession of their goods needs a helper and that the helper can learn even faster than the master, especially if this helper is a parasite by nature. It also shows how men are lecherous and only think of taking the wives of their neighbors because these men, this society is deeply misogynistic and consider that women are harlots, and some other nice words, by nature. There is thus a wide spectrum of criticism of this society, maybe a little bit too wide and too complicated. Due to the names of the characters, the crow, the raven and even the fox are the final victims of the plain fly that is nothing but a parasite sucking the gold of the others. The ending is moral since Bonario and Celia do get some justice from the court, but it is also perfectly immoral because Mosca keeps his unethically gained fortune, in fact the fortune he has stolen from Volpone who wanted to steal the riches of everyone else. It is moral in a way because the immoral and greedy plotters are all punished but it is immoral because the main sorcerer's helper gets his hand on the loot. The sorcerer's apprentice is thus more or less the main benefactor of the moral decision of the court. This leads to another level of reflexion : the court, that is to say the ruling body of Venice, is not so much interested in morality and justice as in the necessity to prevent any event that could rock their boat, endanger their power. Who profits of this decision is not their problem provided it does not stir any discontent among the people. The play thus becomes a strong criticism of justice as blind as long as its interests are not at stake and as opening their eyes only when their power may be disturbed by the crime brought to their attention. We will note in the end that Ben Jonson's style is witty but not really poetic. His poetry is more clichés in the garb of witticism.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

The langauge of Volpone is didatic and witty; no internal motives so much as external stimulus. It is almost the opposite of Shakespeare interior worlds, yet, it is unfair to discount Ben Jonson's comedies as modern scholars have tended to do.

The language is crisp, the puns are sharp (especailly if you have a working knowledge of latin animal names), and the conceits are timeless. I know this originates in the Latin comedy tradition, but so do sitcoms and only if sitcoms has this sense of wordplay. The rhetoric is amazing.

While the characters... even the fun Mosca . . . are flat, the language pops and after a second read one can understand why Jonson was considered so great for his day. It blows some of Shakespeares lesser comedies ( "Alls Well that Ends Well" or "comedy of errors" for example) out of the water because its plot is more artifical but less contrived.

Hopefully, the scholarly opinion of Jonson as a writer, not just a critic, will be on the up and up again.

This famous adaptation of Ben Johnson is terrific and still modern in its whole conception, this is a characteristic seal of the masterpieces. Aided by his loyal server Mosca. Volpone makes his friend to believe is dying and convinces to every one of his greedy friends is his heir.

As you can guess, the macabre spell and incisive charm of this play still makes laugh and think to a great audience.

In 1939 Maurice Tourneur decided to make a film about it. The tragic new is this film was released after WW2, but Harry Baur, the most complete actor f the French Cinema by then, wouldn't be present, his mysterious death was attributed to Nazis.

If you are looking for one of the best and most genuine jewel of the Universal literature, go for this one.

Ok, I liked the movie, and as the book is like the script from the movie I liked it too, but...

Is that all? the script from what we already saw? I realy hoped to find more insight in the story, on the philosophy. Something that explanes a few eastern philosophies used in the movie wich are not that clear for western people.

Well, the photos look great and so on, but I realy hoped for something I didn't already saw in the movie itself...

Like many filmgoers, I fell in love with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," the Ang Lee film which blends historical drama, martial arts action, romance, and spirituality into a breathtaking cinematic experience. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Portrait of the Ang Lee Film" is a visually stunning book which captures the spirit of the great film. The book contains the complete screenplay (in English), a foreword by director Lee, and many interesting notes and sidebars by those who crafted the film.

The book is rich in full-color photos that celebrate the sumptuous beauty of Ang Lee's vision. Looking at the book, I gained an increased appreciation for the artistry and attention to detail that went into the design of the costumes, props, and sets for the film. There are many excellent portraits of the film's superb cast, particularly of Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chow Yun Fat, Chang Chen, and Cheng Pei Pei.

The sidebars are particularly fascinating. Many of them give insights into Chinese history and culture. One sidebar tells a little about Wang Du Lu, who wrote the novel upon which the script was based; another sidebar explores the relationship between "Crouching Tiger" and Ang Lee's 1995 film "Sense and Sensibility." The other sidebars are similarly informative.

This book is a beautiful keepsake that will allow you to relive one of the most enchanting films ever made. Ang Lee, screenwriter James Schamus, and all others who contributed to this book have given a wonderful gift to the film's fans.

the book does not tell you much about the actors, the director, the genre, or other related subjects. its okay to browse through while your at a bookstore but not for purchase.

Ang Lee's film, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is an absolute masterpiece; it's one of the best films I've ever seen, and I'm not easily impressed. This book, which includes the entire screenplay, is a worthy- if somewhat slight- companion to it.

The book contains a number of beautiful color photographs, and commentary from Ang Lee, co-writer James Schamus, critic Richard Corliss (his Time magazine review, actually) and some background on the wuxia pian film genre the film's story is rooted in. If you're in love with the movie, you'll definitely want this book; having the entire screenplay is worth the price.

What keeps it from achieving the five-star status the film surely will attain is that it really needs a bit more. I would've loved a more in-depth look at the film's production. The book has one sidebar on the beautiful costumes, and glosses over certain production problems (weather, digital wire-removal difficulties); at one point, Ang Lee writes how he doubts he'll ever be fully healthy again, but there's no explanation other than he worked extremely hard on this project.

Still, it's marvelous to be able to read Jen Yu's (Zhang Ziyi) entire restaurant speech (from a particularly thrilling sequence where she battles about two dozen men) and Li Mu Bai's (Chow Yun Fat) touching valediction, delivered to Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh). The book's design work mirrors the film's antique look and is a nice match for its production design.

While the film junkie (and "Crouching Tiger" fan) in me would love to read more about how they made this magical movie, I still recommend you check out "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Portrait of Ang Lee's Epic Film." But only after you've watched the film.

This is a GREAT book... It includes the screenplay of the film, which, is nice to read once in awhile when not watching the DVD. It's filled w/ wonderful photos from the movie and set, and has many quotes and commentaries from actors and Ang Lee about certain situations while filming... and about the film. It's very entertaining to read, but I just wish there was more information about the actors included in the pages. There are comments about them and their performances here and there... and the quotes are great, but the background info on all of the actors is just not there. But all dedicated crouching tiger fans should get it, b/c it's just so nicely laid out and is such good quality. I mean, who cares if they leave a little out? It's so fun to look at!

The vast majority of historical books about the common man are surveys of great swaths of humanity, general histories of the masses. Reader's settle into the comfort of their reading chair with a history book, and as they read they rarely feel the strong emotions that we associate with narratives. They read a tome about WWII and the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, and although they feel horror at the murders of so many, the horror is mitigated because six million is a gigantic number, a statistic, and we can comprehend it only as a number. Would we feel much worse if it had been seven million murdered or much better if it was 4 million? We naturally depersonalize numbers. The diary of Anne Frank, however, stirs our emotions and we react with strong pathos to the narrative of this one young girl. The lesson here is that we only feel for things that are intimate, close by. We fall in love with a co-worker, dislike our next door neighbor, and we feel sad when we find out about the death of someone we knew.
In much the same way, Jonathan Spence's "The Death of Woman Wang" engages us, makes us feel for these 17th century Chinese commoners. It helps that the book has a penetrating style and uses forceful imagery. Spence notes in his introduction that he has set out to make the book more personal by focusing on the stories of individuals. Rather than limiting our scope, this choice brings the lives of rural Chinese more into focus. When history does individualize, it tends to focus on the lives of the great and wealthy, yet the stories of the masses go untold, lost to the annals of time. Here we have the raw lives of commoners, sometimes more desperate, always more difficult. Perhaps, as we later remove our focus, we will be able to better understand the pains of the multitude, and extrapolate the emotional contours of their lives.
T'an-Ch'eng is our local, a small, rural county that is quite ordinary in many ways. It doesn't have any heroes, no personages of great fame are from there, no battles of any note were fought there, and it more or less resembles the counties that surround it. It is, however, a very unfortunate place. In the last 40 years the people of T'an-Ch'eng have witnessed droughts, hails of locusts, marauding bandits, floods, Manchu invaders, earthquakes, and in their wake plague and famine. The population has been decimated, and those strong enough to leave have left. The ones who have stayed behind cannot protect one another. The weak and the old count their days. The youth have become dissolute, the people murderous, not able to trust others, cannibalism abounds and "close friends no longer dare walk out to the field together." What these people face, in the words of the country magistrate, is "one of basic survival--physical and moral--in a world that seem[s] to be disintegrating before their eyes.
As Spence notes in his introduction, it is ironic that the Chinese, who were meticulous record keepers, and compiled a massive, meticulously detailed historiography of the country, failed to preserve the types of local records which are the bread and butter of historical scholarship. The registries of birth, marriage and death, coroner's inquests, guild proceedings, and land-tenancy records that medieval European scholars, for example, rely on so heavily are rare in China. In order to conjure up an image of T'an-ch'eng Spence has chosen three alternative sources that overcome this obstacle adroitly.
Our first source is called the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, and was compiled in 1673 by members of the gentry elite, headed by Feng K'o-ts'an, himself a former magistrate. Feng played witness to the catastrophes of T'an-ch'eng, and as a result his Local History is exceptional from others (they were created by every county across China) in that it presents the travails of the county in graphic, harsh detail. He wrote of T'an-ch'eng, saying that it was as if "fate were throwing rocks upon a man who had already fallen in a well."
Huang Liu-Hung, whose writings serve as our second source, served from 1670-1672 as magistrate. As magistrate, he wielded enormous power over his community, serving as both chief legal officer, financial officer, and guardian of public security. Because he is a man of such prominence, we are given entrée into areas we otherwise might have been excluded from. His two works, our sources, are his personal memoir and a handbook on the office of the magistrate, which, fortunately, were written with painstaking accuracy and detail.
The last source is that of P'u Sung-ling, a man little known in the West, but in China a famed writer, considered one of the best of his era. He was an essayist, dramatist, and short-story writer, and his stories serve as a complement to the other sources, which are straightforward accounts. P'u Sung-ling's stories give us a window into people's inner lives, their hopes and dreams, and their fears. His stories are mystical or mundane, sometimes both, incorporating magic realism into normal narrative. Although not from T'an-ch'eng, he lived very close by in Tzu-ch'uan county to the North. The two counties were separated by bandit-infested hills, which would have made forays difficult, but he did pass through T'an-ch'eng in 1670 and 1671, and we can assume that much of what he wrote about would parallel the lives of people in T'an-ch'eng.
The Local History shows us that taxes were an especially onerous burden to these people who were living already under the yolk of misery. With the demise of the Ming dynasty and rise of the Manchus things did not improve much. There were two taxes, one for the size of the land you owned, and the other on adult males. Since commoner's hardly ever had the money to pay off their taxes all at once, the taxes were collected in several installments over the course of the year.
Compounding the problem, T'an-ch'eng was located on a main road that saw the passage of government officials, military supplies, and couriers. The county was expected by the crown to provide whatever was needed to help their passage: road maintenance, transport services, and care of official and their retinues. The government provided a stipend to defray the costs, but it did not cover them entirely.
Instead of making the tax burden less severe, disasters could cause the burden to increase. In the wake of the great earthquake of 1668, many died or fled the area, but the state did not reduce the number of adult males on its roles enough to cover the actual amount missing, yet the tax had to be paid, so the extra amount needed was divided equally amongst the survivors and paid. We can only imagine the strain this put on them, these families that were scraping by. Even if the farmers could overcome their difficulties and had enough of a grain surplus to pay the taxes, they still had to run the gauntlet of assayers, unscrupulous men in town who converted the farmer's copper cash into the silver form required by the government. And then there were many landowners who exploited the farmers. Huang Liu-Hung went after one of them with the arm of the law, but the landowner managed to avoid conviction by intimidating witnesses into silence.
The Local History offers much advice in the form of biographies. For women these biographies were designed to be moral compasses. For example, one "show[ed] how - with determination and strict moral purpose one could survive as a widow, make a living, and bring up one's children to be either worthy scholars or loyal wives in their turn." The women who were "loyal" or "virtuous" were considered paragons of upright social behavior. In the great majority of the cases the women were married. Apparently it was difficult to secure your spot in the pantheon of virtuous women if you didn't have a man to please by your actions. The virtues of "chastity, courage, tenacity, and unquestioning acceptance of the prevailing [read male!] hierarchy - unto death if necessary," might get you a mention in the hallowed Local History of T'an-ch'eng. Disfiguring your face after the death of your husband (in order to avoid potential suitors) didn't hurt your chances either.
Despite the bleak picture painted by immense suffering and turmoil, the "The Death of Woman Wang" doesn't wallow in its tears. Pithy vignettes of hope and country justice are speckled throughout, among the tragedies.
P'u Sung-ling recounts the story of Hsi-Liu, a young widow with two boys to care for. The older one is lazy and doesn't study. The younger one is "incredibly stupid" and lazy as well. Hsi-Liu reforms them both, in what we have come to recognize as the salient characteristics of the wise-ones in parables: wiliness, fortitude, and intelligence. The older son becomes dutiful and makes good by attaining the highest civil service degree possible. The younger one follows suit, only he becomes a successful merchant, making "tens of thousands in trade." This struck me as a paradox, considering that he was "incredibly stupid," but then it occurred to me that merchants were at the bottom rung of the occupational totem pole in Ming society.
The book is speckled with stories that impose their view of correct female behavior, especially how to act towards one's husband. P'u Sung-ling, however, an observer of the full spectrum of human activity, writes sympathetically about the plight of women. One story is about a young woman who is thrown into a terrible marriage, and the revenge she wreaks on her husband. Her husband is lazy, dissolute, and gambles away all their money. Once bottomed out, he sells her as a concubine. Fortunately, the girl comes from a very wealthy family, and they rescue her from sexual slavery. In fable-like manner, she flaunts her wealth in front of her ex-husband - what could have been if he had been a virtuous - more wealth than he could have ever imagined.
Last we come to the tragic story of Woman Wang, who runs off with another man in defiance of her husband and social convention. Surely her story, since it ends in her murder by her husband's hand, was included in the Local History as a warning to other women who might consider the same thing. Transgressions committed by women against the moral order were persecuted severely, as evidenced by stipulations of the legal code. For what she had done, Woman Wang "was classified as a fugitive and subject to a punishment of one hundred blows." We are told also that her killing would be considered justified in the eyes of the law if Kao was to catch her in the act.
We can imagine her, laying next to her husband, wondering what life might be like with another man, or at least not with her husband. She is surely desperate - why else would she risk so much? We feel true empathy for her once we learn that she has been abandoned on the road by her paramour. She has betrayed her husband, yet the betrayal by her lover seems more contemptible by comparison. Not only has she lost her lover, she has lost her life in the process. What hope could remain in her heart?
With nowhere to turn she makes her way home in fear. Once there, she can't bring herself to confront her husband, Kao. Instead, she finds shelter at a local temple, until one day her neighbor and Kao show up one after the other. The neighbor and Kao quarrel, and the neighbor slaps him, and we know that this slap will somehow figure into the rest of the story. Kao allows Woman Wang back, and they live with one another for several months. One cold Winter's night he strangles her to death in brutal fashion, forcing his knee into her abdomen and crushing it. Kao attempts to place the body near his neighbors house in order to frame him but is foiled by some night watchmen who scare him off. Despite his failure to implicate the neighbor, Kao goes before the magistrate and accuses his neighbor of the murder. Huang, our memoirist magistrate, quickly sees through Kao's lies and finds him guilty of the crime. He sentences Kao to a severe beating, and forces the neighbor to pay for Woman Wang's burial costs. Her burial is expensive and elaborate, done in order to appease Woman Wang, so that "her lonely spirit would be pacified."
We have tales of woe, and hardship overcome. The people of T'an-ch'eng needed both. Some of them serve as correctives to people's errant behavior, the others to show them that life is worth living, that despite all their suffering, there was some justice in the world, and hope.

In The Death of Woman Wang, Jonathan A. Spence wrote about a rural place in China named T'an-ch'eng. Using the compilations of The Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the memoirs from a scholar official, and third, the works of an essayist known as P'u Sung-ling, Spence informs us about the ways of the government (or lack thereof), agriculture, circumstances and situations of several characters, and most evident, the portrayal of women in China at the time. Indeed women were considered of lesser value than men, but there is much more to be found in that belief. There were certain elements that made a woman "virtuous and honourable," along with many other things expected from them . To be considered a success in her feminine role, a woman would have to do many things; if she was unable to surpass such challenges, the laws and customs of Chinese society were enacted.

Although the women in 17th century China were considered inferior to men, some women were also thought to be superior to other women. The superior woman, or ideal woman, was she who was "virtuous and honourable." The correct female behaviour included the virtues of "chastity, courage, tenacity, and unquestioning acceptance of the prevailing hierarchy - unto death if necessary" (pg. 100). First there was great emphasis on the loyalty of the wife, before marriage and even after the husband's death. Before a couple was married, the girl would have to live at her future in-law's house, which would give an extra helping hand. On the other hand, should a woman lose her husband, she is encouraged to remarry. Many women were quite loyal to their first, and so refused to remarry. Women would commonly run away, disfigure their face, or even commit suicide in order not to be disloyal to their first husband. Women were expected never to commit adultery, and could be severely punished. Men, however, were not shunned as women were. A wife's body was sacred to her marriage; along with not committing adultery, a woman was also expected to use her intelligence to outwit the "voracious soldiers" and bandits from taking and raping her body (pg. 104). Intelligence was also part of being an honourable woman, such as when a young widow leaves her own son with husband's family to return to her won widowed mother and bring up her brothers (pg. 62).

To be considered prevailing at her feminine role, a Chinese woman was expected to overcome many obstacles. With a deceased husband, the husband's family would encourage the widow to remarry so that they could regain his possessions. Relatives would sometimes "strip her home and family to the bones" (pg. 70). Despite the challenge of greedy relatives, some women, like woman Kao (pg.71) were able to overcome it. Woman Kao certainly struggled, but the harder things were the more upright she was; her son in turn was also brought up principled like her. Raising her children was another challenge by not having the father to bring in not only income, but also to bring up the sons to learn how to run the family's business affairs and to help them pass the examinations. In bringing up her boys, one a step-son, Hsi-liu was a determined wife as well as a determined mother. So that her boys would learn from their mistakes she gave up her reputation. Public opinion was weighed heavy on many women, and the people around Hsi-liu thought of her as cruel. Her boys turned out quite disciplined in the end (pg. 68-70).

Chinese society placed customs and laws to punish women if they were not successful at overcoming such obstacles. Despite not being content in a marriage, women were expected to remain loyal to the husband and to stay with him. Should the wife run away, like Woman Wang, she would automatically be considered a criminal, she "was classified as a fugitive and subject to a punishment of one hundred blows" (pg. 120). A husband was also considered justified if he was to kill his wife or the adulterer if he caught them in the act. If he waited and did not kill them immediately, the husband was not justified. If the wife returned after running away, the husband was to entitled to keep her. In the case of Woman Wang, her husband Jen took her back, but brutally killed her. Because Chinese society placed so much power in the hands of one gender at the expense of another, tragedies like the cruel death of Woman Wang were inevitable. An illegitimate child was greatly shunned, as much as adultery. In the story of the girl Tou and her father's friend Nan, Nan falls for her and swears his eternal faithfulness to her. Since she was a peasant and Nan was offered a rich wife, he took his words back. Tou became pregnant, but Nan denied to her father that it was his. Her father beat her and kicked her out of the house. Betraying her, Nan didn't let her into his house, so she died with her baby at his gate (pg. 107-109). Lastly, should a woman commit suicide because she cannot overcome her challenges, she was believed to be cursed in becoming a ghost, hence being an unpeaceful spirit.

The Death of Woman Wang painted a picture of life in rural China, connected with the death of a woman who ran away from her husband, was returned to him and then was killed by him. The story of the many female characters and Woman Wang serve as an illustration of the place of women in this society, the nature of the law of the time, and the social structure which allowed such things to happen.

I really did not care for this book and I thought it hard to follow at times and it was not keeping my attention.

A little hard to follow sometimes, and the author could have artfully trimmed it in a couple of places -- after all, it was written for a lay audience, so an excess of historical details can be distracting. Still, it provides a glimpse into a little-known portion of history, and it's comprehensible to a general audience. As I say, imperfect, but worthwhile.

Woman Wang is a piece of work that one can read to get a sense of life for women in China during this time period. However, one should take this book with a grain of salt, since women were not always as powerless as Spence tries to argue. (In fact Woman Wang does display some of her power simply by breaking the "rules"). While factual in presenting more of the well-known facets of Confucian-ruled society and its effects on women, including the legal system, much of this book is speculative and sentimental. It often reads more as historical fiction than a work by a professor of Chinese History at a prestigious university. It does not flow smoothly, pulling the reader jerkily from third person narrative of woman wang to analysis of documents and explanations from a historical/sociological perspective and back to narrative again. For an advanced student of Chinese culture, history, etc., if this book did not get a glance in her/his early years, it will not provide much insight. He has performed better in later works. Still, it remains a neat, compact work for a neophyte, and to this day retains its use in introductory classes on Chinese history.

Integrated Chinese is the good old reliable of chinese text series. Good for studying on your own and good for a class. Its integrated series of support material -- video, audio, workbooks -- is what really separates it from the field.

I ordered the Level 1 simplified textbook and workbook from the same supplier, and the textbook has STILL not arrived after 2-3 weeks. I couldn't find any way to contact the supplier other than this. I NEED the book for an upcoming class quiz. I'm willing to delete this review if I can get it before this weekend.
My address is
101 Stone Mill Run Apt. 21
Athens, GA 30601
Please send it promptly!

Y unfortunely ordered integrated chinese level 1 part 2. This was incorrect so I reordered level 1 part 1 which is what I needed. I immediately returned the first book, however with out sales slip which I had lost. The Kentucky office, where I was told to send it, held it for several weeks until the 30 days had expired. Yesterday I received the book back stating I had not purchased the book from them. I have used no one else besides Amazon,com. I also noticed my order had been taken out of the computer. I now have a book I cannot use nor do I want. Therefore please take my e-mail off your mailing list as I will not be ordering from you again. We start Chinese 1 and 2 june 12. All students will need new books but they will be advised not to buy from your company. I will try to find a place locally or elsewhere.

I studied Beginning Mandarin at the Northwest China Council offices in Portland, Oregon. This was the textbook used in the class and it was good, not outstanding. What helped a lot was the accompanying CD, to drill on pronunciation. Our instructor was from mainland China. I should also mention the accompanying character workbook which I would unhesitatingly award five stars. The only other text I've encountered is one called Practical Audio-Visual Chinese, which at this point I would grudgingly award two stars because it is difficult to get into. This text is used in a different Mandarin Chinese class in Portland. What alarmed me is that the numeral characters in PA-VC are entirely different than what I learned from IC. I went online to several sources and was relieved to find that all of the numeral characters were what I learned from IC, so it appears to me that the PA-VC is likely reflecting the Taiwanese style of Mandarin. I'm not about to learn another new system of numeral characters so I'll be asking my instructor about this. So far the speech seems to be exactly the same.

I started learning Mandarin with the Pimsleur series then moved to learning out of books and this is by far the best choice that I have seen so far. It gives clear explainations of grammar, you learn a lot of new vocabulary in each section and there are good dialoges in the beginning of every section. The vocabulary is up to date that includes words for even popular soda brands like Coke and Sprite. I yet to see a better Mandarin learning course.

This is one of the textbooks my daughter needed for her college class. It is one she will keep.

In any truly socialist understanding of history the role of the class struggle plays a central role. Any thoughtful socialist wants to, in fact need to, know how the various classes in society were formed, and transformed, over time. A lot of useful work in this area has been done by socialist scholars. One thinks of E.P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class, for example. One does not, however, need to be a socialist to do such research in order to provide us with plenty of ammunition in our fight for a better world. Shopkeeper's Millennium by Paul E. Johnson is such a work.

One can disagree with Professor Johnson's conclusions, and perhaps aspects of his methodology that relies very heavily on the interpretation of governmental and church records. He has nevertheless written a very interesting case study of Rochester, New York as a prime example of how America in the 1820's and 1830's, that is at the infancy of American capitalism, turned from a wilderness into an important new center of capitalist development as the Eire Canal became a cog in the transnational transportation system. Johnson has also provided some useful insights into the role that religion, especially the `born again' evangelical religion that we are familiar with today, helped form the prevailing capitalist ethos that drove this expansion forward.

Professor Johnson uses the well-known sources (city directories, tax assessments, censuses, Church registries) to flesh out his argument. One can take exception to some of his conclusions based on rather scanty data (and on the reliability of such data in a very mobile and transient environment). However the overall thrust of his work makes the important point that this period turned this part of America away from a sleepy agrarian/mercantile society to a rather dynamic capitalist one within a relatively short time. And, moreover, the social preconditions that fostered such growth were not merely accidental but represented the expansion of an already stable elite ready to take advantage of the new mode of production. In short, as we have seen at other previous nodal points of history (and today, as well) the rich and able have a leg up when the new riches are to be distributed.

Religious indoctrination, strict social mores, intense social pressure and flat out coercion are detailed here as ways in which the budding capitalist class dominated the society. Religious revivals, anti-Masonic struggles and various social reform campaigns, particularly the fight against 'demon' whiskey, play their part. As does plain old-fashioned politics that we are very familiar with. Perhaps not as familiar is how political sides were chosen in various local fights, like the closing of dram shops, despite common religious affiliation.

The key struggle in forming the capitalist mode of production was the effort to discipline a reluctant workforce to the tasks at hand. That was achieved in Rochester by many of the old tricks like coercion, ostracism and shunning that we have seen elsewhere at the rise of capitalism, particularly in England. In an interesting sidelight Professor Johnson details the change over, in a fairly short period of time , from workers being housed under the paternalistic supervision of their employers in their homes to the establishment of separate working class quarters. This is a big step in the forming of class-consciousness, both ways.
Such details are the stuff that makes this an interesting study.

Is this what today's working class looks like in a `post-industrial' American society? No. However many of the same techniques of domination still hold sway. Read this book about the days when American capitalism was a progressive force in the world. And begin to understand why it needs to be fought tooth and nail now.

I read this book in conjunction with another about antebellum religious reform in the 19th century. I found this book easier to understand, but that's not saying much. It was still not fully clear what Johnson was trying to say, although his writing abilities are pretty good for a historian.
His work examines the city of Rochester, New York leading up to the reform of Charles Finney. However the assumptions he makes by examining only one area are not convincing enough to be applied to the entire reform efforts in New England at the time.

For those who want to discover how the Second Great Awakening affected the town of Rochester, New York, then this book is for you. You can tell the amount of hardwork that Johnson put into this book by the sheer amount of information that is contained within.

New York State's construction of the Erie Canal transformed the tiny frontier town of Rochester into young America's first inland boom town, with an economy based on milling local grain and transporting the flour east to feed the older coastal cities. In this role, it became the prototype for all the thousands of commercial towns and cities that sprang up along railroads across the Midwest during the nineteenth century, as well as the crucible in which the Midwest's particular brand of evangelical protestant piety was first worked out. 'A Shopkeeper's Millenium' is by far the best examination of this important piece of American history I have found anywhere, and I recommend it highly.

This is an outstanding blend of scholarship backed by a depth of research and expertise, melded with a sensitivity to what an oracle means to people, and how it is properly to be used. Lynn has recreated and organized the Wang Bi text of the I Ching (Wang Bi was a scholar and writer in ancient China who died at a tragically young age but accomplished extraordinary things on a truly Mozartean scale--his version of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching is still the most read and cited version of that work, and his insight into the I Ching, thanks to Prof. Lynn, deserves as much study). For those who are drawn to the ancient oracle as an insight guide rather than a parlor game or fortune-telling tool, Prof. Lynn's presentation of the Wang Bi I Ching is an essential first step. I would further recommend the work of Carol Anthony ("Guide to the I Ching") and her latest exploration of the I Ching from the perspective of helping one's inner learning to inform and enrich one's outer life, which has been written with Hanna Moog: it is called "I Ching: The Oracle of the Cosmic Way."

Richard John Lynn's translation of the I Ching has become one of my most precious books. He has found the style that brings back a very distant voice of ancient China: Wang Bi, a philosophical geenius who died at the age of 23 after having written the most outstanding commentaries ever of the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching. R.J.Lynn brings out the taoist touch of Wang Bi's philosophy by keeping the word "dao" in the English text. Some of his expressions are fun, like when someone's situation has come to a point of decline, Lynn translates Wang Bi with: "this one's dao has petered out". Somehow Lynn has brought Wang Bi's thought back to life.

I am not a very wordy person. It was simple enough for me to understand but not follow. These are things that some people like me have to read over and over again. Each time it is like reading a new book. I'm afraid this review will not do the book justice for it's immence content.

This is a terrible book. The translation juxtaposes English words that are presumably equivalents of the original Chinese ideograms. The result is incomprehensible. The English words appear to flow in gramatically correct sentences but they make no sense. The translator appears to have no idea of what the I Ching is about or how it was used in Chinese culture. Unfortunately, I bought this book and wasted my money.

The reviews on the Lynn book appear to break down to a partisanship between John Richard Lynn and Wilhelm. There's room in the library of the I Ching enthusiast for both. I happen to prefer Lynn, but refer frequently to Wilhelm. It's difficult to imagine either of the two absent from the shelf. I'm particularly grateful to Lynn for the comprehensive footnotes and historical notes to put each item in context.

Redressing the contemptuous injustices of historical omission;


With jewels from beneath the waters, with coral and mother of pearl and the pelt of the beaver, with these I do thee wed, America.

A like institution of fidelity was gifted to the birth of our new form of government by a faithful people who have betimes named George Washington `the Great Father' & 'the Great Chief Warrior', while he yet struggled to gain victory against the madness of the British King George.

Yet the Oneida' who sacrificed life and land and kinship against pro-British Iroquois nations did also decline their rightful citizenship and voting privileges of this great experiment in democracy (with all their Iroquois kindred) so that they might more ably re-forge their union within the sovereign nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. A most rare nobility is the faithfulness of the Oneida Iroquois, `the People of the Standing Stone.'

An exhaustive bibliography of this book does bear upon the quality of it's prose. The historical account introduces a chronological narrative of several geographic and cultural topographies. If you will invest the time (I made multiple installments) these authors will transport your attentions between various Indian settlements and migrations and military encampments, between British loyalist' and Rebel Patriot colonial forts and settlements and marches, between political and religious doctrinal conflicts amongst the Iroquois.

'Forgotten Allies' does not elaborate how trading alliances which formed between alternate Iroquois nations and competing European trading partners contributed to Iroquois internal strife and political bias building up during the 'Beaver wars'.

During that time, various tribes formed favorable trade relations with the French, the English, or the Dutch to the exclusion of those interests held by their fellow federation nation tribes.

The term 'Beaver Wars' is derived from the Iroquois hunters and warriors subduing surrounding native populations and dominating the hunting/trapping interest in those territories for the monopolistic benefits of being the primary supplier of beaver pelts to the European traders. The Confederacy at large sought to retain neutrality when the colonial interests were making war in Europe and on our fair soil.
For their part the Europeans increased their mercenary stipend to the individual Indian nations they were accustomed to trading with. These flowers of evil were the beginnings of political division amongst the Iroquois. And where that story leaves off is where `Forgotten Allies' begins.

Being introduced by this text to the uncovered role of a schism in Christian doctrine between those who supported the Rebel/Patriot cause and those who supported King George's loyalists is no little enigma; it's amazing the authors found so much reference material to treat it. The tip of the theological `ice berg' so to say, would intone that the Anglican/Church of England which was favoring the crown and whose emphasis was after the manner of Catholicism, is treated as a view of `salvation by good works'; while the Presbyterian opposition view which was held by those in support of the Patriot/Rebel cause is treated as reformation theology in origin. This mere thumbnail sketch is difficult to connect in my mind with traditions of a people whose cultural memories remember taking shelter in caves to escape the `ice storms' and the `ice age' giant beasts.

According to Tuscarora Chief Elias Johnson,

(Legends, Traditions And Laws of the Iroquois Or Six Nations And History Of The Tuscarora Indians) (published by Kessinger Reprints)
Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, and History of the Tuscarora Indians

the tribal traditions recollect a time when Hiawatha (or Taryenyawagon) came down from the star people to lead the six families out of the caves to their ancestral lands when it was once again safe to hunt. This isn't part of the narrative from Martin & Galatthaar, but it's a great conundrum to reconcile when presented with the report that some of these Natives were highly esteemed for their Christian piety (ie. religious loyalty) and their `polite civilisation'. And both those who were English conversant Christian and those who were unable to turn their backs on the old ways were (most of them) resolute in their reconciliation to one another after England signed the Armistice at Paris, Sept. 3rd, 1783.

Although ending the fighting between England and Colonies, by this treaty the British ceded territory to the United States which was not theirs to give, namely the Iroquois homelands, creating issues for the Iroquois to later resolve with the Continental Congress. The shrewd political mind of the Iroquois was aware of the dissimulation from their British allies, one anecdote recounts:

"Attempting to save face with their Iroquois allies, local British commanders told them that `they must not go to war as the King had compassion on his American subjects they having expressed their sorrow for what they had done'."

[in response to this]

"A Seneca Sachem dismissed this commentary as pure nonsense. He observed that `the Americans and French had beat the English[,] that the latter could no longer carry on the war, and that the Indians knew it well & must now be sacrificed or submit to the Americans.' He thought `it was time to attend to their own concerns and listen no longer to...lies'." (p286)

If you're curious about the military assistance recieved from American Natives then you won't be disappointed with this read. Keeping as it's theme a goal of `revealing an *un-told* side of the story', the preponderance of researched material is synthesized to introduce the many Native & European characters extracted from references. These characters' names are well indexed to a heavily annotated text full of concise quotations. It should be borne in mind that the primary subject is war, with all the gravity and reverence attaching to this topic.

I purchased `Forgotten Allies' by Joseph T. Glatthaar & James Kirby Martin from Amazon last year (2007), because some branches of my ancestry include Native American Indian Scouts from the American Revolutio