Wang Books

A good book for my class. Easy to teach. It saves my preparing time without reading too much.

This book is OK. It is a reference book for students. I heard the authors are experts in developing real video systems. But, I couldn't find what I would like to learn from their book.

This new textbook covers basic topics on digital video processing as well as a variety of advanced topics on video coding and communication. The authors have been doing leading research on video processing and communications for years. We used it to cover the video topics in a graduate introductory course on image and video processing, and also plan to use it as a reference book for a advanced topic course on multimedia communications. The material is clearly presented with many illustrations. Later parts of the book give a good overview of the state-of-the-art technologies on video compression and communication. There is also an appendix section giving the answers to selected problems. In my opinion, the book is a very good starting point for people interested in the video technologies. It helps to build solid foundations. The book can be complemented with latest research papers for advanced study, or with detailed video coding standards for implementing practical systems.

The first 9 chapters of the book are too basic for students who want to find a job in video developments. But, it will be easy for some professors to teach a course. The later chapters include some good contents, but they are not really related to the early chapters. The second part of book should be a seperate book -- could be a good one. Also, more video application issues should be discussed -- I mean REAL applications -- since the title of the book is "... communications". It is quite weak in the "communications", e.g. file format, sync.,RTP,...

This book covers a lot of topics in one, including many state-of-art developments. The first half of the book covers the fundamentals of image and video coding and processing techniques. This part is not much different from other image/video processing books with basic theories and plenty of maths. The latter part contains new stuff, but I was disappointed by its incomplete introductions. Many sections assume the readers have good background and very briefly mention the topic without even defining some terms beforehand. It is recommended to read the referenced journal papers before trying to understand this part. Wavelet is only covered in several pages. A missing part!

While I was expecting a somewhat dry, theoretical examination of masculinity in post-Vietnam America, Gibson writes with such grace and energy that it often reads like a work of fiction. Highly recommended.

Gibson takes easy shots at well worn targets in this book. The loss of male identity is better covered (and with more compassion) in Susan Faludi's Stiffed. He focuses his lens on the legions of Soldier of Fortune and Mack Bolan reading, inadequate, wanna-be warrior that fill our domestic violence shelters with their victims and our prisons with their bodies. These men are worthy of study, and frankly, in need of help. But this are the only example of modern masculine identity and "warrior-ship" that Gibson touches on.



This book lacks balance. Many of his points on the loss of male identity and the dark side of warrior culture are well made and accurate. However, he never acknowledges the fact that there are professional warriors out there who roll their eyes at Soldier of Fortune and don't jerk off to Sylvester Stallone movies. These would be the guys who would show up to get Gibson's ass out of a jam if he ever dials 911. They aren't perfect but they are necessary. Gibson recounts several conversations with marginal men, but I can't recall a single conversation with a "new warrior" who is a stable, quiet professional who functions in normal society and happens to be a solider, police officer, or similar. Indeed, if we listened only to Gibson, we would believe they don't exist.



This book would have benefited from mentioning the men out there who are doing work examining what is healthy and generative about the male warrior ethos. He gives a brief, dismissive mention to the whole Robert Bly, banging drums in the wilderness crowd, but there's much more to it than that. There are thousands of men out there who are taking a hard look at what it means to be a man these days. Apparently Gibson didn't talk to any of them either.



During his recounting of his trip to Gunsite shooting school, Gibson himself wallows in the uninitiated male's fascination with war. His masturbatory, guilty pleasure is almost embarrassing to read. One has to think maybe Gibson has some work to do in becoming comfortable with his own identity.



Gibson does present a more rational discussion about gun control than you will ever get from either HCI or the NRA. While he lingers on the power and destructiveness of "assault weapons" in loving, almost pornographic detail, he also acknowledges the fact that ordinary citizens lawfully use firearms to defend themselves thousands of times a year. This is a fact that likely to get him excoriated in certain circles. It's a shame that balance doesn't extend to the rest of the book.



I do have a certain respect for the fact that Gibson has obviously waded through hundreds of hours of bad action movies and thousands of pages of crap magazines and men's adventure books. Gibson does a good job of exposing a subculture that will doubtless be a revelation to readers who are at least middle class and educated.



Discussions of class are noticeably absent. It's doubtful that many Soldier Of Fortune subscribers or Mack Bolan aficionados teach or attend at Gibson's home at California State University. These pleasures are reserved for the legions of lower class hillbillies and inner city kids that we use to fill the ranks of our armed forces, and often police departments. Class is a key piece of the puzzle, but Gibson doesn't mention it.



While there's undoubtedly some connection between sex and violence in the particular pathologies Gibson is looking at, sometimes he reaches a little far. His claims that a mushroomed hollow point bullet looks just like a penis, inside the "vagina" of the wound channel in a block of ballistic test gelatin got a out loud laugh from me. I happen to be in possession of a penis and some expanded bullets, and I'm just not seeing the similarity. Sometimes a ballistic test is just a ballistic test.



Gibson missed a chance to write a balanced, thoughtful look at what it means to be a man these days. Instead he engages in hand-wringing of the "let's talk about how boys are bad" variety, which is bound to get him recognition in certain circles, but does nothing towards helping invent the new men, and the new warriors, that our society desperately needs.

This book was recommended to me in a politics chat room. When my friend described its topic with "paintball" "guns" "war movies" and "politics", I knew I had to read it (i had an interest in all of these things).

The book starts off describing how "New Warriors" (men with a "warrior" mentality in Post-Vietnam America) see and treat women/children/family, how they are effected by consumer culture of war/paramiltary books and movies, view guns.. paintball.

Presidents Nixon, Reagan, and Bush, along with Ollie North, Rambo, Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris all embrace or help create the New War. Mass murderers, assassins, and mercenaries are influenced by it as well.

I'd like to see Gibson tackle the topic again. 5 years later, we've got an enormous computer/video game warrior culture, where hundreds of thousands of young men spend hours each day blasting each other to bits on the Internet.

This is probably one of the best primer books for anyone interested in the sociological aspects of masculinity in America. It is an easy read with tons of examples from relatively recent media sources. It reads like a novel but has a lot more to say. Any one interested in violence in media should put this at the top of their to read list.

This book is a natural page-turner which delves into the rise of a new "warrior cult" in the U.S. beginning in the mid-70's and gaining momentum in the 80's. Explores the (sometimes dangerous) sociological implications of this fascination with automatic weapons, camouflage clothing, violence, and the "lone warrior", although the author's reliance on Jungian and Freudian interpretations of this phenomenon goes a bit overboard at times. Nonetheless this is a valuable study overall. The assertion that this phenomenon is fulfilling a valid psychological need in its adherents, and suggestions of alternate ways of fulfilling these needs that do not glorify violence, should prove to be provocative and hopefully useful in working toward a less violent society.

When the Circus came to Town, January 3, 2008
By Lazy Panda "Panda" (CA USA) - See all my reviews

This story is about a young girl named Ursula that lives in a small town in china and she is an only child that had a dream to go to the circus. But then one day she caught a type of disease called smallpox that makes your face look scarry and would make you feel a little bit uncomfortable like going somewhere esle like the farmers market and people staring at you. Then one day while Ursula had this disease, one of her parent's Chinese cook,called Ah Sam wanted to help her also to cheer her up, so one day Ah Sam surprised Ursula by bringing a circus crew to her town but,their was one problem the circus came with nobody to play music for them so one of the people in the circus crew went to find someone to play music for them but they looked all over the town but couldn't find anyone to play music for them so they had an idea to ask Ursula and now she is the only one that can play the harmonica so then they asked her but now shes afraid to show her face so then she said maybe and then they gave her some time to think. Later thinked about it and said yes because she didn't care anymore about what people thought about her face.

This story has a very simple and interesting plot. Yep fictionalizes a true story about a little girl that catches small pox and becomes disfigured. Her parents hire a Chinese cook to help out at the stagecoach depot and he befriends Ursula. Together they find they share one thing in common, both are ridiculed for what they look like. Together they work out their problems and end up with most of the townfolks helping them. A circus put on by Ah Sam's cousins do wonders for everyone who comes. A very quick and entertaining read. Children ages 7 and up would enjoy this story.

When the Circus Came to Town is a quick, enjoyable read. The illustrations are well done and the setting of Whistle, Montana comes to life with Yep's vivid description of the people and the surrounding mountains. The story has two main characters. Ursula is a young girl who at the beginning of the story leads her friends in adventures and play. She calls herself "Pirate Ursula." Ah Sam is a Chinese immigrant who comes to help Ursula's parents as a cook for their restaurant and stage coach depot. Early on in the story Ursula becomes sick with the smallpox. Her face is disfigured, and she refused to leave her room. Her friends come to the window and beg for "Pirate Ursula" to come and play, but her fear of being stared at makes her stay inside. Ah Sam, who also endures taunts and stares for being Chinese and looking different, befriends Ursula and teaches her how to cook. As Ursula becomes more and more confident in the kitchen she begins to come out of her shell. During the course of the story Ursula and Ah Sam exchange gifts - the most elaborate gift comes from Ah Sam in the form of a Chinese Circus. To bring Ursula outside Ah Sam asks his cousins to come to Whistle to perform. The show is quite a hit, and the townspeople welcome the Chinese performers with open arms. When the weather turns bad the performers cannot leave in order to arrive in San Francisco for Chinese New Year. Ursula and the townspeople work together to put on a Chinese New Year in Whistle. When the Circus Came to Town is well written and the dialogue flows smoothly. Tom, the Native American stagecoach driver, is an interesting character. Yep wrote the story based on events that really happened.

When the Circus Came to Town is a great book with a lot of adventure. The book is about a girl that gets smallpox, and the smallpox left scares on her face, she thought that her skin would return to normal from the scares on her face. Ursula felt horrible that she caught smallpox and she stopped going to school for a long time. She never wanted to show her face to anyone but her parents. Every day her friends would drop off her homework but then one day her friends saw her face and they went all wide eyed . She felt bad and thought they were afraid of her. Eventually all things turn out better.

A book like this can not get much better than this so I think that people of all ages would like this book.

When the Circus Came to Town
By: Laurence Yep
...

The story is about a girl named Ursula who has always wanted to see a circus. That is, until she caught smallpox, which made small holes in her cheek. Now all she thinks about and wants is to hide her scarred face. All this changes when Ursula's parents hire a Chinese cook named Ah Sam. He brings to town a magical circus and finds a way to give Ursula the courage she needs to face the world. After the circus Ursula confidently goes outside knowing nobody will laugh at her anymore. She sees that Ah Sam is unhappy and asks why. He replies with the blizzard he won't be able to go to China to celebrate Chinese New Year. Ursula decides to repay Ah Sam for his kindness and creates the biggest, best Chinese New Year celebration that Whistle, Montana, has ever seen.

I have many reasons why I liked this book. One of the reasons I liked this book is because Ah Sam taught Ursula that it does not matter what you look like on the outside.The second reason I liked this book is because Ursula knew that Ah Sam helped her a lot by giving her the confidence to go outside so she repaid him by creating the Chinese New Year in Whistle, Montana. The third reason I like this book is because it teaches you that you shouldn't judge a person by their nationality because in the story Ursula thought all Chinese people were bad, but Ah Sam proved her wrong with his kindness.

The fourth reason I like this book is because Ursula got to experience a different culture or style of life. For example on Chinese New Year they had to cut a little bit of their hair, do Chinese dances, parade around in a dragon, light up fire crackers, and feast. The fifth reason I like this book is because I like circuses, which are amazing and have things like acrobats, jugglers, clowns, animals, and animal trainers. If I had to grade this book on a scale from 1 to 10 I would give this book a 10.

My favorite part of the book was when Ah Sam's cousins came to town to put on the circus. Their names were Ah Bing, Ah Loo, and Lung. On the day of the circus Ah Loo stuck a sword down her mouth and pulled it back out without cutting her insides. Then she spit fire out her mouth. Ah Bing pulled eggs out from behind people in the audience's ears. Ah Sam juggled balls, knives, a boot, a turnip, and a hat all at one time. For the grand finale Ah Bing, Ah Loo, and Lung began to turn into letters. All together they spelled out "Thank You, Ursula."

I recently purchased this version of the I Ching and am intrigued by the ability to do readings based upon the date & time of an event or meeting. I've applied it to two recent concerns and received interesting, thought-provoking answers which were in accordance with my intuition.

The main problem I have with the methods described in this book is that they are quite time-consuming and tedious for a person who is not mathematically oriented or skilled. I hope to improve my understanding of the methodology by practice so that I can make more use of this version in the future.

Also, the presentation of the 64 hexagrams at the end of the book is quite simplified. I would advise anyone using this book to consult other, more detailed versions of the I Ching for further interpretation after obtaining the primary hexagram, changing line, and secondary hexagram with this book.

I bought "The Authentic I Ching" based on the other review found here and found it interesting, though it seems to contain errors. For example,the author describes a way to determine trigrams by calculating numbers but when you check his math his answers aren't right (check pages 73, 90, 96, etc).
Also, on page 66, the authors use an example from the book "Three Kingdoms." The heading entitled "Case 3. The Death of a Martial God," He states Master Yu Fan (Actually "Lu" Fan) cast hexagram number 60 with changing lines and states that Lu Fan thought General Guan would be killed two days later.
Actually, if you read San Guo Yan Yi (Three Kingdoms) the hexagram cast was #7 (earth over water) and Lu Fan said it signifies "an enemy fleeing northwest..."
Though General Guan does get captured and dies, it appears to me the author twisted a story and changed the trigrams to fit his needs.

He also gives examples of prediction based on events that already happened. Well, hindsight is easy. However, when he discusses that all presidents since Lincoln who are elected in a 20 year cycle have died he doesn't take a venture at what will happen to Bush. I'd be more impressed with the author if he made a prediction - before something happened instead of after.

Last of all, the authors give email addresses to contact them but the Chinese author's email addresses are no good and the English author doesn't respond. So much for answering questions.

As I said, interesting and potentially valuable information but with mistakes in the book you may waste your time and money reading it.

Im sorry michael but maybe you have no background of the I ching calculations. The problems with the pages you mention are that, they were dividing the numbers according to the number and has a remainder. It is impossible for you to calculate the I ching in decimals. As i have some feng shui background and i ching masters to assist me it is the way of calculating. I wish i could contact you but some how amazon does not let me. Well hopefully they send this to you and remove your post because it is nonsense.

This book is the best book out there for learning the I ching. It gives you three methods of prediction. No other book has this. It has broaden my understanding it and has helped me throughout. I deeply recommend it. 100% guarantee. I pity the author and for the people who have read the review before mine. It will discourage you but ill tell you if you dont know how to calculate the number you can always email me howe_85@yahoo.co.uk

Congradulations to Wang Yang and Jon Sandifer for writing a clear, user-friendly book on classic and powerful I Ching prediciton methods. This is the first book that allows the western to apply these methods immediately. This is an outstanding book, revealing professional level I Ching divination and theory. I recommend this book to anybody interested in Taoist Arts and Chinese Metaphysics.

This is the best book in English on this topic.

David Twicken
www.healingqi.com

Joy Kasson uses the story of Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West show to tell us about the beginnings of celebrity in America. Tracing Buffalo Bill's life from Army scout through Wild West show impresario she reveals how Cody "created an American memory through entertainment" by bringing together Northerners and former Confederates in the final decade of the nineteenth century for a shared and comforting interpretation of American identity. The imperialist story the Wild West Show told was legitimizing to American's who wanted to view their destruction of native American life in their westward advancement as the justifiable acts by victims of murderous natives, now happily tamed as actors, rather than the other way around. She demonstrates how Buffalo Bill's thesis about western conquest by white Americans influenced the twentieth century interpretation of American history in many ways, not the least of which was the Boy Scouts, and particulary through the powerful genre of the motion picture, in which Cody's influence was seminal.

Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show promoters were among the first to manipulate the public through advertising and image building. Kasson has given new insight into a late twentieth century culture that produced such phenomena as an actor as president, spin doctors and focus groups, and in countless other ways blurred the line between performance and reality.

A book both scholarly and readable, Buffalo Bill's Wild West has broken new ground in our understanding of the beginnings of our celebrity culture.

I was stunned by how a subject such as the Wild West shows could be presented in such a tiresome manner. The author makes the same two or three points over and over again (the meat of her book) and spends the rest of the book detailing lithographs and program covers -- copies of which appear in the book. I stuck with it to the end, but was frustrated by it being a bad read and a waste of time.

This is an outstanding scholarly study of Buffalo Bill and his Wild West show. Kasson deals with her subject sympathetically and never leaps to politically correct judgments. Kasson not only offers a biography of Buffalo Bill and a study of the cultural meaning of his Wild West, but also a study of how Indians and other marginalized groups figured in the Wild West show. Excellent book. Buy it.

After checking this book out of the library and reading some of it, we knew we had to own it. Kasson writes well for the serious amateur of the Wild West, and the scholarship appears solid. It's clearly a work of contemporary history-writing, in that Kasson is very attentive to how we re-tell our past to ourselves, how myths and celebrity develop. In this respect it resembles Paul Reddin's "Wild West Shows" (University of Illinois Press, 1999), which we also recommend. Readers who want to know what it was REALLY like on the plains will want to consult other books.

Since Disney has appropriated another folk tale, I think that it's important to expose your kids to preDisney tellings. This version of the story is really well done. It has some of the qunt, old fashioned feel of the original chinese (so I am told), only toned down for a young audience. It is well illustrated, and is far more historically accurate than the movie. My 6 year old son has requested it for a bedtime story every night since we bought it.

This story is told in the format of a song. The song is the re-telling of the legend of Mulan. The story is close to disneys version of Mulan, but has several differences. One difference is that Mulan and her family decide together that Mulan shall go in her fathers place. Mulan fights in many battles intead of just one. No mention of her being hurt and then her gender being discovered. She is discovered when she returned home and another soldier who was traveling with her finds out her true gender.

Prior to reading this to my 5 yo, we discussed how this was the original story. It sparked a discussion on how sometimes a book and a movie can be very different. It was a hit with my child. One that I expect to read again and again. A nice addition to any Mulan fans library.

This is actually one of my favorite books. I have owned a copy since it first came out, and keep having to buy new ones because my student's also love it. I am a 4th grade teacher, and when a student leaves my class, I allow the child to pick a favorite book - any book I own - to take as my gift. The kid's usually choose either China's Bravest Girl, or El Chino by Allen Say. That says a lot for a book! The story and illustrations engage the students strongly - they love the images, the poetry, the Chinese character. The story gives them hope that they too can be heroes and change the world. Please get yourself and your children a copy - in fact get two - you will end up giving one away.

The Chinese language text seems to be "politically correct" hack retelling from the People's Republic, filled with jingoistic sentiments. I would not want to read the Chinese version to my kids. The English language version softens and rephrases some of the more irritating parts of the Chinese text, the artwork is OK, and young children actually seem to LIKE the simplistic rhyming, so I'm assigning three stars. If you want a close translation of the original poem with wonderful illustrations, buy Jeanne Lee's book. If you want a good prose retelling of the story with lots of details added (the original poem is somewhat elliptical in phrasing and short in detail) then buy Robert San Souci's book.

As one of the previous reviewers have already noted, Dr. Hunt spends a lot of time telling us how Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon made decisions that ultimately led the slide into the Vietnam War. What Hunt does say in one chapter is that Johnson made the critical decisions which ultimately led to the disaster of the Vietnam War. At a little over one hundred pages, the author describes the slide into the war with clear concise readable pages. The Vietnam War was one of the battles of the Cold War. He also shows how poor leadership on Kennedy's part led us into this disaster, and how a poor game plan kept us there past the 1968 election (Nixon's fault). There is a lot of blame to go around between both parties and presidents. However Johnson was the key decision maker.

This a compact readable book. It makes its arguments concise and to the point. This a nice diplomatic history of the slide to war with the Vietnamese Communists.

This book shows the eagerness of the U.S. to stomp out communism and protect our Asian friends'. It is this parental instinct and portrayal of understanding that all people want to be "american" that led the U.S. into an inconclusive battel. The idea that the North won ater the U.S. withdraw falters the necessity of U.S. intervention.

Michael Hunt has written a compact yet thorough history of the U. S. involvement in Vietnam. Hunt's premise, in effect, is that due to ignorance, arrogance, and ethnocentrism, U.S. leaders are prevented from a real understanding of Vietnam before embarking on a series of ultimately tragic decisions.

The title of the work suggests two themes. One, Lyndon Johnson made the crucial decisions and thus made the war his own and is therefore to blame for the resulting quagmire. Two, while it is LBJ's war, it is actually part of a larger struggle, the Cold War, an effort in which the United States ultimately prevailed. This is, perhaps, the proper prism through which Vietnam should be viewed.

This work is particularly strengthened and distinguished by Professor Hunt's exploration of the major criticisms of Lyndon Johnson's prosecution of the Vietnam War. He concludes that Johnson was not candid with the American public, and that he proceeded knowing full well the risks involved. Additionally, while Johnson did go to war with clear goals, utilizing power decisively, he was ultimately strait-jacketed by the times in which he lived.

This book ... runs just over a hundred pages, but Hunt spends the first half of the book showing how it was Truman, Ike's and Kennedy's War, then writes one chapter on Johnson then a brief conclusion. I agree with his thesis that it was Johnson's war; after all Johnson is responsible for the biggest escalations in the war. There's just not much new or illuminating here.

I found the most useful part of the book to be his description of Kennedy's whiz kids and the energy and enthusiasm they bring to the scenario. But that supports an argument that this was JFK's war even if he didn't live to see it to the end. Ultimately it was a war typical of America's tendency throughout the Cold War to see everything in black and white, freedom vs. totalitarianism. Any President, faced with the same choices and domestic political context, would have made the same decisions.

My son really enjoyed this book once he gave it a chance. He's eight and tends to literally judge a book by it's cover and this book doesn't have the coolest cover. Once he gave the book a chance he saw that there was lots of magical and funny things that happened in the story

Steve is a young boy who lives with his grandfather. His parents dies and now Steve has moved in to Chinatown. He is great in art so his grandfather gives him a paintbrush that belonged to his grandfather. The brush turns out to be magical. Steves painting are brought to life when he paints them. Find out about all the adventures Steve and his grandfather have thanks to The Magic Paintbrush!



The book moved at a fast pace. The story was written well and it kept the readers attention.



The book is great for kids who are interested in fantasy, mystery, and family magic.

Award-winning Yep has proven again why he is a master of storytelling. In this treasure of a short novel, Yep offers fantasy, mystery, and family magic. Particularly strong is the characterization of the grandfather-grandson relationship. This is a perfect book for readers just taking hold of the novel. Highly recommended, especially for those with a love of intergenerational and Asian American literature.

I was pleasantly surprised by the charm of this book. The factthat it is based on one of my favorite Chinese folktales made meskeptical, but Yep is such an excellent writer that characters in this magical fantasy charmed me. The ending gets a little schmaltzy, but it works.

I have only one thing to say regarding this book.

...Everybody have fun tonight...
...Everybody Wang Ping tonight...

The weight of these poems is subtle. Ping interweaves her historical experiences with words that attempt to bisect her "foreign" and "native" selves. Metaphors emerge whose intricacies seem key to understanding the dual worlds contained in these poems. She uses the liminal space between prose and poetry to try to reach out and create a new form that can encompass the many things she needs to say. Very beautiful and honest work.

I am blown away by how great these poems are. They're really cutting-edge and clean. Extremely well-written.

I am an American woman living in the Republic of China. Wang Ping is a Chinese woman living in New York. This book builds a paradoxal bridge between the two cultures. It's painfully insightful and factual. The subject matter ranges from personal accounts of struggling in a new country to footbinding from the perspective of a young girl in China, to the the reality of war in a modern world. There are many different stories and concepts delivered through this book. I haven't found one yet of which I haven't devoured every word.

If you study poetry and want to read some really well-written stuff, or are interested in women's rights, China, or have ever immigrated to a new country, I think you'll benefit widely from this read.

The first chapter is about the Gaines family, how is it Mr. Weisenburger can make so many mistakes and no one seems to notice. Did he use newspaper articles of the day for his chapters having to do with the trial? If he can take a 12 page letter from Sept. 14, 1852 and change the names of those in the letter how can we believe he could get the rest of the story right ? The Gaines family genealogy chart is wrong and possibly gotten off any one of the internet genealogy websites.
He constantly refers to a "teenage or young" Archibald, this Archibald was 25 years old ! And this Archibald was the oldest child of John Pollard Gaines.
He gets the dates wrong to so many things you have to wonder what else is wrong ?
This book may have been more accurate if the author had consulted with descendants of the Gaines, Bedinger or Marshall families, which he did not.
Mr. Weisenburger's bio at the University of Kentucky states "Steven is a fanatical researcher of primary sources." With so many errors, I do not see that...

In February 1857, slave Margaret Garner fled from her master Archibald Gaines's Kentucky plantation. She, her husband Robert, his parents, and their four children crossed the frozen Ohio River in Cincinnati, hiding out in the cabin of one of Margaret's cousins, a free black. Gaines quickly trailed them to the cabin, and, in one quick moment, Margaret picked up a knife and killed one of her children, not wanting any of them to go back into slavery.

In "Modern Medea," author Steven Weisenburger uses court documents, newspaper stories and other sources from the time to examine this almost-forgotten trail that challenged the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. We follow along with the entire trial, seeing all the tricks that both defense and prosecution lawyers used to either bring a quick end to proceedings or to protract them in order to keep the Garners on free soil. The trail also gives us an interesting look into politics, the pro-slavery mindset, abolitionism view, and the media perception and bias of the time.

What I found most interesting about this book is that the trial to determine whether or not the Garner's were still the property of Archibald Gaines took precedent over the charge of infanticide. The outcome would have a profound effect not only on state's rights but would spark a tiny flame leading up to the American Civil War. And even after the trial was concluded, the media, poets such as Elizabeth Barret Browning, and other authors used the events to add fuel to the ever-growing debate on slavery.

But, it still remains a little-known trial, falling into the dust of history in part due to public "whitening" of the events and to the events of the Dred Scott decision almost a year later. Yet author Toni Morrison helped to revive interest in this trial by modeling one of the characters in her novel "Beloved" after the ghost of Margaret's slain daughter, Mary.

The book sometimes reads more like a college text and asks many questions that are never answered. But the amount of information surrounding the trial and concerning the battle of state's rights versus federal law make this a great book to read.

Weisenburger, with a meticulous eye and a careful hand, vividly retells the story of Margaret Garner, whose case (or rather, one account of whose case) was the seed from which Toni Morrison grew the central stalk of her novel Beloved. It is not exactly facts that he gives us -- Weisenburger is too careful a critic, too aware of the complex nature of the historical record -- but around what facts can be found, he has written a novel of his own, one which richly complements Morrison's though-experiment with the historical legacy of slavery.

Garner's case, though little recalled today, was far better known in its day than many readers of Morrison's novel may realize. The best-known lawyers and abolitionists of the day argued Garner's case, and newspapers across the country reported the story. The most fascinating aspect of the story is the account of the competing legal and rhetorical strategies used to try to free Garner -- or, if she could not be freed, to give her the greatest possible symbolic value for the cause.

Garner's act -- killing one of her children rather than allowing het to be returned to slavery -- placed her between two contrary legal systems. Within the slavery system, and the Federally- administered Fugitive Slave Act, Garner was a piece of property to be returned. Yet within Ohio law, as a person accused of murder, she was subject to persecution for her crime as a human being. Her lawyer, paradoxically, had to persuade a judge to issue a writ for her arrest for murder, in order to prevent her from being returned to Kentucky as a slave -- it was in fact her one hope.

Weisenburger details how, in the end, this defense too failed, partly due to the complicity of certain Ohio officials with the Kentucky counterparts, and partly due to the inaction of then-governor of Ohio Salmon Chase. The actual tale of Margaret Garner, strangely enough, is even more tragic than that of Morrison's Sethe. Margaret was shipped off to cotton-belt slavery with relatives of her Kentucky owner, losing a second child to a streamboat accident en route, and evenrually died a horrible death from typhoid fever.

I'd recommend this book to anyone engaged by Morrison's novel, or by the recent film -- not as 'the fact behind the fiction,' but instead as a vital counterpoint, an *other* story of Margaret Garner, a woman who stood at the razor's edge of on of American history's most brutal junctures.

Very well done indeed. I am impressed that an English professor could turn in such good work as an historian and cover the courtroom battles with the skill of an experienced lawyer. A well told story of an obscure, but very revealing, chapter in the period just before the Civil War.

Minor criticisms: Too much is devoted to courtroom battles at the expense of describing daily slave life. As the author is a professor at a late 20th Century American university, he feels it necessary from time to time to wave his little red PC book in the air and shout slogans: Slavery was evil! Racism is not nice! Well, duh. None of this adds to the book and all of it detracts from the book.

Still, this is a good read. Buy it; you won't be disappointed. (By the way, I have never read Toni Morrison's "Beloved"; one doesn't need to in order to enjoy this book.)