Central America Books

The work describes constitutional issues considered by the
United States Supreme Court over the past 200 years. Judicial
power has been exercised in the following types of situations:

- disputes between citizens of different states

- appellate jurisdiction of law and fact

- the 14th amendment requiring that no state should enforce
laws abridging the rights of citizens nor deny equal
protection under the laws

- the Supreme Court may balance or weigh state powers as against
individual rights

- strict scrutiny utilizes a rational basis or relationship test

- important criteria include whether or not an important
government objective is served or the issue at bar is
substantially encompassed by the governmental objective

- there is a right to sue when injured by a private person
in the common law

- there is an implied constitutional right of action

- federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of age,
medical condition and physical handicap according to the
American Disabilities Act of 1990.

This work will appeal to a very wide constituency of legal
scholars, American History enthusiasts and others in academia.

Professor Lieberman teaches Constitutional Law at New York Law School. I was privileged to study under him in 1998. He is an immensely knowledgeable man with an unmatched talent for clarity of communication. I am pleased to be able to recommend this book to all readers. For further insight regarding our highest court, I also recommend New York Law School's Dean Harry H. Wellington's very fine book, Interpreting the Constitution: The Supreme Court and the Process of Adjudication.

The bulk of A Practical Companion to the Constitution is in dictionary form and provides throrough but concise accessible explanations of the key concepts and terms of art of constitutional analysis. Each entry is also cross-referenced with other related concepts and definitions to aid the reader in fully understanding the concepts discussed. Professor Lieberman also places each entry into a historical context so that the reader may trace the development of doctrines and concepts and understand not only where a doctrine originated but where the state of the law or doctrine stands today. For example, under the entry for "Incorporation Doctrine," Professor Lieberman provides us with a brief explanation of the concept, and then traces the concept through its history and application. At the end of the entry, we find a list of which amendments have been incorporated onto the states, the rights implicated in the incorporation, and the year the amendment was incorporated. Indeed, I was most impressed with how Professor Lieberman has throughout the book explained the abstract concepts of Fourteenth Amendment analysis into easily understandable terms without oversimplifying or doing violence to the concepts. Other sections of the book provide summaries of the cannons of constitutional interpretation so that the reader has a basic understanding of the tools of textual interpretation. Finally, Professor Lieberman provides a thorough table of cases and brief biographical sketches of the justices who have served on the Supreme Court. I give this reference book my highest recommendation. It is a must for law students. It is an excellent resource for lawyers looking for the vocabulary to explain in accessible terms the abstractions of constitutional analysis. It is invaluable for the non-lawyer seeking to understand better the constitution.

AMERICA is a continent bearing a name only for 500 Years. It has been proposed such a name to honor Amerigo Vespucci (the first to recognize the New World as a new part of the world), by an exciting circle of Renaissance scholars from France and Germany in a booklet (103 pages) entitled "COSMOGRAPHIAE INTRODUCTIO" printed in ST-DIE-DES-VOSGES , a little city in the heart of the VOSGES blue mountain range between Lorraine and Alsace (Eastern France), on Marcus' day, (April the 25th), 1507, maybe remembering of Marco Polo, the first narrator of the Indies. This giant wall worldmap, with the name AMERICA, one of both maps along with a small globe-gores map, to accompany that booklet is the most exciting and mysterious map of the early Renaissance.

In 1507 a German cartographer working in Saint Die crated a world map for included the newly-discovered Western Hemisphere land masses for the first time, calling them "America' to honor one Amerigo Vespucci, who had been credited with setting foot on South American soil before Columbus. From this error did 'America' become the accepted name of the land mass - amid centuries of controversy since. The map was lost for four centuries before it was discovered in 1901 in a German castle - and finally purchased by the Library of Congress for some, $10 million - and this history of the map brings to life its colorful background in a fine recommendation for any college-level collection strong in world history.

"Want to know what 10 million dollars looks like? It's the first map naming us as "America" instead of Columbus. This map was lost for four centuries before it was discovered in a German castle and eventually sold to the Library of Congress for 10 million dollars."

This is an excellent, highly readable book on the cultural meanings behind and around several of the medical "miracles" of postwar America, including prosthetics, plastic surgery, hormones, and sex-change operations.

You do not have to be an academician or versed in medical knowledge to enjoy this look at how these technologies changed the way Americans viewed "the body," and how certain alterations (or lack of) had consequences to one's sexual/gender identity and even one's standing as a good American citizen. This book is perfectly balanced to provide the rigorous research a historian would require as well as the sheer fun a pop culture reader like myself seeks. (Although parts of this book have truly heartbreaking stories, there is also a lot of unintentional hilarity from the "expert" pronouncements of the 1950s medical establishment and the media treatment of individuals.)

Serlin's work is really a view of the 1950's from a unique angle--one that doesn't repeat the same old stereotypes about repressed housewives. He uses fascinating archival sources (i.e., the Hiroshima Maidens chapter includes personality profiles of the maidens by their Quaker patrons plus an appearance on the TV show "This is Your Life" where the maidens, hidden behind a screen due to their 'hideous' burned faces, are surprised with meeting the co-pilot who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima!) and photographs to vividly recreate the 1950s milieu and mindset. The chapter on Christine Jorgenson, the first transsexual "star" is worth the price of the book alone.

As this book explores concepts such as race, gender, sexual orientation, national identity, and all their intersections, I would recommend it to readers interested in disability studies, gay/lesbian/transgender/queer studies, American-Japanese relations, the Harlem Renaissance (amazing story on cabaret singer Gladys Bentley), and of course, the history of the cold war. I'm looking forward to the author's next book!

I really enjoyed Replaceable You. Overall the book was excellent-a well-written, lively, and often surprising mix of insightful analysis of how medical advances had such a huge impact on the American psyche and, above all, body, in the decades following WWII. It's also clear from the start that Replaceable You is, as the first review noted, by no means straight history of science, but rather social history at its best. The conclusions Serlin draws in his four fascinating case studies about how people (often with much societal pressure) wished to remake their identities were quite convincing. In addition, the expert discussions which frame the specific analyses are especially effective in illuminating the larger context of Cold War America, on issues like McCarthyism, civil rights, consumer culture, and prescribed gender roles. Serlin also does a very good job showing how these issues intermingled-both with one another, and perhaps most importantly, within the discourse of what it meant to be "American" at the time. As William Smith says in the second review above, the result is a fresh look at the often stereotyped late 1940s and 1950s. What also made the read so entertaining were the artifacts of popular and high culture the author chose to analyze in presenting his arguments. Serlin doesn't limit himself to written primary sources, but makes skillful use of photographs, advertisements, pamphlets, comics, etc., of which he conducts close readings. In taking this kind of approach, where the reader is guided by the author as they together examine documents for historical meaning, Serlin makes the book not only more accessible to any reader with a general interest in science and society or the Cold War, but also more enjoyable. To go along with the author's vibrant narrative as he looks at the intersection of patriotism and prosthetics, race and hormone therapy, the bombing of Hiroshima and plastic surgery, or gender and Americanism, is to gain a more nuanced understanding of Cold War culture, and more specifically, how as a result of social, political, and medical developments people go about making themselves both look and feel more like... themselves. Replaceable You also struck me as having a special relevance given today's obsession with the body in popular culture, especially evident in television shows like the "The Swan," where plastic surgery is performed on women so as to make them into pageant girls. David Serlin's original book reveals not only that interest in medically changing one's body has been around for longer than we may think (and is ever increasing), but also that this interest has a distinctly American face.

At least in my historical imagination, the 1950s tend to stand out as an extremely stereotyped decade. It reads as the triumph of the (imagined, and demographically limited) white, middle-class, suburban family of extremely confirmative values. David Serlin's Replaceable You is a fine contribution to 1950s socio-cultural studies; it subtly and meaningfully drawing out stories that focus roughly on the fifteen years from 1945 until the end of the 1950s. It fleshes out an array of interesting issues from this period which leaves the historiographical face of this period in a more complex and exciting state than popular imagination (mine included) would normally have it. Moreover, these stories provide gripping and accessible entrance points to larger issues of the era, but without forfeiting either the integrity of the personal stories nor reducing them to merely their historical context. While all the stories involve 'working' on the body in some form (from hormones to prosthetics), David Serlin manages to become neither too scientific nor too specific in his writing (he does not burden the reader with an endless technical vocabulary; instead he deftly crosses issues ranging from race, gender (masculinity, femininity, and stuff inbetween), sexuality, economic location, all the way to architecture. If nothing else and, perhaps, most importantly, David Serlin's book is accessible, readable, and, most laudably, human.

Romantic Days and Nights in Chicago is full of terrific information about all parts of the city. Even as a Chicago native, I found lots of hidden gems and new neighborhoods to visit. This would make a terrific Valentine's present! Visitors to the city will get tons of terrific ideas too. There is even a chapter with romantic ideas at and near O'Hare (and that takes some creativity!)

Susan Figliulo's delightful guide to Chicago's romantic side is a "must-read" for any out-of-towner seeking romance in one of America's most compelling cities. Gracefully written and focusing on how those of us with romantic tendencies can explore both the geography of a city and our own hearts, "Romantic Days" serves both purposes. As a San Franciscan somewhat proud of my city's reputation as a romantic haven and heaven, I must admit that Ms. Figliulo has presented Chicago as a worthy challenger.

I particularly enjoyed her tempting treatment of romantic sites for bibliophiles; that section alone exemplifies the wonderful range of places that pose romantic possibilities. Though I don't get to Chicago as much as I'd like to, whenever I pass through the Windy City, Susan Figliulo's booklet is a treasured companion.

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and, oh, how I miss that city! Reading Romantic Days & Nights in Chicago rekindled so many memories. The chapter on the Wrigleyville neighborhood, with its affectionate portrait of the Music Box Theatre, took me back to my first date with the man I would later marry (a double feature: Flying Down to Rio and 42nd Street, with a serenade by the Mighty Wurlitzer in between movies). My husband is a musician and I work in the music industry, so our courtship was filled with music. I especially enjoyed The "Food of Love" chapter, detailing the remarkable spectrum of music available in Chicago, from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the folk music scene. My favorite chapter, though, is called "Opera Lovers Tryst." It's all about the romance of attending Lyric Opera of Chicago performances at the gorgeous Civic Opera House. Romantic Days & Nights in Chicago isn't limited to Chicago proper. As a North Shore native, I was overjoyed to read Susan Figliulo's beautiful description of the pastoral drive along the ravines of Sheridan Road. It was almost like being home again. If you know and love Chicago, you'll love Romantic Days & Nights in Chicago. If you're looking for a new city to know and love, this book is your key to a real treasure.

I love the book, simply yet lovely. The art work is so glorious, in all of its color, and really fits the folklore them, makes me feel I am in that particular country. It is a great tale to read to children, short yet sweet.

A great humorus book. All children would understand the logic behind the events that occur. To hear all of the characters say "No I won't. Why should I", Gave the book a good sense of childish humor. Makes a great sequencing activity for students.

As a teacher I love folk tales. This one if one of my favorites. The story is about a rooster who is on his way to his uncle's wedding. He is dresses in his finest until he gets his beak dirty. Children will love the event series as one event leads into another. The pictures are very beautiful and colorful. This is a story that children of all ages will want to read again and again

This is a really good story about how Sammy Sosa grew up in the Dominican Republic. There are lots of pictures from his home in the Dominican Republic, and it tells a lot about how he learned to play baseball and went to the United States to play professional baseball.

This was, without a doubt, the best Sammy Sosa book I have read. The author did an great job telling every aspect of Sosa's life from his childhood in the Dominican Republic to his success as a baseball player. Reading this, I felt as if I were talking to Sammy himself. Excellent writing and a must-read for any Sosa fan!

I read Latinos in Baseball (Sammy Sosa) by Carrie Muskat. This book was full of information and excitement. It tells everything anyone would like to know such as his batting averages, homeruns, teamscores, childhood, and problems in his life. I liked this book because it reminded me of all the obstacles that go on in other people's lives. People who are baseball fans would like this book. I really admire Sammy Sosa because of the way he plays the game; he plays for fun, not for money or fame. I'd recommend this book to baseball player's and fans of Sammy because it tells how he expected more out of himself and didn't expect his teammates to make up for him.

Latin American Research Review
Inter-American Relations And Encounters: Recent Directions in the Literature
June 22, 2000:
Kyle Longley adopts the interaction between the two types of birds as a metaphor for the relationship between the United States and another small Central American country, Costa Rica. Like the sparrow, such countries rely on evasion and manipulation in their dealings with the hawkish powers of the world. Longley develops his thesis by using U.S.--Costa Rican relations during the period from 1942 to 1957 as a case study.

Basing his arguments on voluminous printed and manuscript sources, including documents from Costa Rica's Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Longley begins by reviewing the relationship during the administration of President Rafael Calderon (1940-1944), who proved a cooperative ally during World War II. Calderon's close ties with the Communist Party (the Vanguardia Popular) aroused little concern during the war. But U.S. officials became alarmed when his successor, Teodoro Picado (1944-1948), although staunchly pro-United States, failed to distance himself from a connection that was viewed with increasing disfavor. As a result, when Picado attempted to impose Calderon as his successor in 1948 and ignited the revolution led by Jose Figueres, the U.S. government favored the rebels despite reservations about Figueres.

With the triumph of the revolution, Figueres headed a junta that gave way in 1949 to the presidency of Otilio Ulate. In 1953 Figueres himself was elected president. Figueres and his associates (who formed the Partido Liberacion Nacional in 1951) undertook policies displeasing to Washington, such as nationalizing the banking system and negotiating a more favorable contract with the United Fruit Company. What most alarmed U.S. officials was Figueres's material and moral support for the Caribbean Legion, which was dedicated to the ouster of dictators in the region. Figueres did not waver, however, and criticized U.S. support for the dictators, going so far as to boycott the 1954 inter-American meeting because it was held in Caracas, where President Marcos Perez Jimenez held sway.

Longley shows that Figueres pursued a nationalist agenda and at times defied Washington while retaining U.S. support when regimes that threatened U.S. hegemony (like those ruling Guatemala and Iran) faced extinction. Longley attributes Figueres's success to several factors, but above all to his anticommunist posture and to his preference for accommodation rather than confrontation. Figueres and the PLN also benefited from Costa Rica's favorable image in the United States and from a network of sympathizers, such as Adolf Berle and liberal members of the U.S. Congress. Longley might have undertaken a more extended comparison of the Costa Rican case with that of Guatemala, or better yet, with that of Bolivia, whose 1952 revolution also received benevolent treatment and substantial economic assistance from the United States. Cole Blasier's study of U.S. responses to twentieth-century revolutions in Latin America, The Hovering Giant (1985), pointed out the essential moderation of Victor Paz Estenssoro and other B olivian leaders and their skill in cultivating advocates in Washington.

In the conclusion to The Sparrow and the Hawk, Longley generalizes beyond the Costa Rican case to that of small countries in their dealings with major powers. Adapting the thesis of James Scott's Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (1985), Longley argues that subordinate states, like peasants, can devise nonviolent strategies that enable them to shape their relations with the United States. Thus Longley, like Gambone, aligns himself firmly with those who assign agency to peripheral states.

The Sparrow and the Hawk is one of the most beautyful books I ever read. It explains how Jose Figueres was able to flirt with socialism and capitalism, but at the same time he knew both extremes were bad. Figueres's tactis enabled him to calm the F.B.I and the C.I.A., in times were the common enemy was communism. Above all this, Longley can be regarded as an authority on El 48.The people of Costa Rica than you (Longley)for contributing with such a work to our history. Certainly, the younger generations of ticos will not forget for what our ancestors fought.

The importance of history lies in the knowledge and the lessons that, we men, have learned throught our existance. Certainly, El 48 and it's aftermath is the turning point point in Costa Rica's history. Longley is able to explain how Figueres's policies sought the well-being of the people, without employing extreme capitalistic or socialistic measures. Figueres, the man in the middle of socialism and capitalism was able to convince the ticos and the americans that his policies were necessary for such a poor country as Costa Rica.

I think this book is a very good book,in that it is a counter to the typical "price guide" arrowhead books, this book does not go that route, and discusses the lithics in more of a professional manner, and is more for people who are interested in the cultures, and the lithics and not in what something is worth. The only critique I have is that the book trys to cover too large an area...i would prefer one that is aimed at specific states (even though the boundaries lap over state lines), and would prefer the author to stick with established nomenclature as to lumping points into various categories. I think the book is headed in the right direction but needs improvements.

excellant point type guide to arrowheads of the southwest. Much information on the cultures that made them and on how they were made.

This is an essential reference. Noel Justice has done an amazing job of gathering the references and synthesizing a very complex and diverse array of "spear and arrow points" in this volume. I can also recommend "Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of California and the Great Basin". Well worth the rather high price.

Struggle for the Gulf Borderlands is the best single book on the often-overlooked Gulf Coast Theater of the War of 1812. Well written and researched, Struggle for the Gulf Borderlands brings to light several little understood aspects of the War of 1812. First, it illustrates the previously overlooked interrelation of the Creek War and the bearing it had on the outcome of the War of 1812.

Secondly, it details all military and political actions on the Gulf Coast leading up to the Battle of New Orleans. Most books focus only on the events of the battle, ignoring the many actions that had a direct influence on how the Battle of New Orleans was fought. Struggle for the Gulf Borderlands describes these events so one can understand thier impact on the outcome of the battle itself.

Lastly, Struggle for the Gulf Borderlands brings to light the divergent Southern opinion that the War of 1812 was a great military victory. From the Southern perspective, victory was nearly complete; the Creeks had been destroyed (opening more land for settlement); the Mobile territory had been annexed; and a major British invasion had been decisively stopped. The book contrasts this Southern perspective to the typical Northern view that the War of 1812 was at best a draw, which is the general view put forward by the majority of books on this subject.

Overall, the book is readable and informative. It is important for the new ideas and information it brings to the history of an area and a period. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in either the Creek War or the War of 1812.

Dr. Owsley tells the story of the Gulf area during the War of 1812 in a very readable manner. His work is quite thorough and includes a lot of detail about the skirmishes and battles. I recommend this to anyone with an interest in the War of 1812 and the Creek Indian War. The research done was well documented and any student of history will find this a great source.

For decades to come this will be the standard reference work on this topic. Superbly researched utilizing not only the usual American sources, but the previously untapped archives of Spain and Great Britain. Owsley has integrated the Creek War into the larger framework of the War of 1812 causing the reader at some point to pronounce "Eureka" as you begin to acquire a whole new perspective on Andrew Jackson and the conflict with Great Britain.

This may easily be the best history on the Creek War of 1813-1814. What could have been a completely altered history of the United States - if Andrew Jackson had not been in command, if he would have hesitated only weeks from the crucible campaign concluding at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, if the British would have landed the state-of-the-art muskets, artillery, military advisors/trainers, and cavalry accoutrements several weeks earlier than they did, if the Spanish had been more pro-active than they were for the Creeks, etc. - would have prevented us from our Manifest Destiny! I never before have read all of this with such fervor, explanation, and detail. Owsley makes the point that too many of our historians have belittled our accomplishments in these two interrelated wars and downplayed their significance. Often we have been led to believe that the War of 1812 was a "draw." He makes the point that it was on balance a resounding victory.

Jackson's being in the right place at the right time for the Battle of New Orleans would not have occurred but for his role in the Creek War and the overwhelming victory achieved. We would not have had the experienced and trained troops in place under his command but for the Creek War. And, inasmuch as the British did not recognize the validity of the Louisiana Purchase, if they had won the Battle of New Orleans then the Treaty of Ghent signed in December 1814 would not have applied to any claims that they would have asserted over New Orleans, Louisiana, and their planned buffer states under the Creek Indians and their allies. The frontier would have been inflamed and we would have had strong buffer Indian states with which to contend and two mutually supportive European powers. All of this was prevented by Andrew Jackson and his juggernaut victory at Horseshoe Bend. The sheer quantum of international intrigue taking place at Pensacola and throughout the Gulf area is enlightening.

This book is highly recommended by this reviewer. You will receive a whole new perspective on Andrew Jackson and his brave Tennessee and Georgia troops in the Creek War.

I Just love Tammy Wynette. She was a true southern lady. This is the second purchase for this cookbook, I loaned mine out and she refused to give it back because the recipes were out of this world. I just can't live without it. Once I have put together one of the recipes in her book, people always ask for the recipe or ask for me to make it again. Tammy believed in southern cooking, and she believed as well as I do, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. How true that is, my husband loves my cooking when Tammy's in the kitchen with me. I reccomend this book highly it is money well spent.

This book is not for the calorie conscious person, it is a true southern cookbook. If you are an adult raised in the south and failed to get grandma's old recipes, Tammy more than likely has it in here. Very good book.

I like many of her recipes, havent tried many of them yet.But from their ingredients, I know I will.