Central America Books

Muy bueno, lo recomiendo. Las recetas son muy variadas y simples. Con gusto latino autentico. Incluye recetas Espanolas, Chilenas, Peruanas, Brasilenas, Puerto Riquenas y Venesolanas! Facil de reproducir platos tradicionales con productos encontrados en los Estados Unidos.

If you truly enjoy the flavors of the Mexican culture...this book is for you. The format is clear. The final products taste exactly as you would expect per recipe and required spices. Have a good Margarita. Use the book. Have a memorable dinner!

This is an indespensible addition to the Hollywood Blacklist Canon. The author reevaluates Jack Lawson's plays, screenwriting, and political development, as well as documenting the conflicts of the Hollywood Left of the thirties and forties. The depth of research of this book is impressive, with Lawson's extensive self-analysis layered throughout the text. The author also mines such primary sources as FBI files and the then Red Baiting "Hollywood Reporter" for additional insight. A scholarly yet very readable book, this is a must for anyone interested in radical American politics of the period, Hollywood, and the Blacklist.

For many of us with an interest in the Hollywood blacklist period, John Howard Lawson appears as something of a negative symbol. Variously characterized as a Stalinist hardliner, a cultural commissar, and a hack writer, he frequently comes across as the least sympathetic of the purge victims. The image is usually that of a one dimensional minion of the party line, without either imagination or compassion. Horne's strongly focused biography attempts to get beyond the cliches to the details of the man's work as both writer and activist. The result is a much more complex portrait than what the public image conveys. But perhaps more importantly, Lawson's career also charts the rise and fall of the Communist Party in Southern California and the wrenching struggle to organize screenwriters within the industry that employed him. Thus, the book follows not only Lawson's career but those larger events that he strove so mightily to influence. Horne's meticulously researched book is indispensible for anyone interested in those topics.

Several miscellaneous comments. What we learn of Lawson the man comes mainly from his professional life and little from the personal side. I wish there were more anecdotes about the personal side that might reveal more about the man than what the writer-activist reveals, which frankly tends to confirm the cultural-commissar accusations. Also, the text could use better editing, as, for example, the numerous points at which Lawson is said to have "committed" to the party. For me, that got confusing. As to the often leveled charge that Hollywood reds smuggled propaganda lines into their movies-- that claim is thoroughly debunked by both Lawson and Horne, showing how many layers of supervision scripts had to pass through before reaching the screen. Lastly, the book is very revealing about the way in which the blacklist was used to strengthen the role of producers at the expense of writers, which, I believe, amounts to a lesser known aspect of the period.

Whatever one thinks of Lawson's politics, it's apparent that he remained a steadfast champion of social equality and economic justice throughout his life. Moreover, he participated at the center of one of America's most tumultuous and treacherous periods, with literary and film-maker contacts far and wide. In fact, it may not be possible to understand the trajectory of modern American film-making without the kind of insight into that crucial post-war period that Horne provides. Thanks to the author, the public now has an opportunity to better assess both the the Dean of the Hollywood Ten and his times. For, as the book shows, the two are inseparable in many ways-- ways that are still with us, as the anti-Moslem hysteria and repressive Patriot Act abundantly illustrate.

This fantastically rich book presents the growth of nationalist consciousness in what would become the primary latin american nations.
Beginning with the work of Las Casas, who was probably the first to compose a unified defense of the indigenous peoples of the western hemisphere, the book traces the path of latin america from being basically the grocery mart of the spanish empire, to a land with people who could affirm their own mixed identity as mestizos and demand freedom from the greed and violence of the spanish absolutist state.
The book discusses such figures as Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Alexander Humbolt and many other artistic and political figures who planted the idea of the nation where all semblance of any order had been razed at the time of the conquest.

The sad and unstated coda to the book is that the work is not done, and the sins of the absolutist fathers are still being visited upon the sons and daughters of latin america.

This is without a doubt the single best volume on the development of the consciousness of latin america as a political and cultural entity separate from the spanish empire, written clearly and concisely and with great respect for the historical heritage and burdens of these countries that make up the region.

D. A. Brading is an authoritative scholar in Spanish American studies. His main focus is in the Mexican past and he has definately earned the respect of his collegues and those intrested in history world-wide. This book gives an impressionable account od Latin America, from the rise of the Spanish Empire and the development of Spanish colonialism to the the effective end of imperial control in the late nineteenth century. The Spanish empire and system of colonization differs greatly from English and even Portugese systems and further reading will illustrate that. Many scholars believe it explains the difficult experience of state building of the Latin American states during the nineteenth century. If you'd like more knowledge about the Spanish American past, this book is a definate must read.

I'm the guy who updated and revised the Belize section of this new Fodor's guide. Some things have changed since the book went to press. I'll be glad to try to answer questions about Belize if you'll e-mail me at bzefirst@aol.com.

--Lan Sluder

I'm the guy who updated and revised the Belize section of this new Fodor's guide. Some things have changed since the book went to press. I'll be glad to try to answer questions about Belize if you'll e-mail me at bzefirst@aol.com.

--Lan Sluder

Footprint have produced a cracking guide to the region, i used this book day in and day out over 6 months and found it absolutely invaluable. It was especially good in taking me away from the crowds into some of the more remote and untouched areas of Mexico and Central America. This is a great value buy, incredibly well written and extremely informative - it won`t let you down!

(Planeta Journal) The Handbook looks better than ever. This 15th edition of this guide provides reliable information about general tourism as well profiles of national parks and reserves in Mexico and Central America. This is a terrific guide and the format is easy to follow. Colorful pictures and maps complement the text.

Compiled and written by Lee Ellis, Free Tours, Museums, And Sites In America: Southern States Series is a solidly presented guide designed specifically for those seeking economical travel advice and entertainment suggestions in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. From zoos and botanical gardens, to wine and brewery tours, to national monuments, to scenic overlooks, to natural history museums, and more, this is a straightforward compendium of places to visit (complete with addresses, telephone numbers, brief descriptions, and other basic information), Free Tours, Museums, And Sites In America: Southern States Series is an excellent and recommended resource for planning vacations, road trips, and for anyone living in these fine southern states wanting to see something special during a day trip excursion, a weekend adventure, or an extended holiday experience.

Wisconsin-based author Lee Ellis knows that the only thing better than cheap is free. That premise is embraced by budget travelers, who will enjoy his new book, "Free Tours, Museums and Sites in America: Southern States Series." This edition covers all sorts of sightseeing in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas, organized in alphabetical order by cities within state chapters. The book offers good free-admission finds such as the Museum of the Big Bend in Alpine, the Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art in Fort Worth and the Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio's Brackenridge Park.

In this study of a minor incident in 1799 Pennsylvania, Newman employs meticulous detail and penetrating analysis to uncover the misunderstood motives of a band of truly democratic revolutionaries, tragically suppressed for seeking their constitutional rights as they understood them.

The founding fathers are all the rave right now and Paul Douglas Newman--not the actor--gives an impressive account of a forgotten event that cost John Adams dearly. It is a highly readable account and should win a book award or two. Buy it, you will enjoy the time spent with this work.

Tom's book is a fantastic picture of what it was like in small-town America back in the 1930s. I enjoyed every last word and it made me feel so good to read the stories about family and friends who stuck together during the hard times.

Skip Coryell, Author of "Church and State"
Church and State

A modern Huckleberry Finn is actually a pretty good description. I read this book in pre-published form while it was still circulating among family and friends. It has some of the FUNNIEST stories I've heard. From a sleigh ride turned low-tech launch to farm boys learning NOT to poke skunks with a stick, you'll laugh through one country misadventure to another. But while the book IS entertaining, the subtext is a message of substance.

A great read with a real message. If every lesson this good was this fun, we'd all be wise!

Felix Masud-Piloto's "From Welcomed Exiles to Illegal Immigrants" has more than just a clever title. Providing a clear account of Cuban immigration to the United States from 1959-1995, this book shows how the Cuban migration and the exiles themselves were manipulated by both the U.S. and Cuban governments. Masud-Piloto's critique of both governments provides new insight and personal testimony from a Cuban exile perspective. His historical account of the events are well thought out and in perfect support of his thesis. All in all a great read.

Felix Masud-Piloto's "From Welcomed Exiles to Illegal Immigrants" has more than just a clever title. Providing a clear account of Cuban immigration to the United States from 1959-1995, this book shows how the Cuban migration and the exiles themselves were manipulated by both the U.S. and Cuban governments. Masud-Piloto's critique of both governments provides new insight and personal testimony from a Cuban exile perspective. His historical account of the events are well thought out and in perfect support of his thesis. All in all a great read.

This is another volume culled from the 10-volume MOUNTAIN MEN AND THE FUR TRADE OF THE FAR WEST by LeRoy R. Hafen. The men chosen for inclusion here were all associated with the fur trade in the Upper Missouri region. Some of the trappers and traders dealt with are John F.A. Sanford, Charles Larpenteur, Alexander Culbertson, William Laidlaw, and J.B. Moncravie. Personalities run the gamut from honorable and intelligent (Moncravie and Kenneth McKenzie, for example) to brave and able (just about everybody). The biographies are encyclopedic: all known pertinent facts are given, but not expanded on. I wish for this volume Hafen had perhaps broadened the category for inclusion a bit, because the book is about half the length of companion volumes; most of the biographies are only a few pages long. Other than that, it's an excellent source for biographical information on important figures of the Upper Missouri trade.

This book offers some very good, concise descriptions of eighteen lesser known fur trappers,traders and mountain men of the early American west. After reading several books on this subject myself,there were some names I never came across before who were very instrumental during this time period: James Kipp, Gabriel Franchere, William Laidlaw, David Dawson, William Gordon and John Sanford to mention a few. Each one of these men's lives had obstacles of hardships, disasters, frustrations, etc. to overcome and all had something to do with the founding and development of the early American west in one way or another. It was a fun book to read and the bibliographies in each chapter simply 'whet the appetite' to read more about these interesting early frontiersmen.