Central America Books

Those who appreciated Meaningful Differences by Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, and From Neurons to Neighborhoods from The National Research Council, might also like this relatively lighter read, At a Loss for Words. At least to me, these three books seem related in considering practical opportunities available for strengthening U.S. children's early relationships and language acquisition.

Beyond providing physical safety, emotional security and adequate nourishment, the main thing families and caregivers can do to foster young children's best possible development is, as one of the persons quoted in this book explains, "bathe them in love and language" from birth to the time they enter school.

As natural as listening, speaking respectfully, and enjoying conversations with young children may seem, apparently nationally, the habit of simply talking with infants and preschoolers enough for them to pick up the ability themselves has diminished. Statistically, our children not only start off without an adequate early language foundation, they can't compensate later once their window of learning closes as they mature. At a Loss for Words is about how our current deficient state hinders children's successful development balanced with encouraging direction about possible remedies, not only in the home, but culturally

Author Bardige, a developmental psychologist, reviews recent early development research, in readable lay terms, and compares outcomes. I think she speaks helpful truths.

After reading Bailyn's "ATLANTIC HISTORY: Concept and Contours" many of the more recent histories of North America I've read suddenly make a lot more sense, histories such as Alan Taylor's AMERICAN COLONIES, and WILLIAM COOPER' S TOWN, Linebaugh and Rediker's radical THE MANY-HEADED HYDRA, as well as Victoria Freeman's DISTANT RELATIONS to name just a few.

Bailyn provides admirable summary of the how the "concept" of Atlantic history was launched -- by Walter Lippman in an essay justifying America's involvement in the Great War -- and then taken up by politicians in the wake of WWII as justification for the such organizations as NATO whose mission was to bind together more tightly the interests of the states of Western "Christendom" against those of the Communistic (and godless) East. Some historians supported this new notion with tendentious misreadings of history, but others of a more empirical bent began to undertake histories that looked beyond the old narratives of individual nation states and focused instead the commonalities of conquest and colonization in the Americas and Africa as practiced by Westerners.

Bailyn dicusses the "contours" of Atlantic history by outlining the discipline's key findings, elucidating its key ideas, citing its indispensible texts, and historic techniques such as statistical investigations, e.g., the construction of a slave trade database compiled from actual records which demonstrate how the slave system served to underwrite the entire system of trade in the "inland sea" of the Atlantic. For the amateur historian, and perhaps even for the professional, Bailyn's "Notes" section is exceedingly useful as it offers a rich survey of the most important texts that have emerged in this rich and rapidly expanding field of study.

Here are a couple of exemplary passages from the book. "In its first, original phase Atlantic history in the broadest sense is the story of the creation of a vast new marchland of European civilization, an ill-defined, irregular outer borderland, thrust into the world of indigenous peoples in the Western Hemisphere and in the outer reaches of the British archipelago. Life in this contested marchland was, literally, barbarous: that is in its initial stages it was, in large areas, a scene of conflict with alien people, alien in language and mores, hostile in purpose, savage and uncultivated. Europeans, native Americans and displaced Africans, all -- each from their own point of view -- saw it that way. For all, others were intent on destroying the civility -- European, native American, African -- that had once existed. Latin America, to paraphrase John Elliott, was no wilderness; the conquest made it that." Page 63.

Bailyn's notes the barbarity of the conquerors did not vary by religious conviction or national origin. "Puritan New England was not different from Mexico or Peru. '"It was a fearful sight,"' the pious gentle Pilgrim leader William Bradford wrote of New England's Pequot War (1637), "'to see [the Indians] frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof.'" Page 65. Indeed the Dutch and English conquerors read accounts of the Spanish conquistadors and were more than familiar with their techniques. The Dutch, having been subjects of Spain, may have been less frequently cruel in their dealings with native peoples than others, but were capable of exceeding cruelty. For instance, Dutch soldiers in a raid near New Amsterdam cut some of the native children in pieces "before the eyes of their parents, and threw the pieces thrown into the fire or into the water." Pg. 63. Clearly, the Spanish were not the only conquistadors.

I don't mean to give the impression that Bailyn speaks only of the barbarous first or conquest phase, he also does a admirable summary of the colonial phase. Once the domination of indigenous people's was relatively complete, the colonists and those who stayed at home in Europe profited mightily from the slave trade: the labor system that wove together, for instance, the economic lives of New England farmers who sold their agricultural products to the slave masters in the Caribbean, so that they could buy fine lace and fine wine and other items from Europe and so keep maintain the appearance of civility. Labor for the sugar, rice, tobacco and cotton plantations came primarily from West Africa, but was also supplied by the exportation of the many dispossessed, conquered and persecuted people in England, Ireland, Germany, France and elsewhere in Europe. Athouigh Bailyn doesn't say it explicity, the economic imperatives of globalization have been around for a long, long time.

I don't mean to suggest that Bailyn concentrates only on the most barbarous elements of Atlantic history. He offers insight into how certain cultural aspects drove and supported this vast, complex process. Quakers are, for instance, a paramount example of a tightly knit but far-flung commmunity who profited mightily in the chaotic marketplace of that time both because of the bonds of trust forged in their communal worship, and also and because there were Quakers at every entrepot in the system, relaying intelligence on the fluctuating prices of slaves, sugar, rum, tobacco, whale oil, etc. As Bailyn notes, black markets, corruption, bribery existed side by side with "official trade" and so it best served those who could outwit the authorities, or those authorities who could actually enforce their authority. Ideas flowed as well, ideas of liberation, revolt and democracy. Bolivar, son of a wealthy planter, educated in Europe, knew of Montesqieu, Madison, Jefferson and Rousseau -- not unusual for a member of the Atlantic elite.

A marvelous work of tremendous reach and scholarly erudition packed into just a weekend's reading, "Atlantic History" takes stock of this new current of historical research and points presciently toward the new directions it may take.

In the average book store, one finds literally dozens of historical atlases. Most atlases are arranged with a generally chronological focus, but some have a specialized focus on a particular historical theme. Military history tends to be the most common theme among those atlases with a historical theme. Military history is naturally suited for the purposes of an atlas, because military campaigns and battles simply can not be properly understood without the aid of maps. One of the best of these military history atlases, currently in print, is the Atlas of American Military History. James C. Bradford, the editor of the Atlas of American Military History, is an Associate Professor of History at Texas A&M University and the author or editor of a dozen books, including: Papers of John Paul Jones, 1747-1792 (1986); Command Under Sail: Makers of the American Naval Tradition 1775-1850 (1985); Captains of the Old Steam Navy: Makers of the American Tradition, 1840-1880 (1986); and Admirals of the New Steel Navy: Makers of the American Naval Tradition, 1880-1930 (1990).

The nineteen chapters of this book are divided logically in a chronological fashion and contain almost 200 excellent color maps. In addition, each chapter contains a brief history of the conflict or period in question. Prominent historians, such as Carol Reardon, Graham Cosmas, Alan Wilt, and Spencer Tucker, contributed the historical text for each of the chapters. This book is quite current and even includes a brief discussion of the American campaign in Afghanistan in 2001. I have nothing but positive things to mention about this book and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

This is an accessible biography of the Nicaraguan revolutionary guerrilla leader, Augusto Sandino, from whom the Sandinistas took their name. Sandino was a profoundly religious man. To be sure, some have called Sandino's religion to our attention before, but this book places Sandino under the light of his peculiar millenarian beliefs, and challenges the polarity of viewing Sandino as a patriotic national liberator or as a crazed murdering bandit. Mainly guided by the evidence, Navarro-Genie, who is himself born in Nicaragua but teaches in Canada, ably walks through the minefields of a few controversies, tracing the unfolding of Sandino's changing religious disposition with significant care and empathy. I thought the chapter on Sandino's trip to Mexico could have been tighter. In all, it is a long-overdue and novel interpretation of a very influential Latin American life. It will be interesting to see how Sandino's admirers and detractors will react to this revealing book.

Arthur Lipow's book, AUTHORITARIAN SOCIALISM IN AMERICA: EDWARD BELLAMY AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT, provides lots of little-known information detailing how Edward Bellmay's scheme for an "industrial army" influenced WWII, and the Wholecost (of which the Holocaust was a part): the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 60 million people slaughtered; the People's Republic of China, 50 million; and the National Socialist German Workers' Party, 20 million. Lipow provides a lot of support for the warning that Socialists are nuclear bombs, and socialism is nuclear war. Lipow notes that "Bellamy's authoritarian socialist views were an historical precursor of totalitarian collectivist ideological currents."

The book could use some updating about new discoveries. American socialists (e.g. Edward Bellamy and Francis Bellamy teamed with the Theosophical Society and Freemasons) also bear some blame for the notorious symbol used by the National Socialist German Workers Party.

The same symbol was used by the Theosophical Society during the time when the Bellamys, Freemasons and the Theosophical Society worked together. They also helped spread the stiff arm salute via the Pledge at their meetings.

The symbol was used as alphabetical symbolism for socialism, and adopted later by German socialists as their flag symbol. Although an ancient symbol, was altered for use as overlapping S-letters for 'socialism.' It was deliberately turned 45 degrees counter clockwise and always oriented in the S-direction. Similar alphabetic symbolism is still visible as Volkswagen VW logos.

American Socialists also created the stiff-arm salute of German socialism. The early Pledge of Allegiance (created by Francis Bellamy in 1892) used a straight arm salute, not the modern hand over the heart.

Edward Bellamy's book "Looking Backward" was an international bestseller that launched the nationalism movement worldwide. Edward's book was translated into every major language, including German. They wanted government to take over all schools and impose robotic chanting to flags. The Pledge's early right-arm salute was not an ancient Roman salute, and the 'ancient Roman salute' myth came from the Pledge.

All of the above are modern discoveries by America's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance, the nation's leading authority on the Pledge of Allegiance and the author of "Pledge of Allegiance Secrets." People were persecuted for refusing to perform robotic chanting to the national flag at the same time in the USA and Germany (to the American flag, and to the German symbol flag).

Thought i have an older edition of Weaver's book, this is the book that inspired my love of Ancient Mesoamerica. There are other great forst books as well, but this happened to be my first.

This photographic book covers many aspects of Baja Mexico: from the stunning homes of Cabo San Lucas, to the 5 star hotels, surfing, fishing, scenic places, people doing their thing, churches and missions, whales and marine life, and even humor. It has hundreds of full color photos of Baja. A must buy if you love Mexico, especially Baja

I got shocked by the crude reality exposed by the author. A reality which somehow coincides with most of the Mexican newspapers publish every day. The book exposes how the drug dealers business has permeated into the Mexican society. It is a good review of the complexity of the interplay between Mexican justice, the economy, and the corruption that have flooded most of the Mexican politic class.

Sports Illustrated had positive things to say about this book

Pilkey argues that barrier islands move, whether we like it or not, and that attempts to stabilize them nearly always make things worse. A wonderful read, especially for your next beach vacation. Pilkey is regarded as something close to the devil incarnate by coastal developers and their allies