Spalding University Books

Those who are looking for the real Georgia, not the politically correct, Yankeefied, love-me love-me obsequiousness of the current day chamber of commerce will be well pleased with this volume. It's well worth the search and will provide many enjoyable, informative day trips despite being somewhat dated. However, thanks to Mr. Spalding, one can easily check the back of the book for updated road access. Go ahead and have Amazon search for it- you'll be glad you did. -Marianna

The Most Beautiful Kite In The World is an enchantingly written story by Andrea Spalding of Jenny, a little girl who makes her own homemade kite. It doesn't seem to fly very well, and at first Jenny is disappointed -- but with a little advice from her father, Jenny learns that her creation has far more potential than she ever dreamed. Beautifully illustrated with the realistic artwork of Leslie Watts, The Most Beautiful Kite In The World is a heartwarming tale and a welcome addition to family, school, and community library picture book collections.

I think that this is the greatest book to have ever been written. I think that this book should be required reading in every classroom in the nation. In point of fact, I think that this book is quite possibly, the "perfect" book by any account of perfection.

Highly recommended!!

Sincerely, Kim Oglethorpe (linguistic pathologist extraordinaire)

This remarkable book about the start and progress of the first Roman Catholic Diocese in the USA is worth buying and reading. It provides wonderful insights into the way the Catholic Church digs in where it was rejected before, and builds a powerful foundation for future growth.

Prior to the 1776 Revolutionary War, the Catholic Church was literally outlawed in the then 13 British colonies of North America. After the war was won by the revolutionaries, the Roman Church immediately took steps to set up a branch of its organization in the newly established USA. Baltimore, Maryland was chosen as the headquarters site, and a former Jesuit priest from a prominent Maryland family was consecrated the first Catholic bishop in the USA. The Catholic Church divides the world up into geographical areas called "dioceses," or "sees," for short. Thus, the new (in 1787) Catholic diocese in the USA (in Baltimore) was (and is) the "Premier See" of the Roman Catholic Church in America.

This book, written by a Catholic Religious Brother named Thomas Spalding (a history professor from Spalding University in Kentucky), details the establishment and growth of the Premier See, the Catholic diocese (later archdiocese) headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland.

The book is well written, and very interesting. Brother Spalding does not shrink from offering controversial material, even reports of criticism of various bishops and archbishops who led the Premier See in Baltimore over its 200 plus year history.

Any student of the Catholic Church, friend or foe, would do well to read this book. It tells the tale of a complicated and powerful religious organization in a very readable, informative way.

I bought this book for the maps and descriptions of reef conditions. It has helped me be prepared for my next destination as a scuba diver and I also use it to pick new places to explore. Recommended

The book arrived in prefect conditions and in less days of that estimated by the service.

Having purchased Green and Short's "World Atlas of Seagrasses", also from California Press, I was quite excited to find this volume. Green and Short describe nearly all of the world's seagrasses, complete with line drawings and species comparisons, and map their distribution. They also include info on preservation, destruction, etc. It is an invaluable resource for anyone needing to identify or locate seagrasses. I was disappointed, however, when I received "World Atlas of Coral Reefs". The entire text is devoted to describing areas where reefs are found, but rarely mentions anything about the corals themselves! I saw listed more often than any coral genus! If you want to learn about the per capita fish consumption of Mauritius or phosphate mining on the atoll of Nauru, this is the book for you. If, however, you are interested in corals and the reefs that they construct (which is probably why you are reading this) you should move on to another book.

I bought this for my daughter, a graduating Biologist, but it was so fascinating that I'm afraid she got a slightly used book. It covers all coral reefs anywhere in the world. The maps are superb, as are the color photographs of the reefs. Each reef had a discussion of conditions in the reef, and the life that grows there. It's a huge book but one starts wishing for more; more maps, more photos, more detail. Maybe in the next edition, but meanwhile we can enjoy this superb book just as it.

A truly beautiful book, although I expected the pictures to be larger. There is not one full page photo in the book unfortunately. It would really enhance the book to have some of those lovely photos blown up full page.

As a great (x3) grandson of Eliza Spalding, I found this book (and "Memoirs of the West", by Eliza's daughter) to be very hard to put down. When I did, all I wanted to do was tell my daughters about the women in their family. I came across this book doing a search of ancestors, and benefitted greatly from the work done by Karen Rico, whose review is above.

This is a story of tough people, who, amazingly, held on to their religious convictions through every test possible, even the threat of ugly death. Once again, truth is more outrageous than fiction.

As a great-great-greatdaughter of eliza hart spalding, I found the book very informative and enlightening. I never realized the perils and problems that being the first white women in a land of natives that could be encountered. Both Narcissa and Eliza had courage and strength even though they seemed to have different personalities. The author was very informative and he backed his findings whenever possible with historical fact and copies of letters and diaries. I found that I was able to visualize the trek across the country and the life that these women had to endure by being missionaries. The author even noted the problems between Catholics and Protestants during that time.

As Eliza Spalding's great-great grandaughter, I was deeply moved by the account given of Eliza and Narcissa's journey into the rugged and primitive Northwest territory in 1836. In our current age of technology, where knowledge of the unknown comes to us in full color without direct experience, it is unimaginable to consider two young women,driven from family and loved ones by their devout spritual quest,brave enough to endure the rigors of exploration. Mr. Drury's words both enlightened me and filled me with pride to be connected to one of these relatively unknown heroines. I will recommend this book to my high school students, to draw on the example of the courageous role modeling illustrated by the lives of both Eliza and Narcissa. In light of their fearless independence and their unparalled commitment to a cause greater than themselves, they teach us much about the human spirit. One may need to rethink the origin of the women's liberation movement as the pages of this book are turned, revealing the strength and enduring power of Eliza and Narcissa.

Prof. Spalding's little study of Harry Truman's coming to grips with the developing Cold War must enthrall some historians and Truman fans. While other writers are enlarging Truman's role in formulating the geographic containment of the Soviet Union, Spalding elevates Truman to mythical statuses of thought and action on a par with Lincoln's. At times she reduces Winston Churchill to but a glib flack for Trumanesque wisdom: "he invited Winston Churchill to give the Fulton (College) address (on the Iron Curtain) of March, 1946, relying on him to articulate and underscore the stakes of the Cold War to the American public as only Churchill could". George Kennan's spring, 1946 "Long Telegram" from Moscow was, Ms. Spalding opines, overshadowed by a 100,000 word tome written by an obscure White House aide in the name of close Truman confidant Clark Clifford. She admits that the Clifford report is "often overlooked or dismissed as overzealous anticommunism", yet credits it as "the theoretical basis of containment". Truman biographer David McCullough does credit Clifford and aide George Elsey for work on the President's announcement of the Truman Doctrine. Finally, Ms. Spalding trods the halls of Marxism, asserting the Trumanesque belief that Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito would have attempted to unseat Stalin as leader of the Communist Bloc if only Yugoslavia's army had been a tad stronger. A pretty thought, but if she is correct, Truman's view of 1948 Balkan events exaggerated the point of resurging Yugoslav nationalistic Marxism. She also fails to deal with US covert operations aimed at causing mischief in Soviet satellites.
A strong spin on still evolving respect for Truman, but one that left this writer not toally convinced.

Democrats struggling to develop a foreign policy vision in the post-9/11 world would do well to study Harry Truman's tough response to Soviet aggression following the Second World War. This book, based on years of primary research, is an excellent introduction to the subject.

The book cover includes a comment from a reviewer who says, "You'll never forget Riska." The reviewer is right. The author opens her heart and her life to describe the challenges of growing up in isolated parts of Borneo and then moving to Bali as a young adult in search of a "better" life. In doing so, Riska realizes that there are trade-offs inherent to big changes and disruptions in our lives.

The writing is direct and clear, and the anecdotes cover the range of human experience: humorous, sweet, sad, hopeless, and hopeful. The final pages, in which she writes powerfully about what she knows her daughter will never experience because of the loss of her tribal heritage, is poignant and a bit sad. The modern world, and the tribes themselves, have laid waste to much of the island's jungle, and the rich cultures of the Dayak tribes will never be the same.

The introduction to the book is essential reading -- it sets the context for what follows. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Indonesian culture and/or women's studies.

For the fan interested in the origins of baseball, this dry account is very likely of interest only to professional historians and Spalding family descendants. The playing days of the main character cover only two short chapters and never evince or even try for any excitement. The remainder covers Spalding's activities as a businessman, promoter, owner, baseball mogul, supporter of the theosophist movement and California senatorial candidate. Never does the book ever make us feel we have been swept away to relive those far off times. Having previously read Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball by Burt Solomon , I felt greatly disappointed in comparison. The author intimates that Spalding, while a ferocious, tireless and successful promoter, probably failed to examine all sides of an issue sufficiently before jumping into frays and that Spalding lived more for the process itself than for the result. But despite all of these struggles, they are not told in an entertaining or moving way. In fact the reader is forced to slog through many, many quotes employing the hyperventilated prose of the day which by now has become quite stale. This book is classified as a baseball book, but really belongs in the American culture or American social history section. Unfortunately I cannot recommend it to anyone except researchers already working in this field who will probably enjoy this dry, spare, heavily-footnoted account. In fact, the way it reads suggests that the author was working not from passion for his subject, but perhaps from happenstance of a lucky archival find or commission, although I don't know the facts of course and am merely speculating.