Columbia Books

I really enjoy the book.I'm a Nine year old girl and I will be visiting WAshington D. C. with my family this summer. I thought the book was very interesting because it told me everything you can see in the city. It has really good pictures of things you can find. It has great maps, pockets for stamps and envelopes, and other lose items.It had very good background information. It has made me excited about my trip.

What a great book! Very informative and enjoyable for kids as well as for adults. Our children loved the different exercises, the interesting facts and the photos throughout the book. It made our vacation a lot more interesting and educational, which is exactly what we wanted. The kids are taking the book to school to show their classmates and teachers. We highly recommend this great book!

Hope to see one on U.S. National Parks soon!

Ed & Colleen Garcia

My seven year old had a great time iwth this book. It helped her get excited about our trip to Washington, made the tirp more meaningful to her, and has her looking forward to our next visit. Definitely a keeper!

For a Washington baseball fan like me, this book is a must-have, for those who want to read a very good account of the events in the return of baseball to the Nation's Capital, this book is the best that I have seen about it.

I am a longtime fan of Washington baseball, loving the Washington Senators in the 1960's, and have been studying the history of baseball in D. C. for years. I attended the 2005 Opening Night game that I had looked forward to for 33 years, and also many other games since then. Barry Svrluga gives a very interesting inside account of the July 5 game when Jose Guillen threw the ball over the catcher's head and all the way to the backstop, I had wondered what on earth was going on that night, I saw that happen in person. The accounts were interesting, and told a story that is not obvious to the average baseball fan who does not know what goes on behind-the-scene.

A very good book, I highly recommend it!

Many of us non-native Washingtonians see the Nationals as simply an overdue return of baseball to the DC area. But few of us are really privy to an inside behind the scenes view of the agony and ecstasy experienced by the die hard fans and baseball professionals who lived through this experience. If you thought baseball was just a game you won't after reading this compelling tale of just how DC came to have a new baseball team. If you want to understand more than just the current standings or statistics of your favority team and really want to know how the business of baseball is "played" grab a copy of this one. You'll find it an easy and thoroughly enjoyable read.

Attention baseball fans who are looking for the best reads in 2006...
The two outstanding baseball books this season are "National Pastime" and "Black and Blue." Why?? Frank Robinson is why. Robby is the "Man for All Seasons", as told in these incredible two extraordinary straight-forward non-fiction books re-capping the 1966 Baltimore Orioles and the 2005 Washington Nationals seasons. These efforts are sports writing at its finest by two of the trade's brightest and most promising upcoming reporters. I urge baseball fans to seek out and relish Frank Robinson --this 70 year-old legend and icon who epitomizes what is great about the National Pastime. "God bless you please, Mr. Robinson, heaven holds a place for those who pray. A nation turns its lonely eyes to you." Good luck, Skip, in 2006!!!!

I have gotten many hour of enjoyment for this book.

The New Harp of Columbia is a repository of Odes, Anthems, Fuging pieces, Marching Tunes, Sea Chanteys, Dirges, Folk Tunes, Calvary Tunes put to meter and matched to the prime sermons of the day and written by the tune smiths into hymns.
(The Hymn "Amazing Grace," was mixed and matched to a tune New Britain or Middleton is contained therein but not to J. Cowper's Hymn of John Newton's sermon.) This singing school manual breaks the music into separate parts for easy reading and written into character notes or shapes to help distinguish the notes for a people in a time who could not read let a lone read music.
It is part of a two hundred year plus ongoing American social community and spiritual tradition. More information can be found www.oldharp.org or www.fasola.org.

Larry Olszewski- Old Harp Singer

The New Harp of Columbia is the seven-note "old harp" tune book for shape note singers in and around Knoxville in east Tennessee. The 1975 University of Tennessee Press reprinting is probably out of print (though we have a few extra copies) as of March 2001. A new edition, scheduled for publication by the University of Tennessee Press in July 2001, will include the present (1867) New Harp of Columbia, with about 40 additional tunes from the earlier (1848) Harp of Columbia which M.L. Swan omitted from the new book in 1867. Meanwhile, come sing with us! - Bob Richmond (RSRICHMOND@aol.com)

Requires a black man from England to slip behind the curtain and report on the quondam parlous State of african americans... He did it. You should read it. Who ever you may be.

Truly a good read on many levels-- as a travelogue, as a history review of a critical time in US emancipation.. It's all good.
And well crafted too; beautifully polished phrases encapsulate moments and people. Really, it's all good.

Gary Younge is a young British journalist of Bermudan descent, who decides to take a trip through the American South in search of some of the symbols of black culture he most identified with in his youth. Along the way Younge interviews a variety of activists, civil rights figures, and every day people, and comments on the landscape around him.

As an American living in Britain, this book was fascinating to me. Younge goes on a classic "fish out of water" tour of the US, but the racial twist makes the book all the more interesting. The book is at turns sad, thought-provoking, and even at times laugh out loud funny. (Check out the letter he finds left in a motel room drawer.) Younge is surprisingly fair in his interpretation of the culture he meets, giving credit where it is due, and genuinely seeming to see both sides of the story. This is surprising because the author freely admits to his Marxist youth: he (still) refuses to stand for the Union Jack, though he proudly rises for the playing of the Internationale. Given that background, I expected a much more harsh view of the US, but Younge manages to surprise me.

The book is a quick read, and I wish Younge had lingered in a couple of places a bit more: his passages on Savannah and New Orleans are unfortunately short. The book ends up more as a sociological/political book than a travel book, but Mr. Younge has all the makings of a great travel writer, with a keen ear for interestinc characters and dialogue, and an ability to evoke the essence of a place. Nevertheless, I can still strongly recommend this book to anyone: five stars.

Gary Younge is a black Englishman who decides to travel through the US South by bus, following the path of the 1961 Freedom Riders, who did such things as having their black participants use white-only restrooms in an effort to spur civil rights reforms. The Freedom Riders were key players in the US civil rights movement, and some of them were beaten or even murdered. Younge wanted to retrace their steps in 1997 to see if there was anything that would resonate with him as a British black man.

The book is successful on several levels: As a travelogue, as a history of the civil rights movement, and as an introduction to the South for the non-US reader. (A blunt hint from Younge to non-US readers: Avoid long-distance bus trips.)

To my surprise, Younge was generally positive about the US, despite some instances when he's exposed to modern racism, such as being turned away from an empty motel. Although racism lingers, Younge seems impressed that the US has dealt with its sordid past of racial oppression in a more constructive manner than Britain has. He marvels that US blacks can salute the flag and be patriotic without feeling hypocritical, whereas he, as a British black, finds it impossible to salute the Union Jack or to feel patriotism as a Brit. All in all, it's a fascinating treatment of the American South and its complicated history of race relations.

I was so pleased with the transaction and the book. It was a great transaction with fast shipping and super packaging. Thank you so much.

As an information junkie, I'm always turning to the Internet for fast and up-to-date information for my garden design business. This book has replaced my computer for first-glance information. Debra provides significant editorial value in this reference, which I find dog-eared and well-used in a few short weeks. A must-have for any gardener in the Northwest, and a brilliant gift for a gardener new to the area.

It's a Northwest garden enthusiast's dream come true! Stephanie Feeney has outdone herself and compiled information in this edition I will refer to again and again. The list of nurserys to visit is complete with directions, business hours, the types of plants they sell and what they specialize in, e-mail addresses, and any other helpful information that may be of interest. I especially appreciate the geographic locator in the very back that breaks down locations by region that makes planning a garden outing a breeze. I even found a few nurseries in my small town that I didn't know existed. Other chapters include organizations that help gardeners, clubs, foundations, societies and volunteer opportunities, education, gardening with children and young people, internet gardening, publications, professional services, gardens to visit, shows and exhibits, and the list goes on. And it's all written in a friendly personal manner.

Well written and easy to follow. I especially love the way the book is set up. Two authors who lean towards slightly different directions (hawk/dove) in regards to how America should engage with North Korea, present their argument while also responding to the other's arguments in alternating chapters.

Professors Cha and Kang come at the current and historic crisis in North Korea from different angles: Cha from a more "realist" view of international relations, Kang from a more "liberal" view. The book is a series of several chapters written alternately by Cha and Kang with each pair of chapters focusing on one aspect of the Korean problem. Both view North Korea as being entirely "rational," and make a point to discredit 30-second sound byte types of analyses of North Korea's decisionmaking process. Cha finds that it is perfectly rational for North Korea to attack or go nuclear even if the end result has a high probability of resulting in total destruction, because the status quo is so unbearable that the North is willing to bear the risk. Kang suggests that increased economic development, integration into the world economy, and the introduction of market forces will alter North Korea's cost-benefit analysis and push it away from violent military action or the active pursuit of a nuclear weapons program. In the end, both agree that the default strategy for the United States is engagement.

Cha and Kang do a good job of bringing intellectual depth to a debate that is often over-simplified. It makes a good read for the average reader while remaining a strong academic work of its own. This is not a history book--it is a book examining academic questions with real-world implications.

After the first Gulf War, several second/third world countries made the observation that the technical and other advantages possesed by the U. S. make it imperative that any country concerned about an attack from the United States have nuclear weapons. I note that I don't see President Bush talking much about attacking North Korea. General Gary Luck offered a quick sound bite on the costs of a war in N. Korea: "one million casualties, one trillion dollars in industrial damage and lost business."

In this excellent book the authors attempt to bring some sense to the scare headlines so loved by the news media -- Newsweek called the North Korean leader, "Dr. Evil." The book is written by two professors, one a bit more hawkish, one a bit more dovish. They present their views, they discuss the others viewpoint, they then try to come up with an overall plan that makes sense.

A million casualties -- somebody better come up with a plan that's better than TV's talking heads.

With this book I also highly recommend "North Korea at a Crossroads" by Suk Hi Kim.

I like how this couple presents their information. The book is full of useful data. I have purchased this in preparation for our journey to Alaska, British Columbia, Yukon and Northwest Territories. It does a superb job of helping you understand what to look for, where to look for it, how much things cost relative to other areas. Excellent job.

Having lived in the Pacific NW for many years I know lots of places for camping and RVing. I found this book accurate and very resourcefull. With rising fuel prices, we are all looking for closer to home places to "get away" and this book is a required resource to help find them, and determine their suitability. The only criticism I have is the way its organized. A little hard to find individual places since it is organized based on tour routes.

I bough thtis with the MOON bok, and am using both of them , this one is helpful with trip ideas, and the best of the large campgrounds, a very usefull book.

Professor of Philosophy at Duke University Alexander Rosenberg brings us the third edition of "The Philosophy of Social Science", a thoroughly argued yet still accessible introduction to the philosophical foundations of human sciences such as economics, anthropology, sociology, and many others. New to this edition include an overview of the eclipse of behaviorism in psychology and the rise of game theory in economics, consideration of problems for functionalism in social science that must be addressed by an appeal to biology and especially Darwinism thinking; and so much more on top of that. "The Philosophy of Social Science" is highly recommended to college philosophy shelves as a complete reference and to non-specialized general readers with an interest in psychology.

There are many books out there with the same title as this one. But if you want to know what the real issues in the philosophy of social science are, and how they connect to the basic questions of philosophy--from Plato to Popper--this is the book to read. Rosenberg uniquely combines expertise across the range of problems about social scientific method with an eye to the sides social scientists actually have to take about fundamental questions. The comparison of rational choice, functionalist, and Darwinian explanations of cross-cousin marriage rules is just one example!

As a recent college graduate, I can say I've learned more about the social sciences and its theoretical underpinnings from this book than I did my entire 5 years in college. While Rosenberg's survey of the social sciences is certainly not exhaustive, he covers many core family disciplines of the social sciences, such as economics and sociology, and their philosophical foundations. Moreover, Rosenberg even includes a review of critical theory, a discipline that probably would not have been mentioned by many mainstream thinkers. The way he uses the problems of philosophy, especially metaphysics and ethics, to compare and contrast the natural sciences and social sciences is powerfully insightful. For anyone interested in the study of human behavior or philosophy, this book is highly recommended.

From Back Cover:

"In this volume, noted botanist Verne Grant discusses evolution at the level of species and species groups in higher plants.

Dr. Grant's earlier book 'The Origin of Adaptations,' dealt with evolutionary mechanisms in diploid sexual organisms - animals as well as plants. But since many higher plants are neither diploid nor sexual, some characteristically botanical phenomena of evolution were necessarily eliminated from consideration. 'Plant Speciation' undertakes the complementary task of describing evolutionary processes and patterns across the board in higher plants as they occur in various diverse types of genetic systems. It outlines the nature of plant species, the primary divergence of species and their refusion in hybridization, the genetic systems involved therein, and the evolution of hybrid complexes."

Verne Grant, the reticent botanist from the University of Texas, has written one of the best monographs in evolutionary biology which I have ever read. It is difficult to think along the time scale of evolutionary change, and Grant's examples clarify the concepts of this unifying principle of biology. This book deserves attention at least as much as other works on the "great ideas", particularly with our modern tendency to devalue science while embracing technology. This is one of two scientific works (the other being The Conservation of Orbital Symmetry) which are permanently on my "top ten" list.

I found this book in the Schenectady, NY public library but I checked it out twice, even though I'm only interested in the genetics of plants as a casual dilletante. The examples used of Western flowers and the diagrams made the subject come alive for me. I am very grateful for finding this book.

This book has the most information that a paleontologist can find about North American mammals in one place. It is an exhaustive text book chock full of facts about all the mammals from that continent that have lived in the last 3 million years. As a layman interested in paleontology I found the book fascinating and easy to read. The book is seperated into two main parts: first chronology of faunas, and then than a discusion of all the orders of mammals , species by species. The book also discusses possible reasons for extinction. The only flaw in the book are some of the reasons given for extinction are contradictary. For example the extinction for the giant beaver was supposedly caused by competition with the modern day beaver, yet they coexisted for 2 million years, and the dental patterns suggest that they didn't have the same habits. Modern day beavers probably even created habitat that was favourable to prehistoric giant beavers.

If you are serious at all on the mammals of Pleistocene North America, whether extinct or still with us, then you have to purchase this book. A great resource, it exhaustively and authoritatively chronicles all known mammals preserved as fossils from that period of earth's history. In addition to the well known megafauna such as mammoths, mastodons, dire wolves, ground sloths, and giant bison, Kurten and Anderson detail animals nearly always ignored in popular works, such as rodents, bats, and insectivores.

The book begins with a thorough listing of all known sites of Blancan, Irvingtonian, and Rancholabrean faunas throught the United States and Canada, with each site sorted by state or province, its location noted on a map (and in detail in the text), and notes included on general nature of the site, species recovered there, and often notes on its general importance. Nice black and white illustrations of some of the faunas are interspersed in this section of the tome.

The bulk of the book though is the exhaustive listing of fossil mammals, each chapter organized around a particular order, and the chapter subdivided by family. Each species has common, alternate common, genus, species, and alternate (and no longer valid) genus and species names (such as in the case with the Jefferson's Mammoth, Mammuthus jeffersoni; it has also been called the Columbian Mammoth and the Imperial Mammoth, and seven other scientific names have been ascribed to it).

Entries vary in the detail to which the species is described, though many are given several paragraphs devoted to description, life habits, and speculation as to the reason for extinction. Black and white illustrations of fossils are included in each chapter, and a small number of extinct mammals are shown as how they appeared in life. Occasional maps illustrate sites of major finds.

Though not really a book one can sit down in a nice chair and read, it is interesting to flip through. Though more of a scholarly resource, it gives one pause to consider just how many mammals are no longer present on this continent. North America not only had the infamous "sabretooth," the dire wolf, the mastodon, mammoths, tank-like glyptodonts, and the exotic ground sloth, but it once had scores of camels and llamas, a bewildering variety of horses, as well as giant beavers, yaks, cheetah, giant marmots, and possibly even pandas.

As one fascinated by the Ice Age, especially vanished megafauna, I looked for a long time for a comprehensive book on vanished Ice Age animals of North America. This is it.
The treatise is exhaustive in terms of what was known up to the publishing date. If it is read carefully, it will impart a knowledge of these interesting animals and also give the reader an excellent backgound on the Pleistocene ice advances. The authors' discussion regarding the breakdown of time periods is excellent.
Even though the passage of time and new findings, particularly in Florida, have lessened the value of some of the data presented, the book remains a peerless review of a dynamic part of Earth's history.
Caveat: The reader should have some background in zoology and anatomy, otherwise constant recourse to a dictionary may be required.