Washington University Books

Photographs by Edward Curtis of faces of Native Americans of both sexes and all ages are used to enter into and round out a consideration of the nature and course of the Indian culture in different respects. Curtis's photographs are so accomplished, impressive mostly in a iconographic way, and often evocative that they usually call for little related text. The majority of photographs in this volume could be appreciated standing alone; and many will find them unfamiliar as they are close-ups of faces rather than Curtis's more familiar tableaus of scenes or small posed groups. But in this work, the more intimate photographs of the faces appropriately tie in with many vignettes on individual Native Americans illustrating the traditional way of life and how the respective individuals were affected by changes from American westward exploration and settlement. Other sections of text go over Curtis's photographic project and the worldwide impact of European settlement and colonization on indigenous peoples as a context for the stories of the individual Native Americans. The approach adds greater depth to Curtis's photographic opus while making the point that the photographs also provide to some degree an anthropological record of a dying way of life, a value Curtis was not much aware of when taking the numerous pictures mostly in the latter 1800s and which is generally little-recognized even today.

Upham and Zappia have paired a haunting group of Native American photographic portraits by Curtis with a selection of Native stories that Curtis collected. The authors' introductory chapters reveal the broad range of their research, which they present concisely, to provide a thoughtful historical context for the primary materials. The Gilcrease Museum of Tulsa, in association with the Washington State University Press, has produced a book that is not only intelligent; but the symphony of brown tones in the prints throughout make it coffee-table beautiful.

For those of us born in the latter half of the 20th Century, large demonstrations in our nation's capital are common-place. The first item that leapt out from Ms. Lucy Barber's Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition was the fact that this right was not available until the last few years of the 19th Century!

It began with the so-called Coxey's Army march in 1894. No more than 500 demonstrators sought to access The Capital grounds to voice their demands for government-sponsored work projects. As doing so was against the law at the time, the leaders were arrested and the followers dispersed. The book then goes on to describe similar, ever larger events: The 1913 Women Suffrage Parade and Pageant; the 1932 Bonus Army March; the cancelled 1941 Negro March on Washington; the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the 1971 Spring Offensive.

All the actions are covered using an absolutely perfect format that entails describing the purpose, the people, the plan, the program and the aftermath of each event. But, the true value in Barber's work lies not in her detailed descriptions of the events, but rather its understanding and narration of the human condition that lead - in more cases than not - one individual to conceive, organize and execute the plan of action. It is in this aspect that the book reaches a transcendent level of explanation.

We learn of Walter Waters and his quest to aid those suffering from the Depression by obtaining the - for the time - grandiose sum of $1000 for veterans of World War One. After the request was rejected by the US Senate, his followers, known as the Bonus Army, were driven out of their encampment by armed troops using tear gas. Waters was a vet who fervently believed the government needed to deliver the fund early as a result of the stock market crash. What began as a delegation from Portland, Oregon grew to a nation-wide movement of which he was proclaimed leader.

A more revolutionary zeal gripped Alice Paul, the force between the 1913 Suffrage March. With a long history of agitation in England and the US, Paul felt the women's movement needed to rise from sedate tea-room discussion to action. Relying on the English suffrage cry of "Deeds Not Words," Paul cobbled together an alliance of women's groups to stage the event the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.

In A. Philip Randolph, we find a man conflicted by his passion to make the country he so loved more equitable. After some twenty years of an action-oriented aprroach to race equality, Randolph put togther a coalition of purely groups with the intent of staging a massive "all negro" march. But, the establishment - figuratively and literally in the form of President Franklin D. Roosevelt - cajoled and beguiled him into accepting the weak pablum of Executive Order 8802 in retrunr for cancelling the demonstration. This document called for the end of discrimination in vocational training, required defense contracts contain a clause requiring contractors not to restricty hiring by race, color creed or national original and that a board be estbalished to reveiw complaints brought about violations of the Order. In retrospect, we see clearly that Randolph achieved little or no real advancement in civil rights for his compromise

In addition to the other marches, this latest edition of Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition includes a epilogue that briefly covers more current episodes such as the Million Man March and then delivers a set of conclusions about the value and benefits derived from the actions of a few visionaries.

This book is fantastic. Barber tells great stories. The book focuses on five different marches from the last century, and each of them is fascinating and surprising. What she shows is how these dramatic events helped make marching an American political tradition. Her analysis of how everyone became obsessed with numbers is truly revealing. At a time like the present, everyone should read this book to understand both the power--and the limits of marching--as a political strategy.

I was familiar with the book, after all it is a classic in its field. The book arrived in good condition and I am as happy as a clam (no pun intended).

Kozloff and Price's set of keys is an excellent tool for collectors and scientists who need to know what they are looking at, and to be sure that they have the right name with the animal in their hand/bucket.

This 8.5" x 11' format book covers marine invertebrate phyla down to the species level for animals found from southern Oregon to the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, Canada. As such, it makes a great companion set of keys to "Light's Manual: Intertidal Invertebrates of the Central California Coast" by Smith and Carlton, and "Marine Algae of California" by Abbott and Hollenberg. That set of 3 books is a treasure for people who need good taxonomic information on nearshore marine life to support what they do along the pacific coast of North America.

Back to Kozloff's book...the book has the keys themselves, as well as supporting BW photographs and great line drawings to help the reader interpret particularly sticky parts of the keys. There are also brief occasional notes about known ranges of some animals covered, but this is not a reference book to the ecology of these animals, it is an excellent set of taxonomic keys.

The book is a reprint of a 1987 publication. As such some names of taxonomic groups have changed in the intervening 13 years. Nevertheless, this book remains the best set of keys for this region that we have.

This book is the premiere comprehensive analysis of how the battlefield death of the Shiite's third Imam Hoseyn/Hussain at Karbala, Iraq, led to the development of Shiite religious rituals that were used by the Shiite imams in influencing their successful dethronment of Iran's Mohammed Reza Shah in late 1978. This book is really about the historical development of Shiite symbols and rituals commemorating the martyrdom of Hoseyn, rather than an expansive history of the 1970s-era of student demonstrations against the shah of Iran. The battle resulting in Hoseyn's martyrdom occurred on 10 October 680 C.E. (Ahsura Moharram 352 A.H.). The author presented two reasons as to why Hoseyn started his ride towards his martyrdom. The author clearly opined that Hoseyn rode towards Damascus to at least upbraid the new Muslim caliph Yazid for being cruel and despotic to his Muslim minions. [Yazid's father, Muawiyah had moved the Muslim government from Mecca to Damascus in 661-662.] This makes Hoseyn's adventure look really unselfish, and even highly moralistic. However, what is obliquely mentioned in the book (on pages 7 and 93), but not as clearly portrayed, is the contention that Hoseyn really rode forth in an armed coup attempt to unseat Yazid. Briefly, when the Muslim prophet Mohammad died, his successors were: (#1) caliph Bakr (Sunni), (#2) caliph Umar/Omar (Sunni), (#3) caliph Uthman/Othman (Sunni), and (#4) caliph Ali (while all Sunni respect Ali has the fourth caliph, as the Shiites regard Ali as the first proper successor to his uncle Mohammad, Ali is the first Shiite imam). As Ali attempted to consolidate his rule, he was opposed by the military-governor of Damascus: General Muawiyah/Moaviyeh (who had been appointed governor of Syria by #2 Sunni caliph Umar in 640). Following the Battle of Saffin, Ali defaulted rule to Moaviyeh, but with the alleged understanding/treaty/deal/agreement that upon Moaviyeh's death, the Islamic caliphcy would return to Ali's clan. Ali's oldest son Hassan/Hasan (the second Shiite imam) was championed by Ali's clan in becoming his successor. However, after realizing that the three previous caliphs had been assassinated while serving as caliph, Hassan apparently wasn't as divinely inspired as his predecessors had been, and decided that he really didn't want to be caliph. Thus, Hassan figuratively resigned and passed the Shiite-caliph baton to his younger brother: Hoseyn/Hussain/Husayn. Recognizing the weakness in Ali, power-hungry Muawiyah of Damascus agreed to become the ruling caliph. Muawiyah, most likely, had the hidden design of eventually turning the caliphcy over to his son Yazid, instead of returning it to the Ali lineage to Ali's grandson Hoseyn. Anyway, upon Muawiyah's death, his son Yazid seized the title of the caliphcy over all Muslims -- and ignored the 'agreement' to return power to Hoseyn. For power is what we are really talking about here; power to control the tax-treasury of the Muslim community. Muslims are required to pay 10% of their annual wealth by an annual tax to the Muslim treasury. Literally watching the coinage of the Muslim treasury slip through their fingers to Yazid, Hoseyn's clan took umbrage with Yazid's seizure of power and urged Hoseyn to travel to Damascus and remind Yazid of his father's 'deal' that Hoseyn was to be recognized as the next rightful caliph. However, as Yazid had no desire of turning the tax-treasury over to Hoseyn, Yazid sent a large army under the command of general Omar ibn Saad to repulse Hoseyn's upcoming 'invasion' of Damascus. When Hoseyn tried to parley with Omar at Karbala, he and most of his small retinue of 80 soldiers were surrounded and killed. While Hoseyn's youngest son Ali Asghar was killed, his older son Zayn al-Abedin (who was ill and incapacitated during the battle), Hoseyn's wife, and a number of other newly minted widows and orphaned children where captured and taken to Yazid. As radio personality Paul Harvey would say: "Now you know the rest of the story" -- and a very important part of it. Part of Hoseyn's motive in talking to Yazid to resign as caliph was most likely due his being repulsed by Yazid's highhandedness, but the clear motive was to restore and secure power for Hoseyn-Ali's lineage in controlling the caliphcy to control the Muslim treasury. This is my one little snit here that I believe the author "short changed" the coup explanation for Hoseyn's journey. Otherwise, Prof. Aghaie superlatively analyzed how the Karbala battle was ritualized into annual public performances (rowzeh khanis) and parades (dasteh) that were later used as rallying demonstrations for the Shiite imams to reassert their political power that the Pahlvai shahs had tried to curtail through their liberal Westoxification of Iran. Also, see the author's related book: "The Women of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shi'i Islam."

The Shi'i branch of Islam makes up only about 15 percent of the religion. But counting for nearly the entire population of Iran and 60 percent of Iraq's, the Shi'i have a crucial influence on Middle East and world affairs from their numbers in these strategically important countries. A professor of Islamic and Iranian history at the U. of Texas-Austin, Aghaie gives a view of Shi'i culture in Iran that is eye-opening and germane for Western readers. Basically, one sees that for the Shi'i there is no clear, or even worthwhile, distinction between religion and other aspects of society, including most significantly government. Whereas such a distinction is a part of the foundation of the U. S. and other democracies, Shi'i culture was founded with the defeat of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hoseyn and the massacre of his family by the caliph Yazidin in the 680AD battle of Karbala. Shi'i religious ceremonies, motives for behavior, social purposes, and community goals grew out of this defeat. A special intensity and commitment, as well as sacrifice, was called for so Islam as expressed by Mohammad and his descendants would not be lost. This branch of Islam faith is distinguished from that reflected in the institutional rule of the caliphs came about throughout most of the Middle East. Aghaie's subject is the relationship between Iranian leaders from the Qajars of the 19th and early 20th century through the Shah of Iran to today's Islamic Republic and the symbols and rituals of Shiism. The Shah of Iran was overturned in a revolution because in an effort to modernize Iran, he sought to minimize the symbols and rituals. The work brings an insight into the Shi'i culture that is timely and germane considering current events in Iran and Iraq and U. S. ambitions to institute democracy in this area.

Like only the finest of art photography -- photography which truly transcends its function as document or record -- Randlett's images make you want to look, and look, and keep looking, in the same way as a fine drawing or painting. There are some pictures here which are all but abstracts, and bear comparison with the finest abstract work in other mediums. However, usually you know what the object is at which she pointed her camera, but you are never its prisoner, never find yourself asking "just where is that island?" Instead you find yourself dwelling on the new thing, the new world, she has made of that object -- whether a tree, or a bird, or light on the sea, or a cloud-blurred mountain -- the world to be explored right there on the paper, within the spaces and shapes there delineated or suggested. You don't say "what a beautiful place, let's go there"; instead you say, "what a beautiful world I am in, just sitting here poring over these shapes and shadows".

At times Randlett's work reminds me of certain Japanese or especially Chinese ink drawings of landscapes, of the kind that employs blurring and suggestion more than precise outlines; it has some of that same mysterious suggestiveness. But not all her images are of that kind; she can capture sharp lines and silhouettes as well. But even then she is creating a new place, not pointing to one somewhere else, on your travel map; and she's inviting you in -- here, right here, on this paper: come in and dwell.

Some of these images were included in her recent show at the Tacoma Art Museum. If that show is still open, I strongly recommend a visit. In any case, I recommend this book and the worlds in it. It opens the way to endless exploration and pleasure.

My husband and I stumbled upon Mary Randlett's photography exhibition at the Tacoma Art Museum. We were immediately awed by the beauty and power of her photography. Then I was stunned to see poems by Denise Levertov scattered among the photographs. I'd discovered and loved Denise's poetry a few years earlier. The powerful combination of these two women's visions brought me to tears in the middle of the exhibition. Mary's unique way of seeing and capturing light as it plays across the landscape is moving, beautiful, haunting. You will never regret purchasing this book.

There are those who form the catalysts in our lives, who lead in such a way
that they influence history. John Wilson was a keen observer of people who were genuine leaders and fairly portrayed their strengths and weaknesses.
As both an Indiana reporter, and a key player in the Justice Department, he
saw six decades of pivotal history in civil rights, Supreme Court rulings,
and tragic scandals. He reported at a time when reporters and office holders used tact and diplomacy before greedy scoops. His summations give credit to those who aided him through the years, instilling a sense of gentlemanly conduct. He longs for the days to return when both sides of a question are fairly debated. I could not put this book down and read it straight through.

Disclaimer: I was born and reared in Indianapolis and represented it in the U.S. House for 30 years. So naturally I savor this book about the people and places I know well. However, the book goes beyond the borders of my state, both because the author had two careers in Washington,D.C. and because the book is a beautiful ride in a time machine to palpable American history, styles, customs, attitudes, governmental policies and, yes, a fair amount of nievate about such things as tobbaco and slick sales scams.

This is a thorough examination of these very-detailed textiles and the people who make them. I'm thrilled with this little 'gem' of a book! Thanks!!

This would be a very beautiful book at any price, but Amazon's price on it is a real bargain. This 85-page folio has over 100 high quality photographs taken of textiles that are currently part of the British Museum's collection. Gina Corrigan, the book's author, has been leading study groups to China since 1973 and has a special interest in collecting and researching traditional Miao textiles, which are rapidly disappearing as China marches toward modern economic development. Corrigan has collected many of these fine craft textiles and transferred them to the British Museum.

The book begins with a brief introduction to the history of the Miao people that describes the weaving, dyeing, batik, embroidery, applique and other processes used to create the stunning traditional costumes they wear. This is followed by detailed photographs of whole garments and closeups of their decorations accompanied by descriptions of the techniques used to produce them. The garments are highly original and come very close to being individual works of arts.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the textile arts.

I discovered this book in architectural school, and was intrigued at the way Zevi clarified everything I was then dealing with in vague ways in architectural school. The invariables, or "anti-rules", as Zevi calls them, are each given seperate chapters in this book. Listing of Functions, Asymmetry and Dissonance, Antiperspective Three Dimensionality, Four-Dimensional Decomposition, Cantilever, Shell and Membrane Structures, Space-in Time and Reintegration of Building, City and Landscape are all ideas present to varying degrees in various buildings at various times in history. Zevi shows how they can be used in a more deliberate and integrated fashion, no matter what the budget or funtion of any given building. He illuminates how these ideas are present in the architecture of times historical and times more recent, and underscores the value of non-conformist buildings for the enrichment of society.
This book gave me a tremendous creative boost at just the right time in my life and it's influence continues in my work. Marvellously illustrated with three-dimensional drawings and with photos, it presents a summation of the thinking of a great and scholarly mind.

This book is by far one of the best books I have read in a while. It is simple and to the point and Zevi does not hold back. It is a little dated, but all of his seven principles are able to be directly applied to the current state of architecture. This should be a mandatory reading for all architecture students. His opinions of the tendencies within society to praise the priciples of Symmetry, proportion, and order, show how architecture has been plagued by standardization and repetitive forms throughout history. A great book for anyone who is troubled by the generality of architecture (with great exception to the current masters, no less)and would like to see the boundries broken.

Mountain in the Clouds: a search for the Wild Salmon
By Bruce Brown

This book touched me. I don't read much non-fiction, and what I do read is usually skills-based How-To stuff about carpentry or plumbing or growing mushrooms. This book though, being non-fiction affected me to a surprising degree, and I know exactly why: location, location, location.

A book like this can touch me precisely because it and I share a common experience. I've seen salmon jumping in the Dungeness; I've been to the campground on the Fork of that river. I've tasted wild Chinook and Chum and I can tell the difference. I've seen the stripes on a mating chum in its Redd, and smelled their dead bodies lining a stream channel in autumn. So, this is a book about my experience of Salmon as much as it was the author's - and because of that it was entirely poignant, touching upon the experiences of my life and things that were significant to me. That's what got me.

But if it weren't for that - I suspect that the compelling yet fact-filled tone of the author would have done it just as well. A pioneering novel in the genre of "ecological history," he strikes the delicate balance, so precarious that most of the time you're poised on the front of your seat expecting to find out that all the salmon are dead and you just haven't heard about it yet. Yet, woven in with these truthful accounts of the state of affairs of the plight of modern fish are settings if great beauty, people who are good folks, and experiences of such great meaning that reading through them you could swear afterward that that had happened to you too; rather than just having read it in a book. The author's gift here is very apparent, and his creation is artful, inspiring, education yet provocative and beautiful: if only because he is able to give an accurate portrait of something that I find to be one of the most gorgeous (and delicious) parts of nature in my neck of the woods.

If you haven't seen a salmon in Washington: this book will bring you here. If you have seen them, or have seen them your whole life: this book will bring you much, much more. There isn't anyone I know of who couldn't or shouldn't read this book - if only because it brings them a little closer to the Olympic peninsula and in doing so that much closer to me, and my heart, which was always here and probably always will be.

The book did make me want to go out and slap everyone involved in Washington Fisheries before 1985, slap the fisherman and the gill-netters, slap the moneyed lobbies and the trollers and the loggers and the dam-builders and the pulp mills. I'd slap the people too - just for not doing anything about it if they did know about it; and slap them twice if they didn't. I wouldn't slap the Indians - they got screwed over just as much as the salmon; and I wouldn't slap the salmon themselves - if the river dries up or they're eaten, how could you blame them for that?

The salmon don't depend on us; this book opened up the raw world of hatchery fish in a way I hadn't even been aware a controversy existed before. Being a scientist, I tested some of my own theories and found that they held up under scrutiny, so I can say: Yes, salmon hatcheries are bad for salmon. If you want to restore salmon, tear down every hatchery in existence right now. And its not even like they had nobody out there doing different things: the Canadians scrapped their hatcheries decades ago and have stronger runs because of it. Why do we have to keep doing the same wrong thing over and over again?

Part of me wants to think that its because our culture can't stand a freeloader: and if you're fishing the stream, and doing so keeps you from having to join the money-economy, that isn't tolerable. And anything that generates money is more important than everything that doesn't. Even though you can measure an industry based on the number of salmon it kills: to most people, that doesn't matter as much as the number of jobs it creates.

We're selling our souls to buy lipstick and blush - starving our hearts for the sake of fingernail polish. And in a week, all that pretty will be gone and we'll have to deal with the stark reality that our culture has just whored itself out for nothing, and nothing is exactly what we'll have left. Maybe this is how we're going to go, maybe this is our society's way of committing suicide. But why do we have to take the whole world with us?

"We're going to ride this bike until the wheels fall off."

... and they will; and the salmon will be a legend like the wolf or the grizzly bear or the mammoth, and eventually we'll forget them entirely, and never know that once there was a different way of being which wasn't toxic to the world or to ourselves.

... And yes, that emptiness in your heart day in and day out IS because something really is missing; and you won't find it in stuff, or other distractions, or even religion (which is to real meaning as fool's gold is to true wealth). But then again, who care's right? `till the wheels fall off indeed.

Dominic Ebacher
ebacherdom.blogspot.com
071101.1234

Experience wild salmon leaping up the wild rivers of the Northwest. In western Washington, salmon still return from the ocean to spawn deep within the Olympic Mountains. This book is a classic on conservation and wildlife. Pre-dating the current concern for salmonids as an endangered species, Brown engages the reader in the unique environment of the temperate rainforest of the Olympic Pennisula. He describes the people and the fish that are the central players in this life and death drama.

I was honored to pick up this second volume of a sort of "trilogy." The thing that caught me about it right away was the way the turbulence of the 1960s comes across in this book. Immediately, you feel as if you're living in that time period and mingling with these characters. I think the prose in this book is flawless and it's the main reason we get to see so much into the time, places, and the character's lives. I have to admit, I was a little puzzled throughout the book with the warts and sofourth. I thought it was an intriguing part of the character and the story. I found that it's one of those books you read and then after you're finished, you know you like it but you can't put your finger on what it is you like about it. But a few weeks after you read it, the story and the characters are still in your head. That's what I found amazing about it.

where do i start? what a book! i had read vision quest in middle school and was blown away by the authors characters and the way he drew you deep into their lives and minds. well, that was nothing. mysterious ways is the best book i've ever read, hands down. the characters are wonderfully compelling, and davis' ability to put you in the middle of someplace you've never been is...almost scary. my visits to spokane, wa and other parts of the pacific northwest in davis' writing are almost more real to me than my own true memories. i've read this book 7 or more times, and i know i will read many more times before i'm done. if there was any justice, this book would have never gone out of print. if you ever happen to read this...thank you mr. davis. you've given me a wonderful gift.