Washington University Books

Injuries; unintentional, suicidal and homicidal; remain the leading cause of years of life lost and of disability for children, and a leading problem for the elderly in the United States.

Traumatic episodes of scald burns from hot water heaters, conflagrations and chemical poisoning associated with dropped lit cigarettes, near- and drownings around improperly gated or fenced home swimming pools, and easily available "non-safety packaged" firearms tragedies- these are examples of the thousands of annually preventable consumer product related injuries and deaths. And yet,aside from the many books on the statistics and epidemiology of injury, or on descriptive or anaytical reports with normative recommendations for action, there are few that illustrate, as does Political Approaches.. the "how to's" for successful legislation and advocacy so effective in the history of leadership in public health and medicine.

Each case study of how the " injury prevention docs " did it is followed by a complete set of useable references and by a follow-up ' informal' interview with the expert.

While this book was written almost ten years ago, the stories show the constants of historical personalities, values and events common to various historical settings of medicine and public health that make the differences for saving lives and limbs.

Dr. Berman, an early pioneer from the new generation of researchers, practitioners and educators, visions injuries as preventable, not random events nor fate, and shows the reader how to lead on the sometimes lonesome but invigorating road of prevention of injury disabilities and deaths.

Les Fisher MPH Management and Safety Consultant ( Archivist, American Public Health Association, Injury Control and Emergency Health Services Section) Former/retired Assistant Director, Research and Policy Development, Division of Public Health Protection, New York State Department of Health, Albany , NY , 97 Union Avenue South, Delmar, NY 12054 USA( 518-439-0326)fisher166@juno.com

Injuries; non-intentional , suicidal or homicidal; remain the leading cause of years of life lost and of disability for children, and the aged, in the United States. Traumatic episodes involving burns from hot water heater related scalds , conflagrations and chemical and heat injuries associated with dropped lit cigarettes, near- and drownings around improperly or non-existant unfenced nor gated home swimming pools, and easily available and non-safety packaged guns involved in firearms episodes are examples of thousands of annually preventable consumer product related injuries and deaths. And yet, aside from many books on the statistics and epidemiology of injury , or descriptive or analytical reports with normative recommendations for action, there are few that illustrate, as does Political Approaches to Injury Control at the State Level, the " how to's" for successful legislative and advocacy approaches so effective in the history of public health and medical leadership, especially in childhood disease.

Each case study of how the 'injury prevention docs did it' is followed by a complete set of useable references and by a follow-up 'informal' interview with the expert.

While the book was written more than ten years ago, the stories show the constant personalities, values and events in the various historical settings of medicine and public health that make the difference for saving lives and limb.

Dr. Bergman is an early pioneer from the new generation of reseachers, practitioners and educators, who see injuries as preventable, not random events nor fate, who shows the reader how to lead on the sometimes lonesome but invigorating road of prevention of injury disabilities and deaths.

a brillant, insightful exposition of a fascinating subject -- a must read for historians and all persons interested in government regulation.

This engaging and colorful account of the history of U.S. food regulation provides excellent perspective for better understanding the recent spate of high-profile, food regulation trade disputes between the U.S.and Europe, and within Europe, such as the "Banana Wars", "British Beef", and "Genetically modified corn" incidents. A must-read for anyone who who has interest in the unique nature and psychology of government actions in dealing with issues around "our daily bread". This book appears to have been subjected to a very rigorous "peer review" and I expect it will become a classic reference work.

This book is great for the WPA expert or for the novice like myself. The body of work represented in the book opens your eyes to a subject matter that seems largely overlooked as serious art. Nevertheless, the volume of work produced during this period and the number of people reached by this work is truly amazing.

A wonderful book of Works Progress Administration posters. Only about two thousand of these survive from the millions printed and 280 are shown in color. They are not posters in the billboard size that everyone is familiar with but mostly small twenty-two by fourteen inches, quickly designed and printed by silkscreen.

Because they were easy and cheap to produce any government or civic department could use the medium, from the New York Foreign Trade Zone, the Seattle Children's Theatre to Stop the Spread of Syphilis, the design styles are just as varied from the whimsical to the stark graphic statement.

Author DeNoon has done his research and explains how the WPA poster division worked, other contributors provide more extra detail. The back of the book has a Portfolio of eight artists. The work of the WPA ended in 1943 and fifteen of their war posters are shown. If you want to follow the story have a look at 'Dig for Victory' by William Bird and Harry Rubenstein, this informative book has 150 posters designed for the Home Front.

Social historians and graphic artists will enjoy 'Posters of the WPA' and incidentally I would suggest that anyone interested in book design gets a copy. The book (designed by Henry Vizcara) is an excellent example of how a graphic visual book should look, the grid design, column widths, typography of the headlines, text and captions, use of white space, paper and printing all work together to produce this lovely book.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

This collection is beautiful. I was initially reluctant because of the price but it was worth every penny. Reproductions are incredible.

This is a beautiful book, replete with high-quality illustrations and in-depth studies of all the works displayed in the 2007 exhibition it illustrates. It is a treasure trove of information on early Flemish painting, stressing technical as well as stylistic details, recalling the historical context of every work and showing how the image of man was, little by little, superseding that of god.

This book is destined to become a collector's piece. Undoubtedly one of the best recent art publications, as far as illustrations and scientific research are concerned.

The book is a good read. I picked up it up for a biomechanics discussion group. It does a good job of laying the foundation of biomechanics. Dont be afraid of the equations that pop up explaining the principals of biomech, just try and reason through them if math isnt your thing.

This book is one of those niche books that gives a thorough comprehensive overview of a topic few people bother to think about. In this case, the various modes of how animals move are explained using words, pictures, and equations. There are many books about how birds fly, or how fish swim, or how felines run, but this book gives a good overview of all these modes of locomotion and more. It covers the mechanics, kinetics, and thermodynamics of the different kinds of motion. For example, one learns how the metabolism, oxygen consumption, and weight distribution changes for a horse as it accelarates from a walk to a full sprint. I recommend this book to anyone interested in biomechanics, biology, or mechanical engineering.

Joann Roe has written a wonderful biography and book on some great History. Ranald MacDonald comes to life and the history his actions affected is explained in great detail. Joann Roe has done her homework. She not only uses original sources but she visited the places she describes. Where material from Ranald's life doesn't exist she fills in the blanks with others views and explains the surrounding history. She starts with Ranald being born in the now present day Astoria, Oregon. His father is a rising star and eventual Chief Factor in the Hudson's Bay Company and Mother is Princess Raven, a daughter of the local Chief Conconlly of the Chinook tribe. He is given a gentleman's education and his first job as a bank clerk. He is bored with this and runs away to sea. From there he joins a whaler and starts his trek around the world. He becomes one of the first Americans to set foot on Japan and teach English while held in captivity and run down the whole country before being released. Then he ends up in Australia for a while looking for gold. Then from there more ships and a couple of ship wrecks while globetrotting. Eventually he ends up back in western Canada and is greatly involved in the Gold rush around the Fraser River and exploration of Vancouver Island. His last days are spent in Eastern Washington near the site of the old Hudson's Bay Company Fort Colville on a ranch near some cousins and a niece. He led an amazing life and has an amazing story that more should know.

Jo Ann Roe has written a magnificent book, adding considerable information and insight on Ranald MacDonald. In addition to the biographical content, she added valuable scope by describing and explaining the context, for instance the Japanese forces at play at the time of MacDonald's arrival, the gold rush in Australia and British Columbia, etc. Thanks to her lively style, Ranald MacDonald becomes very present to the reader. It is a remarkable historical research.

This is a highly readable and engaging book on the topic, covering the history of abortion laws from early 1800s to the Clinton years. To explain the legal shifts throughout those 200 years, the authors describe the social, political, religious and scientific forces that have lead up to each turning point, and how those shifts in turn have influenced further shifts in a seemingly never ending chain. They do so by presenting the various sides of the debate in an even-handed and concise manner, without losing depth on the one hand and without getting bogged down with technicalities on the other. What I found of particular interest was the behind-the-scenes debates of the Justices both in Griswold v. Connecticut and in Roe v. Wade that shed light on their final decision.

One of many controversial Supreme court cases in the United States is the case of Roe v Wade. Norma McCourvey was a 23 year old pregnant divorced women. Norma took on the name of Jane Roe to secure her identity infont of the public. Roe lived in the state of Texas. She wanted to terminate her pregnancy the only obstacle was that with in the state of Texas a women was not allowed to have an abortion unless her life depended on it.Roe was pregnant from an affair she had which caused her marriage to fail. Roe took the case to the Supreme court alleging that her rights were being violated and that under the amendments 1,4 9 and 14 she had a choice. The attorneys who would carry on this case were two young women named Sarh Weddington adn Linda Coffee. Both had recently graduated from the University of Texas. Sarah at the time was also pregnant,but would go on and have the child. Attorney Henry Wade was force with the decision to allow Norma nad other women to have an abortion. Two years after the case was presented the court decided that in fact a womens right to choose on what to do with her body was hers and nobody else.
I would reccomend this book to everyone who is interested in politics. Due to the fact that no matter how someone feels towards a certain topic you may never know what your decision might be. I might one day become a lawyer and reading this book opened my eyes ;to realize that I can not allow my morals and beliefs to get in the way of my profession. I would also reccomend this book to anyone who has strong feelings on whether abortion should be legal or not. Finally I just enjoyed this book because although abortion is a very controversial topic it is also one a very easy book to read and comprehend.

Walt Crowley and his gang at historylink.org provide a valuable service to anyone interested in the history of Seattle, King County, and western Washington generally. While this book is necessarily less comprehensive (and less easily searched and updated) than the online version, it's still an interesting and informative browse-through for Emerald City residents and a good introduction to the greater wealth on their web site.

This small title's pages are packed with colorful illustrations and punchy copy. It probably works better to open and read it at random than to try to follow it systematically from page to page, because while it's basically organized chronologically, there are so many sections, subheads, and sidebars -- plus the timeline itself on nearly every page -- that trying to keep it all straight could get maddening. It's much more fun simply to open a page and read about why Seattle's streets aren't aligned north and south of Yesler Way, what happened to the communities known as Squack and Slaughter (they're still here, under different names) and why there were as many arguments about light rail 50 years ago as there are today.

On the whole, any Washington resident with an interest in this city would probably find something entertaining or worthwhile to justify browsing this title. Gene Logsdon writes that one of the ways to avoid provincialism is to know your own province really well. This book is one useful way for Seattleites to do that.

(...)This compact volume is chock full of interesting information, some of which has never appeared in other histories of Seattle. It is readable, very attractive, and includes mention of the September 11 attacks and other recent events.

Some of the new stories include Pioneer Henry Yesler's Native American family, the early smallpox epidemics that decimated the local tribes, the last several decades of the 20th Century, Ivar Haglund, and the arrival of the Buffalo Soldiers.

I'm buying several as gifts.

I felt that Christina Ching wrote this book for me. She speaks to me in my mother's voice, telling me about the insurmountable obstacles she had to overcome to pave the way for me. I used to think of Chinese women of Ching's generation as old-fashioned and oppressed, but after reading her memoir, I realize what a giant leap they have made, and how much I owe them. This is a universal story of the emancipation of a group of people, in this case, Chinese women. From tiny, timid steps, Ching took bigger and bolder steps until she was unstoppable. Yet while living out her ambitions, she was also a devoted mother and wife. Her life offers many important lessons for younger women. The memoir moves at the page-turning pace of a thriller, but I can't help stopping frequently to savor the beauty of her words.

Veronica Li, Washington, DC, USA

This magnificent memoir is the first I have read that faithfully chronicles the love story of a 20th century Chinese woman with the idea of modernity. Many writers before Mrs. Ching-Tsao have tackled the gray and dismal role of women in traditional China, the horrors of the early and mid-20th century and equal tragedy of women under the Cultural Revolution, when supposedly they "held up half the sky." This account is more nuanced, more hopeful, and much more representative of the energy, dynamism and drive not just of Chinese women but all women entranced by the jazz age and the promise of equality. Mrs. Ching-Tsao's account is wonderful for its detail and its honesty, as well as the marvelous balance of her personality, whether she is unexpectedly charmed by her father's concubine or unexpectedly loyal to a man who has used rape to force her into marriage. This is an unusual woman who falls into no easy definition or category, as wife, mother, professional woman, or lover. She is simply herself, a Chinese Colette, charming, self-willed and compassionate. The book is beautifully written and paced, although as literature it has more the quality of a very good translation than a book that is fully comfortable in the boundaries of English, but that is to be expected from an author whose first encounter with English was as a teenager in a prep school in Shanghai. In the interest of full disclosure, I have known Mrs. Ching-Tsao's sons and daughters for many years, but was in no way prepared for the richness and depth of their mother's book.

Edith Terry, Hong Kong

The pronunciations are tough to learn for those of us who aren't linguists. I use this to try to remember words I learned as a kid growing up in Metlakatla, AK and also to learn new words. It's priceless to have as a reference but requires a whole lot of worthwhile effort.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this quality dictionary also includes an extensive Tsimshian reference grammar (80 pages long)! Very, very useful given the grammatical complexity of the language. There is no English-Sm'algyax dictionary, but there is an easy-to-use index that directs you to the pages in the Sm'algyax-English section covering each English word. A good find.