Washington University Books

This has got to be the most in-depth book on the creation of a Chinatown (or any neighborhood for that matter) in the United States. Anyone interested in community development, the Asian American experience, or Chinese immigration to the U.S. should read this book. Very good black and white photos, maps, and reproductions of old documents.

A fine quality art book to be enjoyed by all the family. A must have!

This book is about Ubu films, Australia's first experimental film makers who was the brain child of Albie Thoms. Well before PM Gough Whitlam resurrected the Australian film industry with generous grants dished out soon after he came to power in December 1972, Ubu films had been making experimental films and screening them in Sydney, often at the student cinema at Sydney University. Ubu was located in an unprepossessing cellar in Redfern, a Sydney suburb, which was a lot tougher and less fashionable than it is now. Ubu was also the unsuspecting nursery for a number of cultural movements whose influence extended well beyond its tiny offices. That cellar also, due to Albie's kindness, was the cellar from which Sydney's first true underground, experimental and psychedelic magazines ("Chaos" and "Lucifer") were produced by Stephen Skinner. These magazines were printed on a press associated with Inky Stephenson, an old friend of Aleister Crowley.
It is interesting to note that Stephen Skinner later migrated to London, where, with magazines still in his blood, he produced a number of magazines for the late Robert Maxwell, before striking out on his own to produce Healthy Living, Goldlife, XL magazines and Feng Shui for Modern Living. What he learned about magazine production in the Ubu cellar in Sydney fuelled him, in the same way that Felix Dennis learnt his craft helping to produce Oz magazine in London.

Thankfully, the days are long gone when anyone could seriously propose to build huge dams in a national park or a wilderness area, but as recently as 40 years ago this actually happened -- twice! In this book Professor Mark Harvey tells the story of the US Bureau of Reclamation's proposal in 1949 to build Echo Park Dam in the magnificent canyons of Dinosaur National Monument (Utah), and how concerned citizens got organized and persuaded the US Congress to say No. (There was a repeat ten years later with proposed dams in the Grand Canyon.)

Professor Harvey analyzes the diverse political forces that clashed in this first big campaign of the wilderness movement. He traces how citizens' groups unaccustomed to controversy got their act together and seized the attention of the national public, at a time when few people had even heard of the wilderness idea. He shows how eloquent citizen leaders such as Howard Zahniser and David Brower collaborated, and how a few courageous legislators took up the cause on Capitol Hill.

There were many legislative battles like this one in the years that followed, but this was the first big one, and Mark Harvey tells the story well.

Washburn is a mathematician and Crowe is an antrophologist. The book gives a very good description of both the mathematical ideas and the context around the art. The illustrations are great! As examples of the quality of the book, it gives the best description I've seen anywhere of the difference between p31m and p3m1 and a very interestig history of the study of patterns.

Only one minor complaint: On page 5 they mention that in 1987, all the 17 groups were finally found at Alhambra, but they do not give a reference. The place to go is J.M. Montesinos: Classical Tessellations and Three-Manifolds.

Takhoma: Ethnography Of Mount Rainier National Park is a scholarly compilation and record of the archaeological past and ethnographic study of Mount Rainier, also known as "Takhoma". Drawing upon both pre-existing data and literature concerning Mount Rainier and extensive interviews with elderly Native Americans, Takhoma covers native toponymy, tribal identities and boundaries, camp sites and structures, native trails, and trade. Black-and-white maps and extensive notes round out this scholarly, in-depth reference written with an eye toward completeness and accuracy.

This book was recommended to me by the owner of a well known Native American Arts gallery as possibly THE best book on the subject, and it completely lives up to the recommendation. Based on a series of interviews with prominent potters from each pueblo, it not only gives an overview of the history of the different potteries, it is filled with personal thoughts and views of the various artists about their work--not only the processes of creating pottery, but their feelings about how they as modern potters fit into the "history" as well. If you are at all interested in Southwest Pueblo Pottery, you MUST read this book. It's not a "picture book" like so many others, though it does have many great photos, but it's not a scholarly text book either. I cannot recommend this book highly enough and I cannot thank my gallery owner friend enough for recommending it to me.

In this book, my teacher Dr. Saso illuminates 'the various themes and rituals which the Taoist makes use of in his role of ritual functionary for the believers in the Chinese religion.'(p.5) The 'rite of cosmic renewal' refers to the 'Chiao festival', a ritual occuring only once every 60 years. Those familiar with lunar astrological calendars will recognize the sixty-year cycle of elements and animals symbolic of the energetic shifts and changes of the world around us.

This first in-depth look by a Westerner at such a normally closed-door ritual is divided into five chapters. First, the yin-yang theory is explained as the basis of Chinese religion. Then is a description of the ritual from the viewpoint of an outside observer. Chapter three describes the philosophical basis of the ritual of renewal. The next chapter is perhaps the rarest of all, an EXPLANATION of the Chiao festival from the inside, through the eyes and understanding of a Daoist priest, which the author is. Saso is perhaps the only non-Chinese to have a 'register' or 'lu', a record or list of spirits the person has been taught to summon and control. Chapter five rounds out this unique study with a look at the state of Daoism as it currently exists in modern China.

It is highly unlikely that such a 'view from the inside' of this arcane, once-in-a-lifetime event will be available until after the next cycle begins, in the year 2030. Serious students of religious Daoist practice will learn much from this study.

If basketry puts you off, be careful; Virgiina Havey's insight, appreciation, and knowledge might convert you into becoming a connoisseur. If you've never before woven fiber structrures, the detailed instructions, clear diagrams, and many photographs can launch you into new and enjoyable paths. Over 400 photographed examples and explicit line drawings enable even the beginner to master the steps easily.

Edited by former Washington State University History Department chair David H. Stratton, Terra Northwest: Interpreting People and Place is an anthology of scholarly essays by eleven authors discussing society, culture, and transitions in the American and Canadian northwest. From a historical assessment of "The American Indian and Freedom of Religion", to "Mexican American Street Gangs, Migration, and Violence in the Yakima Valley", to "The Mind of the Founders: An Assessment of the Washington Constitution of 1889" and much more, Terra Northwest offers detailed examinations of past events and historical trends supported by meticulous research. The resulting anthology of in-depth historical analyses is a welcome supplement to American and Canadian history shelves alike, especially recommended for college library collections.