Lincoln Books

As far I can say, this is one of the most charming and beautiful houses in the world. Is not that this is house is grant, or magnificent; Charleston is so special, because it's got character and lots of personality. I love this book.

I agree with the previous reader, this is it ... the definitive book on Charleston Farmhouse. Although I think this book is more than a glimpse of the house and garden for those unable to visit, it is a surperb reference for those of us that have visited and wish to recall the house, etc. The photography is stunning, the text is informative. A worthwhile addition to any Bloomsbury book collection.

i stumbled across this book on a beautiful indian summer sunday afternoon....it is a treasure for those unable to physically saunter through the rooms and out to the walled garden that is charleston. all photos in colour, all rooms as they were when vanessa bell, duncan grant, family and friends lived and worked there. inspirational.

For this genre of books, 5 stars. A nice gift for a Bloomsbury fan, but it is only "nice-to-have," not required for one's library.

A superb study that is as engrossing as it is elegantly written and lavishly illustrated, and a sensitive inquiry into the aesthetics, the history and the philosophy that underpin an ancient and majestic civilization's view of mankinds's place within the cosmos. Both unique and profound. An essential work.

While the attitudes and examples of Japanese gardens abound in books and in cities around the world, very little has been written or photographs of the unique concepts found in the Chinese gardens. Maggie Keswick repairs that paucity of information with this very beautifully designed, photographed and written monograph on the spirit of the subtle beauties that abound in the Chinese garden.

Keswick offers an in depth analysis of the history of gardens in China and even if the reader is not an avid horticulturist, just the amount of information about China alone is reason to read this book carefully. But in addition to the history and the architectural elements of these gardens here considered, there are many graceful photographs and accompanying illustrations that keep pace with the narrative while providing an encouragement to return to the book purely for the art of it.

Keswick has found the middle ground in creating a volume about the elements of the Chinese garden and a volume that stands strongly as simply an art book. Highly recommended for repeated readings. Grady Harp, April 05

I've been a garden designer in Portland Oregon for twenty years and have spent over a year in China visiting gardens . This book is a very good place to begin if you want to understand , on a basic level, Chinese gardens . It is however, not the place to stop if you really seek to understand them . To do that you have to try to understand the culture and times which produced them. Fruitful Sites by Craig Clunas is the best work which I have found so far as it analyzes the gardens at Suzhou over the course of several dynasties. Chinese Classical Gardens of Suzhou (Hardcover)
by Tun-Chen Liu, Joseph C. Wang is also a very good book . It is a critique of most of the principal gardens in Suzhou and it punctures the illusion that every Chinese garden is equally great and every feature wonderful. And if you are actually going to travel to China to see gardens you really should read both of Peter Valder's books . They will help you understand Chinese plants and to find gardens in many Chinese cities. I don't always agree with Valder's assessments . He is quite restrained at times . And if you are planning to travel to Suzhou consider visiting Tongli as well. I also consider the gardens of The Slender West Lake in Yangzhou and other gardens there to be equal to many of the gardens in Suzhou. And if you are going to go to China I recommend you start reading The Orientalist online and purchase Beijing by Peter Neville Hadley so that you will not be shocked when you travel China . It is by no means an easy process if you want to travel beyond some air-con rip-off tour.

How great Chinese garden are!From north to south ,east to west,royal to normal,fancy to simple,you could see all of the best gardens in China.Especially two cities that must visit:Beijing,my hometown,and Suzhou,a wonderful small town built beside the river.The spirits of Chinese gardens were focused on how to combine nature and humanity together.The gardens in Suzhou absolutely rendered an ideal level without artificial fixing,you might called it "Eastern Venice".On the oher hand,Beijing seems much more luxurious since it used to be the capital of China for 5 dynasties.The best known garden named Summer Palace ,which settled in Western part of Beijing,belong to the royal family. A fire desaster ruined most valuable garden named Yuan Ming Yuan,if it still being there,Yuan Ming YUan might be the most gorgeous garden in the world.However we pitifully left a waste garden,morely a Country's shame.You luckily better read this book before you visit China.<>is a helpful tourguide take you a preview.

When I read this book I came to my cents. Yes I did. And you will too. It covers the history of low-self esteem that has plagued the penny ever since inflation made it worthless.

This book is just what I wanted. I went to my local Borders and compared the price to Amazon. Amazon is always cheaper, and I was lucky enough to get free shipping. The book does a great job but the last coin reviewed is the 1995. It states that there has not been any varieties found, however, there has. So This is a great book to help you go through your penny collection and I recommend reading up on how to prevent buying a counterfit; especially when going for the keys and semi-keys in the series. Overall, great book for your library, however, I am looking for a newer book that would cover the entire series. The series may end in 2009, but "buy the book before you buy the coin."

This book has letters between Brenner, Barber, Leach (Director) and others and the details about Brenner and how the Lincoln cent came about. And Brenner is not his real name. It also has letters from President Roosevelt and letters from Brenner to his mother.

Very interesting reading and it goes into some details of each cent minted up to 1995. Plus error cents, counterfeit and altered coins, grading, design changes, pattern and experimental coins, etc.

The book is quite large in size too. It measures 8.5" w x 11" t x almost an inch thick. And it is 364 pages long. The book was published in 2005, so it is a shame it doesn't go into cents past 1995, but overall a nice and interesting read. The only reason why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is that they didn't go into Lincoln cents past 1995 and they should have.

This is a wonderful guide to the history, production, and collecting of Lincoln cents. The date/mintmark analysis is particularly useful for consultation everytime I purchase one of these coins. I found no faults whatsoever with this book.

Todo un tratado de soldadura y calculos "dificiles" de encontrar en otro libro. Este libro no debe faltar en la biblioteca de cualquier ingeniero mecanico o de estructuras. (An entire welding treaty and calculations difficult to find in another book. This book should not lack in the library of any mechanical or metallic structures engineer).

I got this book for $22 on the linclon electric web site. Brand new

This book, coupled with the steel code (either ASD or LRFD) and "Steel Structures" by Salmon and Johnson, will complete any structural engineer's steel design library. The amount of information in this book far exceeds many books that are 4 to 5 times as expensive. This book is a must have.

This book is a must for any engineer practicing in design of welded steel structures.

This book has a lot of gorgeous 'rose porn' photographs, but the text is also very informative and gives good, specific suggestions for maximizing the beauty of roses in the landscape. I was able to get ideas on how to incorporate roses in beds of mixed perennials in a sophisticated way. I found the section on the history of the use of roses also very interesting.

Lord is a consummate garden photographer, and here we will find many of his best rose photos. For roses one would use in the landscape, this may be the best source of photos.

In this book he takes us through a kind of history of the way roses have been used in gardens. The nice thing about a history such as this is that we get introduced to a number of old design ideas which today may be out of favor. In some cases they are out of favor for very good reasons - as Lord explains: After WW1 the cost of labor went up significantly. One could no longer afford to have a gardener spend half a day training a long-caned rose onto an onion shaped frame. Yet even the oddest of the old ideas will frequently suggest some interesting or useful contemporary practice.

Of the gardening books I own - about 15 shelf feet of them - this may be the one I have spent most time with just reading through. This is high praise, indeed.

Any person who wishes to integrate roses into the design of a garden would do well to read this book. It has a lot to say on garden structure and how various roses occupy the diverse structural niches in a garden.
It even explains why Christopher Lloyd eschews the rose at his world famous gardens at Great Dixter. Now that is something that every person planning a rose garden must read and understand.

The garden: it's not just a bed or roses. Lord helps us understand this.

This is a wonderful book with gorgeous color photographs of rose gardens that will make you drool. Although most of the gardens are in England, any gardener can gets ideas from this book. It is basically a "coffee table" type book and is one that you can get lost in on a rainy day. I would highly recommend it!

I received an advance copy of Tony Lord's new book, "Designing with Roses". Besides being a wonderful rose feast for the eyes this 185 page book has some great ideas for various types of gardens and gardening techniques. This versatile offering has chapters lovingly decorated with lush photography of 'Roses for Structure', 'Roses as Punctuation', 'Roses in Mixed Borders' and 'Roses for Wild Gardens'. At the very end of the book is a wonderful listing of roses for special purposes that Mr. Lord describes as Pick of the Bunch. Here is a marvelous grouping of roses for ground covers, bush roses (short & tall), shrub roses, climbing, roses for arcades, pergolas, and catenaries, roses for autumn color, roses for bedding,roses for colored foliage, roses for conservatories, roses for cutting, roses for fences, roses for fragrance, roses for hedges, roses for pillars, roses for shade, roses for standards, and more. Thirteen pages of detailed information listing color, hardiness zone and class. Roses that have received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit as plants of excellence and easy culture are also indicated. In 185 pages I counted only about 10 pages that didn't have at least one picture on them. There are many double pages of photography that makes you feel as if your face was pressed against a window looking out into a wonderland of roses. Breathtaking close-up photography makes you think you can actually smell these beauties. The Pick of the Bunch alone makes this book a worthy addition to any roseaholic's library. If you are a Consulting Rosarian, these lists make it a lot easier to suggest roses for special purposes when you are asked by other rose growers.

My background is physics and I used this book in my radioecology class. I found it very helpful in looking up ecological terms I'm not familiar with in the books and journals I had to read. The definitions are easy to understand and find.

My graduate advisor recommended this book and I wish I'd had it sooner. It has been extremely helpful with both my classwork and my thesis. When muttling through scientific literature, this has come in handy for understanding the esoteric vocabulary. It is laid out just like a Webster's dictionary, so terms are easy to find. There are also 28 Appendices with everything from maps of goegraphic regions and biomes to units conversions to abbrevaitons and proof correction marks. It is also good for finding the correct term to describe that concept your professor was discussing in class.

this is an excellent reference piece to any biologist. It has alot of the key words that any biologist who is in the fields of evolution, ecology, systematics, taxonomy to name a few. I myself am a graduate student and a couple of us have it and has become an invaluable piece to our librairies.

I bought the dictionary of first edtion twelve years ago. I found its explanation about ecology, evolution, and systematics is very easily reading and useful to students majoring biology. It let me understand many terms, and read the texts and references more easily. I'm very gald to know the new edition was published. I believe that the new edition will give readers more useful and modern words of ecology, evolution, and sytematics.

I had the honor of meeting Dr. Broome at the 2007 Little Bighorn Association conference in North Platte Nebraska. I would like to think that his scholarship helps to set a standard for historical research. When I consider what I see being produced today by many of our universitys I don't hold out a lot of hope for this though.

Dog Soldier Justice is an amazing piece of research in that it covers ground often ignored today. It looks at the dangers and horrors that often faced pioneers in the form of indian depradations. Today we frequently forget the innocent victims caught up in the plains indian wars. We also forget that evil acts were committed by the indians as much as the white man. Dr. Broome manages to correct some of this by the tragic story of this one woman and her family. He also reminds the reader that this sort of treatment was not the exception and more common than many historians are willing to admit. There is some justice in relating the truth and Dr. Broome's book is a step towards this.

Dr. Broome paints a very interesting history of the settlement of the American West in the late 19th century. He pulls no punches in his history which is extensively researched and referenced. No "New Western Historian", is he. He tells what happened in detail and in unvarnished truth. Among the history lurks the soul of a mystery novel except this is true. The reader knows in advance what happens, but even today we don't know the details of what really happened to Susanna Alderdice. She is the centerpiece of the book. Her experiences are as bad as any atrocity known to man.

Anybody interested in the Kansas and Colorado early settlers and their experiences with the renegade Dog Soldiers should read this book. Life was not bread and circuses as many would have you believe back then. It was a struggle against the elements, a struggle against disease and the ever present danger of being attacked just for living.

Jeff Bloome has produced an outstanding narrative concerning a little known period of history in 19th Century Kansas. I was attracted to it because my own grandparents were captured by Indians on a Kansas farm near Marysville, one of my family members was burned at the stake by Indians in the 1700's, and many of my ancestors had to protect their homes and lives from warring tribes in New York and Kansas. This book is the epitome of research on the subject of the Indian raids that terrorized and killed so many settlers in Kansas in the 1860's, and none of it is fiction. Dr. Broome tells the facts in a way that is spellbinding, and in a manner that makes the people of the time, both Settler and Indian alike, very real. Dr. Bloome has the ability to capture their time and the way they felt and reacted to these tragedies. The American settler comes alive, particuarly in the person of Susanna Alderdice and her family. Five stars is the most I am permitted to rate Dog Soldier Justice, but it deserves more than that and anyone whose ancestors were a part of the early history of America should be particularly grateful to Dr. Bloome for his detailed research and the sincere empathy he shows in his writing about these real people on the prairie who eventually succeeded,in making the wild terrority home despite its many dangers. This is not a derogatory piece designed deliberately to make Indians look bad, there were many good Indians, it is simply historical fact about the Dog Soldier Indians who did a great amount of harm to their own cause, and the story needs to be told as it happened, not as some would like it told. The extent of his research and his care in the presentation coupled with a captivating style of writing and complete footnotes to back up this writing makes this a must reading for those interested in the history of the Plains in the 19th Century.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Broome at the Little Big Horn Battlefield this year, 2005. I have found this book to be outstanding in the discription of just how ruthless and savage the Bog Soldiers were to the settelers of the Kansas plains. The research is outstanding and well documented. This book will move you in the hardships the settelers of the West went through and their courage and bravery of them all. The brutality that the Dog Soldier Indians put upon the woman of Kansas is heart braking and it's amazing anyone who survived could have endured. I highly recommend this book, regardless of how you might feel concerning the Indians of Kansas as this book presents the moving story of the will to live and survive and settle Kansas.

Paul Posey
Grovetown, GA

I bought this book at a discounted price.

In my view, it offers very good value for money. Not only Andrew Lawson's photograph are very inspiring, but the entire book is meant to intruduce the reader to the idea that an English Garden can be much more varied and original than the conventional "idea" of garden most of us have.
Several types of garden are described, from more traditional to very modern ones, from relatively modest to sumptuous, and also focusing on the use of particular elements like, say, water.

I found most interesting (for English residents) that the book is mainly focused on gardens open to visitors. This makes the beauty and glory of such places truly, because physically, "accessible" to the reader, more accessible in fact than the book could ever achieve.

I do not have many books on gardens, I like them but they are not one of my main interests. Still, this and another book I have bought on the subject are enough to plunge me in the world of gardens everytime I feel like it, with great personal satisfaction. The fact that I did not feel the need to look for additional books is the testimony that I have already found what I was looking for.

Whilst I do not know whether this book would completely satisfy the expert or avid connoisseur, in my eyes it certainly addresses all the needs of the non-specialised reader, providing a pleasant experience both in the text and in the (beautiful) photographs.

For the price (even at Amazon's discount) I expected the photos to be a better quality, perhaps a little glossy too. The photos are beautiful but they actually look better on line when you view Amazon's peak inside. In the book the pictures look like the copies I get from an in-jet printer of my old family photos. Not as sharp and clear as the original.

If you are looking for inspiration and excellent instructions on how to create an English Garden then I recommend Ursula's other book- "The Ultimate Garden Book For North America."

This one is a great coffee table book. You and your guests will enjoy looking at it once in a while. There are phtotos on almost every page. However, I don't think it will be very useful if you want to update or create a new room in your garden.

At the end of each chapter there is a list of gardens in England that you can visit for the particular theme.

The Chapters are titled as follows:

1. Formal Bones (60 pages)

2. Floral Exuberance (52 pages)

3. The Landscape Tradition (30 pages)

4. The Country Garden (36 pages)

5. Gardening with Nature (26 pages)

6. Influences from Abroad (22 pages)

7. Ornament in the Garden (32 pages)

8. Water, Water Everywhere (30 pages)

9. The English Rose (20 pages)

10. The Kitchen Garden ( 28 pages)

11. The Contemporary Garden (28 pages)

Notes (20 pages)

gorgeous book - made the perfect gift to my sister-in-law who is an avid gardener and loves english garden design

Most of gardens of the world can be put into two major categories: formal gardens and naturalistic gardens. The formal gardens are represented by Egyptian gardens, Persian gardens, Islamic gardens, Italian gardens, French gardens, and some American gardens, etc. The naturalistic gardens are represented by some famous English gardens, Chinese gardens, and Japanese gardens, etc.

If you mention English gardens, most people will think of large areas of lawns, trees, garden architecture, lakes and sky. These are the basic elements of a typical English landscape garden.

"The English Garden" covers not only the typical and well-known English landscape gardens, but also formal garden layout ("formal bones"), country gardens, kitchen gardens and contemporary gardens, influences from abroad, as well as garden ornament, plant materials such as English roses, etc.

Ursula Buchan and Andrew Lawson wrote: "All gardens, if they can be described as such, have ultimately to do with the desire of their maker to control their surroundings." They continued to discuss the various periods of English gardens including the Roman period when the early formal gardens dominated and the Landscape Movement period when geometric forms were intentionally rejected. They also discussed knot gardens and parterres, Medieval courtyard gardens, the Arts and Crafts style, the cottage gardens and the New Naturalism.

"The English Garden" is one of the most comprehensive books on English gardens open to visitors. It has 240 pages and over 300 color interior photographs. It is an indispensable book for English garden lovers.

Gang Chen, Author of "LEED AP Exam Guide" & "Planting Design Illustrated." LEED AP, AIA

This book has a theory that Zecharia Sitchin would be proud of. There is a lot of information and evidence to back up the theory. This is a great read, whether you tend to think along the lines of the author or are a total skeptic. I also liked the beautiful illustrations of much of what is depicted in the book. The conclusions about the Mother Goddess Isis and the Ark of the Covenant is one I had never heard of before. (I must admit I am interested in the Mother Goddess aspect of cultures and ancient history.)
The author uses the geometric shapes and measurements found throughout the world to come to his conclusions. This is something that many historians do not look into, why the measurements of most cultures are basically the same. Many good questions are brought up, and Mr Wood tries to answer them with his theory. It seems to be a mix of Erich Von Daniken and Zecharia Sitchin, with his own spin thrown in. While I do not agree with all his conclusions, I must say I was fascinated by the book.
This makes for a good match for Colin Wilson's "Atlantis and the Kingdom of the Neanderthals".

To begin with it is extraordinary that amazon.com have mis-spelled and incorrectly listed the title which is: GENISIS The First Book of Revelations. Also the subject matter is hardly categorized as "Religion". The book contains a phenominally well researched investigation into the mysteries surrounding Rennes-le-Chateau, a subject touched upon by the authors of "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail", one of whom, Ian Campbell is also listed as the co-author of David Woods subsequent book "Geneset - Target Earth" which very neatly prefaces the Shoemaker Levi Comet's collision with Jupiter. All those who are fascinated by the scientific confirmation of the cause of the extinction of dinasours being the collision of a comet on earth will be well advised to try to acquire these tiltles.

Similar to Tons Brunes book The Secrets of Ancient Geometry-And Its Use (though far less staid, well researched, and analytical) and other books on the Rennes le Chateau mystery, David Wood's Genisis is a worthwhile, thought-provoking book on geomancy and the still-emerging science of sacred sites. Wood attempts to prove that certain Greek myths were, at least on one level, deliberately coded information regarding the origin of mankind. Wood supports his argument by the geometrical patterns created - presumably intentionally - by the placement in France of ancient sites devoted to religious cults. His claim that phallectomy was an intrinsic part of certain ancient religious initiation rites seems farfetched, but nonetheless the book is a highly stimulating and most unusual presentation of the ancient astronaut or ancient high science genre.

The fact that 'Genisis - the First Book of Revelations' is still selling steadily after 14 years says a lot about its relevance to today's culture. It is a challenging book which stimulates the reader's thoughts and seriously provokes a re-examination of one's belief systems. Its claims may seem far-fetched but each one is backed up with evidence which weighs heavily on an open mind. The geometry, however, is pinned down and refined in his second book 'Geneset - Target Earth', where the seemingly exotic geometrical claims of 'Genisis' are fully substantiated in depth. A fascinating read at all levels and a 'must' for anyone with an intelligent and open mind. The third book 'Poussin's Secret' is also a fascinating, in-depth study of Poussin's 'les bergers d'arcadie', which involves the same geometry as divulged in 'Genisis' and 'Geneset'. All three books are readily available through Genisis Books, Fleet Litho, Park Farm Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England.

With the hindsight that makes for history filled out and fully viewed, we can make linkages that, in their time, might not have been apparent or apropos. Such is the case with GIANTS, the linkage between two great men whose contemporaneous lives filled the stage with action, philosophy and legacy, but who, in their lifetimes, were neither close friends nor fellow travelers.

John Stauffer, a professor of English at Harvard and author of several noted history books (METEOR OF WAR: The John Brown Story, and THE BLACK HEARTS OF MEN: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race), has highlighted here the similarities between the rough-cut, self-educated Civil War president, Abraham Lincoln, and the renowned human rights autodidact, agitator, orator and editor, freed slave Frederick Douglass. Both men sought to break free from the limitations of their childhood circumstances, fought literally and figuratively for what they believed and were admired as great strategists on the battlefields they found themselves on. Both were alcohol- and tobacco-free at a time when nearly all men indulged in both habits. Both had numerous sexual liaisons, and both loved poetry. One man was tasked with uniting a nation torn apart by the onerous stigma of human slavery, and the other was charged with exhorting his people to free themselves from that stigma and rise above it. Both had some success and some notable failures.

Douglass wrote his autobiography, MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM, and it is a remarkable work. Simple, articulate and honest to a painful degree, it clearly delineated what it meant to be a slave in America. A tall, strong adolescent, Douglass learned early on that even his benign masters (and there were several, possibly because he had been fathered by one of their extended family) did not shrink from sending him out to work for people with a cruel streak and a taste for torture. His benign masters were forced by the strictures of presumed white superiority to allow the young man to be flayed bloody and to defend the rights of the men who did the whipping. That a person in their care could starve, hide and wait long nights in terror rather than face another such punishment did not seem outrageous to his white owners. Douglass was smarter than many slaves and not bound by superstition. His young life reached a turning point when one overseer engaged him in a physical fight and was unable to win after four hours of continuous exertion. Though that victory did not bring release to the slave, it did instill in him the courage to overcome a master whose weakness was now obvious. He tried over and over again to escape and finally succeeded, only to face the deprivations of a runaway until he was made a free man by legal means and was able to begin a self-actualizing life at last.

With his eloquence and passion, partly learned by observing black revival preachers of the time and also liberally sprinkled with sharp humor, Douglass quickly rose to prominence in the abolitionist North and made such a reputation that when he went to call on President Lincoln, he was brought to the head of the line. As he passed forward, he heard his fellow petitioners refer to him as a simply "the nigger." For his part, Lincoln stood morally high above most men of his time in being willing to let a black man cross his threshold and converse as an equal.

Lincoln had risen from the plainest poverty, son of a backwoods family whose greatest ambitions were to become shopkeepers on what was still the frontier land of the midwest. Men made their names by being fierce and violent, by drinking and fighting one another in bouts that had no rules except the assertion of total physical dominance. Lincoln was called on to participate in one such rough and tumble, but by insisting on fair rules of "wrestling" rather than the lawlessness of the usual brawls, he emerged as a local hero. Finding himself with little talent for commerce, he chose politics as a way to earn a living and learned he had a gift for debate, combining a natural intelligence with a folksy bent for telling tales.

Like Douglass, Lincoln was not only tall, as is well known, but also physically powerful and unafraid. Like Douglass, he had to make an "escape" from the woods to the town and finally to the city, where, like Douglass, he found a constituency. The author points out that both men altered their speech patterns and accent as they rose to national recognition. Lincoln would have talked like a Shakespearean bumpkin with harsh enunciation and truncated consonants, while Douglass was very conscious of the nuance of gentlemanly speech as opposed to the sloppy patois of the slave quarters.

Lincoln showed his self-made independent temperament by accepting Douglass at the White House not once but several times. Despite Lincoln's assertion that the war was being fought not to free the slaves but to save the Union, Douglass exerted influence to gain the right of conscription of black soldiers (though at a rate of pay half that of white soldiers). Douglass was convinced that the war would bring an end to slavery and a beginning to racial parity. He was only partly right, and Lincoln was only partly successful. Douglass was welcomed by Lincoln after his immortal second inaugural address ("with malice toward none; with charity for all"), and Douglass told him his words were "a sacred effort." The two men knew that greater struggles were ahead. And though Lincoln greeted Douglass as "my friend," he knew that Douglass was one of his most vocal critics. Douglass quietly believed in Lincoln, wanted him to show himself better than he was, and mourned bitterly after the president's assassination. Douglass lived to see the nation reunited, but he also recognized that the rift caused by slavery and the unwillingness of the warring factions to enforce human rights for all would leave scars deeper than those of mere warfare.

Douglass was able to lay down his armor after the war was won, and in later years he left the battle for African American rights mostly to others. He frequently eulogized Lincoln and was once called upon to dedicate a statue depicting the late president with a grateful slave kneeling at his feet. Lincoln "as the Christ figure was more accurate than Douglass wanted to admit," Stauffer states. It was the recalcitrant South that in a few short years had overturned the policies that Lincoln had hoped would have guaranteed black male suffrage and universal citizenship to anyone born in the United States. The freed slaves had much to thank Lincoln for, and Douglass, who had once referred to Lincoln as "a genuine representative of American prejudice," made of him a martyred hero and a god. But Douglass had not become a lamb in his old age. Not long before his death, he advised a young student to "Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!"

GIANTS will satisfy with the fresh light it casts upon two towering figures in American history as they played out the roles that destiny had chosen for them --- neither fully right and both flawed, but hewn from the same tree of idealism, determination and love of their people.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott

As the nation's preeminent scholar of interracial friendship, John Stauffer turns in Giants from his previous prize-winning work on abolitionist friends to offer the first collective biography of the two preeminent self-made men in American history: Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. That previous book, The Black Hearts of Men, was a hard act to follow but Stauffer goes even further here in Giants. Vivid, insightful, exceptionally well-researched and beautifully written, Giants restores to both mythic figures their complexity, ambiguity, and humanity, giving us an entirely fresh vision of two individuals who transformed themselves before they could transform society. Just as exciting, though, is the parallel narrative of national identity. As Stauffer reflects one giant off the other, we see in their intersecting lives a national journey toward the Second Revolution of the 1860s. This braided story of Lincoln and Douglass, one of change and self-making, alliance and conflict, faith and loss, is the nation¿s own story of bonds and betrayals during the nineteenth century. In fact, while other books might focus on Douglass and Lincoln's politics during the Civil War, only Stauffer examines the bigger picture: the ways they made and remade themselves and the nation their lives, loves, friendships, and the whole nature of love and friendship in the Civil War era. He weaves together themes of historical memory, race, gender, loyalty and forgiveness, empathy, outsiders, and the boundaries of the personal and political. The book therefore gives us a deeper, fuller picture of both men's lives and characters, and also a window on a whole era. This is history and biography written in glorious techicolor: set against Douglass, Lincoln comes alive anew - and vice versa - but so too does the intense drama of the time. And that history is a living drama: after the election of Barack Obama, a man who is said to transcend race but also has finally replaced Lincoln (and Clinton) as the nation's first 'black president,' has publicly grappled with the changing nature of his own friendships, and acknowledges the political and personal inspiration of both Douglass and Lincoln, we might find in Stauffer's dazzling page-turner a framework for understanding the story of Obama and ourselves in 2008. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

"Giants," John Stauffer's account of the lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln is an excellent introduction to these self-made men who had much in common. Both came of age in milieus in which brutality was commonplace, Douglass as a slave on a Maryland plantation and on the streets and wharves of Baltimore, Lincoln as a poor young man in backwoods Indiana and Illinois. Both were largely self-taught, sharing even a common source of reading material, "The Columbian Orator." Douglass did not know his father, a white man, and Lincoln had little regard for his. Both were tall, imposing men who could and did win battles not only of words but of physical strength. The parallels are numerous and striking. Abolition, of course, brought them together (although not always in agreement), but so did a mutual respect for each other's intellectual and oratorical abilities. Stauffer's account is most compelling in its description of the forces that shaped both men. Look again at Twain's description of Pap in "Huckleberry Finn" and you'll understand exactly the kind of men that attacked Douglass when he attempted to speak on abolition in Indiana. "Giants," is, I think, less strong in its account of the meetings between the two during the years just prior to and during the Civil War. The material itself is interesting, but many of the events are also familiar. Here, the reading feels a bit like a college course, with Stauffer filling in the details of events that the reader might have forgotten about, like the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This need to provide historical context slows things down a bit. Still, the book is absorbing to the end and offers a great deal of interesting detail about Douglass, in particular, that will not be well known to readers who are familiar only with his "Narrative." The elegiac conclusion of "Giants" is particularly graceful in its incorporation of the advice the elderly Douglass gives to a younger admirer, whom he urges to "Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!"

This is a brilliant and deeply moving book. There is no reason for me to repeat the praise others have so justly given it, but I would like to mention one feature that has not yet been pointed out. Stauffer's prose reads with the same brilliance of a powerful novelist's prose. I hate to use a cliché, but I couldn't put it down. I opened it planning to read a bit and then go on to other things I had to do that afternoon. But I read into the evening and then the following days until I quickly finished it. It is not merely the beauty of Stauffer's prose style that pulls the reader in, but also his skillful handling of the two narratives he unfolds. Even though I knew the general facts of both men's lives, I was captivated by the way Stauffer developed their characters, and I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next. John Stauffer is not only a major historian, he is also a great story teller.

In this beautifully written, lyrical book, Stauffer tells the story of the two preeminent self-made men in American history: Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. He gives new understanding to the concept of self-making, a central metaphor in the American experience, and reframes our understanding of these two literary and political giants who rose up from slave and dirt poor backgrounds through language. Using words as weapons, they reshaped their world and gave inspiration and hope to future generations. GIANTS will make you laugh, it will bring you close to tears, and it will show you what's possible through hard work, faith, luck, and the power of language. It will give you the courage to continue striving, to remain audaciously hopeful even in the face of daunting odds, and to continually remake yourself, much as Douglass and Lincoln did. It is a book for our time.