University of Nebraska Books

This book is written by the mother of the Late Christa McAullife.It was a wonderful book!Interesting and a inside look at the excitement they felt being chosen then the tradgedy they felt after the Loss of her.It basicly is a bio about Christa.

Unlike most books about Christa McAuliffe this one discuses Christa's life before the selection as teacher in space as well as after the selection process and it is written by the person who knew her like no one else, her mother. We learn of Christa's childhood and her spirt and joy that stayed with her during the course of her whole life. Nothing could take this away from her and with it she enriched and touched the lives of every student she had. Corrigan's book using letters and family history paints a touching portrait of Christa no one else could. Everyone should read this book and it will uplift you farther than you ever thought possible and give you a whole new out look on teachers and what the power they have to uplift. No matter what your backround is you will benefit from having read this book.

This book is honest and touching. Rarely do we receive the privelege of being allowed into the heart of a mother who has lost a son or daughter. So much is learned from Corrigan's novel.

My gratitude to Dr. Peace for writing this biography of Leslie A. White is tremendous. I am not a professional in the social sciences, although I discovered Leslie White's writings in the early 1970's while attending college. To say they intrigued me is an understatement. On and off through my whole life I studied White's writings, and followed up on many of his sources, such as Emile Durkheim.

Not being a professional in the social sciences, and being so 'taken in' by White's theories and rhetoric, I wondered considerably about how White's writings were received in his own field, that is anthropology. In my questioning of various professors I learned that White was 'a Marxist', and left unsaid was the supposition that 'therefore - should be disregarded'. This never set well with me, as I was totally convinced of the validity of his arguements, irregardless of their ultimate intellectual source.

Basically, I read this book from cover to cover in two or three days over the Thanksgiving holiday of 2007. It answered all my questions about Leslie White. It portrays the picture of a brilliant man pursuing in single minded determination his desire to understand the human condition. I'd very highly recommend this book to anyone like myself who wishes to understand and learn about this brilliant man. Thank you very much Dr. Peace!

Author Peace has done a masterful job in exploring the work of this eccentric and complicated anthropoligist.
His work and personality are examined and startling facts sensitively revealed.
It is well written, informative and shows a true understanding of the man's personality and brillaint theories.
Well worth reading!
Kathy Boncuk

In Peace's preface he writes of anthropology's historians Geo Stocking and Dick Handler "failures to consider the political beliefs and actions" of the anthropologists they chronicle--a charge that well summarizes the central devastating shortcoming of the history of anthropology for the past 30 years. This biography goes a long ways towards suggesting how anthropologists can reintegrate politics back into their disciplinary histories. Peace builds an interesting historical account of White and establishes the deep impact of Marx and socialism on White's life and theory.

I loved John R. Erickson's 1981 1st end edition of this book and wondered if the 2nd edition would live up to standards set by the first edition. I was not disappointed. Erickson gives a unique insight to cowboying. The chapters "Economics and the Cowboy" and "The Cowboys Wife" are in themselves enough to make this book a unique contribution to Western American literature.

I have only one small complaint about Erickson's work. That is that he gives feedyard cowboys the short shrift. His only discussion of them is a few condensending comments in "The Last Cowboy" chapter. He says he doesn't mean to disparage them and yet turns around and does just that. A book about "THE Modern Cowboy" needs a thorough treatment of feedyard cowboys. Moreover the distinction between feedyard cowboys and ranch cowboys is largely an artificial separation that exists only in Erickson's mind. The majority of feedyard cowboys that I've worked with have worked ranches and you will find quite a few ranch cowboys on the Great Plains who have put in their time in the feedyards. However, I would not let this one oversight of Erickson's keep me from reccommending this book to anyone and everyone.

Now in its second edition, The Modern Cowboy strives to answer the query: who is the American cowboy? Where did he come from, and what is he today? Digging deep into American history, legend, and practical reality, as well as taking a solid look at the contemporary lives led today by men responsible for the welfare of cattle, The Modern Cowboy is a superb source of background material for anyone who truly wants to know more about the legendary figure who appears in so many Western novels and movies. Highly recommended both for entertainment and personal edification.

I just finished reading The Modern Cowboy by John Erickson. It is a very good book about the life of the American cowboy. Erickson covers every aspect of the cowboy working on a ranch in our country. He not only covers the day to day life of the cowboy, he gives the reader a view of what is in the future for cowboys and ranching. A great book.

I have read a lot of American history with the Old West being my favorite subject. I have always said that Stephen Ambrose's books about the Old West are some of my favorites that I have read over and over. I just finished reading Money Mountain by Marshall Sprague. It is now my favorite history book of the Old West. He writes so well it was hard to put down. Of course, the subject matter is unbelievable mining history. Some prior historical knowledge of the Cripple Creek Mining District in the late 1800s is very helpful to have before you read this book.

I was looking for a complete history of Cripple Creek from it's beginning, and I found it in this easy to read and follow book. Great details encompassing many different pioneers and stories of the area.

I don't know where I got this book, but at whim I just picked it off my bookshelf. I was not particularly interested in Colorado, or gold mining, but this well-researched history of the Cripple Creek district was so well written, that I just couldn't put it down. This book was written 50 years ago, but Marshall Sprague's style is so crisp, so fresh, it reads like it was written yesterday. He has a real knack for chapter-ending punchlines.

There is only one "problem" with the book. It seems so contemporary, that when I read such statistics as the price of gold, and they were off by hundreds of dollars, I had to remind myself that the book was indeed a half century old. The author died in 1994. I am sorry I cannot tell him how his writing shines. I plan to read other titles of his.

Book arrived promptly and in the conditon advertised. I would purchase from this vendor again.

A wonderfuilly constructed and well written history on a subject most Southerners prefer not to talk about. That is a shame because there was little shame in it as men went home to protect their families and farms from advancing Yankee armies. The CSA government recognized this as a rationale when they issued an amnesty program to get the men back. However, once home, many of them faced missing families, destroyed homnes and more, and thus turned to theft. Ultimately, however, these men tended to collect into small irregular units that fed off the local population creating a dangerous situation. Not only did the lack of troops in the armies handicap efforts to"keep the cause alive", so did these irregular bands of deserters by turning the population against the CSA government, and by using local regular troops to hunt them down.

A nicely crafted history that needed to be written.

It often seems that no real new information can be found on the Civil War as it is THE most written about event in our nation's short history. Mark Weitz however has done just that, taken a subject, and wrote an authoritative tome on it.

Desertion is a subject that has seen little serious investigation done, especially on the Confederate side, for several decades. This is a subject that has deserved more work, especially for its effects on the fledgling Confederate nation. In the past, desertion has been at best covered on how it affected states (Alabama gets a very good book covering it's trials on the home front in "McMillians's Disintgration of a Confederate State") and seldom anything approaching a war wide study.

Weitz has done this and in a convincing way to show how desertion become a cyclic monster feeding and growing as it was either ignored or coddled by both state and federal (CS government) entities and the onset of lawlessness on the home front encouraged it. With few exceptions, officers/officials in the CS government tended to be at least sympathetic towards deserters, witness the constant offers of pardon/blanket amnesty that the CS trotted out every few months. While there were officers who shot deserters, they were few in the over all context of the war. The CS had thousands, if not tens of thousands of men who were multiple deserters. Captured or cajoled to return to duty, these men often wasted little time before deserting again. It was a problem that saw armies of deserters in many regions of the South by the end of the war. This was despite, desperately needed CSA soldiers being sent to root out deserters throughout the South during the war.

Weitz argues that many of these men deserted because of the broken social contract between them and those that stayed at the home front; especially the rich and government officials who were to ensure that soldiers' families not starve or suffer while the men were away fighting. Other factors he argues such as the loss of the border states (retreats from them saw a huge wave of desertion), decisive defeats in 1862 (it is believed a majority of paroled Confederates may have deserted while at home awaiting exchange), the Conscription Act of 1862, oppression of home front Unionists/neutrals, tax in kind impressment, growing perception of a 'rich man's war, poor man's fight'; all contributed to the outflow of men from the Confederate armies--many with their arms and equipment.

These men, allied directly with local Unionists, or lawlessly preying on anyone nearby, or simply resisting any form of the Confederacy they encountered, made up a third front. This third front was one the Confederacy never really paid much attention to until it was too late. Between local/state courts invalidating conscription calls or the inability of state/local forces to control what in many areas was battalion to brigade sized forces, the Confederacy saw strangled commerce and an inability to extract recruits or resources. At the same time it made soldiers at the distant fronts more concerned about families in what was supposed to be safe areas. All of this, long before Federal forces ever got anywhere near such places.

The numbers are hard to argue with though some may have cause to debate calling stragglers or men coming in late from leave deserters as Weitz does, but it is impossible to argue that even a temporary loss of these men hurt Confederate war making abilities. Weitz also believes that a more severe policy of shooting more deserters could have forestalled enough of these men from leaving. In my opinion, it was far more likely to have ignited more armed mutinies instead.

Though expensive, this book is well worth the cost for anyone even remotely serious about this war. Heavily documented, well written ,and interlaced with many first person vignettes, this book has a place on one's shelf. Hopefully, someone will do a similar job on Federal forces soon.

Few images are more enduring than the Confederate infantryman, clad in rags, blanket roll, slouch hat, dirty beyond belief with an immaculate rifle in hand. Standing without fear against long odds, he endures cold and hunger for "the cause" fighting to the bitter end. This book is NOT an attack on that image, rather it documents that there are multiple images in every great event and all of them can be true. Mr. Weitz has written a very readable, intelligent and thought provoking account of desertion and draft dodging in the Confederacy. He validates the image of the Confederate infantryman while showing us that other images are equally valid and need to be understood.

The heart of the book is a year-by-year account of desertion in each theater coupled with the military and political response. Every student of Civil War history knows about how understanding most armies were of "French Leave". In addition, we know that the South was not as solid as legend suggests but contained significant pockets of "Tories" throughout the war. That is a simple and somewhat straightforward story that hardly seems worthy of a book. If this was all that the author had to give, I would have been unable to finish the book.

First, we have a discussion of why non-slave owing White subsistence farmers are willing to fight and their understanding of the "contract" with the CSA. This is a very interesting subject that the author deftly handles, giving us a look into rural Southern life lacking in many books. This contract' while unwritten but understood forms the foundation upon which these men build their service. They leave expecting the government to care for and protect their homes. This includes seeing that their family is not in want. Documentation shows that the men, the states and Richmond fully understood this unwritten contract with each party aware of their obligations. This discussion might be one of the best explanations of why the CSA succeeded thru 1862 that I have found.

A second very strong point is the discussion of how men felt about areas that were not "home". This becomes critical as the war progresses but the standard civilian view and fear of armies translates into feelings that civilians in [insert state name here] are not supporting the cause and the fighting men. This perception of no support leads to alienation as men decide that this area is not home. For a nation based on the idea of home, this decision excludes the area from the nation.

In 1861 desertion is not a major problem Homesickness, "what have I done?" and problems within the unit are the driving forces. The military is very tolerant of desertion and most deserters face reduced charges when and if they return. "French leave" and straggling are accepted and returning to your unit takes care of the problem. This toleration and the requirement of returning to the original unit become fixed ideas in the military and the governments. Later, these policies cause real problems but no one seems to be able to fully reject them and make a fresh start.

1862 is a critical year for the Confederacy, seeing conscription, inflation, shortages, war profiteering, bloody battles and loss of territory. Desertion becomes a major problem, links with draft dogging and receives active support from the new Union government in Tennessee. As homes disappear behind Union lines, men can go home free of military service by "swearing the oath". Tennessee is very active enticing men to leave CSA service, come home and sit out the war. In time, Grant becomes involved by exempting Confederate deserters and draft dodgers from the Union conscription laws. As the problems grow, response is mired in the policies of 1861 and the issue of state's rights. One state court rules that catching deserters and draft dodgers is a national issue and the state cannot participate.

Beset by internal problems, with Union armies advancing and bloodier battles, in 1863 the dam breaks. Desertion reaches epic proportions in every army in spite of amnesty proclamations, general orders and a few executions. Worse, not all men can get home and many join together to survive. These organized bands are larger, well trained, experience better armed and able to overwhelm local militia. They prey off the civilian population, providing a haven for resistance to taxes and the draft. In some areas, these men control the law making it impossible to collect taxes or to arrest them. The author does an excellent job of linking this to the earlier question of what these men considered a nation and how they felt about areas outside of "home". Once again, local Union commanders take advantage of the situation providing arms and supplies in some areas. In other areas, a 3-way fight develops between these bands, the local militia and the Union army. Trapped are Southern civilians and the men that have stayed in the army. The contract is broken forcing them to make hard decision based on their true loyalties and responsibilities. The author fully captures the pain this choice caused and how these men are forced into this decision.

Government response is inadequate and might be called wishful thinking. In the face of appeals from both the military and the states, the government continues the failed policies of 1861 with few exceptions. The book contains examples where a local commander is able to produce results by breaking up bands and capturing men. However, requirements for men at the front, politics and policies never managed to produce a solution that is more than temporary.

By 1864, the South has lost the war. More men see this and respond by going home, often behind Union lines. The numbers are surprising even for a student of the war. What is often passed off as "French Leave" or AWOL is really a loss of manpower the South cannot afford while being unable to implement policies that will stop it.

This unique and valuable study needs to be in the library of every serious student of the war. While a scholarly text, it is an interesting, informative and enjoyable read.

I have purchased many tractors over the last 25 years and I wish that I would have had this book all the while. The Nebraska tests evolved to provide the farmer with a standard of comparison to gauge his power requirements. Many manufactures prior to these tests boasted claims, but there was no real way to be sure. This book explains the need for this program and gives complete and comprehensive results for 'every' test. I find it a very interesting and informative authority of tractor power and reliability.

Charles H. Wendel's tireless research provides a very compelling volume of information for the farmer, collector, restorer, or enthusiast. Presented chronologically, the volume offers technical data on hundreds of makes and models, ranging from John Deere, International and Minneapolis-Moline, to lesser know and specialty tractors such as David Brown, Bates Steel Mule, and Big Bud.

Each tractor's technical information is accompanied by a photo (in some cases and actual photo of the tractor at the test lab). Data is incorporated directly into the text and the volume is very well edited.

The Nebraska tests were the one thing that standardized tractor ratings. This book is full of information that can be found in bits and pieces elsewhere,but is complete, from the testing lab to you,in this volume. A must have for the serious tractor hobbiest or professional. Lots of good pictures and info on even some of the rarest of tractors.

As I look forward to again attending The Prairie Festival at The Land again this year, I relished reading this book. It was fascinating reading the four authors' discussions of their work and their lives as they intersect their published writing.

This book also spoke to my interest in the Operation Migration project which is leading the way for the whooping cranes to again be wild and part of the land. John Price ponders and dissects the importance of place and the meaning of home and how we can follow Wendell Berry in really knowing about the place where we live.

"Though Heat-Moon's final quest for memory is a times awkward and self-conscious, it is for him essential. If America, if the human species, is to survive, then it must work actively to rejuvenate and reconstruct geographically specific, ancestral paradigms-deep maps-that move it toward a grand harmony of people and places."

Anyone who has seen the movie "Into the Wild" will resonate with Price's description of the effects of William Trogdon's decision to write "Prairy Erth" under the name William Least Heat-Moon.

"This rejuvenation begins with the individual journey, with the singular act of self-creation represented, perhaps, by William Trogdon's decision to rejuvenate the William Least Heat-Moon name. Whatever the consequences for the larger world, it was clear to me that the "Heat-Moon self" had led Trogdon to write one of the most important books on the prairie in American literature, a book that had had a profound impact on my own commitment to place. That fact alone suggested that what Heat-Moon had written about names was true, that they have he power to shape who we become in relation to the land around us. He writes:'Many tribal Americans believe that a person turns into his name, partakes of its nature in such a way that it is a mold the possessor comes to fill. When names lose their first meaning, as they have to most Americans of European descent, that mold becomes only a handle for others to move us around with.'"

This is an excellent regional history - social, biological and natural history - of the American plains.

John Price's voice is expansive and insightful, including his family connections to various spots in the middle plains states. It also is a look at just what it will take to ground him, via nature, in life. And, as a relatively recent husband, it is also a reflection on where that grounding will take place, and the give-and-take that will be involved with his wife.

As to the specifics of life on the plains, while finding much to celebrate once stereotypes are penetrated, stereotypes still have a fair degree of truth, as do cold, hard facts.

Racism and sexism can still be found in the Midwest, for example. They may be fading away, but they haven't disappeared.

Unfortunately, what has disappeared is untainted land. Take these eye-opening stats from Price's home state of Iowa, for example.

Just one-half of 1 percent of the land is in a pre-European natural state, the worst of any of the 50 states. Even worse, it is so farm-and-ranch chemical laden that only 20 percent of it can EVER be restored to that pre-contact state, it is estimated, citing Richard Manning's "Grassland."

Can we change to something more sustainable? That question, too, gets pondered in this book, and from different angles.

===

Two caveats on matters historical and botanical.

First, the Quapaw and Caddo lived in the southern plains, not the northern ones; second, the prairie did not extend from Appalachia all the way to the Rockies -- Illinois was the one cis-Mississippian state with significant prairie.

(from the Aug. 2004 issue of NCB News of Nebraska Center for the Book http://www.unl.edu/NCB/)

In the first sentence of the acknowledgements page, John Price states: "This is a memoir." But what follows in NOT JUST ANY LAND is not simple autobiography; it is more a combination of scholarly research, self-searching, and the time-honored method of using others' words to clarify his own thoughts about the region formerly known as prairie, what we call the Great Plains. This "memoir" is grassland exploration and ecology literature search at its best: Price cites over 65 authors in his bibliography.

Price traveled to South Dakota, Kansas and Iowa to discover what remained of the prairie, and in the process interviewed four writers whose books had spoken to him of the region. These writers - their varied views, stories and struggles - are the subjects of the four main chapters of the book: "Reaching Yarak: The Peregrinations of Dan O'Brien," "Not Just Any Land: Linda Hasselstrom at Home," "Native Dreams: William Least-Heat Moon and Chase County, Kansas," and "A Healing Home: Mary Swander's Recovery Among the Iowa Amish." Price's insightful questions and sense of humor make the book's subject highly accessible and memorable.

Great Plains enthusiasts, as well as those wanting to understand this often-overlooked region ("...where surprises can live and grow"), will delight in his extensive use of quotations from well-known writers such as Wendell Berry, Gretel Ehrlich, Wes Jackson, William Kittredge, Wallace Stegner and Terry Tempest Williams, to name just a few. Woven through the narrative in often lyrical passages is Price's own exploration of place, community, family history and an understanding of "...what it is that the land demands of us in our daily lives: the nature of responsibility."

Price, who grew up in north central Iowa, has written an important book about region that will be studied, discussed and enjoyed for years to come. He is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

Fresh out of Yale, McClintock went to Montana in 1891 as an employee of the forest service. He ended up living with the Blackfoot tribe and learning their way of life. One elderly chief, Mad Dog, adopted him and taught him tribal culture and rituals so that someone would write them down. This book is the result.

The bison were gone and the Blackfoot economy lay in tatters. Still, McClintock's band was following his traditional seasonal movements, keeping the Sun Dance, and trying to live as they always had - - even as everyone realized that their way of life could not survive in the face of the white man.

McClintock serves as a very sympathetic scribe for the tribe. He was clearly a good listener. One Blood chief in Alberta told him that he had vowed never to speak with white men again, and yet he ended up adopting McClintock as a son. Because the tribe trusted him, he was admitted into a tribal society, invited to participate in rituals, and so forth.

Through most of the 500 pages in this book, McClintock takes a very fair-minded approach to both the Blackfoot and to white society. He often notes how tribal norms, such as sharing, are superior to the behavior of more "civilized" peoples. He takes both Christianity and tribal religions seriously.

Oddly, all this falls apart in the last chapter, where he endorses destructive policies that take away tribal land, convert the Indians to Christianity, and force assimilation on white terms. This chapter contradicts the tone of the rest of the book so deeply that I can't imagine what he was thinking when he wrote it.

Aside from that last chapter, this is a fascinating record of the tribe's traditions at the last possible moment that the tribe was still living its traditional life.

Walter McClintock was a young man who came to the Blackfeet Country at about the turn of the century. He was a trained scientist who could use a camera and he kept careful notes. This is not a romance novel nor anthropological interpretation. McClintock was simply there and made friends well enough to be accepted. He recorded stories, rituals (also took photos), and daily incidents as well as much natural history. He was really there and he is an honest and graceful reporter.

How could it be possible to adequately describe such a powerful -indeed, magical- account of a young man's time with the Blackfeet in the early twentieth century, a time when much of the Old Ways still lived among the Blackfeet people. I have owned or or another edition of The Old North Trail since 1970, and have ever since then been entranced by McClintock's unselfconscious limpid prose style, his descriptions of a summer snowstorm, or a grand encampment of the Blackfeet, the way Indian people in northern Montana prepared and stored food for the coming of winter, or the simple, deep, and everlastingly real relationship with a culture which was even at that late date still indescribably precious and beautiful. Both a superb travelog and a microscopically observed anthropological account of life with the Blackfeet, this book is an extended love letter to the Indian people with whom Walter McC lived. As I write this review I'm transported back to my early twenties, a California surfer just out of college, immersed in a hot deep bath, reading The Old North Trail at sunup in Inverness, Scotland, and forgetting where I was, so completely did this book cast its spell. This is one of the very, very few books with which I am still in love.

I read this beautiful book cover-to-cover in one sitting as I just could not put it down. I think the description might be a bit misleading as it makes the book sound like a sad lament of loss, when in fact it is a joyous celebration of life. "Phantom Limb"also puts life into perspective, and will hopefully alter yours--as it has mine.
Ms. Sternburg explores her relationship with her mother and father touchingly, as her tale weaves back and forth from the past to the present, revealing the delicate nature of the human condition. The story is written in searingly honest prose, each one a self-contained vignette that links together to form the memory of whole human lives. This book is not necessarily just for people coping with loss...it's much more than that. "Phantom Limb" does exactly what good literature should do: it transports the reader to another realm, and it's beauty will stay with you, long after you put the book down.

What a brilliant, heartbreaking, wise book. The central metaphor is haunting and unforgettable. Janet Sternburg, in her heart of hearts, is a true poet.

This story is mesmerizing and painfully real to anybody who has lost a parent to illness. It's beautifully told, without being overtly sentimental. Sternberg skillfully lets us enter her world as a daughter, a caregiver and a woman who is also dealing with the baggage of her own illness. You are with her every step of the way. It is rich in its telling and goes straight to the heart.

I also found the detail in which she describes being an advocate for her mother a fascinating study that can be useful to anyone that is put in the situation of navigating care for ourselves or someone else. Phantom Limb speaks to what so many of us have either faced or will have to go through as our parents age. Bravo!

This is a very insightful and passionate view of the game of golf. Suprisingly personal as well. I've been playing, studying, and reading about the game for over 35 years and this is one of the most original books I've read on golf. Mr. Brumer's views on life's experiences as they relate to golf will make you think about your own reasons for playing this game. His views on the playing and teaching of the game are based upon years of being exposed to some of its most original thinkers (Ben Doyle, Gregg McHatton, Bobby Clampett, etc). I don't believe Andy intended for this book to actually improve one's game but I can assure you - it will.

Andy Brumer created another masterpiece. He takes us to new places on and off the golf course. Great reading for those days that you are not teeing it up.

Andy has done it. There are lots of golf books. I was once told there are more books about golf than all the other sports books put together. The amazing thing is that so many of these golf books are the same. They just have different covers. Andy has succeeded in writing his second thoughtful and original golf book in less than a year. This is an outstanding accomplishment. To take advantage of all the work that Andy has done you need to read his book! You and your golf will be better because you did.

The Impact Zone: Mastering Golf's Moment of Truth