Pacific University Books

I am using this book as a source of information for some railroad travel guides I am putting together, and it is very helpful, in that it is not merely a "list of place names," like so many other similar books I have seen are. This book actually has historical information and useful material which I can incorporate into my guides, which will make train travel passing through the places listed in the book much more enjoyable and interesting. It is an excellent resource!!!

This book is not for the serious researcher, but is tremendously interesting for those curious about the sometimes zany history of California's place names. Most entries include an interesting tangle of history and culture and the usual mispronunciation of Native American names by early white settlers. Its a fun book that would make a great stocking stuffer and should brought along on any California road trip. Two thumbs on this one.

On this the 50th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Ohau, the Air Force story of 7 December is told in its entirety, for the first time. Often times the heroism and anguish of airmen at Wheeler, Hickam, and Bellows have been overshadowed by the main event, the attack on Pearl Harbor itself. This book corrects that oversight. The Japanese attack on the airfields of Oahu was an integral part of their overall plan, and their objectives were achieved. The Hawaiian Air Force was dealt a crippling blow, despite often heroic efforts to counter the attack.

I don't know how many books there are on the attack on Pearl Harbor. All of them talk about the attack at Pearl on the Navy. All of them kind of add as an afterthought, 'Oh yeah, the Air Force got attacked as well.'

Yes the Air Force got attacked as well -- seven hundred of the casualties were Air Force.

This book was put together to tell their story. It first gives some background of the development of the bases, the activities going on at the time, about like what the books on Pearl have to say about Navy activities. Then it moves on to the attack itself.

All of the books talk about the radar site that picked up the incomming planes. It turns out that there were multiple radars that detected the incomming planes. But to no avail. The Air Warning system is described in some length. It was a pretty good plan. But on December 7th most of the little boxes had people in them. Much is made of the officer in the air defense center telling the radar operators not to worry about the blip on there screen. He was a 2nd Lt. He was a pilot assigned there as extra duty, it was only the second time he had been at the center. Would you really expect a 2nd John to wake up the General at 7 AM on Sunday Morning?

This is the Air Force's side of the battle. The result is no better, but it's a side of the story not often told.

A great book for lovers of American history, and a real treat for anyone looking for real life examples of how the American capitalistic way of allowing competition in the market place results in better products at lower prices. The book provides insight into how the military industrial complex should work.

Examines the 1984 "war" that pitted Pratt & Whitney against GE in head-to-head competition for multi billion dollar defense contracts to provide high performance engines for front line fighter aircraft. The circumstances surrounding the lengthy battle led to the Air Force decision to split future engine sales between the two. Attempts to cut through emotional opinions of the "combatants," to report reality, & to identify lessons learned. Helps the reader to understand the government-to-contractor personality issues; to understand management styles, business expectations & communication skills of key participants

The first part of the book Van Creveld describes German air operations in the early phases of the Second World War. The Luftwaffe was extremely effective in interdicting and preventing enemy counterattacks, also Luftwaffe officers and army officers directed the attacks. But Van Creveld argues that the Luftwaffe wasted their resourcers against civilian targets such as railroads. The next air force that Van Creveld analyzes is the Soviet air force. The Soviet air force was under complete control of the army and acted as flying artillery to prevent any German counterattacks from appearing, but the Soviet air force engaged in hardly any interdiction missions against the Germans. According to Van Creveld the Soviets had the most effective form of aerial warfare since their role as flying artillery impeded the Germans from stopping the Soviet attacks. The final air force that Van Creveld evaluates is the Israeli air force. During the Six Day War, the Israeli air force was able to destroy lightly armored trucks but could not due any damage to the Arab tank forces. In the 1973 war the Israeli airforce couldn't provide close air support due to the presence of SAMS. Van Creveld than concludes the book by writing a chapter about the Gulf War that is strongly crititcal of the USAF. In Van Creveld's opinion if the USAF wasn't addicted to strategic air warfare than it could have closely cooperated with the ground forces in destroying the Iraqi army. In the appendix chapters USAF generals reply to Van Creveld's criticisms by stating that the Allied bombing campaign in Western Europe allowed the Russians to gain air supremacy and have effective close air support operations and the same applied to the IAF's performance in the Six Day War. The only weakness of Van Creveld's book is that he ignores Allied close air support operations in Western Europe from 1944-45, but otherwise this an excellent description of how the Russain and German airforces operated in the Second World War and how the IAF operates today.

Blargh! That was the sound of my brain spewing out all the garbage thoughts I had about strategy before I read this book. Dr. van Creveld, et. al., provide a remarkable (and concise) analysis of manuever warfare and the coexistent application of airpower. You're missing the boat if you think this book is Stewart Smalley self-motivational testimony for the "Zoomies" (Air Force). This book concisely provides the six tenets of maneuver warfare within the first 10 pages, giving the lay-reader an excellent oversight into how it is that the United States dominates every battlefield (and by extrapolation, the reader can figure out why disasters such as Somalia occur when the military deviates from that 'winning' formula).

In describing the history of maneuver warfare, van Creveld pre-empts the maneuver warfare nay-sayers by going beyond simple parallels of the German model. Yes, he gives the reader an outstanding version how Nazi Germany 'Blitzkrieg' tactics (really the application of maneuver warfare concepts) devasted Europe in the opening months of the Second World War. But Dr. van Creveld also goes into detail regarding the Soviets' masterful turning of the tables on the Eastern Front, Israel's decisive brilliance in the Six Day War, and maneuver warfare's direct role in the defeat of Iraq in 1991.

Now, who should read this book? In my humble opinion this book should be mandatory for all new military officers and senior non-commissioned officer. Not because it espouses air power's importance in modern warfare, but because it gives the reader an excellent template from which to build a cohesive team and winning strategy for overcoming challenges. Hell, you could even cull out all references to air power and strictly look at the six principles of manuever warfare - I'm strongly considering doing my master's thesis on "Maneuver Warfare Concepts and Modern Business Strategy".

In short, whether you're a military member, aspiring military historian, or a business person looking for new creative techniques to conquering the competition, this book is for you!

Most works on the Antarctic describe the region with a series of forbidding extremes. The continent is said to be the coldest, driest, highest, windiest, and most remote place on earth. At least one other extreme merits inclusion on this list: Antarctica also is the most neglected continent in both the practice and study of American national security policy. The reasons for this neglect are not hard to fathom. Precisely because of all Antarctica's extremes, only a handful of Americans have ever expressed an interest in the region. During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, sailors from New England explored the waters of the Southern Ocean in search of seals for trade. Later, commercial exploitation of the region's living resources gave way to heroic feats by famous explorers. The adventures of Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Admiral Richard Byrd opened up the Antarctic in both a literal and figurative sense, as the popular imagination became seized with the haunting images of the last earthly frontier. Yet, for all its majestic beauty, the Antarctic never possessed sufficient wealth or strategic significance to command broad and sustained attention from the American body politic. Even as more Americans became aware of the region, Antarctica remained the province of the few. Indeed today, it is populated only by a small circle of scientists, and the civilian and military officials who support their research. Not surprisingly then, US decisionmakers have generally paid only scant attention to Antarctica. Consequently, policy toward the region traditionally has suffered from a lack of strong direction from the top and a corresponding air of ambivalence. For example, in the first half of this century, the State Department carefully laid the foundation for a territorial claim there

The author has put together a poignant and well-written analysis of what promises to be a hot topic for international politics in the coming years. Though some of the conclusions may leave the reader cold, Klotz's work provides an excellent guide for those interested in both Antartica and national strategic policy in general. The author's astutely critical presentation makes it much easier for the reader to warm up to the material than in many similar contemporary works. Frank Klotz has done the professional readership a tremendous favor by writing this book. One can only hope that with this sort of analysis out there, unresolved political tensions might not boil over in the foreseeable future.

This book is beautifully illustrated with photographs, illustrations, and the most detailed distribution maps I have ever seen. The design of the book makes it a perfect coffee top book and it's content makes it both a perfect introduction to the world of salmon while at the same time a valuable scientific reference.

This book is very accessible to non-scientists, if you are looking for a book about how salmon, man, and the enviroment interact this is a great book. The title sounds a little academic but it can be appreciated by anyone with interest in salmon. And anyone who flips through the book will be taken in by the beauty of this book.

The Atlas of Pacific Salmon is what all universities and government agencies needed 20 years ago. I dare say, it was almost worth the wait. This is a splensid compilation of data and images. The map work in this volume deserves much praise. The content covers biogeography, biology, genetics, threats, status etc....
Should sell for over $150

Thus book was a labor of love. With years of experience as a lifeguard and surfer, John's curiousity went beyond. He studied oceanography, read all he could, and interviewed all those who knew anything about each beach. The result is the best source of information that will ever be available about Hawaiian beaches.

THE GREATNESS OF KAUAI'S BEACHES.

I am the daughter of one of the book's character's (Rafael "Sancho" Sanchez). It was so interesting to read about not only my father's exploits, but the others in the company as well. It brought back many memories of the many stories my father use to tell me about his war experiences. It also brought a real perspective of the trials of war to someone who was born eleven years after it ended. Thank you Sy for bringing me and my family a part of my father we never would have known if you had not told your story.

I was also 18 years old when I was sent to the Pacific and found everything that Sy Kahn wrote. Now at 71 years old I never thougth I was to find so realistic book and brought back so painful and glorius memories. This is my first war book I read and I do not regreted. I did realy enjoy it.

Mr Piatt spent a lot of time researching for this book and it definately shows and is very informative of the history of mining in Bodie with great photos. A must have definately.

This is an excellent book, obviously a work of intense research and profound appreciation for the town and people of Bodie, California. The author touches upon myriad aspects of the town's development and decline, including anthropology, technology, and geology. The book also deals with the human side of this hard-scrabble community, and includes many personal reflections of actual Bodieites. The author also infuses the book with a unique sense of humor, which perfectly suits the subject matter. Highly recommended!

Mary Sojourner has the unique talent for taking us, with just a few strokes of the pen, into the stark, cold underbelly of human greed and arrogance, then flinging us into the heartbreaking beauty of the natural world. As a lone warrior and guardian of that natural world, she stops at nothing to protect it, facing arrest and the lawyers of multi-million dollar corporations with the same unyielding stance. Her essays are a testament to the best--and the worst--of the human spirit and this world we live in.

This is a collection of fifty-one personal essays about living (and dying) in the southwest that will leave you angry, sad, happy, disillusioned, and hopeful. But beware: if you are looking for a touchy-feely, I'm OK-Your OK collection, this is not for you. These essays are opinionated, sometimes in-your-face, always passionate critical critiques of living in the contemporary southwest that are a sheer delight to read. In pieces ranging from aging, gambling, land development and nature to the demise of local businesses and the joy of shopping in downtown Flagstaff, AZ., the reader is treated to one woman's opinions in a thoughtful, clear, and highly readable manner. Sojourner is destined to be a major player in the environmental, activists' genre. Highly recommended.