Pacific University Books

Arthur Guy Empey became something of a celebrity with the 1917 publication of Over the Top. Born in Utah, Empey served six years in the U.S. Cavalry as a young man, and was a recruiting sergeant with the New York National Guard when, in the wake of the Lusitania disaster, he traveled overseas to join the Royal Fusiliers. Sent to the western front, Empey was wounded in the opening Somme offensive, invalided out of the Army, returned to the U.S., and wrote his Over the Top. It was a bestseller, and propelled Empey into a screenwriting and acting career.

Over the Top has the advantage of being written while the events it recounts were fresh in Empey's memory. It gives a good feel for life in training camps and on the front, and it's written with a wry, self-deprecating style that immediately wins over the reader. Empey's tales of battling cooties (lice), red tape stupidity, and pompous red cap (general) officers are genuinely funny. And they're really necessary, because otherwise reading his accounts of fighting would be too horrible to bear. Empey's description of his first experiences under fire (Chapter XI), in which time slows down and he feels detached from his legs running toward the enemy trenches, is the best I've ever read. His descriptions of using corpses as machine gun supports (Chapter XXI), his descriptions of the effects of bombardments (throughout the book), and his genuine horror at being forced to participate in the execution of a deserter (Chapter XXIV), are chilling and, one senses, authentic.

Not so authentic is the totally bathetic description of a coward redeeming himself in battle (the bulk of Chapter XXVI), nor Empey's claims to have been involved in so many high-risk outfits: first bombers (here he gives an excellent description of early jerry-rigged bombs), then maching-gunners, and finally intelligence. And at times his gung-ho enthusiasm for the war is tiring, although he redeems himself by reminding his readers several times of his loathing of war. Still, the book is well worth reading.

If one wants an interesting look at the British Army in France during the Early part of WW I with an American Witness / Soldier twist. You might want to consider this book. While its has a fair amount of propaganda, it has a lot of good details that overcome it.

This book is fast reading because it's so hard to put down. It was written when America's entrance to the Great War was imminent, though uncommitted. Moreover, it was written by an American that joined up with the British forces via Canada. The author had vast combat experiences as an infantryman, machine gunner, bomb thrower, and artillery observer. It's hard to imagine that the author would have survived the War if it wasn't for a wounding that sent him to 'blighty' for good. Empey's writings are about daily life within the Western trenchs; the obvious, the unthinkable, and the overlooked. Further, Empey's writing style is fluid and crisp making the work much more than a diary or a guidebook. Definately a fine piece of literature to hold to and not "lend to a friend".

I was loaned a copy of this book a few years ago by a co-worker who is almost as nuts about military and industrial history as I am. Though his reason for having me read was for the human aspect, not the technical.

Now, I have read many personal accounts of soldiers and sailors in wartime, from the American Revolution, the War Between the States through Vietnam, Beirut, and the Gulf War, some well written, some just interesting, and some frightening.

This book is all of those. It is well written, informative, and scary. Not having ever been exposed to hostile conditions, I cannot directly relate to what the author shares, but I am definately deeply affected by the emotion and imagery portrayed therin.

The Mr. Empey joined the Royal Army while he was still a recruiting Sergeant in the NY National Guard in 1915. Unable to convince Americans that we were destined to fight in the European War raging overseas and needed trained, disciplined and motivated troops, he did the next best thing by going "over there" himself.

After completing his training then being assigned to a replacement company in France his real adventures began.

The trenches of the western front had been in place for some time when he arrived and they were replacing the casualties of
stagnated lines. Regular artillery barages, probing raids, snipers, dysentary, trench foot, disease and madness all took there toll.

Mr. Empey tells the story from a persanal point of view sharing his insights and observations. You almost feel icky from the cold,oozing clay, and catch a chill from being wet all the time as though you were there in the mud with him.

I was impressed with his inclusion of all the activities in the field. He even describes the primitive sanitary conditions at the rear while on rotation from the front. In spite of the prescence of the International Red Cross, conditions at the front (and in the rear) were atrocious. many casuaties were from the inadequate sanitation... and not from enemy fire.

I applaud Mr. Empey for publishing this book when he did, for even after being invalided out of the British Army, he was still thinking of the naive American Boys who would follow soon in 1917. He tried to share his experiences so that others would benefit.

I do not know how well recieved this book was with Mr. Empey's contemporaries, or how well the book sold, but I think this book should be recommended reading for all military personnel...

This is a very good read for anyone with the strength to stomach it.

When the Great War broke out in Europe in 1914, most Americans were convinced that the fighting had nothing to do with the United States. There were precious few with the foresight to demand that America enter the war on the side of the allies. Arthur Guy Empey wrote OVER THE TOP to show his countrymen that the battle that the allies were fighting was our battle as well. His book, which reads like a novel, is more of a personal narrative in which he describes his volunteering to join the British Army and fight 'over there.' Much of his book deals with the daily dreariness of the horrors of trench warfare. Empey skillfully draws a composite picture of the average Brit soldier, whom he nicknames Tommy. His book is at once brutal, comic, and mundane--much like trench warfare had to be. By the end, the reader becomes convinced with the justness of the British cause, which true enough and soon enough, became the American cause. A very fine book.

A friend loaned me this book two months ago. I haven't returned it yet. It is simply the best book on these two parks that I have ever read. The authors accurately portray the very considerable geological power present in each park, and yet do not manage to make either park a fearful place to be avoided. Instead, their writing is a persuasive invitation to visit these wonderful manifestations of nature for an extended period. I was particularly impressed by the visitor's tour set out near the end of the book. I took a part of that tour in 1994, and the narrative is very accurate. I will certainly use my OWN copy of the book when I go back again this autumn. (I don't want anyone to think I don't return borrowed books!) This book is an absolute musthave-mustread for anyone going to the parks or interested in the geological processes that have made the West. Enjoy.

I was looking for a good geologic history book after finishing John McPhee's excellent "Annals of a Former World." Windows into the Earth seemed like a good place to start, but I was very disappointed. It seems as though the authors wrote each chapter (and sometimes even parts of chapters) independently and then slapped them together with little editing. Although the underlying geology is often interesting, there's little flow or logic to the book as a whole. Key concepts are repeated over and over, as though they're being introduced for the first time each time. Analogies used to make the subject matter more accessable often miss the mark and detract from the whole. This book may be worthwhile if you are visiting the region and want to understand more of what you are seeing, but I wouldn't recommend it otherwise.

I chose this book for my final project in geology class because I was interested in Yellowstone National parks though I have never been to, and this book was very good not only to read but also to review my studying in the class. Yellowstone and Grand Teton ground systems such as ground movements and heating systems are covered and also advanced my studying. Actually, I had totally no knowledge about geologic activities before I studied in the class, so this book was also really good to review my studying. In addition, this book introduces these parks view points with beautiful and colored pictures, so this book also can be used for a tourbook. It is no doubt that I will go to these parks with this book!

This treasure will turn "topography" into a household word. Dedicated to a fellow geologist recently killed by an avalance while conducting fieldwork, "Windows" is a slick and dramatic feature presentation of volcanism, earthquakes, and geysers. Superb maps and graphs colorfully illustrate variable stratae formed through the eons. An informal and friendly text is scholarly without being stuffy. The writers establish a tone of substance and humor as they discuss multiple upheavals that created Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. This is the kind of book that will impress early rock-ologists and even be hoarded by their more secretive, sedimental parents. The writing never "dumbs down" but is lucid with factual attention to landscape formation without snubbing the human astonishment that continually witnesses it. Thanks to geologist Smith and naturalist journalist Seigel, the book is threaded with lively accounts from park rangers, tourists, and waitresses at the Old Faithful Inn. Appeals to romantics and literalists alike. Studded with beautiful, full-color photographs. Every page is hefty and sleek to the touch, a feast for the eye as well as the brain. Kind of a wonder-book for anyone who seeks the phenomenal in terra firma.

This is an excellent book on the interesting geology of the Yellowstone ecosystem, an area that covers not only the park but a substantial area around it extending to the south to include the Grand Tetons.

The artwork is really excellent: both the photography, which is provided by several local professionals including Tom Mangelson, and the drawings, which make often difficult geologic concepts easily understood.

Yellowstone sits on top of a hotspot very much like the Hawaiian islands except that it's in the middle of a continent instead of the middle of an ocean. This turns out to be an important distinction, one that makes the volcano that created the park one of the largest ever in the history of the planet.

This book is well written and makes the geology accesible and interesting. And at the end, is a stop-by-stop tour of the two parks that will take you face-to-face with all that you have learned.

There are two good places to start if you want to know the history of California: the work of Carey McWilliams and this book. Starr really did his homework, and the range of detail is amazing. Like McWilliams, he knows how to tell a story, and he usually has the back-stage lore on whatever public events he describes in his lucid and very readable prose. That a fact or two occasionally get out of place (the San Diego Mission was not founded by Father Altimiri but by Junipero Serra; and San Antonio de Padua is actually in Monterey County) does not diminish the power or scope of this worthy book.

Starr's cultural history of California is more institutional history than anything else, which is not a bad thing if you like foundation studies. At the core of the book is the story of how enterprising and eccentric New Englanders attempted to tranfer their native civilization, with all its European imagery, to a new "city on the hill" at San Francisco. It's full of dates and events surrounding the history of colleges and churches and the people who founded them. One can easily sense Starr's interest in intellectual history as reflected in architecture, education and organized religion which, ironically, is a very East-coast way of looking at West-coast culture. Starr's book is excellent if you like that sort of thing, but it's not as tempting a study for those more fascinated with flesh and bone than brick and stone. Some could claim that it misses the fundamental essense of California culture altogether; a "new" civilization unencombered by pedigree and moulded by a beautiful and oppressive geography. This first book of the series is heavily centered around San Francisco and its related institutions.

Criticism aside, Dr. Starr's skill as a narrative historian is remarkable, and he should be considered in the same company as Henry Adams and Daniel Boorstin.

Kevin Starr has written a fantastic book. In Americans and the California Dream the reader is introduced to the giants of the age--Herbert Hoover, Leland Stanford, David Star Jordan, John Muir, John C. Fremont, etc. I also loved the fact that he included the lessor known personalities as well. Mr. Star clearly relates the truth behind all the myth and romance with regards to the Gold Rush. While Bret Harte is thorougly debunked, Starr acknowledges that the Gold Rush continues to hold the lure and romance that it always possessed. Anyone who wishes to be introduced to the wonderful history of California must read this. I will immediately purchase the second book of the series.

As a native Californian (San Francisco) I read this book after seeing it cited again and again as an excellent entry point for a study of California history.

I was not disappointed. I believe this book is widely acknowledged as a classic in the field of California history, and I certainly wouldn't disagree with that judgment.

Prof. Starr attempts to illuminate the psychology of early California by providing mini-biographies of important California residents. These biographies are linked together by several recurrent themes. It is these themes that provide the thesis (theses?) of the book.

The themes are: The dark side of the optomism which characterizes the "California" personality; the harsh conflict in early times which affected the development of a Californian "civilisation" and the melding of cultures (Mexican and Californian, Northern and Southern) that produced Californian culture.

Starr focuses more on cultural rather then economic or political figures. Starr also shows a fondness for somewhat Freudian explanations for behavior (repressive parents, absent parents, neglectful parents). Given the age of the book (1975) it's hard to quibble with the inclusion of a perspective tilted towards psychological explanation.

On the whole it was a worthwhile read, and not too dense either. Recommended for those interested in the history of California and it's culture.

Having lived in CA since I was 15 and not being able to imagine living somewhere else, I thought this volume is a must-read for all Californians, whether born here or "naturalized". Being specifically a San Francisco resident, this book shed more light on the history of this city's beginning and "teenage years" than any other source I have come across. Here you will not just read facts about people like Jack London, Frank Norris, John Muir, John C. Fremont and Richard Henry Dana. You will learn what they contributed to the idea of California and their influence on what this state has turned out to be, for good or bad. You will also learn of lesser-known figures such as Thomas Starr King, Thomas Jordan, Isidore Duncan all of whom were immensely powerful figures in their day, but hardly known today by the average Californian. The writing got a little ploddy at the end for me. Maybe I was just tired. Until I got to the last two chapters, I would have given it a 5 score, mostly on the criteria of how much I learned from it. I look forward to reading the next few volumes.

John Lubetkins literary genious is always very well transferred to his books. I highly recommend all of his books. He puts lots of research into his books and it really shows in the quality and the details. You wont regret picking up any of his books.

Jay Cooke's Gamble covers important background into the North pacific Railroad's history. It does not focus much on the actual railroad operations, but rather the financing and surveying behind the scenes. The author writes in a very readable style and does his subject justice.

The reader will be transported to a time when railroads determined settlement of the American interior. But before the roads could be built, the land had to be surveyed, and in this case the land was also still occupied by natives who wished to preserve their traditional way of life. The reader will encounter a cast of characters ranging from the venerable Jay Cooke himself, to General Geoerge Armstrong Custer, and all the important NP company engineers and surveyors in between. Some were drunkards (the author appears to have a strong bias against alcohol), some prone to mismanagement, and some, like Cooke, never set foot in the land where the action took place. All of this makes for a very entertaining and informative read. One statistic does stand out as being a possible typo: the author on page 274 states land in Bismarck, Dakota was selling for as much as $8000/acre. That figure appears high.

But this is a very good book. One hopes the author will continue on and write the history of the railroad after Cooke's demise and the Northern Pacific's ultimate completion and beyond to its eventual merger with the Great Northern and CB&Q.

This is one of those special books that is virtually impossible to put down once you start reading. Written in a highly readable, narrative style that puts the reader in the time and place being depicted, this book is the story of Jay Cooke's attempt to build a second transcontinental railroad, known as the Northern Pacific. Present readers may recognize its successor, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad that just happens to be the largest private landholder in the United States. An integral part of the story is the creation of Yellowstone National Park, the forced Canadian-British effort to build the Canadian Pacific transcontinental railroad, the Panic of 1873, the instigation of the Great Sioux War, and most interestingly, the link between Cooke and George Armstrong Custer that brought him back from the South and, as is said, the rest is history. This is a worthy addition to both national and regional history.

Mr. Lubetkin's work is well researched and well written. He's able to weave a narrative together that brings the beginning of the Gilded Age to the Indian Wars and railroad construction... frankly, I had never made the connection between the Northern Pacific and Sitting Bull until I read this book.
However, the final conclusions made me question the depth of the research. Lubetkin identifies the completion of the Northern Pacific several years later, and its competition with the Great Northern, whose surveyors "found" Marias Pass. There is no mention of the railroads' cooperation and attempted merger, nor the landmark Sumpreme Court case concerning Northern Securities and the creation of the ICC. Oh yes, and with reference to the previous review of the map quality, it would have been nice had the book included a larger map or two of the entire proposed routes.
I still believe Pierre Berton's The Last Spike (Canadian Pacific) to be the standard against all railroad construction history books should be measured. If Berton rates a 10, this book is an 8.

Author John Lubetkin has done an excellent job pulling together a widely diverse stockpile of sources and developing in-depth and unique look at the ill-fated attempt to construct the Northern Pacific Railroad in the early 1870s as America's second transcontinental rail link. Other books in the past have extracted the best-known portion of the series of events that constitute this story, namely Custer's 1873 Yellowstone Expedition as recounted in biographies of Custer and Sitting Bull as well as works from the late Larry Frost and John Carroll. The strength of Lubetkin's work lies in its all inconclusive disection of Jay Cooke and his Northern Plains Railroad dream which in no ways detracts from the military events that many of us find so compelling.

In the late 1860s, Cooke had reached the apex of America's banking world, having financed the Union war effort in the Civil War, funding that was crucial in the ultimate victory. He backed the dream, dormant since its 1864 charter, of creating the Northern Pacific Railroad running from Duluth, Minnesota across Dakota Territory, through Montana, Idaho, and ending in the Pacific Northwest.

The author's engaging style and in-depth research combine as he takes us back in time to the full context of the Gilded Age. We witness the brilliant Cooke as he ably finances his dream through repeated bond sales but the reality of what was being paid for soon begins to take its toil--poor management, gross overspending and corruption by those under Cooke, the unanticipated engineering challenges of laying a railroad through Minnesota's boggy, swampy terrain and, ultimately, the will of the the Lakota in resisting the railroad through their prime hunting grounds.

History is fortunate that former Confederate General Tom Rosser was the chief engineer on the 1871 Whistler Expedition and the 1872 Rosser-Stanley Eastern Yellowstone Expedition as well as served at the start of the 1873 Expedition where he was reunited with former West Point classmate, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. The author has delved deep into Rosser's diaries and correspondence from the manuscript repository holdings of the University of Virginia. For those like myself with an interest in the Indian Wars, the large section of this book devoted to these expeditions will prove compelling. An entire chapter is devoted to the 1872 Battle of Poker Flats and is absoluelty fascinating, especially the description of Sitting Bull's calculated act of courage of sitting on the ground, smoking his pipe as soldier's bullets failed to hit him as the battle concluded.

All of this culminates with the 1873 Expedition which proved necessary since staunch Lakota resistance prevented the 1872 foray from completing the survey. The author argues that Eastern newspaper coverage of the intractable Lakotas begin to slowly but surely unnerve Eastern investors who became more and more concerned over the feasiblity of a railroad through hostile territory, a concern that would explode in September 1873 with the worst possible results. The military responded to the 1872 difficulties by sending Custer's 7th Cavalry to the Northern Plains, thus giving the 1873 survey an offensive capability lacking in the infantry companies. This act also placed Custer and his regiment into the heart of the most untamed portion of the country where Custer's 1876 demise would carry him and the 7th Cavalry beyond the realm of history and into legend. Separate chapters on Custer's August 4, 1873 battle near the Yellowstone/Tongue River confluence and the larger battle a week later near the Big Horn/Yellowstone junction do full justice to these events as well as ably demonstrate Custer's ability in Indian warfare. Readers will be somewhat surprised as well as enlightened by the more positive picture of General David Stanley, Custer's superior on the expedition, as he has generally been written off as a hopeless drunk. As this book reveals though, he was able to command effectively when the situation demanded and there is far more to him than my previous knowledge had encompassed.

The book concludes with the return of the 1873 Expedition, the final survey complete but its results of little use until the end of the decade when the railroad was finally completed by a Northern Pacific under different management. For in September 1873, judgement day arrived for both Jay Cooke and Company as well as the U.S. economy as a "Panic" was unleashed on Wall Street, numerous banks, including Cooke's, failed and work on the Northern Pacific ground to a halt, dragging the nation into the depths of a depression that at least one economic historian has judged as second only to the 1929-1932 Great Depression. The author makes the argument that the reports of Custer's two battles, despite their small size and the success of Custer and his regiment, were the last straw in undermining investor confidence in the safety of the area that the railroad was trying to cross.

Excellent and numerous maps by Vicki Trego Hill are included throughout this book and their quality is such that even the most difficult to please cartographer will be satisfied. If there is anything that the author can be faulted on, it is for not including more of the William Pywell photographs from the 1873 expedition but I have to remind myself that this book is on the entire Northern Pacific Railroad effort, not just the Custer expedition. For those wishing to view these photographs as well as gain additional, in-depth, excellent insight into the 1873 Expedition, see Lawrence Frost's CUSTER'S 7TH CAVALRY AND THE CAMPAIGN OF 1873, out of print but available wherever fine rare books are sold, including Amazon as of this writing.

I use this book all the time. The descriptions are accurate and Coltrin provides all the GPS waypoints you will need to safely navigate. This is the only book you need.

now, just because we all know Mike doesn't mean these reviews are baised. This is an excellent book and it's easy to use. I would reccommend this book to anyone in Albuquerque that wants a beautiful hike, but doesn't know where to go. It is true that there are a lot more trails than just La Luz.

I must say this i probably one of the best guides for the sandia mountains in a long time. knowing the author myself i can tell you he definitely knows what he is talking about when it comes to the sandia moutains. it says it took him twenty or so years to hike them all, well before he wrote the book he decided to hike them again and it took him 3 months. Now thats detication.

I've been hiking this area since 1983. My bible for the Sandias is Mike Hill's "Hikers & Climbers Guide to the Sandias". However, the last edition is well out of date and I supplement with this book. When I decide it is time to explore a new area of the Sandias in depth, I take out both books and the maps provided therewith, set my GPS and make notes about terrain and when I have the time I'm off. Now if someone could just write one book that combines all this information, I'll be in hiker heaven!

This book is a fantastic resource. I have watched the author over the years put this guide together with painstaking precision, love and care. The full-scale map alone is worth the price of the entire book!

This text is a classic work on the creeds of both Paganism and Christianity.Eventhough,it was first published in 1915,it still rings true today.It provides the 'Mythos' and the 'Logos' concepts for the topic of religion.The first cults were fertility cults,with spiral phallic monoliths erected to the heavens.Some are still active today,in the countries of Africa and Asia .Next mankind moved on to cult-worship of Magick and the divine earth-spirits.The next and final stage is the formation of God-figures (anthropodeism) that descended from the heavens.These Gods and Godesses were human-shaped and not animal-horned in structure.Lastly,the monotheistic concept progressed and the belief of mankind created in the image of a single supreme God-figure developed.
The most interesting concept presented by Edward Carpenter is the 'Three stages of the Consciousness of Man'.The first stage being the 'Simple Conscious stage',where man's thoughts were instinctive and no different than the actions of a wild animal.The middle stage is the 'Self-Conscious stage',where modern man's actions are based on rational logic (logos),that rises above impulsive behavior.Where man developed language ,followed by laws,the passing of rules,and the ownership of property.Once the earlier two stages are secure then mankind can progress to the third stage,the 'Golden Stage of Enlightenment of Mankind".this lofty stage is false.Mankind is in a constant struggle between the first and second stage.Between the base 'Mythos' stage and the structured 'Logos' stage.The abandonment of the self-consciousness in favor of a global utopian pacificist world,has yet to be realised and perhaps impossible.Between ethnic warfare,religious beliefs,and scarcity of resources this final stage seems quite remote.Yet,it is these struggles that impell mankind forward towards that 'final stage' ironically.After all these years,the words of Edward Carpenter are still valid and quite prophetic indeed.

This book demonstrates how christianity and paganism are based on astrology and natural processes. It is truly astounding and is of the utmost significance to those wishing to debunk christian foolishness. Also check out "The Jesus Mysteries" by Freke and Gandy. For information on how the cross symbol was derived from astrology, see "Occultism Simplified or the Mystic Thesaurus" by Willis F. Whitehead. "Pagan and Christian Creeds" is greatly needed in the battle for truth in the face of christian literalism.

I very much enjoyed reading this book, which, for its age, has held up rather well. I had always known that Early Christianity 'borrowed' from pagan religions some holidays and practices, but it was not until I read this book did I know the depth of theft. Almost like a plaigarism of faith intended to convert the masses (which it sadly succeeded in doing). The only part of the book I disliked was the final material, in which the author offers a new religion of sorts which is very metaphysical and a little dull. But the rest of the book is a keeper.

Carpenter proposes that self-conciousness and fear led to the entire world pantheon of different faiths.

"Naturally as soon as Man began to think about himself--a frail phantom and waif in the midst of tremendous forces of whose nature and mode of operation he was entirely ignorant--he was BESET with terrors...the natural defence against this state of mind was the creation of an enormous number of taboos...hardened down into very stringent Customs and Laws...avoidance not only of acts which might reasonably be considered dangerous, like touching a corpse, but also things much more remote and fanciful in their relation to danger, like merely...passing a lightning-struck tree; ... and acts which offered any special pleasure or temptation--like sex or marriage or the enjoyment of a meal.

"...Fear does not seem a very worthy motive, but in the beginning it curbed the violence of the purely animal passions, and introduced order and restraint among them. ...(F)rom the early beginnings (in the Stone Age) of self-consciousness in Man there has been a gradual development--from crass superstition, senseless and accidental, to rudimentary observation, and so to belief in Magic; thence to Animism and personification of nature-powers in more or less human form, as earth-divinities or sky-gods or embodiments of the tribe; and to placation of these powers by rites like Sacrifice and the Eucharist, which in their turn became the foundation of Morality...; observations of plants or of the weather or the stars, carried on by tribal medicine-men for purposes of witchcraft or prophecy, supplied some of the material of Science; and humanity emerged by faltering and hesitating steps on the borderland of these finer perceptions and reasonings which are supposed to be characteristic of Civilisation."

Carpenter goes on to compare Christian tenets with pagan practices around the world. You can see how fear of neverending winter, starvation, and death spurred belief in magic, ritual, animism, anthromomorphism, and today's conventional religions.

In his British imperialistic furor to spread civilization, Carpenter also predicts the emergence of a "Common Life" beyond self-consciousness, blasting the selfish motives of capitalism and actually hailing the practices of early Christian communities and the movements of the Communists in eastern Europe.

Granted, Carpenter's book was first published in 1920, just after WWI, before we could see Communism fall, and before Ayn Rand could inspire anyone to Constructivism. But Carpenter's view of religious history is useful. It certainly predates Campell's Hero of a Thousand Faces but has similar depth and scope.

I recommend this book along with:

* Joan O'Grady's "Early Christian Heresies" which examines the philosophies and turning points that molded Christian tenets during its birth and growth so that it could promise salvation to the masses. The scope includes Gnosticism, Marcionites, Montanists, Manichaeism, Donatists, Arianism, Nestorians, Pelagius, and more.
* Erik Davis' "Techgnosis: myth, magic + mysticism in the age of information" which proposes that forms of communication shape social and individual consciousness of reality. "It follows that when a culture's technical structure of communication mutates quickly and significantly, both social and individual 'reality' are in for a bit of a ride. ...The social imagination leaps into the breach, unleashing a torrent of speculation, at once cultural, metaphysical, technical, and financial."

After reading the first few chapters of this book online, I had to get an actual copy of the book, and I'm glad I did. Despite the age of the text, it still holds up great today. It reads well and the ideas come across rather easy. Ideas are presented w/ just enough examples and refrences (unlike Frazer's "Golden Bough" were it seems like there are fifteen examples of everything), however in acouple places I wish there were acouple more, but thanks to great footnotes and bibliogrophy it's not hard to do your own research (however, see the next paragraph about the footnotes).

The only problem I have with this book though is the format that it comes in. Footnotes appear before the next available paragraph and ends up getting in the way of the actual text, Certain words are capatalized rather then in italics, and a few mispellings (which I don't really believe is the fault of the author). There is copy of the book online (it's public domain and no longer subject to copyright laws) and it seems like the publisher just found an online version of the book and copy and pasted it, as there are a few things...that look more like HTML code then actual words. Also the chapter on astronomy should have acouple of graphics that are missing but are still alluded too in the text.

All in all, this is an amazing book on religion and the origins of christianity and is highly recommended to everyone. It has some very eye-opening ideas and well worth the time to read.

Like another reviewer from Hawai'i, I also read this book in a Pacific Island literature class. What could have easily become a story about white man's exploitation of the Maori people and the environment (and I'm okay with that kind of story too), was instead turned into a glimpse inside the Polynesian mind and set of values. The sections most unsettling to us Caucasians -- those on the mystical aspects of the wood carvings -- relate much about the way the Polynesian views the past, as being in front of them, something to learn from. And we learn that what we regard as "ancestor worship" is really a matter of valuing those who have cared for the land and passed it on to us, along with the knowledge of how to live on it. We're also shown the value of stories: This book is told as a collection of the stories of many persons, each of whom has a unique perspective, something a little different to tell. Some stories are pragmatic, some we would term "mystical," but they too contain a valid warning.
This book probably did more than any ever -- fiction or non-fiction, and I'm a voracious reader -- to help me understand Polynesian values, which are basically the same values as those of indigenous peoples all over the world -- care for the land, respect the ancestors, listen to others' stories. Our planet desperately needs indigenous values!

I had a hard time reading this book -- there were parts of it that I found lyrical & compelling (like the introduction, and many of the chapters narrated by toko) and parts that seemed very heavy-handed (especially the telling of the history of protests over land that had been claimed by the gov't during wartime and the chapters narrated by hemi). Especially early in the book I found it easy to set it aside for periods of time, but I got more engaged as I got to the second section.

One major weakness is that there's no glossary or translation of any of the Maori terms, so it's a much more difficult read for someone who is trying to become more familiar with the people and culture than someone who already is.

By luck, I got this book from my local library on recommendation of a friend. After reading it I still felt the emotions of these Maori people who maintain their ancient traditions and beliefs in a thoroughly modern world. The impact of old/new carvings, the constant sound and smell of the sea conflicting with modern bulldozers and "Dollarmen" trying to outwit the villagers, is only part of the story. You feel you can enter the minds of the family members who tell the story, mostly in English, but some in beautiful Maori poetry. You may not know what the words mean, but try reciting them out loud and you sense the deep meaning of them.

I can't recall when I've ever felt so strongly the musical rhythm of an author's style, or the extent to which it changes to suit the tempo of the action and themes. In the first third of this wonderful book by a very talented writer, conversations between the simple Mary and Granny Tamihana, the guardian of Maori traditions, echo and sound like chants; between Roimata and Hemi, a happily married couple, they resemble duets with complimentary themes. The scene in which Mary gives birth is a grand, complex chorus with the several family members singing over, around, and above each other as they fight for the narrative line. Toko's story of his big fish is a soaring aria which ventures into a mystical realm, for Toko is a seer. And all this music seems totally appropriate to the lives of these Maori characters living in harmony with the land and their ancestors.

The middle third of the book changes, as Hemi, the father of the family, abruptly introduces the harsh notes of reality which occur when "the works" closes down, and he and his friends find themselves unemployed. In mournful tones he comments on the loss of tradition, language, and connection to the land which are coming about as education is imposed on their children by outside authorities, and people such as himself accept outside jobs. Their very existence as a group is also threatened by developers who want to buy their land to put up hotels, build seaside parks where visitors can play with the dolphins and whales, and commercialize the lifestyle these Maori have enjoyed all their lives.

In the final third of the book, as the Maoris fight for their land, the staccato, simple language is like the harsh beat of a war drum, and the songs disappear from the language, not returning until the rebuilding of the sacred house and the funeral of a key character bring about harmony and poetry once again.

It is hard to imagine that Patricia Grace did not deliberately tailor her prose style to her subject matter, yet this seems so completely natural--so totally without artifice--that one wonders if this harmony of words and subject might be the ultimate, triumphant example of the unity of story and life which she so vividly celebrates in this memorable and touching novel. Mary Whipple

This was a mandatory book in a Pacific Literature class. Lucky for me. It is filled with complex symbolism that tells not only of a land struggle for a people who are holding on to their traditions, but how they learn, and choose what they take from "Western" ideas in order to fight for what little of their own land that the government has left for them. A lot of other people -including Hawaiians- are going through this now, which makes this book as relevant today as it was when it was written.

The story is told through Toko, a deformed child who has a special knowing. He is central figure in the book, and not only as a story teller. His "second mother", Roimata, is the other story teller. Although, everyone has a story, they are the only two who actually tell the stories. It is an enriching and enlightening book for anyone familiar or not familiar with Moari culture or the struggles between land developers, government, and native peoples of any country or island. It is also much more than that, but I don't want to write an essay just to tell you how great the book is!

I was very pleased to read this one for the second time. No doubt I was too young to appreciate its virtues twenty years ago. I look forward to reading more of his work, much of which will be new to me.

I found Rudin profoundly touching and an almost astonishing work for a novel so slender. Rarely in so few pages can a writer have illustrated his themes so emphatically and so artfully. Throughout Turgenev uses nature as a proxy for narrative description and as a result the novel has a very calm and controlled feel. The characters are bound by their differing natures and their development is shadowed by changes in the natural environment they find themselves in.
More importantly, to my mind, however is the way in which the character of Rudin exposes the central contradiction between a desire for truth and a desire for love. By his nature, as we discover, Rudin is unable to conquer love but is however able to remain true to his ideals, despite being unable to act upon them. To this extent Rudin is impotent, he is clear about what he wishes to achieve - to become a man of action - yet he is fundamentally unable to achieve such a goal. As such he is destined to remain unhappy. However, unlike others, he perceives this and so is able to remain truthful to his self and thus in contrast to those other characters in the novel that are destined to remain unhappy, as he too is destined, he at least discovers and embraces his true self and as such realises the higher being in him. A higher being so often alluded to by others.
In such a fashion Turgenev exposes this central dialectic beautifully. By positing Rudin amidst a decaying social setting and allowing his seemingly constant passage of self-discovery inadvertently to fuel the self-discovery of those who come into contact with him, Turgenev demonstrates how a synthesis between self-knowledge and self-sacrifice is essential before true love can be sown within one's soul. Rudin, by being so lucid regarding what he loves (truth), whilst simultaneously illustrating to all the futility of his love, shines a light upon the ready attainability of the loves of other characters. Thus those characters who sought to see in Rudin something approaching an ideal are shocked and provoked into attaining their own, real, ideals. It is only those who refused to see in Rudin anything but impotence, coldness and bluster who emerge unchanged characters at the novel's conclusion.
As of Rudin himself, his love (truth) is attained only at the cost of discovering that he is less a mighty oak and more a shallow tumbleweed (Rudin himself goes from using the Oak as an analogy for his feelings to that of a tumbleweed by the end of the novel). Perhaps it is this inevitable conclusion to Rudin's long search, the same search that befalls all of us, that provokes Rudin (in the Epilogue) to finally attain his ideal as a man of action and thus ensure that, against the greatest odds, his seed was not, after all, sown upon barren ground.

This is a simple parable, told within a beautiful story. We meet Rudin through several people's eyes and learn much more about him from the differences others see in him than we learn directly. It is facsinating to see the interplay between the man's fantasies and his facade. You are left with very profound and troubling unanswered questions about your own life and our tenuous connections to "reality." This is a powerful volume for anyone who is seriously and sincerely examining their own motives, especially if you are dissatisfied with your current conclusions.

_Rudin_ is a good novel by Ivan Turgenev, but altogether non-essential, unless you want to read all of his works.

The character Rudin is a fortunate young man in 1860s Russia, a man around thirty years of age, in the prime of his life. He is very much a superfluous man, like the man Turgenev wrote of in his shorter story "A Superfluous Man." He is all talk and no action. He has high-minded ideals but can not transfer them into deeds.

I suppose Turgenev saw many young Russian men of his generation who served as the basis for Rudin, the character. Natalya, Rudin's love interest, at least has the fortitude to translate her ideals into actions, but she is offered fewer possibilities by Russian society. She comes off more sympathetically than the title character, but she is female, and therefore a minor character in a Turgenev work. I found her more interesting, and similar to the female main character in _Oblomov_ by Goncharov.

The political edge on this novel is not nearly so sharp as that on _Fathers and Sons_. Mostly this seems a personal and emotional novel, rather than a political novel. A student wanting a general grounding in the major novels of Russian Literature can probably skip _Rudin_. On the other hand, if you read _Fathers and Sons_ and found that book very rewarding, you may want to take a peek at _Rudin_, to see what another (earlier) novel by Turgenev is like.

ken32

Rudin is the lead character in this short novel, which reads like a play set in mid nineteenth century Russia. He enters into a provincial society peopled by the usual array of grand dames, eccentrics, local radicals, and beautiful / eligible debutant-daughter, with whom he (believes he) falls in love.

Whilst the characters and setting is characteristic of many European novels of the time, the story takes an unexpected turn. Rudin is a fateful character, and one whose shallowness and egotism is exposed by the young daughter who he seduces. Turgenev manages to present Rudin as a sympathetic character albeit imbued with the resignation that he is a 'superfluous man' (cf. 'A Hero of Our Times' by Lermontov)

The book is well written and deserves a place in the canon of nineteenth century Russian novels . Particularly recommended for anyone who has read Fathers and Sons.

This is the second of Delderfield's Adam Swann during the late 1800s and features his children growing into their various interests including the family haulier business established during the British industrialization age 1860+ Adam's wife, Henrietta, had taken the business reins while Adam fought in a war and lost his leg. Now she is attending their 9 children while they choose schools and vocations.

As with all Delderfield books, this is a real winner--a hard to put down book.

Adam Swann, founder of transport giant Swann-on-Wheels, sits beside his aged father's deathbed as this sequel to God Is an Englishman begins. His family with wife Henrietta is growing up - indeed, his two oldest children have already left the nest. That leaves six at home. Adam and his beloved Hetty have their hands full with the challenges of rearing the rest of their brood, and of continuing to provide help and guidance to those they've already launched. For Adam there's also the challenge of guiding the business he built from nothing, using a stolen ruby necklace as his starting capital, through an era in which technological advances are driving social change at a sometimes dizzying rate. Does this book take place in the 20th Century? Not at all. It plays out between 1878 and 1889.

Adam Swann is a surprisingly complex character, a man of business who nevertheless cares deeply about the social ills of his Victorian world. His relationship with Henrietta, and with his company's regional managers (whom he considers his other family - not at all the typical attitude for an employer of that era!), drive many of the story's threads. The rest are taken up by the Swann children's passages into adulthood. This richly detailed and wonderfully authentic historical novel can be read on its own without difficulty, as I can attest because I read it without first reading God Is an Englishman. I'm now eager to do that, however!

This is one of those "family saga"/"sweeping epics" that I would have eaten up when I was in high school. There is more interwoven historical detail than bodice ripping, but otherwise this book is right up there with John Jakes's Bicentenial series and other books of the 1970s school of historical novels. Meaning that the men are all strong, the women are all lusty, the hero is moral but misunderstood, the villans are evil and usually deformed. The characters don't have much depth, but there are a lot of them, and separate plots involve each of them. Unfortunately, while the story is interesting, the writing is a little much. This is a typical sentence (yes, one sentence):

"It was only then that he remembered the fearful risks Avery was running by coming here, a man with a double murder charge hanging over him and no means, at this distance, to establish his innocence, for who would be likely to believe that a rake like Avery had shot a man in self-defence after a whore had squeezed him dry, and afterwards fled into the night in the back of one of Swann's frigates as far as Harwich, where he had bribed a Dutch skipper to carry him to the Continent."

Whew!

I gave it three stars because I think it is a two-star book for adults, but would be a four-star book for younger readers. If younger readers stil read historical fiction, this would be appropriate -- it is definitely PG and the history is interesting.

If you enjoyed 'God is an Englishman' by the same author, you will want to continue reading about the saga of Adam Swann and especially his family in this sequel. Both novels are what one might label `industrial fiction,' or books that treat England's economic transformation during the 19th century and its social consequences, along the lines of a Dickens novel. Although I was attracted to read both novels for this reason, even if one isn't interested in the economic and social aspects, the story itself, based on the interpersonal relationships of a varied list of middle and lower class characters and especially the entrepreneurial Adam Swann, is intriguing enough to keep reading to the end. And `Theirs was the Kingdom' was the stronger of the two novels in this sense, especially in developing how Adam's children reached adulthood, the career paths they followed, and how they came to meet their spouses. If you want to learn the basic story line, see the reviews for 'God is an Englishman.'

who would have thought such an 'old book' would be such an easy read....AND...VERY... interesting.... a MUST.... my thoughts come back to it often....

I stumbled across this book in the Santa Cruz Public Library in 1980 and it has always stuck with me.
Highly recommended, often quite funny.
Indeed this George Kennan is the great uncle of the cold-war diplomat of the same name (I believe), who passed away on this day at the age of 101.

I couldn't put this book down. On a par with Shackleton's story. Well written, fascinating account of a two year Siberian expedition in the mid 1800s.

i picked this book up from a homeless bookseller in manhattan for a dollar, figuring it might be worth a try. and it was - i read the whole thing!

it's major pluses: it's written in a surprisingly modern style. i've read other travelogues of the time period, like melville's omoo and typee and others, and this one was FAR better. perhaps it's that the author is not pompous or trying too hard to be "literary." he tries a little bit, but mostly he just sticks to the facts and tells the story. and the story on its own is interesting enough - travelling all around eastern siberia with wandering natives on dogsleds and reindeer sleds, living in yurts and eating funky foods, starving at times, camping under snowdrifts at fifty below zero, and mostly just observing and interacting with native peoples who (i have a strange feelings) may not even exist any more. and all this set in the backdrop of such an interesting time period in our history - just after the U.S. Civil War.

other point of food for thought: the guy did his travels at AGE TWENTY!!!, and wrote and published the entire book by age 25! this strikes me as quite odd, because his whole style is...so mature...and intellectual. you'd think you're reading a book by a forty year old (at least). and to this that seven years before he travelled to siberia...he was just thirteen.

anyway, all in all a good and interesting book, good in a way for light historical reading, but nothing to shock your boots off...

Telegraph operator George Kennan signs on to build a telegraph line across Siberia in late 1800s. Very good American example of understated adventure writing, a genre probably perfected by the British.