Gannon University Books

This book is as complete a work on the development of USN torpedoes used in World War II as one is likely to find.

The work covers the topic in a clear, easy to understand format delving in to the development of these weapons systems. It covers the technical developments without becoming so technical as to make the text difficult to read.

This book will make any reader aware of this story and the tecnology/development of a weapons system that is often mentioned but rarel explained in any depth.

This book is an excellent reference source for anyone interested in the development of American torpedoes during WW2 and is highly recommended.
The reason for the four star rating is because the work contains some minor errors and is unclear in some more important areas. OK first the minor errors. Page 68 describes hydrogen peroxide as "H2O2O". Funny when I received my degree hydrogen peroxide was H2O2. Next the line drawing on page 42 illustrates what is known as a "steam" type torpedo and yet the illustration is labelled with an electric motor as being the propulsion unit even though the illustration contains no batteries. It does show the air and fuel flasks of a "steam" type torpedo and the description accompanying the drawing is consistent with a "steam" type torpedo. Actually, although small, the drawing shows what appears to be a turbine and bevel gear unit- again consistent with a "steam" type torpedo engine- even if they are labelled as an electric motor.
OK So much for the minor errors. I consider them unimportant as they in no way detract from the value of the book and any skilled reader can easily compensate.
The problem comes on page 48 where the Japanese "Long Lance" type 93 torpedo is described as being driven by "liquid hydrogen peroxide". Although not a US torpedo this book is so authoritative and well written that all its disclosures clearly carry weight. Given the state of the art in the 1930's I would tend to believe that compressed pure oxygen gas was used in the type 93(ie not H2O2) and indeed a number of web pages support this view. (search for yourself to check this out).
Unfortunately the author does not help matters as at page 135 he says "during the war the japanese skippers preferred the "oxygen" hydrogen peroxide torpedoes". Now although when hydrogen peroxide decomposes it does produce oxygen as well as high temperature steam it is a different chemical species to oxygen and within the naval world an "oxygen torpedo" is one that uses compressed O2 gas. A peroxide torpedo is a peroxide torpedo. I have been unable to track down the authors references for the peroxide Long Lance but from the book they do not appear to be primary sources. Given that the Japanese Long Lance had twice the speed and around five time the range of the best US torpedo and came as an almighty shock to the allies I would have preferred some more details from the author to support his views on the Long Lance.

Silent Victory contains a fair amount of data regarding the torpedo problems experienced by the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet Submarine Force during the Second World War. This book goes into considerably more detail regarding the background to those problems and their solutions--both bureaucratic and engineering--and how U.S. torpedo technology literally moved two generations ahead during wartime.

This is a magnificent book about the torpedo development in the US Navy. Mainly focused in the WWII period, the book details all the problems that plagued US torpedoes and the way they were solved. This is a great book. Every person interested in WW II naval technology, submarines or naval weaponry shall be delighted with it.

This is a brilliant book by a brilliant man (rank him up there with H. Belloc in my view. Check out "Cross in the Sand" as well). I recall sitting in Professor Gannon's class at the University of Florida way back, when I was just a wee lad, and just not wanting them to end. He was a wonderful lecturer. He made the history come alive. He was one of the great professors at the University of Florida. This is a great book on the history of my adopted state.

This is a wonderful book on the overall history of Florida. Loaded with little known facts on nearly every page, Gannon does an excellent job on taking the reader from the very beginnings of Florida (and consequently American history) to the present day. To the point but with adequate detail, Gannon not only avoids boring the reader but makes Florida history entertaining. Highly recommended for anyone looking to get a grasp on the state of Florida and its history.

Excellent introduction for any person that wants to have a good introduction to Florida history. Especially recommended for people who know nothing of this land before the malls, beachfront condominiums, and tourists arrived.

The combined effort of Douglas C. Baynton (Associate Professor of History, University of Iowa), Jack R. Gannon (Curator of the History Through Deaf Eyes exhibition), and Jean Lindquist Borgey (Director of the History Through Deaf Eyes Project, Gallaudet University, Washington, DC), "Through Deaf Eyes: A Photographic History Of An American Community" is the companion volume to an acclaimed PBS television documentary based on a landmark photographic exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in 2001 celebrating almost 200 years of United States Deaf History. The deaf have been a cultural and linguistic minority in America almost from its inception. The more than 200 photographs, the many quotes, and compelling stories compiled in "Through Deaf Eyes" provides the reader with informed and informative insights into a fascinating and specialized aspect of American history with respect to deaf people in school settings, the workplace, during wartime, the development and impact of American Sign Language, and more. "Through Deaf Eyes" is a superb and appreciated contribution to personal, academic, and community American History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

What a wonderful, well put together book about Deaf History. I am a hearing person, who is taking American sign language. I have been reading many books on Deaf culture to get a better understanding about the deaf people over time,and the opsticals that they have had/ and still have to overcome. I found this book very well put together and I enjoyed reading it very much. If you are intrested in American sign language, I would recommend others to include this book into your library collection. The photos were wonderful to look as as well.

What began as photographic exhibit at the Smithsonian from the archives of Gallaudet University evolved into the DVD by the same name as this companion book.

This is well done photo collection with written narrative of the 200 year story of deaf among us, with their accomplishments, frustrations and striving to be a part of the American mosaic.

They do pull it off, even against the obstacles of the oralism, and treatment as handicapped rather than language/cultural minority.

Worth having as companion with the DVD.

This is a well-put-together biography of Augustin Verot, third Bishop of Savannah, Ga., and first Bishop of St. Augustine, Fla. The book shows Verot was a character, as the author says in the best sense of the word. One does not get the idea that he was episcopal timber from reading about his career as a teacher in Maryland, but from Apr 25, 1858, (when Archbishop Kenrick consecrated him as Vicar Apostolic of Florida) on, one cannot but be impressed with the self-sacrificing and devoted way he performed his arduous tasks. Putting up with what he did must have been what enabled him to play such a tough and outspoken role at the first Vatican Council, where, inter alia, he called for the rehabilitation of Galileo--which was finally accomplished during this pontificate. His discourses at the Council, which seem to have been quite numerous and frank, cannot have been very persuasive but contained a lot of common sense. One wonders how he could fail to be cowed by the scene, being, as he was, a very minor bishop from a poor diocese. It was during the Council that he was appointed Bishop of St. Augustine. This is great work on a great bishop.

"An annual student-produced literary and creative arts publication of Gannon University." Includes poetry, short stories, drama, prose, artwork, and photography submitted by the students, faculty, and staff of Gannon University.

The New History of Florida is a great read for those seeking more information about the history of Florida. The book is divided into twenty-two chapters each written by a different scholar in their field. There are bits of overlap in some of the chapters, making it a bit duplicitous, but not overly so. It does provide valuable insight on topics from the original inhabitants of the state, to becoming a US territory, to a brief modern history. This book doesn't tell the complete story of Florida, but it puts a lot of the pieces together.

This is an attempt at telling the true history of Florida. No groups are excluded because of race.

As I told my wife yesterday, I never thought I would be reading a history book for pleasure but since I bought this great book, I cannot put it down. There are so many interesting stories in here, it is able to hold it's own with great fiction pieces and has captivated my interest for my adopted home state.

From the last ice age to the present, it is all in here. Did you know that when Ponce de Leon was sailing along "La Florida's" coasts in the early 1500s there were 350,000 natives living here? By the late 18th century they were all gone, either dead from European diseases or sold into slavery.

This book is easy to read for a history book. It has just the
right amount of information to make it useful, but not too much
extra "stuff" to turn you off. I have found it useful and
surprising interesting!.
Ruth Snyder

A New History of Florida has been a vital contribution to Florida history, especially in light of the extreme age of Charlton Tebeau's classic book on the state's history. The essays from a variety of scholars add much needed insight and perspective on Florida history from ancient times to the present, including most of the major trends of the twentieth century, when Florida really came into its own as the state it is today.

Neverthless, this book has its shortcomings. First, the format tends to give an uneven, disjointed effect if reading this book like a textbook.

Second, it contains material that can be found from other more extensive works. This is a good start for someone looking to increase their knowledge of the state, but only a start.

Sheehan spent considerable time writing for and performing in the theater. When read as monologues or dialogues, these poems spring to life with humor, subtle wit and a really unique voice. They are wonderfully theatrical and entertaining, like Chekhov writing in verse.

In this elegant, wise, perfectly crafted book, Sheehan takes us through a broad range of landscape and experience. Each of these poems is astonishing, and Sheehan's brave, elegaic voice is intensely pleasurable to read and encounter.

The landscape of "Thaw" is America but the vasty field of language is bravely Shakespearian. Sheehan's poems roil through catalpa, maurade through familial and domestic brakes, and, ultimately, brim to the top of the old earthen pot. Everywhere the poems remind that the endless--were we truly able to grasp it--would astonish. Each poem celebrates the ingredients, practice, and serving up of the fugitive mortal banquet, from pudding to bone.

This book is stunning: ecstatic, funky, visionary, acid. Looking at the modern urban landscape with the feverish intensity of a contemporary Joan of Arc, it sees "aurora borealis on the highway's yellow stripe." It sees "the city-makers, the furnace-stokers ... puncturing the planet's blue haze." It sees "the dragonflies, gold heralds of our oppression" and asks, "Does not this heat whelp gold husks like lions?" That's all from "104 Degrees" (to take just one poem from this remarkable collection), in which a hot July day "maddens us to stillness." This book is unlike any poetry I've ever read (and I've read a lot), but you could say it's somewhere between the feverish music of Sylvia Plath and the warped mystical vision St. John of the Cross might have experienced on the subways of New York.

Julie Sheehan is an intelligent poet with a fine ear and an ability to craft a finely wrought line. And while I have no problem with formal poems, or even with Sheehan's ironic archaic voice, the content of the poems is not terribly interesting, and not at all moving. I admire her craft and I see her humor, however, most poems sound like a very clever, and very bored, English major looking for an assignment. I wish more poets of this generation had Julie Sheehan's linguistic ability and I especially wish that this poet had something to say.

This is probably the only Buffy book which has bored me. I thought I was interested in Buffy-speak, and that's why I bought this book. But it only took about two paragraphs to put me to sleep, every time. It's very, very dry, and I think that people who don't have an academic background in linguistics would find it as impenetrable as I did. I'm sure that it's a very thorough piece of work - I just wasn't able to understand much of what Adams wrote. One other thing I didn't like was that much of the language referred to is used only on the fan discussion boards e.g. The Bronze. In my opinion, only Buffy-isms found in the show itself should have been included.

I love how the characters on Buffy speak. So distinctive and so funny and so clever. And now here's a book all about their use of language and "Slayer Slang!!!!" Sometimes I wish Buffy weren't so successful on TV, because other shows have tried to imitate this way of speaking and the results have been awful. Exhibit #1: Charmed. But as for Buffy, it's all good, and this book is great reading for fans, because the way that Buffy and her Scooby friends talk is a critical appeal of the show. I highly recommend this if you like the Buffyverse.

I enjoy the banter on BTVS, and I'm glad that someone thought to create an entire book full of character quotes. The book also has it's own history of vampyr and gives more background information about characters in case an episode was missed. A good book for any BTVS fan.

This is not your typical collection of academic essays on "Buffy" ( How long I've waited to use that phrase!). Adams' book is a foray into the linguistic and lexiconical depths of the show. This is not the first piece written about the peculiar dialect of "Slayer Slang," but is perhaps the deepest investigation thus far. This is due, at least in part, to Mr. Adams' considerable background in linguistics and associated fields. Overall, he treats the material with the necessary gravitas while still celebrating its levity.

Recommended for all true Buffyologists

Although I am a fan of this series, I found Adams' writing style to be monotonous, convoluted, and dull. It's a shame that the disorganized style of the writer prevents readers from being able to truly enjoy the half way interesting concepts addressed in his book. I think this is a fascinating topic, but unfortunately Adams was not able to pull of this type of book due to his ostentatious writing style. I doubt I would read another Adams book again, but if someone else wrote on this subject I would be interested.

Excenlte trabajo, con una descripción completa de los murcielagos del Puerto Rico, mapas e infpormació de de la distribución de cada especie en la isla y sus habito alimentarios, entre otros detalles
Jonsy

America in the 21st century is changing and how we see our past should as well. Certain censues offer clear snapshots on where America is at a particular moment. 1890-the frontier is closed. 1920-more people living in urban areas than rural ones. 2000-for the first time there are more Hispanics in America than African Americans. This fact may change a great deal of how we look at the past. As opposed to North-South conflicts, historians may focus on East-West conflicts. Instead of talking about Massachusetts and Virginia, historians may focus on Florida, Texas and California. Instead of Abraham Lincoln being the dominant president of the nineteenth century, either Andrew Jackson or James K. Polk may be. Instead of focusing on Puritans and evangelicals, historians need to focus on Catholicism.

Michael Gannon, the dean of Florida historians, offers an excellent and readable look at the founding of the Catholic church in Florida. Focusing on St. Augustine and east Florida (Gannon is simply not as interested in central Florida or Pensacola as he is in his home area), Gannon offers an interesting portrait of cantakerous parish leaders, Jesuit missionaries, conquisdors, Franciscan martyrs and frustrated bishops. It is a fascinating tale and Gannon tells it well. The chief problem with the book is Gannon often seems a bit too breezy as decades seem to go by in mere paragraphs. Gannon is often a bit too partisan as well such as when he goes out of his way to justify Pedro Menendez's bloody actions at Matanzas yet condemning James Moore for employing crude military tactics.

Still, minor flaws aside, Gannon offers a readable account of the founding of the Catholic Church in the United States. American history starts not in Jamestown or off Cape Cod but at St. Augustine and the cross planted in the sand in 1565 has grown larger as the years have gone by. As America grows increasingly Hispanic and Catholic not to mention moving down I-95 and I-75, neglected areas like colonial Florida will demand more of our historic attention. Gannon certainly offers a nice starting point in helping a new America understand its past.