Michigan Books

Based on a true story, Candy Stevens' Eight O'clock Blues is an adroitly written novel, set in the 1970s, and centers on Sophia, a young, religious, middle-class woman who takes a job at an automotive giant and has her illusions of corporate benevolence shattered. Daring to challenge the authority of an entity governed by greed, Sophia becomes embroiled in a test of wills that threatens to crush her. Eight O'clock Blues is a gripping, involving saga of a white-collar worker pitted agains devious and endemic corporate mismangement.

Ever since the founding of our country, American scholars and political observers have commented on the bicameral experiment. The U.S. House and Senate share many constitutional responsibilities, but in other ways (district size, election cycle, size of the chamber), they are very different. But do we think that voters see these same differences when they walk in to the voting booth? Gronke's research show, in general, that the answer is "No." Voters apply a similar set of standards to American legislative candidates, regardless of the office being contested.

Gronke's study compares campaigning and voting behavior in the U.S. House and Senate over a two decade period, from 1980 through 1996. He covers such varied topics as media markets, campaign spending, candidate characteristics, voter evaluations of the House and Senate, and models of electoral choice. By use of a rich archive of contextual, campaign, and survey data collected over two decades, Gronke dismisses many of the conventional accounts of House and Senate differences. Instead, Gronke shows that common elements dominate. Except for the higher profile and higher spending rates in Senate races, U.S. House and Senate elections are marked less by differences than they are by similarities.

Paul Gronke's path-breaking study compares electoral contexts, campaigns, and voter decision-making in House and Senate elections. Gronke's book offers new insights into how differences - and similarities - across the U.S. House and Senate help us understand American elections, showing that congressional elections are united more by common elements than they are separated by an institutional gulf

Ross Baker calls Gronke's book "audacious" and "fresh", written with a "felicity of expression."

This is a fascinating read, both as a primer on the nearly forgotten scourge that polio was up until fifty years ago, and also as a look into a tumultuous and difficult life. Anne Finger wasn't just coping with being a polio victim from early childhood, she also had to deal with a violently abusive parent in her father, who may well have been an undiagnosed bipolar/schizophrenic. Finger describes in frightening detail her long-suppressed memories of being choked and beaten by her father, behavior which was ignored or rationalized by her "enabler" mother. She also notes that her own clinical depression and suicidal tendencies as a young adult may have been inevitable, given her upbringing. In spite of all this, she continued to struggle for understanding of her parents' behavior, linking it often to her "imperfection" of being a polio from early childhood. There is much critically important information on polio - its history and near-eradication - here too, making it an important document in the literature of the disease. Finger has obviously done her homework, making numerous references to other talented polio memoirists and historians such as Leonard Kriegel, Charles Mee, Tony Gould, Peg Kehret, Daniel Wilson, John Paul and Wilfred Sheed, as well as other lesser known writers. This is an important and eminently readable book. - Tim Bazzett, author of Love, War & Polio

This is Gen. H. W. Halleck's instructional textbook on the art and science of war -- used in military institutions in the Nineteenth Century including West Point. Don't be alarmed about the cover title -- the misspellings were due to a mis-scan of the title page. I've alerted the Univ. of Michigan to the problem.

Halleck (1815-1872) was a lawyer, publisher, businessman -- and soldier. He was sometimes called "Old Brains" for his scholarly pursuits. See the www.Wikipedia.org article to get more information on Halleck.

I was looking for a book that went beyond "maxims" and sayings of famous commanders -- and this was it. It thoroughly covers all the aspects of waging war in an introductory level. It covers the reasons for waging war, strategy (on a grand and operational level), tactics, logistics, fortifications, infantry, artillery, engineers. Everything is here for training would-be commanders of war. Again, it's the introductory course on war, so the author doesn't get into any detailed "prescriptive" analysis of any of these topics. Other courses would have taken the student into the detailed aspects of each trade.

Halleck doesn't hesitate to vent his spleen against a sluggish government that wouldn't fortify its coasts and keep a standing professional cadre on hand -- he goes to great length to describe what existed in his day and what ought to be done. The book is terribly dated for that reason; we don't rely on coastal fortifications any more. It may not be necessary for us to read whole chapters on the details of the problem in Halleck's day. But the idea is still sound: we don't need brick and mortar forts to protect us now (except in Arizona!), but we do need flying "super-fortresses" doing the same job against incoming invaders. That's an aspect of war that makes books like Halleck's old textbook so valuable -- there are ideas in the art and science of war that never change, though the technology will.

For this reason, Halleck's book would be a better read for the initiate than the current Army Field Manuals just to get an overall sense of the problem of war. Here you get it all in one volume in a conceptual framework; with modern works, you must use many volumes to get the same scope of the problem and must also delve deeply into the technical aspects. In fact, though de Jomini's book was also a standard work at West Point and justifiably more famous than Halleck's work, Halleck covers all the bases whereas de Jomini likes to hover around strategy and tactics.

Gen. U.S. Grant and Halleck didn't get along very well -- Halleck (rising to General-in-chief) was the old-school type, the "grand marshall" of the US Army and he knew it. (You can tell by his portrait on Wikipedia!) He expected others to know it too. He was thorough, by the book, and slow to move on the offense. Grant, however, was one of the newer generation - he didn't much care for doing things "by the book" (he threw away Hardee's "Tactics" when he saw it was just common-sense maneuvering). And when he saw an opportunity to grab the enemy he was gung-ho for jumping on it before it dissolved away. (His brilliant and certainly unconventional Vicksburg campaign was a case of "it's easier to say I'm sorry than to ask permission!") Hence Grant felt sure that Halleck let some opportunities to attack the Rebs slip away for no good reason, and he felt that these incidents needlessly extended the war (see Grant's Memoirs). I mention this only to show that even in his day, Halleck's textbook approach to war was not always appreciated by newer commanders who were more resilient to the changing face of war in modern culture.

But there are basic aspects of war that never change from age to age -- strategy, the commander's mind and character, the need for tactics, the work of engineers, the vital aspect of logistics. And to someone who hasn't had any more exposure to the ideas of war than movies and picture books, Halleck's textbook is a welcome relief for the rational mind. It takes most of the mystique out of the subject, reduces it to manageable scientific principles, and trains the mind for a workable approach to dealing with battlefield realities. But Halleck also points out, as he should, there will always be that last 5% about the art of war that will depend on the character and creativitiy of the commander, which no textbook can train for. Not even his.

I wish they could all be this good. Didn't have to wait for supplier to find book. thank you

AS the editor of this book, I'd like readers to know that it not only includes major essays by leading American critics like Helen Vendler, Robert Pinsky, and David Lehman, but that it also contains previously uncollected material by Bishop herself, work not available in any other book. This was a landmark book on Bishop and remains the most thorough collection of material on her work: critical essays, reviews, and even poetry about her (by James Merrill and Robert Lowell).

Eloise. The mere mention of the name can send shivers down the spines of any who grew up in the southeastern Michigan era. The dark, brooding, mental asylum stood poised at the corner of Merriman Rd. And Michigan Ave. for decades inciting myths and legends about what went on behind those walls. I can remember as a kid, my older brothers teasing me whenever we drive by about how they were going to drop me off and leave me there. Then later as a teenager, we'd drive around its grounds late at night on a dare, keeping our eyes peeled for escaped inmates. This was one scary place!

Author Patricia Ibbotson peels away those urban legends in her wonderful and comprehensive history of Eloise which was so much more than I ever knew. Eloise was founded in the 1830's as a poorhouse in Nankin Twp. Michigan which later became the city of Westland, my home town. The original log cabin building has once been known as the Black Horse Tavern. From this tiny, lone structure rose a vast complex of over a dozen buildings that became a city unto itself. Eloise had its own police and fire departments, its own post office, general store, greenhouses, bakeries and tobacco curing house. The farmlands it was nestled on grew a variety of crops that were all tended to by the patients and inmates of Eloise. Eloise even had its own auditorium used by both patients and employees to put on shows.

At its peak Eloise housed thousands of patients and inmates, but as I found out, it was much more than just an asylum. It was the Wayne County General hospital for many years until closing in 1984. Eloise also was a nursing home, caring for the aged and the infirmed, and boasted a Tuberculosis Sanitarium in the early 1900's as well. Eloise also continued in its original goal by caring for the indigent. There is a striking photo of a dormitory as large as a football field, with row upon row of bunk beds for what was termed "POGIES" or "poor old guys". The men could come to Eloise for a roof over their heads and three square meals per day. While the living conditions may not have been ideal, as Ibbotson points out the alternative today is that they are homeless and on the streets.

This fascinating history is told with over 200 archival photos from the 1800's right up until the facility finally close in the 1980's. I was astounded by the photographs of Eloise's interiors. Thinking I'd see something out of a "B" horror film, I instead saw interiors that looked like they were taken inside a posh hotel. Art deco designs, Tennessee marble walls and columns, and Terrazzo tiled floors adorn the buildings and Eloise took things such as patient's needs for warm, natural lighting into consideration decades before it became the norm. But you never lose sight of the fact that this was a mental facility. The buildings that were used to house the inmates are covered in thick, iron bars. One darkly humorous photo shows three smiling female attendants standing before a table piled with leather restraints; another shows a patient on a table under going electro shock therapy. Perhaps the most historically interesting photo is that of Bridget "Biddy" Hughes, who had the distinction of being the first person committed to Eloise in 1841. She would spend the next 54 years there until her death in 1895.

Today, little is left of the once sprawling complex; just an administrative building is all. Now occupying the land is a strip mall featuring a grocery store, video store, etc, and a McDonalds restaurant. Eloise may be long gone but the urban legends and tales of hauntings are still passed along by residents of the area today. What a captivating history of a true Michigan legend. Well researched and filled with outstanding photography.

Gilligan's clear writing and fascinating historical evidence make his arguments compelling and totally convincing.

This is an excellent textbook for a class in modern Israeli Hebrew. The 10 lessons are well structured. They are divided into 2 parts which use a conversation to introduce new vocabulary and grammatical concepts. There are group exercises to practice conversations and written exercises which test comprehension and develop grammar.

The grammar includes basic subjects like the nominal sentence, agreement in number and gender between noun and adjective, construct state, pronominal suffixes, key particles (yesh, `eyn, hineh, etc.), interrogatives, personal and demonstrative pronouns, use of the active participle for expressing present tense. Level 1 finishes with the introduction to past tense with the qal perfect of a few verbs. The system of Hebrew verbs is more fully developed in Level 2. Level 3 is geared toward the written more than the spoken word.

The vocabulary of the text is practical for a school setting. The vocabulary is not the typical vocabulary geared towards tourists or diplomats. One feature I really appreciate is the inclusion of occasional loan words from English that are in use in current colloquial Hebrew. The language is not so colloquial that the paradigms in 2nd person plural have been leveled as is common in actual conversation.

The text is ktiv male except in the vocabulary lists and the paradigms. By being written without vowel points and diacritics, it avoids the student becoming dependent on them. Also, on the subject of the writing system, the text is one of the few that addresses one of my pet peaves with Hebrew textbooks. It actually teaches how to write cursive!

Were I teaching a class in Modern Hebrew I would select this textbook.

This is a textbook for a young-adult or adult class, however, it can be used for self-study as long as the associated audio tapes are also purchased.

Carol M Allen's book, "Ending Racial Preferences: The Michigan Story will be the definitive treatment of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI). With 422 pages and nearly 600 footnotes, Ms. Allen a research specialist in the Political Science Department at Michigan State University, has carefully documented the campaign which resulted in a 2006 amendment to the Michigan State Constitution banning racial and gender preferences in public employment, education and contracting. It was supported by 58% of the voters.
The story is an exciting one of near misses, ballot challenges, court cases, and scurrilous tactics. These initiative are coming to other states and readers interested in this issue could do no better than to read "Ending Racial Preferences."