Specific Places Books

As a high school teacher of regular and Advanced Placement
U.S. History, I have used portions OF FAREWELL TO JIM CROW with
excellent results. The maps and pictures are conducive to producing document-based questions. The text is clearly presented. The students are especially impressed with the
early chapters including one entitled: " A Strange Idea: How
Segregation Worked." I have shown the book to several colleagues and they too have begun using it when teaching
about racial issues in America. The book is strongly recommended
for those interested in a problem that still haunts our country.

For 14 years i lived with my father,till the day came that he had to leave me,to go stay in heaven with our god of all times. The one who leads us the right way,who is the father of our kingdom.Sometimes i wonder...wil he ever come back.On 9 march 1957 my good father was born and on 26 july 2000 he had to leave us.As we all know that each and everyone of us is going to get our time of leaving our family,enemy's and friends.Me and my father had our good times and on the other hand our bad times and very bad times,but for what i know is that i will only try to remember the good times,cause there were more of the good times then the bad times.I know that i was sometimes wrong against my great father and i ask forgiveness every night of my live.All the bad things that I have done in my life,I already told him.Every night when I pray,I ask God to give me a chance to speak to my father.I tell him then evrything that happend that day allthough he have seen evrything.The message out of my review is to know that the person that you have lost in your life is always in your hart and that you can speak with him or her every day and night of your life.

As a high school teacher, I have suggested this book be used by my students when researching the issue of segregation. I read the book and found it to be very easy to follow and understand and written on a level amenable to both high school and junior high school students. I have referred to the book in class discussions and found that the way in which Dr. Rasmussen explains the Jim Crow laws intrigues my students so that they want to read the entire book themselves. Dr. Rasmussen explains the origins of the laws and their effect on American society and people in general, including their lasting psychological implications.

Si has estado allí, será como volver. Y si no, irás. Espléndido. No defrauda. Está en Inglés pero casi sólo hay fotos. Merece la pena.

Beautiful photographs that show both the splendor of Iceland's wild places and the mute artistry of the camera. Not much in the way of useful text but very pretty pictures.

The photography appears to be done within a short time and by someone intent on putting his particular spin on his subject. Unfortunately, the consequence is that none of the pictures qualify as stunning. They photography is very competent and has wonderful color saturation, but the compositions left me cold. None of them had points of interest or hints of an underlying story that typifies the best photography.

The photographer also decided to concentrate on close-up landscape, thus, there's relatively little coverage on the waterfalls and wildlife that Iceland is known for. Even worse, many images look very similar to each other, and most did not make me want to visit Iceland or re-read this book. I have seen far superior Iceland photography posted for free viewing on Flickr.

This is a great book. I met Dr. Thrush once when he was a tour leader for one of the Museum of History and Industry's tours of the Ballard Locks. His insights really come through in this book.

Essentially another book about Puget Indians written by a college professor with no understanding or respect for tribal culture. The first thing that struck me was the lack of Native sources. Thrush mentions that he had a hard time finding Natives to interview for this book, esp Duwamish Tribal members. Perhaps then he should have held off writing the book until he developed relationships with his subjects?

The writing was also terrible. His thesis is mentioned literally almost very other paragraph; take this out and there is probably only 3 or 4 pages of "history".

I also found that using the translated version of Indian place names, sometimes without explaining the Native name or etymology, was extremely disrespectful to Native-Americans.

In the foreword Thrush compared the problems he's faced because of his sexual orientation with the plight of Puget Indians. With statements like that, I can understand why few natives would work with him for this book.

The only redeeming part of the book is the Section on the update of Waterman's native place names in Seattle, which wasn't written by Thrush.


To summarize, poorly written, no information or history, and extremely condescending and disrespectful to Puget Indians...

With regard to the beginnings of the city of Seattle, the local Native Americans were not part of what was called the "Vanishing Race" of Native Americans from the westward growth of America. Native Americans played a large, vital, and conspicuous role in the founding and early growth of Seattle. Thrush, an assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia, makes the point that the role of Native Americans regarding other cities is worth looking into as well. In Seattle, Native American men and women provided the large majority of the manual labor in such work as sawmills and fishing; and many started small businesses. By intermarriage, some Native Americans, particularly women, assumed prominent and influential positions in the community. The other side of the Native Americans' experience with Seattle is their being supplanted as more and more whites came to Seattle in the latter years of the 19th century. Subject to discrimination, racism, oppression, and demonization, the Native Americans lost their position in the city's economy and social structure. They were, for instance, labeled as "hostile," and said to be unable to adjust to urban life; the women were considered prostitutes. In recent years, the fundamental role of local Native Americans in Seattle's origins and the impression this had on the character of the city are being given their due. Numbers of Native Americans, showing an entrepreneurial spirit and media savvy equal to any big-city dweller, are finding places in today's Seattle. Thrush writes the full story of the changing social relationship of Native Americans to Seattle. Central to his perspective--noted in the "Foreword"--is the false, unsubstantiated dichotomy between "civilized" and "uncivilized" peoples. Following the text is an "Atlas of Indigenous Seattle" containing maps and Native American terms evidencing the prevalence of the Native Americans through the Puget Sound area, how much they had developed this area already through use of its resources, and the place of the Native American culture in the origins and development of Seattle.

This book is very useful because of the planned diets. I was on the adkins for sometime. I prefer this diet because of the benefits of roughage or fiber addition to the diet. I feel comfortable and well pleased with this material.

This little cook book has many treat ideas. It's fun, compact size makes it ideal for a small gift.

The recipes sound good, but many lack detail. Some recipes do not indicate what size package to use. Others have additional ingredients listed in the directions instead of the list of ingredients.

As a long time mountaineer, I am well versed in the mountaineering literature. My book collection has many treasures, but none as valued as Bernbaum's "Sacred Mountains of the World". This is a book I use to remind me that the lure of the mountains has a spiritual aspect that transcends the lure of conquest. Some mountains are special and Bernbaum, a Buddhist scholar in addition to his work in Asian Studies, tells their stories with great skill. Drawing upon the literature and myths of the past, Bernbaum reminds the modern reader why we should look upon mountains as "embodiments of humanity's highest ideals and aspirations". The book is entertaining as well as thought provoking--the photos are superb. The book is so good, it makes me want to share it with others. I have given it as a gift many times. I enthusiastically give it five stars.

This is one of few essential books in my library. It's the encyclopedia of sacred mountains, but also clearly a work of love. Sacred mountains have come to guide my own life in a very profound way, and this book has given wise counsel to such a journey. It is also supremely beautiful with some sublime fullpage photos - worth buying an extra coffee table for!

All Bernbaum has done is to read other people's books and string together their ideas. There's very little that's new here.

It's all been done before

This book is very informative, especially on the history of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in far east Russia. It tells the specifics of how the region was started under the auspices of sending Jews to a "homeland" within the Soviet Union, instead of letting them go to Palestine. There is a lot of history about the Jews in the former Soviet Union as a whole, but this book focuses on those who went by free will in the hope of having a place to themselves. It tells about the government's reasons for setting the region up and how they advertised to get people to go out there and the help they provided. It also tells about Jews around the world being involved in the Birobidzhan Project in various ways, and how some Jews from other countries believed in the Project so much that they moved there. The book is small,but it is packed with information and with black and white pictures from the past.

This book tells the tale of the Communist Party's attempt to take the Jewish population of the USSR and turn them into an agrarian and secular state in the Soviet far east. Since this was a from of social experimentation, and experimentation based on faulty information and logic, it was a doomed effort.

The Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR) sought to take Jews from the western frontier and resettle them in collective farms in Birobidzhan. It was hoped that by establishing a Jewish colony there would be an alternative for the urban Jews who had been made destitute by the policies of Czarist Russia. It would also allow the USSR to collect most of the Jewish population (which despite their "tolerance" the Russians saw as an alien presence) into one area, in theory promoting their language (in this case Yiddish) and their culture. In practice of course few of these people had any experience in agriculture and the JAR became a classic example of Communist incompetence and mismanagement.

Birobidzhan was never a serious competitor to Palestine as a potential Jewish homeland. In fact, since the collapse of Communism many of the Jews in the region have opted to emigrate to Israel, putting an end to this chapter in Soviet history.

Well illustrated and for the most part well-written.

Birobidjan of course failed to be the capital of Sovet Jewry(did Brighton Beach, Brooklin win this title?) The book is based onfacts, and facts usually can scare more than any fiction. I don't feel like the author makes the most of the facts. I do feel that the author is too soft in his judgement, I guess presenting the facts is always easier than providing a personal outlook.

Review of Collaborative Land Use Management: The Quieter Revolution in Place-Based Planning. Robert J. Mason. Rowman and Littlefield 2007.

What is the Quieter Revolution in land use management? It is a softer version of the 1970s Quiet Revolution, which emphasized broad regulatory schemes. Quieter programs, by contrast, tend to be collaborative, involving government agencies, individuals, and non-government and quasi-government organizations, such as land trusts and watershed conservancies. Mason has convinced me that this multi-scalar mix of approaches will define America's land-use future. Yet there are many cautionary notes--regarding social equity, confrontations with property-rights and wise use groups, and fiscal issues--that are constraining and directing this quieter revolution.

I come to this book as something of an interested and concerned outsider to this field. I am especially curious about the future look of the land--and this is where the case studies, as well as the chapters addressing local, regional, and national-scale efforts, provide insight. One can imagine an evolving quiltwork of American landscapes: complex, highly variegated, overlapping, with each being richly textured and distinct in its own right. Mason's book gives us much to think about in this regard.

Overall, I found this book compelling. It is highly readable, cautious yet optimistic, and provides forward-looking advice for land-use planners and landscape consumers. It should be read by scholars, planners, politicians, citizen activists, and indeed anyone with a serious interest in the future of the American landscape.

Mason has put together a tremendous amount of information and resources on the topic of place based planning into one book. 3 Stars for the thoroughness of the research.

The bibliography and references are clear, complete, and ubiquitous throughout the book. If I ever need information on any place based effort, this is my first stop.

That said, don't try to read the entire book over a short period of time, or stop when the details get too confusing and just get the main concepts.

It is packed with facts like an encyclopedia, and might be better used as one than as a text on the topic. I bought it for a class, and will keep it as a reference of good and bad examples of place based planning.

Colour is an interesting book. Some chapters are more informative than others. Esentially the book is a travelogue with the trips held together by the common theme of color. By far the weakest chapter is "Orange" in that it is more a chapter about music than it is about the hue Finlay was supposedly studying. The best chapters are "Red", "Yellow" and "Blue." In these three chapters Finlay hits her stride, tracking down the history, politics and oddities of these hues.

If you've ever painted or dyed fabrics have you ever wondered where your colours originated? This book takes you on a journey through a painting and dye rainbow. Through numerous anecdotes and stories we go hunting for things like the source of Indian Yellow, the lapis lazuli mines of Afghanistan, and the delicate green of the celadon porcelains of China.

One thing this book does is show the unreliability of mythic stories on the source of various colours and the secrecy and economic strength these dyes and paints held for various people throughout the centuries. You will not gain all the secrets to the various colours of the rainbow in this book, but you will gain an appreciation for how much knowledge has been lost or corrupted over the centuries and how hard it was to develop simple things like colours that we take for granted today.

This book is recommended for anyone who has ever painted or dyed - you'll get a new appreciation for those people in the past whose skills we probably really don't truly appreciate today.

I've owned Mr. Kittel's book for quite some time. I bought it not for the subject matter, but for his photography. As an amateur for 30 years I know how hard it is to produce some of the photography shown in this book.

I notice the prior reviewer criticizes the book for not providing more history, etc. on diners. If the book were misleading in its description or presentation I would agree. However, it makes no such pretenses. This is a photographic book, plain and simple. Actually, those interested in diner history should look into the work of Richard Gutman on diners, which is comprehensive and an excellent companion to this volume.

It has been with this book that I've felt more closeness to the atmosphere of diners, because his photos provide not only a sense of spontaneity in the people, but also his use of lighting. I particularly enjoy those photos where he has made no correction for fluoroscent lighting with his daylight film. This lends a greenish cast to those photos, again enhancing the feel of spontaneity.

As stated above, this is an excellent photographic study of the American diner phenomenon. Those looking for historical narrative can find that easily elsewhere.

the photos in this book were very good, although i would have preferred a bit more history. i recommend it though, to someone who is casually interested in diners and the people who love them.

I used this book to look up about a dozen sacred places, and most of them were NOT in the "A to Z" format mentioned by the book's advertisers. I had to get them out of the Index. And two places--Glastonbury Tor and Epidaurus--weren't mentioned at all. In the Table of Contents, all entries come under a single line: "Encyclopedia of Sacred Places, 1." Come on! Is an alpha listing too much to ask in a book like this?

This reference work contains short articles on places of religious and spiritual traditions; categories of interest include: places associated with a prophet, saint, or deity; sites of miracles, visions or rituals; tombs of saints; shrines; the ancestral or mythical abodes of the gods; places that manifest the energies or mystical powers of nature; places marked by evil that have been a turning point for a religious community; and one secular shrine, the Pere Lachaise Cemetery of Paris. There 13 sites from Africa; 16 from North & Central America; 3 from South America; 9 from Asia & the South Pacific; 7 from China & Korea; 17 from Northern, 22 from Southern and 40 from Western Europe; 14 from India, Sri Lanka & Nepal; 11 from Japan; 18 from the Middle East; and 3 from the Pacific.

Beginning with the Aachen Cathedral in Germany and continuing through the Zebrzygowska Chapel in Poland, each entry is one to three pages long and is followed by a list of two or three references. As with any reference work, the appendices are important, and the Encyclopeida of Sacred Places does a fine job of making these articles accessible by offering maps as well as a glossary, bibliography and index, and appendices organized by religious tradition, by country, and by inclusion on UNESCO's World Heritage List of Cultural Sites.

If anything could have improved this book it would have been more pictures (there are approximately 25 here for over 150 entries), and of course one wishes it were longer and more inclusive, but that is always the way with reference resources.