History Books

I enjoyed this book very much. Twelve well researched and written historical biographies of 9 men and 3 women who's lives demonstrated the fruit of signs and wonders. The author uses their stories to encourage readers to stretch their faith in the future.

This is a fantastic book containing the short biographies of twelve influential evangelistic people with healing ministries:

John Alexander Dowie
Kathryn Kuhlman
Aimee Semple McPherson
William Branham
William Seymour
Charles Parham
Evan Roberts
Smith Wigglesworth
A. A. Allen
Jack Joe
Maria Woodworth-Etter
John G. Lake

The book is from a Pentecostal/Charismatic perspective and as the title suggests, discusses where these people had success and where they had failure. Personally, I found the book a treasure to read.

God's General's is one of the most inspirational books that I can remember reading. In addition, it gives the history of some of the most powerful men and women of God since New Testament times. This book is a must read!

I Have two things to say about the purchase of this book: First, that it was delivered to my house in a timely fashion and in perfect condition. Secondly, the book itself is a wonderful look into God's hand on people's life in history. The Bible says that God created each and every one of us with a purpose. Sometimes, that purpose is to live a quiet life of ministry and love. Sometimes God uses us for extraordinary purposes. This book is an encouragement to all people that God can do anything, no matter who you are, if you put your trust in Him.

A balanced, thoughtful, entertaining and useful look at some of God's major powerplayers over the past 100 years or so. Concerning the likes of Kuhlman, Wigglesworth and Branham, most writers either choose to vilify them or worship them. Author Roberts Liardon chooses a more accurate middle road that exemplifies a love for the truth combined with his own helpful Pentecostal insights.

This is a VERY interesting read that Spirit-filled Christians particularly will find both fascinating and useful. Useful because there is much to be learned from the successes and failures of these saints -- much that can be applied to our own lives.

You gotta have this book if you're a Bruce fan. Great history and old photos. Great back stories and nostalgia. I was a bit dissapointed with the reproductions - both in terms of relevance and also the quantity of them, but all in all it is well worth the money. I mean, people actually paid $50 for the Madonna book a few years back. Puh-lease.... there is only one BOSS!

I recently took my 10 year old to a Springsteen concert and he is hooked. At his urging we went to the local library to see if they had a book on the Boss..we found this one and he loved it so much I ordered it..the great thing about it was that I loved it too !! Nothing better than something you can enjoy with your kids. I give this a thumbs up !!

My daughter got this book for me for X-Mas,
and it's the neatest thing !
Great chronological history of Bruce and his
various bands, along with the cool artifacts
placed throughout the book, including 2 great
posters !
Great bargain and must-have for any fan of the Boss !!

It's one of the greatest gifts you can give a Springsteen-fan. It holds the hole story from start til today and includes som replicas of tickets and posters

I bought this book not knowing what to expect. Talk about a labor of love. I highly recommend Greetings From E Street to any serious Bruce Springsteen fan. It's chock full of nifty things and some good information, as well. I was very pleased with this book. It has replicas of tickets, backstage passes, concert posters, and other memorabilia. The writing, which is fine, is secondary to the entire package. Just a real treat. If you have a die hard Springsteen fan in your house, he or she would love this book.

This book is a must for teachers, parents, and children 10 years old and up. It should read with children and an adult together and should have some Holocaust background explained first. If we want future generations to know what happened, we must tell them

This is a really good book. It was a great tool for teaching my daughter about the Holocaust. The best thing about the book is that you are seeing pictures and poetry that was created by the children of one of the most terrible tragedies in history.

This collection of works is mostly by children who were imprisoned in the Terezin ghetto during the Holocaust. Their writing is hauntingly and painfully honest, devastating, and heartbreaking. Yet, with death all around them, these children dared to hope and dream of a day they would leave the ghetto and return to their normal lives. The adults who taught them hoped the same things. It makes it all the more difficult to take in when one reads the appendix where details are given of the outcomes for these children, the vast majority of whom perished at Auschwitz and other death camps. It makes their hope that much more poignant and breathtaking. Of the 15,000 children to dwell within its barbed wire fences, only 100 children walked out. I highly encourage anyone to read this account of the Holocaust, this true and touching monument to these children and their teachers.

Only three of the poets and authors whose work is represented in this volume survived the Nazi Holocaust.

These works, however, are no more dead than the wings of butterflies mounted in a natural history museum.

They fly: They give the children voices for all time---not just the authors and poets' voices, but the voices of all 14,900 children who perished in Terezin from the arrival of the first transport in November 1941 to the ghetto's liberation in April 1945. Indeed, voices for all 141,000 Jewish people transported here from Germany, Holland, Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and elsewhere, including the relative handful---16,832---who survived.

The works here are a testament to the human spirit.

As a school teacher, I found a wonderful use for this book in my classroom. My 6th grade history class studies the Holocaust and was participating in the Houston Holocaust Museum's Butterfly Project. This book helped my students understand some of the feelings and problems faced by children housed at Terezin Concentration Camp during WWII.

This book is a treasure. I am especially impressed with the strong reception it receives from some environmental activists, teachers and students I have shared it with.

I hope someone like Ken Burns will want to make it into a TV documentary.

Jack Malinowski
Phila. Pa.

For me, this book brought a new level of fun to driving around. Another take on the many things that 'make civilized life possible.'

This engrossing book leads the reader on a tour of industrial features that one would encounter on both a cross-country or cross-town trip. After reading this book, you will find yourself---as I did---pointing out industrial installations and explaining their use to friends and family.

The glossy, full-color pictures are the most striking feature of this large book. They superbly complement the already excellent, clear, and well-organized text. I was also particularly impressed by the further reading listed at the back of the book. It is organized by chapter and ranked from "Kids" to "Geeks". It filled my stack of reading for several weeks after I finished Infrastructure.

My only criticism of the book echoes the author's apology in the preface: there are many technologies and industries necessarily absent from the book. I can only hope that the author will produce further books of similar quality in the future.

A proviso that must be made is that this is a very-USA-centric book. No disrespect intended as it is a beautifully photographed and relatively detailed (plus references for a lot more information) tome. Just something to keep in mind as the world is not (yet?) flat in infrastructure.

I like to think of myself as pretty knowledgeable, but I learned quite a bit in each chapter. I can imagine a similar book for Infrastructure 1925 (or so). Would be fun to see what has been lost (trains/streetcars/twice-daily-mail delivery) and gained (more obvious).

If you go for a walk and start actually looking around, you'll see a lot of things that most of us don't really understand -- power lines, sewer systems, the mysterious blue telephone junction boxes. This book explains why and what these things are -- think of it as a Nature Guide for the human-made environment. Do you have Sibley's Guide? Well, you should have one of these, too. My only quibble -- the pages are below standard quality for a hardback book. But never you mind -- don't be picky, like me! Get this book!

I must say that the author did an excellent job if he intended this book to be a record of the day to day action on all theaters of engagement between the French and the Viet Minh.

Because of the excessive level of detail, the book is very diffcult to read and appreciate. It is a mind numbing experience.

Read this only if you wish to know in detail the horrible sufferings that that combatants on either side faced in a senseless war. Otherwise you will be better off with just a summary.

The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu And the French Defeat in Vietnam

Apparently the best account ever written on Dien Bien Phu. Just two brief remarks:
1. History is shaped by strong personalities, and there was an abundance of them in Dien Bien Phu. Despite the book's large volume, there would be welcome a chapter sketching portraits of key protagonists (Bigeard, Langlais, de Castries etc), at the expense of details on arms specifications.
2.The author is favorably predisposed to French military leaders, and I tend to sustain his argument about injustices inflicted to the French army by politicians. Nevertheless, he is inclined to offer unnecessary excuses to the former, as well as to soothe down quarrels. Why not state bluntly that Cogny and Langlais could not tolerate Navarre and de Castries respectively? Even though the outcome might not be different, leadership exercised by de Castries was apparently inadequate. During this epic battle, besides heroism, mistakes had been made also on the French part, which the author appears quite eager to justify, out of respect to this unique effort.

T. E. Lawrence wrote that amateurs do something because they love to, and professionals because they must. We can thank the muses that Martin Windrow is a self-described amateur, because this work bears all the hallmarks of serious and loving craftsmanship. He places both the war, and the battle in context, he casts a glaring light upon some of its myths, and he gives serious attention to the technical aspects of the battle that the great majority of military professionals would otherwise miss, such as the state of Viet Minh artillery tactics and doctrine. Were Fall still alive and writing, Windrow would still have outclassed him. Anything and everything you want or need to know about the battle for Dien Bien Phu is here. The very best military history I've read in English in a very long time. Bravo!

the book just kind of grabbed me, twice.
first when i saw it on the library shelf, i read "hell in a very small place" many years ago and have a continuing interest in vietnam and america's involvement there.
the second time is when i started reading it, it reads like an excellent detective story, i sat and sat and finished it at one sitting, not a small feat considering it is over 700 pages long. This style is the first very notable characteristic.

not only is the writing excellent, but the author is one of those people who you can imagine talking to. he appears to a military historian from his amazon authors page. writing since the 1970's with an accent on french and the foreign legion. But this book looks like a long term research project and literally a work of love. the detail and interest he displays puts it in a class almost by itself. the only other military history that i've been this impressed by is the boer war by pakenham. The research and simply put love that went into this book is evident thoughout and is a second notable item.

there is something else that makes it outstanding, several places he shows some very unique and well thought out ideas. they are just snatches of his worldview: some pages about the wounds caused by military bullets, a couple of places where he talks about the relationships between politicians and military leaders, and his discussion about how men fight for their buddies next to them, not geopolitical big things. There are just a few of these rather tantilizing glimpses, enough to make me look for more of his books. This disclosure of the man behind the work and his ideas developed from a lifetime of study in history is remarkable and the 3rd item i wish to point out.

I'd not a fan of military histories, nor an i particularly interested in the genre. But i do like his writing. I find the careful analysis of what happened, what lead up to it, how people responded fascinating and as yesterday proved, somewhat addictive. There is an overwhelming number of names, who went where and fought whom, etc, those datum that make up military history, but it is not so bad that it bores or obscures the ideas. He is a very careful documenter of the facts, desirous of completeness and setting the historical record straight. All elements which appear strongly in the book.

There is another thing remarkable about the book and it's author, a desire to look at the facts and the events and truly learn from them. To see this part of our world, a somewhat dark one, filled with the dead and lost, and remember them not just for their sacrifices but what these things have to teach us about ourselves and the societies we find ourselves in. and the first place to find the meaning of events is to get them right, to be factual and see what happened and propose why. something that this book does in a uniquely interesting and useful way.

i sure wish the militaries of the world had more thoughtful people like this author, either in their general staffs or in their officer universities. perhaps a significant dose of reality and history is what more of our military leaders need before embarking on disastrous campaigns.

This is a superb and well constructed book and is by far one of the best accounts of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu that has been written. The author gives the reader a great insight to the formation of the Viet Minh and their rise to become a formidable fighting force whose journey to power led to the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu.

The book is well balanced and very readable. It gives a well presented account of the battle and how it unfolded and also shows how, although the French were defeated, at some stages of the fighting, victory could have gone either way with the staggering battle casualties suffered by the Viet Minh.

He also deals with the communist purges in the north after the French had been defeated and the division of the country into North and South Vietnam.

This fine book would not be out of place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the military campaigns of Vietnam.

No need to add any reviews, just the best british legion book. Plays
in the same league like "Par le sang verse'" (Through the blood wich was
shed) by Paul Bonnecarrere.

For men who have served in a similar capacity (airborne infantry), great read. Easy to say now that I'm no longer eligible, but I wish I'd joined 20 years ago. It's the kind of adventure I was looking for then. Some of my personal experiences parallel Mr. Murray's, but not in intensity and duration. Deepest respect.

I greatly enjoyed Legionnaire, though it does bog down in places, it is a great telling of life in the Legion. The author is a very intelligent and educated man and it shows in his writing. The entire book is a collection from his extensive diaries during his time in the Legion.

The story is a classic Foreign Legion story of a young educated British boy seeking adventure and excitement. What he finds is that the Legion is not what he expected from reading Beau Geste and he is thrust into one of the most brutal and psychologically exhausting experience of his life. But you can see the transformation from the boy who entered the Legion to the hardened and weathered man who left it five years later.

Though the story might seem somewhat cliche the art is in the telling and the author does a magnificent job, a great read and well worth the time spent.

I had the old version of the book and at first the pace is slow and the diary format wasn't exciting. Later on, the action picks up and I came to like Murray as he is a very good lad and makes me sympathize with him. It is a wonderful account of 5 years in such a tough environment, although I would never join the Legion unless I really messed myself up somewhere in life...the reasons not to join are plentiful and I'm not sure Murray had any good reason to join the Legion other than for adventure, at a time when youths could take time off and worry less about the rat-race as it is today.

I've read this book at least four times over the past twenty years (yes, I bought it when it first came out) and lent it out to at least that many friends. If you are interested in the Legion, the military, history or just feeling adventurous - this is the book for you.

One of the best books I have ever read. I did read that book long time ago but wanted my mother to read it. She found it very easy to read and she said that she finished the book so fast. I will recommend this book to younger people as older people. Anyone that will like to enlighten their lives....

Estoy atravezando una crisis en mi relacion el cual me ha hecho sentir culpable al mismo tiempo que me han culpado de todo lo que ha pasado. Pero este libro me ha demostrado que no es asi. Ahora siento una gran paz interior. Me ha hecho entender que nada de esto esta en mis manos, y que solo tengo que esperar a que el huracan pase y vuelva de nuevo la calma.

Helps free us mentally from the past. I started reading it and it's so true what has been past from our ancestors (grandparents, to our parents) affect our success in life and how we cope with our problems because of those believes.

I recommend it to anyone that it's feeling tied up in life, one who is fearful or anxious. It's a great book for those who are willing to be open minded, and wants to receive the best. One who wants to move up in life and enjoy it while forgiving those who we have held captive in our insecurities and gruges.

Must read and give as a gift. It's food for the mind, and easy to read.

It is a good book about how you should act in your life. How our parents are doing what their parent do with them. It is good to read and try to put in practice.... It is dificult when you put in practice, but remember practice make the master!!

No words to describe the amazing content of this book.
A must! It changed my life.

This readable memoir of one of the darkest parts of World War II in the Pacific theater brings Lester Tenney's experiences as a young man, recruit, soldier, prisoner of war and repatriated civilian to life. Mr. Tenney's journey through the hell he describes leads us through pain, despair, hope, bitterness and ultimately to the forgiveness he found. We learn about one man's faith in family and loved ones that led to his determination to survive. Anyone interested in World War II will find this a valuable resource. My book group (women in our fifties and sixties) was moved by this book. Several bought more copies to give to friends and family.

This is a story about a terrible event in history. This is not a fun story to read but it is one that needs to be read to help us appreciate how good our life really is. There are many memorable parts to this book, I am amazed anyone could survive this.

I remember this situation when I was 10 years old during WW2. This is a fascinating read and so well written that I could not put it down. It tells it like it was..

I just finished this book, and I must say I am inspired. Lester Tenney deserves an enormous amount of respect and admiration for what he endured and acomplished during his time as an american POW.

While this is not exactly a full account of the Death March and the surrounding events filled with statistics and data, it is Tenney's first hand account that makes this horrendous event so palpable that the reader feels as though they are enduring the very same hardships.

Do not expect this to be a simple or comfortable read. While the book has some wonderful and very happy moments, namely Tenney's own postive attitude and inner strength, these moments are doubled by nearly unbearable situations that will make you cringe, as any story about one of the most horrifying events of the war should. Tenney describes in extreme detail the atrocities of the Japanese military. While this story is anything but rosy, it is indescribably important, as it tells a story which seems to be forgetten in our society. What these men suffered through was every bit as terrifying as those on the battlefield, and those who suffered during the Holocaust. Tenney does their story justice, and shows us that these harrowing men deserve every bit of respect and admiration as any other serving in an American uniform.

The story of the Bataan survivors is at the same time unbelievable and infuriating. It blows my mind the cruelty these heros were subjected to on an hourly basis and at the same time I'm ashamed to say that part of me feels like Japan got off easy with two nukes dropped on them. That anybody lived at all is in itself no small feat.

The book itself is a great read. It was obviously written by a survivor, so consequently it has that 1st person feel that I like.

James Thurber was one of the funiest authors of all time and this book cements his reputation. I enjoyed it many years ago and after re-reading it, I enjoyed it again.

Should be required reading for all folks of any age looking for an introduction to life in these United States, for those learning to overcome despair and disaster with humor and grace, for any and all learning the English language.

Thurber is a great favorite of mine, and this was another fun book to read.

Take your mind back half a century and read these mildly amusing essays about life in the 1920s and 1930s. The style is so different from modern prose, but it is well worth the read.

Thurber's classic about growing up in Columbus, Ohio is laugh out loud funny, even 80 years removed. Talent like this is rare. He deserves his literary reputation.

Being a fan of Walter Lord's impeccably researched book "A Night to Remember," I was instantly intrigued upon learning of "The Night Lives On." I had had several lingering questions for years: why was an order given to turn the ship starboard when the iceberg eventually hit starboard? How, specifically, was the matter of the Californian's involvement dealt with? Which theories about "the gash" don't pan out? All of my questions and more were painstakingly answered as if I had asked Mr. Lord for an explanation myself. His ingenius weaving of history, statistics, personal testimonies, and logic, blended into an easily understandable format, made my love of the Titanic's story grow even more. Anyone can buy one book and know the generalities of the ship. But this book goes above and beyond to educate those already acquainted with the story and wanting a much more in-depth look.

WALTER LORD DOES IT AGAIN. HE BRINGS IT ALL TO LIFE. A MUST HAVE FOR ALL "TITANIC" FANS!

I picked up this audiocasette due to curiosity. The information packed tape was interesting, and even made me angry because this tragedy did not have to happen. Like people say, most tragedies are a string of unfortunate events coming together at the same time. I don't think the sinking of this liner is anything different. It gives a glimpse into the technological limitations of the day, the caste system of the gilded age, and the prevailing seaman's attitude of the time. After listening to this (and reading The Perfect Storm), my interest was certainly piqued. I ordered some books on the Titanic and the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, and can't wait until they get here.

Walter Lord follows up his best seller of the fifties-A Night to Remember--with this eighties version on some mysteries about the sunken liner. One learns about the musicians (two groups actually) and what they played that night while the life boats were being loaded. Another story details the negligence of the freighter Californian for not answering the eight rockets of distress from the Titanic. Another story details the shootings and suicide near the end of the launch of the last life boats. Still another story details why there were not enough life boats on the Titanic and most other ocean liners of the day. Walter Lord clears the air about these mysteries with his well informed writing.
If you want to know more about the Titanic, read both Lord's books on the subject (A Night to Remember, The Night Lives On). They will help the reader understand this tragedy. I have seen the movie and I know the producers consulted these books when they made the movie.

Calling this 'the sequel to _A Night to Remember_' is slightly misleading. Rather than the storytelling style employed to relate the story of the sinking of the Titanic, this is almost a collection of 17 1-chapter essays about various points of the disaster. Excellent stuff, but if you were expecting, say, the story of the Congressional and Parliamentary investigations of the disaster, you need to look elsewhere, e.g. Wyn Craig Wade's _The Titanic: End of a Dream_.

"Unsinkable Subject" - Overview of the popular fascination with Titanic.

"What's in a Name?" - The actual launching of Titanic from Harland & Wolff's shipyards.

"Legendary from the Start" - Titanic was indeed popularly supposed to be unsinkable, but the trend of sacrificing safety features for competitiveness had actually taken hold during her design.

"Had Ships Gotten Too Big for Captain Smith?" - Explores Smith's record, including a near-collision in harbor with Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic.

"Our Coterie" - The group of first class passengers, including Col. Gracie, mentioned in _A Night to Remember_.

"Everything Was Against Us" - Contrasts the ice warnings, lack of coordination between radio room & bridge, and lookouts, with the notion that the accident was a one-in-a-million chance.

"The Gash" - The collision itself.

"I Was Very Soft the Day I Signed That" - How and why ships the size of Titanic could legally sail while carrying so few lifeboats.

"What Happened to the Goodwins?" - Facts and figures about 1st class vs. 3rd, contrasting White Star's implication that those people down there couldn't understand English, with the Goodwin family (an electrical engineer and his family, emigrating from London to New York, all of whom were lost, including the 6-year-old).

"Shots in the Dark" - Explores the stories about Murdoch, one of the officers loading the lifeboats, and whether shots were fired.

"The Sound of Music" - An in-depth look at the "Nearer My God to Thee" myth, and the 2 bands on the Titanic. (I was aggravated to learn that that entire, touching sequence with the cornet in _Raise the Titanic!_, which I loved as a kid, was made up from whole cloth - the musicians were just as courageous as the movie made them out to be, but no cornet players.) And if you're a professional musician who thinks *your* agent is heartless, wait till you read this.

"She's Gone" - Compares the eyewitness accounts of Titanic's last moments with what we now know.

"The Electric Spark" Captain Rostron of the Carpathia, who picked up the survivors at great personal risk.

"A Certain Amount of Slackness" Discussion of Captain Lord (no relation to the author) of the Californian, in sharp contrast to the preceding chapter.

"Second-guessing" - The inquiries and subsequent litigation (Lord's treatment of Senator Smith should be contrasted with Wade's more detailed treatment, but then Wade has a whole book to play with).

"Why Was Craganour Disqualified?" What happened to some of the survivors. (Craganour, owned by a member of the Ismay family, was disqualified from winning a major British horse race.)

"Unlocking the Ocean's Secret" - The search for the Titanic, leading up to Robert Ballard's successful attempt in 1985 (written before others began plundering the ship for relics).