Central America Books

An interesting biography of a man dedicated to the agricultural independence of the West. I also enjoyed reading about the details of dam building coupled with the sacrifice of the workers to acomplish these magnificent feats of engineering. Reading about the life and hardships of the workers on Hoover Dam, during the Great Depression, was very educational. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a good biography or learn about the engineering challenges of dam building.

What distinguishes a history book beyond chronology, composite portraits and the factual description of political careers? Beyond such journalistic basics, a memorable history book takes on a life of its own. Such is Professor Frank King's book. He makes clear what greatness is in men and in historians. Two representative chapters illustrate this. King's masterful resurrection of Lincoln in "Latter Day Founder" makes us sense the humble but noble soul of the President, whose words still echo across history. As to the object of government, Lincoln declared "We proposed to give all a chance; and we expected the weak to grow stronger, the ignorant, wiser, and all better, and happier together." p-195

King's own style is in keeping with Lincoln's character, yet it is an excellent, abrupt, truthful, no-nonsense statement about the facts of American life. King's intelligence radiates through sentence after sentence, sound judgement after judgement. His analysis of Lincoln and his opponent Douglas is superbly sharp and incisive.
King's intellectual passion pours through the pages. His quotes epitomize the President. "Lincoln did all he could, all that anyone could to destroy the heresies of (national) fragmentation and slavery while re-educating the people." p.227. King sums up the President's achievement: "He accomplished all with compassion." p.236

King's in-depth probing of historical fact reveals the true historian--as if in flesh and bone he himself had lived through the events. King situates man and event in a sphere of significance made intelligible by accurate knowledge and a kind of visionary wisdom.

In the chapter "Apostle of Freedom" King's opening sets the scene of Jefferson's intelligent and forthright rebellion against Britain's violations of Americans' fundamental political rights. King enumerates Jefferson's greatest achievements. From Jefferson's "Ordinance of Religious Freedom,"1779, cometh the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He believed man's reason could be trusted, thus neatly separating the state from all religious groups. Moreover, he advocated the gradual emancipation to end slavery in Virginia. He introduced decimal coinage, an enduring contribution. As President, he appropriated funds for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which led to "results bountiful and timely." King also remarks that The Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon was "the most sensational real estate deal in world history."

A sample of King's style and insight makes clear that, rather than being debased colonials, the Americans were "cosmopolitans in business, skills, attitudes and learning. They were prosperous overseas Europeans: rugged, innovative, aggressive, practical immigrants or their offspring. They were up to world par. They knew as much as the British knew." Of the Declaration of Independence, King noted "It clarified men's minds--their own unarticulated political philosophy." It also reflected Jefferson's credo "every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle."

King defined Jefferson concisely. "He was systematic, methodical, tireless, and he advanced in a very real, thankless and practical manner what later would be called the progressive agenda."

It is abundantly clear throughout the book that Frank King has mastered his materials in a fresh and genial way. The more one reads it, the more one respects his enormous, loyal, compassionate intelligence--the integrity of his mind and feelings. King's insights are sharper, more meaningful, and-wiser than those of many well known historians. Most assuredly his book will leave an imprint on the writing of historical biography and on the mind of modern Americans seeking guidance to our future greatness. Frank King has given us an indelible understanding of the great men a democracy can produce. He has done us all a memorable service in reminding us all of who we are.

This volume includes information on the Southern Region cities. I'll list, since Amazon does not provide details.

These are the cities covered in this volume:
Atlanta, Ga
Austin, TX
Baton Rouge, LI
Birmingham, AL
Chattanooga, TN
Columbia, SC
Dallas, TX
El Paso, TX
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Fort Worth, TX
Houston, TX
Huntsville, AL
Jackson, MS
Jacksonville, FL
Knoxville, TN
Memphis, TN
Miami, FL
Nashville, TN
New Orleans, LA
Orlando, FL
Plano, TX
Saint Petersburg, FL
San Antonio, TX
Savannah, GA
Tampa, FL

As in all this series, this volume provides well laid-out information in an array of categories. Not only statistical information, but factual information as well (What are the hospitals in the area? Where are the large event centers?)

Broken into two categories: Business Environment and Living Environment

Business Environment information includes:
Municipal Finances, Population, Income, Bankruptcy, Employment & Earnings, Taxes, Commercial Real Estate, Residential Real Estate, Transportation, Roadway Congestion Index, Business Headquarters, Hotels & Motels, Convention Centers

Living Environment information includes:
Cost of Living, Housing, Residential Utilities, Health Care, Education, Major Employers, Public Safety, Hazardous Waste, Culture & Recreation, Media, Climate, Air & Water Quality, and Election results

Plus, it includes additional comparative tables in the appendices.

Fascinating reference for personal or professional use.

Edward Berkowitz is one of the country's best authorities on this suject, and this book only shows why. He writes in a clear, easy to read style that can be enjoyed by everyone. There are certainly other books on this subject out there, but this one is the best.

Very interesting for every one that has interest in the time and topic. Many of the issues are still relevant today (especially in light of the attacks on the "Jewish neo-cons"); it also touches a broader topic: what is the underlining moral campus of US foreign policy? Reminding that the concept bringing freedom to nations around the world was invented by some of the founding fathers and not GWB.
One problem, the writer is to judgmental, especially in light of her knowing the end results of the actions (or mostly non actions), of the characters on stage at that tragic and dark time.

This beautiful book was published in conjunction with the exhibit of the same name which was on view at the Bavarian State Library in Munich, Germany, from 10 April to 27 June 1992. It has 92 full color illustrations, 96 duotone illustrations, along with text by some of the world's foremost scholars of 16th century cartography.

Included is the oldest surviving map of America, drawn by Juan de la Cosa in 1500; Gerardus Mercator's 1569 world map, which was the first to use parallel lines of latitude and longitude, plus dozens of others. Indexed and bibliographed.

Whereas, Alexis de Tocqueville offers his perspective on America as an outside observer, the literary genius James Fenimore Cooper offers his assessment of culture, politics and society in 19th century America. He doesn't hold democracy to be sacrosanct like we do today, but rather like any other system of government with its advantages and disadvantages. His look at the nature of liberty and its relation with equality is particularly intriguing.

He is cognizant of the dangers posed to American self-government, which values legal equality. Equality, is a virtue, only insofar as it pertains to equal rights and equality before the law. Any effort at establishing equality of outcome is tantamount to tyranny and opposed to liberty. Cooper illustrates the precarious relationship between liberty and equality. Unless, tradition, custom, the rule of law and the Constitution are revered and upheld- the American Polity could easily collapse into majoritarian tyranny under a demagogue.

One gains an appreciation of the system of government established by the American founding fathers after reading this book... They established a constitutionally-limited federal republic, with limits not only on the power of government, but with limits placed on the power of majority rule, so as to limit the fundamental role of government to protecting the rights of its citizens. This constitutional republic sought to balance out monarchial, democratic, and aristocratic elements...

AMINEW1C - ARBA - May08
[...]

Mathews, Sandra K. American Indians in the Early West. Santa Barbara, Calif., ABCCLIO, 2008. 327p. illus. index. (Cultures in the American West). $65.00. ISBN 13: 9781-85109-823-1.

The American West has a special allure for students of all ages. Without adequate background reading, we can easily buy into the mythology of the West, which has been successfully neutralized by the "New Western History" scholars, like Richard White. With the Cultures in the American West series, ABC-CLIO adds to the new west history movement, introducing titles such as Hispanics in the American West (see ARBA 2006, entry 353) and Women in the American West (2008) that highlight minorities and their unique contributions to the history of the land between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean.

Each of the titles in the series, according to the series editor, is written by an expert in the subject, and American Indians in the Early West is evidence of that. In a thorough preface, Sandra K. Mathews outlines her academic credentials, including a Ph.D. from University of New Mexico; a dissertation on Pueblo Indian land rights; books, chapters, and articles on Native Americans of the West; and an associate professorship at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Although the author was schooled in the southwest and spent her formative academic years researching the native populations of that region, she has recently published a monograph on a life in Alaska, which helped develop her interest in the indigenous population there.

American Indians in the Early West is ideal for the student who needs a chapter-length introduction to indigenous populations and their interactions with non-Indian populations in each of four broad geographic regions: Rio Grande Valley and beyond, from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, from the Saint Lawrence to the Rockies, and from the Aleutians to northern California. In addition, the author has included an informative and lengthy (one-third of the book) chapter that outlines origination and migration theories for all of the distinct regions of the West and a short concluding chapter on historiography. Each chapter includes interesting insets (e.g. "Childhood as a Crow Indian," "The Tlingit Social Structure," "Environmental Consequences of the Fur Trade"), a bibliographic essay, and images. As with the other titles in this series, American Indians in the Early West includes maps, a chronology, a selected bibliography, a glossary, and an index.

The main question facing the bibliographer is not whether or not to buy this title, but where they should put it. Because it is text-rich, many selectors will want to add it to the circulating collection, but it also clearly has reference value and will help supplement a student's textbook reading. Since the price is reasonable, libraries serving strong Native American history programs may want to buy two copies.--John P. Stierman

This volume by Hollinger and Capper is the first of two in their ambitious goal to "round up" and compile a representative sampling of documents in American Intellectual History. They succeed brilliantly.

Volume I logically starts with the Pilgrims and ends with the Civil War and is divided neatly into component chapters with contributions from John Winthrop, Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards ("Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is just breathtaking...), Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams (the founding fathers section), on through Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson (Transcendentalism), to Margaret Fuller and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody to John C. Calhoun, George Fitzhugh, Martin Delaney, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

The editors provide a small biographical sketch of each author that precedes the selection and the selections track a wide range of issues including race relations, relations between the North and the South, the enfranchisement of women, American exceptionalism (Winthrop's "City on a Hill"), the formation of the United States, transcendentalism (the seedling for America's first original philosophy, Pragmatism). These issues are picked up later and expanded (or concluded) in Volume II of the work.

Volume II of Hollinger and Capper's work is as excellent as the first.

Volume II contains contributions from American writers such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan Sontag, Malcolm X, Rienhold Niebuhr, Noam Chomsky, John Crowe Ransom, Betty Friedan, John Dewey, W.E.B. DuBois, H.L. Mencken, Jane Addams, Woodrow Wilson, Samuel Huntington, etc.

Volume II traces the developments of race relations in America, the advancement of minorities and women in America, American foreign relations, insight into the state of the South after the Civil War, the effect of transportation revolutions on interstate travel as well as traces the development of Pragmatism, America's contribution to the world of Philosophy from Charles Sanders Peirce to William James to Thomas Kuhn to Richard Rorty.

Simply put, the topical treatment of this work is first rate and the collection of these various works is a creditable contribution to the field of American Intellectual History.