North America Books

This is just one of those books that anyone involved in higher education needs to have. As a student of a university that is struggling with just how to reach out to our community, I would highly suggest it to anyone who wants to spend some time and reevaluate the relationship between institutions and communities.

This book is well written and very insightful. It can defintely be used as a tool for colleges and universities to form positive relationships with the community. I highly recommend it!

David Maurrasse has produced a thoughtful study in his book which examines four rather different and distinct IHES (Institutions of Higher Education). By studying how each IHE serves its community, readers can get a good picture of the different approaches in use today. The IHEs--which include a state, an Ivy League, a private, and even a community college campus--serve as a fine set of baseline campuses for study.

Hostos is my particular concern, since I am a Dean at Hostos, and I am well versed in the challenges we face each day in serving our South Bronx community. I believe that Dr. Maurrasse has indeed hit the mark and hit it well in this study. I can, at least, verify his contextualizing of the Hostos mission and its community's needs. His method of becoming thoroughly familiar with the physical aspects of each campus and its history by closely interviewing members of the community as well as faculty, staff, administrators, and students is laudable. At Hostos I know he spoke to long-time stakeholders from the college community and the community at large.

The book should be challenging higher education policy makers to focus on improving community outreach strategic plans for years to come. IHEs can not afford to be percieved as "ivory towers."

This book is exceptional in so many ways. The writing is good, the photographs outstanding. Good research and intellectual honesty makes it a good source for history, ecology, and natural studies.

The approach to creating the book worked extraordinarily well but at its inception must have seemed very chancy. The author chosen to write this account of the Nature Conservancy's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve was unfamiliar with the Preserve and its surrounding area in Oklahoma. The advantage was objectivity but there are lots of hazards in such a choice. Annick Smith is from Montana's Rocky Mountains, separate from the Oklahoma grasslands in many ways. Her recognized writing skills, coupled with drawing on three years of research, getting a first-hand feel of the Preserve, and interviewing a broad cross-section of local people produced this fine addition to any library.

At first glance, the beauty and physical appearance tempts a person to call this a "coffee-table book." However, this is a book with depth. Although easy to read, it takes far longer to read than a person expects at first glance. There are several photos and illustrations per page. Harvey Payne, director of the Preserve, took the majority of current photos over the Preserve's relatively short existence. His skill with a camera is extraordinary and complements Smith's writing well. The photos are mostly well captioned, although the people responsible for writing the captions and laying out the format made a few errors - one of only two negative comments that you will find in this review.

Smith chose to organize her chapters by major subject and then present them in rough chronological order. It was the correct choice to provide smooth flow, and she avoided the trap of duplicating information from chapter to chapter.

After several tries at preserving something of the vanished tall grass prairies that covered much of the central United States, the dedication of the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve was in 1993. Mostly local issues kept it from being federally administered and The Nature Conservancy stepped in to keep the drive for protection from failing. The Preserve includes over 30,000 acres carved from one of the big Oklahoma cattle ranches. To think of the Preserve as being the same as the original tall grass prairies, is incorrect. It will never be. For one thing, we don't even know for sure what that was; what plants were there, how it changed in response to climate and chance events over centuries. This bit of Oklahoma is an infinitesimal part of the original and each acre of the original differed. Obviously, the historic prairie was unmanaged except for minor burning and other efforts by the Indian tribes. The Preserve is highly managed, albeit with a goal of creating something close to the original. The administration sets fires to represent the random burning which natural forces might have caused. Cattle are gradually being replaced with buffalo to recreate historic grazing patterns as much as possible. However, tourism is a significant source of gaining funds and public support. Oil drilling and pumping continues through agreements between the Preserve and the oil companies. Fencing is required not only at the perimeter, but also in the interior.

Annick Smith first gives the history of the Preserve, and then circles back to that at the end of the book. She begins with the character, plants and animals of the Preserve. At that point, she steps back and covers the Native American history of the area, including the dismal record of broken agreements and various Indian relocations. The Osage are the predominant Native Americans in the area today. Smith's narrative then goes through a progression of white incursions of buffalo hunters, settlers, cattle ranchers, and finally oil exploration. It is necessarily a summary history but still provides a lot of detail. There is a generous amount about people in this book; those who created the Preserve and run it, the past and present inhabitants of the area.

At this point, I must interject my second negative comment. In portraying the community surrounding the Preserve, Smith adequately covers the people of lower income, as well as the large cattlemen and oilmen. Although mentioning some of the people in the middle, she goes too quickly past those who operate businesses in the towns that support the preserve. There isn't any mention of mini-ranchers running a few head of stock while holding other jobs to make ends meet. The people who attend PTA meetings, lead 4-H clubs, and cooperate in soil conservation districts are part of the core element in such a community.

Now back to the positive. The final chapter is "The Politics of Preservation," and the book ends with a delightful Epilogue, a great resource list for further reading, and a helpful index.

Thanks to those who brought the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve into being, and I wish them the best of luck. Thanks to Annick Smith and Harvey Payne for a great book.

I fully enjoyed this book. In her discussion of the prairie preserve, Annick Smith delved into cowboys, cattle drives, Indians, The Trail of Tears, Oklahoma land runs, buffalo, cattle, oil, the Civil War, controlled fire, prairie grasses, outlaws: all the makings of 10,000 Western movies. The book is beautiful: oversized and full of color photos. I especially enjoyed it since I was born in Oklahoma, still live here, and have spent some time on the prairie. But for anyone who likes Western history, prairie photography and preservation, this is a spiritual journey into a new home of grasses and buffalo in Oklahoma.

....this is a book you must own. Harvey Payne is one of the greatest outdoor photographers you will ever find. If you have lived in Oklahoma or are at all interested in this area or ecosystem, you will find this book fascinating. There is so much beauty in our state that is overlooked, and this book brings it to life, along with engaging stories of the people who tamed this rough wilderness. This is a book that makes me proud to be an Okie while looking at it. If you have ever been entranced by the stoic, proud majesty of the bison who once ruled the prairie, and are now relegated to wildlife preserves, buy this book!

A contemporary child gets help from an old story in this bright picture book set in a small desert village on the Papago reservation in southern Arizona near the Mexican border. Marta Enos' day is ruined when the wind blows her papers out the window and the dogs chew her homework into trash; then she trips and breaks her glasses. Grandmother comforts Marta Enos, repairs the glasses, bakes her some warm tortillas, and tells her a traditional tale about how to deal with a problem. Sometimes it is good to be a tree and look all ways at once; sometimes it is best to be a rock or a fierce mountain lion; but Marta Enos chooses to be an eagle, who can fly high and see how small the problem is. Strongbow's watercolor paintings set the story in wide desert landscapes as the sun sets and the full moon rises, and warm portraits show the loving bond across generations. (summary by Heather Roselle)

I really enjoyed this as a book to read with my 4 1/2 year old daughter. It has a neat story line, wonderful word pictures, lovely illustrations and is suitable for 4 years and up. It encourages kids to think about different ways of solving the problems that arise in life.

The story follows a young girl who, in a hurry to join her Indian grandmother making tortilla's, upsets her homework and eventualy breaks her glasses. The girl is devestated by the turn of events. The grandmonther gently restores her, giving her options on how to solve the problem while gently repairing the glasses. Is this a time to "be like a tree in the desert, standing tall and looking all ways at once" .... "a time to stay still like stone and wait for the problem to pass" .... or a time to fly high like and eagle looking far down to the problem which now seems so small and laugh at it..... As her glassess are mended and the homework reworked the girl can decide that the best option is to look at the big picture. To put the day in perspective and fly high like the eagle. The other options can be considered, thought about and keep hidden away for another day when maybe they will be the most approprite solution for life's problems.

I love this book! So does my 4 1/2 year old stepson, and his Dad has gotten a lot out of it too. The idea of choosing how you are going to respond to a problem rather than just throw a tantrum is something we are teaching the children, and constantly learning for ourselves too. This book is warm and loving, an excellent quiet time read for people of all ages.

Gorgeous book. Almost like being there as we read. Enjoying it now and

will for years to come.

The wide double format spread of the pictures is awesome. I have had it open in the living room since we got it, open to a new picture everyday. Every picture has a frame around it, just like you would have if you had it on the wall.

BIG SKY captures some gorgeous panoramas, capturing natural landscapes and tinting to explore some of the lesser-known state parks and wilderness areas across the country. It's a personal celebration of the American West by a photographer who spent over twenty years searching for just the right sites and experiences: when one was found he'd take a series of panoramic shots and stitch them together on a computer, here produced in panoramic 27x9 inch spreads to properly capture the results. Art photography libraries as well as public libraries strong in visual travel representations will want this.

We purchased this for our 4 year old daughter and our whole family has learned a great deal about birds! The book is simple yet informative for the beginning bird enthusiast. The birdfeeder stays on the window well UNTIL squirrels try to climb in it. It is very difficult to keep squirrels out of this kind of feeder - they are tenacious and quite agile. Buy a copy of Outwitting Squirrels by Bill Adler if you want to contend with them. We have given this book and feeder as a birthday present to adults and children and everyone has loved it. Great price and quality.

I am in no way an expert birdwatcher, but this book and birdfeeder are so much fun to use. Like another reviewer, I was skeptical of birds actually coming to the feeder. In less than a week, they had not only found it, but were fighting to get inside it! The book is small, but well written and very informative for all ages, especially if you know very little about birdwatching. It makes the common birds you will see easy to identify. The feeder is great because it can be attached to a window pane, making up-close viewing possible from inside your house.
A great gift!

I purchased this book just after my son was born. I saw it in a flyer I received in the mail and thought it would be a great educational experience for my son to see the birds right outside of our window. Not long after he turned 2, I installed it on our living room window. A few days went by and I was afraid the birds weren't going to visit it. Boy, was I wrong! They absolutely love it! It is not the only birdfeeder that I have, but it certainly is most popular. The smaller birds absolutely adore it. In bad weather, they hop right inside and eat and sit a spell. It has brought much joy to our family. My son thinks everyone sees birds up close and doesn't realize what a gift this is!

This is a very nicely done book. Includes some lovely photographs of gardens and close ups of birds. The information provided is the best part of this book, though. The book starts out by saying that all too often, homeowners hang a pretty painted birdhouse in their yard and sit back and wait for birds to move in. The book then goes on to explain ways to attract birds to your yard that are actually helpful to the health and wellbeing of the birds. The book provides the reader with an understanding of what birds want and need in a habitat.

Lists of recommended plantings, favorite foods by bird species, nest box dimenions by species, and other useful information are included.

I have found myself referring back to this book often as I try each year to make my yard a little more bird friendly - and I've had real success - the number of species that visit my yard have increased with each year.

Based on my own limited experience, I would assume that all gardeners end up being birdwatchers. When I would be out in our garden working, or just sitting in it and enjoying a cool evening, the songs of the birds always added to the experience, and they more and more attracted my attention.

In this wonderful book, the authors tell you everything you need to make your garden a bird-friendly environment, and as such a bird-magnet. Everything is covered herein, including what flowers to plant, what utilities to add (birdbaths, houses, feeders, etc.), and even notes on how to bird watch, and what birds you are likely to see. This is a great book, one that I highly recommend to all fellow gardeners!

Whether you enjoy gardening or not this is a must have, enjoyable book. Delightful photographs accompanied with informative descriptions regarding the plants that birds love. It also describes what function the plants provide for the birds as well as information on the habits of birds. I would joyfully recommend this book for everyone of all ages to enjoy.

If your just starting out in birding, this is a great place to begin. As it mentions in the introduction on the cd, while you look only one direction, you hear 360 degrees. I've noticed a lot more birds since I started learning their songs.

As someone who is interested in improving their birding skills, I found this an excellent guide. The authors begin by explaining some basic bird facts related to vocalizations. They proceed with the recordings, which are grouped into birds with similar songs (the authors refer to this as "pairing"). This improves the listners ability to correctly identify the song with the bird. The last portion of the auditory cassette places the birds into habitat groupings without the identification of the bird. This section can be used as a test of the listners abilities or to help familiarize the listner with where each bird can most probably be found. This in turn helps the reader correctly identify birds in the field by narrowing the possibilities. Finally, the tapes have an accompaning written guide. Each bird is listed with a black and white drawing, habitat type and a written description of the song/call. The authors also reference the page number to Petersons Field Guide of Western Birds and provide a space where the listner can write his/her comments. All in all, this is an excellent resource.

I've birded for a number of years but I wanted to be able to distinguish birds by their calls, especially the shy ones. This CD volme was the perfect introduction. Dick Walton's informal, almost folksy, comments made for enjoyable listening and learning. Sure there are only 91 species but one great sampling. Now that he has taught me "hooks" and "handles" I have graduated to using the Stokes CDs, but at least I can now differentiate closely related songs thanks to Mr. Walton.

If you are new to bird songs, please start with this volume. In contrast the Stokes volume presents the songs, but no commentary. It is up to you to find the hooks and handles and figure out how to memorize all the songs.

BTW, I disagree with Mr Walton on one bird. He says the California Quail is calling "Chicago, Chicago." In my field experience I am sure it is looking for "Atlanta, Atlanta."

Great CD, buy it!

This book is a breath of fresh air for anyone looking to succeed in life. E. LeMay offers no excuses for being born to an impoverished family. He shows how a little education and a lot of hard work can help anyone of any shape, size, disability, handicap or color succeed. E. LeMay refused to be stereotyped and shows how he succeeded because of his merits, not the color of his skin. E. LeMay is an inspiration to his peers and a positive role model for our next generation.

You may not like what Mr. Lathan says and you may not like how he says it but if you want to succeed in corporate America you should get this book and study it. Mr. Lathan tells the truth that black men and black women need to hear about working, setting goals, and making it. I've purchased several copies and gave one to every teenager in my family.

I enjoyed the ideas put forth to help his son deal with life. I took a lot of courage to put thoughts out there like these. I would like to think this book has helped me think about changing the way I look at people of all colors. It has put me on guard as to how I treat others and the attitude I portray. I will have my kids read it and then make sure they understand it. It will be a book I will pass onto my family and friends whenever possible.

Kenneth Wiggins Porter apparently died before he finished the manuscript for this one and so it fell to others (Alcione M. Amos and Thomas P. Senter) to edit and update this book. It's hard to sort out the contributions of each but the result is a well documented narrative of the Black Seminole from the early days in Florida to the early part of the twentieth century. Built mainly around the rise and life of the still little known Western hero, John Horse, a man of mixed blood (his father seems to have been a Seminole tribesman, perhaps of mixed blood himself) and an African mother who was an escaped slave in pre-Civil War America, it details the formation and development of a unique tribal people in America's history.

Indeed, the evidence suggests that thousands of Africans fled the chattel bondage of South Carolina, Georgia and, later, the states of Alabama and Florida in the 18th and early nineteenth centuries, forming communities that existed under the protection of the Florida Indians (themselves exiles from internecine conflict in Georgia and Alabama within the Creek nation or from white Americans who set out to suppress them under Andrew Jackson). The exiled Muscogulge peoples (the proper name for the Creek as suggested by J. Leitch Wright Jr. in his own well documented work "Creeks and Seminoles", University of Nebraska Press) initially kept slaves, a practice learned from the whites, but did not have the economy to use them as the whites did. And so Seminole slavery evolved in a very different fashion. While purchasing or receiving some slaves as gifts from whites, the Seminole treated them as status symbols and pretty much let these people operate independently. Gradually, escaped slaves joined the Indian communities and built up their own communities under the influence and protection of the Seminole chiefs. They were seen more as vassals than slaves by the Indians who left them to their own devices and basically expected them to hunt and raise their own crops to feed themselves, only remitting an annual portion in tribute to the tribal chief.

Free to come and go as they pleased, the blacks developed their own eclectic tribal culture, partly in emulation of the Seminole and partly reflecting the lives they had lived in bondage to the whites. Into this world John Horse was born around 1812. He was still a boy when Andrew Jackson violated international boundaries and Spanish sovereignty in Florida to carry his war against the defeated Creek Red Sticks in Alabama into Florida. Driven by a fear of the free and growing black communities under Seminole auspices, Jackson and other whites sought to wipe these people out. They had other goals, too, including forcing Spain to accept American expansion into East and West Florida and pushing the Creek Indian renegades (the Seminole) out.

John Horse seems to have been a child on the Suwannee River in northern Florida when Jackson appeared and burned the black and Indian villages. Later John appears on Florida's western coast around Tampa Bay at around 14 years of age where he is documented as trying to cheat the local army commander over some turtles. From these creatures, called gophers by the locals, he took his lifelong nickname, Gopher John. The story of the Black Seminole follows John's career as he came to the fore in the second year of the Second Seminole War (which lasted for seven years), becoming an important sub-chief and leader of the Seminole-affiliated blacks.

Taking part in many of the major battles, he is first documented in a fight at Okeechobee though he may have been present earlier at Dade's Massacre, the Battle of the Withlacoochee, of Camp Izard and of the Great Wahoo Swamp. In the fighting, the American military soon realized that the black fighters, though fewer, were fiercer antagonists in many ways than the Seminole warriors, no doubt because they had more to lose. While the whites were mainly interested in driving out the Indians, relocating them to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi, they were keen to use the war with the Seminole as a pretext to capture blacks for re-enslavement since the new republic had banned importation of new slaves from abroad.

John Horse honed his tracking and fighting skills in that war but was finally convinced of the futility of the effort and was among those blacks who decided to take a chance on the promises of then U.S. Army general in charge, Thomas S. Jesup, that blacks who freely surrendered would not be re-enslaved but sent with the Seminole to the West. Unfortunately Jesup, whatever his original intentions, soon came under pressure by the white population of Florida to allow re-enslavement of many of the blacks. When this became known, John Horse and various Seminole leaders raided and freed some 700 Indians and blacks who had voluntarily surrendered and were awaiting transfer to the West near Fort Brooke in Tampa.

Jesup seems never to have gotten over this loss and repeatedly thereafter used trickery and deceit to capture and imprison the Indian leaders though he continued to hold out the promise of freedom to their black allies in order to wean this group away. John was one of the few remaining black leaders by 1837 (the war had begun in 1835) still free and actively resisting and was finally persuaded to accept Jesup's terms. Thereafter he was sent, with others, to Indian Territory in what is today Oklahoma. There the Seminole blacks found they had new problems for the Creek were already there and the Creek wanted to reassert control over the Seminole who had originally been part of their polity. But the Creek had adopted the institution of chattel slavery from the whites and insisted that the blacks with the Seminole had to be re-enslaved.

John Horse spent some time back in Florida working as a scout for the Army there against his old allies and eventually was instrumental in convincing many of them to come in and accept deportation, too. But when John was ultimately obliged to return to Indian Territory in the West, he found a situation that was untenable for the blacks. John, who was half Seminole himself and had papers freeing him issued by the U.S. Army leader he served, General Worth, as well as freedom from the Seminole tribal council, could have stayed on without fear while the other blacks were forced back into slavery. But he refused to do so and advocated strongly to see that Jesup's decree was fulfilled by the American government. Jesup, to his credit, did the same. But the slave interests in the region, including planters and slavers in nearby Arkansas, would not abide a community of free blacks so close by. More, many of them coveted title to the Seminole blacks.

When the U.S. government refused to sustain Jesup's decree and, instead, decided to force the black Seminole back into servitude, John found an ingenious way to save many of his people. Allying with the Seminole chief Wildcat, an old ally from the Florida war, he took a contingent of blacks and Indians in a dash across Texas to freedom in Mexico. Pursued by Creek warriors determined to re-enslave them, Arkansas slavers, and hounded by Texas Rangers who supported the slavers, attacked by Commanche intent on preventing their crossing the Rio Grande to take up arms in defense of Mexico's borders, John's and Wildcat's combined people managed a successful exodus, crossing the Rio Grande in the dead of night on make shift rafts -- just ahead of the Texas Rangers.

In Mexico John Horse and Wildcat proved a daunting team though Wildcat died early on in a smallpox epidemic and John became the revered leader of the "Mascogos" (as the Mexicans called the black Seminole). Through a tumultuous career, he led and defended his people. This book tells that story as it closely follows the battles and struggles of this forgotten American hero, John Horse, a man who risked his own life and freedom many times to defend the lives and freedom of others.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga
and A Raft on the River

As a descendant of Florida's Apalachicola Indians removed to Texas in 1834, I know the Black Seminole as my kin. Porter's narrative parallels our oral tradition and enhances it with photos and maps. Facts presented are well researched and documented with scholarly precision. Historic accuracy is near flawless. Language of the text is readable and the style captivating. No dry history here! Porter brings this forgotten segment of Florida's mixed blood Seminoles to life in seventeen easy chapters. Like a piece of tender, seasoned vinson, it leaves the reader filled but wanting more. No worse injustice could be done to Professor Porter that compare The Black Seminoles to another text. The power of the Porter pen has no peer. Without reservation, Porter's text is a unique gift to all of us. sixwomen@nettally.com

This is a classic. Every serious historian of African Americans needs to have this book. I am a descendant of these people and much of what is in the book confirmed what I have been told since I was a boy. Thanks to those tireless warriors who coompleted this work for without them, it would have remained hidden away.

This account of a people dedicated to freedom is a must read.

Hagan is great. once you read her you will be like me and turn into a serious addict. her words are mesmerizing and captivating. give this a try and you wont regret the choice or the cost. also read savings

Hogan has tapped into her ancestrial history and brought to light the importance of connection back to nature and how much we need it in our lives.

Hogan takes her readers through history and rewrites/transforms the mythology of our beginnings. In short it seems that Hogan says Nature was here before man and can live without man, man however, cannot live without nature and now, with the destruction that man has caused and continues to cause to nature, we are dependant upon each other to survive. It is our job, mans, to correct our errors, that we may all continue to live in the centuries to come, that our children's children may enjoy the beauty and wonder of towering trees, mysterious animals, and colorful flowers, along with the flowing waters of rivers, lakes and the ocean at large.

Hogan is amazing in her works, a must read for any reader. With her works, the possibilities are endless.

Loss, redemption, ruptures and healings. From the roots of a native perspective, Hogan chants vivid stories in poems that illuminate and heal. With true magic, she opens us to greater depth and vision through the power of words that haunt and whisper and eventually compel us to change. Raise yourself up and read this collection.