Indiana Books

I had the honor to study under Winfried Nöth in Kassel/Germany and his handbook of semiotics was really helpful for my final oral exam in April 2008. This handbook is an excellent source for research on semiotics. It is comprehensible and covers practically all fields of semiotics, even topics like the semiotics of comics and films are analysed.

Great Book if you intend to study the basics of semiotics, it also gives you a lot of bibliography to research if you need more, something I really believe will not be the case.

Also available in a paperback edition (1578600383, $24.95), Harvestfields Of Death: The Twentieth Indiana Volunteers Of Gettysburg is an impressively informative and well written history that has as its focus the men who fought for the Union cause in one of the Civil War's most important battles. Formed by volunteers in resistance to the threat of Confederate invasion into Indiana and Ohio, the Twentieth Indiana Volunteers is the unit that fought valiantly in the lethal morass of the Seven Days battles, Second Manassas, and in the wheatfields of Gettysburg. Author Craig Dunn draws upon hundreds of private documents and a wealth of pictures to tell the remarkable story of individualist Hoosiers who "wrote their names in blood across the harvesfields of the Eastern theatre of war". Harvestfields Of Death is a welcome and seminal contribution to Civil War Studies and highly commended to the attention of both academia, the Civil War buff, and the non-specialist general reader with a particular interest in the role that Indiana men played in defense of the Union and their home state.

"When I was sixteen years of age I traded the golden harvestfields of grain for the red harvestfields of death." With these words the book Harvestfields of Death begins the epic journey of the men of the Twentieth Indiana Volunteers through the Civil War. An heroic regiment and an equally heroic endeavor to write this history. Craig Dunn is becoming the finest Civil War historian of his generation.

As an avid hiker in southwest Ohio, I had searched for years for a decent hiking guide for my neighbors in the Hoosier state. I saw Falcon had one out, so I decided to give it a shot. What I found was a real gem.

There are 65 destinations described in this book with one hike per destination. The destinations range geographically from Indiana Dunes in the north to Hoosier National Forest and the famous Knobstone Trail in the south. Distances range from 1.5 miles to multi-day backpack treks, with the average at around 3 or 4 miles. Thus, there is something in here for every ability and every location.

Each hike contains a summary of the "critical facts" about the trail (length, difficulty, land management, nearby campgrounds, etc.) and a map of the trail that includes only the essential, but still enough, information. Trail descriptions are excellent, as are directions to the trailhead. The only minor drawback to this guide is the lack of a trail summary in the front of the book, a feature I have come to expect in most top-notch guides these days. Thus, you might have to do some page flipping to find a hike of interest to you. There is, however, a table of contents, so the impact of this omission is lessened.

In summary, this book is a great source of information and a real joy to read and use. You will find the best hiking Indiana has to offer described here. Further, this book easily beats any other guide to Indiana hiking on the market. I enthusiastically recommend this guide for purchase.

My family enjoys day hiking and recently completed the Knobstone Trail in southeastern Indiana. We purchased this book in order to get ideas for future hiking trips. If you enjoy hiking, you'll find this book an interesting read and a great resource. It begins with a short introductory section containing general information, especially useful for novice hikers or people (like myself) who are relatively new to this part of the country. The remainder of the book consists of sections organized by geographical or geological themes, with each section summarizing from five to ten possible hiking trips. With hikes ranging in distance from less than a half mile to over twenty miles, both novice and experienced hikers should find something to suit their fancy.

The summary of each hike is complete in a broad sense, including driving directions, general information about the location, decent (though not topographic) maps, mileages to key points along the trail, and somewhat detailed hiking descriptions. Having just completed the Knobstone Trail, I would have benefited from having the mileage and hiking descriptions in this book which are not available in this detail in any other source.

The only details that detracted from this book, in my opinion, were two apparent factual errors -- one in a road name, the other in describing a short segment of the route of the Knobstone Trail. I have seen both errors in other sources including some official publications cited by the author. Although some readers may question the lack of topo maps, the author includes details of elevation gain in each description. Furthermore, most hikes which are lengthy or strenuous enough to require such information are likely to be located in state forests or other public lands for which topo maps are frequently available.

Overall, I highly recommend this book especially for people like myself who enjoy rugged day hiking. There are certainly some hikes described which will appeal to campers and through hikers, as well as some moderate to easy hikes for novices. Whether you live in Indiana or a nearby metropolitan area such as Chicago, Louisville, or Cincinnati, you will likely find several hikes within a drive of an hour or two.

My wife and I are active volunteers in the local trolley museum and this book is invaluable in the restoration of some of the Brill cars we are working on as well as giving us a sense of the history behind those units in the museum's collection.

This book is fantastic - it's remarkably informative and the amount of research that went into this book is evident on every page!!

Indiana is rich in agricultural heritage and independent, local farmers dig in their heels against soulless agribusiness. Until the past few years, though, Indiana lacked consumers willing to appreciate and pay for this bounty.

With the publication of Scott's and Christine's book, Home Grown Indiana, those of us passionate about local and sustainable food have a reliable resource guide to farms, markets, restaurants and shops with high-quality food produced in our state. Home Grown is a watershed in our awareness of the table of communion all around us.

The book is practical, sensible. Protected by its plastic cover from tomato sauce stains in the kitchen or dust from the glove compartment of the car, the authors divide Indiana into geographic regions. Special stories about those creating local cornucopia teach us to wander away from the megastores and onto the backroads.

The book has an added attraction. I no longer have to worry about what I'm going to buy for Christmas. Everybody's getting a copy of the book this holiday.

I have been eagerly awaiting the release of this book for a few months. My copy arrived this morning and I can enthusiastically say, "The wait was worth it and the book is even more than I had hoped it would be!"
Unlike many of the books published today, the quality of the book far exceeds the price in terms of both the quality of the book itself and the content.

The book is divided into seven regions. For each region Christine Barbour and Scott Hutcheson introduce the reader to Indiana places where food is produced with a personal and local touch. They go far beyond the basic facts (e.g., address, website URL, hours, etc.) and introduce the reader to the people that put heart and soul into their product and the places that make that food homegrown.

This personalization and connection is sometimes accomplished through stories and biographical snippets. For example, the entry for Cook's Bison Ranch begins, "In 1939,Everett Cook invested %5,000 in 83 acres with a house and a barn." Sometimes the entries are made personal through the inclusion of a recipe such as that for "Wild American Persimmon Pudding" which brings back childhood memories for Duane Smith of Walnut Grove Spring Water Persimmon Valley Farm. In other cases it is the observations of the authors that add spice to the entries. The combined effect is the feeling you might have at the end of an evening that included an excellent meal and even better conversation and laughter shared with good friends.

In some books the extra stories and observations might come at the cost of depth or breadth in covering the subject matter. This is NOT the case in Home Grown Indiana. Along with sharing the specifics about the producers of everything from caviar to cheese and popcorn to bison, Scott Hutcheson and Christine Barbour offer additional information on topics such as: ideas for eating local year round, the meaning of the label "organic," what is meant by a CSA, and some of the issues surrounding raw milk. They also include lists of farmer's markets, wineries, microbreweries/brewpubs, places to eat local while dining out, and food festivals that can be found in each region.

The book feels polished and complete in large part because of the way it is indexed. The book closes with a list of recipes, a index by county, and an index by product.

I was pleased to see several producers I know and rely on listed for Northwest Indiana but I found several new places to explore here in Northwest Indiana. The book's size is small enough to carry easily or keep in the car for unexpected foodie adventures and making the most of local foods when I find myself in other parts of the state. I expect that like my nature field guides this book will soon be well-loved and personalized through notes and much use.

While the content of the book would have been reason to celebrate in any form, I appreciate the actual quality of printing as well. The paper is crisp and the clarity of the typeface is clear and easy to read. The text fills the pages but with adequate space in the margins for making notes. The page edges are coded to make it easy to locate the section pertaining to a specific region of the state. Within each region the main entries are arranged alphabetically making it easy to look up the hours of a favorite producer.

Thank you Scott and Christine for creating this wonderful resource. Now if someone would just do the same for Southwest Michigan.

My cousin was a Marine from Indiana, who was killed at the Chosin Resevoir battle. It was very easy reading and interesting.

"Honoring Those Who Paid The Price": Forgotten Voices from the Korean War by Randy K. Mills (Associate Professor of History, Oakland City University, Oakland City, Indiana), is a candidly personal, movingly emotional, and informatively serious survey of a seemingly forgotten war that claimed approximately 54,000 American lives. Individual stories of those who served, those who died, and the loved ones who waited anxiously at home, fill this sober tribute. Highly recommended as testimony to the many souls who paid the highest price. "Honoring Those Who Paid The Price" is a welcome addition to Military History collections and would well serve as a template for similar books on other "minor" American twentieth-century conflicts ranging from Granada to Somalia.

I bought and loved this book a couple of years ago and it disappeared when a well meaning friend "borrowed" it for a school project. Mr. Lawrence, I've seen a million Indiana high school ball games and I grew up in the culture. I love your descriptions of the gyms and the pomp and ceremony surrounding Indiana H.S. basketball.I've seen pennies thrown at coaches and players in Loogootee, I've seen fights in the parking lot at Southport versus Tech in the 70's , I've seen future NBA players get the crud kicked out of them by future insurance agents (no embarrassing ID's,OK?), and I have seen my cousins battle my childhood friends in games that made my skin crawl with sheer emotion. I,like you, despise class basketball in Indiana .....may its' reign be short (Agh...years and counting) and boring.

Indiana holds a well-earned reputation as a basketball-loving state. And not surprisingly, many a book has been penned about "Hoosier Hysteria," the state's longtime love affair with its high school cage teams.

One might assume that this 343-page title would fit neatly into that genre. Indeed, there is much here to please the diehard Indiana sports fan. Virtually every school in the state is referenced by its enrollment, its team name, the age of its gymnasium, its noted alumni, and its crosstown arch-nemeses.

Yet the Hoosier Hysteria Road Book covers far more ground -- succeeding not only as a sports publication, but as an Indiana travel guide, a history book, and a humorously incisive work of sociology.

For some years, author Dale Lawrence has been the chief singer and songwriter of the Vulgar Boatmen, a critically-acclaimed rock band. As something of a sports outsider, he brings a unique perspective to the world he explores. He also offers prose that is observant, intelligent, and often borders on the lyrical.

On the dimmed lighting and atmosphere of a recently retired gym in Zionsville: "The game was played in a smoky haze, how I've always imagined watching a prizefight used to be. It was like having a dream about a basketball game."

On the horn in Columbus North's gym: "It's in stereo: two simultaneous but separate noises emanating from opposite corners. One is a sputtering BZZZ, like a novelty hand buzzer or an alarm clock on its last legs. The other sound is a sustained TOOOT, like a cartoon tugboat whistle. You can hardly believe it hasn't been replaced ages ago, and no doubt some misguided soul will someday do just that."

On Logansport's school mascot, ostensibly Felix the Cat: "The current live mascot is a rather paunchy incarnation of the famous cartoon character, which you probably wouldn't immediately recognize as Felix (or even a cat). With its mouth permanently screwed open to one side, it most closely resembles a bear doing an imitation of Buddy Hackett."

Reasoning that no game is complete without dinner afterwards at a local restaurant, Lawrence also devotes a fair portion of his book to recommending funky local eateries across the state. In fact, he seems willing and eager to review virtually any tidbit that wanders across his path. An ancient Presbyterian church in Williamsport. School pep bands. The lyrics of school fight songs. The crowds. The gyms. The popcorn at the gyms' snack bars. Public address systems. Game announcers. Call-in radio shows heard on the way to and from particularly distant destinations. All are dutifully considered with a mix of reverence and affectionate amusement -- a tone that steers thankfully clear of condescension and irony.

Lawrence has an evident and heartfelt love of Indiana basketball, and a passion for all things unique. In a world where the individual is being overtaken by the corporate, where chain stores are homogenizing the national landscape, where distinctions between peoples and places are fast disappearing, the Hoosier Hysteria Road Book is an homage to the singular and eccentric -- an invaluable celebration of those small, oft-overlooked differences that make our lives worth living.

I can give this book no higher praise than I have read it every year for the last 15 years, and have never tired of it. It describes my utopia.

The highly mannered style and aggrandized gaze of Nicholson's world nevertheless delights and enchants the reader with the silken kaleidoscope of sensory values pulled through narrow golden hoop of the written page. Indiana's lace-edged tintype history gleams with romance, mystery, substance. I am proud to own this signed first edition, and collect Nicholsons where others have imprudently overlooked them. The story begins as the hero enters the scene, nodding at the criminal foil, the stately and perfect heroine(American style if you please,) and the lifelong friend of the old school. Never again shall a writer look to the future and look back over the shoulder of American History with such finesse. A grand mystery, may Hollywood never grab it!

A must have for any collection of film and African American book collection.

"Imaging Blackness: Race And Racial Representation In Film Poster Art" is compiled, edited, curated and presented by Audrey Thomas McCluskey (Associate Professor of African-American and African Diaspora Studies). Professor McCluskey draws upon her years of experience and expertise when she was formerly the director of the Black Film Center Archive at Indiana University to present a series of movie posters for the 'race movies' that were a part of cinematic history from the late 1920s through the early 1940s when African-Americans were largely barred from mainstream Hollywood productions (except for stereotypical roles as maids, butlers, and comic relief characters), necessitating independent and small budget productions featuring African-American casts. Posters were a widespread means of advertising and promotion, designed to persuade members of the public to buy a ticket and see the film publicized by the images depicted in the poster material. "Imaging Blackness" shows the steady evolution of how African-American men and women were pictured on those posters in incremental changes that paralleled the discrimination and slow progress of change of the broader American culture. A fascinating approach to film history that accords with vigorous academic standards of scholarship, "Imaging Blackness" is an especially recommended addition to academic and community library African-American Studies and American Film History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

Inden's book is commendable for giving a clear, thorough and courageous analysis of why scholars of many ilks have given the distorted image of India that we have today. The British wanted to justify their empire and loot, by positioning themselves as the civilizing force. The Germans built their "Aryan" identity as being at the center of history. The Jungians constructed the West as being rational and progressive, as compared to the 'world negating', irrational and mystical Indians. Post-independence Indian Marxists wanted to 'qualify' India for Marxism by having to prove its feudalistic character. All these served to build and solidify the theory of India as a sponge of civilization and with no agency to originate anything worthwhile. No wonder then that most treatments of India begin and end with caste and the multitude of social evils - all deemed too quickly to be its inherent qualities. Yet there is little coverage given to the appropriations by Westerners from India. Inden's book should be read by everyone with a serious interest to understand India.

To place modern scholarship on India in the proper context, it will be helpful to read this book. Inden dissects the colonialist prejudices of these scholars and shows how a lot about India that we take for granted is actually a construction of these Indologists.