North America Books

I have had this book and gave it to a friend and now I have to replace it. I depended on the daily mediations to give me a positive or clear thought to start my day. It parallels the daily mediations of christianity so closely it makes you realize there truely is only one "Great Spirit". This book has enhanced my life. Until I found this book I only had my christian beliefs of mediations. Now I have something that I can relate to through heritage. I have shared the passages in this book with many friends and it has touched their hearts as deeply as mine. Thank you Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Inspirational books always failed to inspire me until "A Cherokee Feast of Days." Joyce Sequitchie Hifler delves into my soul and finds the very best, strongest parts of ME. By including the wisdom of native elders, she gives us a perspective of "time," of each day, as a healer and as an opportunity to, simply put, "do good." Hifler is like the sunflower: her roots run deep in the red clay earth and her face smiles up to God reflecting the blessings which he has bestowed upon her and upon all of us. I have given this book to many of my friends. Prepare to have your outlook on life uplifted forever! Hifler makes me even more proud to be blessed with my grandmother's Tsalagi blood.

Certainly one of the most elegant daily devotional books available today. Hifler is both poet and spiritual guide. This book is a real treat!

A friend gave me this book as a gift in 1993. I have read a meditation almost every day since. I find it to be uplifting and thought provoking and at the same time centering on things that really matter. The meditations remind me that family and earth matter so much more than materialistics. My daughter also reads daily and has been searching for one as a gift.

William McLoughlin offers one of the first looks at Cherokee society in his work on the evolution of the Cherokee tribe. This book takes the Cherokees through the early part of the American republic up through removal. Using journals and letters from Indian agents the book traces what happened to the tribe as the "civilization" efforts of the United States government were unleashed. The book tracks what changed in the nation from property rights, to gender roles, to the missionary work being conducted. Encroachment of settlers, states rights, and federal policy all played a role in shaping the outcome of one of the tribes that was seen as the "five civilized nations". Overall the book is well done, thorough and provide a unique insight into what happened to the Cherokees.

This is THE seminal history of the Cherokee Nation prior to removal. Written by a professor of religious history at Brown University, it is easy to see how he got swept away from his area of expertise and into the amazingly interesting story of the early years of the Cherokee Nation.

McLoughlin does not romaticize the Cherokee Nation, as many other historians do, but tells a clear story of a complicated time and place. His research is impeccable, and the book is well written. As to the merit of his historical analysis, it is mind-numbingly and brilliantly ground-breaking: the sort of stuff that a historian goes his entire life looking to discover. All that I can say is that this book completely changed the direction of my personal study and when I get a PhD in early American History with a concentration on the Cherokee Nation, it will be entierly due to this book.

I also heartily recomend "Cherokees and Missionairies." McLoughlin also has a very good essay on Samuel Worcester in the book "Massachusetts and the New Nation" which is a major undiscovered gem.

From 1794 until 1834 the Cherokee Nation underwent a change unlike any civilization in the world, past, present or future. It is this time period on which the book focuses. The author covers the years before and after his "Cherokee Renascence" in the first and final chapter.

When people write the history of the Cherokee in Georgia it is understandable that they concentrate on the years leading up to the "Trail of Tears." This tragic event overshadows the history of this Nation, and as William McLoughlin shows us, it is a history rich with acheivement and accomplishment, from the development of a written language by Sequoyah to the adaptation of that language by a majority of the Nation in a 6-month time frame, establishment of a government and newspaper (the Cherokee Phoenix, first American Indian newspaper) and many other accomplishments.

McLoughlin does not pull punches, as many who cover the time period and he does not have an agenda. He accurately recounts the details of the flourishing civilization while describing the evolution of a second society, those who disagreed with the decidedly nationalistic moves of its leaders to protect itself against the desires of the United States and the government of Georgia. Interestingly, Sequoyah was one of the Cherokee against the movement towards nationalism.

A compelling read, factually backed and well researched.

A comprehensive history of the Cherokees up to the Trail of Tears. This history covers the building of a great nation that was able to maintain its own culture while integrating with the developing America, and its subsequent downfall.

the book was in excellent condition. and i would recommend the seller to others. i am satisfied with the service i got.

Frances Densmore lived with and studied the Chippewa people of Minnesota for several years. Her research has proved an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to know more about this fascinating cultural group. This book is chock full of information, from naming ceremonies to marriage customs to burial rites. If it were not for Mrs. Densmore, many valuable facts on an important people group would be lost

Chippewa Customs is a detailed and facinating book, containing extensive information that will assist in my research on the history of the Chippewa tribe. This is my first tool to begin my search for distant ancestors. God bless the Author Frances Densmore.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I picked up "Chippewa Customs" by Frances Densmore. Written in the early part of the 20th century, it's a book that has remained readable and certainly enjoyable throughout the years.

Frances Densmore paints a very vivid picture of the Chippewa/Ojibwe people, from how they picked their names, to what they wore in winter, to the fact that they liked fish-heads as a delicacy, or the sleeping arrangements inside the family wigwam. It's absolutely screaming-full of all those little details that you're constantly trying to find but never can seem to put your finger on.

They're right here, of course! My only complaint is that the ceremonies (Marriage, births, etc) are only touched upon barely. I would have liked to hear more about those particular aspects.

This book is a history of how the U.S. formulated and executed Middle Eastern Policy over a thirty year period from the Presidency of Jimmy Carter (1978-1982) through that of George W Bush (2000-2008). It also provides a useful, but concise summary of U.S - Middle East relations from the end of WWII to 1978. Essentially it provides an analysis not only of each presidential administration's Middle East Policy, but provides a description of how the policy formation process of each administration actually worked. Not surprisingly it was different for each president.

As the book makes clear, the U.S. has held two remarkably consistent strategic goals for this entire period: the security of the State of Israel; and the security of Middle Eastern oil production. Yet in a volatile region like the Middle East events well beyond U.S. control often erupt to disrupt the most carefully planned policy implementations. Freedman recounts for example how President Carter's tenure was defined by the Iranian Revolution and its subsequent hostage crises, even though Carter really wanted to be remembered for establishing peaceful and enduring relationship between the Israelis and Palestinians. Often the success or failure of U.S. policy in the region was a function of being able to cope with unexpected events or unintended consequences that suddenly threatened one or both of the strategic goals. Reading this book one is struck by how dicey even the best formulated policies are for this region.

Of course Freedman devotes a good deal of attention to the current administration and its involvement in Afghanistan (and Pakistan) and Iraq/Iran. He attempts to trace the thought processes that gradually coalesced into what was known as Operation Iraqi Freedom and its aftermath. In doing so he identifies the emergence of the doctrine of preventive war and concept of a Global War on Terror. He then tries to provide a balanced summary of U.S. operations in Iraq up to the current partially successful surge that has brought a measure of stability to that unhappy country.

In the end he suggests that the U.S. might be well advised to adopt a Middle East Policy similar to that suggested by Ken Pollock in his latest book, "A Path Out of the Desert", which the book reviewer of the UK Magazine, "The Economist" suggested should be read together with the Freedman book. Both by most standards are pretty good books.

Here is the Economist's Review of A Choice of Enemies. Although it spends more space on Kenneth Pollack's A Path Out of the Desert, it also does treat Freedman's book.


The Economist
Books and Arts
America and the Middle East
How they got in, how to get out
Jul 24th 2008
From The Economist print edition

Foresight and hindsight in the world's bad places
A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East
By Kenneth M. Pollack
Random House; 539 pages; $30

A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East
By Lawrence Freedman
PublicAffairs; 624 pages; $29.95. Weidenfeld & Nicolson; £20

HOW did America get into its current mess in the Middle East? And how can it get out again? Kenneth Pollack's book is all about the second question but he starts by making a confession relevant to the first. He was a champion of the invasion of Iraq. In 2002, in an influential book entitled "The Threatening Storm", he argued the strategic and moral case for removing Saddam Hussein. Mr Pollack admits now that the intervention a year later was a fiasco, and that after such a disaster the inclination of most Americans is to turn away from the region completely and focus on problems at home. But that is not his view. His latest book is a powerful argument for continued, and perhaps even greater, American involvement in the Middle East.

As befits a former CIA analyst and member of the National Security Council, Mr Pollack builds his case on a hard-headed examination of America's interests in the region. Of these, the most important is oil. If a big percentage of it were suddenly to be removed from the market, the shock of higher prices could on some estimates spark a global recession akin to the Great Depression. American policy, he concludes, should therefore be designed principally to prevent "catastrophic oil disruptions". This means guarding against possibilities such as a revolution in Saudi Arabia or a massive terrorist attack on the oil-supply network.

You might expect a book that starts this way to dwell mainly on how America can maintain military forces in the region. Mr Pollack, however, wants nothing less than "an integrated grand strategy" to secure American interests for the long run. Such a strategy, he admits, may take "many decades", just as it took nearly half a century for America to help Europe and East Asia repair themselves after the second world war. For this grand strategy to work, he says, America will first have to harmonise its separate policies towards Iraq, Iran and Israel. It must also transform the region's politics and economics. That is to say--let no one accuse the chastened Mr Pollack of imperial hubris--America must help along the efforts of the locals, since outsiders "cannot possibly know how to change the society of another people".

But do the people of the Middle East want what America wants for them? Given the growth of political Islam, and the fact that Mr Pollack deems many Arab countries to be on the point of revolution, perhaps not. Nonetheless, a policy of continuing to prop up repressive regimes is like "playing Russian roulette" with foreign policy, as America discovered when the shah's fall turned Iran from staunch friend to implacable foe. Far better, he says, to encourage the region's governments to address popular grievances by embracing political freedom and social equality.

This will not be easy, not least because of the hated Bush administration's insincere or at least incompetent pursuit of this very policy. But Arabs tell pollsters that they want both democracy and Islam, and Mr Pollack reckons these two are compatible. Quoting an Egyptian activist who says that what her countrymen need is a job and a voice, he thinks America must find its path out of the desert by helping all Arabs get both.

A simple summary of Mr Pollack's main ideas does scant justice to this thoughtful and informative book. None of its prescriptions is especially novel. The patient promotion of reform, careful containment of the spillover from Iraq, a policy of carrots and sticks (but no military pre-emption) for Iran, building the sinews of a Palestinian state: to all except isolationists and the few surviving neocons, this has become a fairly conventional prospectus for America's post-Iraq policy in the Middle East. But Mr Pollack binds the strands together deftly and imparts a good deal of learning and wisdom along the way.

Sir Lawrence Freedman is less interested in how America should proceed after Iraq and more in working out how it tied itself in such knots in the first place. As an historian, he is more tolerant than Mr Pollack of George Bush, noting that after September 11th this president faced a challenge more complex in some ways than the one Franklin Roosevelt had to deal with after Pearl Harbour in 1941. Whereas Roosevelt knew who the enemy was and what America would have to do, Mr Bush had to choose and name an enemy in a new sort of war without obvious rules, aims or front-lines. He did so, moreover, in a region where no power had exercised a consistently sure touch, and where America had long been torn between an underlying dissatisfaction with the state of affairs and the traditional instinct of a great power to protect the status quo from aggressive states or radical movements.

It is instructive to read these books together. Sir Lawrence's aim is not to lay out a policy. He has no grand unifying theory of the Middle East. His aim is only to render the "most credible" account possible of momentous events such as the fall of the shah, the three wars in the Persian Gulf, invasion and jihad in Afghanistan, Jimmy Carter's half-success at peacemaking at Camp David in 1978 and Bill Clinton's failure there two decades later. All these and more formed the treacherous backdrop of American interests and alliances against which Mr Bush had to formulate his response to the attacks on the twin towers. Sir Lawrence's subtle narrative is a marvel of concision, even over more than 500 pages. By the end it cannot but make the reader wonder how realistic it is to advocate, as Mr Pollack does, an "integrated grand strategy" capable of being sustained for decades in such a violent and unpredictable part of the world.

To that Mr Pollack has a simple answer, in the form of a question. What is the alternative? Thanks to its energy needs, America is locked into the region for the foreseeable future, even though the future is so hard to foresee in the unhappy Middle East. Since there are no quick fixes, it had better reconcile itself to the long slog. And although unexpected events will continue to knock it off course, it is more likely to succeed if it can cling to at least some general sense of where it is trying to go.

thoughtfull marvelously readable and timely written withut the angst and i saw it all tone of most of the current crop of personal reflections that masquarade as learned analyses provides important backgroumd context and history that helps to make some sense of the current state of affairs recommended to anyone who really wants to learn more

The black and white battle between good and evil is a common element of fantasy. But that's all it is - fantasy. "A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East" is an examination of America's involvement in the growing conflicts with the middle east, conflicts which are almost as far from black and white as something can possibly be. Many of America's alleged 'enemies' are not in fact working together, and are just as antagonistic towards each other as they are America. An intriguing look at America, its enemies, and their countless interrelations with one another, "A Choice of Enemies: America Confronts the Middle East" is a top pick for community library current events collections.

I had to read this book for a class, and it's definitely better than most of the required reading I've had. If you like F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger, where there is no action but it's a very enriching experience for the character, then you will probably like the book. If you like Michael Crichton or Tom Clancy and are stupid like 90% of everybody else out there, then you probably won't.

Choteau Creek: A Sioux Reminiscence by Joseph Iron Eye Dudley was an easy read, and I was almost turned off by the simple and straightforward style. However, in the end, it is what made the book so enchanting. There were no hidden agendas or questions left unanswered- just a simple story of a man's childhood filled with people everyone should be lucky enough to learn from. This is not to say the book did not deal with deep issues, just that the way they were presented was very easy to grasp. But then again, I would hope the love felt in this book was always this simple and wonderful.

This is a truly tremendous book! Among my personal list of favorites. I found this book quite by accident years ago in a local bookstore and it continues to impact me today. I recommend it wherever I go and have had my own teenage sons and other family members read it. It should be on high school and college reading lists. The style is simple yet heartfelt. The themes so meaningful yet rare in todays world. Themes such as real character, unselfishness, solid role models, tradition, and attachment to place are woven throughout the text. Read it!

I am reminded of a saying I once heard: People may come to dinner, but a true friend helps you wash the dishes. This book presents friends. I can picture Grandma as she tells stories of her childhood or humbly contemplates the meaning of the owl's call. She remains with me after the book is finished. This is a good book for those who need to see the beauty and small acts of kindness and generosity that are triumphant in the face of hardship.

Jack Bell's "Civil War Heavy Explosive Ordnance" is a superb black and white photographic catalog of ammunition for heavy artillery (4" and larger.) It is the natural companion to Olmstead, Stark and Tucker's "The Big Guns." The book is geared more toward the collector than as a technical historical reference, but still can fill the latter role in many ways. While a picture might not be worth a full thousand words, it certainly helps.

The first 470 pages contain introductory text, a glossary, and the catalog of heavy ordnance. The next 26 pages contain a photographic catalog of torpedoes (mines.) Thirty pages of appendices follow, and the book ends with a bibliography and index.

The heavy ordnance is divided into two sections: large smoothbore projectiles, and rifled projectiles. The smoothbore section is subdivided into: shot, shell and case shot; canister; and grape. Rifled projectiles are then subdivided into twenty-seven major types and one miscellaneous group.

The general form of each entry is a brief introduction of a page or several pages about the type (Archer, Hotchkiss, Dyer, etc.) and then the following pages contain one to three images of each size and type of projectile of that type. When three images of a given projectile are provided they are viewed straight on from top, bottom, and side. Some images of shell or case are half sections. Entries below each set of photographs provide diameter, length, weight, gun, sabot, fuze, rifling, rarity, provenance, and comments.

My quibbles with this work are minor. Some of the recessed spaces and contour relief are difficult or impossible to interpret with a 90-degree angle view and no shadows. Case shot appears to have been under represented. Projectile counts and burst charges (known or estimated) are largely omitted.

Although the text introductory sections for each type are short, they provide some answers to long standing puzzles. For example the Archer projectiles are finally attributed to the correct Archer, Dr. Robert Archer. The Mullane has been renamed the "Tennessee" and attributed to the correct actual designer, Capt. Lardner Gibbon.

The appendices are also particularly useful. There is a list of missing and unaccounted for rounds in Appendix A, a list of rifling types by caliber in Appendix B, as well as the detailed review of rifled sabot systems in Appendix C.

Lamentably, this book (like "The Big Guns") is not on many Civil War site bookstore shelves, although I did see one at the naval museum in Columbus, Georgia.

It has been a long awaited moment in my 40+ years of experience in dealing with artillery projectiles of the American Civil War to see a book of this caliber in print. It is the most comprehensive guide or research tool for those with an interest in this field. It is appropriate for the novice and the more proficient.

Mr. Bell, along with a multitude of hours doing research and the aide of his peers, was able to compile an impressive array of photographs (350+) and information for the reader.

The book references shells from 4" and up; including round balls, projectiles, torpedoes, land mines, and a chapter on sabot designs.

I highly recommend Mr. Bell's book to those who want to expand their knowledge of Civil War heavy artillery.

Civil War Heavy Explosive Ordnance: A Guide To Large Artillery Projectiles, Torpedoes, And Mines by Civil War expert Jack Bell is a straightforward, highly specialized, exhaustively detailed, 537-page reference to the large munitions employed in the Civil War. A brief introduction and glossary enhance this unique volume, yet the bulk its pages are devoted to specific ammunitions with each shell accompanied by a black-and-white photograph as well as scale measurements, brief commentary, dimensions, and a listing of where they were most often used. Civil War Heavy Explosive Ordnance is a truly impressive and invaluable resource for Civil War historians and military history buffs.

CIVIL WAR HEAVY EXPLOSIVE ORDANCE, by well-known collector JACK BELL, presents an in-depth study of Civil War heavy artillery projectiles, mines and torpedoes. His lifelong association with the CW artillery fraternity provided access to public and private collections containing heretofore-unknown examples of heavy munitions. The author's meticulous research uncovered buried and previously overlooked information and provided important technical and geographic information vital for the in-depth study of the use of heavy explosive ordnance in the war. The result is a highly documented reference source that closes a thirty-year information gap, and significantly advances the state of knowledge about the development and deployment during the war.

CIVIL WAR HEAVY EXPLOSIVE ORDANCE is a necessary tool for the serious artillery collector yet provides interesting reading for the student of general Civil War history. The book contains over 1000 clear photographs and multiple views of the 360 projectiles and 22 torpedoes and mines. Jack Bell's presentation is lucid and while professionally technical is delivered in an extremely readable style.

Although very popular in its day; Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha" was later viewed to be superficial and saccharine. Where as Walt Whitman may have spoken with more of an organic American voice, Longfellow drew upon English Romantic models and looked to Norse and especially the Finnish epic or "edda" "Kalevala" for inspiration.

Not with standing; Longfellow's saga is pure New England Renaissance; touching upon values and aesthetics characteristic of Longfellow's circle: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Emerson and Thoreau.

The nature-painting of the "Song of Hiawatha" is outstanding; the poetry is full of quotables; and the over-arching message is profound.

A book for generations. Mine was published 1898 and given me by my mother whose father(b.1875) gave it to her. It goes to the heart of the Indian race, a people susceptible to mythology and magic as their last great hope. Read it with an open mind, imagination, and for its beauty.

"The Song of Hiawatha" is the best book I have ever been exposed to. Every time I hear the wonderful rhyme of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, I begin to think of what this land was like before the Europeans conquered it. It is a wonderful tale of peace between nations and a great book to read to children.

An undying tale.. legend... song... Wonderful poetry, the language is simply astounding! I have read the russian translation by Bounin, which was as remarkable as the original.

The seller sold the book in the condition which described. It arrived in a timely manner and enabled me to save money, and not waste time!

If you are a novice in the study of colonial Latin America, this book is a good place to start. Burkholder and Johnson have covered just about every aspect of society and politics in colonial Latin America from pre-Columbian cultures to the struggles for independence in the 1800's. The book covers religion, slavery, the environmental impact of Europeans, government structures, gender roles, racial issues, economics, and family history as well as developments back in Europe that had reverberations in Latin America. One very helpful aspect of the book is that unfamiliar Spanish terms are in italics and a glossary of all such italicized words can be found in the back of the book. Most people have heard of Cortes, Montezuma, and Pizarro, but Burkholder and Johnson are especially strong on the less familiar story of what happened once the Spanish and Portuguese had taken control in the New World. This book covers only Spanish and Portuguese America, so if you are interested in the French, Dutch, or English enclaves in the Caribbean, you will need to look elsewhere. Specialists will be familiar with all the themes in this book, but for beginners it is an excellent introduction to the subject. Burkholder and Johnson periodically update the book so as to keep it on the cutting edge of current scholarship. Anyone interested in doing more research will also benefit from up-to-date bibliographies at the end of each chapter.

Latin America is a fascinating area of study. My recent grad class in the subject exposed me to much new material such as this book (our basic text)

Burkholder and Johnson have done an exhausative study of both poltical and cultural history of Spanish & Portuguese colonial America. They covered the various periods of the colonies under expansionism, Imperial neglience, Bourbon reforms,and the rebellions that gave the region its freedom from the mother country.

The detail is impressive. Shipping numbers, industrial production, political reform, the lives of the majority Indians and Metizo commoners...it's all here. Slavery in all it's permutations is covered as well as the absurd attempts to name the various racial combinations that resulted in a multi cultural society.

For both the novice and the dedicated historian, this book cannot come highly recommended enough.

I have to give this book a good review because I got an A in Dr. Lyman Johnson's (the book's co-author with Mark Burkholder) Colonial Latin America class at UNC Charlotte - of course he made us buy this book as the required textbook! Johnson was a fasinating storyteller and quite a funny lecturer, and he really knows his stuff. He's one of the best professors on the UNC-Charlotte faculty.

The book is full of information with a simple and concise organization. Latin America's colonial period was long and complex yet simple at the same time, and this book explains it well. The Spanish conquest of Mexico has to be one of the most interesting events in human history.

My complaint is that Dr. Johnson was such a joy in the classroom, but the humor and wit did not translate to the book.

Common Birds of North America (Midwest edition) is an excellent resource for identifying all the birds I see in my Wisconsin home yard. One page per bird provides a good and simple overview to identify the birds and how to attract them to my back yard. It explains the differences between male and female coloring, nesting habits, food preferences, migration, etc. My book is all dog eared now from use. I bought one for mom for Christmas along with a birdhouse and feeder.

After you locate the bird you see using the Peterson Flash Guide, then you will want to utilize this book so that you can find out all the specifics about the bird, like what they eat, nesting and what time of year they are likely to be observed in your area.

Filled with exquisite full-color illustrations, Common Birds Of North America: Midwest Edition by James Wilson (Missouri Department of Conservation State Ornithologist) is an excellent guidebook for birdwatchers of all experience levels. Each species features a fine full-page portrait showing male and female specimens if the plumage is very different, and a one-page summary of the bird's habitat, call, typical behavior, and more. A concise, elegant guide, Common Birds Of North America: Midwest Edition is an invaluable resource for birdwatchers.

Wow. Having watched Jim doodle birds and landscapes in pen and ink during staff meetings at the conservation department, I should not have been surprised at the accuracy and quality of his illustrations in this book. Aside from the gorgeous images of the birds and their settings, Jim also manages to capture elements of the birds' songs and behavior in easy-to-read text. It's a great book for people who are interested in learning how bird species make their livings as well as how to identify them. I bought one for my Mom (who loves to watch her bird feeder visitors), and she loved it.

I have used previous editions of this directory several times in the past when traveling to areas where I needed a place to stay and didn't know anyone who could offer one. In addition to providing the necessary contact information, the articles in the front provided enough background in the "lingo" that I could ask intelligent questions about visiting, which saved a lot of time.

This publication contains listings of contact and descriptive information on more than 600 Intentional Communities (ICs) in North America and is unquestionably the best available directory for Intentional Communities (ICs) in print...

I've been lived in an IC for many years and the 1990 edition of this Directory was VERY important to me - and perhaps owning and using this new edition will be so for you. If you live in a "nuclear family" (or live alone), you can dramatically improve your life by joining and/or starting an authentic community. And adding your energy to one of the communities in this directory could even be your best way to help save the world!

This directory is published by the Fellowship for Intentional Communities (FIC), which has published these directories for years, along with Communities Magazine - the only magazine that directly addresses the IC movement.

This print edition is the first to publish output from an online version of the directory and involved the least amount of editorial hand-work as compared to any previous version. The data in the online directory (and by extension, within this print directory) is now largely maintained by the communities themselves.

Despite its importance, I was tempted to only give it a 4 out of 5 stars - why? read on...

I am responsible for the online directory database record for my IC (Songaia Cohousing Community). I edit our online record and am pleased with the editorial work of the FIC editors as they modified the online listing for the print edition.

Unfortunately, the ease with which the many contributors can now add/edit information is not balanced by much fact-checking by FIC editorial. My community's listing is scrupulously honest in the objective information - I continue to maintain it carefully, changing the data as our community changes. I have personal knowledge of several listings which are blatantly inaccurate. The biggest errors probably involve listings which claim larger community memberships than they actually have. For example, one community claims 8 members in their directory listing... and shows many more than 8 faces and biographies on their website. Talking with the community's founder, I learned that it actually has just one member who has been in the struggle of "building community" for many years, without much progress.

Another challenge is the inclusion and mixing of many different types of communities - in all stages of development. While it mostly contains residential communities (what most expect when they think of an IC), the directory also includes (1) community networks (groups of ICs - associations), (2) non-residential communities, and (3) even some fairly typical charities. And since the descriptions were written by many individual contributors, it can be difficult to tell the difference until you further research the group... visit their website, etc.

Even among the residential ICs, "forming" or "reforming" ICs are intermixed with ones which actually have groups of people living together... right now. Specifically, the directory has listings for communities with people with years of established culture, e.g. East Wind (commune of 75 people, formed in 1970), Nyland (cohousing of 140, formed in 1990), Ecovillage at Ithaca (162 people, formed in 1992), which appear side-by-side with MANY "forming" communities of just 1 or 2 people - that are trying to grow into ICs - some for just a few months and some for many years.

All of this means to get the most out of this directory requires research on your part and that its data should be considered critically and not assumed to be factual... Perhaps it goes without saying, but people seeking a life in an IC should be cautious when they choose with whom they will live.

The Community Directory's Introduction, part of which is entitled "What This Directory Is and Isn't" is totally up front about these limitations and given the web's impact on sales of print references, it is reasonable for the FIC to limit its investment in editorial work.

One reason that you should buy this directory is to help provide FIC with more funds to make the next version better... the people working on it are smart, hard-working, and generous with their time, but the funds available for their time are limited by directory sales.

In conclusion, an earlier version of this directory proved an important way for me to connect with the IC movement. I think it may serve that purpose for you as well - why don't you go ahead and buy your copy and start making your life better by living IN COMMUNITY!

The Communities Directory is an amazing gateway to much that is hopeful in the world. People engaging in all manner of cooperative living experiments; finding a better way to more richly be in this small world. The 4th edition is a testament to the enduring commitment of the publisher, the Fellowship for Intentional Community, to co-creating a more peaceful, sustainable world.

This is a must have volume on you bookshelf and in your road tripping backpack. Be careful - it may change your life.

This is an amazing resource. Not only does it describe hundreds of Intentional Communities in North America, it also has a chart with selectors which make it easy to figure which communities you might even want to research. It also has an extensive resource section which includes info about other continents, and interesting articles as well. There is nothing else like it. Well worth the $30. And that's coming from a tighwad! Definately on my must-have list.