United States Books

in Hawaii. Pila's consciousness was opened following his Vietnam experience and many Hawaiian secrets have been revealed to him. Here is a compelling account of how you can use the ancient knowledge to improve the integrity of your life. I would highly recommend it if you are visiting the Big Island and even if you are not. Having studied Huna for some years, its one of the few books I can recommend. Dr. Rima Morrell. Author of The Sacred Power of Huna (where I also write about the symbolic meanings of the Big Island and quote Pila), The Hawaiian Oracle and Travelling Magically.

This book by Pila Chiles is so well written and organized considering it's subject matter that it makes reading it an extreme joy. I breezed through this book barely able to put it down. I found the humor and sense of grounding Pila has within himself and his subject matter quite refreshing and original. The book touches on many subjects many dare not speak for fear of labeling or ridicule. Yet Pila comes across with the information in a gentle humorous and touching manner so as to take any bite out of any naysayers. He ponders many things we all have asked ourselves within our lifetimes trying to find answers and he takes the reader back to the past to reclaim our future and make sense of it.

I recently visited the Hawaiian Islands. The moment I stepped off the aircraft and the air hit my face I felt the magic. I started researching and reading everything I could get my hands on to discover the secrets of the islands. Pila's book was the most helpful in explaining the incredible energy of Hawaii. His book is not only a guide to the magical places you can visit, it is also a guide to connecting with spirit and healing your life. A wonderful book that I highly recommend. Although it was written over ten years ago, it is even more relevent as we watch our world rapidly changing. Mahalo Pila!

There are a couple of places where the author veers off a bit but for the most part he draws the reader into the mystical side of Hawaii that captivates the imagination and adds a new layer of "must do" items for ones next visit to the big island.

I particularly enjoyed the parts where he explores the subtleties expressed in the Hawaiian language and how they relate to place names and metaphysical practices and experiences. I think the author does a good job of connecting modern places and practices to traditional Hawaiian belief and faith practices. His chapter on the Big Island's place of refuge is exceptional in this regard.

The book is written in an easy to read fashion... But don't be fooled! Even if you gobble the words down like a good meal.. there is much more you will me digesting...
The essence remembering Joy is something that will forever remain in my heart..!

An amazing and thorough story of a sometimes forgotten part of WWII. Carefully researched with written and spoken words from victims and survivors. I hope he is preparing another book to accompany this and Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors.

As a lover of military history, and WWII in particular, I was eager to read another great sea story, so highly rated. The title, Ship of Ghosts, was most intriguing, suggesting the story of a warship that kept up a fight while out of all communications. Unfortunately, the title turned out to be misleading. The USS Houston was sunk rather quickly, in its second battle of the war, so the bulk of the book describes how the American POWs survived a brutal Japanese imprisonment. An interesting read in itself, but not what it represents to be. I note that out of 420 pages, only 80 are about the sea battles. Hornfischer is a fabulous writer (maybe too good - once in a while the prose seems to get in the way of the storyline)and the story moves along, so "Ship of Ghosts" is worth reading, but readers should expect a story of survival, less so of battle and tactics.

If you like books on ww2 or simply a novel that will keep you up all night.Read Ship of ghost's and The last stand of the tin can sailor's.I am a voracious reader especially of military book's and James d.Hornfischer I wish would write a novel every month I would buy it!Seriously I cannot recommend this author more highly!

I dont like to write long reviews. This book is a great story about men surviving thru a time of horror and a the fellowship they had with each other. A good read with a good story. Pick it up if you like war stories.

very realistic book about what really happened. my uncle was on this ship and was captured by the japanese and spent the rest of the war in prison camps. he had told me quite a lot about what happened and the book backed up what he said.

The Soul of Baseball illuminates what life can be. It would help anyone get past their bitterness and see that life is about what I can do today and not what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow.

Poz is one of the best writers in the business. Thanks for writing a really great book about a great baseball man. Buck's is a great American story and the way it's written makes you feel like you're on the road trip with them.

This book got to me, in a very good way.

Buck's stories are funny and poignant, and we as readers definitely learn some history if we pay attention. But even more than that we can learn from Buck O'Neil's outlook on life. He was patient, caring, outspoken in an articulate and positive way (something our politicians should learn how to do), and he had grace. More than anything else reading about Buck O'Neil was a lesson on how to live with grace.

I want to tell you the last words of the book, but I won't.

If you like baseball, people or life you will like this book.

Highly recommended!!

Sometimes a great author writes a 5-star book, and sometimes he must only get out of the way and let 5-star material shine through. "The Soul of Baseball" is one of the latter. This isn't a knock on Joe Posnanski. The decision to tell the story by reporting on a year in O'Neil's life, rather than interpreting O'Neil's history, was a brilliant judgment. The reader benefits from Posnanski's willingness to set his writer's ego aside.

Another good Posnanski decision was reporting O'Neil's occasional querulousness. Rather than seeing O'Neil as a mindless happy face, the reader sees O'Neil as someone who must work to maintain his positive approach. The occasional lapses serve to highlight the effort that O'Neil makes to bring the light into the lives of those around him.

But ultimately, the star of the book is Buck O'Neil. Not because he was a great ballplayer or manager. But because he was a decent, good-hearted human being whose attitude toward life is worthy of emulation.

I give few 5-star rankings, but this book deserves it several times over.

My son, Jeremy, always gives me good books. He doesn't just pick up the latest best-seller, but takes the time to choose something special just for me. He hit a home run with The Soul of Baseball by Joe Posnanski. It's the story of an extended road trip Posnanski took with legendary Negro League player and manager Buck O'Neil. The lessons learned along the way are great ones for sons and fathers to share.

Posnanski, an award-winning sports columnist for the Kansas City Star, chose not to write a biography of the irrepressible O'Neil, even though the story could bear to be told over and over again. Instead, he penned a moving memoir of the year he spent with the then-93-year-old O'Neil as he toured the country promoting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and the memory of those men who played the game in the days before whites and blacks could share the field. The trip takes them everywhere from Nicodemus, Kansas, to New York, New York, and O'Neil has a fascinating story to tell at every stop.

He talks about Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, and Josh Gibson, names that will always be enshrined in baseball's collective memory. But he also tells the tales of forgotten men like Dan Bankhead, the first black pitcher in the major leagues, who would have been a great hurler if he hadn't been afraid to pitch fastballs inside against white batters.

The key theme of the book is Buck O'Neil's spirit-lifting embrace of the best in every person he met. Despite years of back-breaking struggle, O'Neil never turned bitter, never condemned anyone for their prejudice, never had a bad word to say about the often ugly conditions the black ball players endured. Even when he failed to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Buck O'Neil refused to be angry about it. To make up for the egregious mistake, the Hall awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award after his death.

The lessons Posnanski drew from his experiences with O'Neil are well worth telling and the book he created from them is well worth reading.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

It is to bad that Shelby Foote has passed from the scene. His books are riviting and historically accurate. A must read for any student of the civil war and for anyone who wants to know more about the greatest American Battle, Gettysburg.

Shelby Foote's Stars in Their Courses provides the perfect balance to Bruce Catton's Gettysburg: The Final Fury. While Catton's history unfolds largly from the Union perspective, Foote walks the reader through the same battle from the Confederate perspective. I appreciate Foote's professional attitude. He is careful not to assign undue blame or indulge in excessive "what ifs". Instead he describes the strategic and tactical logic behind the battle, what led to its eventual outcome, and how crucial decisions were made during the fighting. This is a well written book, though, as someone has said, it would have been nice to have better and more frequent maps. Foote is the quintessential southern civil war historian, and you will not be disappointed with this relatively quick read.

Actually sought this out to give as a gift to a very big fan of Shelby. This work is tremendous and for the fan or the enthusiast a brilliant read.

Bought this after I went on a self guided tour of Gettysburg one gray winter day, and wanted to learn more than I did or could remember from Elementary/High School.

Wonderfully written. I just wish there were more of the maps in the book to refer to as he talks about the movements.

Highly recommended

I could write a long review about how good this book is but that would be a diservice to the author. We lost a great historian when Shelby Foote passed. He was a historian who prefered to be remembered as a novelist. As a proud Vermont Yankee, professional historian, and living historian of that period, I tend to get cranky about revisionist views or the whole Sourthern "lost cause" foolishness. However, Mr. Foote, a proud southerner, wrote about the most important event in our nation's history without the prejudice or regionalism, so many bring to the topic. He could write excellent history and tell the story with the readability of a novelist.



We are poorer for his passing but the body of work he left behind on the Civil War will remain some of the must have items in any serious collection of books about that second birth of our nation.



We'll miss you Shelby but thank you for what you left behind.

I have never met a Dee Henderson book that I didn't like. The O'Malley Series is a great suspense read. However, you really need to read "Danger in the Shadows" first since this is the start of the O'Malley series. Each book can stand alone, but they all tie in together so I suggest you read them in order. A great way to spend an evening - curled up on the couch with a cup of tea or coffee and a Dee Henderson book. You will find yourself turning each page wanting to see what happens next.

The Truth Seeker as CD audio book I received as a present. Due to ill health I now can't read very much for very long. For someone who has been a bookworm all her life this was very difficult, but audio books have come to my rescue. Mum listens to them while she is doing housework, and my sister has them on in the car during her 40 minute commute to work, & back.
Dee Henderson is a favourite author in our house & we particularly like her O'Malley Series, of which this is number 3.
It has been abridged fairly well & Matilda Novak is a good narrator - a big plus for me where audio books are concerned! Also there is music in lots of places to give atmosphere; & sound effects - fire blazing, sirens, airport tannoy, doorbell tone, phone ringing to name a few - which help to bring the story alive. Enjoyable to listen to over & over again!

Book three in Henderson's O'Malley series. Lisa O'Malley is a forensic pathologist. Quinn Diamond is a U.S. Marshal. They find their lives intersecting both personally and professionally as they investigate related murder cases. The mystery element is juxtaposed against the real-life touches of humor and family. Lisa's journey to Christ and her romance with Quinn form intriguing supblots.

Lisa O'Malley is a forensic pathologist who has a difficult time with Jesus' resurrection. Quinn Diamond is Marcus O'Malley's partner in the U.S. Marshal's Service. He's been trying to get Lisa to go out with him. Unfortunately, pursuing Lisa is going to be almost impossible because he's already asked out her other sisters!

Their paths cross when the cases they are investigating become intertwined. I love how we get to continue to follow the O'Malleys we already know and how we are able to get to know the others before we read their stories. I wish my family was as close as theirs is.

The other O'Malley novels are: The Negotiator, The Guardian, The Truth Seeker, The Protector, The Healer, The Rescuer. Each is a wonderful read!

I loved this series! I wasn't sure about reading a Christian Romance but this is so much more. Dee Henderson has a way of making you feel as though they are the real deal and you are right there with the O'Malley's. You'll laugh, cry, and everything in between. Enjoy!!

This book may perhaps not meet your expectations regarding content: I expected to see the uncles in their own habitat, surrounded by the debris of compulsive hoarding, at one with the world they had created. Lidz does not show this world: instead, he shows mainly the two uncles who live outside asylums at odds with the outside world, fumbling their beyond-quirky way through the landscape of New York.

That difference could make or break your interest in the book. Which do you want to read about, two curmudgeons at home in the nest they have created or two outcasts in society? I'm not saying that either narrative pathway makes for a bad or good book; I merely suggest that, before you read, you be prepared for what you will be reading. You might also consider that the four uncles of the title really refers mainly to two uncles; one of the others makes a single cameo appearance, and the other uncle gets a bit of space toward the end.

Lidz takes slow steps in childhood, telling ancedotes about his times with the two main uncles. These humerous takes are made forceful because they are told against the backdrop of his mother's long, ultimately fatal bout with cancer, a narrative that underpins the first half of the book. You thus have two strong narrative themes in the first half: the bumbling uncles (and the question of how on earth they function) and the sick mother (and the question of how on earth she manages to hang on to life).

The book becomes rockier in the second half, beginning when Lidz is an adolescent and his father remarries. Time speeds up considerably and without warning: you go from the slow ascent of the roller coaster to the rapid descent, and, narratively speaking, it's a rocky ride. It does make some narrative sense to speed up this second half, but it's too much too quickly and thus disconcerting for the reader. The second two uncles are introduced rapidly and don't receive as much analysis as the other two.

The book goes on to wrap up (incompletely) too quickly as well. It's as if when one uncle dies, another uncle is plugged in to take his place, and, what with the uniqueness of the uncles being emphasized, it doesn't work in the narrative. Lidz's attempt to introduce his recording techniques is also akwardly introduced, though I don't know how he could have done it more smoothly.

All in all, though, it's a good book. The strong first half does much to make up for the weaker second half, and the character's personalities make for excellent dialogue throughout. Lidz is an excellent prose writer who simply needs to pace himself a bit better; the writing itself is commendable. Recommended.

Heard the taped version of UUNSTRUNG HEROES by Franz
Lidz, the author's tale of growing up in what might charitably
be called a dysfunctional family . . . it consisted of him and
his sister, their parents, and their father's four brothers who
played an even more significant role in his upbringing when
his mother died.

If you ever thought your family was strange, wait until you meet
this group of eccentrics . . . for example, one brother thought
Mickey Mantle was out to get him . . . another collected
shoelaces . . . how Lidz, who became a writer for SPORTS
ILLUSTRATED, managed to escape the lunacy is beyond
me.

The fact that he grew up on Long Island, not far from where
I was raised, made the book even more interesting to me . . . that
and the narration by John Turturro . . . the actor's work greatly
aided in my enjoyment of UNSTRUNG HEROES.

This story although sadding at times kept me giggling and laughing at the antics of these uncles based on the real-life uncles of the author. I can see why it was made into a movie--it is a ball of fun and yet heartbreaking in others and down-right silly at times--in the end you come to feel as if you KNOW these men and the rest of the family and you feel slightly sad that more people don't look at the world through their eyes, but instead are so quick to judge those considered "different". I hated to see it end---a great, great story!!!

I could show you a sentence in Unstrung Heroes as elegant in its implications as the binomial theorem, and another as economically sphinx-like as the square root of minus one. The declarative sentence, Franz Lidz makes you suppose, is perhaps a writer's highest achievement.

The author possesses fierce intellectual honesty, and his prose has a bare, involuted rhythm that is almost hypnotic. Very, very funny.

Yhis book belongs on the bookshelf of all those interested in the early days of psychedelic research and it's social ramifications. One word for it: Excellent!

Can't think of a more informative and interesting way of describing this period of time. I loved this book. Big thanks to the authors!

_Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond_, first published in 1985 and revised in 1992, by journalist and author Martin A. Lee and author Bruce Shlain is a fascinating and wild account of the history of LSD in America. The implications of this journalistic history are startling in that they show the role of the CIA and the government of the United States in creating much of the LSD culture that grew up during the Sixties. I should add that one advantage of this book over Martin A. Lee's other book _The Beast Reawakens_ (1999) is that Lee is able to keep a cool head and write about LSD without lapsing into paroxysms of hysteria as he does when writing about Nazis. This is very fortunate for the reader because it spares us from having to sort through a lot of irrelevant nonsense. The history of LSD in the United States is a fascinating one, and the creation of a drug culture in the Sixties as well as the links between this culture and the hippies, the New Left, and the anti-war movement offers much interesting material. But, lurking behind the whole thing is the nefarious role of the CIA and the government, originally in testing out these drugs in a series of unethical experiments and later in possibly manipulating the very culture that arose from their newfound prevalence itself. This is a fascinating story and one that should be told particularly in light of the complex relationship that has always existed between the drug culture and the state.

The book begins with an Introduction entitled "Whose Worlds Are These?" by Andrei Codrescu. This Introduction lays out the use of LSD as presented in the book both through the experiments of the CIA and as promoted by such figures as Captain Al Hubbard, Aldous Huxley, Timothy Leary, Owsley, Art Kleps, Ken Kesey, and others. The book proper begins with a Prologue in which the authors explain the discovery of LSD-25 by Dr. Albert Hoffman, who was later to give an important speech to psychedelic followers in 1977. This Prologue also details the role of the CIA and through such projects as Operation MK-ULTRA engaged in unethical experimentation with LSD on unwitting participants. The first section of this book is entitled "The Roots of Psychedelia". The first chapter of this section is entitled "In the Beginning There Was Madness . . . " and details the role of the CIA in the unethical use of LSD and later in promoting the LSD subculture. This chapter includes sections entitled "The Truth Seekers", "Enter LSD", "Laboratories of the State", "Midnight Climax", and "The Hallucination Battlefield". This chapter details the role of the CIA in experimenting with LSD through projects such as Operation MK-ULTRA, mentioning such figures as William "Wild Bill" Donovan, Allen Dulles, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, and the hijinx of George Hunter White. The authors explain how originally the model for LSD was that the drug mimicked psychosis, but that eventually this model was to change. The CIA saw the drug as potentially useful for interrogations and engaged in many experiments on unwitting participants with the drug. The second chapter is entitled "Psychedelic Pioneers" and details how the drug was moved from the CIA clandestine operations to the counter-culture. This chapter includes sections entitled "The Original Captain Trips", "Healing Acid", and "Psychosis or Gnosis?". In particular, this chapter explains how government funded psychiatrists and psychologists came to believe that LSD may have some therapeutic potential thus abandoning the original "psychotomimetic" theory of LSD. The government engaged in much research on this drug, and by taking place in government sponsored experiments as participants, many prominent counter-cultural figures became involved with the drug (as a case in point there is the case of the poet Allen Ginsberg). Some figures came to see LSD as revealing deep secrets and as having a profound effect on human nature leading to the popular perspective that LSD offered a form of "gnosis" thus replacing the government's "psychosis" perspective. The third chapter is entitled "Under the Mushroom, Over the Rainbow" and explains how prominent individuals including Harvard professors (such as Timothy Leary and investment banker R. Gordon Wasson) became involved in the drug counter-culture. This chapter includes sections entitled "Manna From Harvard", "Chemical Crusaders", and "The Crackdown" - showing how the government eventually sought to crack down on LSD use eventually leading to its illegality. The fourth chapter is entitled "Preaching LSD" and discusses for example the hijinx of Timothy Leary (who some maintained was a CIA agent). This chapter includes sections entitled "High Surrealism", "The Psychedelic Manual", and "The Hard Sell". The fifth chapter of this book is entitled "The All-American Trip", detailing the rise of the Merry Pranksters who followed Ken Kesey. This chapter includes sections entitled "The Great Freak Forward" and "Acid and the New Left" - showing the problematic relationship between the LSD counter-culture and the political New Left. The second part of this book is entitled "Acid for the Masses". This part begins with the sixth chapter of this book entitled "From Hip to Hippie" showing how the LSD counter-culture created the emerging phenomenon of the hippie. This chapter includes sections entitled "Before the Deluge", "Politics of the Bummer", and "The First Human Be-In", in particular this chapter discusses how the "bad trip" came to emerge from a cultural matrix in which LSD was regarded as harmful by the establishment but as liberating by the counter-culture, virtually assuring that many would experiment with the drug themselves to find out for themselves the effects. The seventh chapter is entitled "The Capital of Forever" and includes sections entitled "Stone Free" and "The Great Summer Dropout". The eighth chapter is entitled "Peaking in Babylon" and includes sections entitled "A Gathering Storm", "Magical Politics", and "Gotta Revolution". In particular, this chapter shows how the LSD culture emerged in Haight-Ashbury and how it interacted with such other phenomena as the political New Left and the anti-war movement emerging as opposition to the Vietnam War, mentioning such things as the Diggers and the Yippies. In particular, many on the politically reductionistic New Left saw the whole hippie phenomena as an attempt to drop out of politics entirely and thus regarded it negatively. Further, many hippies became easy prey for dangerous psychopaths such as Charles Manson. The ninth chapter is entitled "Season of the Witch" and includes sections entitled "Armed Love", "The Acid Brotherhood", and "Bad Moon Rising". This chapter explains the relationships between the New Left and the anti-war movement forming as a force of opposition to the Vietnam War as well as the continuing and complicated relationship with the hippie culture and the phenomenon of folk music. The tenth chapter is entitled "What a Field Day for the Heat" and includes sections entitled "Prisoner of LSD", "A Bitter Pill", and "The Great LSD Conspiracy", in particular, this chapter maintains that behind the scenes the CIA may have been manipulating the drug counter-culture and may even have seen the Haight-Ashbury district as a social laboratory. The book ends with a Postscript entitled "Acid and After" and an Afterword.

This book offers an interesting study on the Sixties and the drug culture focusing around LSD that emerged out of this decade. In particular, after reading the book, it becomes clear that the hippie movement was easily manipulated by psychopaths such as Charles Manson and larger forces out of their control such as the CIA. Further, the naïve belief of many that LSD would lead to world peace turns out to have only been a passing phase. Another problematic raised by this book is the relationship between LSD use and New Left politics. Unfortunately, the New Left sought to reduce everything to politics so failed to appreciate any sort of development that lay outside of their own political sphere. This book offers a good examination of a troubled era and some of the hopes of people in that era that were ultimately manipulated by larger forces.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2NWFN612DXX3 My video review of Acid Dream. Really great bookAcid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond. ***** 5 stars =)

This book is perfect - It offered everything I was hoping for when I first purchased it. It covered from the end of the 50's and the Beat generation and how their influence lead into the hippie generation, and it ended in the early 70's tying in the beginning of rock and punk. It is a true spectrum of the 1960's counterculture generation.

It's a large book but its facinating to learn about the history and the culture. Like previous reviewers said, it really ties up everyhting and clearly shows the correalation between the drug counterculture and the govn't & society during that time period. I was born in the 80's and this book really showed me alot about the 60's counterculture and the attitudes towards drug use and young people during that time. I can see alot of correalations between that era with Vietnam as the war that they were protesting versus todays war in Iraq and the amount of US citizens that are against it.

The author also goes into government policies at the time and conspiricys and covert CIA and classified documents. I was amazed by the actions of the CIA and thetesting of LSD on unsuspecting American citizens. It is like the stuff movies are made of but it really happened! Truly and amazing and interesting book - I could not put it down. I reccomend it to everyone, regardless of your view on LSD or drug counterculture - a true wealth of information on 1960's America.

Carrie Bradshaw and the girls gave us a peek into the challenges, heartbreak, friendship, and love that is life in Manhattan. Asya lets us see and feel those same emotions and experiences that made up her life in Riga. She even describes her version of the Hamptons. Asya entertains as she talks with us, she also educates. My lesson? While there are clearly interesting intellectual and cultural differences, when it comes to matters of the heart and soul we are all clearly One. Brava!

This is a REAL book about a REAL person, Asya, who so candidly, yet carefully unfolds a story that takes the reader through time and across cultural and international boundaries! I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Asya's voice as I read. With the photos from her life included, it was easy to hear her telling me her story and delivering her laws...the wisdom she developed in her lifelong quest for real love. I appreciate her honesty and vulnerability in depicting how she regarded herself throughout this quest and in each of her roles - a girl looking for love, a lover, a wife, a daughter, a mother, etc. Her own perspective on Latvia and Latvians and America and Americans is also interesting to observe as it changes from beginning to end. Thank you, Asya, for going for it with this book!

In this world of virtual and mediated reality, Latvian-born Asya Raines has brought decades of memories to life. From tales of her mother as a WWII Soviet freedom fighter blowing up Nazi trucks, to the post War Russian occupation to a late 1970s consolation prize trip to Bulgaria that began with a yearning to see Yugoslavia, to perestroika and her eventual emigration to the United States, she enlightens us with her perceptions and charms us with her perseverance. A book that merits multiple reads!

I would like to thank Asya for finding the courage to write about her life. It was not only educational and interesting, but it helped me to realize that we can all "choose" the life we live. No one has to be a victim if they don't want to be. Also, she gives great advice in love! An inspirational book that I would recommend to any and all who love to read or love!

I really, truly enjoyed this book. It feels like Asya is sitting next to you telling her story - and she's so warm, and so honest, that you become engrossed in her tale. I picked the book up on a Friday evening, and finished it in a few hours. A great book to share with friends and family - of any age.

This is just a great book. Being born and raised in a Coal Camp in McDowell County, West Virginia really made me appreciate the descriptive style of writing which captures the true spirit of the "holler." When I finished the book I celebrated by cooking up a big pot of pinto beans and baked a big ol' pan of cornbread. Thank you for such a wonderful book.

"Over the course of my life, I have been lucky in that I have seldom managed to get exactly what I wanted; instead, I have most often been able to grow to appreciate what I got." You find out all the things the author strove for during her youth that never seemed to materialize...except for her studies when she always did well except for a very short period of time.

Linda Scott has told about her life that is most revealing and about a place in Appalachia in Eastern Kentucky that is so well explained that you know exactly what her hometown area looks like and how everyone lived. The twists and turns in her life are like a corkscrew where changes are constant, but purpose remains strong. The author is the most down-to-earth academician I have ever known including my brother who is a retired professor. If you want a marvelous reading experience, then get this book. I guarantee it!

I loved this book. It really tells the story of my people.

I was born in Paintsville (home of Loretta Lynn) and had to move away when I was 4. Reading this book took me back to my Grandma's front porch and the well outside. It reminded me of church outhouses and dinner on the ground. Made me want to throw rocks in the creek off the bridge at Grandma's and walk up to the family graveyard to wonder about my ancestor's lives. If you are from Eastern Kentucky, this book will make you proud to say "warsh" and "tard." If you aren't from there, read it anyway. It might make you appreciate us "hillbillies" a little more.

As a long-time enthusiast of Appalachian literature, I was eagerly aniticipating reading 'Creeker'. Though I didn't care much for the stereotypical title, I thought I would be able to make it past it to enjoy a unique brand of literature.

Boy, was I wrong!

This book typifies the apologist mentality that premeates Appalachia and keeps the ignorant serfs on the proverbial feudal land.

If you're a true fan of Appalachian literature, stick with the true masters, Bobbie Ann Mason and Lee Smith.

If you are a relatively new and inexperienced reader of American history, especially of the 20th century, this is the one book you should read as a foundation. The book's contents are accurate, the style is readable and entertaining, the perspective is unusually unbiased compared to current history writers. It's what a good history book should be.

Most compelling to me as someone born in the 1950s is the incredible sense of context the book delivers. Born after World War II, I was living through events in the 1960s and 1970s that seemed crazy until I read this book and found how much of that present flowed out of the past described in Manchester's book. For a young reader of today (circa 2000), the book still provides a strong foundation for current events. While history doesn't repeat itself, as Mark Twain is alleged to have noted, history rhymes. With this book, younger or inexperienced readers will begin to hear the rhymes and perhaps draw the reasons for why things are happening as they are today.

This is one of the best history books I've read in a 50 year reading life (so far!). It is impeccable in its scholarship, but accessible and enjoyable in its style. Everyone living today should read this book. It would give us a common ground to disagree from!

The Glory and the Dream is a two volume set of over 1600 pages. Mr. Manchester calls it a narrative history of America. It covers the years from 1932 to 1972. And I mean "covers". There are 37 chapters, almost one for each year.
These two volumes, as with all history books, contain a wealth of information, but Mr. Manchester's books seem to contain more information, if that is possible, than other history books. He is overwhelming.
Every time I pick up one of his books I end up re-reading the whole thing. And for some reason the man's style is always able to keep my interest. His feelings and intensity come through and not necessarily with his prejudices attached. He is just a good writer, plain and simple.
This set begins in the year 1932 with the Bonus Army marching on Washington D.C. It is a fascinating and tragic tale.
The year 1932 was "rock bottom" for America and the Great Depression.
When I picked up this first volume I thought it was the most radical thing that I had ever read. I thought that the book contained every corruptible thing about America that had ever been written. But now I realize it is, more or less, plain old American History. Since that time I have read more and more corruptible things.
I think reading William Manchester's account of things is what set me off on reading history.
William was a marine and served in the Pacific in W.W.II. He refused to become an officer - which has to say something for his character.
His style makes reading a learning history a pleasure.

This is the book I recommend to people who say that they hate History as a subject. When I was reading Manchester's account in the beginning of the book about the Bonus Marchers in 1932, I could feel the heat and humidity of pre-war and un-airconditioned Washington D.C. And Manchester conveyed the suffering of these veterans and their desperation in clear and concise language. I don't think that any historian has written about the Depression in as moving and compelling a manner as he does. And this is only the begining of the book. There's more great passages in his description of the home front during WWII. He recounts forgotten stories such as the "I want to go home" riots by GI's at the end of the war in Europe.

I disagree with one earlier reviewer who thought that a weakness in the book was Manchester's alleged liberal bias. In fact, his account of the Alger Hiss affair is unabashed in showing Hiss's guilt and in highlighting Nixon's diligence in pursuing the truth.

I completely wore out the copy I bought back in 1980. I first read it in the hospital when I was recovering from elective surgery. I was so ensconsed in it that I finished it during my three day stay.

William Manchester (1922-2004) provides a highly readable look at the USA from 1932-1972. This gripping narrative is written in the style of general history, yet readers come away with a profuond understanding of the times and events. The narrative begins with the nation in the depths of the Great Depression, with millions hungry, homeless, riding the rails, and looking for jobs that didn't exist. Enter Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, which greatly improved conditions. Then what followed was the Second World War, the post war boom, McCarthyism, Civil Rights, Vietnam, etc. The author does more than merely describe events and major personalities; he captures the feel of the various decades, looking at social conventions and changing mores over this 40-year period. Manchester even includes vignettes of major figures like Walter Reuther, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marilyn Monroe, etc. This is a superbly readable and slightly liberal two-volume narrative about the USA from the Depression to the end of Vietnam.

William Manchester bookends this sprawling, epic US history with two protests in the heart of Washington. He opens in 1930 at the rise of the Great Depression, with veterans across from the White House coldly shunned by President Herbert Hoover when asking for advance relief from the Great Depression, then brutally attacked by troops and national guardsmen led by Douglas MacArthur. He concludes with President Richard Nixon's second inaugural in 1973 at Watergate's rising, Vietnam demonstrators audible blocks away amidst calls for national unity and self-reliance.

In between, across 1300 pages, (excluding index and exhaustive bibliography) "The Glory and the Dream" chronicles the American Century's meatiest, most eventful years (1932-72). Manchester details a diary for and about what he called the "swing generation" but whom ex-NBC-TV anchorman Tom Brokaw (who cited Manchester as an influence) christened "the Greatest Generation."

These men and women endured and thrived through what, against Manchester's narrative, seemed (except for the relatively tranquil late 1950s) a non-stop whirlwind of hardship. Painting in broad strokes by economic numbers Manchester reveals compelling pictures of the Depression, bank and crop failures, Franklin Roosevelt's election and the New Deal, World War II, and the Korean and Cold Wars. He also includes near month by month chronicles and analysis on America's roots and involvement in the Vietnam War and Watergate, which takes up most of the book's final third. And of course, he addresses the still-shocking days of rage, murder, and decaying social fabric in the late 1960s.

Manchester's storytelling is expertly paced, foreshadowing careers of 20th century icons like Nixon, JFK, Marilyn Monroe and even the Edsel. He traces their steps to the national stage and devotes personal "Portrait of An American" sections to many (including Dr. Benjamin Spock, Edward R Murrow, and Ralph Nader). He does this deftly balancing international, social, and economic views of day to day life, worked, and socialized, even addressing political and social extremists (50s beatniks, 60s hippies, John Birchers). Isolationist vs. internationalist foreign policy views, themes as recent as last month's Iraq election, pops up throughout the book; virulent opposition to FDR's war mobilization leads to the opposition to the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan. Vietnam's civil war slowly creeps across several administrations beginning with Dwight Eisenhower's, reaching the heart of American experience as the decade and book close.

Anyone knowing or having lived through part of the last half-century can reference America's seismic events at a high level. To Manchester's credit he reached deeper into the causes behind pop culture and historical touchstones like Nixon's "Checkers" speech, 1968's Vietnam My Lai massacre, the oft-overlooked 1936 hurricane crushing New England (and ineffective warnings against it), and Japan's 1937 sinking of the USS Panay which foreshadowed Pearl Harbor. He draws dimensional character studies amidst the era's scandals (the fall of Eisenhower right hand man Sherman Adams as one example). He allows you to understand personalities and issues behind history's strongest feuds: President Harry Truman against union leader John Lewis (or MacArthur, or Joseph McCarthy...), between Southern governors and other leadership against Dr. Martin Luther King, the Freedom Riders, the Kennedy administration, and finally against the Black Panthers' vicious 1960s anarchy. Finally, he chronicles the "silent majority" generation gap between Nixon/Agnew's divisive, reactionary leadership team and a generation's angry youth.

Before his death last year, Manchester wrote whole volumes on major figures included here (Winston Churchill, MacArthur, JFK). But given the relatively short time each is presented (except for FDR, who dominates the book's first half ), Manchester masterfully retells individual personal style, social time, major accomplishments, blunders, and closure to their lives and histories. "The Glory and the Dream" is filled with protests after violent counter protests (which Manchester respects even when he does not agree), well-drawn, memorable characters more remarkable for being real life characters, and insightful side comments on issues like the role of the vice-presidency and American tolerance of dissent.

At its publication, Manchester himself called "The Glory and the Dream" the culmination of his career, and for once it was not hyperbole. Anyone wishing to understand American character must start here; "The Glory and the Dream" is the finest history-based book I've ever read, and one of the finest in any genre.
Absolutely essential.