North America Books

This is a well researched and written book about the Indian wars on the New York and Pennsylvania frontiers during the American Revolution. It tells the stories of the Wyoming Massacre, the Cherry Valley Massacre and the Sullivan campaign providing the details on each but in a very readable format. It also provides some details on other not so well known events on the frontiers like the situation around Pittsburgh and in western Pennsylvania. Consequently, this book fills in a gap in the American Revolution and worth the purchase for any individual interested in reading more about that period.

Mr. Williams recent book describes in excellent, understandable detail what caused the Americans to invade Iroquois territory and the effects of the invasion. His book is an excellent companion to another book I have read titled History of Wyoming, by Charles Miner that was originally written in 1845. Miner interviewed people who survived or were connected to the Wyoming Massacre, while Williams had access to all the archives. The two books fill in details and each makes the other more rewarding to read.

I read this book because I have Loyalist ancestors who were members of Butler's Rangers and almost certainly participated in the battles described in such detail. My ancestors, William Pickard and his 2 sons James and Benjamin, two privates and a drummer boy, did not get mentioned in the book, but that was not a problem since around 900 people were in Butler's Rangers. They survived to move to Canada after the war and they started large families after leaving their homes in Tryon County.

The book has a nice section on the key personalities that I found useful since there were Butlers on both the Loyalist and Patriot sides. The book would be improved by detailed maps. Unless you can imagine where places like Tioga, Unidilla and Stone Arabia are, you will read the book in front of your computer with Google Maps open as I did. The book would also be improved with contemporary photos of the battle sites; some of these, like the Battle of Newton, were easily found on the web.

I learned much from the book and enjoyed it. It was very interesting to see that the Rangers contained a good number of Black soldiers who lived with the rest of the Rangers and the Indians. It was also interesting to see how both sides courted the Indians and tried to win their support. The book really makes the Revolution look much more like a civil war than people typically think.

The book was well written to the point that the book rich in detail was not lost by the tremendous amout of utilized quotes and reference points. More detail on the life style and pressures (for survival)of settlements along the frontier border would have been benefical.

After two years of fighting in America with limited success, the British felt they were, to coin a popularized modern term, in a bit of a quagmire, and sought a new strategy for their overseas war. The new strategy involved moving the war away from the more populated northeast and into the western frontier. This move would not only disperse the already diminutive American forces, but would also allow Britain to utilize its strongest North American allied force, the Iroquois Indian Confederacy.

Glenn William's book, THE YEAR OF THE HANGMAN: WASHINGTON'S WAR AGAINST THE IROQUOIS chronicles the events that took place in those western frontier skirmishes and battles. The book derives its name for the year, 1777, which had become popularly known at the time as the `year of the hangman' due to the three sevens appearance of gallows when written, though the majority of the events actually occurred in 1779. Though using that title for his book was too good of an opportunity to pass up, William's title is slightly misleading as to the dates of the primary events.

The Iroquois, though primarily located in Western and Central New York, were quite possibly the strongest Indian nation of North America for a span of over 500 years. Their control reached across the Great Lakes into Central Wisconsin and their rise to prominence came at the cost of driving out, and driving to extinction, numerous other Indian tribes of the region. They were, to be sure, a force to be reckoned with.

Both the Americans and the British had heavily lobbied allegiance with the Iroquois, but in the end, the Indians felt their best chance for future lay at the hands of the British and consequently, four of the six main tribes of the Iroquois sided with the British. This error in judgment would prove fatal to the Iroquois nation, when, as a primary result of the Sullivan Expedition, the Iroquois nation would virtually lose all of its military and political power.

While the Sullivan Expedition is the primary focus of William's book, other major events are deftly chronicled as well, such as the Battle of Oriskany and the Wyoming Valley attacks. By 1979, Gen. Washington had successfully developed the army making it capable of taking the fight to the Indians and literally destroying their economical stability and rendering them harmless, not just for the remainder of the revolution, but into the subsequent years of frontier settlement into the traditional Iroquois homelands.

That Washington was able to develop a force the size of the Sullivan Expedition (5000 men) is in and of itself, a testament to Washington's military leadership abilities and, though today, only an afterthought in Revolutionary history, stands as one of the General's greatest military accomplishments.

This is good reading. Glenn William's had put together a readable and valuable presentation of a rather forgotten aspect of America's fight for independence.

Monty Rainey
Junto Society

Capt. James Cook was sailing north to seek a Northwest Passage between Europe and Asia when he ran across Niihau and Kauai in January 1778. He then pushed into the Chukchi Sea and became the first explorer to enter the western end of the passage, though he did not know it.
Retreating from the following winter, he ended up getting killed in Hawaii.
Considering the activity of Europeans in the Pacific in the late 18th century, somebody was bound to reach Hawaii. But that it should have happened just then, and with just those people, must have affected the development of Hawaiian relations with the outside world.
It may be that the reconnection of Hawaii to the rest of the world was the most portentous result of the three centuries of deadly, cruel searching for the Northwest Passage.
As far back as 1632, Capt. Thomas James, hired by Bristol merchants to seek a passage, announced, "There are certainly no commercial benefits to be obtained in any of the places I visited during this voyage." He had proved that a passage, if any existed, would lie above 80 degrees N., choked with ice and unusable.
Stubborn adventurers, mostly English, kept trying anyway, and James Delgado tells their stories in "Across the Top of the World" with up-to-date archaeological discoveries and a fairly recent respect for Inuit testimony.
Delgado is head of the Vancouver Maritime Museum, where St. Roch, the first ship to make the passage in both directions, resides.
That happened during World War II, when Canada was concerned to establish its claims to the islands of the Arctic Archipelago, through which there are several "Northwest Passages," all difficult.
Arctic archaeology has boomed in the past two decades, and although explorers started carefully recording Inuit accounts as far back as the 1860s, only in the past few years have these received independent corroboration from the archaeology.
Inuit oral accounts go back, with considerable but not perfect accuracy, at least to Martin Frobisher's attempt in the 1570s.
Almost all the attempts except Cook's started in eastern Canada.
The biggest, most disastrous was Sir John Franklin's. Like many another, it ended in starvation and cannibalism. Every one of his 129 men died.
Franklin, who died in 1847, led the biggest, best supplied and most modern exploration up to that time. While scurvy and starvation were the main killers of premodern explorers (with battles with natives a distant second), Franklin had ships full of canned provisions.
Archaeologists, testing frozen bones and hair, suspect that the lead in the solder on the cans slowly deranged the Franklin group, making them incapable of making sensible decisions. Nevertheless, some of them made heroic efforts to carry large boats across miles and miles of tundra to reach open water.
Searching for Franklin became an international mania, and the last links of the passage were discovered by these adventurers.
Roald Amundsen eventually sailed through the passage, but the first commercial attempt came only in 1969, when the tanker Manhattan was sent through to see if Alaskan North Slope crude oil could be shipped out. Even though the alternative (the Alyeska pipeline) cost $10 billion, that was a better deal than using the fabled Northwest Passage.
The irony is that today cruise ships carry tourists far into the Northwest Passage, in comfort and safety.
Delgado tells these stirring tales in matter-of-fact fashion.
Most accounts of Arctic explorations tell of the mysterious fascination that keeps drawing men back even though they nearly died the first, second or third time. Nothing of this grandeur and mysticism finds its way into "Across the Top of the World."
What it does have is hundreds of excellent illustrations, both engravings from old accounts and color photographs of old maps and all sorts of archaeological discoveries.

Wondrously illustrated with photographs, artwork, and maps, James Delgado's Across the Top Of The World: The Quest For The Northwest Passage tells of the courageous yet ultimately doomed search for a Northwest Passage across the North American continent. From the Frobisher party in 1547 to the first successful navigation in 1903-6, to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner that set the stage for modern exploration using icebreakers, this historical volume portrays the pain, the toll, the struggle, and the quest of man vs. nature in absolute detail. The narrative text is exhaustively researched and so detailed as to metaphorically transport the reader along with the famous journeys. Across The Top Of The World is enthusiastically recommended public library American history collections and for anyone with a keen interest in this fascinating part of American history.

I found this book a very interesting read. The photos were wonderful. It covers the varied expeditions on the quest for the Northwest Passage. Lots of people lost their lives and ultimately it was not, of course, a really usable shipping route.

The Franklin expedition and the various search parties is well covered. The one existing daguerotype of Franklin, which I had not seen, is included, as are the recent discoveries and theories about what happened.

At a bargain price, this is a nice gift book. Mine came without the tell tale black "bargain stripe" on the spine.

The Norsemen may have been the first to attempt this passage but they were certainly not the last. Over 300 years of trials and bitter, freezing failures were to come and go before Norwegian Roald Amundsen finally conquered the passage in the early 20th century. It is not a coincidence that the only other undiscovered lands and the last of the remaining great adventures was also in a snowy, bitter climate - Shackleton's voyage to the Antarctic on the 'Endurance' was taking place at about the same time.

Disimilar to other 'popular history' books, this one does not have the same easy, flowing, narrative style but what it does differently and better than other pop histories is give details. Here you learn all that you could possibly want to know about every unfortunate mission that unsuccessfully sought the Nortwest passage. Crammed with maps, photos and illustrations it's all here. The little sidebar descriptions - mini biographies- of many of the explorers is a nice feature.

This book has the capacity to touch you intellectually and emotionally. It is a well written book on explorers and exploration. This book brings to life those searching for the Northwest Passage. Their struggles and hardships are well documented.

I loaned this book to a friend, who is somewhat of a stoic, and inquired how he liked it. He responded the book brought tears to his eyes. He was able to clearly envision the hardships these people endured. Amazingly, they willingly faced those hardships again to assist others.

This book takes you to a time when extrodinary hardships were dealt with as a fact of life.

Beautiful pictures and interesting, informative articles make this book a must for anyone who is allured by the beauty of turquoise. I read the book in one setting, and while it is a good place to start, I found myself wanting more information. If you collect turquoise or just wear it because you love it, do yourself a favor and get educated about vintage, pawn, and newer creations; natural stones vs. stablized stones, and even fake stones. You'll find this book helpful.

"The Allure of Turquoise" is made up of a collection of articles on turquoise, its history and the Native American mythology surrounding this stone. I was particularly fascinated by one article about ants and their relationship with turquoise. Nevertheless, although this is an informative and interesting book, if you are looking for a guide to collecting turquoise or turquoise jewellery, I'd begin withTurquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide (Rocks, Minerals and Gemstones), which focusses more on purchasing turquoise and the different types of turquoise. "The Allure of Turquoise" is a relatively short book (only 107 pages in length), but contains color pictures throughout. Be aware, however, that this book does not contain an index, a major drawback, as far as I am concerned.

I found this book very thorough as far as the knowledge of the types of turquoise. But, I also found a lot of good info about traditional jewelry selling, info about fakes and treatments and historical knowledge. Gorgeous pictures.

This was a birthday gift for my husband. He loved it. He said it was the perfect present since he loves turquoise and making turquoise jewelry. It even arrived on time, gift wrapped. If you love turquoise, the color pictures are worth it. The content is very good too, my husbands states.

This is the same review I gave to "Turquoise Unearthed"...and for all intents and purposes, they could be classified as companion volumes...both doing an exceptional job in words and images!

"I have been a gem and mineral dealer for over ten years...and a rockhound for a lot longer than that...but this book taught me more in a single sitting than all my years in the buisiness and in the hobby.

I have dug, traded, bought and sold a whole bunch of "Turq"...natural, treated and "color-shot"...and this book instantly became one of my favorite references for the rest of my life.

If you are planning on investing in real American or Persian turquoise jewelry or stones...and it is an investment...then this book is a "Must Have!"

No sooner did I put this book down than I called up one of my suppliers and bought all of the Blue Gem and Turquoise Mountain stones they had left in stock...I am sure they are wondering what precipitated that call!"

My many thanks to Mr. Vigil for his labor of love, a compilation of articles from New Mexico Magazine...on everything from the Lowry "Turq" Museum...to the history and significance of the Cerrillos Mines...to the myth of "Old Pawn" jewelry...and much, much more!

The caption does little justice to the main tenet of the book since no war worth the name occurred either on 11/9 or on 9/11. Readers might be confused although the book is studded with solid facts. The period under consideration, i.e., the decade of the 1990s was one of uncertainties and nations of the world were searching for a stable international order that has not yet emerged thanks to US follies.

Gautam Maitra
Author of 'Tracing the Eagle's Orbit: Illuminating Insights into Major US Foreign Policies Since Independence.'

Having never read anything like this before, I was prepared for a brain-deadener. In very short order, however, things turned into a brain-enlivener. Simply and evenly written this book turned a potentially boring or polemical study of what seemed to have been a lost decade into a fascinating look backwards at a not-at-all distant past.
I thought I understood the decade but it is clear I did not. At least now I have a chance at understanding it better. These guys (incredibly well-informed and widely-researched) have done us a great service.
Reading this book does leave me with a nagging dread. The Campaign of 2008 did an excellent job of disregarding the great foreign policy dilemmas of the moment and of the 90s.
But, as Between the Wars so amply illustrates, foreign policy is driven by domestic politics, and in that arena it appears we are doomed to repeat, and repeat, the errors of our ways.

This book is the first account of US foreign policy in the 1990s that treats the decade as genuine history. I mean that it does not simply offer a chronicle of the period, or a set of newspaper clippings and individual events - it offers a guiding historical interpretation that sets those years in relation to the Cold War before and 9/11 and beyond. It is very convincing that there is far more continuity today with the foreign policies of those years than many people, left or right, give credit for. It is a highly persuasive interpretation of the period and I believe will remain the standard account of its foreign policy for a long time to come.

This is a tremendously important book that explains what happened when the Berlin wall fell and America's foreign policy establishment was forced to confront a world that was no longer organized by the US/Soviet rivalry. As it becomes increasingly clear that the "war on terrorism" is only a part of the broader foreign policy needed to protect our nation in a complex and multi-polar world, this is the book to read if you want to understand how the next generation of policymakers will draw on the lessons of the recent past to set a new course. Chollet and Goldgeier know what they are talking about. They have done exhaustive research, and each of them has hands on experience in the foreign policy business. It's a bonus that the writing is lively and engaging. Don't miss this book.

I was in Jr. High and High School during the 90s and so wasn't very familiar with this period before reading this, and while interested and somewhat familiar with policy, am certainly no expert. After years of thinking I knew who neoconservatives were and what both parties "stood for", this book really put things into perspective and contextualized things for me. And though it's a "history", it draws extensively on interviews with leading policymakers & insiders during the period, so the text ends up reading more like a narrative (great for a novel-reader like myself).

In sum, this was really informative, interesting, and a quick read - perfect for anyone looking for a genuinely nonpartisan, nuanced look at how we got to where we are - both domestically and abroad. Definitely a must for your summer reading list.

This is a very informative quilt history book with fantastic, close-up photos of fabric. This will be a great addition to your Barbara Brackman collection. I had mine laminated and spiral bound!!

An invaluable resource for the quilt historian ,conservator or just an interested quilter. The illustrations helped me to identify fabric by period,style and color. The text gave me invaluable information to help identify a puzzling old quilt which was found stuffed in a chimney undisturbed for 90 years. Barbara Brackman is the author to read when one seeks information about quilts and their history. I enjoyed the chapter identifications allowing me to quickly access the fabric type I was seeking.

This is a good resource for the history of textiles with the purpose of dating quilts or construction of period correct clothing and quilts.

This book gives a very good compressive over view of fabrics in a certain time frame. While I bought it for reference I discovered it is quite enjoyable just to read. I'd recommend it to anyone with an interest in fabrics. It would be especially useful to a beginning fabric aficionado.

what a wonderful resource book for anyone who is interested in fabric/fiber arts.
i'm a quilter who likes to create quilts with a flair from yesterday. this book not only helps me to be closed in my interpretation of that time, it does guide me through the decision which colors have been more used than others. the contents/pictures are very clear and the instructions to recreate some of the quilts are outstanding. i would give this book 6 stars!

This time Becka and Scott, and Ryan, too, are off to New Mexico to help a young Native American in a fight against demons, evil, and misunderstanding. This could be their toughest assignment ever and one of them may fall.

James Riordan does a much better job with this one (yes, he is the author and not Bill Myers). Very little in the way of facts to get wrong like in his earlier contributions to the series. There is the standard question of what is going on with the kids and their school that they never seem to attend anymore.

My real disappointment this time comes from the author's insistence on using the term Indian and not Native American. If we are to truly love our neighbor, should we refer to them by a derogatory word? I think not.

While this is Riordan's best effort in the series, it is also his last. Bob DeMoss will be taking over the series with the next book (The Wiccan).

There is no way to give proper tribute to these amazing books in 1,000 words or less. They are must read books for any teenager who wanted to know how to fight evil with good and know how great our God is. With a quoted word from scripture, demons flee in terror. The difference in power between he who lives in this world and He who lives in me is astronomical. Of Christian non fiction out there, this series is one of three I took the time to read, buy, and recommend. Bill Myers is a fanomonal writer. He's right up there with C.S. Lewis. My only question is: who is Z?

hi, this is an awesome book for anyone of all ages and religous backgrounds. i own the entire series and love them all. they're very inspirational and remind me of how powerful the Lord is when i have a problem. has anyone heard anything about another book(#11)?? if so let me know. thanks

This is an awesome series for any Christian teen, and anyone else who wants to read it! It really shows the power of God and how He gives Christians authority over demons, etc. This series can really build your faith! Except the last book made you think another one was coming... what about #11? I hope there is more to come! =)

What a book! Man, Bill Myers sure knows how to pack everything a Christian teenager needs to know in one book. This book is definitely the best of all the Forbidden Doors series. (I've read them all.) It has spiritual warfare, humor, heavy-duty prayer, plus tons of other stuff. Definitely 5 stars, all the way!

Angus and the Hidden Fort, by Steven A. Corirossi, was one of my favorite books. It's about [a small]kid who found a secret fort and it actually belonged to someone very famous years ago. To find out who it is, you got to check this book out. I loved how Steven wrote the ending. He added so much detail that I was disappointed when the book was over. This book is one of those books that you wish could never end. I recommend this book to six graders and up because I don't think that little kids would understand. If there are anymore books by Steven Corirossi, I got to read them!

Angus And The Hidden Fort by Steven A. Corirossi is an engaging novel for young readers about Angus McBride a nine-year-old boy, and his best friend Andrew Sills, who when exploring Black Hawk Park, discover the legacy of a one hundred and fifty year old mystery. Angus And The Hidden Fort is a highly recommended, adventurous and exciting tale, and one that opens with an unknown individual fleeing the wrath of two bare-chested Indians and proffers tantalizing hints as to the who and the why of the chase, until the stunning revelation of the end. The debut novel of a six-book series, readers will appreciate author Steven Corirossi's talents as a first class storyteller and will look eagerly forward to the new two titles: Angus And The Mysterious House and Angus And The Forgotten Trails.

Angus and the Hidden Fort is a very funny, mysterious, and exciting book. Although some words in this book I didn't know, by the time I was done with each chapter I had at least one word to add to my vocabulary list. I could read this book over and over and never get tired of reading it.

I was so excited to learn about this new adventure series--set in Central Illinois--that I just had to write and tell the author how grateful I am... it isn't too frequent that I can share with my 5th graders such wonderful, family-friendly stories that practically take place in our own backyard! Both Angus and the Hidden Fort and Angus and the Mysterious House are creatively and well written chapter novels that not only my students enjoyed, but I did as well. We're anxiously awaiting the arrival of Steven's third book, Angus and the Forgotten Trails... hurry up!

The book was a nice adventure story for boys or girls, although more geared to boys because all of the main characters in both time frames were male. Going back and forth in time made for more interesting reading and there was an element of mystery about the characters from the past that made the reader want to keep going to see what really happened and to whom.

The protagonist in the present was an adventuresome boy and I could imagine more stories of his exploits from the author. As an adult, I found the book a little simplistic and fairly predictable; still, I enjoyed the yarn and read it all. I think youngsters could picture themselves involved in this kind of exploration, doing a little detective work and trying to figure out some of the unexplained happenings.

I received this book very quickly and in excellent condition, exactly as described. I find Armitage's books (this is my third) to be informative, beautifully illustrated, and entertaining to read. The author is witty and opiniated, besides being very well informed. I look forward to ordering more of his publications, especially if Amazon makes them available!

Good presentation of native plants, but could have more photos of some of the more obscure species. The book is slanted more toward the southeast and east U.S. Representation of western species is not as strong as it could be, but overall a very interesting book.

Really great book. I got it from the library and just couldn't get enough of it. ...so I bought it and am glad I did. Great conversational writing makes it a joy to read. Really helps you figure out what plants will work best for you.

I found this book an excellent reference to have for studying native plants. It should be in your personal library.

I gave this book as a gift and have heard wonderful things about it. This book is very useful for help planning for choosing native plants and for figuring out where to plant natives in a garden.

Una interesante aventura en donde se refleja el principio de la realizacion de todo sueno o proyecto que es comenzarlo sin importar si es o no posible realizarlo, solo a medida que transcurre el tiempo se dan las condiciones llevarlo a cabo. Como historia es muy interesante, pero el estilo de redaccion, sus constantes referencias al auto (con lo cual se llega a pensar que sin el auto no hubieran llegado a destino porque fue la pieza clave en la aventura), la constante repeticion de frases, su visible exaltacion del yo personal y la exagerada demostracion de sentimentalismos lo hacen un poco pesado de leer. Es entendible que fue escrito a medida que realizaban el proyecto pero estaria bien que fuera revisado por un editor y estilista literario. En general un evento digno de admirar, quizas de repetir, pero como obra literaria le hace falta bastante.

I met Herman when he was selling his book in Maryland! I had seen them in a TV show a few weeks earlier and immediately recognized his car. I bought him a book and started dreaming.

This book really inspires you to start achieving your dreams! If they can achieve their dreams why can't you. You need to start now.

This book inspired me to start doing things that I had always wanted to do but kept leaving aside. I now started taking tennis classes, I started an MBA and have plane tickets to spend New Year's in Paris.

No matter how big or small your dreams are, this book gives you that extra push you need to take off and begin living what you always dreamed of.

We need to enjoy life! Don't allow the years to pass by and later say I wish I would have done this. Act now!

Aun continuo leyendo el libro y me ha parecido FANTASTICO. Ha sido escrito en un lenguaje fresco, divertido y ameno. Te sensibiliza, te contagia y te hace parte de "sus suenos".

Norma

In their travels, I was blessed to meet the Zapp family in NC, USA. These folks are friendly, faith-filled friends who I hope to see again, soon!

Un libro lleno de vida, con enseñanzas tan profundas, sencillas y simples como la vida vida misma. Un viaje de amor. Una historia que nos hace ver que todos somos hermanos, no importa de donde venimos ni a donde vamos, y sobretodo que todos tenemos algo para dar. Y que dar y dejar que nos den es algo maravilloso, que nos hace mas humanos y mas hermanos. Un libro que nos inspira para vivir nuestra vida al maximo, disfrutando de todo lo que realmente vale la pena: el amor, la amistad, la familia, la naturaleza, y todo lo que nos hace sentir vivos.
Lo recomiendo no solo para adultos sino sobre todo para adolescentes que estan empezando a vivir la vida!

This book may be the most readable (for being a narrative) account of those challenging days when our great and elected President brought us back from the brink of nuclear war and possible annihilation as a nation, as a people, as a species.

Thus this thick book may further serve as a solid introduction to the primary sources of that time, from Tuesday, October 16th through Monday, October 29th, 1962, now 45 years ago. We must have a national celebration and commemoration of the President who kept us OUT of war and the world from bloodshed. Read this book to learn how and why.

Sheldon Stern is an academic professional historian who took early retirement to write this book as the EXComm tapes became declassified. He therefore places these tapes within their historical context, fully presenting their background, as well as providing a learned and helpful running commentary throughout his presentation of the transcript. He also provides a technical analysis of the transcript, including its reliability and validity, and the peer-review process by which it was developed. For instance he provides an interesting analysis of alternative interpretations of some points in the tape, and thereby the alternative political implications, and also reflects upon the technical quality of the recordings.

All in all, this is an excellent presentation of those courageous days in every aspect, and probably their best general presentation, comprehensive while accessible to the general reader. Certainly it will present a purpose for further study of other historical documents from that crucial period in which our President kept us out of war, which he termed the "final failure," and recalls to our hearts a time of great, serious, intent, decisive, moral, experienced, humane, elected, wise and intelligent leadership concerned for the safety and well-being of all people, sadly lacking since.

While reading Sheldon Stern's book, I felt as if I were having a conversation with him. Relating the facts of that event in a manner and detail that made this reader want to know what came next was a gift! Detailed, yes; comprehensive, yes; accurate, no doubt!

Stern has offered the most complete understanding of the Cuban missile crisis, and of Kennedy himself, in this the most intimate account of those October days, drawn directly from the taped deliberations. His reconstruction destroys the simplistic characterizations of JFK as a "cold warrior" and leaves the reader grateful for his handling of that showdown with the Soviets. I would consider this account more definitive than any other now available, or likely to be in the near future. This is essential reading.

This is the book, I'd wager, that everyone thought they were getting when they purchased "The Kennedy Tapes" (Zelikow and May, 1997 Harvard Press). After struggling through that seminal work, the need for a narrative form of this compelling side of the Missile Crisis was palpable...fortunately, retired JFK Library historian Sheldon Stern also saw the need and completed what was clearly a passionate "life's work" with "Averting the Final Failure". Stern takes years of study and scrutinization of the White House tapes that eavesdropped on the EXCOMM (Executive Committee of the National Security Council) as they advised and debated the day-to-day issues associated with the Crisis and turned a complex story into an amazingly lucid and cogent narrative that should become THE source for White House activities during the Crisis.

Newly declassified and available, Stern has added immensly to the growing amount of literature/transcripts of these profound tapes. The difference here is that Stern is clearly the one who has spent the most time and study on these tapes and, coupled with his surprisingly apt story-telling capability, has developed an authoritative work that defines the "who? what? where? when? and how?" of the Kennedy advisor "inner-workings". Time and again, Stern destroys myths and legends as his narrative describes each meeting and the theme that each one invoked. He interprets each discussion and adds his own attempt at tone and voice inflection to give not only the content of the discussion, but the "atmosphere" as well. The result is almost as good as hearing the tapes themselves...giving the true feel for what these "Best and Brightest" advisors went through.

The story of course has been told time and again...Soviet leader Nikita Khrushev surreptitiously installs nuclear capable missiles and the associated warheads in Communist ally Cuba and this subversion is discovered with American U2 spy plane photography. The subsequent actions taken by the U.S. government are fortunately recorded on a complex White House taping system by President John Kennedy, thus providing an invaluable insight into this provocative period in the Cold War. Unfortunately, these recordings leave much to be desired in terms of quality and many have attempted to transcibe them into a useful tool for historians. The "Kennedy Tapes" book attempted to publish the full transcriptions, but this work was so disjointed that it tended to confuse more than educate. Stern, having initially supported this effort by Zelikow and May, becomes more and more dismayed with the quality of this transcribing work and decides to offer his own interpretation of the tapes and the Crisis. Having spent many years analyzing them (long before they were declassified) he provides an amazing insight and scholarship, while clearing up many "unclear" voice transcriptions.

Taking all this information and recognizing that just another publication of transcripts would not be useful, he decides on a version that describes these actions on the tapes in narrative form. He clears up the collateral chatter and keeps a thematic focus on the narrative and comes up with a wonderfully clear and concise coverage of this event. More than just an interpretation of tapes, Stern also accompanies the narrative with a surprisingly readable summary of events and, happily, a destruction of many of the afore mentioned myths that have survived throughout the years. Well known Crisis stories such as Robert Kennedy's "hawkish" anti-Communist stance, the deception and negotiations of the agreement to extract nuclear missiles from Turkey as a trade for extraction of the missiles from Cuba and the continued iintransigence of Fidel Castro and the Cuban government are denounced here by Stern...offering a new and embellished perspective on the Crisis. Kenndy's "free-wheeling" meeting style is amazingly supported by the tapes and stand in stark contrast to the popular theme presented in such movies as "The Missiles of October" and "Thirteen Days"...an example being JFK's response to the shooting down of an American U2 spy plane at the height of the Crisis on October 27th...the movie version has JFK and the EXCOMM loudly debating retaliatory responses when in reality JFK's calm and measured response was: "...this is an escalation by them isn't it?" and the meeting went on.

"Averting the Final Failure" comes 42 years following the denouement of the Missile Crisis and thouroughly ties together all loose ends associated with White House activities during those heady 13 days. This is an important and monumental addition to the vast amount of literature available on the Crisis and should be considered the first reference used by historians for the White House perspective of the Crisis...I would overwhelmingly recommend this work to anyone interested in those activities in October, 1962.

History has two definitions: a chronological record of significant past events, and a story. Sheldon Stern's story of the Cuban Missile Crisis is history (both definitions) at its best. The scholarly, time-consuming, and meticulous research that went into this work abounds throughout its pages. The author's willingness to challenge earlier historical works on the translation of the crisis's audiotapes makes this book a must for any student of JFK, his administration, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Because of the comprehensive nature of history, a reader might conclude that this is just another dry historical work. Far from it - this book reads like a Robert Ludlum novel. The reader is caught in the tension as the missiles are first discovered, held as the conflict escalates to an almost unbearable crisis, and released as the resolution unfolds. But this was no political thriller, it was real life. Mr. Stern has taught us all a great lesson of history: that real people make real decisions, that these decisions have consequences both foreseen and unforeseen, and that there could have been other choices made with different outcomes. Our world would be a much different place if JFK had listened to his advisors. I believe this book will become the classic study for the story of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Averting the Final Failure is a must read.