North America Books

The 20th century was cursed with two murderous ideologies: communism and Nazism. Nazism slaughtered 6 million Jews, while communism killed at least 100 million people, and managed to enslave vast swaths of the globe. Besancon wonders why Nazism has become the prototype for evil while communism's evils are largely ignored.



In this important essay, Besancon points out the many similarities between communism and Nazism. "Ideological language is charged with the magical role of forcing reality to conform to a particular vision of the world" (p 14). Who can forget "scientific Marxism" or the false journalists of communism? Or replacing truth with invented histories of an Aryan civilization? And both persecuted religion while trying to substitute their ideologies for religion. "These two doctrines ...have in common the idea of a collective salvation coming in history" (p 60), a biblical idea wholly unknown in the eastern world.



Besancon actually dares to point out that "a Nazi or communist presents a clinical case for psychiatric examination" (p 16). Furthermore, "These artificial mental illnesses were...epidemic and contagious" (p 16). Germany and the USSR woke up years later like patients recovering from comas.



What is most striking is that the atrocious actions of both ideologies, the monstrous death camps, the gulag, the mass starvations, the horrors of Pol Pot and Mao, were all committed by people sure they were doing these things in the name of good.



Why did madness strike the 20th century? What does it say about human nature and what does it say about our future?

This book is amazing! It completely and descriptively compares the two most evil Ideologies of the 20th Century. It describes how the crimes associated with Nazism unfortunately overshadow the crimes associated with communism, which claimed the lives of over 12 times that of Nazism; because Nazism promoted the reign of one race and was dedicated to the complete obliteration of another. But people often forget that communism was as genocidal at times as Nazim, not to mention the murder and "reeducation" of anyone who did not conform to their ideas of equality. We condemn Nazism because of the over 6 million dead. But most people condemn communism because of its opposition to capitalism, not because of the hundred million or so murdered, plus all those who were tortured just for thinking a different way.
Alain Besancon opens our eyes to this and tells us not to forget the crimes of Nazism, but to remember the injustice and the still alive evil of the communist idea. An amazing read.

This text in the French essay tradition is a reflection on the 20th century's twin totalitarian evils. Besancon muses on their nature, why the one is considered evil incarnate whilst the other gets off lightly, and why the Shoah/Holocaust is unique in last century's atrocity exhibition. Although Communism - including Maoism - caused far more deaths than Nazism it is not stigmatized equally. To better define this disparity, Besancon refers to a collective "amnesia" and "amnesty" where Communism is concerned versus "hypernesia" regarding Nazism.

This is due to our culture's dominant moral relativism, a PoMo morality that asserts universal relativism whilst clinging to temporary absolutes dictated by intellectual trends. The collapse of the Soviet Empire and the fall of the Berlin Wall have driven most of the Leftist Faithful into Marxism's latest mutations environmentalism, feminism and multiculturalism. Chantal Delsol unmasked a type of European piety prevalent in academic and media circles as an empty morality of despair and withdrawal. She calls it the clandestine or black market ideology of our time; sickly sentimental, arbitrary and intolerant despite claims to the contrary.

It inspires nausea to see a hip fashion brand like Soviet Jeans using Soviet imagery in their advertising. Trade in Nazi paraphernalia is restricted to the murkier media and overt Nazi styles are associated with violent skinheads, for now. The visual imagery, lyrics and manner of delivery of the most popular German rock group Rammstein reveal an aesthetic of blood- and power lust, death-worship, ferocity and sadism, concludes Claire Berlinski after thorough investigation including several interviews with band members. In a series of absorbing arguments in the entertaining Menace in Europe she shows how the black-market German nationalism of Rammstein resembles the Third Reich's dramaturgy, mythology, propaganda and vocabulary.

Like all sects of Sinisterism, Communism and Nazism were collectivist and justified mass murder but they surpassed all the others in scale of massacre. They caused similar physical, moral and psychological destruction and would have killed consciousness itself if it were possible. As competing strains of the power-worshiping sinisterist religion they regarded as rivals Christianity and Judaism. A perceptive thinker, perhaps William Nicholls or Robert Wistrich, referred to Western utopian movements as the "secular salvationist offspring of Christianity."

They fit neatly into Eric Hoffer's descriptions of the mass movement driven by disaffected true believers hell-bent on mutilating reality through sociopathic behavior in their search for "meaning." For Besancon, ideology offers a type of temporal salvation that claims to correspond to a cosmic pattern which must be enforced on earth in order to recreate paradise.

The total destruction of existing values is the immediate goal; a drastic departure from history in pursuit of the ideology which is believed will lead to utopia. The "salvationist" label is thus applicable and appropriate. Analyzing and comparing the structure of their thought-forms and taking into consideration their host cultures Germany and Russia (and less frequently China), he explores their promise/s in relation to the beliefs they attempted to eradicate.

This led Besancon to question whether there was something fundamentally unusual about the murder of the 6 million as compared to all the other victims of the Nazis and Communists. He does not seek the answer in the method of murder or in the depths of suffering that are after all impossible to measure, but in the impulse or intent. He also addresses differences in the perception of the horror as determined by religious beliefs. For Christians, the word "holocaust" with its sacrificial connotation made sense. Some Jews objected precisely because of the implication of human sacrifice which is abhorrent to Judaism, choosing the word "shoah" which means disaster or catastrophe.

Besancon's expression "twin evils" reminds me of today's prominent evil twins that predated, thrived in and survived Communism and Nazism: Anti-Americanism and Anti-Zionism. More than mere remnants of Besancon's twins they are mind parasites with remarkable powers of mutation and survival.

Anti-Zionism is one expression of the hydra-headed New Antisemitism which is a blend of several 20th century strains that evolved out of the post-Enlightenment variety which in turn emerged from Anti-Judaism that goes back all the way to the origins of Christianity. The roots of Anti-Americanism - which also sprouted several variants - are embedded in European elitism.

This New Anti-Semitism with its many faces provides clues to the Shoah's uniqueness when viewed as a toxic tree:

(a) With its roots in the New Testament, the Shoah was the culmination of 1900 years of deligitimization and dehumanization. Its trunk is composed of the writings of the "church fathers", discriminatory laws that became especially harsh after the victory of Constantine Christianity, psychological repression and projection amongst a religiously brutalized populace that reached fever pitch in the late Middle Ages and Augustine's replacement theology that migrated to Protestantism through Luther. The branches bearing poisoned fruit are the "salvationist" ideologies like Communism, Fascism, Nationalism and Nazism, the one in which the virus finally took genocidal form.

(b) A hatred honed for maximum contagious capacity was unleashed in the Nazi branch in an effort to annihilate a people and a religion. Consuming massive resources, the effort was fueled by such frenzied insanity that it became the Nazi priority even to the extent of hindering the war effort.

In other words, the factors that make the Shoah unique are (a) the long centuries of preparation (b) the contagious and epidemic hatred that inspired and guided it.

During the Anti-War demonstrations of 2003, Christopher Hitchens and Julie Burchill both commented on a peculiar behavioral pattern observed in some of the marchers: a type of frenzy with erotic undertones. It has since become more commonplace, particularly at anti-Israel and anti-American demonstrations on college campuses. The eroticism is often expressed by gestures that incorporate serpentine writhing. I now suspect that this erotic quality has always been present in outbreaks of Judeopathy.

Andre Glucksmann has warned that the concept of a contagion of hatred must be taken literally as a mental disorder that invades minds, bodies and society. Immune to reason, such an outbreak inoculates itself against opposing opinions and emotions. But at least we have identified a particular manner of its expression that may well point to Judeo-Christian myth. Now it is up to the irreverent, to South Park and stand-up comedians to ridicule, mimic and mock it. What is immune to reason is vulnerable to humor.

The work is profound, commensurate to the regimes of terror it seeks to understand. Working through the experiences of the most thoughtful who suffered these two regimes and those who led them, all militant atheists, Besancon reaches an astonishing theological conclusion. A mark of its profundity is that as you first read it, you soon know you will have to reread it soon.

Adrian Louis kicks butt! Ceremonies of the Damned is the best poetry book I've read in years. He's sad and funny at the same time. He sees right through this pile of crap we call "America." I really loved this book. Check out his hilarious "Copulation" poem. Yeah!

Ceremonies of the Damned literally knocked the air from my lungs. One of the harshest and most beautiful poetry books I have ever read. Get it!

Ceremonies of the Damned by Adrian Louis is truly a collection of poems that is wrought with moral destruction. Louis leaves a lot to the imagination. Did he really sleep with his student Serena? He never really answers this. He lets the reader's imagination run. And what about his wife's Alzheimer's? How do you blame a man for being unfaithful to a woman who is just a shell of the woman he once loved(?). This collection of poetry is some of the best poetry that I have ever read. Louis paints a horrifying picture of reservation life that is decorated ever so slightly with a love for his wife that keeps his guilt alive and strong. I read this book beginning to end several times. Spellbinding!

Adrian Louis's Ceremonies of the Damned is a book wrought from love so rare that it destroys down to the last particle the image of the emotionless Indian man. It is the personal tragic journey of dealing with the tragedy of losing one's life partner to a debilitating disease, Altzheimers, and is a pain-filled love story. Ceremonies is the best book of poetry written by a Native American man in the whole history of native literature. It begins with the human contradicitions in character in a poem entitled "Petroglyphs of Serena," in which Louis documents an affair. The stage is set for what comes later. We have to question if the disease that afflicts his wife is a direct result of infidelity? Maybe. Without this preface, though, I believe, we would elevate Louis to sainthood. In the end, without this poem, we as readers would not be privey to the real human contradictions at work in Ceremonies. There are implications to our own lives. The last poem, too, is a remarkable testimony of human resiliency wherein Louis, despite his pain, is still able to ask if there is still the possibility of love. Between the two ends of this spectrum are: beauty, pain, tragedy, and anger. Louis is a fine-tuned poet that pulls you from laughter to tears in a few lines. I read this book from front to back in one sitting; I could not put it down. When I finished reading it, I wept.

This was a gift for my grandmother inlaw who is 88. She loves the book. It reminds her of some of her own childhood as well as daily life. The simplicity if comforting.

The second edition of "A Cherokee Feast of Days" is as uplifting as the first. One can follow it daily to get an insight or inspiration, or, as I often do, scan it to find something that is pertinant now. The second edition uses more modern day situations than the first, so it will be more meaningful to young people. I only wish this edition had an index like the first edition. So far I have given 3 copies of the first edition and 3 copies of the second edition to family and friends. I am ordering 4 more copies today. It is a wonderful little book!

A collection of uplifing anecdotes--the format is a modern 2 paragraph quote for the day from the writer which is followed by a statement from an Indian from years ago. Well done.

The second edition of "A Cherokee Feast of Days" is as uplifting as the first. One can follow it daily to get an insight or inspiration, or, as I often do, scan it to find something that is pertinant now. The second edition uses more modern day situations than the first, so it will be more meaningful to young people. I only wish this edition had an index like the first edition. So far I have given 3 copies of the firt edition and 3 copies of the second edition to family and friends. I am ordering 4 more copies today.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.