Oceania Books

My family is from New Zealand thought I have always lived in Singapore (so naturally, I'm the only one to knit). I picked up this book while down there on holiday. Now a little creased from being loaned out around the family, this is a treasure. If you don't knit, it's a wonderful way of looking at New Zealand domestically for the last century - the archive photos are fascinating, the details packed in and always a real sense of love for the craft and respect for the many women (and few men) who knit.

If you do knit, it's great to read an entire book about other people who knit. No techniques,s ource ideas, just a lot of interesting and occasionally inspiring stories (The baby layette laid out to dry and eaten by a goat...)

Heather Nicholson writes fluidly and the extensive endnotes help for mroe reasearch - I visited a lot of museums there, armed with this book! It's a thick, interesting read and a great coffeetable book, like Knitting in America.

This is a very well-researched discourse about the history of knitting and spinning in New Zealand. The book takes you from the early days of the English and Scots settlement of the twin islands up to present day, and reveals how knitting fit into daily life.

A good portion of the book is devoted to war knitting, which was a major volunteer activity in World War I and somewhat less, but still important in World War II. The interesting theme that runs through "The Loving Stitch" is that of privation and shortages; knitting yarn was often hard to obtain. During rationing in World War II, baby yarn was almost impossible to get, yet people were limited in clothing coupons. What to do for a newborn who needs clothes and plenty of them? The ingenuity of the Kiwis who wanted or needed to knit was amazing--#8 fencing wire became needles, tapestry yarn (not rationed) patiently gathered until enough was available to make a vest. One enterprising young girl unraveled loosely-woven sugar sacks to make a child's sweater. All this is of course set against the ironic background that New Zealand is a world-class producer of wool. Yet raw wool was merely sent overseas to be spun into carpet and other wool, and the New Zealanders found that the finished product, knitting wool, was hard to obtain and expensive, too.

What I found odd in this book were a couple of omissions and subjects only briefly touched one. One was the contribution to knitting by New Zealander Margaret Stove. She is contemporary, but this book does go up to present day, and including her would have been appropriate. I expected to see pictures of here handspun lace designs and perhaps a short section on how she learned handspinning (with a wheel and raw fleece donated by her sister so she, a schoolteacher on a limited budget, could clothe her family) . But Stove only merits a brief mention in the index. Other contemporary artists' knitting was pictured, so this omission seemed odd to me, especially because Mrs. Stove is well-known worldwide among handspinners.

The other deficiency was that Kiwicraft, which is a technique handrolling wool roving to make a thick and attractive yarn, was mentioned but the Kiwicraft yarns were not pictured. In general, the contribution and collaboration by Maori women was obliquely mentioned. While knitting and spinning is a Western contribution to New Zealand history, Kiwicraft was developed by a collaboration of missionaries and native women, and merited more illustration. It's unique to New Zealand. I wanted to know more and see more about it.

However, for a history of knitting, this is a fine addition to the library and is a fascinating insight into life in New Zealand.

Marine Rifleman in WW2is a very ambitious title and, as it turns out too ambitious. The book covers the basic training and some deployments of newly enlisted members of the US 4th Marine Division.

It gives no real insight to tactics used or what more experienced Marine units experienced or thought of the new recruits, other than a lamentation at the death of the all volunteer corp.

The book does give VERY good detail on the induction, indoctrination and training of US Marines in WW2 and on their equipment. If you have an interest in how the draft system worked or what made a raw recruit into a `leatherneck' then this is a good book. If you are looking for more though it will leave you disappointed.

I put a lot of the blame for this with the publisher, Osprey, who limits who much space the author has to work with. That having been said, the final blame falls on who green lit the title. Had it been "Training of US Marine" This would be a 5 star from me, but in covering the vast topic of "Marine rifleman" in World War Two this falls far short.

What was it like to be one of the half-million Marines in service from 1939 to 1945? Gordon L. Rottman tells all in a slim, 64-page book packed with vintage photographs and eight pages of color drawings by Howard Gerrard. Rottman orients the reader with a chronology, then writes about conscription and how it affected the Corps. When I was a Marine recruit at MCRD San Diego in June thorugh September 1975, I was told that Marines were all volunteers, that none were drafted. Rottman gave a good account of how the Marine Corps claim of "no draftees" and the US law that ended voluntary enlistments on December 5, 1942 were reconciled: Selective Service Volunteers! The Blue Star program was mentioned. Then Rottman got into the subjects that were my reason for buying his book:
* Training
* Appearance
* Equipment
* Belief and belonging
* Camp Pendleton
* Conditions of service
* On campaign
* The aftermath of battle
* collections, museum,s and reenactments

The color plate section shows the naval service identity disks (dog tags), the Marine's Handbook, C and K rations, the contents of the first aid kit and toilet articles. Rottman condensed the experience of being a World War Two Marine into a short, easy to digest book.

Infantry combat is a team sport, not individual competition--and Rottman begins by taking the reader through basic. Today, a minimum of 16 weeks of combat training is required before committing a new Marine to combat--but in the early scramble to build up the Corps, boot camp was shortened to three weeks. By 1944, basic training in either San Diego, California, or Parris Island, South Carolina, was officially eight weeks. Basic training was (and still is) all about making team players. After basic training, the newly-minted private is then assigned to his new squad and has to train all over again so that the 13 Marines can function as a single organism. At the beginning of the war, peacetime rifle strength was eight Marines, usually all armed with the M1903A1 Springfield rifle. On paper, there was supposed to be an automatic rifle in the squad. The Marine rifle squad was commanded by a corporal and was organized the same as an Army rifle squad. Wartime strength was supposed to be 12 men in both services. By 1944, the Marines had found a better way to organize the squad, one that is still used today. A sergeant commanded three corporal fire team leaders. Each fire team was built around an automatic rifle, which provided the bulk of the fire team's killing power, along with hand and rifle grenades--though officially the M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle was the rifle squad's major weapon system. The rest of the squad was armed with a mix of M1 carbines, M1 rifles, the occassional Thompson submachine gun or Springfield rifle, perhaps the new M3 "grease gun" submachine gun, demolitions, grenades, K-bar jungle knives, bayonets, and sometimes a pistol or two. Battle experience found that a small group could survive and fight better than a large squad, and the platoon leader, squad leader, and fire team leader of 1944 wasn't as over-extended as the 1940 counterparts: the platoon leader directed three squad leaders, each squad leader directed three fire team leaders, and each fire team leader directed three riflemen (okay, and automatic rifleman, and assistant automatic rifleman, and a scout!). This modular organization functioned better in the latter frontal assaults from the sea against Japanese deliberate area ambushes from fortified fighting positions. Under the old organization, a squad would be paralyzed if it took two or three casualties. With the three fire-team organization, as long as the fire teams took no more than one casualty each, they remained effective because the casualties were compartmented. One entire fire team could be lost and the squad could still function. If two fire teams went down, the remaining fire team could and did conduct the squad's mission. There was a heavy price paid for this--the units had to be rebuilt after combat operations.

Two of Rottman's books appear in the bibliography. While Marine Rifleman provides a concise overview, some people will see this book as a starting point. Marine Rifleman provides enough informaiton on its own for most readers.

It is the turn of the twentieth century and science promises to explain many of the wonders of the world. Walter T. Goodwin is an eminent scientist who has just finished a field study of the flora of the volcanic islands of the South Pacific. At Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea, he boards a ship headed for Melbourne, in Australia. From there he intends to travel further to his home in New York. Having boarded the ship he finds to his surprise that his old friend Dr. David Throckmartin is also a passenger. But Throckmartin seems strangely distant and changed. His face wears an expression of both extreme ecstasy and horror weirdly co-existing. Throckmartin tells Goodwin that he has discovered the ruins of an extremely ancient city on an island of the coast of Papua. In these ruins he discovered a strange door, which led to an underground pool. From this pool, during the rising of the full moon, an apparently supernatural creature emerges. This creature steals away people, turning them into zombie like creatures who then disappear underground never to be seen again. Throckmartin's wife Edith has been taken as well as two other members of the scientific party. Throckmatin, however, has a plan to travel to Melbourne, collect some necessary scientific equipment and return to the 'moon pool' to rescue his wife. All this of course seems too much to believe, but then the 'creature', the "Dweller", arrives and steals away Throckmartin before Goodwin's very eyes. Goodwin decides the only thing he can do is to try to compete Throckmartin's rescue plan.

Just about everything in this story is given a 'scientific' explanation by Goodwin, the die-hard-rationalist narrator of the tale. The story is thus technically science fiction, however, these 'explanations', at least to the modern reader's mind, seem so thin that the tale in fact has the feel of fantasy. Merritt seems particularly taken with the then new field of nuclear physics and this gives the story interesting depth. Merritt is aware of the possibility of nuclear science promising great benefit, but also great harm. The luminous "Dweller" is thus a predecessor of Godzilla, the radioactive movie monster that destroyed Tokyo, though Merritt, of course, wrote well before the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were dropped.

Of course this book, like all others, takes its place in the history of literature and owes some of its details to earlier novels. The phosphorescent walls of an underground kingdom is highly reminiscent of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth (Unabridged Classics) (1864). The discovery of a lost civilization which is ruled by a totally amoral, iron willed woman is straight from Rider Haggard's She (Oxford World's Classics) (1887).

I must warn that this is not an easy book to read because of the complex writing style. Merritt uses long and winding sentences that are difficult to keep track of. I found myself sometimes going back and rereading what I had just read to understand it. Also Merritt at times uses a super-profusion of adjectives, most of which are little used in common language. I at first ran to the dictionary, but soon gave up, letting the worlds roll over me in a strange, hypnotic, half-understood, poetic spell that added to the weird atmosphere of the book.

I don't mean to be overcritical of the book. is in fact a rip-roaring read full of high adventure. Merritt certainly manages to keep you turning the pages. The ending is great, keeping you on the edge to the last page. No anticlimaxes here.

It is the turn of the twentieth century and science promises to explain many of the wonders of the world. Walter T. Goodwin is an eminent scientist who has just finished a field study of the flora of the volcanic islands of the South Pacific. At Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea, he boards a ship headed for Melbourne, in Australia. From there he intends to travel further to his home in New York. Having boarded the ship he finds to his surprise that his old friend Dr. David Throckmartin is also a passenger. But Throckmartin seems strangely distant and changed. His face wears an expression of both extreme ecstasy and horror weirdly co-existing. Throckmartin tells Goodwin that he has discovered the ruins of an extremely ancient city on an island of the coast of Papua. In these ruins he discovered a strange door, which led to an underground pool. From this pool, during the rising of the full moon, an apparently supernatural creature emerges. This creature steals away people, turning them into zombie like creatures who then disappear underground never to be seen again. Throckmartin's wife Edith has been taken as well as two other members of the scientific party. Throckmatin, however, has a plan to travel to Melbourne, collect some necessary scientific equipment and return to the 'moon pool' to rescue his wife. All this of course seems too much to believe, but then the 'creature', the "Dweller", arrives and steals away Throckmartin before Goodwin's very eyes. Goodwin decides the only thing he can do is to try to compete Throckmartin's rescue plan.

Just about everything in this story is given a 'scientific' explanation by Goodwin, the die-hard-rationalist narrator of the tale. The story is thus technically science fiction, however, these 'explanations', at least to the modern reader's mind, seem so thin that the tale in fact has the feel of fantasy. Merritt seems particularly taken with the then new field of nuclear physics and this gives the story interesting depth. Merritt is aware of the possibility of nuclear science promising great benefit, but also great harm. The luminous "Dweller" is thus a predecessor of Godzilla, the radioactive movie monster that destroyed Tokyo, though Merritt, of course, wrote well before the bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were dropped.

Of course this book, like all others, takes its place in the history of literature and owes some of its details to earlier novels. The phosphorescent walls of an underground kingdom is highly reminiscent of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth (Unabridged Classics) (1864). The discovery of a lost civilization which is ruled by a totally amoral, iron willed woman is straight from Rider Haggard's She (Oxford World's Classics) (1887).

I must warn that this is not an easy book to read because of the complex writing style. Merritt uses long and winding sentences that are difficult to keep track of. I found myself sometimes going back and rereading what I had just read to understand it. Also Merritt at times uses a super-profusion of adjectives, most of which are little used in common language. I at first ran to the dictionary, but soon gave up, letting the worlds roll over me in a strange, hypnotic, half-understood, poetic spell that added to the weird atmosphere of the book.

I don't mean to be overcritical of the book. is in fact a rip-roaring read full of high adventure. Merritt certainly manages to keep you turning the pages. The ending is great, keeping you on the edge to the last page. No anticlimaxes here.

. . .for more than 20 years. I'm as familiar with the story as any, and more familiar than most. Recently, I had the opportunity to read Sir John Barrow's account of the mutiny and its aftermath and found the book an extremely interesting historical read. Sir John wrote his book at a time when many of the participants were still living. He addresses every major controversy surrounding the mutiny and subsequent adventures and his perspective, while a bit preachy and moralistic at times, is invaluable. While utterly condemning the actions of Fletcher Christian (and blaming the mutiny entirely on him) Barrow is also hard on Captain Bligh, showing him to be an excellent seaman but a poor leader of men (under everyday circumstances). In a crisis, Bligh was able to rise to the occasion (the open sea voyage in the Bounty's launch) but as an everyday commander of men, Bligh was found wanting. Barrow also casts doubt on Bligh's integrity during the trial, suggesting that he deliberately withheld information which could have led to the acquittal of a midshipman against whom he bore an unjustified grudge. Barrow also condemns the behavior of the captain of the Pandora as inhumane (as it was without doubt) and unreasonable, especially to those who were not mutineers, but voluntarily surrendered. Barrow's description of the trial is extremely detailed. He goes to great lengths to demonstrate that in spite of appearances, the guilty were punished and those who were truly innocent were acquitted (or eventually exonerated). He also had an interest in the eternal souls of the mutineers, recording with satisfaction that the three men eventually hanged for the crime showed evidence of repentance and contrition. All in all, this book was a fascinating read, and provided a different perspective than the 20th century movies and popular novels. I hope it comes back into print.

I have the 1980 hardback edition. It is without a doubt one of the best books on the subject of the bounty. The illustrations are great.

Calvin's Review

The main plot of the book is about a mutiny on the HMS Bounty. The sailors took over the boat and left Captain Bligh and everyone who supported the captain drifting on a small boat called a dingy. I do not like how the sailors used force to get what they want. One major event after the actual mutiny was Bligh stopping at an island to get food. They then found a tribe and started out nice from both ends but in the end the rest of the crew {not mutineers} but one jumped back in the dingy and escaped. I think it is almost funny how they start out being friends, and no one harms the tribe but they still attack

The setting took place at sea. I liked how in their social environment most of them did not know each other. It was like working on a ship with people you don't know that well for probably about a year. Something that I didn't like as well was the thing about the setting is that Captain Bligh is only trying to get bread fruit trees from Tahiti. It almost seems like a waste of time and effort. He starved and almost died for survival on a trip for breadfruit trees. It was difficult to see why he had to be so harsh on a trip that was as simple as getting bread fruit trees.

I liked the conflict because you could never tell who was wrong; otherwise known as the "bad guys." Captain Bligh was really harsh to the sailors but it seemed like it was necessary to get the work on the boat done. The Captain and his crew on the dingy then had to survive many harsh experiences to make it to safety. I also liked how the conflict was a classic struggle of workers and authority. I did not like how the conflict was destined from the beginning. It was obvious that the mutiny would happen just the way it did. It even said it in the book." The Mutiny on Board H.M.S. Bounty." One thing I would like to know is what happens to the mutineers. It does not say at the end of the book. It just says that Blithe told the governor to look for men that took the boat after he gave descriptions. I think the mutineers deserved to be caught.

This suspensful story of courage, bravery, and traitorousness is a must-read for everyone. Whether Bligh was a harsh cruel captain or whether Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny was the one who was out of line has yet to be proven, but one can easily form their own opinions on the truth within the first few chapters. I beseech anyone who is contemplating whether or not to read this to give it a chance, and I guarantee you'll love it!

I'm in agreement with the reviewer who wrote that this book is mostly about traditional not modern architecture and design. When I got this book, I was hoping that contempory would mean modern and upscale. This book does not deliver any of that and the book cover photo is not the type of designs that are found in the rest of the book so I was terribly disappointed. Eventually, I grew to tolerate the traditional design photos ( which are mostly of churches, huts, cane worker houses and store shacks), but if you're looking for upscale design ideas, select another book and relegate this one to a fond look at old, dilapidated island style.

In Pacific Island Style, Glenn Jowitt and Peter Shaw collaborate to showcase contemporary Pacific styes lending cultures from the many islands of the South Pacific with their various colonial influences. Jowitt and Shaw explore both the traditional architecture and crafts of the region as well as contemporary design concepts. the use of attractive and natural materials, environment-enhancing designs, indoor-outdoor living arrangements are all trademarks of the Pacific Island style and to be found world wide. Pacific Island Style covers Samoa, Niue, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands. Pacific Island Style admirably serves as a source of architectural and interior design references and ideas for anyone seeking to incorporate the islands' peaceful, natural style amidst modern surroundings. Pacific Island Style is a highly recommended addition to any personal or professional design library collection.

A bit surreal that you can get such a treasure trove of information with such a low price. I would not have minded paying twice to get this. As you may be aware, there're very few books out there about the Polynesian languages, and those few ones available are mostly academic monographs each of which costs you about USD$300. As the previous reviewer remarks, this 300-page book is more about the cultures than the languages, but I think it can serve as a good general introduction to the Polynesian languages (to get a feel of the sounds and the word-shapes, and to know something about those who speak these fancinating languages), before you pick the particular Polynesian language you want to master and work on it with specific books.

This fat little book is the only cheap resource available to a number of obscure languages of the South Pacific.
It basically covers the languages of Polynesia, including those of tiny Niue and Easter Island, plus Fiji and a minor language of New Caledonia.

Unfortunately, the coverage given to each individual language is very, very limited, pretty much restricted to hints on pronunciation and a few essential wordlists like numbers, plus basic phrases like greetings.
What fills up much of the book is lenghty and insightful descriptions of the local cultures instead, with great tips on etiquette.
However I couldn't help feeling those should actually be in the relevant guidebooks, not in this phrasebook!

Still, the info included is interesting and there is nothing better, so this book is worth buying - just set your expactations right.

After one year of travelling around Australia, I returned home to Ireland fascinated by Aborigine, Mauri and Polynesian culture. A friend gave me a gift of Bewick's book. I like art, but when representing a culture so far removed from my own I always think that photography is liable to be a more loyal medium in representing the culture in question. Bewick surprises me, she manages to imbue the whole atmosphere of a foreign culture through her paintings. There is something subtly sensual about her work. It is bright, alive & alert. She does not appear to be one of those artists that tries desperatley to throw her spectators into the depths of psycho-analysis. What you see is what you get. A great book, a real 'sit back and let the South Seas flow through you'. A must on any coffee table !

Pauline Bewick, an Irish artist who has travelled all over the world and is inspired by what she sees, living in Ireland with her husband, and lives in the heart of Tuscany during the summer. Pauline has shown intrest in art since she was two, her mother, Harry, also an artist, kept all her work since she was two, and Pauline had a retrospective exhibition of her works from when she was two until her late forties. This retrospective exhibition took place in The Guinness Hop store in Dublin. In 1988 Pauline went to the South Seas with her two daughters, also artists, to work on her next exhibition.She went home to Ireland and began working on her south seas book.Pauline returned to the South Seas for another year to work on the book.In this book you will see Paulines unique paintings and read about the Maouri way of life and learn about their legends,- very interesting.Definitely a book to buy if you can't afford to buy her paintings. In 1995 Pauline had a large exhibition, called the 'The Yellow Man', Pauline created this creature while doodling in Italy, and went on to create hundreds of pieces based on this creature includind 75 ceramic pieces which she painted in Rampini Studios in Tuscany. Pauline is now preparing for an exhibition in Dublin on September 1999.The exhibition includes her very colourful series of 'Laughing Women" and her series of African Eve's with their babies, inspired by both her daughters becoming mothers,and Charles Darwins theory of the human race beginning in Africa.

This is a fantastic book. All very useful information, hard to find all in one place. I don't know of any similar work for the general reader.

Nothing compares to being able to know that an animal you rarely or never see actually lives in an area and has passed by recently. The descriptions of footprints and the drawings were clear enough that I was able to determine an exact species from macropod (from a good set of prints) on the basis on the footprint alone. This also matched up with the expected distribution for this species (also shown in the book, next to its scat picture). I haven't come across any random bones in the bush yet to be able to identify from the descriptions given in the book, but the section on bones is as clear and concise as the rest of the book.

The coverage of other sorts of signs (scraping, scratch marks, etc) is also quite handy and clear.

There are some improvements I would like to see in any future editions. I would like to see a scale marker in *every* single scat picture. This would be preferable to taking all the photos at the same scale (which they mostly seem to be) because at that scale the droppings of the bats become very hard to distinguish. The *ideal* I think would be to have all the pictures at 'life size' from a particular distance, with a zoomed-in picture with a scale marker.

*All* the pictures should be in colour (except the skeletal pictures). Each scat should have a description, and a picture of an unbroken and a broken pellet. Some are like this, but not all. The description for the scat could describe the changes in the scat throughout the year as the diet of the animal changes. This could at least be done for all the common and well-known animals.

The other problem with the scat pictures is that they are of varying ages. The colour changes greatly with age (very fresh = very green, aging to various shades of brown). Some of the pictures are of semi-fresh scats, and the others are quite old.

However, these issues do not detract from the usefulness or quality of this edition - I just hope to see some extra features in any future editions!

It is a massive task to collect all this information and pictures, and even though this book is the only one of its kind that I know of for general readers, I am sure that if there were other books on the same topic, this would still stand out as a high quality and invaluable resource for australian naturalists!

This is an extremely useful field guide for lovers of wildlife in Australia. Many animals are nocturnal and leave only small clues to their presence. With this guide I have been able to sleuth out a number of previously unobserved species. The descriptions of tracks, scats and traces are clear and thorough and there are many useful photographs, illustrations and distribution maps.

My familiarity with architectural studies stems from 3 years as a graduate student. Most architectural studies are "biased" to western history an organized in chronological order. Traditions in Architecture takes a fresh approach by focusing on a rich source of architectural precedence in the early America, Asia, Africa and the far east. The organization is thematic, rather than chronological covering such diverse topics as fixed versus mobile living spaces, vernacular materials, construction methods, sacred spaces, and so much more.

The only reason that I did not give the work 5 stars is that many of the pictures (all black and white) lacked clarity. I do not know whether this was due to poor originals or poor reproduction; however, the details often are necessary to untderstand the full impact of the works.

As UCLA professors, Crouch and Johnson give much credit to their students' work and input. This appears to be a work that has been a culmination of years of study with much independent input. I highly recommend it as a "first" to take this approach and to cover such a wide breadth of topics in one volume.

Although the book was written as a textbook for a course in non-western traditions in architectural history, it may be of considerable interest to anyone traveling to parts of Asia, Africa and Oceania. The authors' approach is largely descriptive, and the illustrations both plentiful and very good, so one may be a little impatient that the verbal descriptions rarely provide much information that is not apparent from the photos and drawings; but this is, after all, a textbook, and if you will grant that allowance, it is well-worth your time.
     The architectural traditions covered are contemporary as well as ancient, grand as well as domestic and, throughout, the authors treat the sacred and symbolic traditions of the culture, insofar as they are known or may be inferred, as they bear on the built environment. The book is organized thematically, rather than chronologically or geographically. Among the themes: moveable, stationary and underground dwellings; the impact of colonialism on native structures; the transfer of traditional architectural knowledge; and spatial organization, from courtyards to the axial alignments of cities. The focus is on three categories of structures: professionally designed and built monuments, houses erected by traditional building tradesmen, and structures that ordinary people build for their own use. The overarching theme is that architecture expresses cultural values as well as technology, and it illustrates that theme with an exceptionally wide range of examples.
     In the single area of the book where I have a fairly solid background, the Anasazi/Puebloan architecture of the Southwest, the scholarship is current and sound. Interesting and highly informative.