Rhode Island Books

The Revolutionary War army of Rhode Island was in poor condition, so they decided to enlist slaves in the army. The slaves would make the same pay as whites and earn their freedom. The book also discusses the Native Americans who were colonists's slaves after King Philip's War (100 years before the Revolutionary War), whose descendants were still slaves at the time of the Revolutionary War. The drawings are interesting and the information about this unique part of US history is fascinating.

Rhode Island's "Black Regiment" was made up primarily of slaves who had been promised freedom in return for fighting. This is a fascinating story, thoroughly told and amply illustrated with original watercolors, maps, historic images and documents, with sidebars for clarifications. Though designed for Grades 2-6, I feel the reading level and type size are really more suitable for 4-6, though younger grades will definitely enjoy it as a book talk.

A bit of history regarding the American Revolution is relatively unknown and rarely taught in school. In order to fill out its military forces, the fledgling state of Rhode Island recruited into the ranks of the American forces hundreds of black and Native American slaves who worked on plantations in the state, promising them their freedom at the end of the war. Several black freemen also responded to the call, making up the first predominantly African-American fighting force in U.S. history. Within weeks of its creation, the Black Regiment was thrust into the Battle of Rhode Island -- the only major land battle against the British and their Hessian mercenaries in New England during the American Revolution. The Black Regiment Of The American Revolution was scrupulously researched by author and library program coordinator Linda Crotta Brennan, and superbly illustrated by Cheryl Kirk Noll for young readers ages 7 to 11 and grades 2 to 6. No elementary school or community library should be without at least one copy of The Black Regiment Of The American Revolution for the American History and Black Studies collections.

This is a very cool CD showing you the various Newport mansions. You can pan around inside the rooms, looking at all the walls, even the floor and ceiling.

I like it because when you visit the mansions there isn't time enough to see them all, and with this CD I can see them all. Also, I can go back to the rooms that I like and study the details in that room. It is very interesting.

Anyway, I would recommend this CD. It makes great use of new technology and is fun and easy to use.

I just love the Newport Mansions. This CD is great because I can never remember all the details when I visit the mansions, and this CD lets you pan around and up to the ceiling and down to the carpet, also zooming in. You can see all the details that give the rooms their luxurious feel.

Also, it's great because I haven't been to all the mansions and through the virtual tours I can see which one I most want to visit next.

Now, if they could just figure out a way to get the CD to give you that musty dusty smell of the actual mansions...

Seriously, this is very cool and if you are only visiting Newport for a short time, it's worth it to see which mansions you really want to see in person.

Jilla

After the other reviews in this column piqued my interest, I picked this CDrom up in one of the Mansions stores a couple of weeks ago,and boy, am I glad I did! Great insight to the construction of the mansions including, the materials used, styles used, builders etc.. There is a brief narration for each one that gives dates & facts , along with 8 classical tunes that play at random as you wander about. The only constructive criticism is that you don't get narration for each room as you enter, just at the beginning of each VR tour. I'm sure it would've been too costly and time consuming to do that anyway. But, you can even do an auto tour where you sit back and relax, while the camera pans to different rooms, or you can do the manual tour at your own pace. Great quality! Runs smoothly with no popping or skipping, and the picture quality is terrific! You can zoom, spin, look down, up, to get a closer look at that special vase, or to look at the gilded ceiling tiles. Great for those who have never been to get an inside look, or a great momento for those who have visited the 10 mansions from the preservation society. You'll feel like you've wandered back in time to the Victorian age on Bellevue Ave.......................

Gaustad did an excellent job of portraying not only Williams' beliefs, politic and theology but the state of the world that led to their development and need. Very readable, never boring, practical and insightful to William's America as it is to ours. WE could learn a great deal from Williams, even so mamy years later. Gaustad truly brought him to life.

This beautifully written book brings to light, in an understated but poetic way, the genius and greatness of the man who, as Gaustad says, "was out to do nothing less than alter the institutional structure of the Western world." It is a measure of our time that many people, especially young people educated pursuant to the fashionable bromides of contemporary social science education, have never heard of this first founder of liberty of conscience and disestablishment of religion in America. In our epoch of attempted "faith-based" governmental initiatives, Gaustad's book reminds us, by constant reference to the writings of Roger Williams, of those principles that, after a bitter struggle of more than a century, came to distinguish this nation from the government-controlled religion and thought of the rest of the world. The life of Roger Williams shows that deeply held religious belief necessarily implies an unwavering commitment to the principle of absolute separation of church and state. Williams' life also demonstrates that at least one colonial leader tried, unsuccessfully, to overcome the tendency of the Puritans to treat Native Americans as less than human or as mere subjects for conversion to Christianity. The tragedy of Williams' life consisted solely in the failure of his decades-long effort to resolve the conflict between rapacious, religiously hypocritical English settlers and the Native Americans. The triumph of his life was his original pronouncement, in this country, of the enduring but often threatened principle that government should be restricted to civil, not religious, tasks. More than a century later, Jefferson and Madison built on the foundation that Roger Williams so nobly established in his writings and in the constitutional documents of Rhode Island.

Gaustad's Liberty of Conscience is the second biography of Roger Williams I have read this summer. Perhaps because the first, Covey's The Gentle Radical, was so prolix, I loved Gaustad's work. His selection of historical data, his clear sequencing, and his explication of Williams's own writings make this a delight to read. Seventeenth-century Britain and colonial America and all those names one vaguely remembers are vividly described. The prose is clear and attractive. I came away with a new appreciation of Williams. Gaustad sees him as the first to set forth those principles of religious liberty that were picked up after him by Locke, Penn, Jefferson, and others and which we take for granted today. Toleration is a subject of current conversation within the United States. This biography depicts someone who fought for toleration in a time when people were being banished and even executed for not believing what the political powers said they must believe. It really gives a healthy perspective on our times. I recommend it highly.

These books are REALLY good. Alice Turner Curtis has the remarkable ability to be able to blend delightful, historically accurate plots with an old fashioned charm and morality.

I read this series as a child, and I was very happy to see them reprinted, and keeping all the lovely illustrations intact, too. Now I can buy them when I have children, continuing the tradition.

This book told about the Revolutionary War through the story of 11 year old Penelope Balfourd, who lives on a farm on Rhode Island with her mother and older brother Ted while her father fights in the American army. Penelope is determined to do something for her country. She manages to deliver a message to the American army. Because of her message a British officer is captured. I really enjoyed this book.

I read the complete set of books as a young girl. Fifty years ago, I found them in the Warwick Public Library, yellowed, loose-leafed, dog-earred, but very interesting. Imagine my delight when I learned they were being reprinted. Presently, I am buying them for my granddaughter. Having performed some genealogical research, I find that Colonel Barton, who captured General Preston in this story, was a distant relative of mine. I went to church in the meeting house at Warwick. It still stands. I have no reason but to believe that Alice Turner Curtis, the author, researched her books well, and that her writtings have historic happenings supporting them. Give to all the female 9-10-year-olds and enjoy them yourself. They may lack sophistication for many 11-12 year-old girls of today, but read them to your child or grandchild and establish a bond. These make excellent gifts to "young maids."

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This is an exquisite look at Newport Rhode Island by Betty Barden Pardee, a contributing editor to Bon Appetit, who, with her husband is a year-around resident of Newport. Ms. Pardee takes the reader inside the mansions for a private look at the interiors and gardens of this community from a bygone era.

Photographer Mick Hales, whose work has appeared in House and Garden, Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, and Town and Country does an extraordinary job capturing the light, mood and character of Newport.

Designers, decorative artists, and landscape designers will especially enjoy these pages.

Private Newport features page after page of gorgeous homes--those that only we mere mortals can only dream about! The photography is spectacular and I love the way the exterior of the homes and their grounds are included, as well as the amazing interiors. This is a great gift for anyone who has visited Newport or who desires to. You won't see these homes on the mansion tour as they are privately owned and not open to the public.

I used to live in Newport and I recognize many of the houses in this book. You will not see these private interiors and gardens any other way. The photography and writing are excellent.

Very colorful narrative of a lesser known civilization predating the Roman Empire. You will enjoy the writing style and find the culture fascinating.

Richard Berthold, a gem of an teacher and research/writer, deserves congratuations for a superb book--not to mention promotion to Associate Professor if he does not already have it.

The hidden error which slipped by the publishers was reference to one "Testicles" in the index which is supposed to be pronounced as the Ancient Greeks would have done. Such an addition is typical of the Berthold's sense of humor and just one of the reasons he is the best prof at the University of New Mexico.

This is not a great book, but it is an elegantly written and very readable account of the history of the Rhodian republic from its formation at the end of the 4th century BC to its absorbtion into the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BC. Sure, it's scholarly crap, but regular humans can actually read and enjoy it, especially if they skip some of the scholarly argument. Can you find the gross joke that slipped by the editors? Hint: look in the index.

This is an effective and concise biography. I especially appreciated the author's approach. He could have drawn in a lot of irrelevant material, as authors of biography tend to do, but, to his credit, did not. I enjoyed the writing -- and that, too, is a rare comment on a bio, especially one of a subject from this time. It's not easy reading quotes from the colonial period; the language was so formal. I like that Gaustad "translated" so much of Roger Williams' words. The latter sections of the book were especially interesting. Williams may have influenced Locke -- an interesting tidbit about a noteworthy life.

I met Professor Gaustad in 1988 when I moved to Riverside to pursue an advanced degree in history. He struck me at the time as a dignified careful historian who nonetheless could capture and make real the religious conflicts of centuries past. Gaustad has not lost any of his gifts as this recent book demonstrates. He does a masterful job of presenting the key elements of Roger Williams' life and development. From his conflicts with Cotton Mather and his eventual expulsion from Massachusetts Bay Colony, to his friendship with Native Americans and the founding of Rhode Island, Gaustad presents what we know of William's life in an easy to read narrative. He also includes selections of Williams' works so that modern readers can get a flavor of the writing of this influential founder.

What makes this book so fascinating, however, is that Williams was a real visionary. He alone among the early colonial leaders advocated a complete separation from civil (government) society and religion. A firm believer in the Bible, Williams was skeptical of all attempts to form a genuine "New Testament" church. Only the return of Christ himeself, Williams believed, would truly restore the church of the apostles. Until then Christians could only use the powers of love and persuasion to convince others of their views. Williams adamantly opposed having the state interfere with any religious beliefs, even those which are non-Christian. This was quite a leap for an 17th century thinker.

But if Williams was widely rejected in colonial New England for his views, his distinction between civil society and what he called "soul liberty" eventually became dominant in the United States and later, much of the Western World. Gaustad attributes not only the First Ammendment, but also such modern documents as the Vatican II Declaration of Religious Liberty and the 1978 Indian Religious Freedom Act to Williams' continued influence. All of which points to one of the great ironies of history. America is, as people on the religious right have claimed, a Christian nation. But it is also a nation founded upon a particular view of Christianity, one which expressly prohibited ties between Church and State. And Christianity of all stripes has flourished in precisely this environment. Moreso than any other Western Nation, the United States remains firmly and devoutly Christian. Undoubtedly, the "free market" in religious thought William advocated has produced this spiritual abundance in much the same way that the free market in economics has produced material abundance. Christians everywhere should take note of this.

Roger Williams has been dead almost 400 years, yet his lessons and views are as pertinent today as they have ever been. The battles he fought regarding Church and State, the battles for freedom of conscience, mind and religion, are still being fought today, just as heatedly, by parties and groups just as determined. Basic freedoms must be defended--and earned--by each generation. There will always be a place, a much needed place, for Roger Williams in the discourse of United States history and the basic freedoms we take forgranted, yet must defend, every day.

Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Franklin and others may have gotten more "ink," than Roger Williams, but he may be the most important one of them all. If there had been no Roger Williams, there may have been no Frankliln, Jefferson, Washington and Adams, certainly not as we know them. Williams earned for them the right to think,worship and speak on their own.

A good book, easily and quickly read, giving the reader a keen appreciation of the difficulties, trials, tribulations--and the vision--of that day. And it speaks pointedly to the challenges of this day...If the reader wants an understanding and appreciation of Religious Freedom, how we got it, what it means, and why it is essential to the country, then and now, this is the book to read. A Word of Warning: Religious Conversatives of this day may find religious freedom, true religious freedom, dangerous and threatening!!!

Being a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I genuinely enjoyed Richard Rosen's STRIKE THREE, YOU'RE DEAD. Having written, early in my career, a series of mystery short stories set against a bush league baseball backrop, I know well the territory Mr. Rosen is exploring. Harvey Blissberg is a star player on the expansion Providence Jewels. He was once a star for the Boston Red Sox. His best friend is murdered, and Harvey finds himself forced to solve the crime. This book won an Edgar in its initial release. FADEAWAY, STURDAY NIGHT DEAD, and WORLD OF HURT followed it. Now a decade later, Mr. Rosen is resurrecting his series in a few months with DEAD BALL. Mr. Rosen's series is a fine one, mixing equal parts of mystery and baseball ( and as Robert Parker once wrote about Troy Soos's excellent baseball mystery series,"Equal parts of baseball and mystery are the perfect combination.") Read this book as soon as you can.

Center fielder, Harvey Blissberg, wasn't happy about the move. After five good seasons with the Boston Red Sox, they left him unprotected in the expansion draft, and before he knew it, he was on his way to play for the Providence Jewels. But that's baseball, and the season wasn't a total loss. This was his best year, yet. He was really in the groove, hitting above 300, leading the Jewels in batting, doubles and stolen bases, and dating the very beautiful and talented sportscaster, Mickey Slavin. But all that good fortune came crashing down around him when his friend and roommate, relief pitcher, Rudy Furth, was found murdered in the club house whirlpool. What kind of trouble could Rudy have been into that would get his head bashed in with a baseball bat? As the days drag on with the police investigation going nowhere, a frustrated Harvey decides to take matters into his own hands and find the truth..... It's easy to see why Richard Rosen's, Strike Three You're Dead, won the Edgar Award for best first novel. This is a very intelligent and entertaining mystery, full of subtle twists and red herrings, vivid scenes, marvelous, engaging characters, and witty and irreverent writing and dialogue. Mr Rosen's indepth knowledge and expertise in the world of baseball adds real credibility to the story and once you meet Harvey Blissberg, and the rest of the gang, you'll be hooked. So sit down and get comfortable; Strike Three You're Dead is about to grab you on page one and I can guarantee this mystery won't let you go until you've read the very last page.

If you're a baseball fan and a murder mystery fan then you will enjoy this work from R.D. Rosen. Harvey Blissburg, star player on a hapless expansion team, is suddenly involved in a sensational mystery as his best friend and star reliver Rudy Furth is found murdered in the whirlpool. With the help of Mickey, his sportscaster girifriend, Harvey doggedly puts together the pieces of the puzzle trying to find out who murdered his best friend. One red herring after another intervenes - a love struck fan, an inept and unscrupulous cop, the team manager's amourous wife who has a story of her own to tell and a small time hood. But Harvey presses on, all the while trying to hang on to his fading career and reach a .300 batting average.

The book gives an amzingly detailed portrait of a baseball season as a backdrop for the murder. This will appeal to baseball fans (such as me). But the author does not spare any detail in providing the reader with clues as to who the murderer is. He balances the drama of a baseball season with the drama of a murder mystery and does it very well. I read this book in a day because I did not want to put it down.

Strike Three You're Dead has alot to offer for baseball fans and murder myatery fans. It is very entertaining and spellbinding.

In the midst of writing his five volume magnum opus The Christian Tradition, noted Church historian Jaroslav Pelikan was invited by the National Endowment for the humanities to deliver the Jefferson Lectures for 1983. The strange juxtaposition of having the noted custodian of tradition deliver lectures named after a famous opponent of tradition was not lost on Pelikan who incorporated this tension in his presentation. The result of those four lectures is compiled in The Vindication of Tradition and gives a clear exposition of the role tradition plays in Western culture - even when it has been explicitly denied.

The four lectures cover different aspects of tradition: rediscovery of tradition, recovery of tradition, tradition as history, and tradition as heritage. Pelikan surveys the insights historical research has given us to the development of tradition and makes clear the fracture with the past that has resulted in its modern rejection.

Pelikan at one point makes a statement designed to shock both those who reject and those who adhere to tradition without proper reflection. Classifying any acceptance of tradition for tradition's sake as "traditionalism", he bluntly states: "Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living." It is his best known quote, and deservedly so. In one sentence, he has crystallized both the strengths and weaknesses of traditional movements. As a vehicle to explore deeper truths, it is an essential component of the culture. As an end in itself, it is little more than an albatross. When men like Luther, Jefferson, or Emerson rejected tradition as a source of knowledge, they were really rejecting a stifling traditionalism that had taken hold of their cultural environment. Any living tradition embodies the best of its cultural heritage. Dead traditionalism holds its culture hostage.

These lectures are a brilliant apologia for the role of tradition in society. Although here it is considered in a more general cultural context and not the specific case of the Tradition of the Church, the principles also apply to the Church and examples are explored. For any Christian trying to understand how knowledge is handed down through tradition, The Vindication of Tradition is indispensable.

That is what proper tradition is, according to Jaroslav Pelikan, and I agree! In many circles, especially evangelical ones, tradition gets a bad rap. Pelikan lays out in easy prose the reasons why tradition is not only proper, but necessary!

It is important to note that the discussion in the book is not focused necessarily on religious tradition, and can be applied to many areas of life. One could successfully argue that many of the problems in today's society is a breakdown in respect for tradition - and it is tradition that binds us with the past and preserves our heritage for the future.

As Pelikan points out, tradition need not be dead in fact, tradition ties us to the beliefs of those who have gone before us in a way that cannot be done without it.

In the end, I would call this a philosophy book, not a theology book, and that gives it, I think, a broader audience. All in all, an excellent little book to help anyone understand the importance of tradition in any community.

It was with a mixture of sadness and joy that I received the news last week that Dr. Pelikan had passed away from cancer. Being the father of modern theological history, Pelikan won his readers over with a direct, if not often dry, style that nonetheless gave strong opinions. The main thrust of his writing is contained in this little gem of a book, namely, that we have to understand the meaning and value of tradition if we are to understand our present context and our future course of action. And it is with a hope in this tradition of the Church that I wish Dr. Pelikan rest in the presence of the Fathers and "may his memory be eternal," now that his own voice has been added to the democracy of the dead.

Chesterton, in his book Orthodoxy, stated that tradtion is the democracy of the dead. Pelikan comes to a similar conclusion when he writes that it is the living faith of the dead. Giving your ancestors a vote is something that modern culture, as well as in academia no less, finds a bit untrustworthy. After all, is not progress, that dogma of the modern era, the antithesis of tradition? Not quite, writes Pelikan. Only within the context of a tradtion that has as its hallmark the ability to both hold the person within its embrace while at the same time pointing beyond itself can true progress be both understood as such and achieved, connected to the past and yet living within the potential of new growth. The modern error, and that of so many of the greatest heresies, is that it fails to maintain a connection with the whole. This is the modern iconoclastic temptation- to break the image of the past in the hopes of inventing it anew. It is destined to fall short.

Theologically, for Pelikan, his whole notion of tradition reflects the view of one of his own mentors, Georges Florovsky. For Florovsky, the tradition is nothing less than the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church (see his "Bible, Church and Tradition"). To rebel against tradition properly understood is akin to reinventing the theological wheel, which is the tendancy in Zwinglian American Protestantism.

A fantastic read. You will find it as a key to the underlying stream of thought in all of Pelikan's works.

This is a fine beginners guide to identifying the tracks you might find while hiking in New England, whether you're in an urban area or on a wilderness hike. While not comprehensive, you will find the more common animals from your environment -- 34 mammals (including mice, squirrels, rabbits, snakes, skunks, frogs and toads, fox, coyote, porcupine, raccoon, deer, moose and bear) and 9 birds (including grouse, crow, duck, owl, heron and eagle).

The book begins with a preface of enouragement followed by an introduction on how to use the book and where/how to look for tracks, continues with 2-page species entries, and concludes with a short suggested reading list and an index.

Entries are ordered roughly by size, and a 5-inch ruler is printed on the back cover. Each entry has a couple of descriptive paragraphs on the lefthand page and b&w line drawings of typical tracks on the right.

This little book is surprisingly informative and quite compact -- a perfect introductory book for kids or adults who are interested in the wildlife around them.

I use this book everytime I go hikin