College and University Books

In this elegantly written biography, Maynard explores Woodrow Wilson's time at Princeton (as a student, faculty member, and university president), detailing the triumphs and defeats that did so much to shape the future president's personality and perspective. To anyone interested in Woodrow Wilson...or Princeton...or the history of higher education in America for that matter, Maynard's book is indispensable.

Dr. Maynard (on the faculty as Lecturer of Johns Hopkins as well as Princeton at the time his book was released) has written one of the more truthful, composite portraits of Woodrow Wilson. It is refreshing to see the depth of research, with references to older historians and Princeton alumni, who verify Wilson as the uncompromising and egotistical college president. The damage that Wilson did to Princeton continues to this day. And not only is it revealed that Wilson and his father were "a good hater" (to quote them both) but his first wife Ellen also had a terrible temper; and there is plenty of evidence.

I was disappointed that the author did not go into Mary Peck's affair with Wilson more thoroughly; he also completely ignored the affair Wilson had with a Princeton professor's wife. Maynard's treatment of Wilson's doctor, Cary Grayson, was too kind; Grayson was a major player with Wilson's second wife, Edith, in the cover-up of Woodrow's almost total incapacity as president, due to his last stroke. Although, because of his art education at Princeton and the University of Delaware, he devoted many interesting pages to the proposed architectural design of the Quads.

Nevertheless, the book is a page-turner. It almost reads like a novel...because in this case, the truth about Wilson seems almost stranger than fiction. This book brings more evidence to light about the truth of Wilson as a racist, a liar, a man who could not compromise, a man with tunnel vision, a man who didn't know how to raise money for the college, and a man who constantly bickered with the trustees over the Quads and almost everything else he wanted to introduce to the campus. He would not compromise on any issue, whether academic or political. And he couldn't keep friends; as his own father was quoted as saying, "I never had a friend who was faithful to me." Like father, like son.

We see a picture of Wilson living with a tortured ego in a psychological "twilight zone" who could not be a friend with anyone who disagreed with him about anything. He had an exaggerated sense of self-importance and a craving for domination in everything.

The author, as a former student of Princeton himself (B.A. in Art History), covers the preceptorial system Wilson brought to Princeton, which is still advertised on their website, as Wilson's "brainchild," although I do not believe it facilitates excellence in education; it pressures students to "BS" their way through the course material. And the Eating Clubs Wilson opposed, are still there, albeit, they are now co-ed and less in number. Wilson wouldn't agree, but fraternities would have had a better socializing effect on students than these Clubs.

I wondered if the author would still have a job at Princeton after such a tour de force. So I was not surprised that he ended the book with what amounts to a three paragraph apology for Wilson, in which he attempts to vindicate Wilson's twisted educational vision for Princeton, by stating "Princeton University itself has finally come around to the blueprint that Wilson put forward one hundred years ago..." The author closed his book saying that "history would prove him (Wilson) right," confirms the author's vested interest as a former student and now on the Princeton faculty. A good read, but with that vested interest, one has to wonder if all the drama and fireworks presented for the previous 340 pages, is a chimera covering his own loyalty to Princeton...just putting a good face on Wilson's rocky road from Princeton to the presidency.

I teach English as a Second Language in Taiwan. Unlike most books about linguistics, this book helped me understand "what happens when people talk", and that has made me a more effective teacher. I re-read it several times a year to keep its insights fresh in my mind. Each re-reading reveals new depths of understanding. In spite of being almost 10 years old, I still regard as the best of its kind.

I've been on a kick recently to read all the books I can get my hands on pertaining to language. I found this one in the philosophy/linguistics section of my local bookstore. It subsequently sat in my "to-read" pile (which now numbers around 1,462 books) for a few months. When I finally picked it up I was floored by the amount of fascinating information it contained about English and its similarities to the world's other languages. The rather surprising but clearly correct conclusion of the book is that no matter how weird, foreign, alien, or just bizarre other languages may sound to us, human languages all share the same basic means and mechanics of expression! None are more inherently "difficult" than others, as is borne out by the ease with which infants in every speech community of the world pick up their native language with the same ease and celerity. The author also blows to smithereens the notion that English or any other language is "better" or "more expressive" than any other, and demonstrates that English prevails as the world's preferred language largely as the result of geopolitical factors, rather than its "superiority". In fact, whether a group of people speak English, Ancient Greek, Swahili, Apache, Russian, Chinese, Egyptian, Burmese, Polynesian, French, Latin or Eskimo language , every one of these speech communities possesses a tongue capable of rich expression, poetic nuance, literature, subtlety, and flights of imagination. Where they differ is that each one, is custom-suited to the physical realities and the cultural traditions of the particular place, and represent the best means for the populace there to communicate and transact business. So much for the notion that when European explorers "discovered" indigenous communities in their journeys, that the natives spoke "primitive" tongues! This implication, with the benefit of modern linguistic knowledge and hindsight, was simply racist and chauvinistic. Did I mention that this book is written in a lively and entertaining manner, and is great fun and a very entertaining read? Well it is! I also very much enjoyed the chapters about verbal dueling, meta-language, and attempts to teach language to animals. If you are a word buff, I recommend this book to you wholeheartedly. Enjoy!

As a football-mad kid growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1950s, Frankie Albert, Norm Standlee and Bruno Banducci were heroes on the earliest 49ers teams. Unknown to this kid was the fact they had been teammates before, on the Stanford team that won the Rose Bowl in 1940. Their story, and the part they played with their new coach, the innovative Clark Shaughnessy, in introducing (more properly re-introducing) the T-formation offense to college football is artfully told by James W. Johnson in "The Wow Boys." It's a sparkling gem of a book that will please football fans of all ages, from those who remember to single-wing offense that the T replaced, to others simply interested in the history of the game, as well as some of its formative personalities like George Halas, Pop Warner, Buck Shaw. The author, who was raised in the Bay Area as a fan of the 49ers and who worked as a reporter for the Oakland Tribune and other newspapers before teaching journalism for many years, did plenty of research to produce lively accounts of each game in Stanford's undefeated season, as well as chapters on college football recruiting, campus life, and the "Big Game Fever" surrounding the annual season-ending game with the University of California. The authoritative and wholly entertaining book is among the best written on football at any level.

'The Wow Boys' tells the story of the 1940 Stanford Indians (Stanford's mascot was the 'Indian' until 1972) football team. Coach Clark Shaughnessy arrived at Stanford in 1940 and installed the "T" formation. The result was to change football forever. Most teams ran a single wing offense at the time - the "T" was considered an outdated formation that had died in the 1890's, but Shaughnessy's T included innovations such as the 'man in motion' and deception plays such as the counter.

The 'The Wow Boys isn't about coaching football - missing are play diagrams and technical information about the "T" as it differed from the standard single wing offense of the time. Instead it tells the story of the team through game by game accounts of what it was like to be playing football in 1940 as a member of the Stanford Indians. Detailed are the exploits of quarterback Frankie Albert, running backs Hugh Gallarneau and Pete Kmetovic, and fullback Norm Standlee.

Did you know that in 1940 it was against the rules for a player who'd been substituted to speak in the huddle until after he'd been in for a play? Or that once he was substituted, he couldn't be taken out until the start of the next quarter? Ever heard of card stunts? What about the cheers the crowd did? How did college football's status compare among other major sports of the time? The book touches on each of these, giving the reader an excellent view of what college football was like in 1940.

Nebraska played their first bowl game, the 1941 Rose Bowl, against the Stanford Indians. The book does a great job of capturing the Rose Bowl fervor that swept Nebraska, the reason as to why it was Nebraska's first bowl game, and the action of the game itself.

If you're someone who enjoys watching the History Channel or you'd like to know more about the history of football, you'll love 'The Wow Boys'. It is an easy read and truly transports you back to 1940, leaving you with a a deeper respect of the game.

Veteran development editor in higher education publishing Mary Ellen Lepionka presents Writing And Developing College Textbook Supplements, a practical guide for anyone involved in developing, creating, or editing a print or electronic supplement, whether it is an instructor's manual, annotated edition, test bank, study guide, student reader, lab manual, transparency set, multimedia CD-ROM, video or audiotape, PowerPoint presentation, e-text, website, or other format for study material enhancement. Chapters discuss manuscript development and preparation, guidelines for creating sample tests, tips unique to multimedia or online course materials, and much more. Written in plain terms with an eye toward practical usage, Writing And Developing College Textbook Supplements is a "must-have" for academic writers charged with expanding upon standard textbooks to facilitate student learning.

This text addresses questions and offers extremely useful guidelines in developing supplements for college textbooks. It is intended as a companion to Writing and Developing Your College Textbook, ISBN 0-9728164-0-2, by the same author and publisher. These two outstanding publications combined with Self-Publishing Textbooks and Instructional Material by Franklin H. Silverman, ISBN 0-9728164-3-7, are "must read" by those engaged in textbook publishing, including those seeking to publish special learning material for their students.

My freshman composition professor used this as our college text book. At the time I was unenthused about learning, hard up for cash, and weary of education. I took it up the keister when I sold this book back to my college book store. It is by far, the best tool for improving your writing and your vocabulary. I'm glad to have found it again.

This book is full of great prose that is fun to read and questions that really make you think about the techniques used. It takes a really long time to fully work through this book from start to finish, but it is worth every minute. Especially if, like me, you haven't been to college. I can only speculate that in school you'd have a few good writing classes that teach these concepts. This book will open your mind and you'll really begin to understand the importance of word order and general organization in writing. It's a great book.

Lots of fun and I learned a lot even though I have followed Buckeye Football for 35 years.

The book is excellent and answers a lot of questions that die hard Bama fans know, but a great resource for those that don't bleed Crimson. I could not put it down from the time it arrived until I had finished it. It now occupies a very special place on my coffee table.

This book is easy to digest because the information is presented in short, easy to read and easy to follow nuggets. The tips are very useful and give a lot of great ideas on how to pay for college including scholarships, financial aid, tax savings, saving for college and saving money while you're in college. The authors present some creative ways on how to pay for college that I never would have thought of on my own. A lot of other books are very dense, difficult to read and, quite frankly, boring. This book takes the bore out of paying for college!

Some things are common sense but a lot of tips I didn't think of. Parts were funny. like the section that tells you how to tell you r parents you don't wnat to go to their college.

I purchased the book for our office -- Office of Admissions. We use this book to make sure schools/universities are accredited. So we rate this book quite high as it's very useful.