I really enjoyed this book. It is a great book to reference for business negotionating. It is put togther so very well that makes it enjoyable to read as well as an extremely awesome resource.

Excellent grouping of ideas. The author doesn't talk down to you, doesn't talk over your head, and doesn't have the ego of saying he knows everything. This is current, timely, and easy to read. The adhoc diagrams are exactly the kind of medium that is effective to architects. I'm buying another and requiring the entire office to read it.

This book is a wonderful source for architecture firm owners, and employees working in small firms. The "hands-on" diagrams give you the clear vision on proceedures, rules, and guides. Included in this book are tips, and tools you can use to organize yourself, understand cause and effect relations, and help you work more efficiently. Great not only to read, but I use it as a reference often. I have hundreds of books, but this is one of the select few that resides on my desk!

Geoffrey Ward shares the ability of David McCullough, and that is to take a scholarly topic and write about it intelligently and coherently. He also makes the journey fun for the reader and he showcases this ability in this excellent book. FDR as a youth was a very different man from the President he was to become. Polio was the defining moment that both changed FDR and deepended his compassion and understanding for the downtrodden.

In this first volume of Ward's Roosevelt trilogy, he illuminates FDR's dominating mother and the problems she caused between Franklin and Eleanor. One almost cringes when the obtrusive Sarah Roosevelt plans her son's honeymoon, buys homes for him (with connecting doors for her to intrude upon)and basically usurps FDR's own decision-making processes.

Franklin Roosevelt was not a great man, or a particularly engrossing man when young. He achieved greatness only after tragedy befell him, but Ward sets the stage here for Roosevelt's later greatness. If you're interested in Roosevelt or the flighty, banal rich New York set of the turn of the century, then this is your cup of tea. It is also a fine book.

"Mornings on Horseback" is a good companion to "Before the Trumpet," but only because it gives you a bigger sense of New York high society in the late 1800's. FDR's father and TR's father were contemporaries and even mistaken for each other. It feels like Mr. Ward writes from a greater emotional distance about FDR than Mr. McCullough does about TR, which seems right to me. The beginning which is about FDR's grandparents is a bit detailed, but it does set the stage. Mr. Ward discusses FDR's father's schoolmaster, for example, which fills out the picture when you read about FDR's own school days. The real jaw dropper concerns FDR's maternal grandfather Warren Delano, who knew the stamp collecting went that deep? But more the wonder is Franklin himself. This portrait is "Before the Trumpet," worts and all, he marries his cousin for chrissakes, he can't/won't get away from his mother, and yet the trumpet does sound for Franklin, he pursues it, and he is there waiting, with and because of Sara and Eleanore. It's amazing to consider their development.

Most of this book is about FDR's family and it is fascinating. It reminded me some of David McCullough's Mornings on Horseback, although FDR had a very different youth from TR's. I had forgotten how rich FDR's family was, and the opulence with which they lived. And what dramatic lives they had--the Delanos and their time in China make a fantastic story. And when you read this great book you will want to read the sequel, A Fist Class Temperament

I liked this book, It explained some things that I have yet to read about in other Life after death books. The journey that you are taken on is a interesting one that keeps your attention and really makes you think. Not as good as other Books on this topic but does deserve to be included with them. Does contain more of a explanation on religion than most do. I would suggest it to anyone interested in Life after death.

Shortly after reading this book my husband was killed in a car accident. Everyone around me was falling apart but I had a feeling of peace and warmth that was a direct result of reading this story. I highly recomend it and have been searching for it for years.

My cousin gave me a copy of this book to read when my mother was very ill and dying of breast cancer. It was a book that should be shared with people who are going through a terrible illness or have experienced a death of a loved one. I was comforted, reassured, reassured that I would once again meet with my mother, my friend, my confidant, to know that she hears me is a wonderful feeling.

It is truly unfortunate that this book has yet to be released in an affordable edition, because the Longman History of Russia series is a definite must-have for anyone interested in Russia. There are not enough good overviews of Medieval Russian history, and Franklin's book is a thorough analysis and explanation of the origins of the Kievan state. Great read, even if you have to go to a library...

This is a wonderfully written, extremely helpful book. The footnotes alone are worth the price of the book!

I can't speak or read Russian and I'm not a trained specialist in Russian history. All I am is a person who is fascinated by the history of that great nation and people. And this book seems to me to be pretty close to essential for anyone who shares that interest.

The Emergence of Rus tells of the origins of the Russian people and the first great Russian state at Kiev. Given that few written sources are available for the time period, this book relies heavily on archaelogical information early on. Such written sources as exist are compared and contrasted and the conclusions drawn seem eminently reasonable. Even though there is a lot of archaelogical data presented in the first part of this book, it is by no means dry. Franklin and Shepard have a interesting story to tell and they tell it very well. I found The Emergence of Rus to be a very good read, something I'll definitely go back to.

If you are interested in Russian history at all, this book is highly recommended.

but this book is the best of a small but special niche. Hugh Gallagher did a fine job & it is obvious from this book & television interviews he has given, that this is a subject he cares deeply about.
There was a conspiracy of silence among reporters & those close to FDR not to acknowledge his paralysis. This silence extended beyond his life to many books & even for a while, the memorial to him. He referred to his affliction maybe once in public late in his life.
The time he spent before & during his presidency rehabing in Warm Springs impacted on him in important ways. A strong bond developed between him, the people of Warm Springs & his fellow patients. That perhaps is the silver lining to his polio: the contact he had with ordinary folks he would never have meet, never would have had anything in common with except his disease.
I think Mr. Gallagher might agree that being stricken with polio was the defining event of FDR's life. Before he was a political lightweight. He was a handsome, charming politician who thought he might like to be president someday. After, he became wiser, more sober yet still charming, less arrogant, more compassionate & a traitor to his upper class breeding. He became stronger, much stronger as a man. The strength he gained from this ordeal contributed greatly to his becoming president & eventually leader of the free world. An important work to read to get the whole Roosevelt.

Countless biographies have been written about the nation's 32nd President, but few devote more than a chapter or passing reference to FDR's battle with Polio. Mr. Gallagher's book is a rare and important one in illustrating what his day-to-day struggle was like. He details FDR's carefully-orchestrated public appearances which, for the country, maintained the illusion that their President could actually walk.

While I found the book to be inspirational, perhaps the most fascinating realization was the respect of the media in maintaining this illusion. For instance, we learn that of the thousands of photos taken of Roosevelt, only a couple exist that show him in his wheelchair. In an age where every aspect of a President's health and private life are scrutinized, this book allows us to ask the uneasy question of whether one of our greatest Presidents could ever have been elected today. You don't have to be a history buff to appreciate the value of this book; I highly recommend it.

I am pleased to see this book back in print. Mr. Gallagher's book is excellent, and a great read for history buffs and those who lived through the Polio epidemics, or want to see what it was like. I had Polio in 1953, and didn't realize FDR had Polio until much later. I never knew until I read this book that FDR wore braces on both legs (my brace was right leg only), and that FDR never walked unassisted (as I was able to do). We both had great upper arm strength, better for a guy than a girl! FDR deceived not only me, but everyone. And, it is good to know the whole story as presented by Mr. Gallagher in his great book. I am pleased to add it to my library.

Losson has written a book about a military leader and his division of the War Between the States, both of whom were nearly forgotten in the wealth of books about that war. Both a biography and a history, the author stays focused on his subjects, not letting the broader picture of the war distract him.

Benjamin Franklin Cheatham, a career soldier who served in the War with Mexico, commanded Hood's corps for a while. His entire career in the war was served in the western theater, most of it in and around Tennessee. The war wasn't just with the Yankees when Braxton Bragg commanded the corps, for the two men despised each other.

Cheatham was a man who found the going rough between the two wars, but made his mark in the later conflict, in spite of accusations against his character. After the war, he was more successful as a citizen than before, heading the Tennessee State Penitentiary system for time. However, over the years, with most interest in Lee, Grant, and the eastern theater, he was nearly forgotten

This book is well written and an easy read, but could have used the skill of a good proofreader. Typos and other errors are sometimes distracting. Readers interested in the Civil War, particularly the western theater, will find this an interesting account. They might also enjoy "Five Tragic Hours" by McDonough and Connelly, and "Shiloh: In Hell before Night" by McDonough.

This is an excellent book about a little-written about general. Although Frank Cheatham rose to the rank of major general, was active in Tennessee after the war, was one of the Western Theater's more colorful and controversial figures, and his division was considered one of best in the West, he and his division have not received much attention from writers. Losson has changed this and has written both an excellent bio of Cheatham and a good look at the men that made up his division. Another good thing about this book is that Losson focuses on Cheatham and his division, rather than straying to other generals or divisions. The book takes a good look at the battles, both military and political, that Cheatham fought. Overall, the book is excellent, reads well, has tons of diaries and letters, and is entertaining. However, I gave 4 stars rather than 5 because the text has many errors, whether it be spelling or grammatical. There are many of them and it gets annoying after a while. Other than that, a great read.

This book has given us a lot of valubable information concering the time period. we would strongly recommened this book to any one who wanted to learn more on the subject. 5 stars!

The contents are wonderful. Some are funny and yet they are true! All can be applied in today's world! Yet, the cost is bigger than the book itself! It is a small 'coffee table' book that should be at a cheaper price.

The wisest man in American history doesn't dissapoint in this book, full of clever and prophetic lines you may have heard before, and many more you probably haven't.

Franklin was and is one of the smartest persons ever to have lived/been born in this country; and this book in question, i.e., Benjamin Franklin Wit and Wisdom by Benjamin Franklin, Corbis-Bettmann (Photographer) will not by any stretch of the imgination disapoint you. Some of the lines, one will find in Poor Richards Almanack. However, for the most part it, i.e., Benjamin Franklin Wit and Wisdom by Benjamin Franklin, Corbis-Bettmann (Photographer) is a wonderfull book filled with allegories and anecdotes; and I would verily say that it should be a must read/own for the want to be scholar/man of letters or learned man.

Of all the Hardy boys book I've read (belive me I've read a lot inculing the hardcover, mystery and casefiles) this one is the most slow paced book and it does not have many thrillers in it like Kickoff to Danger. Overall it's good.

Just like any other of Franklin W. Dixon's books it was great. It was a great plot and a great mystery story for anyone who loves mysteries and adventures.

This particular book was tastefully done. The book in my reading it always left me wondering what will occur next. It also kept me reading it because there was always something going on. One positive thing about this book is the events could actually take place. I for one am not somebody who particulary enjoys reading books with a fiction or a science fiction plot. Where as The Hardy Boys books are great for any reader because the books include mystery, suspense, and action. If you are not someone that enjoys reading those types of books remember one thing all Hardy Boy books are not all alike and if you want to improve your variety of books maybe you could read one. If I were the author I would most definately be proud of myself. I would think Franlin Dixon should give himself a pat on the back. In my own opinion I give this book two thumbs up. Joe Gainer

The plot of this book was fairly good, with the entire Hardy family going to Hollywood to look into the near-fatal accidents of a stuntman friend of theirs. What made this book so different than any others I can recall is that Mrs. Hardy gets more than a mere mention. She actually works on a case with her men. Joe hardy has the biggest part in the story and it even mentions that he is supposedly physically stronger than Frank. It should be the other way around, since Frank is the older of the two. There's even a tongue-in-cheek joke in the novel when someone tells one of the characters that he could always take up a career ghostwriting children's books. I thought that was a cheap shot and just further evidence that not as much pride is being put into writing these stories as it once was. All in all, though, an exciting story with a lot of action. I'd recommend it.

It's ok. You might want to try the casefiles series if you're trying to pick between them.

"Daredevils" was awesome, so action packed! All of the stunts were thrilling. It took place in Hollywood. There was a competition, that was called "stuntfest". The person who did the best stunts would win and get the best contract. Terrence McCauley won it last year and probably was going to win it this year. A number of events happened causing Terrence to lose competition after competition. His dad, Brian McCauley hired the Hardy boys to try to figure out who did it. The book was amazing and I think you should read it. It is a 5 star performance. I loved it.

It's tempting to say that no biography of FDR can be boring, given his extraordinary life and the length of time he served as President. Ted Morgan's "FDR" has lots going for it: it's a single volume biography (admittedly long); and it's no hagiography in that FDR's failings, both as a politician and human being, are not glossed over.

But, I found that "FDR" had significant faults which marred my enjoyment of it somewhat. It purported to be a serious biography and indeed for much of the time, that's how it read, but Morgan had too much of a prediliction for lapsing into anecdotes and folksy stories, thereby sending the book down unnecessary side alleys. In all, there was too much of that and too little serious analysis: it's almost extraordinary that no attempt was made to do an inquest on the New Deal. Space might have been a problem, but surely an evaluation of FDR's Presidency requires this?

At times, Morgan is just clumsy. In 1925, FDR invited helped some fellow polio victims staying at Warm Springs. Morgan summed it up:

"It felt good to be in command of something again, even if was only half a dozen cripples."

Writing with all the subtlety of a train crash. Surely, by that analysis FDR himself was "only a cripple"?

Not a horribly bad piece of work, but could have been far better.

G Rodgers

When historians are asked to rank our greatest Presidents, three men nearly always fill the top 3 positions: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Although FDR, who served from 1933-1945, is by far the most recent of our truly "great" Presidents, he has become an oddly forgotten figure by many Americans, and lesser Presidents such as Harry Truman and John F Kennedy have captured the public's imagination. Yet Roosevelt accomplished far more than any of his successors, and he has the distinction of leading America through two of the worst crises in its' history: the Great Depression and World War Two. In some ways this may account for FDR's strange obscurity in today's politics and historical memory, for like Lincoln and Washington, FDR's achievements are so great that he doesn't seem as "human" as leaders such as Truman, nor as dramatic and tragic as a Kennedy. In this thoroughly engrossing biography, Ted Morgan brings us not the larger-than-life FDR of myth, but a fully human, "warts-and-all" look at our longest-serving Chief Executive. Morgan vividly brings to life the priviliged world that FDR grew up in, and offers marvelous anecdotes and portraits of FDR and the people in his life that brings the man and his era alive in a way that no other FDR biography even approaches. While other historians may offer a more fact-filled and event-oriented approach, many of their books (such as Frank Freidel's biography) are often dry and fail to grasp why FDR was so popular with the public or why he became such a dominant political figure. Morgan includes most of the great events of Roosevelt's life - his fight against polio, the years as Governor of New York, the New Deal, his leadership in World War Two - but he also mentions little details and stories that illustrate the impact he had on ordinary people's lives during the Depression, and shows how even his personal flaws (such as his endless capacity for telling people exactly what they wanted to hear, even if he had no intention of meeting their requests) were actually political strengths. Morgan doesn't shy away from the dark sides of FDR's life and career that many of his other biographers refuse to mention. Among these are his long love affair with Lucy Mercer, which nearly ended his marriage to his distant cousin Eleanor; his involvement in a sordid sex scandal involving using US Navy sailors to catch a homosexual Episcopalian priest, which FDR approved as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and then lied about his involvement when the scheme was discovered and came under criticism; his habit of lying, even to his closest friends and advisors; and his general lack of parenting skills with his children. But Morgan also includes the more positive aspects of FDR's personality - the sympathy for the underdog; the genuine concern to help the less-fortunate in our society; the ability to innovate, try out new ideas and programs, and the ability to radiate confidence and optimism to a nation that sorely needed both traits in the dark days of the Depression and World War, all these and more are described by Morgan. If you want a straightforward, chronological account of FDR's Presidency, then there are other books which will offer you the basics of FDR's political career. But if you want to understand FDR as a person and human being, as well as a great political leader, then this book is by far your best choice. For its' ability to offer a portrait of a President that literally gives you the feeling that you "knew" the man personally, Ted Morgan's "FDR" is without peer...an excellent read for any US history or political buff!

FDR is a frustrating figure, in my opinion, because he was so big, and so transformative a leader (to pin James MacGregor Burns's taxonomy of leadership onto him) that every other biography of him I have seen has become reduced to simply the author's bias and idiosyncratic interpretation of him. Some little twerp laboring over a PhD thesis for 10 years gives us a whole book on FDR and the Supreme Court, or FDR and public works, or FDR and WW II. Boring.

Which is where this one comes in. I bought it more than 15 years ago, but never really read it until last year. Before then, I was only interested in "proof texting" FDR to basically show what a socialist bad guy he was, a poor comparative reflection of cousin Theodore. In this sense, too-high a view of Theodore dooms FDR to second-best. Then I read Churchill's 6 Vol. history of WW II, and through that lens saw a very compelling FDR, one big enough to "run" Churchill. And Churchill makes it clear in his history why it was utterly impossible for the West to save Eastern and Central Europe from the Russians. Explaining this take on things drops the charges against FDR so long-brought by the John Birchers--that somehow he gave away the world to the communists.

Ted Morgan gets deep into this, but by way of Roosevelt's childhood and familial relations, focusing on Franklin's impossible mother--the root of his famous evasiveness, says Morgan. Then on into minor politics after a little Harvard; a glimpse of some adultery, and then polio. The adultery is interesting, because compared to someone like Bill Clinton, FDR's sounds quite focused, or even traditional--his Lucy Mercer of Pre-Presidency fame stays in the picture, and is in the room with him 4 terms later when he has his stroke after going thru the morning's mail at the resort in Georgia he had purchased (in pale, or maybe non-pale imitation of Teddie's purchase of the badlands ranch--both places of rehabilitation for each Roosevelt).

And although Eleanor may have played house in a cottage behind Franklin's Mom's ancestral property, with a few lesbian friends, she, too is a sympathetic figure, putting up with Franklin, then becoming his functional nurse, and raising their children in the scant time left after working on the ills of the rest of the world. Something like Hillary with more empathy, or substance. How about Hillary minus the switchblade?

Somewhere in all of the polio and then political battle, FDR decided to be great; and this seems to have translated, as the story unfolds through Morgan, into a similar decision to make the United States great, and dominant. Doing this while paralyzed from the waist down, and while taking time to "stick it" to old foes in the New York State government throughout his presidency, induces a kind of involuntary admiration which lets me see how people like Bill Clinton are so drawn to the FDR memory, and how they seek to replay FDR's utter commitment to the moment and the audience. Compared to a Clinton, the multimillionaire Dutchman from upstate New York paradoxically had a lot less to prove, but yet accomplished so much more.

So after a long time admiring Teddy and dumping on Frank, this book makes it clear to me that although an FDR without the preexisting Teddy would not have been possible, FDR very arguably accomplished a great deal more than TR. As recent, more critical biographers of Teddy explain (H.W. Brands, TR: The Last Romantic), Teddy sort of fanatacized-out during his third party phase, maybe paralleling Winston Churchill's father's flame-out--an interesting common point which may have given these two leaders in their wartime phase the ability to compromise and survive, when it would be easier to lecture and purify (and get tossed out).

Thus the connection with the mess of the war, and part of the explanation for us coming out on top (in spite of FDR's child like view of India, and some-said-strange courting of Ibn Saud). If these actions were designed to take adavntage not only of Germany's destruction, but also of England's slide, then FDR succeeded. Maybe Churchill would call him another Marlborough, had he been related, due to this balance of power maneuvering. But maybe FDR didn't intend it that way at all, if he was more a tool of providence mingled in with great effort (kind of an Augustinian view of political success).

In summary, I'm not as hacked off as I used to be when I see FDR's face on our dimes, after reading this book. It's OK with me now if stays right there. He puts a better human face on our money than a stylized Mercury-head yanked from mythology. And that's what this author has also done for me.

One thing I'd like to see a future historian look into: Campobello Island, the family's version of the Kennedy compound, is actually in Canadian territorial water (so I'm told). What relationship did this have to the Roosevelt family import fortune of glass and hardware back in the 1700s and 1800s? Was there a tax avoidance or illegality angle, like the Forbes family, the Bronfmans of Canada (See Peter Newman's book "Bronfman Dynasty" on that), and the Kennedys? That would complete the economic substrate of our knowledge of this family, long since passed, it seems, into fashionable senescense. And sure, all families seem to decline; but few leave behind such great men.

Which gets us back to the pack of FDR authors. They're everywhere, some of their books skinny, some quite fat. But this one really stands out. I highly recommend it.