I stumbled across this book by accident one day and it has turned out to be my find of 2001 -- one of the most enjoyable books I have read in ages. Taylor, a youthful New York journalist and poet, was sent out to California to file back dispatches on this wild, gold-filled, lush place in the seminal gold rush year of 1849, when California was a sprawling region, and not yet a state. And what a fabulous job he does -- this reads more like an engaging adventure narrative than non-fiction, and I could not put it down -- a reader is completely transported into another place and time. One cannot fail to be fascinated by the bustling, energetic, multi-ethnic, can-do place that was the west coast. If you know California, especially the San Francisco, Monterey and Sacramento areas, Taylor's descriptions of their still-untamed landscapes will be both familiar and strange, but always utterly lovely. His reports of the gold rush regions are extraordinary, as is his walk -- yes, *walk* -- from San Francisco to Monterey... this at a time when a galloping horse could get from San Jose to San Francisco in perhaps seven *hours*. Taylor is funny, honest, generally very clear-eyed and unsentimental, and his writing is of very high calibre. Kudos to Heyday Press for bringing this wonderful book to a new audience. I am giving it to everybody as a gift this year.

Bayard Taylor, with the eye of the photographer for detail and composition and the writing talent of the professional journalist Horace Greely so willingly paid, provides the reader with a fantastic look at California of the mid-1800's. His vivid descriptions of the people, the events, and perhaps most importantly, the pre-development beauty of California's wild mountains, seacoasts, and valleys, made this reviewer (a native Californian) long for a time machine to allow visits to the wondrous collection of experiences described by Taylor. From his many travels across the land, to his viewing of the first California consitutional convention, his words allow the reader to feel the wind in one's hair as the California-bred horses fly at top speed across the valleys and through the washes, or to be a fly on the wall as the convention delegates reach compromises which shaped and prepared the State for it's Golden future. The pictures he paints of the natural environment of early California are so dramatic that they must certainly encourage all attempts to preserve the tragically few expanses of California landscape remaining. This is a book for Californians (and those who love the state) who wish to return, if only for a few brief moments, to the sounds and the sights of it's birth: raw, chaotic, beautiful, yet with a rich Spanish/Mexican heritage and social codes that provided a useable framework to maintain law and order. Taylor describes it all, allowing us to understand not only what was happening, but also why. It's a great book.

A FAST PACED FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF CAPTAIN THEODORE CANOT, TRADER IN GOLD, IVORY AND SLAVES ON THE COAST OF GUINEA CIRCA 1854. CAPT. CANOT HAD QUITE A LIFE AND THE BOOK IS WRITTEN IN A MANNER THAT SEEMS TO DEFY DATING IN THAT IT IS EASY TO READ; TO GET INVOLVED IN, AND GIVES ONE MAN'S VIEW OF AN ERA THAT PLAYED A LARGE PART IN HISTORY. NOT AS ROUGH AS ONE WOULD EXPECT.

Bayard Taylor, with the eye of the photographer for detail and composition and the writing talent of the professional journalist Horace Greely so willingly paid, provides the reader with a fantastic look at California of the mid-1800's. His vivid descriptions of the people, the events, and perhaps most importantly, the pre-development beauty of California's wild mountains, seacoasts, and valleys, made this reviewer (a native Californian) long for a time machine to allow visits to the wondrous collection of experiences described by Taylor. From his many travels across the land, to his viewing of the first California constitutional convention, his words allow the reader to feel the wind in one's hair as the California-bred horses fly at top speed across the valleys and through the washes, or to become a fly on the wall as the convention delegates reach compromises which shaped and prepared the State for its Golden future. The pictures he paints of the natural environment of early California are so dramatic that they must could certainly be used to support any attempts to preserve the tragically few remaining expanses of California wilderness. This is a book for Californians (and those who love the state) who wish to return, if only for a few brief moments, to the sounds and the sights of it's birth: raw, chaotic, beautiful, yet with a rich Spanish/Mexican heritage and social codes that provided a useable framework to maintain law and order. Taylor describes it all, allowing us to understand not only what was happening, but also why. It's a great book.

Bayard Taylor, with the eye of the photographer for detail and composition and the writing talent of the professional journalist Horace Greely so willingly paid, provides the reader with a fantastic look at California of the mid-1800's. His vivid descriptions of the people, the events, and perhaps most importantly, the pre-development beauty of California's wild mountains, seacoasts, and valleys, made this reviewer (a native Californian) long for a time machine to allow visits to the wondrous collection of experiences described by Taylor. From his many travels across the land, to his viewing of the first California constitutional convention, his words allow the reader to feel the wind in one's hair as the California-bred horses fly at top speed across the valleys and through the arroyos, or allow us to be a fly on the wall as the convention delegates reach compromises which shaped and prepared the State for it's Golden future. The pictures he paints of the natural environment of early California are so dramatic that they could be used to support any and all attempts to preserve the tragically few expanses of California wilderness. This is a book for Californians (and those who love the state) who wish to return, if only for a few brief moments, to the sounds and the sights of it's birth: raw, chaotic, beautiful, yet with a rich Spanish/Mexican heritage and social codes that provided a useable framework to maintain law and order. Taylor describes it all, allowing us to understand not only what was happening, but also why. It's a great book.

The Gold Coast and the Slum is one of the classic studies of the Chicago School of urban sociology. In that sense, it has been largely superceded by more sophisticated analyses in the intervening decades, yet in terms of readability and flair it is very difficult to think of a better introduction to the world of urban studies. Today, in fact, it reads more like a work of literature than a sociological study--but in a time in which the relative fortunes of sociology are on the decline and the fortunes of literary study are on the rise, it may have more to say now than it did even at the time of its first publication. When one considers the rise of what are now called "edge cities," those odd conglomerations of city and suburbia, whose major products are often far more closely related to the fantastic and the imaginary than to the tangible products of standard urban industrialism, perhaps a method which owes more to literary study than to the quantifying methods sociology has developed since the decline of the Chicago School is more appropriate. In that sense, The Gold Coast and the Slum may deserve a fresh look.

Chicago's Fourth Presbyterian Church bucks several trends: it is a successful church in an urban setting; its affluent members are involved in hands-on help with people in a nearby ghetto; it espouses a decidedly liberal theology. Wellman seeks to explain how Fourth Presbyterian has both accommodated to and transformed culture.

Wellman studies the ministries of Fourth Church's four 20th century pastors. Each pastor ministered to an affluent congregation and addressed the social issues that kept near neighbors of the church in poverty. Each pastor was able to rally the members of the congregation to take action on behalf of the less-privileged.

Wellman combines historical investigation and sociological analysis to explain Fourth Presbyterian's success. The book is a revised Ph.D. dissertation but doesn't read like one. Wellman writes in a fluid, engaging style and keeps the academic excursions into sociological theory to a minimum.

This book will be a welcome read for a) folks who love Chicago; b) people who worship in urban churches; c) liberal Christians who wonder if they are any others left on the planet; d) cultural historians; e) folks who wonder if the church still cares for others.

This is a great, family-oriented book. Unlike many guides to Maine, which generally seem to be oriented to the bed and breakfast, antique browsing set, this book has a much broader range. It's also more down to earth. Its breezy, casual narrative style, and well laid out pages make it a pleasure to read. It's told me more about Mt. Desert Island and the surrounding area than any other book I've seen.

I grew up in the Gold Coast area and go back to visit every year. I ordered this book after coming back this year. I remember many of these places from when I was a boy decades ago and it was wonderful to see some of the photos and descriptions of places I have been, and even better to see the interiors of places I have not been in. It is hard to imagine what these places were like if you have never been there. The scale of living is almost unimaginable today, and to have that much money and power concentrated in one place will likely never happen again. This book helps recreate that time and place and feeling. As it is almost 20 years old now I would like to see an update on this book. For instance, Oak Point in Bayville, mentioned in the chapter on Play Houses, has been completed subdivided now. On the other hand Planting Fields in MIll Neck is almost completely restored and is a wonderful place to visit, although it was a bit disconcerting to go on a tour of the mansion and view rooms and objects that you couldn't touch when I had actually sat in some of those chairs in those same rooms thirty years ago. My only criticisms would be that I would have liked to see more color photos, more detail on a few of the places, and more exact location info on all the places. If you have any interest in this era or this area buy this book.

If you are interested in the mansions of Long Island's lost Gold Coast, don't hesitate to order this book. Ms. Randall packs this book with plenty of excellent photographs and facts to entertain the casual admirer, or the aficionado.

She has lived in these houses, worked on them, and thankfully cataloged them (many that have already disappeared), with due reverence to last the ages. Bravo.

The BEST book on the mansions of Long Island. Great photos & stories by the author. She even periodically gives lectures which are well worth attending. Extremely interesting facts.

A good book about the end of the Asante Empire. Edgerton tells the end of this empire from both the British and Asante perspectives. The Asantes were a militaristic society who preyed on the weaker societies around them, notably the Fante. The British desired trade and gold, and the conflict was inevitable when the Asante sent armies to conquer the Fante. This brought the British into conflict.
The author takes too much of a nativist perspective in his depiction of the Asante Empire. This empire gloried in slaves and human sacrifices. It had a great military tradition, but why would a author try to paint a positive view of a society that sought entertainment value in the putting to death of slaves. The British may have been interested in conquest and colonization of this land for trade and gold reasons. They may have been rascist, but the Asante were a brutal society. The expiration of this empire was perhaps not such a tragedy after all. The British brought Ghana and the Asante into the modern world.

For centuries the Ghana nee the Gold Coast nee the Ashanti kingdom has been a major producer of gold. The 16th century arrival of European powers on the West African coast opened up vast new trading opportunities. The Europeans tried to push inland to locate the source of the gold, while the Ashantis tried to subjugate the coastal dwelling Fantes who intermediated the trade between the seafaring Europeans and the Ashanti and other inland groups.

This book describes the 100 years on-again off-again war between the British (and their Fante allies) and the Ashanti (supported by the Dutch). The author is an anthropologist and his intepretation of events emphasizes the cross-cultural incomprehension of two societies (Victorian Britain, and late Ashanti Empire) which in some ways were remarkably similar: aristocratic, hierarchical, chauvinistic, imperialistic, militaristic. Some of the stories are fascinating as in the depressing case of the British kidnapping and torture of an Ashanti peace emissary which predictably leads to Ashanti mobilization and the seige of the British castle at Cape Coast. Or the fact that it takes 70 years for the British to figure out that desertions by the Fante were less motivated by cowardice than the fact that the British were forcing their Fante porters to do culturally innappropriate "women's work." Nevertheless, the author clearly likes both the British and the Ashanti, so he makes constant references to the "cowardly" "perfidious" etc. Fante. What the Ashanti could not do, malaria and dysentary did (they don't call West Africa "White Man's Grave" for nothing) and in the end, the British need howitzers and Yoruba troops brought in from Nigeria to capture the Ashanti capital of Kumasi. The final armed resistance to the British is led by an old woman named Yaa Asantewaa who after her capture died in exile in the Seychelles.

The Ashantis never really made their peace with the British and this history has relevance for contemporary Ghana as manifested by the underrepresentation of the Ashanti in the politically influential armed forces, relative to other ethnic groups.

This is a great book, epically for a novice in African history. While American are taught about the different European civilizations we are thoroughly ignorant about similar African civilizations. The Asante Empire was long established in Western Africa (present Ghana) and had an advanced civilization. They had a well organized army, with at the time of the first conflict with Britain, were armed with modern muskets. They had a well organized government and religion.

The conflict with the British was far from a cake walk for the British. The Asante fought bravely for their freedom and gave the British everything that they could handle. The British were not able to subdue the Asante until the progress in arms technology made the Asante armaments obsolete and gave the British a huge advantage. Eventually it was British howitzers vs. Asante muskets.

I think this is my favorite DeMille. However, the first time I tried to read it, I didn't make it past page 100 and people to whom I have since recommended this book have expressed complaint that the middle third is quite tedious. Most of these same folks prefer "Charm School" or even "The General's Daughter". Yet you are reading these reviews because you either are already a Demille fan or are looking for a story about this geographical area. If so, try this one. As I understand it, Demille has captured the modern nuances of the latter all to well, possibly to discomfort. More importantly to me, he captured some of the discomfort of modern romance as well. The sexual, versus the sensual, nature of his yarn hit far to close to home, but with Demille's often brilliant panache of humor, I identified with his cynical character less depressingly so. In fact, he all but became my hero. Besides, I am sure many a 'Sopranos' fan will be as seduced by the more typical Mafioso characters. Hey, if you read this far you might as well take the plunge, because like 'Fitz' you will ultimately be drawn in, happily, enjoying the ride.

This book is summed up best by those reviews which dub it "The Great Gatsby meets The Godfather". It is, first and foremost, a detailed and well-researched tale of two disparate worlds which collide when Mafia Don Frank Bellarosa moves next door to WASP Wall Street lawyer John Sutter on the ultra-upper class North Shore of Long Island - the "Gold Coast". As a lawyer, I can tell you that DeMille, who apparently is not a lawyer, gets the legal stuff right - moreso than most lawyer-turned-authors writing these days. And he gets the mob stuff just as accurately. But best of all, it's written with an incredible sense of humor. For example, Sutter's wife's kinky lovemaking antics wiil make you laugh out loud. And if that's not enough, there's a HUGE surprise ending. Hats off to Mr. DeMille for writing an absolutely perfect novel.

The Gold Coast was a fabulous, unparalleled novel about the complexities of relationships and the joy and sorrow that comes with them. I personally have always been interested in the Mafia, and what Demille has done with this book cannot even be matched by my favorite movie "The Godfather."
Throughout the story and even now I cannot decide who I like better, John Sutter or Frank Bellarosa. Sutter kept me laughing the entire time from the very first page, yet Bellarosa kept me captivated with his cool, yet evil personality as well as his motives. I highly recommend this book to people who want something more than a simple story with lots of explosions and killing and little room for imagination. Definitely not a book for people who don't like reading into the characters on their own.
However, if you're looking for a dynamite story that has absolutely everything! Love, hate, friendship, betrayal, and great sex, purchase the Gold Coast!