Finally, a interesting piece of history documented with todays resources. Enjoyable for advocates of L & C and those who would want a GREAT photography table book.

We visited an Oregon Fuchsia Society show in Portland, OR in August, 1998 and this was one of the books they recommended. It is beautiful ... full of exceptional photos ... a visual delight! It also covers just about any subject a beginner might be interested in: history, nomenclature, cultivation, propagation (including hybridization techniques), training & exhibiting, pests and diseases and recommended plants and cultivars. It is full of fascinating facts and information. Best of all, however, are the wonderful photographs that identify many, many varieties. It is written by a British author, so a few words and expressions may seem unusual to American readers. Nevertheless, it's a wonderful book!

Of all the books that I've read about Hegel's philosophy in the past twenty years, this book by Howard P. Kainz stands out as the one best suited for the beginner. Dr. Kainz is a world class scholar on this topic and his overview is simply the best I have ever read. (Before 1996 my favorite overview of Hegel was the first part of Ilyenkov's, DIALECTICAL LOGIC. After 1996 my favorite overview is this book by Dr. Kainz.)

What I like most about this book is that it works hard to reach the new student. Dr. Kainz removes all jargon and technical language, except to define the more common terms used by the experts in the field. He also includes diagrams to help explain complex abstract concepts. It is not often that a professor works so diligently to reach his students. He also succeeds in making his language contemporary and easy-to-read.

Dr. Kainz covers the whole gamut of Hegel's corpus and provides high-level overviews of most key ideas in Hegel's philosophy. I wish I had this book in the 1980's when I was struggling with the literature on Hegel, but in fact Dr. Kainz' book was probably not possible until 1996 because the scholarship on Hegel had to undergo a major change - it had to break away from the literature of Marxism and only the fall of the USSR could make that possible. The scholarship on Hegel since the fall of the USSR is very different - I say superior - compared with the scholarship before that period. This is due partly to English translations (finally) of all of Hegel's main works, and partly to the recognition that Hegel is not only widely different from Marx, but his work may better stand the test of time.

Howard P. Kainz is a world-renowned expert in Hegel scholarship. He is not always an advocate of Hegel's thought and he can ask some very pointed questions and offer some very critical comments. However, Dr. Kainz makes use of the latest Hegel scholarship so the new student benefits enormously. If you are thinking about reading Hegel and have seen how difficult it can be, and so are looking for a brief, high-level, yet comprehensive critique of Hegel's thought, this book is for you. I give it five stars.

Gable's Women is a wonderful book! It gives a real insight to the man. A must read for any fan!

This is a very well written, photographed and illustrated book that reveals many little known truths about the origins of Kentucky and the migration west through Cumberland Gap. It is a must read for all students of early Kentucky history. Virtually every other page contains either a map, illustration or beautiful photograph. The photography by world-renowned photographer, Adam Jones, is simply stunning! In truth, it is the photography of Adam Jones that first attracted me to this outstanding book. As a student of early Kentucky history, I consider this book in particular to be indispensable to understanding the truth surrounding the opening of Kentucky and all points west. This is a truly great historical work, replete with bibliograhical references, indicative of the author's extensive research. Therefore, I highly recommend it!

What makes "The Gathering Storm 1787-1829" so compelling is that it is about the period in American history where slavery was not in the forefront of American politics. I was thinking about what I thought I knew about this period, and it was basically that after the Federal Constitution institutionalized slavery several generations went by before the Missouri Compromise and the Nat Turner rebellion made slavery the national issue. Of course, this was a naive reduction of American history on my part, which is corrected by Mary Sisson's informative fifth volume in the Milestones in Black American History series. "The Gathering Storm" covers the period from the framing of the Constitution in 1787 to David Walker's "Appeal" of 1829, which urged slaves to revolt and kill their masters. This division allows the next volume in the series to cover the period from the Nat Turner revolt to the Fugitive Slave Law.

"The Gathering Storm" provides unforgettable details about what slavery was like during these four decades when the number of slaves in the United States tripled. Sisson fills this volume with fascinating details about this period: in 1790 New Jersey and Pennsylvania each had more slaves than Tennessee, while in 1829 Cincinnati, Ohio began enforcing an 1804 statue requiring free blacks to post a $500 bond before settling in the city. There are other examples of laws clearly intended to preserve the institution of slavery, such as those forbidding Quakers from buying slaves that they obviously intended to free. But Sisson is also able to put these facts into context by focusing on two significant developments that had immense ramifications. First, the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney spurred the growth of slave-worked plantations that expanded slavery further west in the South. Second, the successful slave result that resulted in the formation of the independent nation of Haiti. Because of the fear of a slave uprising in the United States, abolitionists were able to get a federal ban on the importation of slaves, which had huge consequences for how slaves were treated and valued in the South.

Sisson also presents a series of compelling historical figures, such as Richard Allen, founder of the Free African Society and of the first independent black church in America; merchant-seaman Paul Cuffe and editor John Russwurm, two of the chief proponents of the colonization movement which sought to resettle free American blacks in West Africa; mathematician Benjamin Banneker who surveyed the land for the District of Columbia and produced a series of almanacs; Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey, who planned slave uprisings that unsettled the South; Vincent Oge and Francois-Dominique Toussaint-Louverture, leaders of the slave revolt that created Haiti; and David Walker, the firebrand who advocated violent revolt or predicated the nation would face a bloody civil war. When the volume ends with the Missouri Compromise and Walker's inflammatory "Appeal," it is clear the Civil War is inevitable.

Young students will have an excellent understanding of both the practice and politics of slavery after reading "The Gathering Storm, 1787-1829." I have not been working through the 16 volumes of the Milestones in Black American History series in order, but this is one of the best volumes in this excellent series, which covers the black experience from Ancient Egypt to the present. Although slavery would continue in the United States until the end of the Civil War, it underwent some significant changes through this period. Sisson does a superb job of organizing this material and making this case.

The articles about Abraham Lincoln and George Washington alone should be required reading for all U.S. history classes. Kenneth Starr would have gone wild looking at the private lives of our country's two greatest leaders.

My intermediate and advanced ESL students have found this book very beneficial for vocabulary development. It systematically teaches prefixes and suffixes with much practice. It has been around for awhile, but I hope it will continue to be available.

"Gettysburg: The Confederate High Tide" is the volume in the Time-Life Civil War series devoted to the most famous battle in American history. Author Champ Clark does a marvelous job of both providing the basic information for understanding the strategy and tactics of the battle as well as providing intriguing details for those more intimately familiar with the story of Gettysburg. For example, there is a photograph of Dan Sickle's shattered leg bone that was amputated on the second day of the battle and which he visited at the Army Medical Museum in Washington periodically for the rest of his life.

The book is divided into five chapters. "A Hard Road North" covers the movements of the Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac north from Fredericksburg to begin converge on the town of Gettysburg on the last night of June in 1863. A very detailed map of the troop movements is provided. This chapter ends with a look at "Soldiering on Horseback," which looks at the trappings of the cavalry, including a McClellan saddle. "The Push to Seminary Ridge" tells of the first day of battle, July 1st, as John Buford's dismounted Union cavalry held off the advancing troops of Henry Heath's troops along the Chambersburg Pike. Most readers know of the strategic importance of getting the high ground at this battle, and Clark covers all of the key moves in this fatal dance. In this chapter particularly, Clark does a nice job of combining the military maneuvers with fascinating human elements of that day, from the stories of local civilians John Burns and Jennie Wade, to the battlefield friendship forged between Union General Francis Barlow and Confederate General John Gordon, and the story of Lt. Bayard Wilkinson, who commanded a Union battery and amputated his own leg after being hit by a shell.

"Through the Valley of Death" deals with the action on July 2nd, which begins with General Dan Sickle's idiotic redeployment of his III Corps off of Cemetery Ridge and ends with the defense of Little Round Top. The latter, with the pivotal role played by Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's 20th Maine, is one of the centerpieces of the film "Gettysburg." The consequences of Sickle's blunder is covered in "Fury in the Peach Orchard," which we tend to remember up here in the Northland because General Winfield Scott Hancock ended up plugging the massive hole in the Union line created by Sickles with the 1st Minnesota regiment, whose 262 men attacked an entire Confederate brigade to buy time, at the cost of 82 percent of its men. This chapter ends with "An Artist's Portrayal of the Battle," which looks at the works of Peter Frederick Rothermel, who was commissioned by the state of Pennsylvania in 1866 to do a series of paintings of the battle.

Before the book's final chapter, we get "A Panoramic View of the Last Charge," a 400-foot cyclorama by French artist Paul Philippoteaux recreating Pickett's charge (If you visit the Gettysburg Battlefield, it is a must-see). Of course the high watermark of the Confederacy is covered in "'In Hell or Glory,'" which concludes with "Images of the Aftermath," taken by Mathew Brady's team a couple of weeks after the battle. However, the final two-page spread of the book offers the simple elegance of Abraham Lincoln's handwritten version of "The Gettysburg Address" super imposed over a photographic enlargement of Lincoln about to sit down after giving the most famous speech in American history.

"The Gift Of A Son" is a must read book for anyone who finds themselves caught in a power struggle with a strong willed child.
Gwen Clark has given us insight into how Social Services personnel, mental health care professionals, caseworkers, educators, group home leaders, caseworkers, and the court system work. The author presents to the reader a rare opportunity when she allows us to experience her family's most private moments. Gwen Clark is able to write in such a way that the reader can feel the fear, pain, frustration, loss of control, humiliation, embarrassment and sadness as the family tries to resolve all the diffucult situations that come their way. Gwen Clark has mastered the art of getting right to the point, staying focused and conveying all of the important events leading up to her son's death. Mrs. Clark shares her son's beautiful poetry and heart rending letters revealing his most secret thoughts there-by making a place in our heart which will honor his memory forever.