It is a good and comprehensive guide, it has a lot of animal tracks, I found it a good and complete guide, but honestly sometimes I had a lot of difficult tryng to find some kind of tracks that I found.

In my personal opinion I think that this is a very good book for experts on the field but not so good for beginners in animal tracks. And by the way it doesnt have any color illustration, and altough they are not needed I was very familiar with peterson guides and this one is a little different.

My wife and I have found this guide to be very useful in interpreting the sign left behind by the creatures resident in our northeastern woods, not only tracks but scat as well (with hundreds of detailed drawings of scat it is as much a guide to those leavings as tracks). The extensive behavioral descriptions are equally useful. I am not clear on the basis for the criticisms contained in the other review concerning animal harassment. Dr. Murie was a dedicated conservationist and President of The Wilderness Society after his retirement from the Fish and Wildlife Service and his respect for the creatures he is describing is evident on every page. While he acknowledges that some tracks were obtained from live-trapped animals, it is clear from the book that the overwhelming mass of the data is from direct field observation from a life spent in the outdoors.

very down to earth. dos'nt go into detail

If there is ever a study of all the shameful efforts to belittle the crimes of communism, this book will occupy a prominent place. Vickery claims that there were only 740,000 deaths under the Khmer Rouge during 1975-9. How does he reach this number, which is half the size of other estimates and only a third of the true figure? He combines a low population count of 7.1 million in 1975 with a massively inflated sum of 6.7 million in 1979, producing a demographic decline of only 400,000. No credible source has given such a drastic underestimate.

In the 15 years since this book was first published, Vickery has made no effort to include the demographic studies which refute his conclusions. He has nothing to say about Marek Sliwinski's analysis, which calculates losses of 1.9-2.5 million, most likely 2.16 million ("Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique," p40). He has nothing to say about the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has shown that 1.5 million were massacred and 2-3 million killed overall (Craig Etcheson, "Quantifying Crimes Against Humanity in Cambodia," online). In short, this new edition contains nothing to inform the reader that Vickery's claims are indefensible.

Vickery derides what he calls the "Standard Total View" of Cambodia, namely the assumption that the Khmer Rouge carried out a systematic campaign of genocide in pursuance of their fanatical Marxist ideology. In place of the Standard Total View, he claims that the Khmer Rouge leadership "did not foresee, let alone plan," the bloodbath which they inflicted: "They were petty bourgeois radicals overcome by peasantist romanticism" (p287). His conclusion is based on oral testimony gathered from 92 Cambodian refugees in a Thai refugee camp during 1980. Only nine of these interviewees are women and just one is a peasant. Given that the book purports to explain the motives and conduct of the Cambodian peasants, this is a shocking lapse from accepted standards of scholarship.

Unfortunately for Vickery's position, the Standard Total View is clearly correct. Had Vickery devoted space to Lenin's misnamed policy of War Communism, he would have been able to cite the research of numerous economic historians (e.g. Boris Brutzkus, Lancelot Lawton, Alexander Baykov, T.J.B. Hoff) who agree that it was a conscious effort to eliminate the market economy, resulting in a famine which killed 5 million people. Had Vickery explored other examples - such as Mao's Great Leap Forward, in which 30 million died (Jasper Becker, "Hungry Ghosts") - he could have explained why the Khmer Rouge described their plan as the "Super Great Leap Forward" (Tung Padevat, June 1976). He might have seen that the division of the population into class categories - some of which are targeted for destruction - is consistent with other Marxist revolutions and cannot be attributed to peasant populism. But research of this kind can hardly be expected in a work of political dogma.

Vickery is so determined to absolve communism that he even considers it "fortunate" that "those who predicted a predominance of agrarian nationalism over Marxism in China and Vietnam were mistaken" (p290). He does not mention that the good fortune of the Chinese people includes the slaughter of tens of millions through massacre, slavery and forced famine (Washington Post, July 17-18, 1994). Nor does he inform his readers that North Vietnam massacred 50,000-100,000 before reunification, with 300,000-500,000 starved to death (Robert F. Turner, "Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development," pp142-4); or that its post-war crimes included the massacre of 100,000 South Vietnamese civilians (Jacqueline Desbarats, "Repression in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam," online); the murder of 165,000 in concentration camps (Orange County Register, April 29, 2001); and the mass expulsions which drowned 500,000 boat people (Louis Wiesner, "Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Vietnam, 1954-1975," p344). The facts being inconvenient, Vickery simply deletes them from history.

Those who wish to read a discussion of the Khmer Rouge period by responsible experts should consult Craig Etcheson, "The Rise and Demise of Democratic Kampuchea;" Karl D Jackson, ed., "Cambodia, 1975-1978: Rendezvous With Death" or Jean-Louis Margolin, "Cambodia: The Country of Disconcerting Crimes" in Stephane Courtois, ed., "The Black Book of Communism" (pp577-636). The history of scholarly apologetics on this subject is discussed in Sophal Ear's online thesis, "The Khmer Rouge Canon: 1975-1979 - The Standard Total Academic View on Cambodia."

I read a number of books, trying to understand what Pol Pot was all about. Most make him out to be satan incarnate, or otherwise incomprehensible. This is the one book that made the history of his regime reasonably comprehensible to me. Highest recommendation.

Michael Vickery, always ready and perhaps even ever-anxious to attack anyone else who has studied Cambodia, shares some unique insights and valuable experience gained in Cambodia in the 1960s. While most of the arguments about the goings on inside Cambodia during the DK and PRK eras are now dated, readers can still learn much from "Cambodia 1975-1982". Early into this book, Vickery very cleverly uses passages from Bun Chan Mol's excellent book "Chareut Khmer" to catch off guard those readers who assume crimes against humanity in Cambodia began in the DK era. That passage alone makes the book worthwhile.

The author gave a birth of her daughter in ' 89, so did I deliver my third kids . This may be only one common thing to share between her , except both are Shubertian.
Jewish and Japanese are often compared, and they are conspicuously differnt in the spiritual distance of each individual from the history of their own people. We , Japanese ,are genious of forgetting and we could change the attitude toward US so dramatically that Ruth Benedict couldn't help studying Japanese war captives. Whereas Jewish people,language wise, music wise , are trying to carry on the tradition, even though great constraint between the host country culture and also between generations of their own people.
And 'an die Music'. Tan Dun, a Chinese composer living in NY,once said,' Western music develops horizontally'. I also admit, music are differnt in East and West, maybe because of Eastern ear VS Western ear. But when lyrics intermediate sounds and internal reality that words evoke , what type of ears you may have, you can enjoy music of differnt culture. So many operas, lied, Italian songs and hymns apperared in this books have told me so.

"A Joyful Noise," Deborah Weisgall's serious and brooding memoir, is far from a fluffy celebration of music and Judaic heritage. Its subtitle, "Claiming the Songs of My Fathers," more accurately captures the sense of conflict and struggle which permeates the life of a talented, tormented and frustrated young woman, who at once soars with the rich musical background of both her father and grandfather but simultaneously is denied participation and validation because of her gender. "A Joyful Noise" elicits both compassion and anger from the reader; one senses that had the author been born some twenty years later she would have had much more direct access to both her own talents and her clearly-articulated love for her heritage. The author does not disguise the central theme of her memoir. After a disappointing experience at a Passover seder, Deborah expresses her yearning to join her father and grandfather as full participants in both music and heritage. "I hummed the songs as quietly as I could, aching to get them right, afraid that my father would hear my wrong notes and correct me. They ran perfectly through my head but not from my mouth. I loved them. I wanted them." Yet, she understands that her ambition does not correspond with the very heritage she so deeply desires. Segregated, minimized and isolated due to sexist traditions and practices, Jewish women have had to sublimate their otherwise honorable ambitions into other avenues of expression. Sensing that possibility, even as a child, Deborah laments: "My desire was as strong as theirs; my voice was not. My breath stalled against my vocal cords, and the back of my throat throbbed from stopped-up songs and angry tears. I wanted to sing. I wanted to be heard." Weisgall's quest for authenticity, for voice, occurs during a period of national affluence and cultural indifference in the 1950s and on the cusp of our nation's profound social revolution of the 1960s. Deborah comes of age in a tension-riddled family; her non-religious mother, Nathalie, is indifferent to housework, and her beloved father, Hugo, consistently produces operas which are artistically gifted but critical failures. The Weisgalls constantly move from their Baltimore roots, whether it be to Maine for summers, or from college town to another, where Hugo can sustain his family's material needs while he tries to fulfill his own battered expectations as an artist. Deborah realizes the discord in her family is real; her mother's physical beauty cannot hide her bitterness just as her father's rapture with musci cannot hide his own frustration with failure and betrayal. Looming like a dense cloud over the family is the Holocaust, whose disruptive horror has created a permanent sense of dread and loss. In a desultory search through her parents' closet, Deborah discovers a shoe-box stuffed with raw and brutal photographs of cocentration camp victims. She understands in a visceral sense the impact of genocide on her father, who directly witnessed the horrific scenes while he served as a translator for the liberating United States Army during World War II. The Weisgalls are derivative survivors, having lost their past, their roots, their culture through the Holocaust. The author is able to trace the genesis of family friction to this loss of place. Nathalie, a lover of beauty, flounders in America; Hugo, linked in memory to his childhood in Czechoslovakia, wrestles with his own struggle to match his father (Abba) without the support of cultural stability and identity. The memoir is not without its faults. Unless one has a solid grasp of opera and classical music, Weisgall's detailed descriptions of her artistic passion tend to overwhelm the reader. Deborah's ultimately successful climb to identity occurs too abruptly, as well. Her ultimate chapters, which recount her experiences as Radcliffe and her emergence as an independent, secure woman, appear rushed and lack the elegant detail so prevalent throughout descriptions of her childhood. Nevertheless, this serious and introspective work deserves the critical praise it has garnered. "A Joyful Noise" deftly interweaves music, religious heritage and family into a tapestry both instructive and inspiring.

I LOVE this book! Before I read this book, a family friend of mine read it and highly highly recommended it. When I started this book, I couldn't put it down, thats the kind of book it can be for certain people. The reason why this book was a huge page-turner for me, was because I felt relate to the author in many different levels. (...)This book isn't just text on a few pages to me, it is guidence for my life.

As the title indicates, this book is a collection of ghost stories and stories about other supernatural phenomenon such as shades and poltergeists. There are 13 chapters (imagine that). By chapter 6 the storyteller's "formula" begins to emerge and the stories become rather predictable. The storyteller (Kuclo) is a (self-proclaimed) witch (see page xi of the preface)of the Scottish coven of Green Witches. She is affectionately known as "Gundella". In addition to her stories, Gundella provides guidelines for the use of the Ouija board and instructions on how to hold a seance. This book was not as much fun as I thought it would be. I cannot recommend it to anyone.

Kuclo in her preface presents some interesting facts about witchcraft in the British Isles during the Middle Ages and her descent from the Green Witches of Scotland. This would make an interesting subject for a book on its own. In Michigan Haunts and Hauntings not only does she present ghost stories but also includes folklore, spirit communication techniques, poltergeists, phantasms of the living (astral projection), place memories (Shades in the Night) and exorcism. The poltergeist chapter is the most detailed I've read in the books I've reviewed for Amazon.com about paranormal phenomenon. I believe however that it's not shades and poltergeist activity that haunt the Bower's Harbor Inn but instead the ghosts of the original owners.

Kuclo provides maps showing where these areas are located so that readers can investigate for themselves. She inspired me. There are two stories that I'm planning on looking into because I want more information than she provided. I enjoyed Haunts!

Being the co-founder of the Michigan Anomalous Information Network, I am often asked by people "where would be a good place to start researching strange happenings in Michigan." This book is where I send them. Marion was a charming person and insightful writer. She explains stories and legends with a quick clarity that most writers lack. This is a must have book for anyone interested in Michigan and it's paranormal history.

I started this book with much anticipation and for the first couple of hundred pages or so it did not disappoint. The discussion of and facts concerning the interaction of Johnson and Nixon with the people around them was extremely interesting, and revealed much about their "hubris" (i.e. how each of them treated their families and associates was very interesting). Then... well the author began an ethics lesson with painfully long discussions at the beginning of each chapter regarding the various levels of hubris without really, in my opinion, applying them clearly to Johnson or Nixon. In second half of the book, he continually referenced to their respective actions regarding Vietnam and Watergate (in Nixon's case), as examples of hubris. Clearly Johnson and Nixon displayed hubris in how each acted during and in response to such events and clearly such events were huge during that time, but how often can you reference to the same events as examples of hubris. In addition, I'd be surprised if the author missed any historical quote regarding hubris, even remotely, from any recognizable historical figure.. there were, it seemed, hundreds of quotes, which slowed me down considerably. Finally, there were some glaring incorrect statments in the book such as, for example, toward the end there is a passage about a possible Nixon impeachment trial in the Senate before Chief Justice Rehnquist!!!!! Warren Burger would have presided.

Again, not bad, but too long and bogged down with repetition, ethical sermonizing and needless and endless quotes.

I've just put down Richard Curtis' book, "Hubris and the Presidency," and it has left me with a great sadness. It leaves one with a sense of shame, almost,that such a glorious conception as democracy has become so subverted, and perverted, as to have become a battle between two almost indistinguishable groups of politicians intent on maintaining their positions of power, and access to the money derived thereby. What makes me the saddest, however, is the realization, through the examples Curtis has chosen, that it might be said that any president (or other politician) will pay the price of overwhelming hubris eventually even if he was not born with traits that encouraged the development of that hubris in the extreme in the presidency.

The quote on page 613 by David Frost, in trying to pin Nixon down on how he justified the illegalities he (Nixon) had resorted to, tells a great deal about my hypothesis: "Nixon's answer will probably resonate throughout history as the epitome of an hubristic president: 'Well, when the president does it, that means it is not illegal.'"

Since I was teethed on the age of FDR, and have lived through many and varying types of presidencies since then, we feel most acutely the risk that any mere man must run if he is to persuade his party he can persuade the electorate to make him president. Although few presidents have reached the horrifying levels of pure criminality permitted by that hubris as LBJ and RMN with Vietnam and Watergate, if the lives and deeds of others before and after them were examined as closely as Curtis does these two, the similarities, I am sure, would be even more striking than appears to us through limited memory alone.

I am also mightily impressed by the sheer volume of research, from details of their lives to the quotes of those who "knew them when." More significantly, I am impressed with Richard Curtis' ability to pull it all together in such a masterly way that one can read through the whole thing and find a sense of continuity, a nice flow, as it were, to the narration in support of his thesis, that one can indeed finish such a lengthy book, and one of such intensity, without flinging one's hands up in despair at the sheer volume of the material. I am really impressed!

Hubris and the Presidency: The Abuse of Power by Johnson and Nixon is an intriguing and well-balanced book about the modern American presidency.

The central thesis of Hubris is that excessive pride and self-confidence (what the Ancient Greeks called "hubris") intoxicates American presidents and eventually is the cause of their eventual downfall and self-destruction.

There are thirteen concepts that comprise hubris in Curtis's schema ranging from delegation and confrontation to paranoia, isolation and "immolation" (being consumed by the flames of political ambition and misdeeds.) Curtis devotes a chapter on each concept to both Johnson and Nixon. What results from this parallel, back-to-back presentation is a careful and examination of the characters and foilables of each man and how thier egos, inflexibility and faulty decisions consumed them.

Secondly, what emerges from the book is an interesting blend of history, psychology and political analysis, written in a lively story-telling style that appeals both to the scholarly, as well as the general reader. There are a lot of interesting facts about the Office of the President that are both revealing and illustrative of how the ever-increasing costs, complexity and power of the Office contribute to hubris. Patterns of presidential behavior, which at the time seemed unreasonable, with hindsight, fit the hubris model.

Finally, one clear conclusion of Hubris is how complicated the modern American presidency has become. It is no longer the stuff of great national myths. Instead, it has become a window for showcasing national character flaws and to pillory any individual who holds the office and dares to damage the American mystique.

Students and history buffs need a good, comprehensive volume on the significant people, events, movements and changes in the United States over the course of its history. This volume, from the leading publisher of reference books in the English language, fails and disappoints with regard to these goals. This Oxford Companion tries to be the United States History of Everything, as a result it misses key aspects of political history and what it does cover is often inadequate and incomplete.

The Companion tries to cover too many aspects of cultural history and its icons. As a result it sacrifices information on many important political and public figures. We get biographies of Michael Jordan and Marilyn Monroe but no separate bios of George Mason, William Borah, Hiram Johnson, Henry Cabot Lodge, Tom Watson, Joseph Cannon, Thomas Dewey, Nelson Rockefeller, Clarence Darrow, Sam Rayburn, Jesse Jackson -- and the list goes on and on. When they are covered it is often in snipets in subject area articles, which does not give a complete overview of their public careers.

What it does cover in cultural and intellectual history is often incomplete. The Companion has separate artices on the history of the blues, jazz and a weak article on rural country and folk music, but absolutely nothing on bluegrass or commercial country music and its pioneers. The index doesn't even mention the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Bill Monroe or Hank Williams. Yet country music far exceeds both the blues and jazz in popularity in terms of its fan base and are certainly deserving popular art forms for inclusion.

The selection of significant figures for separate biographies is often strange and arbitrary. The Companion offers a bio of physicist Eugene Wigner but not of Hans Bethe or Richard Feynman, like Wigner both Nobel Prize winners. Feynman is considered by many to be the most important theoretical physicist of the second half of the 20th century. This arbitrariness in selecting subjects for biographies can be repeated in many different subject areas.

The Companion contains 26 black and white maps, often of poor resolution, and follows the same arbitrary editing in terms of subject matter. You get a map of the properties of U.S. Steel, but no map on how the United States looked at the end of the Revolution or after the Louisiana Purchase, though there is a barely readable map of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. No reference tables and charts are included to tell the reader Presidential election results, who were the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, or who occupied important positions in Congress or the military over the course of American history.

On the positive side there are many good articles here on political and social history. However the reader must use this book carefully and supplement it with other Oxford Companions and reference books. At $... I would examine this book in a library before considering a purchase.

This volume contains entries that deal with concepts, events, persons, and movements in u.s. history. The length of the entries is appropriate to the topic considered. In addition, the entires both inform the reader with up-to-date information and indicate how revisionist historians have resahped opionions or refocused the discipline. The entries are clearly written and eminently readable. They are persuasive in thier opionions, yet respectful of other stances. The cross references are helpful and ample. The same obtains for the bibliographies. The Oxford Companion to U.S. History far surpasses some other contemporary dictionaries in U.S. history. Its articles are treated in more depth and greater nuances. The entries in the other dictionaries are too short and far too superficial. I would highly recommend this for people involved in serious historical study and research. The price, especially the discounted one offered by amazon.com, is well worth the investment for scholars,libraries, and families.

This book is a must have for anyone with an interest in American History. It gives a clear, concise explanation on most important aspects of the United States history and the history of the lands that would eventually become the United States. The most unique aspect of this book is that, unlike a school textbook, it explains a topics role throughout the history of the United States in on section. In other words, if you looked up Civil Rights, you would find a history of Civil Rights in America from the colonial period to present. All the background information you would need would be in one place, not scattered throughout the book. This is beneficial for teachers who need to quickly find some basic information to answer a student's question, or for a student who needs to quickly brush up on a topic. This is a work that I will definetly use for years to come.

This book is not meant as a precise historical account of the journeys of Lewis & Clark, but a study of the Missouri River and its surrounding areas as the explorers saw them, vs. how these areas have changed since then. Also, the portion of the Lewis & Clark journey west of the Rockies is not included, as the book sticks to the Missouri River. The most blatant changes in these ecosystems are the straightening and channelization of the river itself, which has led to massive environmental (and economic) damage for a pathetically small amount of barge traffic; plus the conversion of vast prairies to farmland which has led to serious losses of native flora and fauna. The book becomes a messy mixture of travelogue, as Botkin describes how to reach key areas of the river, and musings on the environmental health of these areas. While Botkin has had well-deserved success in environmentalist circles, his attempts to draw up naturalist ethics and morality significantly weaken this book. A lack of focus and the squishy writing of a college freshman are also damaging. Botkin is prone to god-awful metaphors, starting the main narrative awkwardly with "Rocks are nature's books; minerals are its words" and populating the rest of the book with more groaners like "Rocks Tell Stories and Soils are Nature's Braille" (subtitle of chapter 25). His attempts to wax philosophical on mankind's modern lack of connection with nature, while correct in spirit, are also unsuccessful in the writing department. See the awkward comparison of a pelican's spiraling flight path to society's shifting concerns for the environment in chapter 6, or the predictable comparison of prairie dog towns with an ideal human society in chapter 32. This book had the potential to be a real winner as both a travelogue with a historical twist and as a treatise on environmental philosophy. Unfortunately it merely flirts with those two strengths without really nailing them, and is sunk overall by weak writing.

This is a fantastic book for anyone visiting the Missouri river.

Book has handy maps, illustrations and reference points for the person making a modern day trip. Notes by Stephen Ambrose and Robert Redford at beginning and end of book commend book as well!

If you are only mildly interested in Lewis and Clark before reading this book - afterwards you'll be completely astounded by their feats!!

Nothing is as constant as change on the unfettered Missouri River. Few stretches of the Missouri remain as Lewis & Clark observed them. The river, as Botkin observes, is "nature's landscape painter". The canvas is continually changing in response to the forces of a river draining one-sixth of the U.S.

Botkin presents us with the story of the first navigation of the river by Lewis and Clarke, through the river's channalization by the Army Corp of Engineers, to present efforts to restore and interpret the river.

But, this book is more than an inventory of facts and issues. It contains vivid illustrations of nature's interrelationships and wry observations on the irony of man "improving" nature.

This is a very practical, pragmatic, yet poetic book.

Unfortunately, I read this book after reading "Chicago Haunts" and "More Chicago Haunts", the fabulous books by Ursula Bielski.
This book is not even in the same league.
The photographs look grainy and xeroxed, the type is obnoxious, and the layout is juvenile.
And that's just the beginning.
Kaczmarek, who is a fine ghosthunter, I'm sure, is NOT an author. From his incomplete sentences ("Obviously victims of an unfortunate accident.") to his anti-climactic stories, this book is not nearly as fun as Ms. Bielski's, and the tales are not nearly as artfully woven.
For a delightful and educational book on Chicago hauntings, skip this one and instead buy Ursula Bielski's fine works.
Kaczmarek sacrificed quality for quantity, and it's obvious.
One wonders how most of the stories even appear in a book on hauntings.
For example, Chodl Auditorium is given a half a page, and the gist of the story is that a drama teacher died and "supposedly haunts" this auditorium, although it "may be an urban legend" started by the schoolkids. Not one example is given of ghostly activity in the auditorium.
This is the worst kind of filler that many books on hauntings have. Speculation and hearsay are passed off as legitimate haunting activity, causing skeptics and non-skeptics alike to roll their collective eyes at being given so little credit by an author.
If this were the only example of this writing, I could easily overlook it. However, more than half the book seems to be this sort of thing.
Save your money.

This is the follow up to his first book. There are more locations and stories, all new and exciting. I really liked reading this book, there so much information. It's written for anyone who holds an interest in the paranormal. Your told stories from all over the Chicagoland area, from Real Life haunted houses to the little-known stories. There are places that people have only talked about, and finally a book that sets the story straight. So many dark-tales, first hand accounts, and ghostly encounters. If you liked his first book, you better get this sequel.

This book is a great follow up to his first book.You will find different locations that were not mentioned in the his first book. There is tons of useful information from Capone's Hideaway & Speakeasy to the "Gate." The book is filled with little known stories, many I think are appearing for the first time. He also has a collection of Real-life haunted houses that he has investigated that are in this book. This is the President of the team of researchers that was featured on Discovery Channel's "REAL GHOSTHUNTERS." With over 25 years experience, these books were long overdue. EXCELLENT!

I am sure Mr. Cosgrove was a very brave and dedicated Chicago Firefighter, but he is not a writer. This book is terribly written and apparently not edited, so many mistakes in spelling, grammar, sentence tense and structure. It was a real chore reading this book. He has had a valiant attempt to relate the many stories of the brave firefighters with whom he worked but due to his inability to get the story across I am very disappointed. I know there are many stories to be told about these firefighters and only hope someone with some writing skill will some day tell those stories.

The author takes you from the fire which burns within before he gets on the fire department to retiring from the fire department. He lays it on the line. Provides a solid picture of what it's like to be a rookie. Shows some of the heavy handed fire service politics which are present at varying degrees. Most of the author's experience is prior to the current requirements of SCBAs and emphasis on safety. Spent too much time talking about the strike and the union activities but understand how this was a large part of his life. The book is frank about fire, children, LODD, injury, and leadership.

Right from the start of this book you are draws into the fire service. It give a real look at a day in the life of a fireman. I been a fireman for many years now and I could relate to every thing in this book, from the stresses the job puts on your family life to fighting that fire that you think will never go out. This book show how you become a huge family when you work in the fire service, how you come to depend on that person next to you and you grow to care for one another as a family member, for they are your brother or sister in the fire service. A great read for anyone thinking about becoming a fireman or already is a fireman.

Topic: Single volume overview of W.W.I.

Main thesis: Mistakes. Hart's thesis puts me in mind of the wag's observations on chess: whomever makes the second to the last mistake wins the game.

Style: Hart writes with sardonic wit. Initially, I found it fun to read, but by book's end, p.476, it became a bit of a drag.

Bias: I believe Hart's book is fairly even-handed towards both the Allies and the Central Powers, although Hart frequently waxes in romanticisms, such as, moral and gallant.

But at times, Hart will suddenly and, in my opinion, wrongfully, blame the British citizenry. He seems more critical of the English populace than the enemy forces who killed, wounded and maimed millions of their sons, fathers and brothers.

For example: [on the heavy British losses at Ypres 1917] "And for this lack of moral strength the public must share the blame, for they had already shown themselves too easily swayed by clamor against political interference with the generals, and too prone to believe that the politician is invariably wrong on such occasions. The civilian public,indeed, is apt to trust soldiers too little in peace, and sometimes too much in war." [p 367]

Another example: [on four years of trench warfare] "Thus the ultimate responsibility falls on the British people. Even the military conservatism which obstructed improvements and reorganization during the war may be charged to lack of public concern with the training and selection of officers in peace. In the light of 1914-18 the whole people bear the stigma of infanticide." [p 129] WOW!

These bits of sophistry hold no water. The generals and their staffs are, supposedly, the experts at war, not the public. In a democracy, the politicians and the generals bear the burden of the public trust. In peacetime, the public relies on the politicians and weapons manufacturers, and in war, the generals. Yet, in both examples, the public is responsible what's best for the British military, not their professional military overseers. It seems that Captain Hart preferred to blame the people instead of his own comrades-in-arms. This is a case of the proverbial tail wagging the dog.

Recommendation: Hart's Real War is a good place to start only for a basic overview of the First World War. But the book is seventy years old and Hart's lambasting the British people is questionable at best.

B. Liddell Hart is one of the history (not only military) thinkers whose fertile works will be fully appreciated only when time has passed on. As usually, human being reckon others merits too much time later. The whole Liddell Hart work it's an example. Had military staffs read him carefully before WWII, perhaps the output would has been otherwise, or at least different. So may be said about the further wars. "The Real War 1914-1918" is a veritable good analysis of the entanglement that led to war. But not only on military factors, as often happens. He included political, economical and even psycological considerations. Instead of a narrative reconstruction, his abarcative and reflexive study is a pretty good proof about what a writer can do if he possess knowledge, patience, and vocation to teach. As reader can verify by himself with "Real War" on his hands ("Strategy", "Germans Generals Talk" or the others Liddell Hart's books as well), with a such kind of master, every book becomes sadly too much short. Thus, among the books I have had opportunity to read about WWI, I deem "The Real War 1914-1918" simply the best one. You won't be disappointed by your choice.

I picked this book up somewhat on a whim. I was looking for a book that would give me good overview of WWI, filling in the details left out in the brief mentions found in our high school history books. And this after reading an abridged version of Winston Churchill's "The Great War". Captain Hart's account is not for someone looking for an "easy read". I don't know of any substaintial account of this war that could be written as an "easy read". Of course Captian Hart is writing with 20-20 hindsight, so he is able to see and give account of the miscalculations and errors. Would we have done any better then Foch and the other allied Generals under the times and circumstances? I have my doubts, but we are in the "now" and can learn from the tragic mistakes of the past. If ever war was "hell", it was so in the trenches of France. Somewhere in France near the Argonne Forest rests the mortal remains of Pvt. George Britton, my great-uncle, killed exactly 4 weeks before the Armistice. In Hart's account, I at least find some facts to help me understand what happened there, and come to grips somewhat with why my Uncle died at a young age, far from home and family. RIP