Ride around with Thubron in the last years of the crumbling Soviet Union. He takes you into the apartment buildings to find some of the most interesting -- and heartening -- testaments to human color ever encountered in travel writing.

There are some truly jaw-dropping observations made by our driver as he stumbles upon people who are dealing with oppression in ways that "westerners" have never had to imagine.
Through the vodka, through the endlessly repeating housing blocs, Thubron takes us to a deeper, more personal understanding of life under the Soviets. On the way, he introduces us to individuals (yes, strong individuals) that are not easy to forget.

Written by someone who somehow managed to drive a clunker with UK plates through the Iron Curtain between West and East Germany and all the way to Moscow. Thubron then motors all the way to present day Azerbaijan and St.Petersburg. It is a snapshot not of present day Russia but of 1980 Soviet Union.

The faint glimmers of hope that these people held on to and their continual amazement at the fact the author would explain the West was afraid of them are an excellent historical reference. Told that we are the threat to the Soviet Union a lot of the people were both in awe and afraid of the author.

The amazing fact that he camped his way around a closed country is a great read of how they perceived us as much as a straight travelogue.

Well recommended

This is a story of the Congo, before WWI. It takes place at a remote British trading station in decline. The protagonist, while not naïve, is inexperienced. Most of the British, especially the protagonist, are decent people, while the Congo itself is the home of depravity. The main character, while intellectually very astute, is also inexperienced, and has a fatal interest in, even attraction, to aspects of this depravity. Had Graham Greene written this book, the story would have delved deeply into the psychology of this character, but Edric is not up to such a task as a writer. What we have is a competently written story. While there are some sensational events, most of the story proceeds at a leisurely pace, while still being interesting. Edric is good with dialogue and in capturing the atmosphere. I wonder if the main event isn't too sensational, and not realistic, or at least not representative of the Congo, but for the most part Edric writes in an understated way, without loss of effect.

It is 1897, and a motley group of British functionaries is running a concessionary station, only marginally successful, in Ukassa Falls in the Congo Free State, trading and exploring, mapping new areas of the country for further exploration, and using natives to strip minerals from quarries. Individually, however, their primary mission is protecting themselves and their jobs, while keeping an eye on a more lucrative Belgian enterprise across the river and on the slave-trader Hammad, who fancies himself the potential emperor of a future, native-run country. When gunfire signals the arrival of an unexpected visitor, Capt. James Frasier hopes it means the return to British jurisdiction of his friend, Nicholas Frere, who, missing for 51 days in the wilderness, is now in Belgian custody, awaiting trial for killing a native child.

At an agonizingly slow pace, Edric builds the tension and an ominous sense of mystery. Though he readily admits his guilt, Frere refuses to defend himself, simply accepting whatever fate has in store. He is almost certain to be turned over to local authorities in Brazzaville for trial and hanging, eventually, but he will not tell anyone, even Frasier, the circumstances of the child's death.

Edric's characters come to life through their conversations, conflicts, and actions, rather than through passive descriptions or long biographies. The reader, too, must be active, accumulating important details on his own by observing the action, some of it intense, and participating in it, however reluctantly. Several grim and explicit scenes of atrocity attest to Edric's abhorrence of the mistreatment of indigenous people (the subject also of his novel Elysium, set in Tasmania) and of the destruction of birds and wildlife. His opposition to colonial arrogance, religious fanaticism, mindless bureaucracy, and lock-step adherence to rules and regulations underlies all the action here.

Describing the wilderness as "more permanent and invincible than anything else I can imagine, something as potent and as indestructible as evil or truth itself," Edric transmutes it into a living force which dramatically affects all its inhabitants. The river, with its traffic, both unites and divides, and when, at flood tide, it scours its banks and destroys pilings and jetties, one cannot help but see parallels with the interrogations of the steadfast Frere. Images of light and dark and echoes of Heart of Darkness are constant, and when "the horror" is finally revealed at the end, it out-horrors anything Conrad ever dreamed of. With a conclusion full of literary pyrotechnics, this is a chilling recreation of the worst nightmares of colonialism and of man's inhumanity to man. Mary Whipple

"Congo-Paris" is a fine example of the recent trend in anthropology away from the localized study of communities and towards analysis that transcends geographic boundaries. Not that this study is "multi-sited" (to use the dominant buzzword): MacGaffey and Bazenguissa conducted their fieldwork for the book entirely in Paris, interviewing dozens of subjects from both Congo-Brazzaville and Congo-Kinshasa. But Paris is just one venue in these transnational subjects' life histories as they range back and forth across national, legal, commercial, and cultural frontiers.

While the authors set out to validate the Congolese quest for relief from political and economic hardship at home, the image they present of this loosely-defined community of traders will do nothing for its image abroad. These individuals define themselves through the act of quietly circumventing the rules (particularly import duties and immigration laws), resisting governmental authority without manifesting any visible signs of dissent. This is understandable, given the corrupt and authoritarian Congolese regimes of recent decades. But the transnational traders' ethos of stealthy noncompliance extends to their overseas existence as well, with the result in these Parisian cases being a gamut of criminal activity from smuggling and apartment squatting to drug dealing and theft. "Model immigrants" they are not, regardless of whether their behavior represents a survival strategy. One wonders just how representative this underworld is of the larger community of Congolese living in Paris, and whether those Congolese living more lawful existences there object to being tarred with this brush of illegality.

Such moral qualms aside, I give "Congo-Paris" high marks for its thorough and penetrating analysis of its subjects, a very difficult group to interview given its members' legal status and clandestine activities. No doubt its success owes much to the collaboration between MacGaffey (British) and Bazenguissa (Congolese). The book also skillfully negotiates the difficult and shifting theoretical territory of anthropology to bring outside perspectives to bear on its subjects. Finally, it makes a strong case for redefining anthropology in the context of ongoing processes of globalization. I suspect that we will be seeing a good many more studies like this one in the future.

Congo-Paris: Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law is about globalization as practiced by Congolese traders who operate a thriving second economy linking Central Africa and Europe. She investigates the transnational trade between Central Africa and Europe by focusing on the lives of individual traders from Kinshasa and Brazzaville, who operate across national frontiers and often outside the law. Challenging the boundaries of anthropology, Janet MacGaffey follows complex international networks to examine the ways in which the African second economy has been extended transnationally and globally on the margins of the law. Who are these traders? What strategies do they have, not only to survive but also to shine? What kinds of networks do they rely on? What implications does their trade have for the study of globalization? The personal networks of ethnicity, kinship, religion, and friendship constructed by the traders fashion a world of their own. From Johannesburg to Cairo and from Dakar to Nairobi as well as in Paris, the Congolese traders are renowned and envied. This lively book shows that it is not just the multinationals that benefit from jets and mobile phones.

This portrait of a young, single US foreign service officer serving in pre civil-war Lebanon, the Congo, and then just pre-civil war Sudan is dead on in capturing a certain type. Tyler served in the foreign service himself (a milieu I grew up in), and his description of the diplomatic life is perhaps the best I've read. Most of the book is spent in the Congo, and Tyler does an excellent job showing how Hugh Mathews is totally affected by his travels through the back country. He is outsider to the stuffy suited men who mostly stay in within the safe confines of embassy life. His life is given meaning through a frenetic affair with the wife of the embassy's consul. When she leaves, he drifts through a few empty years in Sudan and Washington, going through the motions. He gains a second chance at the end, with plausibly subdued results. It all rings very very true and is presented in well-crafted prose.

Tyler obviously spent time as a Foreign Service Officer. Having spent several years in Africa in the FS as well, this book brought back many memories and yearnings to return. Once Africa gets under your skin, there is an indescibable yearning to return. I was particularly captured in the first two pages of the book with his description of the storm and the magic. I could almost hear the Wood Dove in the background and the crack of lightening against the granite kopjes. From an old AF hand, an excellent read, written by someone who really experienced it and understood.

Eastern Europe, once off limits to the West, has become a tourist mecca in the last decade. It has also become the focus of many travel guides, from the factual/impersonal Blue Guides and Michelin series, to the commercial/commonplace Fodor's/Frommers guides, to the Lonely Planet/Rough Guide user-friendly types. The Czech & Slovak Republics Guide by Ted Brewer falls in the latter category. Mr. Brewer is not afraid to state personal favorites in all categories-a method of guide-writing which I, personally, have found to be extremely useful in my travels. This guide, as all Czech/Slovak guides are, is very Prague-heavy. However, Mr. Brewer did devote over 100 informative pages to Slovakia-considerably more than many other guides of this area.The "Practical Information" sections for each town/city addressed are also extensive. And the "Finds & Favorites" box at the beginning of each new chapter bring focus to many items which the casual traveler might miss otherwise. This guide is definitely money well spent.

After being escorted through the wilds and wilderness of Utah by Ted Brewer's guide a few years back, I made a note to look for him again on my next trip. When some friends and I went to Prague in December of last year I was pleasantly surprised to find his guide to the Czech/Slovak Republics. This guide distinguishes itself from most other guides by not containing much in the way of pictures. I was a little concerned at first, but discovered that this was actually much better, in that I didn't have any preconceived notions about what the castles and countryside was supposed to look like.

Brewer brought a unique wit and insight into his Utah book, and its present here in this guide. Many books just present information, but Brewer gives out advice and personal recommendations which I generally found excellent. Prague can be a little overwhelming and his guideposts and instructions were a welcome lifeline.

All my other friends brought different copies of various travel books, and I thought this one was clearly the best.

This is probably the definitive book on the reign of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam. Every serious student of the American involvement in Vietnam should find this background on how we got into that mess in the first place well worth reading. It describes Diem's background, character and personality and explains why not only Diem himself but also the vast cultural differences between the Americans and the Vietnamese made for an extremely difficult relationship.

It also has current value as the United States searches for leaders we can work with in parts of the world that are as new to intense American involvement as Vietnam was in the 1950s and 60s. A better understanding of what we did wrong in Vietnam may help us to avoid repeating those same mistakes. My personal opinion, reinforced by this book, is that if we have only a lame horse to bet on then we would be better off not betting in that particular race.

Catton's many examples show how out of touch the Ngo family was with the majority of the Vietnamese people. Diem was an arrogant, opinionated bachelor, a Catholic in a nation that was 93 percent Buddhist. One of his brothers was a Catholic bishop and Catton describes "the sectarian character of the Diem regime." Another brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, served as "Political Counselor"--and enforcer. Catton describes him as the regime's "Rastputin." Nhu's wife was probably the worst female government spokesman since Marie Antoinette. Madame Nhu referred to the suicides of burning bonzes as "barbecues." When I first arrived in Vietnam in 1966 she was still infamous as "The Dragon Lady."

The author expanded what was originally a graduate student paper about the Strategic Hamlet program in 1961-1963 into a doctoral dissertation that was more focused on Diem, his government, and their developing relationship with the Americans. With that background, we should expect excellent documentation and indeed the 203 pages of text are backed up by 59 pages of notes.

However, it is still possible for a nitpicker to find a few gaps. For example, his bibliography includes the U.S. Army's Military History Institute but not its Center of Military History. "The Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group" is mentioned three times but we are not told what it was. My local guide in Plieku in 1999 spoke excellent English because he had spent a year at Michigan State University. (The downside was that it earned him a year in jail after the communist takeover.) What was the Michigan connection? Faced with being dumped by his American allies "Diem won a dramatic reprieve with a military victory over the Binh Xuyen (a mafia type crime organization) at the end of April 1955." How could he win "a military victory" over a bunch of civilian gangsters?

Catton apparently speaks and reads Vietnamese, which undoubtedly provides advantages in research and opens doors for him that are not available to most American authors of books about Vietnam. Even though the English language literature on Vietnam is vast, some of the information he provides from the many referenced books and articles in Vietnamese may well be published here for the first time

Diem continually carped and complained about the type and amount of U.S. aid but resisted doing the things the Americans wanted in return. In Stilwell and the American Experience in China, Barbara Tuchman relates Stilwell's complaints about our government's failure to demand a quid pro quo from our Chinese allies in return for the aid we provided them. We had the same problem in Vietnam. The more we did for them the less the Vietnamese did for themselves. I read Stilwell in the spring of 1972 during my second tour as an advisor to a Vietnamese Army unit in the field. Our failure to demand, and Vietnamese failure to provide, a quid pro quo was still a problem nine years after Philip Catton described this exchange between Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge and Diem in 1963:

"'Isn't there some one thing you may think of that is within your capabilities to do and that would favorably impress U.S. opinion[?]" Lodge asked finally. Diem gave the ambassador 'a blank look and changed the subject.'"

This is the first book that I have read about this period that really puts the Vietnamese side of this drama in center stage. I happened to serve in Vietnam during a couple of years while Diem's was President and had the advantage of speaking fairly fluent Vietnamese and have always thought that the 'Last Mandarin' image of Diem was quite off base. Catton actually manages to explain 'Personalism' , something that Diem himself had trouble doing to the people of Vietnam. The book does not attempt to whitewash any of Diem's many faults but does show Diem to actually be a modern nationalist who was determined to follow his own own agenda for nation building . It was this determination to follow his own agenda that was the major source of friction with his American backers. This book is a must read for any serious student of the war as it was the overthrow of Diem that really brought about the Americanization of the war.

Excellent recounting of the failed attempts to bring democracy to Germany for the first time and makes clear that both the left (mainly Communists and far left Socialists) and the right (mainly National Socialists and similar fascist groups) were determined to ensure that democracy was not successful there. They needed the Republic to fail for them to be successful and eventually they together along with the hated Treaty of Versailles brought down the Weimar Republic with horrible consequences for everyone. The dispatches are wonderful because of the contemporaneous nature of the reporting but in my opinion are quite flawed due to the author's incredible faith in the soviets or workers councils as well as other far left entities, and his hostility towards anything that did not further the leftist socialist agenda. Reading the book after the intervening decades makes that faith almost laughable if it wasn't so tragic. Incidentally I visited Weimar two years ago and it is a shame that such a beautiful cultured city should be linked with such a sad chapter of German history. Better to remember the Weimar of Goethe, Schiller, and Liszt than that of Luxemburg, Stinnes, and Hindenburg.

Every body who want to understand Germany before the Hitler - period should read this book. When finished reading you can say: Hitler is a product of 'Germany' and not an individual politician.

This cd-rom opened up another side of the Dominican Republic for me. I first visited the island by way of a "package deal" through a local travel agent. Little did I know how much I was missing by staying in the "all inclusive resorts" at Playa Dorada. I have since ventured twice more to the Dominican Republic, only this time I look for a hotel only package in Caberet or Santo Domingo. This cd offers a pictorial insight into the vast array of beautiful sights this island has to offer.

Well, it's just impressive ! Looking for complete information on the Dominican Republic, I found the DOMROM CD-ROM ... the price was quite low so I decided to "give it a try" and it was just impressive. I found all hotels I was looking for, with great pictures or Video! and even more - there are lots of videos on excursions, sights and cities, I did not know that the Dominican Republic has so much to offer.

Sure, I had to buy one of these small US$ 10.- Pocket Travel Guides for my trip - as my PC had off these vacation ;)

enjoy

This book is full of line drawings, photos and other images to supplement information on the A-10, a popular ground support and attack aircraft.

This is an excellent book that I reccomend to everyone who likes Warthogs. The book shows development of the A-10, and the A-9 competition. Great pics and text to go along with it.

Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest is a spectacular book that follows a team of twenty scientists, artists, photographers, and filmmakers, into the heart of Africa in their search to find the essence of the rain forest. Guided by the BaAka people, a local tribe, the team spends two months filming and recording the beauty of Africa. They trudge through elephant dung, swarms of "sweat" bees, and thigh-deep flood plains, or bai as it is called in the national language of Sango, to collect items for a unique walk-through rain forest exhibit in New York City. In summary, this book takes readers on a vicarious trip through the rain forest so they can experience its beauty, meet its inhabitants, and learn practical survival skills such as gathering honey, eating termites, and playing basketball BaAka style. Regardless of age, you will find fun and adventure between the covers of Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest!

You may not have recently toured the rain forests of Central Africa, but you can enjoy the lush photographs and readable text about this facinating corner of the world, the Dzangu-Sangha Rain Forest. I am a lover of African lore and found this book to use in my class. My students and I have eaten it up. We marveled at the marvelous pictures and were fascinated by the facts and information we found in the text. We all loved the information about driver ants that can be used to close up wounds that formerly required stitiches. The BaAka people and their customs are carefully documented with care and with dignity. Three sections of ninth graders who have been studying Afrian literature and folklore adored this book. To boot, my own kids, ages 5-13, have poured over the book during family reading hour. I recommended our high school library acquire a copy for student use. It is incredibly readable and suitable for a large audience. It is not to be missed.