"The Triumph of Ethnic Progressivism" is an excellent reappraisal of urban politics in the early part of the 20th century. Connolly provides an exhaustive analysis of voting patterns - sometimes on a block by block basis - throughout the city of Boston. Connolly's approach (as well as research) dramatically moves forward our knowledge of precinct behavior, as well as ethnic association with particular issues. What's best about Connolly's book is that he relies less on inference and assumption that many authors who tackle this material do. Connolly's argument is predicated upon empirical evidence, and that alone is a refreshing break from much modern political history. For a better understanding of the period before Connolly's book picks up, one should read both Stephan Thernstrom's "The Other Bostonians" and Oscar Handlin's "Boston's Immigrants." Gerard Gamm's "The Making of New Deal Democrats: Voter Realignment in Boston, 1920-1940" is an fine continuation after the period with which Connolly is concerned.

In "A True Republican," Triber successfully transforms the larger than life Revere of legend into a living and breathing American. This book is both readable and detailed, utilizing an ocean of facts to flesh out Revere's life while proving a central thesis.

According to Triber, Revere epitomizes the development of republicanism in postcolonial America. What does this mean, you ask? Revere believed in the "American Dream," and tried to create a country in which individuals could achieve economic and social prosperity, and even political office, as long as they possessed the qualities of virtue, merit, and ambition. If this sounds trite to you, please realize that it was a novel concept in Colonial America, a land of hierarchy and inflexible social classes.

Revere's life as a silversmith, patriot, and would-be merchant illustrate his devotion to republicanism. The son of an immigrant, he had to depend upon his own skill and drive in order to succeed, but he possessed these traits in abundance. His life took many twists and turns, and he failed to achieve many of his goals, but at the end of his life he was a successful businessman and patriarch of a huge and fairly prominent family.

One quibble: I wish the book had focused a bit more on the last 20 or so years of his life. Many of Revere's later technological achievements are covered in less than thorough detail, unlike the earlier chapters. No book can cover every angle of a subject, of course, but I personally disagree with this aspect of Triber's emphasis.

Whether you want a great biography, a study of early American social mobility, or just a great read, please give "A True Republican" a try!

A beautifully written, often poignant description of life at "the 'Tute." Hapgood is very effective at creating the atmosphere of life at MIT: it is, above all, intense. But it is also quirky, has people who are very bright doing things that are sometimes incomprehensible, and who are headstrong. Fortunately, he explains why this must be so, and he does it well.

Parts are comical, parts bring a lump to my throat every time I read them. All of it's good. A friend said that he thought it a bit "gushy" about the place, but I, of course, disagree.

I can't believe it's out of print.

The View From Shanty Pond is a unique blending the historical writings of Joseph Blanchette with those of Peter Cassidy, the author's late great-grandfather to present the reader with a true and compelling account of the Irish immigrant experience in America at the turn of the 20th Century. Blanchette combines his own prose with the period poems and songs of his great-grandfather and in doing so deftly weaves a rich fabric of folk, local and national history that is as entertaining as it is informative. Lively, charming, original, painstakingly researched, incorporating a wealth of information from Peter Cassidy's scrapbooks of poetry, songs, newspaper articles, photos, and memorabilia, The View From Shanty Pond is a compelling window-in-time through which we can come to understand and appreciate the Irish immigrant experience in the burgeoning and industrial America of yesteryear. Highly recommended.

Most books and reports on Civil War events come from white writers and voice white viewpoints. This one speaks with a black voice, as George E. Stephens wrote as correspondent for the (New York) "Weekly Anglo-African," from the events of John Brown's rebellion (Nov. 1859) through September, 1864. Along the way he shifted from member of the press to acting patriot-soldier, recruiting and then enlisting in the Massachusetts 54th, that leader among black regiments depicted in the movie "Glory." Donald Yacovone provides not only notes for the letters but also information on Stephens' family background. After the 54th disbanded Yacovone follows Stephens' ongoing struggles to educate freed slaves in Virginia; the story of many black patriots' efforts to move their people upward by finally granting them some education is not widely told or appreciated. These chapters fill a need today. So the life taken as a whole is both glorious and tragic: it's distressing to follow Stephens' hopes, from fresh optimism through disillusionment to despair, time and time again from the events of Fort Wagner to the last anguished efforts of his life. At its end he had to sue the government he'd served all his life to obtain the commission denied to him because of his race (though illegally), and provide for his wife with a higher pension. He never lived to receive it, dying in 1888 before the promotion came through. In this Stephens is typical of black men of his time, and it's deeply saddening.This is not a happy, but it is a useful, book, and a corrective for many cheap heroics about how well we treated our black veterans. We need to ponder its message today.

Do you remember the Friends (TV Show) episode, when Joey put the book in the freezer because it upset him. Well I kept telling myself I was going to do the same thing. This book is so twisted that in the middle of reading the book (at work mind you) I screamed out. Just when you think it's going one way...it goes another. I would just like to ask the author what he was thinking. Don't take this as a bad review the book is great. I like a book that's unpredictable. He does a great job of revealing the characters to you. You get involved in their lives and feel what they're feeling. I definitely recommend this book.

I think it's a lovely book, but the charactar Mickey, too me, was simply horrid. I liked Paul and Maggie and Gabe, but Mickey annoyed me, and I have met people like Mickey who annoyed me. Still, one of my favourite books. Please read.

"Oct. 22nd, 1837. 'What are you doing now?' he asked, 'Do you keep a journal?'-- So I make my first entry today." Thus begins Thoreau's Journal, made up of more then two million words and covering about twenty-five years of his life. No other work of Thoreau's better exhibits his discipline as a writer and his devotion to the natural world. In the Journal can be found the fragmented foundations of masterpieces such as Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, and Cape Cod. But what is perhaps more interesting to a reader of Thoreau's Journal are his thoughts and insights on topics such as friendship, love, religion, nature, bravery, heroism, war, slavery, the art of writing, and, most important to Thoreau, the art of living. Anyone with any interest in Thoreau will find his Journal to be an invaluable aid in understanding and following the life of one of America's most profound prose writers

An amazing account of the ruthless acts of lawyers and how abusrd many of the new environmental laws are. A real eye opener.

This book really deserves to be read by anyone who wants to understand:(1)how to run a stock scam, (2)understand how history is abused, (3)what it takes to investigate a web of lies so thick that it caught JFK Jr., Jackie O, Cronkite, Disney, and a good chunk of EF Hutton (I certanly won't be listening to them anytime soon!) So often, books on "underwater archaeology" are really about "treasure hunts", and there is a difference. Kiesling starts out thinking he will be writing of modern adventure and ancient riches. What he finds is a nearly pathological liar and a trail of ex-friends and foolish investors. The mystery is so truly strange it can only be real. For your follow up, read the article "The World's Worst Investment: The Economics of Treasure Hunting with Real-Life Comparisons" by Peter Throckmorton in the book "Maritime Archaeology."