My 6th Great Grandmother is Mary Draper Ingles. A woman of strong will and integrity. We are blessed to have her in our lineage.

This is a very good book. I was interested in the first hand manuscript of this story. I had first read the story 'Follow the River' by James Alexander Thom. This woman's resolve, toughness and love for her family won my heart in this riveting story. I couldn't put it down.

My name is Jane Grills Sarnovsky. My ancestor is elenor Grills who was Mary Draper Ingles daughter in law married to Tom. I am trying to find out if Roberta has any information on Elenor Grills

If you are a firm believer in the "free market" and know it to be the best of all possible economic organizations, both now and for ever more, then this is the perfect book to confirm your prejudices. This type of reader accounts for the five-star reviews this book has enjoyed (including glowing reviews in an academic journal or two).

If you are less convinced that you are living in the best of all possible worlds, in which efficiency and welfare are maximized, and instead are looking for alternatives, then this book is like taking a cold shower: it'll make you think about the problems involved in constructing alternatives.

Essentially, the book argues that it is undersirable to plan economic organization because planning is inherently inefficient compared to the operation of "free markets". From a scientific perspective the main problem with this book is methodology.

The author attempts to reason about complex systems, such as market organizations, planned economies, information flow from consumers to producers, coordination problems in systems with huge numbers of degrees of freedom, and so on, with very poor tools: essentially analytical philosophy and qualitative arguments. The sophisticated reader will be surprised to find very little mathematics or analysis of computational models. This is an acute lack because the calculation debate is essentially a debate about the theoretical and practical feasibility of classes of algorithms for allocating resources. The author doesn't have the intellectual tools to get to grips with the issues. For example, the actual planning algorithms that are critiqued are not specified in sufficient detail to implement. The author derives definitive conclusions from the analysis of partially and vaguely specified objects.

So for sceptics of the free market: read this critically, but take with a huge pinch of salt: remember the author is an ex-Marxist and revealed between the cracks of the often rambling prose is the desire to justify a wholesale rejection of past commitments. This motivation does not make for good science.

Critiques of Marxism are too often biased and useless misunderstandings of the substance and history of its philosophy and theories, but this book points to a partial exception that is more than ideological cliches, the socialist calculation debate, and contains a thorough history of this theoretical wrangle and its arcana, exposing the core weakness of the so-called Communist economies in action. Since consevatives make a fetish of this argument, I will recommend it instead to ostrich students on the left since few seem to be even aware of domain of discourse, or else they are not telling. G. Hogdson's Economics and Utopia also contains a corrective discussion of this issue, with a summary of "Towards a New Socialism", with its provocative and amusing attempt to resolve the intractable pricing nexus with computers! This after all is partly a technical, not a philosophic, issue, in the long run. Pricing twelve million commodities was a nightmare for Stalinist bureaucracies, but a few seconds computer time these days doing an input-output matrix! Hayek the dragonslayer may find himself trumped by Moore's Law, one day. That will be the day. Ha!
Important and useful book.

Only a man like Steele, who was once a well-versed Marxist, and then came to appreciate the passionate and compelling anti-socialism of "the Marx of capitalism," the great Ludwig von Mises, could have produced such an insightful book.

The trouble with most Marxists and Misesians is that they usually misconstrue the other side. Steele doesn't. He's one of the few writers who really understands where both sides are coming from.

The result is a fascinating and pentrating analysis of the single most important debate of the last 200 years----one which actually came close to destroying Western civilization as we know it.

Steele cuts through layers of irrelevancies to arrive at the crux of the controversy, and no one who reads this book will go away without a much deeper understanding of politics, economics, and intellectual history. (Example: A powerful analysis of the very idea of "property," whether public or private.) There is no thinking person that the insights of this book will not affect.

The book is good for anyone who wants a quick understanding of certain possibilities of why the North won. However, some of the essays(this is no reflection of the actual book) are not that well justified in my opinion.

It seems that much more attention is paid to debating the causes of the Civil War, but as this slim volume of essays reveals there are any number of varying and subtle arguments for explaining the outcome of the Civil War.

It is probably the common view that the North winning the Civil War was inevitable, that the overwhelming preponderance of the North in terms of supplies, industrial infrastructure, and manpower ensured victory. Only one of these authors somewhat accepts the thesis of Northern material superiority. These authors are far more mindful of the fact that mismanagement or deep-seated flaws within the losing side of a conflict can be larger factors in the ultimate outcome than positive actions by the winning side.

The authors all note some inherent advantages of the South: a need to only defend territory, the vastness of the South, a transportation network, the ability to produce large quantities of foodstuffs, a commodity, cotton, of great value in the international market, a huge labor force of three million slaves, and a certain psychological advantage in the defense of a way of life.

But these authors discuss any number of factors that led, not necessarily inevitably, to the defeat of the South. The authors point mostly to both military and political malfeasance, as well as personalities and inherent characteristics of Southern society, as leading to defeat. The manner of financing of the War produced tremendous inflation; the supplies of cotton were mismanaged both as a source of revenue to fund the war effort and as a tool to force European nations to recognize the Confederacy; food supplies were confiscated at below market prices; and manpower was poorly utilized both in recruitment to the Southern army and in the deployment of labor on Southern farms.

The states rights and independent political stance of Southerners seemed to prevent a coherent national posture being formulated in winning the Civil War. One of the authors points to the anti-statist views of all Southerners as interfering with producing a disciplined army. Southern units elected their superior officers and were disinclined to follow orders with which they disagreed. In contrast to this aggressive independence, some of the authors point to a general weakening of the Southern psychological state and even a "loss of nerve." The Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, is viewed by one author as a huge factor in the defeat of the South. Davis incompetently micromanaged the war effort, pursued flawed economic strategies, was personally difficult to engage, and exhibited an ineffectual indecisiveness and conservatism in times needing forceful and visionary actions. But the one-party system in the South prevented the rise of an effective opposition that could have addressed the original poor choice of President.

Beyond any material advantage, the authors generally contend that Lincoln and Grant were trump cards for the North. Both were better suited to their jobs both in temperament and competency than anyone in the South. Some would almost suggest that Lincoln and Grant being on the Southern side could have reversed the result.

This book was reissued in 1996 after first appearing in 1960, but it is as readable and relevant as anything being written today. There is some overlap in the material covered in the essays, but the ideas are interesting and challenging. You won't see all of these ideas in a general book on the Civil War.

Reissue of a classic collection of essays from the 60's...Currents's "God and the Strongest Battalions" is alone worth the price!...Economic, political, social, etc., aspects are all considering by the "big-gun" historians of 40 years past...Scholarly enough for the serious student, yet very reader-friendly for the novitiate...recommended in the strongest possible terms!

Having decided recently to look into making the big move cross-country, I checked out this book and found it to be a much better than average moving guide. After reading it, I felt like I lived there - maybe not quite a native, but not a newbie either! The author is clearly very familiar with his city, and his stories contain just the right blend of humor and insight. All in all, I thought it was a very enjoyable read...and I just might move to Seattle!

I tend to be a big list maker and have drawers and files crammed full of newspaper clippings and magazine articles. Considering a move to the Seattle area from the mid-Atlantic, I picked up Mr. Steele's "Relocating to Seattle" and found that I had hit the jackpot! Sort of like One Stop Shopping - I found all the information I could possibly need for anticipating and making the move westward. He even had advice and suggestions on topics I hadn't even thought about! Also, expecting - as with many travel books - rather dry text, I was thrilled to find that Mr. Steele's book was a truly enjoyable read! Lots of personal annecdotes and well-placed humor made it a book I will hang onto for years to come.

This is one of the very finest "relocation" books that I have had the pleasure of perusing. My career consisted of forty years in the Navy (1948-1988) and twenty different living locations. If ONLY Guy Steele had been around during that period of time to provide advanced information about even just ONE of my living locations, it would have been a blessing.

Altho I have visited Seattle from time to time, Guy almost challenges me to try it out for a permanent residence. After reading his book, can I leave Honolulu and head for Seattle? No! But almost!

John Steele Gordon is an excellent writer, one whom I have enjoyed very much in the pages of American Heritage and who wrote a nifty history of Wall Street called "The Great Game."

This book, "Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt" is a good, if brief, overview of the fiscal history of the American government. It is somewhat misnamed, since the National Debt serves as a background and tie in to each period of fiscal history studied.

The author does a superb job of explaining Alexander Hamilton's establishment of our financial, banking, debt and money system. Here is a woefully under appreciated founder explained succinctly and whose brilliance and indispensability are brought forth by Gordon.

Descriptions of attitudes towards and major changes in financial policy and tools follow. Gordon covers the major aspects: the struggle over the Second National Bank, Jackson's paying off the debt (the only time the US Gov't has been debt free), Lincoln and Chase's tax, greenback and bond finance of the Civil War, the long fight to establish the income tax, the fight over high marginal rates and an efficient system of taxation, and the change in view in the last century from one that deficits and debt were something to be controlled to our current sorry state of view whereby no one worries about much about deficits anymore.

Debt, when properly used, has allowed us to primarily wage wars. It was retired in times of peace. We face an interesting time now, when debt as a percentage of GDP is much higher than it has been in most peacetimes. This raises the question that if we have to fight a truly massive and long war in the future, will we have the capacity to borrow what we need (based on historic statistics, it is a question well worth pondering).

Gordon finishes the book with a polemic against the political culture that has lost its way in terms of providing an efficient and fair and economically sound system of taxation and the willingness to moderate the nation's debt.

This is a good and interesting book. Anyone looking for a succinct telling of the development of our government's fiscal structure will appreciate this gem.

Just two years ago, John Steele Gordon's book on the history of the U.S. federal debt would have seemed dated, even though it was published in 1997. After more than twenty consecutive years of operating in the red, the U.S. federal government had not only erased its annual deficits and began paying down the debt, but surpluses were projected over the next ten years.

This is no longer the case. A tax cut, the war on terrorism, and a slowdown in the economy have combined to push the U.S. government's outlays above its revenues. They have also made this book -- "Hamilton's Blessing" -- relevant again.

Gordon's book is two things: 1) a basic history describing the twists and turns of U.S. fiscal policy over the last two hundred-plus years and 2) a political tract condemning the latest turn U.S. fiscal policy has taken since the Great Society.

By combining the two, Gordon seeks to show that the most recent practice of U.S. fiscal policy -- that of habitually running deficits in peacetime -- is not only unprecedented in U.S. history, but also, more importantly, unsupported by any sound theory of economics.

"Hamilton's Blessing" is well-written and interesting. The book is only slightly marred by a lack of detail in some areas. How exactly does a large public debt hurt your average citizen and by how much? We never find out.

Gordon also should have kept his own political bent out of the book. Among other things, he spends three pages in a less than 200-page book detailing Jack Kemp's personal and political history, including his football career. All very interesting, but not really relevant to the history of the U.S. debt.

This book is detailed, but easy to read, giving a good background on how our national debt came to be what it is today. Teh book also covers several of the more popular schools of thought on economics, specifically the teachings of John Maynard Keynes, the namesake of Keynesian Economics. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever questioned our government's inability to pay down the national debt as that debt is known as "Hamilton's Blessing."

This book does not live up to the hype on the dust jacket. Sure we get the detail of this reports time in some of the best war zones of the 90's but the writing just does not live up to the standard of a rating of a 5. The book is about 450 pages and of that the editor could have easily taken out about 100, these were the pages when he talks about his life outside of the war zones (dull) and his relationships with fast women (boring). All this is intermixed with his drug use with descriptions that come right out of a Hunter Thompson book.

I do not want to be too harsh, there are some interesting facts and stories, and we get a view of what it is like to be a war focused TV cameraman. It is just that you have to wade through some rather dull work to get to the gems. I also did not think he really sold me on the "emotional meltdown", sure he saw some down right horrible stuff, but his writing did not convey how it effected him to the point of his breakdown in a London airport. Overall I would say this is an average book but don't be expecting a thrill ride.

I am living in Jerusalem and I have lived with war for the last three years. It is impossible to describe the fear and pain all of us, Jews and Palestinians, suffer with in these terrible times. I never thought words could express the feelings, till I read War Junkie. The minute I started it I could not put it down, I was glued to the book. Jon Steele has put the horror and true reality of war on 440 pages for the world to read and experience for themsleves. This book breathes with tension. He describes perfectly the terror of war. I know, I live through it in my world. It made me realise what cameramen go through behind the camera, and all the emotions they have to deal with, I felt it was so real that I lived through every word and every event of the story.. But what amazed me too, that it was funny in parts, heartbreaking in other bits and horrifying as well. I cant believe how we take things for granted, even the pictures we see on TV, if we dont like them we turn the other way, but someone like Jon Steele had to live with them and deal with all those emotions and guilt. I am glad he allowed us to share what happened to him, in a book that is an excellent read, thrilling and poetic at times... I was able to live and see what happened through his words.
If you want the truth of war, read War Junkie. You will never look at TV news the same again.

War Junkie is not for the sqeamish. Those who like their war stories as facts and figures will find none of that here. Those who want to FEEL war, in your face so close you can taste it, need to read this book. Jon Steele pulls the reader into a terrifying world where you FEEL the bullets race by your head. More than that he never lets us forget war casts its worst curse on the innocent and the helpless. The tales of the thousands of nameless people or the 'shadows' as Jon Steele describes them, the innocents he watched suffer and die, are riviting and painful. I read this book and found my hands shaking at the end of it.
Jon Steele's style is not fot the acedemic or those who like their war neat. It races across the page like a machine gun. It hits you between the eyes the same way. Read this book and you will feel as if you were there.
War Junkie also gives an insight into the terrible price paid by the frontline journalists who get in the middle of the action. Jon Steele carries the scars of battle in his soul. For me, there was an awful moment reading War Junkie when in the last chapters Jon Steele talks about the moment he went over the edge and lost his mind from the endless pictures he had filmed. His companion in that chapter was a British TV reporter named Terry Llyod. The story involves a young girl shot down by a sniper in Sarajevo in front of Jon Steele's camera. It was a devastating story. But at the same time I finished reading this chapter, I turned on my TV to CNN. There was a story that the same Terry Lloyd I was reading about, was killed in Southern Iraq. It only added to the sadness of this incredible book.
This book reads like an action adventure story but don't be fooled. It is literatue disguised as adventure. It is literature that will break your heart.

Sorry, I wasn't satisfied with TA. I was looking for more specifics about an alternative space program that started in the 1940's. Instead, I got a silly plot set ahead to the 1990's with a disappointing ending. If you are looking for hard details about an alternative NASA and its accomplishments, try Stephen Baxter's "Voyage".

As usual for Steele, this is a hard sf book of the exploration of near-Earth space. But unlike Orbital Decay and Lunar Descent, The Tranquillity Alternative is not set in the near future, but in an alternate history, where the American space program started in World War II and effectively ended after a joint US-USSR expedition to Mars in 1976. The story line is intriguing because of the close similarity to real history, which makes the deviations surprising (Nixon won the 1960 elections, Robert Kennedy became President after Nixon in 69, was shot in Dallas. McGovern became president in the 70s, Dole instead of Bush was Reagan's vice president and followed him as president).

What makes alternate history hard to swallow is that one the one hand America is depicted as a nation in decline without the will to pursue objectives in space anymore - Tranquillity Base is sold to a German company - much worse than in reality: Is this meant to be the consequence of higher spending for space in the alternate history?

Another disappointment is that of the 300 page story, about 250 pages are used to depict the scenery, and only for 30 or so pages there is some action. However, the descriptive parts are most interesting and thought-provoking.

... It is one Steele's more gripping novels. It started slow for me - only in that I had to guide myself into Steele's alternative history and get used to Presidents McGovern and Dole. I had to convince myself that Neil Armstrong was NOT the first man on the moon. These were just minor distractions. However once I figured it all out, I became totally entrenched in this book. He breaks up each chapter with a newspaper article or television report that provides a chronological alternative history to the space program. I liked that idea. It gave it more believability. There were a few unexpected twists and turns toward the end, which I won't give away...

This book is designed for the average guy or gal off the street (from high school age to adult)to learn the bare basics about Ozarks Civil War heritage. Elite scholars may find it too simple, but hey... history belongs to all our citizens, not just professors and other professionals.

"Civil War in the Ozarks" by Phillip W. Steele is an excellent read, and is written for the average reader who wants to gain a comprehensive knowledge of the Civil War. I enjoyed this book!

A "must read" for anyone interested in the Civil War in general, and the Civil War in the Ozarks region in particular. I especially liked Steele's writing style. Steele has a talent for delivering a lot of historical information while keeping the reader turning the pages wanting to know more. A very good book!

Traditional story... clearly intended as a tribute to the masters of the so-called "golden era" of SF: A.C. Clarke got the county named after him, as well as a statue in one of the colony's parks, and Heinlein got a bridge - as well as a fairly boring avatar of the intelligent computer from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Steele has done better work, but this is still a fairly enjoyable story (with an enormous "plot hole": after knoking out cold the hit-man, why the sheriff does not check the hit-man's luggage and remove all the weaponry?)

Tis is an action/gangster story set in outer space. The setting could well take place in any small or isolated town, not necessarily a space colony. The bernal sphere has been introduced before to SF literature in "Rendevouz with Rama". apart from that, there are no new ideas or concepts. It is a good read though. The author has a talent in description and drawing characters and the events are fast paced. What I mind the most is that the cover illustration got the shape of the supposedly Bernal sphere wrong and really spoiled the way I tried to imagine it.

All of Steele's books are just plain fun and this is no exception. Bizzare of course, but fun. I like his tributes to the greats and his nostaligic treatment of current scifi, "the good old days of Captain Kirk." The Elvis Cult is a riot.

It is an Ok book, but it is very boring and not very active. I didn't like it much, but it is pretty good. When kids look into books, they look for excitenent and lots of chapters, like in HARRY POTTER books. Once again, this book was OK but I've seen MUCH better! ROCK ON... PEACE OUT

This book was very good. It was a tragic story about a young girl's life in Mississppi in the 1920's. She moved to Chicago and all kinds of things happened to her family. This is a great book and we liked it! You should read it!

BFFL SV&AN

This was a wonderful story for students in the fifth grade. We used this novel to link music class, art class, history, and reading. The story painted such a vivid picture for the students. The author, Dorothy Hoobler, beautifully took us on a tour of the 1920's.