A saavy review of one man's career in international development and his journey through life along the way.

This book is part of a series of cultural guides; others in the series are "The Hispanic Way", "The German Way", & "The Italian Way". I'd read & enjoyed both "The Hispanic Way" & "The German Way", so when finding "The French Way", I wanted to read it, too. Taken as a guide exclusively to France & its people, this book is quite serviceable & thorough. And like any book this size & attempting to deal with a topic of this scope, "The French Way" is not going to be exhaustive, but rather is a good introduction & "stepping-stone" to further reading. There is indeed good information in this book. However, "The Hispanic Way" & "The German Way" are more thorough, providing information not exclusive on "Spain" or "Germany", respectively, but on Spanish-speaking countries & German-speaking coutries, too. Obviously, the francophone world is huge, & a book of this size would have to focus primarily on one area; "The Hispanic Way" focused on Spain, does provide information about Hispanic America as well. I had hoped that "The French Way" would include some information about Belgium, Luxembourg, & Canada at least. Since this book doesn't include at least a little more information about these other francophone areas, I'd have to give it only 4 stars.

(if this is the book by Robert Steele) This book was most enlightening. I am not a student of medicine or psychology but I have to say that I found this book most enlightening. I had no idea how psychology was founded as a science(I'm sorry I really think it is a pseudoscience) and I did not know that it was based mostly on lies perpetrated to aggrandize a career or ego. Shame, shame. No wonder the Doctors who hold so tightly to their much paid for licenses and degrees get upset to discuss in detail their knowlegdge. The common layman knows better. That's what they are afraid of. Does anybody out there actually practice according to the Hippocratic oath. Steele does a great job presenting it the way it was. If you like to know the absolute unbiased truth about academia and its supposed great minds - read this book. It will give you great insight. My bet, Ayn Rand had this book in mind when writing portions of Atlas Shrugged.

This book has helped me find great places to hike and camp for both, my family, and my Boy Scout Troop. Informative and very easy to follow. A must for the outdoorsman/woman in Georgia.

This was a great book. I used it along with my studying of Greek History in school. I would read out of my textbook and other books then find a section in this book to read about. It helped me understand Greece a lot better. I enjoy the little cartoons and fake advertisements put in. The articles are written in many different forms including: interviews, traveling reporters and submitted articles. It is a fun book to read and I really loved it. This book is great for anyone either studying Greece or just interested in the subject. Age 13

An excellent primer to revitalizing Indigenous languages, from a scholar who clearly has spent a long time thinking about the pitfalls inherent to such a task.

As with any anthology, the 16 10-20 page biographies here are hit or miss. While the biographies don't do much in the way of helping the reader understand everyday colonial life, they do aid in allowing one to understand other aspects of colonial life.

The best written are the biographies of Pocahontas by Kathleen Brown; Rev. John Cotton, Jr. by Sheila McIntyre; Bryan Sheehan by Margaret Connell Szasz; and Lewis Morris, Jr. by Michael Watson. Brown presents an example of early European-Amerindian relations and shows us the difficulty of determining what sources are truth versus what is self-promotion or legend. Cotton is a pastor twice accused of marital infidelity. His story gives us examples of how Puritans dealt with sinful citizens, of efforts to spread the Word of God to Amerindians, and of the importance of communication between community leaders. The story of Bryan Sheehan is an intersting read. We so often read success stories in American immigration. Sheehan is definately a failure: Roman-Catholic (and thus treated poorly in New England) and unable to hold a job with any promise of financial security, Sheehan joins the British Army during the French and Indian War. He survives several horrible battles to discover that, upon hearing a rumor of Sheehan's death, Bryan Sheehan's wife married another man and had a child by him. The Lewis Morris biography gives us an example of pre-Revolution politics in America. Of special note was the Anne Hutchinson biography by Marilyn Westerkamp. While it is obvious that her research was excellent and she succeeded in showing the reader that Hutchinson's popularity threatened the social order (e.g. she became too powerful and the religious leaders felt threatened) and the depth of Hutchinson's intelligence, Westerkamp didn't quite succeed in proving that Hutchinson's activities were not tolerated because she was a woman.

The only two biographies I didn't enjoy were the biographies of French missionary Gabrial Segard and Amerindian translator Isabel Montour. The biographical information available on the former is not exactly extensive, making for a confusing biography. With regards to the latter, it is probably more a fault of the reader that he didn't care about the role of a translator in English-Native politics.

Finally, in my opinion, not enough attention was paid to slavery in the American colonies. Olaudah Equiano was the only biography of a slave in this anthology, and it can hardly be said that his life was typical. A biography of some other person involved in slavery would have been informative as well--be it a slave, slave owner, slave trader, slave-master, slave-owner-turned abolitionist, etc. This could have been done at the expense of one of the many European-American cultural brokers biographies.

The ancient city of Machu Picchu is to Peru what the pyramids are to Egypt. Each year hundreds of thousands of tourists visit this archaeological site.

Though juvenile literature, this short book holds interest even for adults. After Philip Steele discusses the archaeological discovery of Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham in 1911, he goes on to talk about the life the Incas must have led, using Machu Picchu as the example to illustrate what the Inca civilization was like. He starts off with the strict social classes that the Inca society had: the rulers, government, priests, religion, warriors and the farmer, the commoner and everyday life.

The Inca civilization (1200 - 1532 ) had phenomenal architects, builders and engineers. Even today, their stone work is unsurpassed in history. Steele, also covers, ever so briefly, the unique and advanced skills that the Incas had as craftsman, especially in pottery and jewelry. However, he elevates the society more than is justified. He makes statements like "the Incas were skilled doctors and surgeons" when actually they were homoeopathists that used natural plants as remedies. Regarding surgery, they sought to relieve pain in the head by tapping holes in the skull. Even though he points out that the Incas did not use money, only a barter system; he fails to point out that the Incas also did not write, read or use the wheel. And though he mentions their religious beliefs (pantheistic), he did not point out that while worshiping their Sun God, they did regularly sacrifice humans as part of the ceremony.

In "The Incas and Machu Picchu" Philip Steele has given children and adolescents an excellent primer to both the Inca civilization and this remarkable site. His writing is both entertaining and educational. The many color and b&w photographs are excellent, and with each picture, an informative caption makes this book and excellent tool.

As an avid reader and a fifth grade teacher, I found this book to be intriguing. The main character travels through a number of societies as he explores Earth. Ms. Steele made each exploration of a culture interesting because she included the reader by describing the items before naming them. As I read, I envisioned my students trying to figure out what the items were before the items were named in the book. I plan to begin my school year with this book as a read aloud (I got this idea from an exceptional teacher I worked with this summer!) to introduce my students to aspects of world cultures.

Another great book by the author of Whoever Fights Monsters. This time, Ressler tells of his life before he started hunting serial killers, and of his almost obsession-like need to have justice served against a judge who hired someone to kill his wife. Ressler's style is always engrossing, and the adventures he has in his life are amazing.