I loved the book! Both of my parents and grandparents moved to "DEEtroit" from Kentucky to work in the car factories. I saw a great deal of my family and self in the pages of this book. The personal accounts of the "hillbillies" jumped off of the page at me! Sounds corney....but "this book spoke to me!" I never knew that such a massive amount of people (hillbillies) came north to escape the poverty of the south and how they struggled in the north. I grew-up thinking it was something unique to my family. My family came from Clay and Knox counties KY! The south did rise again...and no one noticed! Thank you for writing this book!

This book is designed for the scholar, the student and the discriminating, intellectually curious reader. The oral histories which Berry has recorded and published bring these people seeking a better life into sharp focus. He couples their stories with exhaustive research and statistics to give a well-rounded view of the white migration from the south to the more industrialized (and more upwardly mobile) north and midwest. This book counters some of the myths surrounding these southerners. They are definitely not lazy, shiftless, stupid or immoral. They simply are seeking the "American dream." In the process they helped transform this nation.

This book not only helps the part-time genealogist, but also gives the purpose of the free persons of color's move to this territory. It help the descendents of these people (such as myself) put a personality on the many names of people we've come to know and have pictures for.

It has spurred my family & I on to take the trip from NJ to IN to attend the 2000 Beech Homecoming & look forward to the Roberts Homcoming in 2001. I greatfully appreciate Stephen A. Vincent's labors.

The Beech and Roberts farming communities were composed of free blacks who came from North Carolina in the 1820s and 30s. They located near Quakers because they knew they would receive kindness and respect from them as well as fair dealings. The communities grew and prospered and an emphasis was placed upon education and spiritual development. Eventually, the settlements began to decline and farmers began to sell their land. Gradually, all the inhabitants moved away. Both communities left behind a proud heritage and continue to hold homecomings once a year.

(I chose the book because I live in Carthage, close to the site of the Beech Settlement and have an interest in its history.) I reviewed the book on April 11 at the Hancock County Library in Greenfield, Indiana. Following the review, the book club members came to my home. From there, our group of eighteen took a "field trip" out to the Beech. Accompanying us was Gladys Boatright, the granddaughter of Eli Archey who is pictured on the front of "Southern Seed, Northern Soil." We all enjoyed the book very much and enjoyed learning of the two fine communities the Beech and Roberts settlements.

Bob Krick--the son, not the father--has proven himself a worthy successor to his father. In this extraordinarily useful work, Bob Krick has given us a volume every bit as useful as his father's earlier landmark work, _Lee's Colonels_. In this work, Krick provides us with informative capsule biographies of the many staff officers who played an important role in the Civil War, and photos of many are also provided.

I wish someone would do the Union equivalent to this book.

A product of a decade of dedicated research, "Staff Officers in Gray" is an essential reference for historians, genealogists and the "just plain curious" concerning themselves with the Confederate Army. It is not limited to the Army of Northern Virginia, but includes Krick's gleanings from records dealing with other Confederate armies and other generals, as well as several rare illustrations. Excellent introductory essay is itself worth the price of admission. Super.

This collection of essays is a set of ruminations on nature and the role people play in nature. Based on over 20 years of homesteading in Alaska, Haines ranges from concrete subjects such as trapping to more abstract matters such as the way ice forms in a river or snow falls in the woods. There are two features that stand out. First, this is essay writing that verges on poetry. The writing is spare and carefully chiseled and conveys a sense of the north country that is stunning. Second, unlike many nature writes, Haines views man as part of the environment in an unsentimental but powerful light. Haines is troubled by the need to kill animals for their fur, but he also views this as a part of nature. Haines is not as famous as writers such as Barry Lopez or Annie Dillard (perhaps because most of his opus is poetry), but there is no doubt he is a nature writer on par with the best.

I just discovered John Haines, as I am planning a vacation in Alaska and I am interested in the literature and poetry that is native to AK. Mr. Haines is very deep and real, and yet he seems to be able to tap into that shadow stuff that we all carry with us. Much of what he writes is initially disturbing, yet it is so real that I found it compelling enough to keep reading.It is almost like going to a Jungian therapist! If your willing to go deeper and not afraid of the shadows this book is well-worth exploring. His understanding of the natural world as a place devoid of our human judgements and associations is acutely genuine.

I glanced through this book while waiting for service in a local bank. I was so impressed with the pictures and drawings that I am ordering it for my husband's birthday. By that time I'll have found my glasses and will be able to enjoy the words too. Great detail about Nevada.

It was simply unbelievable. I was amazed at the sheer horse sense that it showed. The illustrations were breathtaking and I thank my lucky stars that I read it. I love Ron Oden who is so beautiful. His use of color was breathtaking. If there is a god it is Ron Oden.

Having grown up in Utah my brain was filled with positive stories of Mormon and American Indian relations. It would not until many years later, when I started researching local American Indian information, that my eyes were widely open to the myth of my childhood education.
I met Gary Weicks several years ago when he was compiling a manuscript from the intensive research he had done. It started as a project for a Forest Service archeological dig in the Strawberry Valley. He was researching for information on the Army maneuvers held there in 1888. However, it became very intriguing to him to read of the Ute interactions that were written in Army reports. It took him on a new adventure researching the history of the Ute and this adventure took many fascinating twists.
As I read the book it seemed there was a new twist every few pages. It definitely gives you a new look on Ute and Anglo interactions. I believe a book like this is way overdue. It's time to bury the myths of the past and teach the true facts of Utah history.
This is a must read book for anyone who is interested in the old west, military, Mormon, Utah or Native American history. The book also spends time telling about the Lost Rhoades Mines Legend and the early miners of the area. It reveals the comprehensive story of a previously unpublished chapter in Utah history.
Weicks states that, "For over 400 years before the Mormon arrival in 1847, many of the Northern Utes and their preto historic ancestors lived in relative peace and stability within the territory currently encompassing much of Utah. In less than twenty years of settlement by the Brethren in their newest Land of Zion, the collective authorities of the Mormon Church, Bureau of Indian Affairs and U.S. Army convinced Congress to officially dispossess these Northern Utes of all their traditional and best lands except for the sprawling and considerably barren wastes of the Uintah Reservation located in northeastern Utah. By Church Prophet and President Brigham Young's own accounting, several bands of these original first contact Indians - through starvation, pestilence and white inspired epidemics - had experienced somewhere between a 90% to 99% mortal attrition rate in their numbers by 1867."
He goes on to say that, "In the mid-1870s Brigham Young, searching for new areas to colonize with land-seeking church members, began a policy that actively encouraged the Utes to depopulate their reservation where treatment by BIA officials over the years was poor and inefficient. Through the Church leader's ability to significantly control both Indian movements and affairs in Utah, Brigham began quiet efforts to induce Congress to throw open the Uintah Reservation to homesteading. Though the soil was largely infertile, the valuable water, timber and grazing resources of the country were coveted by the surrounding Latter Day faithful as well as the large cattle companies."
Brigham Youngs death slowed down this progress. Problems in Colorado with the Ute pushed many Colorado Ute tribes into Utah in the late 1870s.
In the 1880s mining interests on the Uintah and Uncompahgre Reservations gave another push to move the Utes off their reservations. The depression of 1893 renewed this push.
Weicks said, "In 1897, when the great Klondike Gold Rush began in Canada, Americans were caught up in the frenzy of seizing the moment and embracing the chance of renewed wealth regardless of the ravages of the lingering depression. Additional strikes in Alaska in 1899 and 1902 inspired an entire nation to get swept away in the gold fever so prevalent, especially in the West. Old mining tales, such as the Lost Rhoades Mines Legend centered on the Uintah Reservation, were resurrected and received serious attention throughout Utah and surrounding states. These wild stories of incredible riches sustained additional forward momentum to throw open the Uintah Reservation shortly after the turn of the century."
I found This Was the Place: The Darker Side of Mormon Zion to be written passionately and with a folksy wit making it enjoyable reading. It is written in a way that makes it easygoing and hard to lay down.

This Was the Place is the story of the fate of the Indians of Utah and Colorado in the 1800s. Like many Native American tribes, the Utes, Goshutes, and related tribes, were pushed from one piece of land to another, made promises by the government that were never kept, and were ignored when they were hungry and poor and their ability to feed themselves had been taken away from them.

Weicks gives a well-researched, detailed account of the machinations of government, civilians, military, and Indians as all jockeyed for position. He has used primary and secondary sources, and interviews with historians and experts of today. It's an intelligent accounting of who was there and the sequence of events.

Anyone interested in the history of Utah and Colorado, the tribes living in that area, and relations between white and Indian, will find this book of great interest.

I bought my copy of this book from George himself while on a fishing trip to George's son John's place in Canada. I bought one of the first copies after it was published and George was gracious enough to autograph it for me. Reading this book is a lot like listening to him in person reminisce about his extensive experience in the Canadian bush.

After reading George's book My son and I took a trip to Georges sons place on Ivanhoe Lake and had the most enjoyable experance ever. We had the experance of seeing some of the enviromental issues George discusses in his book as well as the enjoyment of experencing some of the best fishing ever.

This book is an extraordinary look at the history of Africa, which Lady Lugard gathered from countless sources, and one would imagine a great deal of it came from the British Library and from the archives of The Times of London, for whom she had for many years been the Foreign Political Correspondent. She had always been known to be an intensive researcher into her subject matter, and one wonders at the months and probably years she put into this undertaking, which became the reference work for so many future books on Africa. Lady Lugard led an extraordinary life and travelled the world on behalf of her newspaper. A little known aspect of her prominent career was that when she first started writing for the Times of London, she wrote under the name of F. Shaw, thereby trying to disguise the fact that she was a woman. Later of course, she was so highly regarded - it really didn't matter and she became Flora Shaw, a personal friend of many of the world leaders (one of her more frequent visitors in later life was Winston Churchill) and was regarded as one of the greatest journalists of her time....specialising in politics and economics. She became world famous when she was subpoened to the Jameson Trial and cross examined on the role played by the Chamberlain Government in the planning of the raid into the Transvaal Republic. Later of course, it became common knowledge that she was used as the go-between the Britiish Government and Cecil Rhodes, and received and sent the cruical telegrams, which resulted in the ill-fated expedition. One of the reasons the press and public were so fascinated by her at the time, was because she was a very beautiful and accomplished woman, and many admirers and feminists, maintained that had she been a man she would have been a British Cabinet Minister. She was a staunch imperialist and this point of view on politics, obviously comes out in her writing without any apology or even the slightest expression of doubt. This in itself holds a certain fascination to the reader of today after the events of the 20th century. So it is important to remember that she wrote this nearly 100 years ago, finalising it in 1905/6, shortly after she married Frederick Lugard (Governor of Nigeria and Governor of Hong Kong and a big imperialistic player in Central Africa in his day). She had had to relinguish her journalist career on marriage as it wasn't the done thing, in those days for a married lady to pursue a career - especially a lady who moved in aristocratic circles. However, what makes Lady Lugard's book so fascinating to read, is once the reader has been quite shaken by her positive and practical assessment of the benefits of slavery, the merits and demerits of Black Labour and Yellow Labour, and her other imperialist beliefs......she goes on to capture with meticulous references, detail and descriptive power, the greatness that Africa once was, and so reveal an enthralling story of a continent. The South African president, Thabo MBeki talks about the African Rennaissance starting in South Africa today....and sceptics might wonder "what" rennaissance, under the mistaken belief that Africa came out of a Darkness. Lady Lugard makes it clear that this was not the case....Africa was great once...and her message is that Africa can be great again. No serious student of African history, politics and economics can afford not to read this book.

This book is one of the most important books I have ever read. I constantly refer to it whenever I have the opportunity to speak in front of a group. Incredibly insightful, it makes perfectly clear what direction people of African descent need to be headed in if we are committed to positive community development. YOU NEED THIS BOOK! If anyone sees any book that is as important as this please email me to let me know.

"In the far cold north lived Ulaq, the fox. Ulaq was a very curious fox." So begins "Ulaq and the Northern Lights," a wonderful picture book by Harriet Peck Taylor. Ulaq is intrigued by the shimmering lights that appear in the sky, so he asks the other Arctic animals what they are. Each animal--Wolf, Caribou, etc.--gives Ulaq a different answer that reflects the unique perspective of a particular species.

"Ulaq" is a fun book with excellent illustrations. The art has a surreal, glowing quality which captures the magnificence of the northern landscape. Each animal character is rendered with great charm. The curious Ulaq is a character to whom, I believe, many kids could relate! And an author's note at the end gives the scientific explanation behind the Northern Lights.

Ulaq, a curious fox, who is mesmerized by the magical aurora borealis asks several of his friends what they are. Each tells him their interpretation which is based on the many legends which surround this miraculous occurance. My four year old daughter loves this book. It sparks her interest both in the northern lights and in the idea that people interpret things very differently-a topic that we have later discussed in many instances. Furthermore, it encourages curiousity and the persuit of knowledge as well as introducing the concept of legend verses scientific fact (the scientific cause for the auroras is explained in the end notes). This book is the perfect balance of adventure, spirituality and education in a format which appeals to the young reader.

I received the 'Northern Magic' for Christmas and I managed to met Diane Stuemer this past winter at the Toronto Boat Show ... I even got the book autographed. Her book was an excellent armchair sailor read but she definitely has the gift in public speaking. I also recently found out that she died of cancer .... I must admit that I did shed a tear or two when I heard that.

Join in on a three year experience cruising around the world with three children. After reading a good review of the book and being new to sailing with children of the same age I thought this would be a good read. I have since been unable to put the book down, it has been uplifting to read about a family simmilar to my own living through extreme experiences. A lit bit of cruising, a lit more about traveling and experiences and even more about a family living an extreme experience together for three years.