Donovan Wylie's Ireland: Singular Images is a book of photographs from his initial travels in his native Ireland in the late 1980s. He published the book in 1994 after he had become associated with Magnum Photos. Wylie was 23 when the book was printed and is now 28. The book offers an interesting look into the early years of a Magnum photographer, but neither the book nor the photographs are first rate when compared to works by Sebastiao Salgado or fellow Magnum members Josef Koudelka or Gilles Peress. The photographs are indeed innocent and are not the work of a seasoned photographer. Wylie's latest book, Losing Ground, published in 1997 by Fouth Estate Press of London is a more successful effort, and more clearly shows his photographic ability. However, the book does not seem to be available through book sellers and I bought my copy directly through Magnum in New York. Although Ireland: Singular Images is not a must see, it is quite impressive to think that Wylie has published five books so far, and his introduction does offer interesting information about his young life.

"Singular Images" is a delightfully simple photographic exploration of Ireland made by young Donovan Wylie. His pictures are graceful and poetic, yet they have a definite solidity about them...an air that is quite of the essence of the Magnum Photo Agency, of which he is a part. At the early age of 16, he made the pictures in this book; pictures that many seasoned professionals would trip over themselves trying to create. This body of Wylie's work has a sense of innocence, and it's apparent through these marvelous photographs. The photographs themselves have a definite "street" feel. His wanderings take him all over the place, but his pictures have a beautiful coherency. They are merely gritty, black and white documents of his travels. One thing is for sure, this Gen-X photographer has a bright future ahead of him. At the age of 21, he was made a nominee of the Magnum Photo Agency, then an associate member two years later. In many ways, he is the future of what Magnum will be. Keep an eye on this lad, he's the next in a long line of photographers from the Magnum Agency, whose members include Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, Elliot Erwitt, Bruce Davidson, Eugene Richards, Gilles Peress, James Nachtwey...just to name a few.

I bought this book secondhand to compliment my web research into cheap accommodation in Northern California. I was hoping I'd find some hideaways that weren't mentioned anywhere on the internet, and maybe save some money when I travel there next year. Unfortunately, the places that are listed are either seriously out of date price-wise (there is a later version of this which presumably solves that problem) or in some cases no longer exist at all. The places that were useful I had already easily found by other means. The author aims to list accommodations under US$70 a night, but many of the places listed now have rates that soar waaaay out of that range! The other disappointment was that she really doesn't list that many places. The majority of the book is taken up with sightseeing information — some of it useful, but this IS called "Cheap Sleeps"! Where are they? Crammed into a page or 2 at the end of each section! Also, Northern California is made up of a great many more areas than she has included - only the "touristy" areas get a mention at all.. the rest are apparently non-existant in her eyes - not much use if those absent areas are the very ones you're visiting! In conclusion, DON'T buy this expecting to find the best cheap places to sleep in N Cal - I found many, many more places off my own bat which don't rate a mention in this book. The only thing I found it useful for was that it DOES mention a number of interesting places to visit in each area and covers a few things rarely covered by other guide books: used bookstores, interesting cinemas etc etc. Hopefully the latest edition is MUCH better than this!

Rebecca Poole Foree has written a guide to northern California from the Cascades to Lake Tahoe to Berkeley to Big Sur that is ideal not only for the budget traveler but for any traveler with good taste and common sense. The descriptions of all areas are not only budget conscious but perceptive and share the author's personal reflexions about what is of interest in each area. I finally put all the other tour books aside while visiting the area and used the insight and advise of Ms. Foree

exclusively. For the discerning traveler, this guide is the best! Unfortunately, the title implies that only accommadations are included. Perhaps in the future edition( I hope there is one), a title change would give the traveler a clearer sense of the richness of this travel guide. Also, for the budget conscious, The San Francisco Residence Club, 85l California St., (at the top of Nob Hill) is a wonderful place to stay while in San Francisco.

This Chunovic's book is a reminder. So.....
After watching the series a few times, all I can say is I agree
with Ecclesiastes ( remember the Kohelet/Ecclesiastes, a Bible
guy, the purported King Solomon ? )-"Is not the eye surfeited with
seeing, and the ear sated with hearing ?"
For me- it is. Maybe the best one could do is to be grateful for the gift and pay homage.
So, thanx:
- for characters that are not "larger than life", but stand for
life's largeness
- for the message that ordinary life already *is* a mythic one
- for making friends with mortality, whilst eschewing both
morbidity and shallow New-Ageish dull mantras/stereotypes
- for presenting, yet not succumbing to tedium vitae
- for the most sophisticated TV show kids & analphabets
could enjoy
- for being life-affirming & not taking an easy route to existential
despair, quick fixes and loopholes ( at least, for the most part )
- for, while being a celebration of life, not lying on human condition
- for giving a cast of average actors ( a couple of old grizzlies excluded ) the chance to say these were the best years of their lives;and the entire crew, from producers to actors and stunt men that they,being good women & men as they are, took part in something that was way beyond "good"; something that was great ( grand but not pompous )
- for rekindling innumerable sparks in innumerable viewers into, at least, fleeting flickers
- for helping people grow in wisdom & compassion
- for being .......hmm, what's the most encompassing word ?..
............life's grandeur embodied

As a mega Northern Exposure fan I thought I knew all there was to know about the show and it's quirky characters. This book filled in the blanks.It was a fun and nostalgic trip back to the days of the television series that made millions of us wilderness wannabees!The personal interviews made me feel as if I know the stars personally. The book took me behind the scenes and gave me a wonderful insight of what it really takes to produce a T.V. series,and make it work.

"The Northern Gold Fleet" is a detailed academic historical tome, surely the authority on the subject for years to come. For a monograph of this genre, it is well written. However, it desperately needs, and lacks any diagrams, line illustrations, etc. The only illustrations are a few fuzzy historical photos of dredges. Numerous terms such as "jitney winch" are undefined. Many terms such as "ground sluicing" and "drift mine" are used in ways which seem to be in variance with standard usage. Unfortunately, there is no glossary-which again is desperately needed. There is no summary of the book, nor of the chapters, nor a timeline-so the reader has to perform all summaries himself. If half the text were replaced with line drawings, tables, diagrams, a timeline and a glossary, this book would have been a hundred times more readable and useful.

Excellent book. Fairly accurate, does makes some mistakes in a few places, but overall very good. Excellent reading. Highly recommended

It is a great book, which gives the picture of how nadars grown because of their unity among themselves and helping their community in all their causes.
It is a must for every nadar to read this Book,
If you are a Nadar you have to have this book,
If you are not, it is a great book to read about the community which came up to the higher economy status by their sheer hardwork, Dedication and their self formed Organisation support.

Dennis Templeman's work on Northern Nadars had emerged out of Robert Hardgrave's study, The Nadars Of Tamilnadu:The political culture of a community in change (1969),often considered as the first classic on Tamil Nadars. Exactly after 30 years of his mentor's work Templeman came out with his masterpiece about how the disjunctive social process of conflict,competition and power equation among the caste members and between castes were instrumental in weakening the effectiveness of nadars caste association at the grassroot level, popularly known "uravinmurais". The mark of difference between Hardgrave and Templeman studies are that the former primarily dealt with how the nadar caste as a whole rose to a 'solid' and 'forward caste' status achieving 'power' and wealth from a lowly position in the social hierarchy i.e just above the untouchable,defined the commonly prevalent notion that hindu caste system is overtly rigid with no scope for any upward mobility.In addition, this work further thrown light on the sphere of 'official' state and national government and on the impact of nadar caste and class affiliations ,intercaste relations and politics within nadar caste association i.e Nadar Mahajana Sangham,on nadars interaction with regional and state level political parties. whereas, the later work focusses on the uncovered dimension of Hardgrave's work i.e conflict within local association, between local associations and between nadars and other communities in local settlement ,which focusses upon the manipulation and use power and the struggle for power at the grassroot level rather than at the regional and national level. Primarily Templeman's work examined these local association under which caste as a whole achieved great cohesiveness and effectiveness,as well as the conditions which ultimately have led to their present weakened state. The methodology used by Templeman to examine the political and social conflict of Nadars were to a large extent influenced by the anthropological study of law, unlike the ethnographical approach used by the conventional anthropologists. The author used legal ethnography to study caste conflicts ,which is similar to the strategy oriented game theory approach adopted by F.G.Bailey and Fredrik. Barth. This work is based on intensive field study over a period of twenty five years in five distinct nadar settlements i.e Madurai( a large town),Aruppukottai(a small town),Palayampatti and Pattiveeranpatti( two villages) and Palamedu(a small village). This book consists of ten chapters , and the first three chapters deals about Nadars ethos,historical development of a caste, changes occured, family,marriage and kinship pattern and the religious tradition and beliefs of the caste. The fourth chapter is devoted for Nadar local association in general where as the fifth chapter highlights how the association began to shed some of their traditional characteristic features were recasted to promote and project nadars interest in changing circumstances. Chaters six and seven vivids the nature of conflict of the aforesaid five nadar settlements. The eigth and nineth capters gives a complete picture of how the changes have occured in the caste and its association within a span of thirty years i.e the timelag between Hardgrave's work to the present author's work on nadars.Templeman had mentioned that the Nadars caste association not only in the sample villages but all the nadar settlements in Tamilnadu has assumed a new role as service organisation catering the needs of both nadars and others,i.e from the communal character to secular character. Templeman diagnosed three cardinal principles that gained currency among the Northern Hindu Nadars viz.,1) Caste as an endogamous group 2) importance of relative caste status and 3)Usefulness of local association. The author's following observation has a merit i.e " the Nadars believe they can perceive the conditions in which different values and actions will be effective, and in their ability to modify their behaviour and values in order to take advantage of such emerging opportunities". While concluding, Templeman talks about Northern nadars agency and ideology and revealed the fact that how nadars have continually reworked their social institutions while working within them. He has borrowed the agency approach generally used by antropologists concerned with law. His comparision of nadars mobility pattern with Saraswat brahmins and Jatavs and how Nadars mobility pattern is superior than the other two communities are quite interesting and unique among the backward castes.

Each of these essays slows down time while fishing for steelhead, condenses time in a Lake Superior fall bird migration, turns on the time-lapse camera of glacial time and rekindles the time-suspended fun of playing in the waves. Van Stappen's naturalist eye and poetic style draws his reader in. A writer for Wisconsin Outdoor Journal and 1996 Pippistrelle Best of the Small Press Winner, Van Stappen's collection of Lake Superior essays puts this achievement in the osprey's nest: high above and easy to spot. In his essay about blueberry picking, his dry wit can be found: "After all, our opposable thumb and forefinger didn't develop just to flick coins into vending machines. We were berry pickers before we were tool users and are still berry pickers today." Each essay is also accentuated with paintings by Kate Wright. Wright is obviously inspired by Van Stappen's writing. The paintings interact superbly with each essay. In his essay, "Ephemeral Like Clouds", Van Stappen writes about clouds of mayflies (Aurora ephemeralis) appearing everywhere in his hometown, Washburn. He writes, "They didn't spread themselves evenly like some insectile fog, but instead clustered in discrete, cloud-like swarms resembling miniature thunderstorms. Within each swarm there was a continuous circulation of mayflies rising and falling as if in updrafts and downdrafts." Wright's painting depicts the whirligig desires of mayflies, flocking to a lit cabin window. Hunters, birdwatchers, cabin owners, and fishermen will love this book. Vacationers heading for Northern Wisconsin and Lake Superior can enhance their trips with it. Residents of the region will find these essays a warming balm in the long winter nights. With it's sense of timelessness, "Northern Passages", will hopefully make it into the shelves of libraries and family favorites.

Northern Passages: Reflections from Lake Superior Country by Michael Van Stappen

Reviewed by Matt Welter

If there is one word the sums up Michael Van Stappen's collection of nature essays, it is "timelessness". Each of these essays slows down time while fishing for steelhead, condenses time in a Lake Superior fall bird migration, turns on the time-lapse camera of glacial time and rekindles the time-suspended fun of playing in the waves. Van Stappen's naturalist eye and poetic style draws his reader in. A writer for Wisconsin Outdoor Journal and 1996 Pippistrelle Best of the Small Press Winner, Van Stappen's collection of Lake Superior essays puts this achievement in the osprey's nest: high above and easy to spot. In his essay about blueberry picking, his dry wit can be found: "After all, our opposable thumb and forefinger didn't develop just to flick coins into vending machines. We were berry pickers before we were tool users and are still berry pickers today." Each essay is also accentuated with paintings by Kate Wright. Wright is obviously inspired by Van Stappen's writing. The paintings interact superbly with each essay. In his essay, "Ephemeral Like Clouds", Van Stappen writes about clouds of mayflies (Aurora ephemeralis) appearing everywhere in his hometown, Washburn. He writes, "They didn't spread themselves evenly like some insectile fog, but instead clustered in discrete, cloud-like swarms resembling miniature thunderstorms. Within each swarm there was a continuous circulation of mayflies rising and falling as if in updrafts and downdrafts." Wright's painting depicts the whirligig desires of mayflies, flocking to a lit cabin window. Hunters, birdwatchers, cabin owners, and fishermen will love this book. Vacationers heading for Northern Wisconsin and Lake Superior can enhance their trips with it. Residents of the region will find these essays a warming balm in the long winter nights. With it's sense of timelessness, "Northern Passages", will hopefully make it into the shelves of libraries and family favorites.

This book is a collection of discrete essays on the theme of the Baltic or Northern wars. In the period following the end of the crusading in the Baltic region four key players emerged to contend for control of the crusader states. These were Sweden, Denmark, Russia and Poland/Lithuania.

Frost analyses the rises and falls of the influence of each of the states over time with regard to a number of factors.
1. He looks at the makeup of the military machines in each state. The ratio of professional and conscript soldiers. The makeup of the officer corps. The percentage of cavalry to infantry. The adoption of firearms, the development of the Huzzar to replace heavy cavalry, the failure of early mounted musketeers against Polish cavalry shock tactics and the ability of well drilled infantry to frustrate cavalry ambitions as practiced by the Swedes.
2. He looks at the relationship between ruler and state, from the wholly autocratic Russian system to the almost democratic Polish and Lithuanian system. The income of ruler and state such as the ability of Danish kings to act autonomously of their parliament due to the money from sound dues etc.
3. He looks (most interesting to me) at the ability of nations to fund war. The cost of standing armies and mercenaries. The need to vote extraordinary funds to armies in times of national peril. The difference in support given to rulers by landowner classes in periods of defence against an agressive neighbour and in periods of national expansion. His analysis of the economics of war is where Frost excels.
4. He also places the northern wars in their temporal, historical and geographical context by commenting on the developments in Western Europe, the 30 years war, the wars of the protestant reformation, the expansion of the Ottoman Turks in the south of the region, the incursions by Tatars from the asian steppes etc.
5. He analyses the impact of war on the societal makeup of the countries in the region. How landownership and serfdom developed, the evolution of the Cossack class, and so on.

If you are looking for an adventure story about knights charging into battle this is probably not the book for you. If you are looking for real history on the different approaches that can be taken to wage war, and how these strategies played out in short and long term, then this is a very useful read.

Because they are discrete essays it is possible to deal with them one at a time. Although the essays move chronologically through time, they deal with different sets of players and different types of tensions. Frost strives to uncover why any given set of strategies was successful in the time period where they worked.

... what more could one possibly ask for in 400 pages? Between 1558 and 1720 the Baltic region was in an almost constant state of war. It began as a quadrangular contest for hegemony, Denmark vs. Russia vs. Sweden vs. Poland, and marked the evolution, in three of these states, of a modern military system led by an autocratic ruler. The unwillingness of fourth, Poland-Lithuania, to adapt its constitution and embrace a militarized state, led directly to its demise. Frost is quick, however, to combat the "traditional" Western history which is dismissive of Eastern military tactics and glibly attributes Russia's early setbacks and Poland's later humiliation to supposed "backwardness." As he explains, the great institutions of the East, such as the Polish cavalry, owed their existence to local conditions and geography. Nor was there any intrinsic reason why Tsarist Russia, as opposed to another political unit, should emerge victorious in the end. The one intriguing element in this drama is the rapid emergence and equally precipitous collapse of Sweden: the first mention of King Charles XII, doomed genius of the North, will quicken the pulse of even the most jaded reader. This is a great piece of scholarly writing.

It is common knowledge that Germans were very dissatisfied with the terms of the treaty of Versailles after World War I, and that Germany's attack on Poland began the World War II in Europe. But not many know of the Versailles treaty's impact on Germany's eastern frontiers, and what the long-term historical background was for Hitler's invasion and the vicious occupation policies in Poland. Blanke's book is an important addition to our understanding of both issues.

To understand why German-Polish relations became so poisonous, one must look back into the 19th century (Blanke covers this earlier period in another book). The eastern borderlands of Germany (most of which belonged to Poland until the late 18th century) had a mixed German and Polish population, and Polish nationalists agitated to maintain ethnic separatism there in the hope of one day restoring the Polish state which had disappeared from the map of Europe in 1815. Germany tried to combat this resistance to assimilation with harsh and discriminatory methods that only alienated the Poles further.

After its defeat in World War I, Germany lost very important and very large chunks of territory that were claimed as Polish: Pomerania (the area around Gdansk/Danzig, called the Polish Corridor, which separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany), Poznan, and the coal-rich and heavily industrialized Upper Silesia. The new Polish government enacted policies determined to drive the German minority out of Poland so as to remove a potential fifth column; and besides, the well-to-do Germans owned a great deal of property which could be taken away and re-distributed. To achieve a German-free Poland, every form of chicanery and harassment was commplace, with occasional resort to outright violence. Poland's minortiy policies generated more complaints to the League of Nations than those of any other country, not just from Germans but from the far more numerous Ukranians as well.

It goes without saying that nothing could justify Germany's ferocious, genocidal treatment of Poland in World War II, and Blanke's book is neither an attempt to revive old quarrels, nor a pro-German polemic. It is, however, a useful aid in developing a judicious understanding of the tumultuous inter-war period.

It is common knowledge that Germans were very dissatisfied with the terms of the treaty of Versailles after World War I, and that Germany's attack on Poland began the World War II in Europe. But not many know of the Versailles treaty's impact on Germany's eastern frontiers, and what the long-term historical background was for Hitler's invasion and the vicious occupation policies in Poland. Blanke's book is an important addition to our understanding of both issues. To understand why German-Polish relations became so poisonous, one must look back into the 19th century (Blanke covers this earlier period in another book). The eastern borderlands of Germany (most of which belonged to Poland until the late 18th century) had a mixed German and Polish population, and Polish nationalists agitated to maintain ethnic separatism there in the hope of one day restoring the Polish state which had disappeared from the map of Europe in 1815. Germany tried to combat this resistance to assimilation with heavy-handed and often discriminatory methods that only alienated the Poles further. After its defeat in World War I, Germany lost very important and very large chunks of territory that were claimed as Polish: Pomerania (the area around Gdansk/Danzig, called the Polish Corridor, which separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany), Poznan, and the coal-rich and heavily industrialized Upper Silesia. The new Polish government enacted policies determined to drive the German minority out of Poland so as to remove a potential fifth column; and besides, the well-to-do Germans owned a great deal of property which could be taken away and re-distributed. To achieve a German-free Poland, every form of chicanery and harassment was commplace, with occasional resort to outright violence. Poland's minortiy policies generated more complaints to the League of Nations than those of any other country, not just from Germans but from the far more numerous Ukranians as well. It goes without saying that nothing could justify Germany's ferocious, genocidal treatment of Poland in World War II, and Blanke's book is neither an attempt to revive old quarrels, nor a pro-German polemic. It is, however, a useful aid in developing a judicious understanding of the tumultuous inter-war period.

I would have given it a higher rating if it had at least given credit to the entire roster of 500 men hand picked to be Riflemen. The original Roster as complete as possible would have been nice. It seems to only center around a few not the entire regiment. All of these unnamed men were just as brave as the few written about, many of them suffered with the rest of the men at Valley Forge and elsewhere and stayed with the Riflemen to the end of the war.
While it gives a good account of the some of the deeds performed by Morgan's men, it should have been more centered on the entire group not just a few. Maybe there will be a follow up with more emphasis on the entire regiment?

This well-researched book provides valuable insight for the Revolutionary War student. While scholarly and fact driven, it makes this place and time in our history particularly accessible. It is especially of interest to those who would understand the significant role of the common man. Take special note of the photographs and the painstakingly presented appendices. Also, a nice bibliography is offered for further reading.

In the introduction, Higgins wrote that this is one of his personal favourite and after reading it, I can see why.

The story is simple : an ex-Brit élite soldier, Simon Vaughan, was given choice of 15 years in a most undesirable prison, or a dirty job on behalf of Her Majesty's government. The job consisted of infiltrating the IRA, posing as an arms dealer, locate a shipment of gold stolen by the IRA to be used as the war-chest, neutralise the threat of a certain Michael Cork who masterminded the heist.

The development is anything but. From the start, it was a game of deadly deception between the G-men and the IRAs, not just one, but 2 competing factions. Simon found Michael Cork too cautious to get near, and had to deal through the latter's niece Norah, a Harvard-trained doctor who had seen too much death, and her bodyguard Binnie, still believing in an honourable war. Frank Barry, leader of the rival IRA faction, also wants the gold, and the arms, and seems to shadow Simon and his group at every step.

Through their conversation, readers cannot help but feel sad at the state of affairs - it had definitely gone beyond where any side can claim higher moral grounds, yet it cannot seem to stop or the victims might just lose any cause to go on living with their pain. Almost everyone has a decent reason for what they do, whether it be the IRA or the British government. And almost everyone has their hand in some unforgivable misdeed.

Higgins set out to write from his personal experiences and of those around him and he succeeded in describing the situation as a no-win for anyone but pain for everyone. It was also a warning against simplifying the heroes and the villains, but also to focus on the real victims, people who had to live with the bombings and shootings while simply trying to lead a normal live.

Jack Higgins has created some wonderful characters, starting back with Liam Devlin in the Eagle Has Landed. He has used the device of rescuing a potential lead character from prison or death sentences in the past and Simon Vaughn appears to be the newest. The story moved with Higgins' usual pace: action-filled, developed story line and interesting characters. Worthy of a read.