This title is currently being revised. While the latest title, the 6th edition, is available at this time, a new, 7th edition will be available in May 2002. These walks are interesting and for the most part easy. More, new walks are being added to the new edition, the best of what is already there will be kept....

In this fascinating book, Genovese examines the attemptsmade by antebellum Southern intellectuals like John C.Calhoun, James Henley Thornwell, George Fitzhugh, and others to reconcile the American love of freedom with the slavery they saw all around them. Genovese points out, Yankee propaganda to the contrary, that these men were, in their various fields, as formidable a group of intellects as America has ever produced. But their task was, of course, impossible. As usual, this book is essential for understanding the antebellum South.

This book is a very good overall study of the philosophy of Jeffersonian John Taylor of Caroline. The author gives a great synopsis of Taylor's views on such topics as agrarianism, republicanism, democracy, and limited federalgovernment.Taylor's philosophy on separation of powers instead of John Adam's balance of the orders of democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy. Taylor rejects this view and shows how such a system actually " divides people" and " concentrates power". Taylor is the consistant exponent of Jeffersonian Republicanism, espousing a doctrine at odds with judicial review, nationalism ,and mercantilism. Overall a great buy.

The value of this book is that it examines software process improvement from the perspective of business value instead of why it makes sense from a software engineering process point of view. I found this refreshing because too many books on this topic are focused on the technical advantages and give lip service to business benefits, if they are mentioned at all.

Another interesting aspect of this book is the chapter on using the Capability Maturity Model with small projects and/or in small organizations. The discussion shows how a 'heavy' process improvement approach can be effectively used to good advantage in scaled-down environments. Considering how many large organizations are struggling with implementing the CMM this chapter alone makes buying this book worthwhile because it shows how to get a handle on the daunting task of implementing the CMM.

Parts of the book that I especially like are: Communicating Project Drift Through Cost/Benefit Scenarios and Linking Strategies To Organizational Goals. Another strong chapter is Technical Infrastructure for Process Support, which provides clear direction for implementing a process-based paradigm.

This book is not a primary text on the subject and is probably not the first that someone new to SPI should turn to (I recommend Successful Software Process Improvement by Robert B. Grady as an introductory text), but is full of practical ideas for someone who works with SPI.

So much literature on prayer comes off being rather fluffy and ethereal, however, Forsyth's "Soul of Prayer" is food for our minds. To really grow in our prayer we must think very hard about what prayer is and what happens as a result in our own hearts. Forsyth helps the reader to examine his/her own heart with complete ruthlessness, and yet the process does not result in fear, but joy. Joy, I think, because now we are freed a little more from the bondage of our perceived self and have come to know our real self. "The Soul of Prayer" is not a "quick fix" for obstacles in our prayer life, rather, it delves deeply into our motivations; into our values; into our convictions about why we are involved in prayer at all. The reader will find numerous ideas in this book to which the only reasonable response is an immediate prayer of thanks to God. A book about prayer that prompts the reader to pray with each turned page is a book that should not be ignored. I highly recommend it.

The Soul Of Southern Cooking is a wonderful combination of recipes and stories that evoke a time when black families had to make-do in the midst of hard times, yet were able to develop and enjoy a variety of delicious meals with a culinary tradition popularly referred to as "soul food". From Homemade Hog Head Souse; Neckbone and Macaroni Stew; Delta Fried Catfish; and Sunday's Fried Corn; to Boiled Chicken Feet and Legs; Stovetop Roast Beef; Celery Seed Dressing; Ten-Minute Oven Pecan Brittle; and Mrs. Hunter's Southern Tea Cakes, The Soul Of Southern Cooking fully lives up to its title and will prove a welcome and unique addition to the family cookbook collection.

I first find out about this book because there is a sublime hint in my all-favorite movie Antonioni's "The Passenger". David Locke, a hero, is about to succumb to a deep unconsciousness calling to embark on the journey towards his destiny of loneliness and death - there, by a shade of his reading lamp, is the "The soul of the Ape".

Eugene Marais, was a South African lawyer, physician and journalist, and the semi-professional etiologist. After the devastating effect of the Boer war on his country, Marais and companion retreat to the remote canyon in Transvaal to study the behavior of the troop of baboons. The books main thesis that there are 2 types of memory - the philetic, e.g. instinctual genetic memory, and the experiential, intellectual memory reinforced by learning. Those two parallel trends follow the aspects of the life of the baboons - hunting, orientation, and the supremely human trends such as drug addiction and elaborate sexual behavior. Marais concludes, that there are so much more in the "soul" of the ape, which resembles the traits of our own species.

Overall, the book is a fascinating read, and was a very forward-looking research in his strange time of hesitation, after the disallusement with Freud and before Lorenz and Watson.

Just managed to get a copy, and it is well worth the money I spent. As an avid food historian, this document being made available is invaluable to determining the cultural influences in the modern chinese humoral theory of food as medicine. I plan to spend many hours both finding many of the rare ingredients and recreating the foods as part of my studies.

Eugene Genovese must be the most interesting writer inAmerica. This New York-born professed Marxist analyzesconservatism more thoroughly and respectfully than many conservatives do. And one cannot grasp the antebellum South, which he treats just as respectfully, without him. In this little book, Genovese effectively argues that Southern conservatism is different from, and occasionally hostile to, what most people think of as conservatism. Southern conservatives are conservatives of community and tradition rather than Limbaughian market worshippers. Essential.

A half-century later, the Southwest Pacific Campaign of World War Two still has the capacity to raise the blood pressure of veterans and scholars alike.
No other theater can boast such a profusion of contradictory writing; official, semi-official, and unofficial, with personality conflicts, territorial disputes, and enough fundamental disagreements to make a reader wonder if everyone is talking about the same war. Rasor sorts it all out with impeccable selection, rational organization, and calm evaluation, bringing welcome reason to a field long dominated by partisans. His work should find much use among serious students of the campaign, and is an excellent starting place for anyone interested in the Southwest Pacific.

(The "score" rating is an ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)