The Best reference source available for underground mine lighting, both from a historical perspective and a collectors. Simply a must have, and a lifetime Labor of love by Henry Pohs.

This is an amazing compilation of historic and technical information on underground lighting used in mines and caves throughout history. It contains detailed drawings, part numbers, manufacturer information, advertising photos and historical references that cannot be found elsewhere. A great reference for antique lighting collectors and dealers. Obviously a labor of love by the author.

This is a wonderful collection of pithy Mencken writings which you may often see quoted. If you have no intention of reading his full essays, read this. This was one of the best bathroom books I have ever had. It is funny, amusing, nihilistic, and condescendingly brutal (or is it brutally condescending?). Mencken writes with the authority of a god, but one with a strong sense of humor and an honest reverence for honesty. This is one of the most original, interesting, and inspirational American writers period. So pick up a copy and see your illusions melt away.

Chock-full of interesting and valuable insights, Minority Report encapsulates much of the Mencken oeuvre. The author never leaves room for doubt about his meaning. Not a few of the notebook entries reveal that Mencken had an inclination towards the visionary, as when he treats of scientific subjects. Mencken means everything he says; and although his writing has a very sharp flavor, his implicit message to the reader is that he is being as honest as possible within the confines of his own talents of reasoning and understanding. Mencken offends only insofar as the reader is guilty of taking himself too seriously. As the average entry is relatively brief, Minority Report accommodates all those who love to read deep but fun literature yet who find themselves always in a hurry with little time to devote to prolonged readings. Enthusiasts of H.L. Mencken will be pleased to find his hallmark of iconoclasm stamped on every page of Minority Report. For those new to Mencken, this is a good place to start. Those who have smarted aplenty from his other writings, either from too much laughter or from having watched their cherished preconceived notions herded to the slaughterhouse, should be pleasantly surprised by the depth, range and poignancy of H.L. Mencken's notebooks.

Henry Cloud and John Townsend'a books are revolutionary in the authors' abilities to connect with their readers. All of the previous literature on boundaries, keeping safe in relationships, understanding the core of what hooks an individual into a dysfunctional relationship, as well as the healing process, pales in comparison with their powerful works. I highly recommend and give their books to all my clients, family and friends! I applaud Amazon.com for offering these books and encourage others to order through the website. Other Cloud and Townsend titles I highly recommend are: Boundaries; Boundaries With Kids; Safe People; Changes That Heal.

I thought I had the best Mom in the world...she always seemed to do the right thing! Then, I lost her when I turned 30 years old. All of a sudden, I had no one to turn to for advice. I knew I wasn't communicating well with my three girls ages 10, 14 and 15 years and I needed to know what to do to increase our communication skills. I attended a book review of The Mom Factor and was amazed to find out that just because I always did what Mom expected didn't necessarily mean that I had a right to expect my own children to be just like me. I was able to discover that I am the way I am because of the way I was mothered. I still believe that Mom was the best Mom that she could be but none of us are perfect! This book has helped me to discover that there are certain things that I have done as a mother that will affect my girls for the rest of their lives. I also am able to catch myself when I find that I am responding to them in such a way that will not be good for them in the long run. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a mother, who will become a mother or who has a mother! You will soon discover some interesting facts about why you are the way you are

A reading of Richard Brookhiser's recent (and highly recommended) *America's First Dynasty* sent me back to *Mont Saint Michel and Chartres*, a book I hadn't read in thirty years. I'm glad I returned to it, because a few years have, I trust, put me in a better position to appreciate what's going on in the book.

On one level, the most obvious one, Adam's book is a sometimes idiosyncratic history of Medieval art, literature, and religion that takes as its center of gravity the great Gothic cathedrals of the period--structures that Adams thinks sum up what the middle ages are all about. To read the book on this level alone is fine. It provides intriguing insights into, for example, courtly love and the cult of Mary.

But I now believe that, at a deeper level, the book is disguised autobiography on the one hand and a backhanded history of Adams's own time on the other. An at times overwhelming sense of nostalgia permeates the book. In reading Adams on the 11th century mystics, the debates of the schoolmen, the chansons of the troubadours, and the unified worldview of the middle ages, one can almost hear him sigh with longing to return to a world which, he thinks, was whole, unfractured, and pure--a world, as the medievals themselves would've said, which reflects "integritas." This reveals a great deal about the restless, unquiet nature of Henry Adams the man. But it also reveals the restless, unquiet nature of the modern era which spawned and molded him: the gilded age, the fast-paced first wave of capitalism, secularism, and consumerism, which has no center of gravity, no art, no tradition. And even though we claim to be living in a "postmodern" age, it seems to me that a great deal of the qualities Adams deplored in his own times are still with us and account for our own sense of homelessness.

*Mont Saint Michel and Chartres,* then, is more than a quaint turn-of-the-last-century history. Read correctly, it's also a mirror of our present discontent. Highly recommended.

Twenty years ago, I first read this book and was driven by Adams' compelling study of these two cathedrals to spend a decade studying Medieval and Renaissance literature. Adams at times finds his enthusiasm for his subjects embarrassing, but gives in to it nevertheless and writes a brilliant and joyous paean to these cathedrals and to the spirit that created them. Rereading this book now, twenty years later, I remember the thrill of reading it the first time, and it sparks my own enthusiasm all over again.

This is a wonderful book that offers trenchant insight into the French experience during the Great War. I found this book profoundly moving at times and my understanding of what that war meant to the identity of France was greatly enriched. Well worth the price to the serious student of the era.

This beautifully done book presents a unique perspective of the war memorials that pervade France. The meaning of these monuments is often ignored or forgotten by the casual traveler, but anyone who reads this book will most certainly feel that they are seeing these reminders of sacrifice for the first time. With insight and distinctive understanding, Ms. Henry examines what these markers say to us today and in the process brings the past to life. Scholarly, moving, and superbly written, the reader will never look at a memorial to the fallen without consideration again. An important contribution to understanding the French experience of war and how that nation's past sacrifice is remembered and perceived by its people. Ernest Pessler, O.F.M.

"More Forgotten Towns..." is no cheap knock off of the 1st one. At over 300 pages, it doesnt repeat or rehash a single town of the first book (as far as I can tell). Again, there are many good stories here, from the 'Blue Hole' to 'Old Fort Billings' to numerous old towns that came and went with the businesses that were built upon them (be it mills or glass blowing factories) and finally to the Forked River Mountains.
If you at all enjoyed or were interested in the first, you won't be dissapointed in this one.
Highly recommended!

This book is the companion volume to the original "Forgotten Towns of Southern New Jersey". If you own one of them, you must own the other. Excellent for discovering how things used to be (and still are, in some cases). If you live in NJ, and love local history, you need to buy this book.

I was hooked on Hank's book from the first few pages. I am seriously into genealogy and always believed there was a higher power that led me to information I would never have found any other way.

The naysayers can say whatever they want but there is no "logical" explanation that can explain how people found long sought for, critical information for their genealogical research by having a book come off the shelf and land on the floor to the page containing that information or how they picked up a book that they didn't give a second thought to and opened up the page to where the information was.

I had loads of fun reading this and highly recommend this book to people who think how they found some information was "strange."

I have never been into genealogy, but this book gave me a lot of thoughts about odd things that have happended to me over the years. Many times I just thought they were "Meer Coincidences", now I am truly wondering if there was not more involved. This book was loaned to me by a friend who is very "into genealogy research". I thought that this was not my type reading material, but I did not want to offend her. Once I picked the book up and started reading, I could not put it down !!

What makes Dietrich's book of special interest is its emphasis on the development of the Morgenthau Plan(1945-48) -- the precursor to the Marshall Plan (1949-53). Although drafted largely by a relatively unknown economic policy wonk named Harry Dexter White,in fact it is Roosevelt's Treasury Secretary, the venerable Henry Morgenthau,Jr. who is credited with orchestrating the implementation of his eponymous plan.
Unlike the subsequent Marshall Plan which historians credit with Postwar European recovery, the Morgenthau Plan was in fact a punitive measure designed to extract a goodly portion of "vegeance" from the German people by literally ensuring that the wrecked German economy would remain so.
Dietrich, drawing on contemporary historical sources, makes a convincing argument that initial US Postwar policy towards Europe -- particularly economic policy -- was largely crafted by Stalin and his fellow comrades in the Kremlin via Harry White (most probably a communist/marxist sympathizer). Dietrich also highlights the fact, again using sources from extant literature, that implementation of the sinister Morgenthau plan resulted in mass starvation, rampant disease, and death in Germany and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe during the period from 1945-48.
In short, Dietrich's work paints a picture of postwar Europe that is considerably drearier than most accounts of the period. It also affixes blame for much of the suffering in Europe during this time squarely on the shoulders of US policy-makers. From my own personal viewpoint, Dietrich's book revealed that some of the historical figures who are generally regarded as men who
respected human dignity --- were not so kindly after all. Readers will find FDR and Truman, among others, were enthusiastic supporters of the Morgentahu plan and harbored a deep animosity towards the German people. In short, especially for younger generations of Americans who weren't yet born during the last great war of the 20th century, this book is a real eye-opener.

I would highly recommend this book to serious historians as well as amateurs alike. As far as I know it is the only book that covers American post war policy toward Germany in such detail. Also, it brings us informations that are surprising and shocking as far as communist influence of the highest political spheares in the U.S. is concerned. I am of the eastern european heritage, and I thought myself to be well learned in the subject of history, especially european history, yet "the morgenthau plan" unveiled events completly new to me and I belive to many readers concerned with the subject. In short the book seems to be bottomless well of information on the subject previously avoided by other authors which fact makes it that much more valuable. Lets hope more books will follow.

I remember the stories about these murders and of unexplained disappearances, in Fall River's Herald News, in 1979 and the early 80's. The novel displays photos and is complete with text containing amazing and horrific details of the crimes committed. There is still a case, which may be connected to Carl Drew, regarding the murdered bodies of a number of New Bedford prostitutes discovered along the highway between Fall River and New Bedford. But there hasn't been any evidence, to date, to support that theory by the police investigators in the case. You couldn't have grown up in Bristol County, MA without hearing the about the Borden Murders of 1892. And then this happened only 88 years later. This novel chillingly accounts the details of how each of these victims were help captive in life and their brutal demise.

After living in the city of Fall River, Massachusettes, for a few years, I became very interested in the city's rich history of murder. Ghost stories that came true in the very place that you are standing. Those stories began with Lizy Borden. Then I found out about Carl Drew through this book. The darkness had once again returned to disrupt the lives of the denizens of a sea side New England town. The city has been bathed in blood and I can only imagine, what will happen next. After all, doesn't history repeat itself?

from New York Times Book Review, May 15, 1983: Anna Kisselgoff: "Parker's reputation rests upon his drama criticism,...so,... his pioneering role as a dance critic will come as a surprise to many. It might also have remained neglected had not Olive Holmes been inspired to compile and edit, with lucid connecting texts, an invaluable selection of Parker's dance criticism from the Transcript." [In 1922 Isadora Duncan bared a breast before a Boston audience, and H.T.P. was there. He was not impressed. But he nevertheless appreciated that she had] "widened the expressive scope and vivedness of the dance...and increased its humanity."

Edited by Olive Holmes, who studied at the Denishawn House, and danced with the Mimi Winslow Company in the 1930's, this book covers the exciting early years of modern dance, when Isadora Duncan and others were bringing a revolution to the world of dance. Parker, known as HTP, reviewed all the important dance events of the period. Olive Holmes puts the reviews in historical context, and provides insightful commentary on HTP and his time. The book is illustrated with the delightful line drawings that accompanied the original reviews.