The Glorious Revolution had major implications for the British subjects in America, and the resulting Whig constitution helped the American colonists to define their position with regard to the King. Price's book combines political theory with historical detail, showing how the colonists adopted Whig thought and adapted it to their purposes. Yet the notion of the King as representative of the people, protecting their basic rights and implementing their popular will, left no room in the colonies for the roles of appointed Governor or overseas Parliament. The resulting conflicts, according to Price, helped erode relations between England and America. This is a lovely book, that makes a real contribution to the historiography of the pre-revolutionary period.

When one of my daughters was choosing her college major, she had a memorable insight. "Students' lack of interest in the hard sciences may be attributable to their limited experience with them in high school. We think we know what historians do,or writers do, but we do not get enough high school math, or chemistry, or physics to imagine a life in those professions." I think that that observation accounts for the high number of people who fall into the "family business." Disproportionately, children of actors become actors, children of lawyers, become lawyers, children of physicians become physicians. The next cut would be friends of children of actors, lawyers, physicians, etc., who have had an opportunity to see into those lives.

In ODYSSEY IN PRIME TIME, Robert Lewis Shayon takes his readers into his life in media. Shayon reminds me of Henry Adams and the Zen master and scholar, D.T. Suzuki, not because their demeanors and personalities are alike, though that may be true, but because they are insightful witnesses of seismic changes in civilization. Adams lived well into the 20th century, but looked back through his grandfather to the 18th. Suzuki was born in Japan, about 1870, and lived to the middle 1960s, i.e., from ox cart to jet. He saw himself as a bridge between East and West, but he was also a bridge between then and now.

Shayon was born about the same time as radio, and has been intimately involved in every aspect of electronic and print media in the 20th century: writer, producer, director, critic, professor. I have known Shayon for more than 30 years, and I have had the pleasure of working with him. That gave me pause, when I thought about writing a review, but I realized quickly that everyone of a certain age and experience knows Shayon. Besides, I knew his work first. That was what drew me to him.

I was disappointed in the first 50 or 60 pages. It seemed to move too quickly, like a television biography that has to cover a century in an hour. But I realized that I had a double agenda. I was at least as interested in what had formed Shayon's character. Born into a poor and dysfunctional family, he "sprang," like the Great Gatsby, "from his platonic conception of himself:" a loving, polished, intellectual, family man, who drinks tea at four o'clock.

Shayon is less interested in his own life story. For the most part, he shows us only the aspects of his life tht relate to the development of radio and television. But the book grows more detailed, as radio and television and Shayon become more important. And I could not put it down, from the end of the Great Depression through the war years and the attacks of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, to his time at the Annenberg School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Over the course of his odyssey, Shayon sums up the story of communications. Radio comes of age with great potential to inform and educate and elevate the public. But advertisers are more interested in maximizing profits. Television has even more potential, and is degraded even faster. And cyberspace offers "virtually" unlimited information and connectivity, but only to those fortunate people who have the means to buy equipment and access.

Some of the hottest new majors for today's college students are in communications and the mass media. But most of the students who sign up for that world have no idea of the costs and benefits and obligations of being in it. The difference between success and failure (personal as well as professional) can hinge on a few decisions. And often we have no one to advise us. Shayon is like the father of your best friend, wanting the best for you and from you, telling you objectively about his failures as well as his success, in hopes that you will profit from his experience. That experience was as varied as it was long. As an eminent critic and professor, he influenced and was influenced (he is a champion listener) by almost everyone who mattered.

If I were teaching a course in mass communications, I would want my students to read this book. If I cared about anyone thinking of choosing that life, I would send her this book. And I am planning on sending my present copy to my eighty-five year old parents, who will enjoy reliving its time.

If you grew up in the South, you have to love Lewis Grizzard. He describes his life and loves with all the evocative phrases and drawls that bring back relatives long dead (or at least not seen for a while). And my husband, who grew up in Pennsylvania, finds it even funnier than I do!

I loved the wonderfully concise stories in this book (one minute may be all the time your little one will sit still!) The illustrations were also beautiful.

I first found this book at the library. It is wonderful. The stories are very interesting (to the young and not so young). It is a great book for bedtime because "just one more" doesn't take too long!

As a speed trainer and a college coach I was looking for a book that could help in relating to the upper echelon athlete. This book not only did that but served as instruction in discipline, faith, focus and courage. Carl Lewis is without a doubt one of our nation's modern heroes. His constant drive to be the best is a testimony that dreams behind work, can successfully be accomplished. This is a book not only for the track athlete or athletes of different sport but to the human race. It is without reservation or fear of contradiction that I reccomend this book for the competitor in us all.

As far as non-fiction work goes the perspective the author has is quite important and in this case the author gets the brass ring. At the time this book was written it was rather unusual for a women to have 30 years of experience, in the field of journalism.The gender of a person should not have anything to do with intellect, but this is something worth noting. As far as perspectives goes it should also be noted that the husband of the author was the Bureau Chief for the New York Time's Paris France office.

What makes this book somewhat unique is that it covers some history that is not provided anywhere else and it was written at the time it occurred. Very few people know about the events this book presents and the research and presentation of the players involved in it was well done and presented.Having read quite a few books I have only seen one reference to the events covered by this book, and the facts presented were incorrect.

The three areas of history this book presents are: The US use of B52 bombers as part of the strategic defence policy in the 1960's; the incident of the air crash that resulted in four H-bombs being dropped upon Spain (None of them resulted in a nuclear explosion, but this is the main focus of the book); and the first use of deep water submersible vehicles.

To give you some idea how crazy this bit of history is, one of the items described by this book follows. The air crash that resulted in the four h-bombs being dropped upon Spain occurred at about 10 AM. These by the way were one mega-ton bombs. Two of the bombs were quickly found. However it was not until nightfall that a US general and a Spanish military person began to search for the other missing bombs. They did this with a flashlight about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and after a few hours of searching they gave up. That may give you an idea of how crazy the actions associated with event were.

The US government handled this situations so badly that they ended up letting the USSR inspect the recovered bomb, (Not some the US wanted to do), but because of the great deal of misinformation and other poor management that had occurred in dealing with this problem this happened.

The bottom line here is I do not feel that I can do this book the justice it deserves in what has been presented here. As with many episodes in history there are often a cast of colorable figures and it is felt this book does a great job in describing the characters as well as the events and much of the perspectives at the time the history being covered was written about.

This is my first effort in providing a review here, and does not feel that I have done a very good job, so I will take another approach. A few years ago I bought this book from my library at a sidewalk sale for less than 10 cents. After some discussion with the reference librarian, I managed to get this book put back in to the library. The winning argument that did this was, "It does not matter if a book is not checked out for 20 or even 30 years, you do not throw history away". Something that goes against this thinking all to often, is we have to make our decisions based upon the polls.

To say that this book covers one of the most bazaar events in American history may be an understatement.

I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in what the life of a true pioneer was like. It is a great read about a great man.

The illustrations are the real standout - they almost tell the story without the text. My children and I have really enjoyed the lifelike detail in the drawings of the little boy, his friend Sarah and their adventures on the farm. The text is beautifully written - simple and sweet. A lovely storybook experience to share with a preschooler.