C.D. Huneycutt's book is little more than a side-stapled pamphlet, full of research gaps and leaps of logic. That said, the work is marvelous fun, full of inventive theories, thought-provoking commentary, and an obvious love of the subject. The prose style is straight-forward and readable. Well worth the money.

The "Doors to America's Past" series is different because it focuse on specific places, like the Alamo and St. Augustine, and the stories they have to tell. "Alamo: Battle of Honor and Freedom" tells the story of the 188 men who sacrificed their lives at the mission/fort in San Antonio in the struggle for the independence of Texas. Linda R. Wade begins with the story of San Antonio, then talks briefly about how the immigration of American settles into Texas resulted in a rebellion against Mexico by the Texicans. After talking about the some of the men who went to the Alamo, which includes ordinary volunteer Green B. Jameson as well as the more famous Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett, Wade details what happened on each of the 13 days of the Battle of the Alamo (although technically, it was really a siege). These details are probably the strongest part of the book (e.g., on Day 5 Santa Anna ordered his musicians to play music to keep the Alamo's defenders awake; the following night Crockett played his fiddle and another man his bagpipes to cheer up the men). After telling about the brief Mexican victory, which was reversed at the Battle of San Jacinto, the lengthiest chapter of the book talks about San Antonio Today. I have to admit, I did not expect to see a photograph of Killer Whales in a book about the Alamo. However, given that one of the things that happens when you read about American history and get excited is that you want to go and visit the historic places you read about, this tourist-friendly section seems reasonable enough to me. In addition to the contemporary photographs of what to see and do in San Antonio, there are historic pictures of the siege of the Alamo and its defenders. Students and teachers looking for more details about the siege of the Alamo than they find in their American history textbook will find this a good source for details.

I really enjoyed this book and so did my three children (11, 10, 9). We read the book together because we were interested in learning more about San Antonio and the Alamo. The book gives the reader a brief tour of the river walk and the Alamo as viewed by two armadillos. The main plot revolves around Jim Bowie and his famous knife. It was a fun book for kids and had just enough suspense to even keep my 5th grader involved. This would be a good book for a Primary teacher to use with a social studies unit on Texas or the Alamo.

If you have followed the security problems at the Los Alamos National Laboratories in the year 2000, this should be required reading. In less than 100 pages of text, Richard Melzer outlines the World War II history of security at this critical atomic bomb lab.

Chapter 1 outlines the WW II security at the lab. Some security requirements/efforts were almost laughable. The chapter ends noting that the lab "was considered the most guarded, most sensitive secretive military or civilian installation in the United States during World War II". The author notes that "in theory" the secret of the atomic bomb was as safe as humanly possible so that not even the vice president of the United States knew about the project. The tight security requirements caused severe problems with the scientists and technicians who resented the restrictions on their academic freedom, right of association and travel.

Chapter 2 tells how, in practice, security was compromised when confronted with reality. The chapter discusses three major security breakdowns: #1 Security Clearances, #2 Information Access and #3 Relaxed Travel Restrictions. Melzer ends the chapter with the statement that "As any burglar knows, the keys to a successful theft, be it of real property or of ideas, are entry, access and exit. It was only a matter of time before eager spies exploited these flaws and carried out the greatest theft of the twentieth century, the secret to the atomic bomb."

Chapter 3 gives proof of security comprises outlining the cases of three Soviet Spies; #1: Klaus Fuchs, #2: Theodore Hall and #3: David Greenglass. Stating that there was enough blame to go around for the security lapse , the author places the blame at the top on the project managers, Oppenheimer and General Groves. However, Melzer further states that Groves and Oppenheimer probably could not have kept "the lid on" and still completed the construction and testing of the bomb by July 1945. Completing the atomic bomb by July 1945 may have saved thousands of American military casualties plus countless Japanese military and civilian lives.

A History Channel (? ) TV program on the Soviet atomic development program stated that the Soviets had a viable atomic program. The program made the intriguing statement that the spy information from the Manhattan Project, while helpful, only advanced the Soviet program no more than 2 years. In other words, the Soviets probably would have had the atomic bomb in 1951 or 1952 anyway and the Cold War only would have started 2 years later than it did in 1949.

Richard Melzer concludes the book stating that Oppenheimer and Groves "did the best they could under increasingly difficult circumstances." He ends with the Colonel Landale's post-war conclusion that "Los Alamos and its great wartime secret was, in reality, 'not so secure after all." Recent news reports indicate that the difficulties of managing classified research and the attendant security conflicts at Los Alamos still exist.

This book gives interesting insight into the problems of managing advanced classified research conducted by brilliant scientists.

I had the opportunity to direct this play in Summer 2001. It is terrific and it played extremely well at the theatre; audiences really enjoyed it. And I, and the cast and crew, enjoyed working on it. It is light and quite funny; character driven although the situation is unique; a hotel across from a prison. The play provides good opportunities for the entire cast; seven women, two men. Each character has the opportunity for an interesting journey and there is a strong theatrical inevitability that helped it play in a summer stock venue. But the strong craftsmanship of the play and the ensemble nature of it provides good opportunities for acting work and I think it would play well and be worthwhile in educational situations. It might be a little too risque for high schools; sex is a major topic. But love is too. And the theme of the play is what makes the play, but I will let you discover that for yourself. Scenically, the bulk of the play is set in the lobby of a motel across the street from a penitentiary. But it also calls for two exteriors (outside the hotel and a bus station) and another room in the hotel. The opportunity to have fun designing the motel lobby is there. The trickier issues come in dealing with the scene changes, although we dealt with them effectively by playing all but one scene in the lobby, the other was a bus station. Costuming is essentially simple, but the diverse mix of characters provides good opportunity to have fun, be specific and informative of the characters. The dialogue is well done and there are many extremely good moments in the play. Sure, there are "cutesy" moments in the play but they are earned rather than forced.

Also, there are many scenes in the play that could be utilized for scene study. And some good monologues.

I like this author and the book, but between picking the title and writing the book the focus got lost. If you want to read about Los Alamos and the end of the cold war, this really isn't the book. The good news, is that if you want to read some great essays by a really good science writer (quite rare) buy this book anyway - then imagine what she will do when she finds a subject whose story she can tell.

In his introduction to "Jim Bowie: Frontier Legend, Alamo Hero," author J. R. Edmondson characterizes his legendary subject as having become a knight errant whose famous Bowie knife became an American version of King Arthur's Excalibur. Bowie left very little historical documentation, which makes it difficult to distinguish between the James Bowie of history and the "Big Jim" Bowie of legend, both of whom died at the Alamo. Edmondson also makes it clear that Bowie is a controversial figure, a slave smuggler and a land swindler, and whose deadly knife fights, wherein he rescued the weak from evil, have no historical evidence beyond the tales told by Bowie's family and friends. Edmondson focuses on the fact the state of Texas bought the only known portrait of James Bowie painted during his life time as a sign Bowie can again be considered a true hero and proceeds in this interesting juvenile biography to tell the true story of the historical James Bowie.

The biography begins with an account of the Bowie family in its native Scotland, where their clan motto was "Quod Non Pro Patria" ("What Not For Country") and the family tradition was to name a son for King James VI, who had named Jerome Bowie "Master of the King's Wines" in 1581. Edmondson traces the history of the Bowie family in the New World, and resolves the question of where James Bowie was born. The family eventually moved to Texas, and by this point in the biography it is clear that Edmondson has very little to go on regarding what the Bowie family did during the brief revolt that created the first Republic of Texas in 1813. Edmondson qualifies most of his statements regarding the Bowies throughout the book.

While the book looks at the "Stupendous Schemes and Daring Enterprises" of the Bowie brothers, such as buying slaves from teh pirate John Laffite to smuggle into United States, Edmondson also develops a parallel between the life of James Bowie and that of Stephen Austin. Of course, eventually the two would become key figures in the War for Texas Independence. An entire chapter is devoted to the large knife that bears Bowie's name, and the legendary knife fight that made them both famous. After a failed expedition to locate lost silver mines, which includes the San Saba Indian battle, the rest of the book is devoted to the well-known events leading up to the siege of the Alamo and the martyrdom of its defenders.

Edmondson does correct some of the popular misconceptions of the battle (e.g., Sam Houston had already raised his army and was at a political convention), and ends with the interesting detail that at the Battle of San Jacinto after the Texas troops fired their guns, rather than reloading they used their Bowie knives to keep attacking the Mexican army. Ultimately, "Jim Bowie: Frontier Legend, Alamo Hero" is more of a history of the time in which Bowie lived than a complete biography, but clearly the fault for this lies with dearth of historical information and not with Edmondson's efforts. Young readers will certainly get a sense for how Bowie could be considered a hero by many, but others could protest naming a Texas high school after him as well.

This volume contains mostly historic illustrations in the forms of paintings, maps, and etchings, along with a few more contemporary photographs of some of the places involved in the subject's life. The production values on this book from The Library of American Lives and Times are quite good, and those this is a lesser example I like the cover design where a portrait of the subject is imposed over a key scene from their life (for Bowie is it is just a photograph of the Alamo). There are several other volumes in the series that deal with the early history of Texas by recounting the lives of Stephen F. Austin, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston.

What is unique about this play is that while most plays take a controversial look at an aspect of society outside of the theatre, here the criticism is being mirrored back into the world of theatre, where a clever juxtapositioning of the performance and the back of the house is taking place. Using this device, the reader (and audience) is unclear what is most important in the world of theatre, the performance, or the power of nepotism etc.. Each character has a seperate reason for being involved in the theatre, be it for fame, love, popularity etc. and it is powerful especially as an artist to see these characters come clean and perhaps even save themselves from being devoured by the theatre by actually admitting their agendas to themselves and the rest of the cast.

Though the title doesn't suggest it, this play, written by the talented Alamo, focus the action at a night on a hotel in Santa Fe, during a party after the succesful first use of atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The charcters are the science team who developed it, celebrating the event. Based in a true situation (which has no documentation, there's nothing written about that night), Alamo recreates Oppenheimer's project, taking us to several ways to think and question all the values that the first bomb has implanted ti the modern age, or i should say, atomic age. Beetween every martini that the scientists enjoy, they discover this question: ARE WE REAL? When science and facts are confronted, there is no theory or experiment which could give an answer to this question. A very interesting play (Winner of the Tirso de Molina Award) from a young Spanish playwriter. Also search Copenhagen by Mychael Frayn, and you'll have the two visions around the creation of atomic bomb.