William J. Cooper goes to great lengths to reinforce the stereotype that southern politics before the War Between the States was centered around the issue of slavery and that local issues were unimportant compared to it. In The South and the Politics of Slavery, 1828-1856, Cooper is especially explicit in announcing slavery to be the "fulcrum" of southern politics. The book covers the period of the second American party system, from 1828 and the advent of Jacksonianism to the disintegration of the Whig party in 1856. In explaining why Whigs as well as Democrats spoke "constantly" about slavery-related issues, Cooper argues that only the slavery issue afforded political stability to any party position. He insists that the white South was of a unified, proslavery mind. He is not completely successful at explaining why this should be so. He does succeed in describing slavery as a national issue, pointing out that only the national government could officially recognize the peculiar institution's legitimacy in America. In the process of explication, Cooper seems to imply that the parties were utilized by southern politicians to gain national power, which could then be harnessed to protect southern rights. Since the second party system first emerged in 1828, he seems to date the birth of the southern rights crusade to a time even before the Nullification crisis.

Cooper identifies four factors that animated the "politics of slavery": the institution of slavery itself, southern parties and politicians, the political structure of the South, and the values of white southern society. Cooper would certainly agree that the North and South were culturally different in the antebellum era. He describes this sectional difference in political terms: local issues predominated in northern politics, whereas slavery dominated southern political discourse. Conditionally, southerners viewed parties' roles differently than did their northern counterparts--southerners relied on the national parties to work for the preservation of southern rights within the nation. Local issues were irrelevant in the South, Cooper argues repeatedly, compared to the indomitable politics of slavery. He rejects emphatically the common belief that economic matters defined party politics in the era of the second party system. Cooper dismisses the crucial significance of economic and diverse social issues at the local and state level by placing over each such issue a mask of proslavery. Specific issues emerged and faded, he argues, but slavery remained always at the core of each one. He does not seek to understand just who became Whigs or who became Democrats or the reasons why, for he sees in the South a unified system of political thought. Cooper's argument is almost circular: the drive for southern rights shaped the national party structure, but this selfsame party system fostered sectionalism within the parties and essentially destroyed the second party system. Cooper insists that the Democrats enjoyed political hegemony in the South in the late 1850s because no new party could replace the Whigs under the unspoken rules of the southern political system; the existence of anti-Democratic voters--who were a large minority of the southern population--and the existence of local issues could not subsume the slavery issue in politics. Cooper relies mainly on data from Presidential elections, ignoring nonpresidential contests at the state and local level. This approach prevents him from acknowledging the lack of unity and order in southern politics. He refuses to admit the existence of discord not only between but within parties, and he is blind to any evidence that the South was anything but unified in proslavery ideology by the 1850s.

It is interesting that this question still causes such a high level of bitter disagreement. This question has been argued in a thousand different ways. Cooper's work, in my opinion, provides the answer. He convincingly shows that Southern politics turned on the issue of slavery not just after 1850, but all the way back to 1831. Slavery and Southern safety won and lost the big elections after 1831 in every Southern state. The issues differed (states' rights, western expansion, etc.), but the heart of every issue was what it would do to slavery. It's hard to find, but if you can, read it.

For a book in a series of biographies, I got this book expecting just that. Instead I found out only a little about one of my favorite authors, instead being overloaded with critical analysis. Many times Mikkelsen simply judges part of Cooper's work as good or bad with little explanation as to her judgements. Some of her analysis was good and the summaries of Cooper's works were useful, but I believe she did a bit too much analysis. Many times she read into scenes ideas that I did not think Cooper intended, often subjecting the writings to various critical approaches with little regard as to what Ms. Cooper meant when she wrote those scenes. It was just like my high school English classes - overanalyzation (sp?) without any thought of what the writer originally meant or what the average reader will get out of it. Less analysis and more biographical information would have been more pleasing to me.

I got this book because I needed a critical aid for writing a paper for my Children' Literature Class. Thankfully, this book provided the remedy that I was looking for... Mikkelsen's critical approach (as the Editor describes the intent of this book) provided me with all the added insight to both Cooper's writing style and her discipline as well! This book is a must for any one interested in exploring fantasy children's literature and is a beginning step, and will encourage the reader,to learning more about Celtic Myths, and the legend of Arthur and Guinevere!

Within this book, you have some excellent and also really poor material.

For instance, one chapter about estimating population growth is very good. It is objective. It details the assumptions, and explain why forecasting population growth is associated with a high level of uncertainty.

Another chapter on the future of energy consumption is really bad. It is a not so disguised subjective infomercial about alternative energy. Although promoting the use of alternative energy is really laudable, it should not be confused with objective and integer forecasting simulation. This one chapter should have never made it within this book in its existing form.

You might expect that a book edited by professors of economics at Harvard and the London School of Economics would come in on the dry side. Nothing could be further from the truth with regard to What the Future Holds, a compelling compilation of possible future scenarios written by experts in population, climate, energy, labor, government, monetary policy and information. The enlightening details about scenario planning are an added bonus that we from getAbstract believe will be especially relevant to any business or government decision makers.

In addition to the Patrick O'Brian series, I have read several of the Heary-of-Oak series nautical fiction novels and all have been excellent. This one, however, falls short and the nautical fiction fan may grow weary of Cooper's long winded laborious style of writing. I have to admit, I couldn't get through the entire book but admit the author to be a talented writer. Nevertheless, I think the purist nautical fiction fan may prefer a less pretentious style of writing a la Forester, Marrayat, James Nelson or Richard Woodman.

I'm glad that I read the book before looking at an earlier reviewer's description of "long winded and laborious", or I may have skipped it. It is indeed a little "slow" in the first third or so, especially if your point of reference is a Marryat novel that would have had four battles fought by that point. I found it engaging, more and more as the work progressed, and overall an excelent read. Refreshing that the hero, his enemy, and several others are not simplistically all good or all bad as so often we find in these sea tales. As well, refreshing to learn a bit of the French privateer's p.o.v.

This book discusses ways to reduce the free radical damage that is thought to lead cancer and heart disease. Cooper presents ways to do so through exercise, diet, and supplements. And it the supplements part that is the most controversial of this book.

Dr. Cooper was one of the first noted fitness experts to recommend people start taking high doses of the antioxidant vitamins beta-carotene (the precursor to vitamin A), vitamin C, and vitamin E, along with the mineral selenium. He recommends taking levels that are several times the RDA for these nutrients.

Cooper cites many scientific studies that show high does of these antioxidants reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. However, this book was originally published in 1994, and more recent studies have not given unqualified support to these earlier studies. In fact, more recent studies have been mixed.

Some studies do show that taking antioxidants reduce risk, but other studies show there is no effect. I summarize many of these studies in a chapter on supplements in my book "Creationist Diet: Nutrition and God-given Foods According to the Bible." My conclusion is that there is some evidence for the benefit of taking antioxidants, but it is not clear-cut as Cooper makes it out to be. There may or may not be any benefit to the practice.

Further clouding whether to take these supplements is the risk of side effects. Fortunately, Cooper does list possible side effects one might experience.

Another issue that Cooper does not address is the cost factor. Vitamin C is rather inexpensive and vitamin E and selenium moderately so, but beta-carotene tends to be rather expensive. And beta-carotene is the antioxidant with the least evidence supporting it.

Given the split evidence, I would say that if money is tight, one should spend their money on healthy food, not supplements. It is foods like fruits and vegetables that have unqualified evidence for their health benefits. And Cooper does include information on what foods are highest in the antioxidants and how best to prepare them to retain the nutrients. And my book provides further details on what foods help to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and strokes.

As for myself, I have tried taking antioxidants in the amounts Cooper recommends, but I ended up with some of the side effects he mentions. I even tried taking different brands and forms of each nutrient and still had problems. So I simply don't bother with them anymore and focus on eating a healthy diet instead.

This book is good in its underlying theme -- take antioxidants b-carotene, vit C, vit E to counter free radical damage -- but, evidently, its specific recommendations are outdated. Two sets of antioxidant dosages are recommended, a small dose for "health and longevity" exercisers, and a large dose for "athletic" exercisers, where the dividing line between types of exercisers is 50 aerobics points per week. Dr Cooper's latest recommendations, which can be found at cooperwellness.com, change the small and large dosages, and the dividing line has been changed to 150 aerobics points per week.

For years, I've been a big fan and follower of Dr. Cooper'saerobic exercise program. Nevertheless, I'll advise caution beforeundertaking Dr. Cooper's prescription for anti-oxidantsupplements. Dr. Cooper's recommendations for Vitamins C and E and beta-carotene are remarkably similar to those criticized as being without scientific foundation by a recent (April, 2000) Institute of Medicine Report.

The prudent reader will consider the Institute's report before joining Dr. Cooper's revolution...

In Linda Fairstein's new mystery, "The Bone Vault," a young woman named Katrina Grooten has come to New York City from South Africa to work at the Cloisters, which is part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Grooten's dead body is found in the sarcophagus of an Egyptian princess. Who murdered Grooten and placed her in this unusual coffin? Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper is on the case, along with her pals, detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace.

The problem with "The Bone Vault" is that the mystery element is almost nonexistent. There is no tension, there are no thrills, and the ending is almost anticlimactic. However, as in Fairstein's "The Deadhouse," the author's thorough research has made "The Bone Vault" a treasure trove of information. The reader is treated to arcane and fascinating details about two of the greatest museums in the world, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History. We learn about their vast and varied collections, their tremendous storehouses, and the army of people who keep these institutions up and running. Fairstein loves her subject; her enthusiasm and vivid descriptions make the museums the most interesting characters in the book.

Fairstein, as always, writes lighthearted and cute banter for Alex and her friends, and she is always sharp when it comes to legal matters and police procedure. The book could have been so much better had Fairstein written a more intriguing story. As it stands, I give "The Bone Vault" a marginal recommendation.

In 2002, Linda Fairstein retired from her position as head of the Sex Crimes Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's office. She is the Real Deal --- a real life prosecutor who can write. She's also blonde and gorgeous. Now go ahead and tell me life is fair!

With each of her five novels since FINAL JEOPARDY (her first), she has displayed an increasingly smooth storytelling style uniquely her own. If her books read a lot like true crime, it's because she knows her material down to the most intimate detail. Fairstein's daily work routine has become the stuff of television legend, via Law & Order, particularly Law & Order: SVU, which stands for the department she originated --- not in fiction but in real life. She has made an enormous contribution to the now-safer streets of New York City and, with her retirement, will certainly be missed. We who like to read are lucky because we now have her full-time attention as a writer.

In her fifth outing with her DA protagonist, Alexandra Cooper, Linda Fairstein takes us into a fascinating behind-the-scenes world at the Metropolitan Museum and its offshoot for medieval art history, The Cloisters, as well as the New York Museum of Natural History. They have been planning a 3-way cooperative exhibit on Beastiaries, Real and Imagined (a fictional exhibit that sounds like such a great idea, I wanted to see it for myself). The victim is a young, promising museum employee of The Cloisters who worked on that exhibit. Her perfectly preserved body is found inside an ancient limestone sarcophagus that was about to be shipped abroad, as part of a large shipment of art on exchange from the Metropolitan. Within 24 hours of the body's discovery, the Met's famous Director has resigned. He claims his resignation has no relationship whatever to the finding of the body but, of course, Alex and her team members, Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace, are not so easily convinced.

An autopsy reveals that the victim died of arsenic poisoning and that she had been dead for almost six months. How did the body come to be in such perfect condition after such a long time? More interesting speculations occur when the head of the museum's Egyptian Collection leaves to attend a "mummy congress" in Chile --- it seems he is the world's foremost expert on mummification. And so onward, the story goes.

Linda Fairstein is deadly serious about her concern over crime (sex crimes in particular) and her novels reflect this concern. But THE BONE VAULT is, nevertheless, fun to read. It is no small achievement to be able to write heavy stuff with a light touch, but she has pulled it off for much of the book. If you enjoy going to museums, this will be a treat for you. Even if museums aren't quite your ideal for crime story enrichment, you'll find a lot of other little tidbits that add to the narrative. These tidbits include insight into Alan Dershowitz's Martha's Vineyard beach habits and in what movie you might catch a glimpse of William Shatner's pubic hair ... if you have sharp eyes and are inclined to look.

THE BONE VAULT is Linda Fairstein's best yet.

--- Reviewed by Ava Dianne Day

Linda Fairstein's series featuring Alexandra Cooper, NYC Assistant District Attorney, continues with The Bone Vault. The usual cast of characters surrounding Ms. Cooper are back to assist her in investigating a mysterious death at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: a dead museum worker is discovered in a mummy's tomb. Previous novels in the series showed that Ms. Fairstein knows her way around the Manhattan District Attorney's, especially the sex crimes division, and now her knowledge of NYC's landmark museums is on display. Some mystery readers may be put off by a relative lack of action, but there will be many who will enjoy the book primarily for the characters and setting. A subplot carried over from an earlier entry in the series is introduced while Ms. Cooper goes about her methodical investigation of the murder at hand. There is a large group of suspects, a second murder, and a suspenseful climax to keep the reader's attention.

The idea for this book was a good one. Unfortunately, Cooper has no sense of humor and little writing ability. I'm afraid I abandoned the journey in Australia.

It was mere chance that my wife and I came to read this book. Previously our experience of Clemens/Twain was limited to films and television, both frequently the products of the producers rather than of Twain. We found Mr. Cooper's book to be absorbing. His narrative style is delightfully readable without inhibiting his attention to detail; in particular his comparisons between the conditions of then and now. We are indebted to this author for introducing us to the real Mark Twain.

My wife and I both enjoyed following the author following in the footsteps of Mark Twain. We could easily imagine ourselves with the author, visiting exotic and not so exotic locales, both a century ago along with Mark Twain and one hundred years later with the author. The stories about Mark Twain and the stories told by Mark Twain were both very enjoyable and gave us a flavor of the time and a feeling for the complex man. The observations about the changes and similarities in the world over the last century were fascinating.

I personally found this a poor tutorial on design patterns and C#. The examples the author used were often contrived and reeked of needless complexity. The tutorial on C# was brief, incomplete and unnecessary (leave the task of teaching C# to a book of it's own). The code seemed to be ported from another language instead of being written with C# in mind (for example the use of a getName() method instead of using a Name property). If your looking for a tutorial on design patterns check out Robert Martin's latest book on Agile Software Development. It doesn't use C#, but it covers the classic GOF design patterns (plus a few others), explores XP programming and (in my opinion most importantly) covers principles fundamental to object oriented programming and design.

C# Design Patterns demonstrates 23 different design patterns which are very useful in object-oriented programming. As the name of the title implies, this particular books focuses on showing these design patterns in the C# language, much like the author, James Cooper, has previously done for other languages such as Java and Visual Basic.

If I had to rate the book overall, I would give it an "average" rating, as the book just doesn't seem to stand out among all the other titles available. The book seems to fit best with a specific audience. People who would benefit the most from this book are intermediate-level C# programmers, who know very little about object oriented design patters.

If you are a beginner with C#, this book is not for you. The Basics of C# are covered very quickly in the first 7 chapters, but does not go into detail enough to help novice programmers. In fact, I cannot understand why those chapters are included at all. The materials in those chapters breeze over the C# language too fast for C# beginners, but at the same time, it is far too basic for those who have experience with C#. Beginners would be better suited picking up a introduction to C# book and working with the language for a little while before reading C# Design Patterns.

Intermediate C# programmers with little knowledge of object-oriented design patterns will develop a new skill set from reading the book. The everyday usefulness of these design patterns makes a book on the subject a very worthwhile read. If the reader is already familiar with C# than this book is a good choice from them.

The code samples presented in the book are well constructed and the accompanying CD provides has provided benefit whenever I wanted to see a full code listing. For certain code listings in the book, I would have liked to see a few more comments. Sometimes, it takes a little while to understand exactly what the author is doing with the code. The screenshots and figures do a very nice job representing the concepts visually.

One of the best attributes in this book is the thought questions at the end of the chapter. They really get the reader to think and make sure they understand the concepts before continuing. Having a through understanding of each pattern is crucial as later patterns either build or use patterns which have already been learned.

People who have read James Cooper's previous works such as Java Design Patterns or Visual Basic Design Patterns or Design Patterns by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides really do not have a need for this book. This book covers all of the same material as those other works.

I have noticed several typos and minor mistakes throughout the book, which is getting far too common in technology books in general. With that aside, I would recommend this book to anyone who knows a good bit of C# and would like to learn about Design Patterns used in Object Oriented programming. I would also recommend that these people skip the first 7 chapters or quickly skim over them. As for anyone else, I would suggest passing on this title, and getting a book that caters to design principles in a language they are more familiar with.

It's a good introduction book to the use of 23 major design patterns in C#. As someone new to this area, I found the book very easy to follow aided by the very practical examples. The author did a good job explaining these patterns in very plain language.

The first part of the book covers the mere basics of Visual Studio .NET, the C# language, object programming concepts and UML diagrams. I feel this section is not necessary since there are abundant books available.

I'd also like to see in future editions a heavy-duty application designed throughout the book using most, if not all of the 23 patterns. -- Review by Timothy D.

Apparently there is a whole narrow genre of Sherlock Holmes pastiches known to its fans as "Sherlockian Romances," in which the Great Detective is (against all the Canon) matched with some supposedly appropriate female. ...Well, in the present book we have Holmes saddled with a young woman who is (we are told on just about every page) so incredibly beautiful and so impossibly unsocial that she is irresistable to Holmes, who against all reason takes her off with him when escaping from the Reichenbach Falls and Moriarty's two henchmen. After three years of wandering the world, during which absolutely nothing of interest happens, Holmes returns to Baker Street and installs Elizabeth Sigerson as "Mrs. Sigerson," his personal secretary! The plot jumps abruptly to 1903 and some totally preposterous antics involving Col. Sebastian Moran. We are told that Watson, Lestrade, etc., never mention Elizabeth during all the post-Reichenbach pre-retirement period lest someone should try to distract Holmes by kidnapping or threatening Elizabeth. Why they couldn't do the same by attacking or kidnapping Watson, Mrs. Hudson, Billy, Wiggins, etc.... well, don't ask!

In the whole novel there is not a single character (including Holmes) who comes to life even for an instant. There is no plot, and all the characters, including Holmes, behave in a way both inexplicable and imbecilic. [For example, although we are told on every page that Elizabeth is so impossibly beautiful, etc., see above, that no man or woman can take his eyes off her, Holmes and Elizabeth waddle mindlessly and undisguised through Europe, always amazed when Moriarty's men track them down or trap them.]

The author's imagination runs pretty much on empty as far as having Holmes be away from Baker Street for three years, so for two of them Holmes and Elizabeth do nothing but tend goats and have wild, crazy nightly sex in an isolated Tibetan village. Holmes hikes to Lhasa, looks in at Mecca, and fiddles with coal-tar derivatives in France only because these are markers from the Canon, not because this novel's character would be motivated to do such.

Despite all the problems, I must say that Ms. Cooper-Posey is a competent writer. I kept turning the pages despite the lack of intellectual stimulation, lack of character development, and lack of any plot whatsoever. However, at the end, I must say that the total sum of enjoyment I experienced was quite small, and that the total burden of mild outrage at the way my time and interest had been taken advantage of was noticable.

As a reader who cut her teeth on the canon of the Sherlock Holmes books by Conan Doyle, as well as being a fan of the Mary Russell books by Laurie R. King, I found "Chronicles of the Lost Years" to be an entertaining addition to the list of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Cooper-Posey manages to create a tale that is faithful to Conan Doyle. She's also created a new character and a relationship that casts the cold, mysogenistic Holmes in a role that has not been seen since "A Scandal in Bohemia." Narrated by Watson, with an ear faithfully attuned to Victorian dialogue, the atmosphere of the book is true to that of the originals. There are familiar villains and new characters, twists of plot and feats of deductive logic -- as well as an intriguingly ambiguous ending that cries out for a sequel. Fans of the genre will enjoy this book.

Fans have speculated for years about Sherlock Holmes' absence from Baker Street, a time refereed to as The Great Hiatus. Speculate no more! Tracy Cooper-Posey has soundly answered the call to fill in the missing gaps, and the result is a carefully crafted, gleefully created novel guaranteed to satisfy the most ardent mystery lover. Tracy offers a touch of romance in the character of Elizabeth Sigerson. Elizabeth is a daring heroine, able to shoot, wear men's clothing, and fight her way through life with her wits, intelligence, and grace. Because Elizabeth's presence must be kept secret, so evil characters like Moriarty have less ammunition with which to harm Holmes, she is the perfect excuse for the inconsistencies and mysteries found in Holmes stories. Holmes equal, Elizabeth holds heart for thirteen years, before Holmes' worst fear for her safety come true. In Chronicles Of The Lost Years, Watson records the events immediately following the death of Moriarty, when both Holmes and Elizabeth disappear for three years, and are presumed dead by the world. But Moran, Moriarty's head henchman, saw Holmes and Elizabeth escape cross country, and pursues them as they cross Europe on foot. They venture into Constantinople, Persia, and Tibet in search of answers and wisdom. They discovered the joys and simplicity of the nomadic life. But their return to London brings about a very turn of adventure. And while no one knows about Elizabeth, to keep her association with Holmes from making her a target, silence promotes its own kind of danger. This is not the typical steamy love story. Rather, it is a powerful adventure with a touch of heart. Tracy Cooper-Posey is a remarkable voice, whatever genre she chooses to indulge. Graceful, detailed, and original, her prose sings.

Cindy Penn Reviewer