This book had a surprising amount of information and insight. Mr. Cummings followed politics, read newspapers, and wrote poetry, then wrote about these things in his journals. It really gives a look at how hard life was back then, and we like the lead character a lot. I recommend this for anyone who knows someone who grew up on a farm, or who is interested in history.

In his poignant biography of the man whom many believe to be George Armstrong Custer's "Brutus", Mills paints a stirring portrait of an enigma of the Indian Wars, Frederick W. Benteen. If you're a follower of Custeriana or a whimsical student of Custer's Last Stand, you'll find this to be a fascinating character portrayal of a man maybe not so different from you and me. Benteen, a renowned cavalryman and survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, rose to the rank of brevet colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War before joining the Seventh Cavalry at Fort Riley, Kansas in 1867. His story is one of life on America's frontier, a tapestry of the hardship and brotherhood common to the campaigning cavalryman on the Great Plains. "Harvest of Barren Regrets" is an epic tale of a forgotten warrior, one of the last of a lost breed of American frontiersmen, and a book well worth the time and investment.

Yes, this book is out of print and I found it secondhand. Don't hesitate to buy it should you see it. Written in 1968 but especialy timely 30 years on. There are many "Bishop Pikes" in the world today, fiercely clinging to their title of bishop while vehemently denying Christ Jesus at every turn. The case of Bishop Pike is a sad one certainly but not one to be sympathized with. Unger gives a thorough overview of the Bishop's beliefs (or rather, lack thereof) and his rapid decline into the occult. The Word of God regarding the occult is made extremely clear in the closing chapters of this book.

America has always celebrated the self-made man and it would be difficult to find a biography of a more successful transformation than that of Frederick Douglass from slave to freeman. Virginia Schomp's "Benchmark Biography" is based on Douglass's writings, which means that choice quotes from his three autobiographies are used as capstones for key chapters in his life. Schomp tells the story of how Douglass was born a slave in some detail and as inspirational as his public career proved to be, the story of how Douglass resisted slavery in general and the slave breaker Covey in particular is what students will truly remember from reading this juvenile biography. "He Fought for Freedom" includes photographs, etchings, drawings and paintings from the lifetime of Douglass. This is a fairly comprehensive biography of Douglass and if it does not include his initial discomfort with Abraham Lincoln's public position on slavery during the Civil War we can understand that readers in this age group would be troubled by the idea of anyone criticizing the Great Emancipator on the topic of slavery. However, down the road those interested in learning more about Douglass's life and cause will find plenty more to read about him. This volume provides an excellent foundation for that further study.

Schomp wrote several volumes in the "If You Were A..." series, which tells young readers about careers from ball players to ballerinas, which would certainly qualify her to tell the story of a slave who became free. In a personal note in the back of hte book, Schomp writes about Douglass: "We may not be able to witness his stirring speeches, but we are lucky that this daring leader left us his life story, in words that still inspire us today." I would also recommend reading, if you can find it, Douglass's 1852 speech, "What, to the Slave, is the Fourth of July?" I think students would find this speech especially provocative.

Bailes was way ahead of his time. Now that allopathic medicine is starting to recognize the healing capabilities of what today is called "coherent emotion," this work will perhaps be re-evaluated. In the light of Psycho Neuro Immunology and Neuro Linguistic Programming being accepted as healing modalities, perhaps more people will appreciate the work of this early pioneer. The book deals with the Healing Power of: Optimism, Balanced Emotions, the Imagination, Faith and a Quiet Mind. His language is simple so that all can understand and his writing style is very engaging. I highly recommend this little book to those interested in the power of mind, and to spiritual healers in particular.

6 out 5 stars Excellent! Healing the Divided Self is a necessary resource for any therapist or student of modern psychotherapy. I also would recommend it as a textbook for advanced psychology classes. I particularly liked how Phillips and Frederick integrated ego-state therapy and hypnotherapy with other forms of therapy such as psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral. Their use of case examples and sample scripts give the reader a sense of being in the therapy process and the ability to practice and replicate steps that initially would seem overwhelming to a novice therapist. Healing the Divided Self is a complete resource - covering the topic of dissociation and integration from diagnosis, the hypnotherapeutic relationship, the stages of personality integration, transference and countertransference issues, emergencies, the use of medication, and spirituality and the generative self. As a therapist, myself, I have found this book invaluable, not only with patients suffering with severe dissociative disorders, but with the "normal" range of daily disorienting experiences that split us from our adult achievements and confidence. Those working with less complicated cases, or simply personnel issues, know that all of us dissociate somewhat under pressure, stress, loss, or simply having buttons pushed by parents and loved ones. Anyone interested in gaining a greater understanding the very human experience of splitting from one's central, strong self, and how to help themselves and others, will benefit from reading Healing the Divided Self.

Neil Fiore, licensed psychologist, former president of the Northern California Society of Clinical Hypnosis and author of The Road Back to Health: Coping with the Emotional Aspects of Cancer. neil@neilfiore.com

It is impossible to find in the original language The History of Bel Canto. It is only available in some Conservatory Library. This History is foundamental to clearly understand the evolution of the several technics of singing through the centuries. Rodolfo Celletti is probably the most reliable living "expert" of lyric voices. By reading his works you can distinguish a real, good operatic voice from trivial and bad voices. Do not miss this text!!

The law of England underwent major changes under the energetic leadership of the Plantagenet kings. This scholarly work traces and outlines this most fascinating and actually entertaining period in legal history.

Before the acts chronicled here, the business of law enforcement in all its various forms, both civil and criminal, was a rather haphazard and local affair. Magical ordeals, often administered by the clergy, and probably fixed by them to reach what they thought the proper outcome, were a major method of trial. Noblemen could fend off charges by their inferiors by swearing they didn't do it, and finding enough people to swear that they believed 'em. Disputes between nobles were as often as not settled by the sword, in either actual battle or ritual combat.

The Plantagenet kings made this imperfect system obsolete, not by legislating it out of existence, but by offering a superior product. They introduced the grand and petit jury, whose ultimate origins are obscure, but which may trace back to the Scandinavian ancestors of the Normans. New forms of litigation were set up beside the old ones, only these led to the royally instituted jury rather than the old forms of trial by oaths, magic, or battle.

And, having this parallel system in place, attorneys were careful to frame their pleadings so as to bring their litigation within the ambit of the new trials, rather than the old ones. These basic legal reforms, helped along by certain legal fictions made necessary to achieve the desired result, became the foundation of a legal system more suited to a national state with a central royal government, rather than the patchwork jurisdictions of feudalism.

This fascinating story is told in all its detail in these old but still intriguing books.

As the books run through, page by page, volume by volume, I am so taken by the author's thorough, rich and comprehenseive knowledge of the history of 18th-Century, militarily, politically, diplomatically and geographically. The author sets the whole stage of European history of that century in front of readers. The power and strength lie in this titanic biography, which turns out to consist of six volumes which totaling more than three thousand pages long, is not only on its sweeping and extensive knowledge of the history in detail, but also on the fact that the author possesses a vast, wide and precious first-hand materials of the King's age, which range from newpapers to memoirs, from documents to correspondences. This is really a comprehensive accounts about this great King in every field, in every turn of history : His stern, unhappy and strict self-trained youth which is astoundingly different from any princes in history, his tremendous merits in military which ranked him to the transcendent generals of the world, his remarkable achievements in domestic reform and reconstruction which hailed him as a great ruler in 18th- Century, his grand attainments in diplomacy which made him known as a prominent diplomat of his time, and his sensational accomplishment in literature which enlisted him as an extraordinarily intellectual prince and man of letters in his century. The author reveals many excellent personalities and qualities of Frederick the Great which will hardly not enormously increase your admiration for this great King: His generosity, his humanity, his unselfishness, his toleraion, his modest, his self-discipline, his standard of morality, his delicacy taste, his hard woking, his steel-iron nerve, his indefatigable will, his exceptional equanimity when facing danger, his talent, his prodigious memory, his arts of conversation, his unfailing enegy and strength, his charming wisdom, his extensive appetite for knowledge, and his impeccable private life. Unlike other authors who write history of their subjects, this author blends his own feeling into his writing with his whole sympathy tipping to his hero and unlimited admiration for the King. You can feel the author loves his hero too profoundly and too much not to defend the King, defend his reputation, defend his honor : He spoke for the King for his shortly running away from the battle field due to his generals constant begging for his leave when the battle was heavily clouded; He refuted the rumor that the King had homosexual liaison by giving the powerful evidence that the King was so noble and so proud of himself that he strongly loathed his body be exposed to any person, even when he was void of consciousness because of being wounded in the battle; and so on. The author also fills his book with many amazing and interesting anecdotes of the King[.] .... Overall, with my whole heart, I highly recommend this book which is really one of the best biographies about Frederick the Great, who is one of the greatest, the most extraordinary and influential histoical figures in the world, which is full of valuable and interesting historical sources.

Fredrick Hartt is a man whose love of his subject is only equal to his willingness to expalin it in terms of the layman. He does not limit the purview of the book to merely the depiction of Italian life and piety, but brings in narrative and anecdotes to enliven the tome. He introduces us to the vocabulary of the arts, not consigning them to an inconvenient niche in the appendix, neither condescending incessantly or immersed in jagon. The resplendent illustrations, true eye candy, fill the book, making it a true bargain. Hartt truly deserves the copious awards given to him by the patrons of the arts. My only regret is that the usuerers of my school book store had not charged such a bloated price ($72) for this book.