The reviewer who said that this was the best book of its kind on the subject is right. I use this book to teach a college course in Religion in America to freshmen, and they find it fascinating. While most books of articles have a few winners and a lot of articles that are not very engaging, each offering in this book is so interesting that I occasionally reread them for pleasure. Hackett and the authors of the articles have keyed in on issues central to the religious experience of Americans from many traditions.

David Hackett is an unaturally gifted writer, scholar, and dude. The Reader became an instant favorite of mine upon having the desire to rekindle my days of studying the sociology of religion with Dr. Hackett at the University of Florida. Each chapter provides insight into Americans as religious folk living in a secular world. For all those interested in American religion, culture, and society; Religion and American Culture : A Reader is much more than a competent professor's ladder climbing to tenure. It is a masterwork.

I had the privilege of studying Religion and American Culture with Dr. Hackett. This text was effective in its presentation of American Religious History, and made a special effort to include scholarship that focused on forgotten/ignored aspects of American Religious History, including African-Americans, Women, and Native Americans.

While it is of the most benefit to those engaged in formal academic study, it should prove insightful to most any reader with an interest in the subject matter.

This book provides a functional, usable set of guidelines to consider when working on fisheries habitat and stream rehabilitation problems. Although it is oriented towards the American environmental processes - EPA etc, the background concepts and information should be required reading for everyone who is involved in both environmental monitoring and assessment, and those who are involved in trying to bring back stream habitat that has been lost.

Useful for a much broader audience than originally targetted. For instance Community Stewardship groups here in BC have found it most useful.

A very informative, thorough, and interesting coverage of the topic. Very well written and an enjoyable read. I especially liked the presentation of the "chapters" as "premises."

Advocacy is one theme of this book, but I didn't find that objectionable. As a former professional in the regulatory field, I think it is important for people with opinions to express them!

This book is really a must-read for people working on any aspect of biological monitoring of aquatic systems.

Karr & Chu provide compelling arguments for the inclusion of reasoned biomonitoring efforts in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of aquatic ecosystems. This is long-overdue. Their desire for biological relevance above and beyond statistical significance is also laudable, reminding me of a dear mentor's constant advice: "But what do the numbers *mean* biologically??" It is an extremely well documented book as well, providing ample resources for further scholarly investigation of related topics. I laud their eagerness to create biological relevance and move beyond standard statistical distributions by brute biological common sense. Their approach is clearly robust, time-effective, and biologically relevant - an excellent combination for real-world environmental management decisions! I do, however, find the authors' quite one-dimensional focus on the use of single "multimetric indices" to be limiting in the practice of aquatic EIA. (Multimetric indices are sums of individual indices, each measuring a different ecological factor.) I fear that the same mathematical machinations which make Karr & Chu's methods robust may also make them insensitive to subtle biological changes. They might contend that robust management considerations render subtle biological changes irrelevant; I would argue that subtle change over time can be at least as powerful as quantum, near-instantaneous changes. The author's methods are also constrained by the fact that the a significant effort is expended in calibration, which may be fine and justified for future studies, but may be of little help for projects currently "in-hand." In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book as a required read in aquatic biomonitoring strategies, but I will continue to examine my data in more statistically conventional ways as well as through multimetric indices --- I'm not likely to throw out the entire old toolbox for the addition of one new tool, after all, and all the multimetric indices in the world won't do a jot of good without sound experimental design practices.

My personal hero of the aforementioned European art-movie genre -- Robert Bresson -- is the subject of a new book edited by James Quandt. Robert Bresson includes interviews with the director by fellow filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard and Paul Schrader and French film critics Michael Delahaye and Michel Ciment. There are also homages from directors like Martin Scorsese and Rainier Werner Fassbinder, as well as essays by Roland Barthes and Alberto Moravia. One might wonder why such famous and accomplished people took the time to write about a French filmmaker whose movies are not known to the general moviegoing public. The answer is that the late Bresson actually was one of the great figures in cinema. His austere directing style relied on slow and beautiful imagery and much suffering on the part of his main characters, resulting in films that, once experienced, is never forgotten. One can describe Quandt's book the same way

last year i recieved one of the best christmas presents i could ask for: this book. while i wouldnt recommend it to anyone that isnt a bresson fan it holds plenty to mull over for those that are. while a few of the articles are dull and/or pretentious more often than not they are highly illuminating as to the director's methods. there are one or two articles devoted to each of his films and a few that are just about his films in general. this first section of the book ends with bresson's cinematographer for "diary," through to "joan of arc" writing about his love/hate relationship with bresson and an interview with the young man who played the lead in "the devil, probably." the second part of the book contains three interviews with bresson: the paul schrader, which is fidgety and odd; the godard, which is exhaustive, rambling and very enlightening; and the final one whose author slips my mind which is great but unfortunately short (conducted after the completion of what would be bresson's last film, "l'argent"). the final section of the book is basically several directors talking about why they like bresson. this section ranges from short, humorous stories (the fassbinder and aki kaurismaki) to long essays on bresson's style(malle, etc.). other directors quoted in this final section include tarkovsky, bertollucci, wenders, hal hartley, and atom egoyan.

Imagine a young film director making a somewhat controversial first film, with a script by someone on the order of Saul Bellow, followed by a more successful film with recognizable stars and a labyrinthine script by someone like Harold Pinter. Have him drop out of sight for four years, only to emerge from obscurity with a movie about a country priest, filmed (spectacularly) in rural (RURAL!) Massachusetts. Etcetera. There is really no way to imagine Robert Bresson otherwise. We owe it to the French film industry (if something so UNconsolidated could be called an industry) that Bresson was permitted to flourish at all. It wasn't simply as if he was waiting around, all his life, for a financier (14 films in forty years of activity). But where else on earth could this austerely Catholic artist have found work but in France, the most religiously cynical country in Europe? His films are a rebuke to anyone stupid enough to expect anything conventional. Bresson questioned everything in film - even the central point of the medium. His films deny the viewer the usual crutches en route to an idea. Bresson leads us silently, without promptings, toward a disbelief we had long since suspended but never seriously questioned. He makes the word 'master' clean again.

This book has the ring of authenticity about it. One British reviewer called it "Probably unsurpassable," and I agree. In this way it is like an Arthurian book by Ashe or Alcock. (I am thinking of "In Search of Arthur's Britain," which described the 1967 South Cadbury dig.)

You will learn the truth about the earliest Robin Hood stories - he was a yeoman, not a nobleman or a peasant, his earliest haunt was Barnsdale, not Sherwood. There was no Maid Marian at first, etc.

An excellent book for British history buffs and English lit types.

I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.
It's a great book for anyone inteested in Robin Hood.
I'd give it 10 stars if I could.

Holt has written an enthralling study of Robin Hood, of both the man (what little remains of him in the ballads) and the legend. He discusses the five earliest surviving ballads - "A Gest of Robyn Hode," "Robin Hoode his Death," "Robin Hood and the Monk," "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne," and "Robin Hood and the Potter" - and from them details all that can be inferred of the original Hood and of the transmission of the legend in the 200 years before the songs of Robin Hood were first written down. Even after they began to be written down new elements in the legend emerged - Maid Marian and Friar Tuck only joined Robin's merry men in the 15th century. Although today we commonly think of Robin Hood as hanging around in Nottingham and Sherwood Forest, the early ballads most strongly connect him with Barnesdale ("My name is Robin Hood of Barnesdale," the outlaw once remarks in a ballad). Holt details the physical setting in which Robin Hood and his legend traversed, and also the type of people who were his original audience.

So who was Robin Hood? Holt answers, "There were more than one." Many outlaws later called themselves Hood, and some elements of the legends were possibly added on because a storyteller confused one Hood with our Robin Hood - this may explain why a actual march of Edward II's in 1322 is incorporated into the life of a bandit who probably lived a hundred years earlier. Holt does think there was an original Robin Hood, who inspired the legend, and believes that he lived in the first half of the 13th century. He is possibly identical with a certain outlaw named Robert Hod, aka Hobbehod, who is mentioned in records from 1225-26. Although there are many uncertainties, of all the suggested candidates for the "real" Robin Hood, Robert Hod is the most plausible, based on the existing evidence. If you get only one book about Robin Hood, make it this one.

This book is so wonderful! As a Kindermusik teacher and music therapist, I know the value and appeal this book has on children of all ages. Please consider re-printing it!

The illustrations for this classic song, help even the youngest little people sing along. It is our family favorite and I very much want to bring it to the hearts of all of my Kindermusik students as well. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE consider reprinting this timeless book. I have been telling my classes about it and now..... THX!

It is a shame that this book is out of print; anyone who missed it really is unfortunate. The pictures are very vivid and expressive as well as pretty. The rhyming, familiar song will soon become a favorite of any person, young or old. Three years after seeing it, and I can't forget it. Please republish it so I can purchase several.

I recently had occasion to re-read James MacGregor Burns's marvelous Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox and was deeply impressed by how well its has withstood the test of time. The early paperback edition of this book, which was originally published in 1956 and covers the period from 1882 until 1940, characterized it as the "first political biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt," and it continues to be the authoritative study of Roosevelt's preparation for and then conduct of his first two terms as president, when domestic affairs demanded most of his attention. This remains a wonderful book about this country's greatest politician of the 20th century, and it also offers many penetrating insights into the American political system.

Burns's treatment of Roosevelt is comprehensive, "[treating] much of [Roosevelt's] personal as well as his public life, because a great politician's career remorselessly sucks everything into its vortex." Roosevelt was the only child of a member of the upstate New York landed gentry, and he could have led a life of leisure. Instead, he was sent to Groton School in Massachusetts, where the headmaster, according to Burns, "made much of his eagerness to educate his boys for political leadership." Roosevelt completed his formal education at Harvard College and Columbia University Law School. Burns writes that Roosevelt's first elective office, as a New York State Senator was a "political education," and he became a "Young Lion" in Albany. Roosevelt served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy in Washington, D.C., during World War I and was the candidate for Vice President on the Democrat Party's unsuccessful ticket in 1920. In 1921, Roosevelt was stricken with polio, and the crippling disease would have ended the public career of a less ambitious and determined man. Instead, he continued to work hard at politics, was elected Governor of New York in 1928 and then President in 1932. This was just the beginning of a remarkable career in high office.

Burns makes clear that Roosevelt was a progressive in the tradition of Woodrow Wilson but was without strong ideas or a specific agenda. According to Burns: "The presidency, Roosevelt said shortly after his election, 'is preeminently a place of moral leadership.'" Retired Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes offered this cutting assessment: "A second -class intellect, but a first-class temperament." Action to combat the depression was necessary to restore public confidence in government, and the first Hundred Days of Roosevelt's first term was one of the great periods of legislative achievement in American history. Burns writes: "Roosevelt was following no master program." However, in Burns's view: "The classic test of greatness in the White House has been the chief executive's capacity to lead Congress." According to that test, Roosevelt was a great president. Burns writes that, "[i]n his first two years in office Roosevelt achieved to a remarkable degree the exalted position of being President of all the people." Burns explains: "A remarkable aspect of the New Deal was the sweep and variety of the groups it helped."

As early as 1934, however, organized conservative opposition to the New Deal was forming. (A newspaper cartoon reprinted here shows a figure identified as the Republican Party holding a sign stating: "Roosevelt is a Red!") Roosevelt was increasingly attacked as a traitor to his class, but a large measure of his genius was his ability to hold the more extreme elements of the New Deal in check. Roosevelt's political skills were tested in every way. For instance, Burns writes that Senator Robert Wagner's National Labor Relations Act, which proposed to"[vest] massive economic and political power in organized labor" "was the most radical legislation passed during the New Deal." According to Burns, Roosevelt's initial reaction to the bill was "invariably cool or evasive," and the president, with what Burns describes as "typical Rooseveltian agility," announced his support for the bill only after its passage was certain. Burns demonstrates that Roosevelt's support, both in Congress and among the public, gradually eroded in the late 1930s, but he was, of course, elected again in 1940 and 1944. Roosevelt's nomination in 1940 was especially skillful. Many in his own party favored maintaining the tradition of limiting presidents to two terms, and Democratic Party leaders lined up in the hope of succeeding Roosevelt. Roosevelt outfoxed all of them and was elected to his historic third term.

I believe it is fair to say that Burns admires Roosevelt, but this book is not a whitewash. Burns candidly writes about Roosevelt's "deviousness." And the author is appropriately critical of Roosevelt's attempt to "pack" the Supreme Court following his overwhelming re-election in 1936. However, in my opinion, these instances simply are proof of the truism that great men are not always good men. Burns took the subtitle of this book from the Italian Renaissance political philosopher Machiavelli's dictum that a political leader must be strong like a lion and shrewd like a fox. Franklin D. Roosevelt was both, and that made him a great president. This is a great political biography of that great president

FDR was perhaps the craftiest politician to occupy the White House since Lincoln. The Title, "...Lion and the Fox" is an allusion to Machiavelli's dictum that one must be stouthearted like a lion and crafty like a fox. FDR combined these qualities to achieve political mastery of his time.

This book focus on his life up to the start of WWII. It paints a thorough life portrait of the president and illustrates the events and experiences that shaped this master politician. Although enjoying congressional majorities like no other president (that certainly aided the implementation of his program), FDR had to over come the reluctance of both GOP and Democrat conservatives to rework the federal government into the active economic and social player it is today. McGreggor's book explains how FDR the man made the New Deal possible.

This is a well written book that gives evidence of being thoroughly researched. For anyone interested in presidential history, I'd recommend this book.

Gives a fantastic account of FDR from his privileged childhood and days at Groton, to his harsh induction into the world of politics; the skill at which he maneuvered the political currents to the New York Capital in Albany, and ultimately the White House. Once there Burns gives an account of passionate dedication to the American people, both during the Depression and WWII, that most likely was not seen since Lincoln. A must for anyone's Presidential Biographical collection.

I had the pleasant opportunity to meet with this fine author during his book signing. Several of my friends and family have passed a copy of "Remembering Father Flye" and they all read it cover to cover without putting it down. A unanimous response that it was a story worth telling.

Father James Harold Flye is best known as the mentor of Pulitzer Prizewinning author James Agee. William Hampton's new biography of the eccentric, independent, and unforgettable priest should give Father Flye his own--well-deserved--billing.

Father Flye, born in 1884, lived a a full century--more than twice as long as Agee--with uncommon relish. It's clear from the recollections that Hampton has gathered that Flye had a lasting effect on everyone who met him, from the mountain boys he taught to the New Yorker writers who visited him at his cluttered apartment in Greenwich Village.

And now, when our country is presented with unprecedented challenges, the story of Father Flye-who knew history, loved humanity, and endured with strength-is especially relevant.

Father Flye's story is not without heartbreak and loss. It's about life, after all. But a remarkable and exuberant life. The stories collected in this book are mostly transcribed radio interviews and letters. They focus on the particular, and that's what makes them so charming.

Father Flye was married at age 30 to Grace Houghton, a quirky portrait artist 10 years his senior. His first parish assignment was in Milledgeville, Georgia. After that small disaster, he took a temporary job at St. Andrew's School on the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee. The school was founded by monks of the Order of the Holy Cross to teach local mountain boys who came from extremely primitive circumstances. Father Flye, a Yalie, and Grace, who had had a studio in Italy, stayed at St. Andrew's for 36 years.

The Flyes had no children, but the St. Andrew's students were their boys. Grace painted their portraits and sewed their clothing. Father Flye gave them elocution lessons. He taught them history. He punished them for trying to flush a frog down the toilet by making them stand outside and recite poetry. He gave them self-respect, respect for learning and life, and futures. "Piffle," they called him. His antics left them wide-eyed. His love filled their hearts. His poetry settled in their minds. He corresponded with them for decades after they left St. Andrew's.

Readers looking for intriguing history, biography or "something inspirational" will love Father Flye and his quirky wife, Grace. Grace was "no bigger than a bar of soap after a hard day's wash." A victim of Addison's disease, she became more reclusive with age. Father Flye was a vegetarian. Grace, anemic, ate a little meat. She saved tea bags to shred to make nests for the mice at her "Noah's Ark." She moved her broom to different locations on the porch as a signal to her neighbors that she was fine, still alive. She is listed by the Smithsonian as one of America's finest portraitists.

In a recent memoir published in American Places, historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown writes affectionately that the Flyes were unquestioned intellectuals. He describes them entering the chapel in their black robes, looking like nothing so much as "a pair of underfed crows."

The book is "Mr. Holland's Opus," "Music of the Heart," "Dead Poets' Society," "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," the Mitford books, and a costume drama. Its two eccentric protagonists will warm the hearts of readers as the Flyes warmed the hearts of those they befriended, from Appalachia to Greenwich Village.

Mr. Hampton, a retired radio announcer, was one of the lost boys that Father Flye saved.

And through this book, Mr. Hampton has saved Father Flye for us.

I have just finished reading "Remembering Father Flye" and I wanted to acknowledge how deeply moved and impresed I am with Bill Hampton's extraordinary work of oral reminiscenes that are fused so well together in the telling of the journey of such a remarkable human being as Father Flye who was consumed by history in all its elements as well as the beauty of life itself.

Hampton has magnificently woven a rich mosaic diffused with both light and darkness of the life of a man whose pilgrimage as an educator of both young and old minds from, "the Mountain" of Sewanee to the streets of the City of New York, was always filled with enriching the lives of those he met on his way with great compassion and love.

In this expansive work of love, in which the meticulousness of historic detail is in itself a wealth of knowledge, Bill Hamptom has shared not only an unusual story but years of wisdom and grace that are not often found in an ordinary life.

I found the 3 hour approach very well indeed. I had been struggling for three years with the Japanese syllabry, only to accidentally find this book and finish in three hours. It uses a uniques approach that I have been trying to find for years. You'll find it unique, and wonder why no one knows about it. You may even want to start with the author's "Remembering the Hiragan" [ISBN# 0-87040-765-1] companion for the text. I've got both. Buy the Hiragana first because the Katana relies on the Hiragana text for its explanations. Both texts are done very well, small books that get straight to the point of helping you learn what you need, and not just memorizing tables of alphabets. Actually, you won't need to memorize any table for either of the books. It's simple, short, straight forward, and actually fun to use these two books

This book is organized by symbol complexity rather than alphabetically so that the student does not become frustrated or overwhelmed by beginning with too complicated of symbols. Students instead ease into the whole learning process and will, most likely, gain confidence after their very first self-test using REAL Japanese words made from the symbols they have learned.

The author is fun, amusing, unique, imaginative, and above-all, CREATIVE with his mnemonics. He keeps them as simple as they can possibly be and if they can't be simplified, he suggests outrageously silly mnemonics that are almost impossibly to forget! All the learning comes from YOUR imagination rather than memorization.

The author's lessons were so successful with me that even THREE YEARS after I learned Katakana from the book (with a touch-up review once a year and without reading katakana regularly at ALL), I was able to read - without even THINKING about it - the labels from a Japanese stuffed doll that someone brought to work! People were quite impressed with me and, to be honest, so was I with myself!

This book is a DEFINITE keeper! Don't lend it out or you may NEVER get it back! :)

Actually, it is Heisig who deserves more of the praise for this book since he was the one who wrote Remembering the Hiragana, which this book is based on. In University, I had used that book, but this book was not available yet. I breezed through learning the hiragana, and stumbled with the katakana until this book was released. I recommend both books as the best way for English-speakers to master the syllabry in the shortest time (and with the best retention)

This is an impressive first novel for this writer. It has a lot to offer---romance, adventure, science fiction. The hero, Derek, loves his fiancee, Janine, so much that instead of letting her die of cancer, he has her frozen. Janine is revived in the year 2032, and the world of the near future Tindell describes is fascinating and very believable. Janine has to deal with this the reality of having slept for more than 35 years, of waking up in this world that is at times familiar and at other times so very different, of dealing with her feelings for Derek, who's now in his 70s, and his war-hero son Matt, and she also realizes that the young daughter she once knew is now a grandmother. Plus, there's someone out there trying to kill all the revived Eternals, and Janine's next on the list. This book grabs your interest right away and keeps you hanging on. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll get some thrills, and in the end you'll put it down reluctantly and ask when this writer's next book is coming out.

"Revived" is one the best science fiction books I've read in years. It is a deeply-felt human story of a man who places his dying love in suspended animation and then faces a new relationship with her decades later. The world of the future created in this novel is not only exciting but also intriguing because the descriptions are based on advances in science and technology that are underway today. In other words, what you read about the future in "Revived" is the way it might really be. Plus there is mystery and suspense -- it's a completely enjoyable book. I couldn't put it down. Give it a chance and you will glad you did.

An excellent book. It kept my interest throughout and is very well written. The author has evidently done extensive research prior to writing. He maintains the suspense level throughout the book. It was difficult to put the book down once I started. This is a book that one wants to read in one sitting just to see what the ending will be.

I think this book has the potential to be a best seller and might well make number one on the list. I can see the possibilities of a movie coming from this book.

I look forward to additional books by this author.

Since the advent of German rationalism, it has been fashionable in the academic world to poo-poo the biblical account of the Exodus (and most of the rest of the Bible as well) as not having really happened, or a sort of fantasy version of the mundane beginnings of the people of Israel. The plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, and the great miracles associated with them were merely literary embellishments conjured up by the religious figures of ancient Israel to agrandize their existence and to allow them to exercise control over the people, we are told. The premise that there is no evidence in Egyptian history of the existence of Israel in Egypt is mostly due to the fact that the scholars are looking for evidence in the wrong time period - in the so-called New Kingdom Period, rather than when it actually occurred.

But this will all be a thing of the past if author James D. Long has his way. The Riddle of The Exodus systematically debunks the house of cards that has long been the foundation of such intellectual amblyopia. Jim challenges the established mind set that pervades archeology and theology to show that there is indeed ample evidence to be seen in Egyptian history, if we look at the right time period - the Old Kingdom period.

This book is a refreshing breath of air for those who are looking for real answers.

Is the current theophobic version of Egyptian history built on quicksand? Has a bigoted view of the Biblical record hamstrung this important field lo these many years?

The author's thesis seems to be on quite solid ground ... you will feel chills down your spine when you compare the written records of the "wrong" Dynasty alongside the Exodus account. Unless there is some serious mistranslation going on, the parallels are eerie and unmistakable. "The King is carried off by poor men ... the river is blood ..." (or something quite like it) and so on. Seems a good theory to account for the sudden collapse of this great Dynasty - something orthodox Egyptology cannot provide.

I watched the video of this material last week and just finished reading the book. While I am Jewish and have always personally believed the story of the Exodus, I find that my faith has been increased many-fold by the extraordinary documentation in Riddle of the Exodus. I cannot imagine subject matter that could be any more relevant to concretizing the religious beliefs of both Jews and Christians - and my guess would be that a very large percentage of both of these groups currently believe that the story of the Exodus is mythical.

A year ago, a Rabbi in Los Angeles told his congregation (during Passover) that there was not a shred of evidence to prove the historical reality of the Exodus - which is the cornerstone for Judaism. Jim Long has found more than enough evidence from both Egyptian and Jewish sources - and their comparative data, to satisfy hard-core skeptics! While there is no lack of Jewish
Scholarship in the world and while one would imagine that proving the historicity of the Exodus would be a high piority for the academic community - it is interesting to me that this extraordinary documentation has been done by a non-Jew and a self-taught archeologist! The book is simply written, but the material is powerful enough to start a spiritual revolution.