"Stars & Stripes in Peril" is Harry Harrison's novel of alternate history in which the British declare war on the United States over the Trent affair. Somehow the British not only end up attacking the Confederate port of Biloxi, they also rape and pillage the Southern town, which results in Union General Sherman deciding to join with Confederate General Beauregard in repelling the invaders. Of course, this fanciful excess is only an excuse to bring the North and South together so Harrison can lay out how "modern" weapons and the blitzkrieg tactics of Germany in 1936 could have been used in 1863 by the Americans to liberate Ireland. To appreciate this novel you must have above average knowledge of the Civil War. For example, you need to recognize the significance of Ralph Semmes serving as Captain of the U.S.S. Virginia, with its twin turrets designed by John Erickson, each housing two large Parrott breech-loading cannons. Harrison certainly does not have time to explain much beyond briefly identifying the various players as this book is more of an elaborate sketch than a full-fledged novel. Lincoln, Lee and the rest of the players are presented as caricatures. Because he is the Father of Modern Warfare, Sherman leads the American Armies, assisted by Lee and Jackson during the invasion of Ireland while Grant is laying siege to a key British port down in Mexico, but you do not get a sense for the true nature of any of these characters. In fact, both Jefferson Davis and Queen Victoria are presented in extremely unflattering fashions.

Ultimately these characters are but chess pieces, moved about by Harrison who is obviously more concerned with the invents in his giant game of "what if." In the end, "Stars & Stripes in Peril" reminds me more of MacKinlay Kantor's "If the South Had Won the Civil War," which was essentially a series of events briefly sketched out, than Harry Turtledoves "Guns of the South," with its detailed character study of Robert E. Lee and which remains the best alternative history of the Civil War I have read to date. There are certainly some provocative idea in this book, but Harrison could have advanced them just as easily with a short essay than with this novel.

I'd personally give this book 3 1/2 stars but that apparently isn't an option. Harrison writes a good book that is enjoyable and fun to read, but he lacks some important elements that makes a truly good alternate history book. As was true in Stars & Stripes Forever, the first 80-125 pages are all techincal detail that bored me to death. While the remainder of it is action packed, it always seems that the Americans are victorious at all times with out so much as a scratch on them while the British get destroyed time and time again and seem to have little to no tactics. He does a good job with some of the characters like Gustavus Fox (head of military intelligence), General Sherman and President Lincoln, almost all the others are dead ends with little to no real information on them. People like Fredrick Douglas, General Meagher of the Irish Brigade, General Lee and Grant could have been brought into much more detail. While I would recommend this book as a good book to read, I don't feel this book nor his previous one can measure up to some of the greater Alternate History works.

Harry Harrison's "Stars & Stripes In Peril" excels as a textbook example of what might have happened if the United States had launched a blitzkrieg invasion of Ireland during the early 1860's. Harrison is at his best when he describes the American campaign and its hard fought battles on land and sea. Yet this book does show many of the same problems as its predecessor, especially with regards to character development. Yet there is at least one memorable character, Don Ambrosio O'Higgins, who is more compelling than historical figures such as Lincoln, Lee or Grant. Yet this is a fine page turner, and one I'd recommend for a quick read. If you want a more substantial novel of alternative history, choose any of the ones recently written by Harry Turtledove.

First there was "The Stainless Steel Rat", our introduction to Slippery Jim DiGriz, aka the Stainless Steel Rat, a high-tech, futuristic conman and thief who is caught, after a long and successful career, by the galactic special corps, and recruited to join them because it takes a thief to catch a thief. Then followed four more books in chronoligical order, "The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge", "The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World", "The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You", and "The Stainless Steel Rat For President". Then, apparently growing bored with the direction his stories were taking, Harrison retreated to the beginning, and wrote the prequel, "A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born". Then he followed that with "A Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted", a story following immediately on the heels of the prequel. This story follows that one chronologically.

There are dangers to writing prequels, and this book fails to avoid them entirely. In a prequel, it is necessary to make it plausible that a character's experiences could lead to him being the person he is at the beginning of the book the prequel precedes; this is reasonably well accomplished in this book, if not perfectly well. But it is also necessary, in a prequel, that the story be interesting without having anything happen so major and potentially relevent to events in later stories that it seems impossible that the character never referred back to those experiences in chronologically later, but previously written, stories. Here, this book fails miserably; given that DiGriz has experiences in chronologically later books with both time travel and visitors from his time's far future, both of which also come into play in this book, it seems incredible that we've never "heard" him mention the experiences in this book before.

But perhaps this is all too stringent a set of complaints to make about a book that, like the rest of the series, is never intended to be taken seriously; like a James Bond story, or an action movie, the "Stainless Steel Rat" stories are all meant as merely fun romps, plot-driven and action-intensive, without worrying about whether those plots will stand close scrutiny for internal consistency.

So let's review it on its own terms: yes, it's a fun romp, with plenty of action. As usual in these books, the dialogue is rather stilted and artificial, the characters are two-dimensional, and if it enhances the potential for action and drama in the plot, Harrison doesn't let a little thing like consistency of character stand in his way. (DiGriz is supposed to be brilliant, but makes enough stupid mistakes to keep himself in constant danger, so that the pace of the action can stay high.)

This book, like the rest of the books in the series, is fun brain candy, but don't expect careful plotting or a serious story, and don't examine things too carefully for plausibility or internal consistency; it won't stand up to even passing examination.

The Stainless Steel Rat is not to be mocked. This man knows where you live... This book is, just like the other books excellent. I have read all of the SSR books, in and out of order and this one holds up just as well as the others. Dont just buy this one, buy them all. Bolivar

Whaddaya mean this is the worst of the bunch? Now, I'm a serious rat fan; I've read almost all the SSR books, and this one fits in very nicely! It's got a fairly good plot, altheough characters don't really need to pop out of nowhere like that.

The book's description on the back cover doesn't even match the content nor does the CD-ROM. It looks and reads like a thrown together blob of stuff ... can someone tell me where to find the durn spreadsheet widget .. its mentioned on the back cover but not in the index, the table of contents nor on the CD-ROM....

I don't recommend purchase lightly. I've been wearing out its pages for two weeks now, with occasional bouts of furrowed brows and impatient snorting. I've come, though, to a conclusion in which I'm confident: if you're a Tcl user, you should invest in *Tcl/Tk Tools*.

Why? Because you'll use it, and use it well. Almost everyone involved in Tcl has questions (so how do I really compile a Tcl script? How much does it take to do drag-and-drop and tool tips? Are the RDBMS extensions current with vendor features? ...) answered here. Simplify your life by putting these 650+ pages on your shelf.

What is *Tcl/Tk Tools*? It's a collection of descriptions of different popular extensions to Tcl and Tk. While lead author Harrison gives the impression they're written by "the extension authors themselves", there are a few exceptions to this pattern. The book is not written as a tutorial or introduction to Tcl, sagely pointing to John Ousterhout and Brent Welch's books for that role (although I've been thinking of experimenting with putting *Tcl/Tk Tools* in the hands of novices, to see what would happen. I suspect they'd survive in good shape).

*Tcl/Tk Tools* isn't exhaustive. It doesn't include several of my favorite extensions, including Scotty, NeoWebScript, stooop, tclMsql, the PlusPatches, ... It doesn't matter. If you care about only *one* of the extensions described here, you'll do well to have your own copy.

Harrison and his co-authors do a good job of hitting the target of telling "Here's the philosophy behind this package, and here are some examples of how to use it effectively" that he lays out in the Preface. While it's easy to move from one chapter to another, it's not at the expense of the authors and their personalities. D. Richard Hipp's thoughtful precision and De Clarke's care in engineering effective solutions come through, as do the assurance and lucidity those in the Tcl community expect of Don Libes. Less successful is the forward look that Harrison intended, toward "the plans the extension authors had for future enhancements and extensions." I assume this was in part a casualty of the realities of the publishing cycle; certainly many of the chapters appear to have been finished before the appearance a year ago of 7.6's betas.

Two unglamorous aspects of the book multiply its value: the index is sound (that's saying a lot for me; I have high standards in indexing), and Harrison's Chapter 17 on what he calls "Configuration Management" lays out much valuable wisdom that newcomers need to learn. Reading the latter is painful: it has all the important, tedious subjects ("Combining Extensions ...", command-line munging, ...) one wants--but without mention of Win* or loadable libraries! These frailties are inevitable when broadcasting on dead trees, of course. What's disappointing is that *Tcl/Tk Tools* doesn't go farther in joining the Internet Age: although a two-page Appendix lauds news:comp.lang.tcl and lists the FAQs and nine URLs (some of which have already moved, of course), and individual authors take it on themselves to provide appropriate references,
* it's not apparent that there is any page where Harrison and/or O'Reilly maintain errata, updates, new examples, funny animal GIFs, or any of the other resources readers might be expected to exploit--I couldn't find one at the URL the Preface gave, nor elsewhere at www.ora.com;
* some authors supply no e-mail addresses;
* some authors give references ("look in the archives") that will be inscrutable for those not already in the know; and
* there is wide variation in the quality of information authors give about extension prospects, bug lists (a particular sore point with me), mailing lists, and so on.
Understand, please, that I'm not labeling these moral faults; as on every project, the good engineering comes in deciding where to make the cuts, and what definite values to deliver. I personally look forward to seeing books that build a more dynamic relationship with online sources, and am simply noting that *Tcl/Tk Tools* doesn't achieve that standard.

The quality of production is high, higher even than the elevated expectations I have of O'Reilly. Typos, mistakes in word choice, and code errors seem to sum to around zero to five per chapter. Screen shots are judicious and illuminating, rather than gratuitously space-filling. The CD-ROM (with binaries for indeterminate but predictable releases of Solaris and Linux) does the little I asked of it.

Summary: whether you're a full-time Tcl-er or a greenhorn, you'll profit from having *Tcl/Tk Tools* at hand. Whenever you're in a pinch, there's a fair chance the Index and/or Table of Contents will quickly lead you to a useful datum. During more contemplative moments, you'll want to read the chapters in a connected fashion, and the accuracy and insight of the authors will make you glad that you do.

This was the first book I read on Tcl/TK (a mistake), but it was nonetheless helpful. I do refer it often. I particularly found the introduction to Expect useful.

I have to agree with all the other reviews I've read of this book that this is one of the poorest examples of writing that I have ever read. SSR was the first character outside of the Star Wars universe that I read as a child and I am extremely fond of all the DiGriz adventures and reread them on a fairly regular basis. This book, however, was horrible. The proofreading was nonexistent...I lost count of how many grammatical errors were in the book, not to mention the confusion towards the end of the book where Harrison mixes up the names of the twins within the same paragraph. I disagree that this series is "tired" or "out of date". I think there is always room for a cunning anti-hero with a good heart and Jim Digriz has always been that. I geniunely hope that this is not the last SSR book....mainly because it was so horrible. I would like to see Harrison write at least one more SSR novel in which he remains true to the character that is beloved by many. Give us one more Harry, only this time, put your heart in it......

First there was "The Stainless Steel Rat", our introduction to the character of Slippery Jim DiGriz, aka the Stainless Steel Rat, galactic con man, thief, and all-around troublemaker. This was followed by four sequels: "The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge", "The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World", "The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You", and "The Stainless Steel Rat For President". Then, apparently growing bored with the direction his stories had taken, Harrison wrote a prequel, "The Stainless Steel Rat is Born", followed by a sequel to the prequel, "The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted", and a sequel to the sequel to the prequel, "The Stainless Steel Rat Sings The Blues". Then he returned to the original sequence with a sequel to "The Stainless Steel Rat For President", with "The Stainless Steel Rat Goes To Hell". This book follows that one.

In the initial book of the series, we are told that Jim has had a long and successful career being one jump ahead of the law, but we see that career coming to an end as he is recruited by the galactic Special Forces as an agent, on the theory that it takes a thief to catch a thief. He is "recruited" by being caught and faced with the choice of joining or going to prison.

That pattern is repeated throughout the series; he's supposed to be incredibly talented, clever, and intelligent, but he is invariably outmanuevered whenever it's necessary for plot development. This book continues that pattern; he is outmanuevered consistently throughout the book. Just once I'd like to see him actually demonstrate his claimed competence. But beyond that objection, this story was very poorly written, or at least very poorly proofread. There's a typo (generally involving a missing word or a wrong word being used) about every 30 pages, and as some other reviewers have mentioned, the author even gets his characters confused late in the book; admittedly, they're twins, and I understand if another character can't tell them apart. But there's no excuse for an author making such a sloppy mistake, and not catching it himself or making sure his book is proofread well enough to catch it. (One of the twins approaches DiGriz, and he calls out "Bolivar!", but the twin says, "No, James. Bolivar is..." otherwise occupied. But then on the next page, the present twin is continually referred to as "Bolivar".)

Like the others in the series, this book is fun brain candy. But unlike the others, it's not even particularly well-written brain candy. Read it for a quick lark if you are familiar with the series, and have missed ol' Slippery Jim, but if you are new to the series, there's no reason to bother with it.

Throughout the years, I have always been a rat fan at heart. I read and re-read all of James diGriz's! adventures over and over. (for a factual statement, his last name is spelled like that! diG not DiG!) They are a master mind of work, until this one came. It's a great book with a good story line, but it has so many errors and loop-holes, you could drive a station wagon through them.

But, if we were to look past all the errors and all the grammer points, we can see the old rat shining through. It's a great book, but a lousy book to end on. I'm 100% sure that this is not the last of the rat. That I will bet my life on! If you were a true rat fan you would remember that old diGriz will vacation for a while, but then find that boring and have an itch for action. Let's just hope that the Stainless Steel Rat hasn't gotten rusty.

This book explains in explicit detail the Civil War within Kentucky's borders. It explains Kentucky's importance as a strategic military buffer state for both the North and South. The Civil War in Kentucky explores the underlying political strife that shaped and piloted the Civil War in Kentucky. It touches on the effects this war had on ordinary citizentry. I liked the detailed and little known information included in this book. It gave the background behind many commonly known facts within the state. It was an interesting touch when Dr. Harrison added well selected quotes to backup his facts. However, I thought the book was extremely dry reading. It was difficult to get through the book.

This is a brief overview of a complex subject. It gives basic information on the political turmoil in Kentucky before, during and after the Civil War and on the few battles which took place in the state, including Morgan's raids. It spends little time discussing Kentuckian Confederate troops outside the state. I found this to be a useful basic introduction but to be very lacking in detail -- I understand the series of which it is part is intentionally made up of overviews. Missing from the book was much discussion of social history and socioeconomic and ethnic divisions within the state.

I am truly glad I did not purchase this one at full price. I only regret what I wasted buying it.

I thought the first novel of this series was pathetic. This one is not up to that standard.

The story line of this one is as waterlogged as the Merrimac's engines the author arranges to have salvaged and put into another ship, and just as bad in performance.

It gets nowhere for me.

This is alternate history as snack food: quick and clever but ultimately unsatisfying. Harrison's vision of nineteenth-century blitzkrieg warfare is plausible and sometimes fascinating, but his pacing is off, and the well-known characters throughout this book seem no livelier than figures in a diorama. What little character development we have to go on suggests that Harrison's views of Lincoln, Lee, Grant, and Sherman are entirely conventional.

A subplot involving Jefferson Davis becomes a botched attempt to add a bass line to a narrative that somehow couldn't find one in the carnage of war. In fairness, however, the book does entertain, and it might be too much to expect Harrison to rise above the commonplace wisdom he affirms here. Having established that Mexico is hot, Ireland is green, and American audacity is not to be trifled with, I look forward to more gripping summer reads from other books.

Really quick. I liked the book, but not as much as book one. Book one was filled with more surprises.

This work is a sleazy portrait of Baltimore. I have met the author and he is as sleazy as his book. I know of a store in Baltimore that cannot even give the book away for free. I have seen better books about Baltimore than this. A disgrace to the city.

Wow, I've never seen such awful trash in my entire life. Every other word is a senseless vulgarity. No plot, just pointless sexual scenarios. I have a friend who works in a bookstore near where Mr. Livingstone lives, and they've sold 2 copies of the book--and both were returned. Don't waste your time with this overly erotic wasteland. If you want to read something that's actually respectable and Baltimore-related, read Baltimore Blues by Laura Lippman. She makes Baltimoreans proud to be associated with the city, whereas Livingstone's book just makes us want to move to Detroit. Save yourself the embarrassment and the money

This is a book about the Beat Era in Baltimore, late 50s to early 60s. It is raw and raucous, and realistic. A Baltimore Sun columnist of the era, John Goodspeed, said Livingstone reproduces the era "more accurately than I have ever seen it done." He called Livingstone "a talented writer, considerably better than Kerouac." He adds, "If you want to know what the artistic heart and soul (and groin) of the Largest Unknown City in America was like just before it began its slide to ruin, this is the novel for you." Livingstone has written three previous novels and a collection of poetry, as well as editing "Cry of the Invisible," a collection of writings by homeless people. He is a writer worth reading, and this is a great book about Baltimore's artistic milieu four decades ago.

Dear Amazon.Com,
I wrote the one star book review for this book which is currently on file. The review is incorrect and should be deleted or modified. I ordered "A Short History of Western Civilization (paperback), but received "A Short History History of Western Civilization since 1600 (paperback)". I wrote the review and then discovered that I had the wrong book. I have returned the book for a refund and reordered the hardback book of the same title. You might want to note that the paperback version is a Study Guide and not a History Book. If you wish you can move the review to the correct book or delete the entry. Thank you

A Short History of Western Civilization (paperback) is a study guide and not a history book. It's great if a study guide, complete with questions, is what you are seeking. The volume was written by Joyce E. Salisbury, not Richard Sullivan as listed in the web site and published in 1994, not 1993. It's Volume Two: since the year 1600, and not a complete guide to the hardback book. The guide is about 128 pages and includes some maps. I give it one star because a study guide is not what I'm seeking.

This book traces the history of the western world, from ancient Egypt up to the fall of the Berlin wall.

The book is divided into periods of history, then further subdivided into sections about that period. You can 'dip-in' to a section easily, I find myself picking the book up for a light spot of reading with a cup of tea. I also use this book heavily in my Classics course - so it has a multitude of uses.

Overall, a thorough, unbiased, but easy to read account of western civilization. If you live in the western world, and are wondering where you came from or why things are the way they are, then get this book!

Famous American "star" journalists are well known for their bland, conformist mindsets, and their bad writing. This book is just another badly written and incredibly trite "travel diary". Much of the book has Salisbury anachronistically hyping his own career, but even the accounts of 1989 fail as a human interest story. As history or journalism, the book is useless, as it gives no background or context, and darn little content.

This is about the stupidest book on China I have ever read, and the worst account of the Tian'anmen Massacre. While people were being killed, he was cowering in his hotel room, upset because the incident was upsetting his TV shooting schedule. Come on get real! A friend sent me t his while I was living in Beijing, and it provided us with some good laughs! I always thought he was a respected journalist, but t his book really left me wondering.

This book was a fascinating read that really opened my eyes to what happened in 1989 during the Tianamen square massacre. I'm not sure the reader from new york and myself read the same book. Salsibury was in his hotel room during some of the events, but I don't blame him. With a totalitarian government's army on the loose against its citizenry, I'm not sure I could call his actions cowardly. This book is a must read for those of you uninformed on the horrific events that occured in this country that we Americans give "Most favored Nation" status. Happy hunting to find it, since its out of print.

There is very little I can add to the reviews already given, except to state that very little, if any, research seems to have been undertaken by the author. He has written a potted history of George whilst at the same time denigrating any of his friends/associates (eg Eric Clapton). The best piece of advice to anyone thinking of buying this book is "don't" - I only wish I had taken that advice....

It's not that I cannot see the obvious admiration Huntley has for George Harrison. Some of the sentiments expressed in the book have echoed my own throughout the years being an absolute Harrison defender and loyalist. At the same time I do not claim ignorance or open disregard for Harrison's beliefs as dismissively as Huntley seems to want to put across. His jibes at Lennon, McCartney, Ono, Clapton and others I have often and mostly agree with the comments, because these people have been overrated and vilified well beyond human need.
At the same time, taking potshots at people to raise another over them doesn't do your argument justice, and after awhile this comedy writer didn't seem all that funny to me. But mostly, as a Harrison fan, Huntley's trampling of Hindu concepts and idealogy was pretty insulting after awhile, showing the man in his ignorance of other cultures to be totally at home being so. In my mind that's not helpful in giving insight into Harrison's character or drives, it merely states you don't understand them, so you don't know him, therefore don't bother writing. Its a simple thing to look up what 'Maya' means, if you don't, you're just denying seeing any reference of it in any of the depth in which the person is trying to tell you in its use. Thats just ignorant. Huntley has done Harrison a disservice in all his zealot style ramblings. Shame really.

His song by song analysis sometimes borders on the infantile in this ignorance, totally disregarding any songs merits based on his understanding of whats being said. Whether a song holds interest for you based on if it uses terms you can understand, regardless if you may have to do some actual 'RESEARCH' to open your head up to its ideas, just shows pure laziness and unwillingness to accept other concepts than the ones that make you feel 'safe'. This total denial of aspects of a songwriter's craft and composition renders any argument had in favour of the person's skills moot. No point should be made. Harrison's works has been underrated for years by those at Rolling Stone, Q, actually across nations, and the lofty but mindless music of Lennon & McCartney held in great esteem. Mindless being that McCartney & Lennon have rarely said anything in their songs that isn't derived from them BEING Lennon & McCartney, making any statement made more ego than truth. Huntley's observations about Harrison's work try and raise its standards, but in the end only reinforce all the criticisms hurled at Harrison for his views.
Total waste of time this book, other than some of the jibes at his 'friends' though caustic, have rarely been said by the populace at large, so in my mind, its good that in print somebody has said things that maybe need to be said to knock some people off pedestals.

Well, Elliot J. Huntley must not be interested in telling a concise history of George. His work sounds and feels like an editorial, with his personal thoughts all mixed in. If you just want to read more about the solo years of George then this book will infuriate you. He personally criticises most other artists George ever came into contact with or thought of as friends. Has he even listened to their music? He puts down Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, and many others. Now, this gets exhausting and stupid about two chapters in. I found myself getting very annoyed. However, it has loads of information hard to find on George's solo years. That is the only reason I gave this book two stars. One should think Mr. Huntley should stop writing books and actually go and sit down and listen to some decent music.