"Nijinsky Dancing" is the most complete collection of photographs of the best dancer of all times. It is a "must-read" for every dance lover in the world. It is just as important for the new students as well as for the experimented choreographers, it is a tool of inspiration and a helping hand in understanding how important is expressing ourselves through our body. It is highly recommended always to read more about every subject that interests us. "The more we know, the better we are"

No Better Hope is an unusual survey of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington and is highly recommended for grades 3-5: it provides a fine survey of this symbol of national unity, covering the development of the Memorial, those involved in its creation, and Lincoln's place in history. Photos by Jennifer Ashabranner abound.

This book is one of the best, if not the best of the new Lincoln books of this year. Gabor Borit is one of Americas most revered Lincoln scholors, and this book shows why. A must read if you enjoy the history of the Civil War and Lincoln.

In 1970 I taught from this book when it was entitled
"Choice, Communication and Conflict"

What makes this book "magical" is Ackoff (from his
management and behavioral science roots) provides
"operational definitions" for many ill-defined words
and concepts -- from defining 'knowledge' & 'understanding'
to providing definitions of feelings/emotions that --
operationally -- you know -- that if certain events take
place in a person's life, that you know the feeling they
have.

This is only a glimmer of what this book is about. In
terms of Kuhn's idea of "paradigm shifts" -- this book
represents a shift that has yet to be appreciated, thirty
years later !

This book takes a teacher through four wonderful lessons that provide students with a clear understanding of the methods that scientists use while doing science. Students learn while having fun. Provides hands-on as well as minds-on science. A must for all teachers. Watch out--you might even have fun.

The author has purposely addressed the dearth of readable and manageable accounts of Lincoln's life and career. Young people and adults alike will find this book valuable. Although brief compared to the usual tomes written on this subject, the reader will gain a good understanding of the formation of Lincoln's character and magnitude of what he a accomplished. The author's style is smooth and engaging allowing the reader to think about the subject matter rather than struggling from one paragraph to the next. I found that the end of the book came quickley and without great labor. The curious reader will come away from this book with a desire for more knowledge and understanding of this great man.

"The Paradox of Jamestown: 1585-1700," the second volume in The Drama of American History series, focuses on the enormous role played by Virginia in the creation of the United States. After all, this was the first English permanent colony on the mainland and its most famous citizens would be in the forefront of the battle for Independence. At this point in the story of American history, the emphasis is on the fact that these settlers were predominantly English (the series volume on "The French and the Indian Wars: 1660-1763" tells how the English came to be the dominant European power in North America). One of the strengths of this series is how it focuses on a particular topic without being diverted by what else was happening at the same time; instead of comparing and contrasting Jamestown and Virginia with what was happening with Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay, Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier deal with that part of the American experiment in a separate volume ("Pilgrims and Puritans: 19620-1676"). If anything, this volume might help to shift the relative importance of each colony in the mind of young readers who are swayed by thoughts of Pilgrim Fathers, the first Thanksgiving, and recurrent themes of puritanical thought throughout the nation's history. The Colliers make a good case that what happened in Jamestown is ultimately of more importance to understanding the American mind.

The Drama of American History series emphasizes what the authors call the "core content" of the subject, which deals with the broad strokes of issues and movements rather than the minutiae of names and dates. Consequently, "The Paradox of Jamestown" is developed in six chapters: (1) England on the Eve of Colonization clearly looks back at this period from the present, isolating the key facets of English life that would become important to the self-concept of Americans; (2) Capitalism and Colonization is a very short chapter that looks at how massive unemployment, religious and political conflicts, and the new capitalism all motivated Englishmen to travel to the New World; (3) Indians Greet the Englishmen is the story of the first failed English colony at Roanoke, remembered for botching relationships with the natives and the fabled Lost Colony that left behind the word "CROATAN" carved into a tree; (4) Powhatan Loses a Daughter and the English Get Tobacco is, of course, the "real" story of Pocahontas within the context of the founding of Jamestown in the second effort by the English to establish a colony in Virginia. Young readers will be shocked to learn that the natives, once again treated horribly by the English, turned on the colonists who were besieged and resorted to cannibalism before supplies and reinforcement arrived from England. Meanwhile, the colonists found tobacco to be a profitable cash crop, especially when the fields were worked by slaves. By the end of this chapter, the English are permanently established in Virginia.

The last two chapters in the volume focus on the socio-political evolution of the Virginia Colony that would have major consequences for American history: (5) Representative Government Comes to Virginia covers the political system that developed because of the significant problems of communicating with London. The result, the creation of an elected legislative assembly, was a radical departure from even what was practiced in England. This colonial assembly would lead to independence and the Revolutionary War, just as tobacco crops would lead to slavery and the Civil War. (6) Slavery Comes to Virginia develops this second significant thread, tracing both the economic and cultural practices of slavery. Taken together, these last two chapters crystallize the title's paradox: that the same place that created a legislative assembly that was leading to greater equality and freedom for ordinary citizens would also rely on the institution of slavery that would send millions into oppressive servitude.

I know The Drama of American History series is geared towards 6th-9th graders, but the "central core" approach works on other levels as well. The story of Pocahontas, who is kidnapped by the settlers before becoming Christian and heading off to England to die, is interesting not for its fanciful elements of romantic adventures, but because in the larger context it reflects the English sense of superiority over the natives. Given their callous disregard for the natives who were helping the Jamestown colony to survive its early years, it is not surprising that these same people would embrace slavery so willingly. The paradox developed by the Colliers also goes a long way towards explaining the major moments of American history from now until the end of the Civil War. Teachers might find it difficult to get classroom sets of this series for their students, but they can certainly use it to provide a solid sense of structure to their study of American history.

I also want to note that while this volume does include history etchings, maps, and such, it also relies heavily on contemporary color photographs of the recreated Jamestown, with reenactors showing what daily life was like in the colony (for slaves as well as freedmen). The result is a rather fascinating mix, especially given that many of the historical illustrations, such as Pocahontas rescuing Captain John Smith, are ironically less realistic.

Polar Extremes: The World Of Lincoln Ellsworth is the historic and engagingly written saga of Lincoln Ellsworth's impressive and hazardous struggle to make aviation history by flying over the earth's Poles. From his 1926 attempt to fly across the North Pole in a dirigible, to flying his custom-made plane over Antarctica in 1935 and discovering a mountain range now called the Ellsworths, Polar Extremes is a compelling biography of a daring and adventures life driven by death-defying passions. Polar Extremes is highly recommended as a rousing and true biographical account and a welcome contribution to the growing library of Aviation History.

The author provides a no non-sense approach to a subject that a lot of us get fustrated with. If you follow along in the book from begining to end with a keyboard instrument, about half way through the book you'll begin to feel the confidence of a musician! J. Collier's writing style is such that, you feel as though he knows the struggles that you may be having with music concepts and magically puts them easy to understand layman's terms, as if he is talking directly to you. If you want to really understand music, get this book. I hope to meet J. Collier one day.

In this short, carefully- and concisely-argued book, the author does an excellent job in situating Lincoln within the political setting of the 1850s and in describing the course of events that resulted in his election to the Presidency. This book is largely an answer to those who would contend that Lincoln showed little promise of greatness before supposedly stumbling into the Presidency, where it is acknowledged even by those critics that he rose to the heights demanded by the times. The author certainly admits to the elements of circumstance in Lincoln's ascent. He was a Whig, or a moderate, in a state Illinois that had become increasingly important in national elections.

While it may have appeared that Lincoln was politically dormant in the early 50s, his behind-the-scenes political activity became obvious when he became a key anti-Nebraska activist in 1854. As a Whig, Lincoln lost a very close contest in the Illinois legislature for the U.S. Senate (legislatures elected senators in that era). From 1854 to 1856 it had become obvious that both the Whigs and the upstart Know-Nothings could not deal with the slavery issue, which led to their demise. By 1856 Lincoln had finished second in the running for the Vice-Presidential nomination at the first national Republican convention, and in the process had firmly established himself as a leading Republican in Illinois.

It was the continued Kansas crisis and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision in March of 1857 and the reactions to them that put Lincoln on the national stage. The court decision had affirmed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in the Kansas-Nebraska Act under a principle of Congressional non-intervention in territories. But Senator Stephen Douglas contended that his doctrine of popular sovereignty continued to hold. Both Lincoln and most Republicans found the indifference or neutrality of popular sovereignty to the spread of slavery to be repugnant. Thus began a series of exchanges and seven formal debates between Douglas and Lincoln before the elections of 1858.

As a senator from mostly anti-slavery Illinois, Douglas had been forced, at the end of 1857, to denounce the machinations of the proslavery element in Kansas in trying to force their constitution on a mostly slave-free territory. In a shrewd and unprecedented political move, Illinois Republicans nominated Lincoln for the U. S. Senate to counter the infatuation of Eastern Republicans with the newly recreated Douglas. Lincoln fired the first shot in the senatorial campaign with his famous "House Divided" speech where he insisted that a nation divided over slavery could not stand.

One of the more controversial ideas that emerged from the debates was Douglas' Freeport Doctrine. In skirting Lincoln's question of whether territorial legislatures could exclude slavery, Douglas claimed that such a legislature's failure to pass laws that favorably policed slavery was tantamount to formally excluding it. The Democratic illusion that non-intervention and popular sovereignty were benignly equivalent had been exploded. According to the author "Southerners could see the walls closing in on them, and the defection of Douglas vividly dramatized the growing isolation of slave society." Ignoring Dred Scott, the South began to insist on the enactment of positive slave codes for the explicit protection of slavery in territories.

Lincoln narrowly lost the senatorial contest in Illinois in 1858, but the issue of slavery had been discussed on the national stage, as it never had been before. While Lincoln had asked the hard questions about slavery, he remained a moderate in Republican circles, and, as such, perhaps the only Republican that could have been elected President in 1860. It is clear that Lincoln had no intention of attacking the institution of slavery in the South. The Southern demand for slave codes applicable to territories was simply irrational given the fact that it was generally agreed upon that no territories were even suitable for slavery. It is most clear from reading this book that had the extremists of the South permitted Lincoln to exercise the fundamental decency and strength of character that he had, that there would have been no reason to precipitate the destruction of an entire way of life.