AS

I have had this book for many years and it is a great book for those who have wolfdogs aka wolf hybrids. Very balanced in perception the world of wolfdogs. Michael Belshaw writes from personal life with these amazing animal companions. Events and things you need to know. The great depth of affection these animals have and the antics that make you laugh. this is an awesome book, out of print and hard to find but worth the effort just as these wonderful creatures are worth.

I am very pleased that those of us can't afford the first edition can now own this classic!

One of the most honest looks at the spiritual journey of motherhood that I have read to date, Bonnie discusses the theological work of love, care, family and those most marginalized in our society: our children. While the author advocates for a model of shared parenting between mothers and fathers, she does not thoroughly address enough the issue of balance for mothers, nor share enough of her own story or personal struggle in motherhood within this text. The places where Bonnie does include her journey and struggle do make this text engaging and easy to connect with for mothers and others who share responsibility for caring of children. A must read for anyone involved in Christian ministry. Wish more Catholic priests woule take a look at this one to get a better handle on the theology of motherhood, as mothers are probably the most theologically invisible persons in some Christian settings. Lifting mothers from the limitations of oppresive commentary, Bonnie brings dignity and validity to the vocation of motherhood and celebrates the child in her writing. A great gift for mothers, a must read for women's studies students, professors, pastoral ministers, and a great insight for husbands, fathers and all who are in relationship with mothers who care for our most precious children.

Not only is the author great (I know her!) but this book explores an interesting topic. Those paper cuttings are unreal! I mean they are real, but they are so amazing!

How did the Victorian woman cope with the image of herself as a writer?
What were the constraints on female friendships in a world centered on the preeminence of the husband?
How significant for an ambitious woman were her politics about men?
At the heart of the book is a friendship between two women: Jane Carlyle, and the novelist Geraldine Jewsbury. But it was a difficult friendship; and in its difficulty lies much that is illuminating: about 19th century domestic ideology: about writing for a market, and female fame and about the complex ambivalences between women.
Examining aspects of their lives, writing, and relationships, alongside those two other writers...Felicia Hermans and Geraldine's sister, Maria Jane...Norma Clarke provides a subtle and illuminating discussion of the possibilities that were open to women in the Victorian age.

This novel teaches history in a novel, thought provoking way. It doesn't simply recites the facts like a history textbook, but analyzes and makes connections. It's excellent for review for college level classes and for ideas for essay thesis-writing. All in all, it deserves the highest mark.

This short book showed me a great deal about both U.S. history and environmentalism. The extensive notes and huge bibliography mark the book not just as inviting severe academic scrutiny but as a pithy summary of a lifetime of information. If my library was as large as this bibliography, I'd feel obligated to open it to the public.

The book is organized around technologies that were used in the white settlement of the U.S.: the different and more efficient American axe (and the log cabin), the water powered mill, the canal and the railroad, and irrigation infrastructure such as dams. With these various technogies over time settlers "improved" the land they found. They felt it took both nature's "first creation" and their efforts at "second creation" to complete the work and make the land truly suitable for life. After years of wondering, here finally is an explanation of what early settlers were thinking when they did things that now seem extremely ecologically destructive.

The book calls out four assumptions of second creation: i) grid surveys were a good way to apportion and settle the fairly uniform land ii) free markets allowed individuals to do whatever made most sense without regard to legislative edicts and local monopolies iii) resources --especially land-- were abundant so that population growth didn't have to worry about the downward resource spiral suggested by Malthus and iv) the universe supported changes at no cost rather than levying an entropic tax on every effort at long-term progress. All four were critical to underpinning our foundation story; all four were eventually thrown in the dustbin of history. Those neat squares are a hallmark of flying over the western U.S., but they condemned neighbors to live a half mile apart rather than in towns, and they dismally failed to promote individual ownership of lands that needed to be irrigated. I'll let the book fill out the details of the remaining three assumptions.

I'd wondered casually about but never seriously questioned the emphasis on water power rather than steam power in the early U.S. I learned our thinkers were glad surfeit of rivers and lack of coal leaned this way, because water power was thought to be more natural and hence to have beneficial sociological effects! Many early investors honestly thought that so long as mills used water power rather than steam power, they couldn't create a downtrodden working class like British mills. I also learned that mills were common in the Southern states too; although they arrived there a generation later, they weren't completely absent as I had thought.

Even though I live near historic Lowell Massachusetts ("spindle city") and thought I was quite familiar with the history of mills in the U.S., the book taught me some new local details. It alerted me to the former existence of the Middlesex Canal that extended almost 30 miles from the Merrimack River to Boston, and to the original construction of the Pawtucket Canal not for the mills but for transportation. Once I knew to look for the Middlesex Canal, I found maps, an interpretive museum which I visited, and even remaining bits and pieces explaining odd landscape features that had never made sense before.

I was also alerted to the fact that the old gristmill I'm familiar with near the Wayside Inn in Sudbury Massachusetts was in fact a reconstruction early in the last century.

And the many references led me to 'The Education of Henry Adams', an autobiography that although clearly a century old speaks to our time. My old public library, which has a vault in the basement and some materials that go back to the sixteen hundreds, still had a copy on its open shelves. When checking it out I commented to the librarian I was glad the library had so many "old" books, and she in turn commented that she was glad to see at least one patron using the older book room.

As time passed and as settlement proceeded westward, the necessary technologies expanded from things each individual could manipulate to things that could only be done by huge collectives. One man could make a clearing with an axe. But only the federal government could construct Boulder Dam. The individualism that's so tightly woven into the U.S. persona made less and less sense as settlement proceeded into the high plains and the arid regions. Even in the already settled east, large civil engineering works such as water pumping stations were once highly visible public technology.

I discovered this book quite by accident while weeding the reference collection of the public library in which I work.
"Where do you keep the historical fiction?" and "Where can I find a historical fiction book about the [Civil War | Revolutionary War | French and Indian War | War of 1812 | Oregon Trail | original 13 colonies | etc. etc.]" are questions that come up nearly every day in my line of work.
Until I found this book, I had to rely largely on memory from my own childhood or from classes I had taken in graduate school to make recommendations.
This book is well organized, possessed of a useful index, and true to its task.

Highly recommended for teachers, librarians, and parents alike.

This out-of-print book from 1977 is relatively easy to find and usually not too expensive. I got my used right here on Amazon for only [a few bucks]. This is a wonderful, campy tour through America's wax museums with literally hundreds of small to medium-sized black and white photos. Comparing some of these Mom-and-Pop museum efforts to those of, say, the masters at Madame Tussauds is quite interesting. And it goes without saying that there are few (if any) other books ever produced on the wax museum industry. Short on words, this is above all a photo book. I was extremely pleased with my purchase!

First published in 1995 by Oxford University Press, America's Competitive Secret suggests how to utilize women as a management strategy. It was an excellent idea then and an even better idea now as globalization initiatives of American companies increase and intensify. In the Preface, author Judy B. Rosener explains that her book is intended for executives and managers "who want to improve their organization's bottom line, and for women who wonder why their career paths so often seem to be shaped by the fact that they are female." Note the reference to "bottom line." For Rosener, it is prudent to leverage the talents of professional women" inorder to create "more innovative, productive, and profitable organizations." Also, for male executives, the principle of enlightened self-interest is relevant to their own success. It makes absolutely no sense to under-utilize the talents of women professionals, especially as the global economy continues to expand so rapidly and extensively. Rosabeth Kanter agrees: "Whatever the duration and objectives of business alliances,...in the global economy, a well-developed ability to create and sustain fruitful collaborations gives companies a significant competitive leg up." Hence the importance of women.

As Connie Glaser and Barbara Steinberg Smalley suggest in Swim with the Dolphins, the female temperament is better suited than is the male's to concluding "win-win" negotiations, resolving conflicts, reaching consensus, preferring to cooperate and collaborate rather than compete, keeping an open mind, asking direct and relevant but not insulting questions, etc. Rosener describes the female temperament in terms of "consensus building, power sharing, and comfort with ambiguity."

She examines five "stages" through which organizations must proceed if they are to undergo the transformation required by new realities as well as opportunities: Stage One: Staying Out of Trouble Stage Two: We Need to React Stage Three: It's a Case of Survival Stage Four: It's the Right Thing to Do Stage Five: It's Part of Our Culture

Females as well as males within an organization will proceed from one stage to the next at varying speeds and within varying timeframes. Fair enough. However, all must reach Stage Five. Rosener recommends that, from both a strategic and financial point of view, structural reorganization "should be undertaken in concert with efforts to rectify female underutilization. Flexibility and diversity are two keys to competitive advantage, and both are closely related to the underutilization issue."

So much in the business world has changed since 1995 when this book was first published. However, many American companies and most companies in other countries have yet to take full advantage of -- and reward appropriately -- the talents of women. The companies which do so have a significant competitive advantage, a "secret weapon" if you will. Professional women know at which companies they will be appreciated and rewarded, where there are the greatest opportunities for their personal as well as professional growth. It is no coincidence that these are the same companies which, year after year, are the most profitable in their respective industries. At least until now, many of our nation's companies seem unaware of or indifferent to this "competitive secret."