Builder

Bingham's book was written back in the 1940s. This details his adventures in finding the city of Machi Picchu. The city was never really lost, the Indians knew about it all along. Bingham just brought it to the world's attention. Some of Bingham's theories about the Incas have later been proven false. So if you want the definitive explanation of why Machu Picchu exists, this is not the book. Generally this is a good adventure book and details the last years of the Inca Empire before Francisco Pizarro destroyed it. This is located in the first part of the book, which is interesting. The second half of the book details his theories, some of which have been proven false. For those of you planning on visiting Peru and Machu Picchu, read this book.

This book is valuable for many reasons. First and foremost, it presents us with the views and attitudes of one of the world's foremost anthropologist-explorers from the beginning of the 20th century. This means lots and lots of passion and enthusiasm, a willingness to risk one's life in pursuit of an elusive goal and an ability to follow one's gut instincts. All traits which, sadly, have practically dissapeared from modern anthropology. In addition, of course, the book is permeated with the spirit of the times (1910-40ies) - which means patronizing attitudes toward the natives (the "savages", who for the most part clearly resented the tasks of having to clear the jungle, build bridges across impassable rapids and climb hills infested with snakes) and an eurocentric view of the world which now seems a bit naive.

All this being said, I must emphasize that this book is a treasure and a must read for anyone about to visit Macchu Picchu - if only to contrast the conditions encountered by Bingham and his Indians to those that exist today, when busloads of clueless tourists are delivered straight to the Temple of the Sun. The first third of the book consists of a superb Introduction including a recapitulation of the16th century records of the Incas and their empire (including the awesome Pachakuti Inca), very competent review of Inca technology (many of their and an excellent recapitulation of the life stories of the last 4 Incas. The last part describes the actual "discovery" of Macchu Picchu which occured by procuring, for a silver coin, the services of Anacleto Alvarez, a local Qechua who had been living among the ruins all along. Macchu Pichu therefore had never been truly "lost" and "discovery" has in this context many interesting connotations.

For my part, I have a respect for Bingham and for his guts that served him so well. In time, for example, they led him to the US Senate (from Connecticut). I suspect it will take many a pachakuti (turning of the Wheel of Time) till another anthropologist gets an opportunity to represent Democracy and the People.

This book tells the gripping story of the discovery of Machu Piccu. Although Bingham is an academic archaeologist he appears to be belong to the Indiana Jones school. As a travel book it is a gem - Bingham travels through uncharted teritory in the outback of Peru at teh beginning of the century. He risks his life climbing the steep hillsides to Machu Piccu after getting a tip from a local farmer. But the book is also full of detail on the finds he made at the site. It is an insight into the ways of the Inca, and the archaeologist. Although it can be a bit dry in places - the lists of finds at Machu Piccu - Bingham makes up for this with his absorbing adventure story in the earlier chapters. END

This book is exactly what you'd expect from a book purchased at a gift shop at the Grand Canyon, bland.

It is by no-means in-depth and spends more time describing the antiques that Colter decorated her buildings with than with her life. Colter was a fascinating woman and I would have liked to learn more about her than this book provided.

Being as how Colter isn't exactly someone you're likely to read more than one book about, I would recommend purchasing something with more pictures and information than this one, which is more just a basic outline.

"Builder upon the Red Earth" is not the slick tome of expensive color photographs and analytical drawings that Mary Colter's unique contribution to Twentieth Century American Architecture deserves. However, this essentially biographical book is the only one in print showing pictures and telling the history of Mary Colters extrodinary talent.It is not clear if Mary Colter's obscurity is due to the fact that she was a woman practicing architecture in a time when the field was dominated by men or if the remote Southwestern locations of her most interesting works kept them hidden form view, but it is high time more people took a serious look at her work. Colter's projects, which are "built ruins" foreshadow the work of Western deconstructionist architects like Antoine Predoc or Tom Maine. Showing the work of Colter which is almost 80 years ahead of its time "Builder upon the Red Earth" should be in every young architects library.

Although I agree with the reviewer who says that Mary Colter deserves a far better book, I still highly recommend this one, as at least it fills in a gap that's almost the same size as the canyon where Colter's buildings still stand today. More people should read it so that some will be inspired to write more!

The book is well written and provocative. I used to use it as a supplemental text for my graduate National Security Policy course and know others have used it that way as well. His characterizations of the culture of the individual armed services remains dead-on. Unfortunately, many of the examples are mired in the Cold War days and are therefore overtaken by events. Still, worth reading if you can find a copy on the cheap.

The late Carl Builder researched and wrote this Rand Corporation study in the late 1980s. Its findings on military culture in the different services are as valid today as they were before the end of the Cold War ... perhaps more so.

To understand the behavior of the military services, which sometimes seems contradictory, it is necessary to delve into their cultural make up. Builder does this with clarity and insight based on years of intimate involvement as a defense analyst. The Air Force, for example, is the embodiment of a single idea, one that also happens to be a strategy of war. It is not love of the Air Force but love of flight and flying machines that is the common bond of its members.

The Navy, writes Builder, "jealously guards its independence and is happiest when left alone." It is perhaps the closest thing we have to a state within a state. The Army, on the other hand, is schizophrenic, viewing itself on the one hand as the loyal servant of the nation, but on the other hand the "heady memories of triumph in the closing months of World War II contradict this modest role."

We are left to ponder how conditions in the post-Cold War era, and particularly with the advance of technology, will affect these cultural outlooks and service behavior. Will the Air Force ever accept a pilotless cockpit in one of its planes? Will the Navy, drawn closer to the littorals and within global reach of communications, surrender some of its cherished independence? Will the stunning success of ground forces in Operation Desert Storm supplant the glow of victory in World War II for the schizophrenic Army?

"The Masks of War" is a terrific study and a great read. But it does leave some questions begging for answers. Builder does not explore the culture of the Marine Corps, which comes under the Navy Department. Nor does Builder address the distinct cultures of the reserve components, particularly Army National Guard and the Air National Guard.

This is a great book for the beginning defense analyst and the old pro alike.

Mr. Builder does an excellent job of comparing and contrasting the styles of the three main branches of the U.S. military. From warfighting to peacetime, the approaches to missions, roles, procurement, leadership styles, and corporate cultures are studied. After reading it, I am convinced I should have joined the Army instead of the Navy.

In what is advertised as a balanced exposition of the mound controversy that has raged for two centuries, Silverberg comes off with obvious bias, offering some of the most amazing sentences I have ever read. Seeking to demonstrate that the natives were constructing mounds at the time of European discovery, Silverberg describes a painting by a Spanish artist, Jacques Le Moyne, showing Indians mourning at a chief's burial ground.The grave is shown as a mound about three feet high. Here is what Silverberg says in an attempt to turn this into evidence that the Indians built the mounds: "Though the mound shown by Le Moyne was small, it may have been only the core of what was intended as a full-sized mound. If this is so, Le Moyne's painting is the first depiction of an Indian burial mound - made while the mound was still in the early stages of construction."

But that isn't the choicest piece of legerdemain. William Powell caused Congress to place responsibility for the mounds in a new Bureau of Ethnology under Powell's control at the Smithsonian. Powell proceeded to use that position to impose his peculiar notion, that the finding of European artifacts in the mounds, a common occurrence, was evidence that the mounds had been constructed after European settlement and thus proof of native origin. One of his original attacks on the "mound myth" as Silverberg calls any notion of non-native origin, involved having a bird specialist, Henry Henshaw, debunk any notion that the figurine pipes found in the mounds represented anything but native wildlife. When Henshaw was subsequently found to be wrong, Silverberg saves the day with the following sentence: "But Henshaw's blast had the value of correcting falsely interpreted evidence - even if the false interpretation had accidentally provided a correct answer!"

I can't resist just one more. Powell's chief minion, Cyrus Thomas, set out to discredit prior authority, Squier and Davis, who, strangely enough, had worked for the Smithsonian several decades earlier, that the mounds were laid out with a geometric precision that required instruments at least as accurate as those existing at the end of the 18th Century. Claiming that Squire and Davis exercised "an inexcusable degree of carelessness," in measuring the mounds, Thomas sent out surveyors to correct their carelessness. The surveyors found not only that Squire and Davis had been accurate, but concluded that only modern surveying instruments could have accomplished the feat. Pointing out that Thomas can offer no real answer - except to say that the Indians who built them must have had some very clever methods of designing huge enclosures, Silverberg drops the subject.

The Mound Builders is a prime example of 20th Century science, where preconceived conclusions are made, evidence created to support those conclusions is manufactured and any and all evidence that contradicts the conclusion is destroyed, as Powell destroyed the history of the North American continent by shipping the contents of the mounds back to Washington where they were never seen again.

If you really want to find out about the mounds and the actual history of the North American continent, click on Magazines and search out the Ancient American. You will find everything you want in that publication.

I grew up in Newark, Ohio, almost "next door" to the great circle mound in what has become Moundbuilders Park. My cousins lived near the Octagon mound, and we played there often even though, due to its status as a private country club golf course, it was located on PRIVATE PROPERTY. Moundbuilders park was the scene of countless family picnics, and a walk around the big mound was always the high point of the day for a little kid. So the mounds were very much a part of my every day life. Yet I knew very little about them, or about the people who created them.

Last week I ran across a battered paperback edition of Silverberg's book at a local used bookstore. He has woven together a great story, dealing not only with the people who created the mounds, but also with the ways in which European civilization has attempted to understand and interpret them. I was especially interested in his account of the inherent tension between the fascination and mythology surrounding the mounds in 19th century America and the genocidal policies which were being simultaneously pursued against the American Indian. Silverberg lets the facts speak for themselves without falling into the
swamp of political correctness.

In describing the efforts of various 19th century American archeologists and anthropologists to explore and explain the mounds, Silverberg also depicts an intellectual style which is as extinct as the Moundbuilders themselves. Dedicated "amateur" scientists, including politicans such as Jefferson and WH Harrison, made meaningful contributions to the effort to explore and understand the mounds and the culture which produced them.
What contemporary political figure has the intellectual spirit or temperment to make a similar contribution? (The only thing that comes close, I guess, is Al Gore's invention of the Internet.) Sadly, the advancement of learning has been relegated to the professionals and academics. The Renaissance person is no more -- and we are all diminished.

It's beutiful in Ohio in October, and with the "new eyes" provided by Silverberg I'm taking a car trip to explore several of the sites which do remain.

I am fascinated by historical structures and some of the most interesting to me are those made primarily of heaped up soil. Though the building material is basic, the great work involved makes one wonder about the motivation required and the purpose of the builders. In my travels across the midwestern states, I've stopped at many "Indian mounds", most recently at the impressive site of large geometric structures at Newark, Ohio.
At the museum there I discovered Silverberg's book and immediately bought it with the hope of learning about the mounds. I am happy to report that this book is not only highly readable, engaging and revealing but also that it covers the topic more thoroughly than I expected. The author takes us through time both ancient and modern giving an account of the speculations and research that in many cases led people on wild flights of fancy but have ultimately given us a good idea of why the mounds were built, who built them and when. I found out about the different traditions, periods and cultures of the Indians involved with the mounds, such as the Adena and Hopewell people. I learned of the different kinds of mounds and what they did or did not contain, of frauds that distracted investigators and greed that led to pillaging. Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Smith and John Wesley Powell are just a few of the people who were captivated by the mounds and you'll find out why. After the cultural depredations of de Soto through the careless physical destruction of the past 150 years, I'm grateful that anything remains to be seen today. Maps present sites that can be visited. When I finished the book I felt great appreciation for Silverberg's work that so fully satisfied my curiosity while providing such a pleasant read. He not only answered my questions but provided many answers to others I had not even considered.

This book contains very little practical information on staircase construction and assembly. Most of the book consists of stair tables ( 95 % of it ) for stair layout which any competent carpenter can figure on the job in a few minutes.While the tables are complete and may save a little time,the few sections on stair layout and assembly are limited in scope and vaguely written.If you want to learn more about staircase construction,save your money and pass this one up!

We were looking for a handbook for stair building. Our two top carpenters (25 years experience each) gave their approval.

This book is well worth the price, but be careful of it...friends tend to borrow it and then it is a question of who has it now and where is it?

The problems are worth doing, but the level of difficulty is not that of an SAT. In SAT critical reading questions, you will often be asked to make judgements based on a gut feeling of what the author was trying to portray. Also, the SAT readings can contain a few lines that are quite incomprehensible, and you are forced to answer questions even though you are in a state of partial confusion. There are neither of these pitfalls to be seen in this book. Also the readings in this book are shorter. For these reasons, this book has to be supplemented with others for a really good preparation for SAT critical reading.

I used this book to study for the SAT Verbal. I scored well over 200 points after finishing this book ( from 510 to 760 ) ! As in almost every standardized test, long term planning is the key. This book is very very comprehensive and should be used for the patient and the long term planner. The other SAT verbal books mainly deal with memorizing Vocabulary. However, app. half of the SAT verbal questions and points are Reading Comprehension. Quite often, these SAT books give you a few RC samples and advise an overly generalized method. This book is specifically committed in tackling these specific questions with lots of examples and an emphasis on self-learning. With consistent effort and patience, you will score BIG! The only thing that turned me off about this book is that it can be repetitive and boring. You get pummeled by sooo many actual RC questions that you just get sick of it! But it's worth the effort. Along the way, you will master RC questions and smile!

I believe that Richard Branson is a unique character and that information about his life and business philosophies would make an interesting read. Thus I chose to read this book.

However I was somewhat disappointed. Although I did learn a few things and there were some interesting passages, a great deal of the book consisted of quotes obtained from OTHER biographers and journalists attempting to document Branson's life.

Each chapter concluded with a summary (read: repetition) of the information in that chapter, and dozens of other sections/quotes/anecdotes were obviously repeated in various chapters. Perhaps because of this, it only took me an hour to read the entire book (admittedly I am a reasonably fast reader).

One thing that I can say in its favor is that the book was structured well; there were 10 main sections, each devoted to a different "Branson philosophy" (for example, "pick on someone bigger than you").

In short, although I did get some interest out of this book I am looking for another Branson biography to read because this one fell short of expectations.

I suggested that we choose Virgin as a company to research as an MBA Project. Our group used this book as research material. We found it wonderful, and uplifting, exactly what what was necessary for this project. I would highly recommend it to others as well as the book "Losing My Virginity". Virgin is a company that should be studied by US business'executives, its shows you can create an empire - differently!

This book is a wealth of information on the how to. It doesn't provide an answer on how to create the universe, but it covers enough of the basics that you could take over the project. From how to stand properly while using a saw, to how to use and maintain hand tools that have been lost and forgotten as antiques or replaced by power tools. This book provides the level of detail and explanation of how and where to use various types of joinery. The book gives a user a greater understanding of why a two hundred year old barn is still standing and in use and there isn't a single nail in it. The book even provides explanations of how and why certain nails are selected for any given job (bigger is not always better). The book covers in painful detail the use of a framing square (ever try to transfer a nine and one half degree angle from a six inch protractor, only to find it wasn't quite right and have ugly gaps in your project).

Steel framing square section too tightly written...the chapter is not for those that do not have any past experience with the steel framing square. This chapter leaves me wishing to ask additional questions...perhaps there is a Video

First let me explain what this book is. Remember all of those tables in the first edition AD&D Dungeon Masters guide that listed medieval titles, gem stone types, dungeon 'props' etc. This is just one whole big book full of them. Thankfully the random number generator column is missing this time and there is usually some explanatory text to go along with each table entry - a vague sentence or two explaining what the thing is. There's really not much more to it than that. There is a section on weapons and armor but the descriptive text does not match up with the game statistics tables. For example many forms of armor are listed and described briefly and some even have pictures but for many game statistics are not provided or the armor is given a slightly different name in the tables so you can't find it or aren't sure if you have. There is a picture of Japanese armor with all the parts labeled but no game statistics or associated descriptive text. The layout of the book is also terrible. It looks like the whole thing was written in Microsoft Word using the default document template.

Overall a trashy product that both Troll Lord Games and the authors should be ashamed of. If all you want to do is publish a dictionary of medieval and fantasy terms and put this little effort into copy editing then you might as well run it through a photo-copier, staple it together and charge for the cost of paper and toner. At $... this is appalling. I expect better from a free product on the Web.

I first learned of this book when passing by Monte Cook's website, the author of the Players Handbook for 3rd Edition D&D. He had written, "I've heard some people put down this product because it's not a guide to help you build a campaign, but instead a book of lists. Well, as it turns out, I think a book of lists is pretty cool. I used to love the appendices in the back of the 1st Edition DMG that were just lists of things, and that's basically what this book from Troll Lord Games is. They make for great idea generators when you're stuck as a DM or as a writer."

So, I picked up a copy. The layout could be improved no doubt, and there were some obvious typos, but there is still an enormous amount of generic information useful to a fantasy writer or Dungeon Master. I would have to spend hours digging around a library or Google to find this sort of material.

Not perfect, and not what the title might imply, but good.

The book is not titled correctly. This is a book of lists, and a great one at that! This book is great for writers to break through writer's block and it is good for dungeon masters and world builders to help them add detail and depth to their worlds. Unless you must have d20 or LA stats for everything, you will not be disappointed by this book. This book is not very useful for players, but is very useful for DMs and writers.

I teach Middle School Pre-Algebra and One Year Algebra. Every summer I try and purchase books and magazines in order to find new and interesting lesson plans. I purchased this book thinking I could get at least something new and interesting to excite my kids. This book definitely didnt help. College students would be bored with the books writing style and exercises. And most of the ideas are old and rejected from years past.

Hand-outs and book assignments are not inspiring. A book titled "Math Games" should be just that; a book full of math games. Not one with mundane hand-outs.

I teach middle school mathematics and I think the book is great to aid in cooperative learning groups. Using the information and developing work stations will enhance the students' knowledge of the material. As a lesson, the book would require the creativity of the teacher to add other material and/or adjustments to make it interesting. This book is best for reteaching or review of the topics being taught.

As a middle school substitute teacher, I'm always looking for things to use as daily problem to open the class with. This book is GREAT!! Problems are divided by topic so it easy to pick & choose. Answers are completely explained.