Expansion Books

This is a outstanding source that you need in the study of the biblcal world.

I finished reading Volume 1 of the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha in August 2004, and after some further study of the development of early Christianity and much dithering, I finally acquired Volume II in May 2007. I got round to reading it in November 2007, and it was certainly an easier book to read then the first one. This volume was published in 1985, a couple of years after Volume I, but the layout is essentially the same, with the preliminary sections - Foreword, Introduction to General Reader, Abbreviations seemingly identical to that of Volume 1. Despite this repetition, these are worth reading again if for no other reason to prepare the reader for reading the documents themselves. Volume II includes a full index for both volumes in this work, whereas none is included in Volume I.

The documents in this Volume II are all considered to have been written over a period of about five hundred years from the beginning of the 3rd Century BC to the beginning of the 3rd Century AD. They are grouped into 4 sections, each of which has a short introduction describing the nature of the contents, and a list of documents included within the section. The documents within each section are in date order, and each is introduced by a discussion of the contents, the original language of the text, the probable date, and where it was written, its historical, theological, and cultural importance, the earliest translations, relationship to other books, and a select bibliography. The texts themselves contain cross references to other biblical texts as well as copious detailed notes on the text itself.

I found it was as important to read the introductory section and the detailed notes as it was to read the texts themselves. The commentaries on each document were generally most interesting and throw considerable light on the currents of theological thought which was occurring during this period, but with a caution. Many of the documents were preserved in Christian communities, and some were only available in a language of a much later period. The provenance of some of these works is therefore difficult to determine, and the analysis of the theology and the language of these documents indicate that they have been subject to some later editing and insertions by Christian writers. Of course, only some of the works have these Christian overtones, and in general, the commentaries make clear where these "adjustments" have occurred.

I am quite happy that I acquired Volume II, and do recommend it for those readers who have also succeeded in making it through to the end of Volume I. For those who may be interested, I have included the following brief summary of the contents of the Volume II

Section 1, which is half the book, includes 13 documents which are essentially expansions of the Old Testament and associated Legends. These include:
* The Letter of Aristeas, which is an account of the writing of the Septuagint, and which can be compared with the that of Josephus.
* Jubilees which is basically an expansion of the books of Genesis and Exodus, purporting to be an account of matters revealed to Moses during the 40 days he spent on Mount Sinai. Copies of this book were discovered at Qumran, which indicates its theological importance to that community, and allows it to be dated more precisely.
* The Martyrdom and Ascension of Isaiah which is in two parts - the first being a Jewish account of the Martyrdom of Isaiah with an insertion which is clearly Christian, and the second part being a Christian addition of the Vision of Isaiah.
* Joseph and Aseneth which is an expansion of the biblical account where the Pharaoh gives Aseneth, the daughter of Potiphera, Priestess of On for his wife.
* Life of Adam and Eve
* Pseudo-Philo Biblical Antiquities being a retelling of the Old Testament from Adam to David and Saul.
* The Lives of the Prophets being a short account of the lives of the 23 prophets, some of which are only a few lines long
* The Ladder of Jacob, being an elaboration of Jacob's dream at Bethel
* 4 Baruch, which is an expansion of items omitted from the book of Jeremiah the Prophet.
* Jannes and Jambres - with only short fragments of a pre-Christian tale whose base is the biblical account of the Exodus
* History of the Rechabites which is a description of Zosimus, a virtuous man who after 40 years of prayer is taken to the abode of the Blessed Ones - a sort of Utopian paradise in the middle of the great ocean. This was originally a Jewish account, but has many Christian interpolations to include Jesus Christ.
* Eldad and Modad - a discussion on the two line text from the Shepherd of Hermes of the 2nd century AD, which refers to two prophets who are mentioned in Numbers 11:26-29
* History of Joseph - which is a meager textual remnant of what appears to be a Midrashic expansion of the life of Joseph in the Book of Genesis.


Section 2 includes 5 documents which are all classified as Wisdom and Philisophical Literature. These include:
* The Word of Ahiqar, which was one of the best-known and widely disseminated tales of the ancient Mediterranean world. It is the oldest text in the collection, and probably antedates the post exilic portions of the Old Testament. It is in two parts, the first being the story of Ahiqar, scribe and counselor to the Kings of Assyria, the second contains a collection of about 100 sayings attributed to Ahiqar
* 3 Maccabees, the account of the visit of Ptolemy IV Philopator to the Temple of Jerusalem after his defeat of Antiochus III at Raphia.
* 4 Maccabees which is a discussion on devout reason's mastery over passions, based upon the martyrdom of Eleazar and of the seven sons and their mother
* Pseudo-Phocylides - a collection of sayings in Greek - attributed pseudonymously under the name of Pholcylides, an Ionic poet living in Miletus during the 6th century BC
* The Sentences of the Syriac Menander - a collection of wisdom sayings written in Syriac probably during the 3rd Century AD which are in the form of practical rules for human behaviour and were attributed to the Greek Sage Menander,

Section 3 includes 7 documents which are classified as Prayers, Psalms, and Odes. These include
* Six additional Psalms of David, beyond the 150 included in the Masoretic text,
* The Prayer of Manesseh,
* Eighteen psalms of Solomon,
* Sixteen Hellenistic Synagogal Prayers
* The Prayer of Joseph,
* The Prayer of Jacob
* Forty two odes of Solomon, the origins and datings of which are quite uncertain

Section 4 includes fragments of 13 lost Judeo-Hellenistic works of Poetry, Oracles, Drama, Philosophy, History etc, the general characteristics of the excerpts from these once voluminous works being a claim that the best Greek ideas were derived from the Jews. Many of the works in this section have been preserved in the works of later writers such as Alexander Polyhistor, Eusebius and others, but in general the discussion on the fragments is often more informative than the extant fragments themselves.

This is the most spectacular volume of literature from the period c. 200 BCE to 200 CE. There is the Hebrew Bible and there is the New Testament writings. In between is the myth of the 'four hundred years of silence'. This volume and the second volume reveal that writings during this time were prolific.

In this volume are such vital works as 1 Enoch. The apocalyptic literature which began, if scholars are correct, with Daniel (and traces in some of the Prophets) blossomed into an entire genre of literature which would greatly influence what would become Christianity. The book of Jude quotes from 1 Enoch expressly and Revelation and other New Testament books bear many commonalities wih 1 Enoch. This is just a taste of what is in store for the reader.

This volume and the second volume reveal just what was going on in the Judaism(s) of this period of time. There was lots going on and it is not so cut and dry as it is often traditionally taught. The variety of beliefs derived, no matter how loosely, on the Jewish Scriptures is endlessly diverse. This book does an excellent job of placing the actual writings in one book.

Charlesworth and those who have introduced/translated the works contained herein have done a great job tracing the history of the works and what is known about the communities in which they were written. Also included are margin notes that show the connection, directly or indirectly, to the Tanakh and the New Testament (including the Apocrypha).

This is a necessary resource for anyone interested in and open to understanding exactly how it was that Christianity and Rabbinical Judaism emerged from the tumult of the period between c. 200 BCE and 200 CE.

This is the best collection of the non-canonical Jewish writings available. It does not contain the official Apocrypha or the complete Dead Sea Scrolls but it has the major complete works like Enoch and Jubilees from there, and essentially everything else including works still unavailable online and in other collections such as the Apocalypse of Elijah.

Charlesworth's introductions and notes are invaluable covering themes, dates, authorships rescensions, translations notes and variants.

Some of the best literature, whether divinely inspired or not, has long been lost to the world, too often for political ends. Fortunately, volumes like this one, admirably edited by James H. Charlesworth, replenish much of what was "lost" between the time of the Councils at Jamina and Nicaea.

Whatever one's creed or intentions, if one approaches this volume in earnest, one will find much of interest including, but not limited to, strong, implied historical evidence of egregious tampering by the early Church fathers of certain non-canonical works. A good example in this collection is 1 Enoch, which had been in the canon for centuries before being finally removed and, in the West, abandoned. In other instances, copies were, on Church orders, simply destroyed. Fortunately, complete copies of Enoch (or Henok) were preserved in Ethopic texts. In fact, the version of 1 Enoch presented in this volume (translated by E. Isaac) is largely structured on the Ethiopic texts, though the Aramaic fragments found among the Dead Sea Scrolls have been consulted along with Greek and Hebrew renditions. Charlesworth has also included many other fine renditions of apocalyptic works, including selections from the Syriac and Slavonian. Even more is to be had in the many non-canonical Testaments presented here, many with apocalyptic passages.

Matters of whether these "rebel" and "outcast" books appeared to be divinely inspired by the various communities that embraced them is a matter of conjecture, though there are strong hints here and there from the various communities of seekers that preserved these texts around the Mediterranean world. Of greater interest to me was the thoroughness with which each non-canonical text has been researched and translated. Charlesworth should be lauded for at least that contribution to our body of collective knowledge about what was being written and by whom at the end of the pre-Christian era and in the early years of the Common Era.

To the truly curious I recommend both volumes, whether for personal enrichment, Bible study, research, or tasting and comparing various translations of non-canonical literature. This is as unbiased a compilation as I have seen in many years. I rank it with the work being done by scholars like Geza Vermes as invaluable to any person seeking a deeper understanding of the great minds on either side of that turbulent millennium (i.e., give or take 300-500 years either way). Of course these writings can lead one's mind to many other insights and down many other paths of inquiry and thought; that is best left for the individual.

Be assured that this scholarly work is exactly that, and is not only highly-informative about the stories, symbols and myths of non-canonical literature that informed the consciousness of the Near East and eventually the Western world, but this volume does so in a highly accessible way. It is easy to read and certainly gives one pause. Savor it.

This book was a five hour read for me, and that was perfect. I learned a good deal about Alexander the Great, but was never bored or bogged down in the minutia. The authors possess a great talent for summarizing without feeling like you're missing out on the details.

Highly recommended.

Easy to read and go thru without all the dryness of a lot of history books. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is first getting into this subject.

Two classical scholars have collaborated, using the resources of the Getty Museum of Los Angeles, to provide in a short compass a stunning presentation of the present state of knowledge of the life and times of the greatest general in the history of the world.

Full-color illustrations, with informative identifications, accompany every page. The treatment of sources is short but exemplary: the reader is informed to what extent sources disagree and who wrote them. Most impressively the archeological work of the last few decades is incorporated into the traditional story seamlessly and with great authority.

It is unfortunate that the maps are by no means adequate to convey the meaning of the text: places, provinces, battlefields are mentioned and described but absent from the rudimentary maps.

The reference value of this beautiful work of art is enough to justify its purchase.

This is a fantastic book and certain gives a valuable insite into Alexander the Great and Ancient Greece. You can tell from the level of detail within the book that the authors have tried to give the read as much information about Alexander and his life as one of the worlds greatest conquers.

A must read!!

Alexander was, first and foremost, a soldier's soldier. No armchair general, he; he led from the front, and this during an age of warfare when being "in front" was hazardous in the extreme. He was, of course, a brilliant strategist and tactician, but he never forgot his soldiers who carried the fight to his enemy. When they were on campaign, he shared their lot -- food, quarters, hardships, and all -- entirely. And, for this, they gave him their undying loyalty. Discipline, courage, fortitude, vision -- these, and many more -- are the characteristics that made Alexander III truly great.

This book captures the sense of Alexander, his relationships and his achievements extremely well. Never ponderous, it nevertheless completely describes his singular achievements. This is also a very "visual" reading experience. The illustrations, maps and photographs complement the reading and enhance the reader's understanding very well.

This is a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience.

An excellent review of early American History. I'm looking forward to the second part. Mr. Wall has a way of catching the essence of events without overburdening them with detail. His sense of humor lightens the subject matter while at the same time keeping it in context. His sidebars are a welcome innovation. I think this book would be of interest to older readers (as I am) interested in a refresher course as well as to those grappling with the basics of this fascinating subject.

This easy-to-read book is the history I should have learned in school years ago but did not. Highly recommended. Author has humor and tidbits that make the reading speed by.

James Wall's The Boundless Frontier: American From Christopher Columbus To Abraham Lincoln is a superb historical survey of key events in early American history. After an informative introduction, Wall dedicates individual chapter so the American Indians; exploration and discovery; the English interest in America; the Virginia Colony 1607-1699; the New England Colonies 1620-1691; the Middle Colonies 1664-1702; the Southern Colonies 1632-1734; religion in colonial America; patterns of settlement in North America; the colonial wars 1689-1763; British-American estrangement 1763-1775; the American Revolution 1775-1783; the Confederation Government 1781-1789; the Federal Constitution; the federalist Era 1789-1801; the Jeffersonian Era 1801-1815; the "Era of Good Feelings" 1815-1825; the Jacksonian Era 1825-1841; the era of "Manifest Destiny" 1841-1850; the era of popular sovereignty 1850-1860; the era of the Civil War 1861-1865; and a postscript "An Essay For Students" with commentary on books as history, periodization, dates and places. The Boundless Frontier is an impressive work of meticulous scholarship and a highly recommended, single volume survey of early American political history and development from colonial times through the end of the Civil War.

The Boundless Frontier is an extraordinary compendium of people and events in American history from its pre-European origins to the end of America's Civil War. It is not only highly informative, but quite entertaining as well (that's what kept me reading). Eras come magically alive through the author's felicitious writing style. The book reads like one good story. I would highly recommend this book not only for those interested in learning more about American history, but as a reader for college classes in American history.

The Boundless Frontier relates how religion, foreign events, economics, and the American spirit shaped the development of early America. The author moves away from the standard history book of simple facts and dates and guides the reader on a journey through key periods and defining events. By relating how separate events affected each other, he keeps the reader interested and motivated to read more. Lastly, the author breathes fresh life into the American experience through educational and entertaining sidebars that support and highlight noteworthy historical events. The Boundless Frontier is a great book for anyone wishing to expand his or her knowledge of American history from Columbus to the end of the Civil War. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more works by James Wall.

Excellent collection of diaries from women who traveled the Oregon Trail especially if you are looking for a specific person

The latest release in the "Living Voices of the Past" series, Covered Wagon Women 1851 is drawn from the diaries and letters of women who experienced the travails of the wagon trails west in 1851. Edited and compiled by Kenneth L. Holms and used with the permission of the University of Nebraska Press, we are treated to excerpts from the diary of Lucia Williams and the epilogue of Esther Lockhart (superbly narrated by Jane Merrifield-Beecher) describing their trip from Ohio to Oregon. Also featured are excerpts (dramatically narrated by Georgia Goodwin) from the diary of Jean Rio Baker, a Mormon who traveled from Liverpool by Windjammer and to Salt Lake City by Prairie Schooner. Surviving exposure to attacks from Native Americans, the scourge of cholera and smallpox, and the many hardships and deprivations of a pioneer excursion in a covered wagon, Covered Wagon Women 1851 is an outstanding "living history" audio recording and strongly recommended for personal, school, and community library collections.

In COVERED WAGON WOMEN, the diaries & letters of three mature women on the journeys of their lifetime, record their trek west into the sun; across oceans, towns, rivers, farms, forests, prairies & deserts; friendly & hostile Indian territories until, at last they reach their journeys' ends.

As you listen to actors Georgia Goodwin & Jane Merrifield-Beecher read the thoughts, observations & feelings of these three mother ancestors, you catch glimpses of how we used to live. They take us through springs of ground-level thunderstorms & sudden floods, summers of dust, mosquitos & enervating heat, & autumns of mild beauty & the biggest harvests they've ever seen. We learn of broken wagons, dying companions, days of endless trudging & nights of immense beauty. Over mountains, through rivers & down defiles, these intrepid women take us there with their simple, evocative words.

COVERED WAGON WOMEN is truly a record of an adventure that shaped our nation & our psyche. The only thing missing are sound effects!

This is a treat to listen to in the car on the way to work. An extraordinary story - women, migration, inner strength. I shared this with four other librarians who all enjoyed the tapes and proclaimed this one of the best audio books they had ever listened to.

More heartfelt, lively accounts from the Oregon Trail during the year 1851.
Harriet Talcott Buckingham's diary is both poetic and colorful, describing prairies, mountain passes, river crossings, flora, Indians and other travelers met along the way.
Amelia Hadley's writing style is very sincere. She not only visually describes streams, buffalo, landforms and Indians, but along with counting the number of graves they encounter, she also puts names to these graves (very historical).
Susan Amelia Cranston talks much about the availability, or lack of, water, fuel and grass.
Lucia Loraine Williams's party had quite an exciting but also quite dispirited journey. She lost her ten year old son due to a runaway wagon; had an Indian offer to swap her child for Lucia's three year old; thievery surrounding Fort Hall; etc. Her letter is just, truthful and illustrative of life on the trail.
Esther Lockhart was also in Lucia's wagon train and her reminisces are both vivid and picturesque of the trek.
The diaries of Elizabeth Wood and Eugenia Zieber are a delight to read.
The jewel of the book lies in Jean Rio Baker's diary. A Mormon widow with seven children, she leaves England to make the pilgrimage to Salt Lake City. A fascinating read of courage, tenacity and nerve.
Excellent book.

This highest praise I can give to this wonderful series by Joy Hakim is that my 11-year old son asks me every night, "Can we read some history?"

The books work magic in making history engaging. The well-written text, the illustrations, the text boxes with small but fascinating anecdotes -- all contribute to draw readers' interest. I have learned many new pieces of United States history from these books.

One small aspect of the books won me over from the start. In the introduction, Ms. Hakim tells readers that the Puritans, the founding fathers, the Native Americans are a part of every American, no matter how or when your family came to the United States - a "history of us." My children are binational, and reside overseas. I could tell when we read this part that the author's words spoke to them in a way few history books do.

"Liberty for All? 1820-1860" is the fifth volume in Joy Hakim's "A History of US," and focuses on the question of how slavery could exist in the land of the free. While this book clearly sets up the next volume, "War, Terrible War 1855-1865," which covers the Civil War, it also has some significant overlap with the previous volume, "The New Nation 1780-1850," which ends with the Compromise of 1850 that put off the coming war for a decade. There is not a neat and simple way of dividing up American history when covering the first half of the 19th-century, so it is not like there is an obvious solution to Hakim's problems of deciding where to end one book and begin the next.

Whereas "The New Nation" looks primarily at the on going political experiment that saw the creation of parties and the peaceful transition from Federalists to Democratic-Republicans, "Liberty for All?" is more about the slavery question in the context of the young nation's expansion. The volume begins with the story of Westward expansion along the Santa Fe Trail and other routes and ends with the story of the Underground Railroad. In between Hakim tells young readers about Mormons moving to Utah, Texas joining the Union, and gold being discovered in California. Opening up Japan to American trade and the Seneca Falls conference on the Rights of Women are also part of this period of American history.

This volume covers a lot of different topics from this time period. "The New Nation" has a much clearer sense of structure because it follows the administrations of the first presidents, but I think you can see four significant units in this book. The first (Chapters 1-20) deals with all the myriad aspects of western expansion, from the Mississippi to the west coast and beyond to Japan. The second (Chapters 21-26) focuses on the conditions faced by women and children during this time. The third (Chapters 27-31) focuses on the impact of the transcendentalists on philosophy and literature, from Thoreau and Melville to Whitman and Dickinson (including some choice poems) as well as Audubon and Caitlin. The final section (Chapters 32-38) is rather powerful dealing with the "Amistad" case, the Compromise of 1850, Stephen Douglas's "popular sovereignty" solution, the Dred Scott decision, and the idea that the entire issue of slavery was coming to head.

These books are all richly illustrated, almost exclusively with historic paintings, etching, drawings, cartoons, and the like. The margins are crammed with mini-biographies, definitions, lines of poetry, and suggestions for places where young readers can find more information about a topic. This series has a deserved reputation among parents who are home schooling their children because not only is it very informative, but Hakim makes a concerted effort to engage her young readers. She is constantly asking them to put themselves in the perspective of the people being written about, whether they are pioneers heading over the Rocky Mountains or slaves trying to find their way North to freedom. More importantly, Hakim has an innate ability to anticipate questions from her readers; you can count on her to explain "why" at the point where a student in class would be raising their hand to ask that very question.

Joy Hakim's entire series is a homeschoolers dream. The books are written so well and the pictures are so nice that interest is kept by both student and teacher.

I bought this series for my wife so she could better understand the history of the US and improve her English language skills in an area of intense interest for her. In the end, I pored over these books and gave my wife little time with them. Written for kids but fabulous for adults with little time. Buy the index and you can find sources if you're interested in diving a little deeper on a particular topic. I hope to keep these books for out future child(ren?) and am sure they will find them intriguing. The series lets us know how magnificent a country we really live in and how dramatic the history really is. With all the turmoil and all the diversity, how do we manage to keep it together? And, there are plenty who take umbrage at the extensive coverage of race and gender equality but they really are at the root of so many of our societal problems, historically speaking.

"Liberty for All? 1820-1860" is the fifth volume in Joy Hakim's "A History of US," and focuses on the question of how slavery could exist in the land of the free. While this book clearly sets up the next volume, "War, Terrible War 1855-1865," which covers the Civil War, it also has some significant overlap with the previous volume, "The New Nation 1780-1850," which ends with the Compromise of 1850 that put off the coming war for a decade. There is not a neat and simple way of dividing up American history when covering the first half of the 19th-century, so it is not like there is an obvious solution to Hakim's problems of deciding where to end one book and begin the next.

Whereas "The New Nation" looks primarily at the on going political experiment that saw the creation of parties and the peaceful transition from Federalists to Democratic-Republicans, "Liberty for All?" is more about the slavery question in the context of the young nation's expanasion. The volume begins with the story of Westward expansion along the Sante Fe trail and other routes and ends with the story of the Underground Railroad. In between Hakim tells young readers about Mormons moving to Utah, Texas joining the Union, and gold being discovered in California. Opening up Japan to American trade and the Seneca Falls conference on the Rights of Women are also part of this period of American history.

This volume covers a lot of different topics from this time period. "The New Nation" has a much clearer sense of structure because it follows the administrations of the first presidents, but I think you can see four significant units in this book. The first (Chapters 1-20) deals with all the myriad aspects of western expansion, from the Mississippi to the west coast and beyond to Japan. The second (Chapters 21-26) focuses on the conditions faced by women and children during this time. The third (Chapters 27-31) focuses on the impact of the transcendentalists on philosophy and literature, from Thoreau and Melville to Whitman and Dickinson (including some choice poems) as well as Aubudon and Caitlin. The final section (Chatpers 32-38) is rather powerful dealing with the "Amistad" case, the Compromise of 1850, Stephen Douglas's "popular sovereignty" solution, the Dred Scott decision, and the idea that the entire issue of slavery was coming to head.

These books are all richly illustrated, almost exclusively with historic paintings, etching, drawings, cartoons, and the like. The margins are cramed with mini-biographies, definitions, lines of poetry, and suggestions for places where young readers can find more information about a topic. This series has a deserved reputation among parents who are home schooling their children because not only is it very informative, but Hakim makes a concerted effort to engage her young readers. She is constantly asking them to put themselves in the perspective of the people being written about, whether they are pioneers heading over the Rocky Mountains or slaves trying to find their way North to freedom. More importantly, Hakim has an innate ability to anticipate questions from her readers; you can count on her to explain "why" at the point where a student in class would be raising their hand to ask that very question.

Throughout the ages the "paranoid style" has been used to arouse public indignation and to attack established institutions and/or entrenched traditions that have grown ineffectual. Usually, the darkest and most abhorrent aspects of the accuser's personality are projected onto the hated enemy. Moreover, the true menace is sometimes seen as a malaise that lurks in a nation's midst rather than as something that exists outside its borders. And these chimeras tend to be the shadow projections of the idealistic personality (that is deeply concerned with the moral decay of the society around them) rather than realistic assessments of the true dangers that exist in the objective world. It gives the paranoid the illusion of control since there is little or nothing they can do about world opinion outside his or her borders, although they often imagine this to be so. As a consequence, many foreign policy initiatives are doomed to failure because a distorted picture of the world is being refracted through what amounts to a narrow, insular prism. That is, instead of viewing startling political developments throughout the world as complex historical processes that are unfolding for entirely legitimate reasons they might be seen as betrayals or acts of deliberate defiance. Especially when the vital interests of the observer are threatened.

Then too, Americans have often seen any failure as the work of people within our own government who allowed such things to happen. For if some of our own people are to blame for our weakness, then we do not have to deny "the myth of American Omnipotence."

This is an ideal time to read Hofstadter's book. It was written in the 1950s and 60s, so you get an excellent feel for postwar America (after the bomb) and the advent of the Cold War. Hofstadter's account of the McCarthy Era and Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign (of 1964) is quite instructive. An astute reader will notice many parallels with today. But he also discusses earlier periods of our history when the paranoid style was in its infancy, and yet was destined to become the genesis of the "liberal-conservative" split that is with us to this day.

One fascinating period was the 1890s, the era of Populist William Jennings Bryan and the "Free Silver Movement," which went down in defeat to William McKinley in the presidential election of 1896. Prior to McKinley's victory there was also public outrage over Spain's oppression of Cuba. And although McKinley did not advocate war with Spain, nor did Republican business leaders that had financed his campaign, he was swept into the Spanish-American War by the spirit of the times. Having filled up the continent with Westward expansion and the dream of "Manifest Destiny," many Americans felt a sudden lack of opportunity and purpose. But after Admiral Dewey's sudden victory in Manila Bay Americans began to grapple with their "Duty and Destiny" in an increasingly imperialistic world that they thought was filled with decadent and dangerous foreign powers.

There is no way to summarize the exquisite detail in Hofstadter's book. One must read it and ponder its many lessons. For the sum of its parts are greater than the whole. Good history always makes us realize that there really is nothing new under the sun, and yet, there most certainly IS! Mark Twain said it best when he joked: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes."

Though wacky folks here and there may be offended by Hofstadter, social and political scientists recognize this work as the perennial analysis of American paranoia as a social phenomenon.

Granted that Prof. Hofstadter's evaluation of the "pseudo-conservatism" of the Goldwater campaign is rather patronizing, and that, too optimistically, he predicted that the paranoid style was condemned to permanent minority status. Otherwise, the book is a prescient and devastating analysis of the breathless mindset on display, mainly from the Right, over the last ten years or so. Just last November right-wing commentators as bright and well-educated as George F. Will were fulminating against Gore's "slow-motion coup" in Florida, and lesser conservatives were passing the word that President Clinton was about to seize dictatorial powers. The fact that the most conservative president since Reagan--maybe since the Roaring 20s--is currently sitting in the Oval Office, courtesy of a hypocritical decision by a quintet of conservative Supreme Court justices, means nothing to the conservatives immersed in the paranoid style. THEY didn't subvert the system; they saved the U.S. from the liberals, the liberals, the liberals.

Back in 1964, Prof. Hofstadter noted that people who think like this tend to imitate the massive conspiracies they imagine threatening themselves. Writing in an era that still resembled the stereotypical 1950s more than the stereotypical 1960s, Hofstadter did not forsee the current power of the paranoid style. But the title essay of his book nails it right to the wall. Reading it, I feared for my country.

This book is as relevant now as it was when it was first written. An excellent blend of accuracy and eloquence.

During the fifties, and up to the time of his death in the sixties, Richard Hofstadter was one of America's most renowned historians with two Pulitzer Prizes to his credit. He was at his intellectual peak when, as one of America's eminent authorities of his country's political ideologies, he tackled the developing phenomenon of the early sixties' right wing extremism under the guise of conservatism. He differentiates between the traditional American conservatism espoused by the likes of President Herbert Hoover and Senator Robert Taft alongside the venom of Robert Welch's John Birch Society, in which, as the group's idea man, Welch referred to Dwight D. Eisenhower as a "dedicated and conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy."

Hoftstadter delineates how fringe rightist elements took over the Republican Party and rallied behind the banner of Arizona's Senator Barry M. Goldwater, resulting in one of the party's most calamitous losses in the 1964 presidential election against incumbent Democratic president, Lyndon B. Johnson.

The work has a timely ring as an historical analytical measuring rod in comprehending the activities of current right wing movements, such as the Christian Right behind the banners of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and its link to the militant anti-abortion movement, alongside earlier rightist political philosophies and their vigorous adherents such as Welch and television commentator Dan Smoot.

This is a work of love. Love as a yogi and as a student. This book is full of opportunities to meet with your inner self. I am a Kripalu teacher and had the opportunity to study with the authors and they walk their talk.
If you want to take your practice to a deeper place this is a wonderful resource that can support you.

Jai,
Vanessa Tricoche
alivetolove@mac.com

I am thrilled with the knowledge that Don Stapleton is sharing with us in his somewhat biographical work that introduces intuitive yoga for beginners
or advanced students alike. I am working through a torn rotator cuff on my left arm that is frozen shut. Don overcame severe scoliosis by listening to the wisdom of his body, and that has given me hope for my condition. Each week I am slowly getting in touch with the right movements that are indeed healing my arm and whole body. Peace of mind is an added side-effect. I would recommend this book to anyone who has avoided yoga because they are afraid of not doing each movement "correctly." Don teaches you to find your own "correct" movements.

I find the physical exploration of movement and alignment so relevant, for anyone teaching yoga or any physical moving art.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. Before I started my yoga practice, I did Feldenkrais Awareness through Movement, which enabled me to do yoga without hurting myself. The combination of body awareness and yoga is imperative, something that all the yoga-as-fitness books and dvds seem to leave behind. Don's book is a series of inquiries into movement, much in the same way as the Feldenkrais method, but with more possibilities (in my estimation). Record yourself taping the inquiries, as Don suggests, and you will reap the enormous rewards awaiting you in this book. This book's practices changed the way I feel about my body and how I use it. It effected me so much I took a week long class with Don Stapleton, which if it is an endorsement, so be it; he is AMAZING, to say the least. Inspiring. Empowering. What more can I say?

Hello, I've been teaching yoga for a year now, different styles such as Fitness Yoga, Yoga for children, beginners yoga, yoga with the blind. I was finding that my students ( and myself !! ) really were never in a STATE of YOGA with our bodies while doing yoga poses. Then I dicovered Feldenkrais, which although it has many definitions, could be said to be movement awareness and education. Through it, I finally found a way to feel my entire being in the pose, and find an effortlessness to even the most challenging activities. Don Stapleton uses this same approach but makes it more user-friendly for someone with a yoga background, so we see familiar poses that he breaks down to their essence, then invites us to fully explore what our bodies do to get there. He goes deeper by also exploring how to feel the hara and the chakras, but this is not his main focus. I shudder to think how many times I have performed a simple cobra and didn't feel the subtle changes in my fingertips, my toes, my pelvis, and an effortless way to anchor my tailbone to the floor without the usual 'tighten the legs, tighten the buttocks' approach. This book has become my bible on how to connect with my body....the real essence of yoga, after all.

Just today I introduced a blind student to the basic techniques of scanning the body, noticing subtle changes in weight distribution etc and he started smiling...for the first time today he actually felt his entire body during Tree, including his ankles, his elbows, his fingertips. It was awe-inspiring. He also said today was the first day in his 57 year old life he understood the mind-body ocnnection. What better praise for a book.

The add on for this game is great! More awesome character's to love! My family loves munchkin and with the add on of Munchkin 2, the game doesn't get boring or repetitive. A must have for all munchkin lovers.

If you have the original Munchkin this is a must buy! If you don't have the original Munchkin go buy it and then come back and pick this up too! I command it! Haha :P

This non book expansion card set for the non-book game of Munchkin adds 112 new cards. More wierdness and tounge-in-cheek humor for old D&D players and young alike.

I still don't know why these are listed as books but it still doesn't matter, buy them. Remember this is an expansion deck, you should own Munchkin before buying this game. (Yes game NOT BOOK)

But you CAN read the cards.....

Munchkin 2 makes the original Munckin card game even better. This item arrives in disposable packaging, and is meant to be slipped into the box you got along with your original Munchkin game. The cards from the two decks are fungible, so once you have put them together you will never find the need to seperate them.

I purchased this game along with Star Munchkin about eight months ago. The latter game was fun, but the addition of all these extra cards to the Munchkin deck made Munchkin my group's game of choice. If you are considering either buying Star Munchkin *or* the expansion sets to Munchkin (Munchkin 3 Clerical Errors was recently released as of this writing), then I would suggest that you buy the two expansions. If you want to add an "Oriental Adventures" flavor to your card gaming, Munchkin Fu, another new release should do the trick. It can be added with the other Munchkin cards or played seperately.

You will enjoy the Munchkin card game if you are able to get a group of players together that will harbor no ill feelings towards backstabbing and general treachery. I find that four works best, three being too few because two have a tendancy to gang up on one, and five being still quite fun, but taking a little longer between plays to progress.

Munchkin, like all good comedy, makes it look easy. The game seems to be a haphazard collection of puns and silly in-jokes for gamers. But there's something else there. It plays well, has fairly balanced rules and manages to keep the competitiveness in the game even through all the laughter, right up to the last card.

This expansion walks the same tightrope, but it does work. The humor is as good as the cover implies, and if you have a group of gamers that enjoy a good laugh, you NEED to grab Munchkin and the first two expansions at least.

These vibrant stories of such phenomenal women who Dared to be Different and accomplished such awesome feats against so much adversity will inspire you to reach higher goals, regardless of any obstacles of the times! These outstanding women are incredible to study and this book is an excellent volume of heroism and unique personalities! Kudos!

This is a great read about 20 remarkable western women of whom some you will know and others you will meet for the first time. From Sacagawea who accompanied Lewis & Clark, Georgia O'Keefe, a revolutionary in the art world to Sandra Day O'Conner, the first woman on the Supreme Court Justice, these snapshots demonstrate the tenacity and inspiration that guided these women to design their own lives. An excellent read that will inspire you to look deeper into the lives of these amazing women who helped shape the American West.

A great book for learning more about women who made a difference in the frontier and later days of the West. Some subjects were familiar to me while others were completely new.
The author organizes her information in a easily read, informative manner. Each subject was well researched.
A good read!!

Trailblazers-Twenty Amazing Western Women was a fantastic book which I have already given to several friends, who are or have gone through some "rough times" in their own lives, and have thanked me for this book as it is inspirational and a comfort.
I hope it will be used in schools for teen-age girls, and in classes all over for women who seem to need stories of other women and what all they have been through and gotten through.

I would highly recommend this book and plan to give it to others for Christmas presents too. It is nice to have a story to read every night before going to bed, or if you just have a few minutes to devote to a story.

Highly enlightening. I loved it!

This is a terrific look at women who have shaped our country's growth and direction but are always left out of those mythical History classes we have in school. There are some familiar names as well as the names of aviation pioneers and other modern unsung heroines. Each chapter is a delightful short story that has obviously been well researched. Worth the read for women and men, a must for every young girl.

Meaningful, first-hand chronicles from six westward women pioneers of 1850.
As editor Dr. Holmes notes, Anna Maria Morris was the wife of a military commander and as a result was "treated with attention and care". Nonetheless, she describes the relentless heat, lack of water and wood, poor grass, etc. which was typical of travel to Santa Fe, along with daily routines.
Mary Colby, Margaret Frink, Sarah Davis, Sophia Goodridge and Lucena Parsons all traveled the northern ,more familiar, Oregon Trail. These women give stunning details of wagon travel including: the phenomenal numbers of graves along the trail due to cholera, daily chores and mishaps, the vast numbers of emigrants along the route, dry ponds, abandoned wagons and personal belongings, river crossings, cutting grass for future livestock feed, etc.
We feel the persistent, annoying stings of clouds of mosquitoes along the Platte, the disturbing sights of countless numbers of human graves, the unsettling smells of innumerable dead livestock left alongside the road, feel their Indian anxieties, the sounds of nerve-racking horrendous thunderstorms, the continual unwelcomed taste of trail dust. These women clearly illustrate what life was like traveling westward in 1850.
A pleasure to read.

As Americans we have heard many tales, true and false, of tales of, and about, those brave souls who migrated across the country in wagons and on foot in the 19th century. Beverly's LTD has recorded The personal diary of one such woman, Margaret A. Frink.

Mrs. Frink, along with her husband, whose first name we never know, and a boy named Robert leave their nice home in Martinsburg, Indiana, for the riches of the California territories. It's not only the promise of gold that spurs this couple on, but of the riches available to those who make the arduous trip.

Mrs. Frink keeps a detailed diary of the daily distances traveled (how did they m ark this?), the price of provisions along the way, the weather, the many people they run into, and an acute observation of the fashions on the trail. I found that quite interesting, those detailed descriptions of fashion, in clothing, transportation, and supplies, and the daily traveling distance. I also found myself amazed at the mileage the wagons were able to make each day and the price of provisions along the way. In 1851, one onion costs the Frink's one dollar, which is astronomically even in the 2002 market.

Susan Baxter, an actress at the Creede Repertory Theatre in Colorado, gives life to Margaret. By the tone of voice she uses, I suspect that Margaret is a bit of a snob, but she handles the travails of the trail with remarkable good humor.

It is particularly interesting that the diary does not end with their arrival in Sacramento, but gives a hurried account of life for their life as hotel owners and diary farmers. It is also interesting that the home they dismantled in Indiana and ship by boat, arrived in the new state at almost the same time they did.

Thanks to the publication of this diary, I have a whole new appreciation of the Old West!

The second in the series is as interesting as the first.The immigrants now have a bit more knowledge as many have gone before them.There are still many misshaps, disease, lack of water and feed. We now are starting to see many oppertunists who prey on the people. It is interesting to note that the women and Indians seemed to get along quite well and shared hints about many things. We also see the diffrence in the trip for diffrent income levels.This is also where we start to see pollution,as the animals were allowed in the creeks and anything not needed was just left .These books show what life was really like on the trail and what the women went through each day.

My great-great grandparents with an infant daughter journeyed overland from Missouri to California in 1850 and I read this book to learn something of their experience.

As the editors point out few women made the crossing by land and thus their accounts have great significance. This book contains the diaries and letters of six women who traveled by wagon and horseback across the Great Plains and the mountains of the West to a new home in California, Oregon, Utah, and New Mexico in 1850. Amongst their descriptions of terror and hardship are also homely tales of life on the trail and often the generosity and nobility of many of their fellows.

I was impressed most by the sheer numbers of the overlanders. Some 50,000 people took the Western trails in 1850, drawn mostly by the promise of gold in California. Accounts of the dust, the crowded conditions, and the inevitable cholera caught my attention. The journey across the plains and mountains was, as the editors note, the longest voluntary migration in history and one has to wonder why so many people left comfortable homes to journey west. The westward urge -- "Manifest Destiny" -- or whatever it might be called was a powerful force in 19th century United States. Indians and buffalo play surprisingly small roles in the accounts of the crossing. They were perhaps wise enough to keep their distance from the overlanders.

The editors have contributed good introductions to the book and each of the women.

Smallchief