Expansion Books

It was informative. I felt like there was too much about certain topics. I did enjoy reading it.

I had the pleasure of being taught by Julie Jeffrey as an undergraduate student at Goucher College. She taught me to look at American history from many different angles, especially the view of the "bit players" in history, those unsung, unrecognized men and women whose impact was as significant as those of the "main cast", just not nearly as well documented. "Civilizing" the West 1840-1880 is a great example of Professor Jeffrey's ability to uncover the contributions of women -from all walks of life- that helped shape the American West. Meticulously researched and written, I found the book had an easy flow and makes a compelling read. An excellent book in a genre usually dominated by the biographies of larger-than-life personalities.

In 1857, Erastus F. Beadle, a book and magazine publisher who ultimately became wealthy due to his introduction of the dime novel, headed west to stake a claim in Omaha, Nebraska Territory. An informative introduction to this engaging frontier diary, written by historian Ronald Naugle, tells us Beadle was born in New York in 1821, the son of Flavel and Polly Fuller Beadle. At the age of fourteen he took quite a shine to the publishing business, ultimately moving to Buffalo where he soon formed a company with his brother Irwin. Several magazine projects soon followed, successful enterprises that promised a bright future for the young Beadle. By the time he took his trip to Omaha, he was thirty-five years old, married with several children, and looking at an immensely successful career as a purveyor of printed materials. The call of the American West was, however, too strong a lure to resist. Beadle left New York and embarked on the long, often perilous journey to his new home in Omaha, promising to send for the wife and kids once he settled into his new career as landowner and real estate booster. Beadle returned to New York some six months later, disillusioned with prospects in the west but with a love for the freedom, clean air, and wide-open spaces of Nebraska. He ultimately became a millionaire from the sales of his books, retired to a spacious mansion in New York, and died in 1894.

Beadle's diary of his travels to and adventures in the Nebraska Territory, while incomplete as diaries are wont to be, does make for entertaining reading. The actual journey across the country, which constitutes a significant portion of the narrative, is full of humor, dangers, and intriguing people. It is difficult to read something written during a specific historical period and not look for passing references to larger issues of the day, and Beadle's travelogue is no exception. He meets several individuals as he wends his way to Omaha who live or lived in "Bloody Kansas," a region seething with discord between slavery and anti-slavery forces. One woman Beadle encounters on a steamboat actually fled from the carnage at Lawrence. When offered a job in Kansas, Beadle politely turns it down--probably due in part to the political problems in that state--even though the salary is quite large. He also meets a man who claimed to have married the widow of William Morgan, the person supposedly murdered by Freemasons in New York back in the 1820s, an event that touched off massive anti-Masonic outrages. When in Omaha, Beadle meets several Indians and laments the difficult conditions faced by Native Americans in the face of enormous white immigration into the region.

Erastus Beadle's job in Omaha was with the Sulphur Springs Land Company, an organization set up to develop a city just outside of Omaha called Saratoga. The boosters in this company envisioned a place with a grand hotel, bustling streets, and hundreds of occupied homes. Saratoga eventually failed due to an economic bust in the late 1850s that caused bank failures and declining property values. When Beadle was there, however, the place was booming. He sold plots, surveyed, helped bring in supplies, and did whatever else was needed to bring Saratoga to fruition. At some point, Beadle tired of his job, resigned his post, and acquired a huge tract of land he subsequently named Rock Brook Farm (near Center Street here in Omaha; predictably, a shopping center sits there now). The lure of farming a large plot of land wasn't enough to hold his attention, and he returned to his home state of New York and his family.

Many of Beadle's observations alternate between levity and misfortune. The conditions he describes concerning steamboat travel up the Missouri River are often humorous, as people jockey for sleeping space in cramped quarters or dine on atrocious foods. What really takes the cake are his complaints about Omaha's weather. Anyone who lives here will read this account and know not a lot has changed since the 1850s. Beadle describes, for example, frigid conditions towards the end of April that left ice two inches thick in his water basin. The appearance of snow in the same month is a source of profound mystery to the writer, as is the reality of a frigid, windy day followed by heat and humidity the next. Welcome to Nebraska, Mr. Beadle! Closely associated with his gripes about the inclement conditions are complaints about his medical condition. The writer, like most people living in the nineteenth century, worries endlessly about the most mundane coughs, sneezes, or rashes. Repeatedly, Beadle describes in detail how someone he has met either is sick or suddenly dies after a sickness. His own coughing fits that appear after arriving in Omaha worry him, as do the emergence of bodily aches and painful boils. The knowledge after the fact that someone he traveled with on a steamboat had smallpox sends him into fits. "Ham, Eggs, and Corn Cake" primarily highlights the perilous conditions involved in traveling and living in America during the nineteenth century.

"Ham, Eggs, and Corn Cake" has a limited appeal. Historians of Nebraska or other Midwestern states should probably read it, students in the area could use it for papers, or residents of Omaha might like to read it just to see what certain parts of the city once looked like. I found it a quick read, full of intriguing information and memorable anecdotes. I would like to say that traveling to Omaha is a lot easier that last time I checked. We just upgraded from stagecoaches to automobiles a few years ago, and we hardly travel by steamboat anymore since we heard about those flying chariot thingies a few months back. Seriously, give it a shot if you like nineteenth century travelogues.

The year was 1857, three years after passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act that created a struggle that culminated in the Civil War. Erastus F. Beadle was a successful businessman having made his mark first as a printer and subsequently as a publisher. He is best remembered for creating the Dime Novel format in publishing that ultimately made him a millionaire. Sometime in 1856 this New Yorker succumbed to the myth and lure of the West. He left his profitable printing and publishing business and on March 9, 1857, he departed New York for Omaha, Nebraska. This Diary is his impressions and experiences on the frontier from March 9 to October 1, 1857. It is a remarkable peek into a way of life in the American West that is rich in history and, as always in the West, myth.
It took Beadle some three months to traverse from New York to Omaha and his descriptions of the conditions encountered on the "Big Muddy" river boats as well as trains, stagecoach, and wagons is both entertaining and instructive of the hardships facing travelers seeking fame and fortune in the West. His experiences in and around Omaha include this description of law and justice:"There is no law here except club laws and vigilance committee to enforce them. A man gets a fair hearing and justice done him but it is quick done and no heavy expence saddled on the County." As to the Indian situation he notes "The Indians have been greatly wronged, and as a general thing when there is Indian depredations the Whites are the first aggressors." His diary also includes detailed descriptions of the landscape, including his fascination with a night prairie fire, as well as the ever-present wind and rain in the spring to the summer heat. The apprehension of the inhabitants over the so-called "slavery stronghold" in Kansas along with the politics of the times is noted as well as a daily description of his workday and evening pleasures. His "self-help" medical care and treatment is ample evidence of the dangerous conditions existing on the frontier and a testament to the tenacity and courage of the settlers.
This is a wonderful first person account that is both entertaining and informative. It provides an intimate record of a period in American history that is gone and almost forgotten. Beadle's impressions, anecdotes, details, and descriptions of characters he met and the rigors of the times are indispensable in understanding the mostly mythical West.

I am currently reading a bio of every President in order. I generally look for a fairly comprehensive one volume account but unfortunately for Polk there are none available (although the forthcoming 400+ page plus bio by Borneman will hopefully change this). I decided I would save my money to wait for Borneman's book and checked out Leonard's short bio (196 pages of text) from the Library.

Thankfully, this is a great short bio of James K. Polk. His early life is covered in a suprising amount of detail for the short amount of text devoted to it, and his Presidency is covered quite thoroughly. This is accomplished by Leonard's great writing and superb organization and editing. This book was so satisfactory I am not sure I will even decide to read Borneman's forthcoming biography. Also, do not be swayed by Betty Burke's review, she is clearly reviewing the wrong book.

Fabrication By Alien., February 28, 2007
Reviewer: Betty Burks (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews

This book was not written by a fan or supporter of this Tennessee president, but released by a Yankee group who hides behind "Oxford" so we might think Mississippi or England. Not so, William Dusinberre must be fuddies with the university professors who tore apart Nathan Bedford Forrest in the same way. Overlooked completely he status and the part these Tennesseans played in the history of this nation. It's best to consider character assassination with the conflicting thins these writers emphasize while leaving out the real story, the facts of the matter. James K. Polk had been Governor of Tehhessee and Speaker of the House of Representatives before becoming U. S. president. It was not a secret that he owned slaves to work on his cotton plantation in Mississippi. We didn't have such in Tennessee, but I have an old post card of the 11th President's bust which stands in the State Capitol in Nashville. We visited Polk's ancestral home in downtown Columbia, Tennessee. It was not out in the country, though a famous one is in that county owned by a female physician. She did not have slaves. Forrest's family were fine, upstanding natives of Chapel Hill, not so far east from Columbia. It infuriates me when I innocently find weird subverted stuff like thos on the public library shelves. I wish the reference librarians who ordered these fiction pretending to be non-fiction before putting them out for just anybody to read. Polk was duly elected and in the White House from 1845 to 1849, before the Civil War. He was not responsible for that war.

This person from Cape Town used the false writings of professor Wayne Cutler when he came to this Republican town, and thought that what he was reading was truth. Polk was a Southern Democrat. What would he write about Huey B. Long, George Wallace, and other governors who stood tall for what the South stands for. The politics of slavery did not have any substance whatsoever in the war which divided this country. It was states' rights -- the Southern states, which Northerners would not understand. I learned more than I had planned that there is a conspiracy going on to deride Southern leaders and presidents. They were statesmen and war heroes and lived to be a part of the history of America. Modern history-writing is all wrong, when the author makes up "facts" as he is inclined, and not factually.

Stephanson was a professor of mine at Columbia University. His book is a concise tracing of the notion of Manifest Destiny from the inception of the British colonies in North America through the Cold War. He is a fabulous and engaging writer. In a post-9/11 world, Stephanson's book rings a crucial chord that has long been a part of the foundations of the United States, but oft remains to be neglected and forgotten.

The interesting point of the book is demonstrating how religious righteousness has manifested itself into the very core of American politics and self identity since its inception. An eye opener to see how racist our country has always been. However, the author's arrogance and pomposity makes for dense difficult reading and tends to distract from the message.

It was helpful for me, the content is expressed in an easy way for the scholar to understand despite the complexity of the topics.

understandable for engineers with good reasoning and a little mathematical knowledge

This product was produce by Monte Cook and Colin McComb the 2 heavy weights of the Planescape Campain. Most the really Good products have there name on the cover. Building on the format used on Planes of Law they produced a good soild product that really is useful and easy to use for the DM. I run planescape own all of the books and I still use this product. That says some thing.

This one is a winner. As boxed sets go, TSR has really scored big time - every part of the Neutrally aligned planes is so well covered in this book, and experresd in such interesting detail, that you'll find yourself wondering how you got along without this box for so long.

The Blood War comes to life once again with the in-depth exploration of the Yugoloths and their part in that eternal struggle. Discussions on the nature of the Grey Waste, why the Yugoloths live in firey Gehenna, and the politics of the Titans and Gehreleths of Carceri are beautifully worked. And the bits on the Upper Planes? Masterful.

'Planes of Conflict' is a great boxed set. Well named, well written, and very well put together. With work like this, the Planes will remain a vibrant and exciting setting for years to come.

When this book was written back in 1994, it was more difficult to program fast graphics applications on the PC without resorting to assembly code that manipulated the hardware directly. That aspect of graphics programming has changed drastically, but the fundamentals mentioned in this book really haven't. You CAN still do things the way that they are described in this book, the question is SHOULD you do things this way. That being said, the book is a very good education on how graphics tasks are performed by the hardware in a PC. If you are interested in such things, the low price of a used book might make it worth it for you.

Chapters 2 through 5 equip the programmer with a thorough understanding of the EGA/VGA and the relationships these adapters have to other display adapters, the PC, graphics devices, and graphics software. A tutorial supplies a background in C and assembly language for the novice programmer. The graphics algorithms used in the program examples are introduced in the computer graphics tutorial. Chapters 6 through 11 specify the function of the EGA/VGA cards. These chapters offer clear and comprehensive information on the display modes, display memory, graphics processor, downloadable fonts, color processing, control registers, and BIOS calls. This information is translated into programming examples in chapter 12. Seventy program examples are included to illustrate the power and versatility of the EGA/VGA cards.

Chapter 15 provides a detailed look at the function specifications for the IBM Applications Interface. This interface is used on the Graphics Accelerator Toolkit that was available from the author at the time this book was published and was supported by the XGA, 8514, and many Super VGAs. I don't even know if it is possible to find this toolkit any longer. Chapter 16 provides an in-depth look at the XGA cards. Included are the relevant register definitions and descriptions of the graphics accelerator. The XGA is treated as if it were another Super VGA, which it actually is. Chapters 13 through 30 provide detailed descriptions of the Super VGA chips as they existed in 1994. The scope and depth of information here allows the programmer to identify which chip is present; control, configure, and fine-tune the chip; invoke the advanced display modes; access up to one megabyte of display memory; and control the start address and cursor.

The actual table of contents for the book is as follows:

1. Introduction to the Programmer's Guide
2. The EGA, VGA, and Super VGA Features
3. Graphics Hardware and Software
4. Types of Graphics Systems
5. Principles of Computer Graphics
6. Alphanumeric Processing
7. Graphics Processing
8. Color Palette and Color Registers
9. Reading the State of the EGA and VGA
10. The EGA/VGA Registers
11. The EGA/VGA BIOS
12. Programming Examples
13. The Super VGA
14. Graphics Coprocessors
15. Super VGA Code Basics
16. The Adapter Interface
17. The 8514/A
18. The XGA
19. ATI Technologies
20. Chips and Technologies
21. Cirrus Logic
22. The Video7 Super VGA Chip Set
23. IIT
24. NCR
25. Oak
26. S3 Incorporated
27. The Trident Super VGA Chip Sets
28. The Tseng Labs Super VGA Chips
29. The Paradise Super VGA Chips
30. Weitek

Loaded with general graphics subsystem information, plenty of graphic theory and a ton of examples, this reference is a must-have for any serious graphics programmer. In the style of Richard Wilton's, "Video Systems for the IBM PC and PS/2 Systems", this huge manual provides a reference to almost every aspect of the graphics processing of the IBM PC. The book contains C and assembler source as well as a lot of sound theory. It is essential to you reference library.

This biographical study of twelve prominent anti-imperialists won the John H. Dunning Prize from the American Historical Association. It is especially strong in tracing the life experiences and ideological backgrounds of its subjects. It is limited, however, to discussing Republican and Mugwump (former Republican) anti-imperialists, a choice that seems odd for a study of a movement that endorsed the Democratic party in every election from 1900 to 1920. It also closes with the election of 1900 even though the Anti-Imperialist League continued to operate until 1921.

The subtitle of this book is 'How twelve men opposed the acquisition of empire in the Spanish-American War,' and the short summary has to be, 'Not very effectively.' Beisner's book is a good explanation of why this is true.

It may be hard for some to think of the United States as an imperial power like Britain or Spain (let alone recognize that it still is one). But for a few years at the close of the nineteenth century, the question of whether America should acquire an empire as a result of the Spanish-American War was one of the most hotly debated topics in our political life. 'Twelve Against Empire' discusses the most critical years of that debate, 1898-1900, and several men who opposed the steady drive toward imperialism and away, as many of them saw it, from America's historic ideals.

For a number of reasons, these twelve men were largely ineffective, and Beisner does a good job of telling us why. Many of them, especially the crotchety 'Mugwumps,' were more interested in complaining about the decline of American culture than in building an effective political movement (and boy, does that sound familiar!). Others, like former President Benjamin Harrison, were torn between party loyalty on one hand and anti-imperialist principles on the other. Ultimately, Harrison was only able to bring himself to criticize his Republican successor McKinley's imperialist policies *after* McKinley had been successfully reelected ... which of course mooted his criticism and dissipated what little power he may have had to shape events.

Harrison is just one example of why the 'Twelve Against Empire' had so little impact on history, and are largely forgotten today (even though the anti-imperialist debate continued in some quarters into the 1920s and beyond, the American Empire was a *fait accompli* by 1900). But so long as America remains an imperial power (and ask the Hawaiians about that some time), these men's names and ideas deserve to be exhumed from the dust heap of history and given an honest hearing.

Beisner is to be commended for doing so, and I recommend his book. In fact, I would encourage reading it in conjunction with Ronald Radosh's 'Prophets on the Right: Conservative Critics of American Globalism,' an excellent study of the next generation of men standing against the tide of America's global reach.

I carry this book around like a Bible it is so life-changing! Stewart makes sense in every way with his several short essays on a multitude of pertinent and very important spiritual and worldly topics. Anyone who carefully reads what he says would NOT be prejudice against alternative lifestyles because they'd know WHY these things exist. What I gleaned most from this book is it contains the answers for alot of life's puzzling questions. More importantly, Stewart always says that the answers to everything is inside yourself and to never believe anyone, including him, until you look inside yourself for the truth. I cannot say enough good things about this book because it changed my view of reality and I'm sure you'll also be changed because of it!

"Stewart Says..." is a 136 page book that contains 52 short essays on various topics. The author, Stewart A. Swerdlow, covers the following topics: Angels, Anger, Art, Atlantis, Bible, Children, Colors, Communication, Crime, Crop Circles, Death, Exercise, Extraterrestrials, Family, Food, Friends/Enemies, Genetic Manipulation, Government, Happiness, Hate, Health/Illness, History, In-laws, Internet, Legal Profession, Lemuria, Love, Medical Profession, Meditation, Mind-Control & Programming, Mind-Patterns, Money, Nature, Neatness, Parents, Pets, Prayer, Protection, Religion, Responsibility, Sex, Spouses, Time, Tolerance, Travel, Truth, UFOs, Visualizations, Water, Weather, Weight, and Work.

One learns that he is a harsh critic of religions, the medical and legal professions, and encourages a non-traditional view of the family. Furthermore, he states: "Personally, I am not opposed to a single, global government. This would help dissipate wars and nationalism that breeds violence and hatred" (p. 54).

One is led to wonder what the difference is between Stewart Swerdlow and the New World Order ideology he is opposed to. Both want to normalize homosexuality, redefine the family, encourage mixed race marriages, see nothing wrong with a "One World Government," and have a revulsion to religion. I am sure there is some subtle nuance of difference, but overall, they seem more the same than different.

Although the author, to some extent, encourages people to find the truth for themselves and be free of mass-manipulation, Swerdlow finds little trouble in dictating what he thinks is true and how people should live their lives. The book is filled with the author's opinions on what he thinks is right. Because the book is full of advice, the author ends up overusing pronouns ("he/she" and "him/her"), which is annoying. If written in the plural, he would have avoided using any gender specific pronouns and still pleased the feminists that cry discrimination when only the pronoun "he" is used.

It's a little wordy and tends to complicate things and not explaining them in the simplest terms. But it's got some good information and I've enjoyed it more than some of my other textbooks.

We used this text in my social work school in 1995. Since then I have given away my copy and I'm sorry I did. The book begins with Freud and covers the works of Peter Blos, Carol Gilligan and Erik Erikson.

If you don't have the time to look into the source texts then this is a good book for you. This book gives a broad overview of adolescence and in the cases of Freud and Erikson, an in-depth treatment on the various pre-adolescent stages. Most illuminating for me was the chapter on one of America's greatest contributions to this field, Harry Stack Sullivan. His chapter on Erikson is also quite good. But, if you have the time, read some of the source books. I recommend Erikson's CHILDHOOD AND SOCIETY, IDENTITY: YOUTH AND CRISIS; Gilligan's IN A DIFFERENT VOICE, and Sullivan's THE INTERPERSONAL THEORY OF PSYCHIATRY.