Expansion Books

This is an uncommon book, sadly not easy to find. It also should be cheaper. It is valuable for the 'hot' topic which it opens up, the cultural impact of European overseas expansion and contact with diverse indigenous cultures. Some of the essays are excellent (Vogel, Bustamante, the editors') but a couple are weak (esp. Monge). The introduction is crucial to understand the common themes underlying the various articles. Historians of early modern expansion and cross-cultural encounters should definitely read it.

This fat book, written by a two tech guys at Creative Labs and two independent tech writers have put together the definitive reference for legacy SoundBlaster 8bit and 16bit hardware up to the SB16. For PC users who want to progress beyond games.

Covers the basics still applicable for newer sound cards. About 1/2 the book includes configuring and using Win Apps for music MIDI keyboards, wavetable synthesis, sequencing, WAV recording, speech recognition, text-to-speech, and intro to sound card programming.

This book is often at libraries, used bookstores, and close-out bins.

Since it's conception in 1995, The Star Trek: Customizable Card Game has evolved to be one of the most popular card games ever. The basic premise of the game is to combine personnel, starships, and special action cards called "Events" and "Interrupts" in order to solve missions or combat opposing affiliations. With the premiere edition, the three main affiliations were Federation, Romulan, and Klingon. However, since it's conception, other affiliations have been added including The Cardassians, The Bajorans, The Ferengi, The Dominion, and even The Borg. If you are a fan of the Star Trek universe, then this is something you simply cannot pass up. Begin exploring the galaxy today!

Part of a series on world empires, the text in this book is a basic good overview of Genghis Khan and his sucessor's empire(s), with an additional section on the later Mogul Empire. What makes this book especially worthwhile to the historian and re-creationist is the extensive large format color photos of artifacts and period illustrations. There are many histories that are more accurate and in-depth, but for a visual overview of the Mongol empire, this book is the best I've seen.

Anyone who fondly remembers Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is gonna like this great campaign adventure. It can be pretty deadly, considering the characters' equipment will be largely useless against the main villains, who happen to be intelligent robots. The gist of the story is that a computer has warred for ages against the alien Rael, a race much like humans or elves. The war is brought to the campaign world when a Rael ship crash-lands with the robots not far behind. Equipment, history of the war, and a section on converting AD&D to Alternity supplement the adventure. The only problem I have is that this adventure doesn't quite feel as epic in scale as it should. Too bad they didn't try to crossover with the old Expedition adventure.

This book covers in capsulated form the methods Tennesseans used to get to the California Gold Rush, naming names and parties as well as routes, but not the entire diaries. It would be very helpful for anyone doing genealogy whose ancestors came from Tennessee to California. Of particular interest to me was how many of them went into politics including Peter Burnett, the First American Governor, plus Wm. Gwin, the first 6 year Senator and many others. It is meticulously researched.

I really enjoyed this little morsel of history, so much so that I tried another another book from the Essential Histories series when reading on another topic.

Before mentioning the good/bad about the book I should say that I'm not typically a reader of history and I had little or no knowledge of ancient Greece.

What pleased me most about the book was that the first chapter or two set the scene for Alexander's conquests by talking about his father, the Macedonian Kingdom, and its relationship to the Greek states--this seemed lacking in many of the academics' books; likewise, the end of the book touches on what followed the power vacuum left by his death. at 90 pages it's a good quick read generally covering the course of Alexander's eastward journey, without going to much into the specifics of each military campaign. the pages are peppered with treats that make the book a fun read: anecdotes displaying Alexander's personality, short excerpts from original sources like Arrian and Plutarch, pictures and diagrams to understand battles, you name it. I also appreciated that the author was not totally flattering in recounting Alexander's doings (nobody's perfect).

The only downside for me was that I wanted a little more depth than this book offered. so I read this one alongside a lengthier history (Hamilton's Genius of Alexander the Great). but as someone who doesn't typically read history, I'm not sure I really needed the play-by-play for each battle anyway.

For the new fan of Alexander, give this book a try and then decide if you need to get more elsewhere.

In the history of great conquerors, there was no one greater than the man known as Alexander the Great. His armies moved throughout the Balkans, Asia Minor, Egypt, South Asia, and Afghanistan and even into India. While they engaged in difficult battles, his armies were never defeated. Unfortunately, Alexander was not an effective administrator, so once his iron hand was gone, what could be called his empire quickly ceased to exist. Furthermore, as he moved on his path of conquest, his style became more ruthless and dictatorial, Alexander started to find enemies everywhere and he had some of his former friends brutally tortured to death.
This brief book describes the life of Alexander the Great, his many conquests and his goal to do nothing more than continue on a path of conquest. In many ways, there is a poetic necessity to his dying shortly after he ended his policy of moving on to the next kingdom and defeating their army. Had he not died at that point, he would have been a very unhappy man. There was nothing in his personality that would have allowed him to sit on a throne and govern.

When this book's first edition appeared in 1949 it was warmly received as an outstanding explication of western history using as its organizing principle Frederick Jackson Turner's "Frontier Thesis." Since that time it has gone through six editions, the last two with Martin Ridge as a co-author, an especially important development since Ray Allen Billington died in 1981. I first encountered "Westward Expansion" as an undergraduate in the mid 1970s--by then the book was in its fourth edition--and recognized it as a comprehensive overview of the subject.

It is still a massively significant book, mostly because of its detailed sweep of the history of the westward movement that it relates. It begins with an explanation of the "Frontier Thesis" first crafted by Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893, with its emphasis on American exceptionalism and subjugation of the North American continent. Reflective of an earlier perspective on the history of the West, the first editions of "Westward Expansion" viewed the movement of Euro-Americans westward as a positive development. This perspective is still present in the 6th edition, but there is much more questioning of the conquest of place and peoples, exploitation without concern, environmental wastefulness, political corruption, Euro-American misbehavior, and other inefficiencies. This edition concentrates on the trans-Mississippi West, rather than earlier periods in American history. It also treats the West as more a place than a process, something Billington routinely did. This is probably the result of the powerful influence of the "new western history" in the last quarter century and the work of Martin Ridge in revising Billington's work.

I recommend this edition of "Westward Expansion" as a detailed exploration of its subject. It is not perfect, but it is highly useful and remains an important reference work on my bookshelf.

This book includes songs from the early 90s and are geared for piano, vocal and guitar.

I bought the book specifically for piano playing. I enjoyed the songs on it that I recognized previously: "Ordinary World, "Deeper and Deeper" and "A Whole New World" (in that order).

The arrangements are okay. I believe I've heard several better arrangements of "A Whole New World" before. I did like the "Ordinary World" and "Deeper and Deeper" arrangements particularly for the bass style that was used. I actually haven't seen better arrangements for Duran Duran and Madonna songs in books like this before (hence the four-star rating). Typically, the chords are repetitive and unimaginative. But in these versions the bass complements the melody very well (especially on the piano, which I like) and isn't overbearing.

However, with the other songs, the arrangements are average. I would only recommend this book only for those who like some of the specific songs in the book (see a listing below). For those just wanting to beef up their collection of sheet music, I'd recommend taking a look at other books first.

Song list includes the following listed by title and performer(s):

"Deeper and Deeper" -- Madonna

"Don't Walk Away" -- Jade

"Feels Like Heaven" -- Peter Cetera (duet with Chaka Khan)

"I Love You Period" -- Dan Baird

"If I Ever Fall In Love" -- Shai

"In the Still Of The Nite" -- Boys II Men

"No Ordinary Love" -- Sade

"Ordinary World" -- Duran Duran

"Walk On The Ocean" -- Toad The Wet Sprocket

"A Whole New World" -- Peabo Bryson & Regina Belle