history

Book reviews for "history" sorted by average review score:

Five Years to Freedom

Published in Audio CD by Random House Audio Roads (04 March, 2003)

Authors: James N. Rowe and Reathel Bean

Amazon base price: $10.49
List price: $14.99 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $9.25
Buy one from zShops for: $9.00

Average review score:

Amazing Book Amazing Story

As I read this book I put myself in the time frame of the story. Col. Rowes captivity begans the first semester of my senior year in high school and concludes when I am about to start the final semester of my senior year in college. During that period of time, 62 months, Col. Rowe at that time still a Lieutenant is a captive of the North Vietnamese and is harshly treated but lives to tell his story. In many instances I found myself trying to understand how this man could endure so much and I found myself experiencing great dissapointment after great dissapointment as his quest for freedom becomes overly prolonged.
The book is humbly written and makes for excellent reading especially for the "Jane Fonda's" of the world who would question the resolve and sacrifices made by Veterans of the Viet Nam era.

Gripping personal account of survival under harsh conditions

Nick Rowe was already a giant among special operations soldiers when I had him as an instructor in Special Forces in 1982. Every page of his book only serves to demonstrate that which he would never claim - Nick Rowe is an American hero of the model few can match. Read the book to understand what character, courage and a will to live really mean. Years later, in the late 1980s, Nick Rowe autographed my copy of his book. I recall telling him how remarkable I found his story. His response, without batting an eye - "sure hate to have to research it again." There, in a nutshell is Nick Rowe, and the kind of wit that kept him alive. Get a copy of this book and read it. Then remember him every time you see the American Flag. Remember this man, James N. (Nick)Rowe died three weeks before Memorial Day, 1989, at a time this country enjoyed peace, and tell me tears do not come to your eyes.

An Inspiration To Any And All

I read "Five Years to Freedom" out of sheer curiousity; I'd come across the title while browsing, and it appeared to be one of the more highly-acclaimed works of the Vietnam era.

I was totally blown away.

Nick Rowe is a once-in-a-lifetime pillar of courage. I tried to imagine myself going through everything he did and still retaining the will to survive. That's when this book really and truly, and very suddenly, became indispensibly valuable to me. Here's how (and why):

We've all been faced with challenges in our lives, both large and small. Sometimes we take on those challenges, and sometimes (for whatever reason) we choose not to. If I compare the day-to-day challenges that I face in life, along with the occasional out-of-the-ordinary bump in the road, nothing at all seems insurmountable. How can one possibly NOT have the strength and courage to fight on in ANY sitation having learned of the five-year stretch of anguish, frustration, pain and abuse that Rowe was subjected to and survived?

No comparison. We too often take for granted what we have in our daily lives, believing that that's the way it always is, always has been, and always should be for everybody. Clean water, ample food, living conditions, etc. True, this was war, but Nick Rowe had a choice: he could have quit, or he could have chosen to survive. Through his strong will and demeanor (much stronger than that of his captors), he won - and won big. There's a much bigger lesson to be learned here - think about it.........

I thought of passing this book on to someone else to read - and then decided that it must remain a permanent part of my collection, surely to be read over and over again. What an absolute, total, consummate hero this man was.

'Nuff said.............

Deep Blues

Published in Paperback by Viking Press (May, 1995)

Author: Robert Palmer

Amazon base price: $10.50
List price: $15.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $7.00
Collectible price: $9.99
Buy one from zShops for: $8.00

This superb documentary vividly illustrates the enduring vitality of country blues, an idiom that most mainstream music fans had presumed dead or, at best, preserved through more scholarly tributes when filmmaker Robert Mugge and veteran blues and rock writer Robert Palmer embarked on their 1990 odyssey into Mississippi delta country. What Arkansas native and former Memphis stalwart Palmer knew, and Mugge captured on film, was that the blues was not only alive but still intimately woven into the daily lives of rural blacks.

Palmer, a former rock musician and Memphis Blues Festival cofounder best known for his bylines in The New York Times and Rolling Stone, had already chronicled the saga of Southern blues in his seminal book that provides the film's title. He's an astute guide, and Mugge underlines this role by pairing him with British rocker Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), whose avid interest in the music makes him an effective foil.

The film's real triumph, however, rests in the team's success in capturing modern day blues survivors and inheritors playing in the bars, juke joints, and barns of delta country. Palmer, who had returned several years earlier to the delta to capture these artists for his scrappy Fat Possum label, introduces us to the now-amplified but still elemental blues of R.L. Burnside, the late Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes, and other keepers of the faith. Mugge, whose profiles of Al Green, Sonny Rollins, and other musicians probed their cultural and artistic contexts with intelligence and sensitivity, captures both the music and the milieu in crisp color footage. Deep Blues thus triumphs as a testament to the blues' deep roots and an unintentional eulogy for Palmer, who would pass away in the mid-'90s just as the gut-bucket music of Burnside and Kimbrough served notice that the blues were alive and kicking. --Sam Sutherland

Average review score:

Simply The Best

There's no other way to put it, this is simply the best book out there on the blues both as a music form and as force in shaping American culture. At once simple and concise, yet broad and in depth enough to tell a very complete story, this one work should satisfy everyone from the novice to the experienced blues fan.

Meticulously researched, Palmer uses Muddy Waters as a jumping off point to explore the history and evolution of the blues as music as well as the society and culture from which it sprang. He peppers his work with amazing anecdotes, from the story of Robert Johnson, the Band meeting a dying Sonny Boy Williamson, an aging Howlin' Wolf giving a phenominal concert that add color to his story and helps make his frequent forays into musicology more tolerable to the non-musician. Best of all is the sense of time and place the book evokes, from plantations and dark swamps in rural Mississippi, to the noisy, crowed streets of South Chicago at the peak of the Great Migration, to small clubs and long forgotten juke-joints.

I read this book for the first time 10 years or so ago and have probably reread it 5 times since. I keep coming up with new things to admire about the book every time. That so much richness can be packed into such a short readable work is amazing. This book triumphs over everything else written on the subject and only leaves you wanting to explore further.

The Best Place to Start and End

Palmer's book was my introduction to the blues and I'm very glad of it because it's so wide and deep (like varying parts of the Mississippi River). You read this, you get the big picture story of the Delta Blues, how the music migrated to Chicago and other big cities and why it's so important to so much great music that came after it. It begins with musical historian Alan Lomax's fruitless search for Robert Johnson and ends with an older Muddy Waters, successful and wealthy, reflecting on his amazing journey. In between, we meet all the other players in Delta Blues, learn how the genre sprang up and see how it was adopted and copied wholesale by a slew of successful British and American rock 'n' rollers. Palmer never talks down to the reader but keeps his prose lively enough to entertain and educate a person with knowledge of the blues yet accessible enough to teach a neophyte. I find I come back to this book often to flesh out details of stories or anecdotes I've read elsewhere.

can the impact of "deep blues" be measured?

Bankrolled by rockstar superstar Dave Stuart and presented by Robert Palmer, author of the superb book of the same name, this film was a very timely voyage into the blues of missisipi. Timely because a number of the cast have died since this film was shot, including the presenter.

Traditional old blues haunts such as Memphis, Clarksdale and Greenville are visited, and fine artists relatively unknown at the time were recorded such as Big Jack Johnson, Booba Barnes and Lonnie Pitchford. Delta old timers Jack Owens, Bud Spires and Booker T. Laury also turn in fine, spirited performances. But for me the highlight is the attention given over to the more obscure "hill country" blues of north missisipi, featuring Jessie Mae Hemphill, R. L. Burnside and the late great Junior Kimbrough and his original juke joint in Holly Springs. Here the music extends from country blues to "drum and fife", a hypnotic musical form that predates blues all the way back to the revolutionary war, but which now faces extinction since the passing of Othar Turner (not featured here, but a close friend of Hemphill). The bonus items are very welcome, especially the extra performances by honkytonk genius Booker T. to the drunk audience comprised of Stuart and Palmer, and Lonnie Pitchford's demonstration of the diddly bow. Also included are extra audio tracks that were originally only available on the soundtrack album (now deleted).

This film helped to revive not just interest in country and acoustic blues in general, but the careers of all of the artists featured. This film is well shot, sounds great, and shares the passion and emotion of some great bluesmen and women. After this, try the "Feelin' Good" CD by Jessie Mae Hemphill. Not only is that a beautiful album, but Jessie's an invalid now who desperately needs the cash!

Hack Attacks Encyclopedia: A Complete History of Hacks, Cracks, Phreaks, and Spies over Time

Published in Paperback by John Wiley & Sons (22 August, 2001)

Author: John Chirillo

Amazon base price: $64.99
Used price: $20.00
Buy one from zShops for: $37.69

Hack Attacks Encyclopedia is a collection of hacker goodies in print and on CD-ROM. Gleaned from file repositories old and new, the collection includes handy, potentially naughty utilities--process listers, password crackers, and port scanners, among others--and scores of text articles. The text articles explain how to extract value from systems of various kinds (mostly the North American telecommunications network and various kinds of computers). Reading articles about how to get free calls from (1980s-vintage) payphones is interesting, and articles (some quite old) written by hackers about themselves and their community reveal a lot of truth.

In order to appreciate this book, you have to take note of the word History in its subtitle. That word appears because the articles in this book, though many of them make excellent reading, deal largely with old technologies and well-known attacks for which defenses now exist. Interesting problems that contemporary hackers may have solved--such as how to get free satellite Internet access, how to defeat ATMs' "service fees," how to defeat password protection on Windows XP, and how to get an overwhelming number of positive reviews to appear for your book--aren't covered. This book is all about the exploits of the past. Articles about how to get free phone calls on old pulse-signaling public phones aren't of much practical value anymore, and viruses for the Amiga computer are of purely academic interest these days (though virus source code, several examples of which appear here, shows up in few other books). Therefore, don't buy this book so much for how-to information as for its history lessons and entertainment value. Read it for its first-hand look at hacker culture.

That said, Hack Attacks Encyclopedia would be a lot better if John Chirillo had looked at his considerable collection of text files and software and unified it with a running narrative. Good historians and documenters of cultures don't just present primary sources without annotating them. They use their knowledge and skill to derive meaning from the primary sources, and perhaps make some predictions about the future. --David Wall

Topics covered: Hack attacks--which is to say, tools and techniques for getting services and information you're not really supposed to have--through the ages (mostly in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s). Emphasis falls on "harmless" hacker exploits, such as getting free phone calls, rather than on "black-hat" stuff like shutting down Web servers for no real reason. A large glossary explains technical terms and hacker lingo.

Average review score:

I would give it zero stars if I could.

The book looks damned impressive from the outside; it's 960 pages! Surely, this must be the most complete discussion of the hacking and phreaking subculture ever published! The cover, a sunset-colored affair with barbed wire and neat lettering, tells you it'll have a more up-to-date sensibility. Everything said this would be my next purchase.

My heart sank as I read through the book.

The vast, vast, VAST (over two-thirds) majority of the book consists of the first paragraph of BBS textfiles, with a line telling you the filename included on the CD that comes with the book. In some cases, Chirillo deigns to visit upon you a single-line description, but many don't even have that. So now, imagine this: page after page of filenames, then descriptions, then the first paragraph, of files located on a CD that's in the back of a book. What a horrible waste! There's a computer "glossary" in the back which looks suspiciously like similar documents available on the web, although I can't be sure. Also, there are a few tiny chapters giving general descriptions of the hacker and phreaking subculture. If you were to remove the filenames and descriptions and paragraphs, I doubt this book could get past 100 pages, if that.

Gain Insight of the Mindset of Hackers, Crackers, Phreakers!

The widespread availability of computers and access to telephone and Internet technologies has contributed to the sharp rise in the number of people going online over the years. Unfortunately, many of these people found their way online through less-than-honest means, and once online, they would set out to perform a great deal of mischief and damage to various computers and computer information systems.

Hack Attacks Encyclopedia edited by John Chirillo serves as the ultimate source for collected information on the history of hacking, cracking, and phreaking. The book features nearly 2,000 text and HTML document extracts that includes news articles, online postings, and other snippets of insightful information. Some of the accounts are startling. Readers will quickly pick up just how clever some hackers, crackers, and phreakers really are. The following snippet exemplifies available talent in Northern America:

"Silver Spy has everything going for him - comfortable surroundings, a father who is an engineer. He ranks in the top 3 percent of his high-school class. His SAT scores for college admission totaled 1,400 of a possible 1,600. He wants to attend Stanford or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But in the eyes of the phone companies he is a thief, and in the eyes of the law he's a criminal. Such is the portrait of this 17-year-old computer "hacker" and "phone phreaker" who lives about 20 miles outside Boston. He spoke with U.S. News & World report on the condition that neither his real name nor home town be revealed."

The Hack Attack Encyclopedia is broken up into major sections by decade - the 70's, the 80's, the 90's, the Millennium, and a special historical synopsis. From beginning to end, readers will be able to follow the history of mischievous behavior. It will be an eye-opening experience for anyone to follow the advancements made in communications technologies and how they can be easily circumvented and otherwise compromised to carryout further activities. Although some of the technologies disclosed in the book are outdated and have been replaced, readers will still gain helpful insight of the mindset of hackers, crackers, and phreakers operating today. They are a force to be taken very seriously.

An extensive 217-page glossary of terms will enlighten readers about the slang talk used in the hacking, cracking, and phreaking communities. As a special bonus, the CD accompanying the book features full-length editions of the article and snippet extracts included in the book, hundreds of computing and Internet exploits, and a sampling of useful utility programs.

Hacking, cracking, phreaking, and virus infection still poses problems for many people today. This book will open the eyes of many people - including business people, IT managers, and law enforcement officials. It will serve as an excellent starting point for taking necessary corrective action to prevent further mischief and harm caused to personal and company computer systems. I can't wait to see an updated edition. Highly recommended reading.

five stars on the scale of worthless-ness

this book is culled from sources across the internet, almost all of the information is freely available somewhere. in most cases the author has not even bothered to change the filenames or unique file extensions. the book itself is barely an index of the cd-rom, with the first paragraph of a file serving as a description. there is some (un)original writing done by the author himself, comprising a miniscule amount of the actual text. if you would like to learn what these files are actually about, you would be much better served by going to the sites they were taken from

Samarkand

Published in Paperback by Interlink Pub Group (September, 2003)

Authors: Amin Maalouf and Russell Harris

Amazon base price: $10.47
List price: $14.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $7.00
Collectible price: $16.93
Buy one from zShops for: $9.50

Average review score:

A wonderful, absorbing read and very topical too

This is like a gorgeous Persian manuscript, full of light, colour, action, adventure and intelligence. And not only is it a wonderful double story, about Omar Khayyam and his life and work, and centuries later, the American who becomes obsessed with finding the original ms, it's also a fabulous and extremely perceptive journey through Persian and Islamic culture, in both its positive and negative aspects. What Maalouf has to say about the tyranny in the Muslim world that too many people have to groan under, the lack of respect and yet the love felt for great literature and philosophy, and scariest of all, the way of the Assassins, the fanatics who love death-well, it's very, very topical. A lovely, thoughtful, extraordinary book that has really whetted my appetite to read more of Maalouf's work.

Exhilarating!!

Where is the manuscript of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyaat? A once empty book made out of the white mulberry branches' pulp according to an old Chinese recipe. A blank book that was given to Khayam by a "qadi" who recognized his genius as a poet.
"Whenever a verse takes shape in your mind, or is on the tip of your tongue, just hold it back. Write it down on these sheets." The Rubaiyaat were born in Samarkand in 1072 A.D. The manuscript is claimed to have vanished on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

Maalouf spins fact and fiction and creates a fascinating tale of 11th-century Persia, with assassins and intrigues, and returns to it 900 years later through the eyes of an American searching for the manuscript.

This has got to be one of the more engaging historical fiction books I have ever read. Maalouf did an excellent and very thorough research. The text flows very nicely and the language is exquisite. It is what I call a rich book... A tale of war, politics, friendship, and betrayal. A tale of poetry and philosophy and of course history. It was such a sumptuous read, I was devouring all the details about the places such as Samarkand, Isfahan, Tabriz and about the characters Khayyam of Nishapur, Nizam al Mulk, and Hassan Sabbah, the founder of the Order of the Assassins, among many others.
Two exotic tales of romance between Khayyam and Jahan; and centuries later
between Benjamin and his Persian Princess, Shireen.

The suspenseful adventure tale of finding the manuscript is interwoven with a love story between Benjamin and Shireen and concludes with a final verse uttered. I think it best describes this book...
"You ask what is this life so frail, so vain
'Tis long to tell, yet will I make it plain
'Tis but a breath blown from the vastly deeps,
And then blown back to those same deeps again."

Maalouf kept me intrigued and thirsty for more and more. I couldn't quench my thirst any better that when I read the final words " Today I wonder: Did she exist?" So poignant, so beautiful right up to the last page.
I highly recommend this book and.. to the readers who are thinking of reading it...Here's a taste..
"Travelers are too great a rush these days, in a rush to arrive - whatever it takes. But you do not arrive only at your destination. At every step of the journey you arrive somewhere and with every step you can discover a hidden facet of our planet. All you have to do is look, wish, believe and love."
So do begin this Journey.. a Journey to another world.. another space and time..
This is a book to indulge yourself into. Just go with the flow and you'll soon be absorbed by it's magical aura.

A Great Journey!

It is a beautiful story looking for the lost book of one of the greatest poet's of all times, Omar Khayyam. With the amazing story-telling of Amin Maalouf, the reader will take this trip search for this book, trom Samarkand to on board Titanic. Great blend of east and west, time warped and wrapped together.

Hard Drive : Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire

Published in Paperback by HarperBusiness (26 May, 1993)

Authors: James Wallace and Jim Erickson

Amazon base price: $12.57
List price: $17.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $3.99
Collectible price: $8.99
Buy one from zShops for: $8.24

Hard Drive charts Gates's missteps as well as his successes: the failure of OS/2 and the embarrassing delays in bringing Windows to the marketplace; the highly publicized split with IBM, which then forged an alliance with Apple to battle Microsoft; the public relations fallout over various exploits of Gates; and the investigations by the Federal Trade Commission. Wallace and Erickson also examine the combative, often abrasive side of Gates's personality that has alienated many of Microsoft's rivals and even employees, and led to his being labeled "The Silicon Bully" by Business Month Magazine. They report:

In the early 80's, Microsoft's Multiplan lost out to Lotus 1-2-3 in the marketplace. According to one Microsoft programmer, a few of the key people working on DOS 2.0 had a saying at the time that "DOS isn't done until Lotus won't run." They managed to code a few hidden bugs into DOS 2.0 that caused Lotus 1-2-3 to breakdown when it was loaded. "There were as few as three or four people who knew this was being done," the employee said. He felt the highly competitive Gates was the ringleader.

The first two female executives hired at Microsoft in 1985 were recruited to meet federal affirmative action guidelines so that the company could qualify for a lucrative Air Force contract. One source says,"They would say, 'Well, let's hire two women because we can pay them half as much as we will have to pay a man, and we can give them all this other crap work to do because they are women.' That's directly out of Bill's mouth...." Gates treated one of these executives so badly that she asked to be transferred away from him.

Microsoft managers used the company's e-mail system to secretly spy on employee work habits. Only those employees who worked weekends could collect bonuses. In time word got out and some employees logged into their e-mail on weekends with a modem from home so it would appear they had come in.

Average review score:

The Definitive History of Microsoft

(By Edward Trimnell, author of "Why You Need a Foreign Language & How to Learn One," ISBN:1591133343)

This book is required reading for anyone who is interested in:

1) Computers and software
2) Microsoft
3) Entrepreneurship

Hard Drive is as readable as a novel. The book covers the history of Bill Gates' rise to power with expert thoroughness. There are numerous insights into the man and company--not all of which are flattering.

If you have ever wondered how the current PC software market reached its current state, then you will find the answers within these pages. The authors portray the struggles between Microsoft, Lotus, IBM, and Apple from the technical, commercial, and human perspectives.

The book is also balanced in its handling of one of the business world's most controversial personalities. Gates admirers and detractors alike will find ammunition in Hard Drive.

The Early Days

This book gives a fascinating insight about Microsoft and how the two buddies Gates & Allen transformed the way we live, learn and play today.

More important is, the book gives us a glimpse of an often misunderstood genius, Bill Gates himself. Read this book and you'll get the idea what makes him tick. Really, he is not as bad as some people would like us all to believe.

A Must Buy About the #1 Guy at the Pinnacle

Should I Buy This Book?

The story is starting to get a bit dated but the book still has 95% of the Gates story warts and all. He is one of the most compelling and admired and maybe feared business leaders today.

Unlike Jack Welch, another great leader and manager, he started from zero or near zero in a new field and (largely) owned the company. I remember seeing the personal computers for sale in the 70's - just pre Microsoft - that did not come with anything other than a very rudimentary software. He was one of the first people to recognize the dollar value of the software and to charge for its use in the hobby market. Since then he has dominated the market. Now there is a computer in virtually every office and home using his (expensive high margin) software. Now he has the resources to buy anything he wants, or to support any charity or university, or buy a sizeable portion of the stock in almost any company that he wishes. And of course he has no debt. He used no risky leverage or tricks. He took the software and generated billions of dollars in cash and securities on hand. It is quite the story.

This is a relatively short book and an easy read. Frankly it is a must read for anyone running their own business and or in the Tech field. Gates is the statistical anomaly who sits at the very pinnacle. He is perched even above Warren Buffet the financial guru who is at least 20 years older than Gates. But Gates was astute enough to buy DOS for $50,000. and then had the business smarts and drive to market and sell the product. He was a hands on manager working long hours and a technical leader. He was (is) as smart or smarter than anyone else in the field. He did not invent any major new invention but he had the practical ability to take the product to market and make it work, make it better, and build a winning business. He hired great people and built a team that literally crushed the opposition including IBM and all foreign competitors in that area. It is only now two decades later that people are (seriously) starting to consider alternatives such as Linux, and these still have a lot of catch up to do.

Still a great book and a great yarn. A must buy 5 stars.

Jack in Toronto

Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments, from Stage to Studio

Published in Paperback by Backbeat Books (October, 2002)

Authors: Andy Babiuk, Mark Lewisohn, and Tony Bacon

Amazon base price: $20.97
List price: $29.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $14.25
Buy one from zShops for: $18.68

Average review score:

Good, interesting, but a few problems...

A very interesting book which I enjoy reading and looking at more than a few times. It has inspired me to learn how to play guitar. On the con side, I wish the book was indexed or had an appendix that listed all the gear the Beatles used on an album or in all their number one songs at least (or, just a list of all their gear in one location in the book). While most of the photographs are excellent there are numerous pictures of receipts and other paperwork that are sized so small that it becomes meaningless because you can't make out anything on it! I hope the publisher will consider losing some of the text and enlarging the receipt pictures et. al. so they are clearly legible. Also, a list of public collections where some of the gear can be viewed in person would be a useful addition. No other rock 'n roll band will command a book that is written about just their gear. The Beatles were incredible and so far ahead of their time musically. I found myself looking at the pictures of various instruments while replaying songs in which the instrument was used. Great stuff.

It's gear! It's fab!

For the true Beatles fanatic (and is there any other kind?) comes this look at the specific guitars, electric keyboards and organs, effects pedals, drums and amps used by the Liverpool lads. The author is a musician himself, from the retro-rific Chesterfield Kings, and his interest in the Beatles "sound" led to extensive research into their original instruments... The topic may seem a little goofy at first, but after a bit of browsing, this handsome coffeetable book gets pretty engrossing. After all, what could be more iconic in rocknroll culture than a glimpse at the very Fenders, Gibsons and Hammonds from which so many pop hits would emanate. Babiuk also parallels the musical growth of the band to their acquisition of various instruments -- when John or George got a new guitar, it was often to learn a new performance style. A nerdy but neat look at the fab toys of out favorite moptop combo.

Extensively Researched

Great book by an outstanding musician. I live about 1 mile from the House of Guitars in Irondequoit, NY where Andy works with fellow Chesterfield King Greg Prevost. I would love to see Andy write a book on the equipment of Yes. I think just Rick Wakeman & Steve Howe's gear would be several hundred pages.

The Day the World Came to Town : 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

Published in Paperback by Regan Books (14 August, 2003)

Author: Jim DeFede

Amazon base price: $10.36
List price: $12.95 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $3.11
Buy one from zShops for: $3.94

The events of September 11 have seemingly been covered, analyzed, and discussed from every angle imaginable. So the subject matter alone of Jim DeFede's The Day the World Came to Town makes it noteworthy. In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 38 commercial airliners carrying over 6,000 passengers were forced, as a precautionary measure, to land in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. Due to the ongoing closure of U.S. airspace, the passengers spent four days in this isolated town of 10,000 before being allowed to continue on their way. In that time, Gander's residents rallied together to extend a kind of hospitality that seems too expansive for the word hospitality. Townspeople not only opened schools and legion halls for use as emergency shelters, they invited the passengers into their homes for showers, meals, and warm beds while local businesses simply gave toiletries and clothing to passengers stuck without luggage. Despite the grim consequences that led to the situation, DeFede finds humor: two flight attendants are offered a car for sightseeing by a local woman who happened to be driving by; the stranded chairman of Hugo Boss finds himself shopping for men's underwear at the local Wal-Mart. But the real message of the book is how, even in times of great turmoil and conflict, people can and must look to one another for comfort, help, and hope. --John Moe

Average review score:

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

I work across the street from "GROUND ZERO" and like a moth to a flame have been attracted to every book and documentary chronicling 9/11. It has been a very sad literary experience as you can well imagine. When I picked up this book I expected much the same. I was so wrong. This book gave me and will give you the much needed boost when remembering that awful day. I was immediately captured by such humanity that I believed as a Native New Yorker no longer existed. The people of Gander NewFoundland are a true rare breed. They didn't just sympathize with the plight of the American people during this crisis they became self proclaimed Americans. These NewFoundlanders gave the world an incredible example to follow. The book is so well written that I finished the book feeling as if I knew each and everyone personally. I read this book on the verge of such a horrible anniversary that I'm oddly hoping for a follow up to this story on each anniversary. The stories of each person stranded in Gander will undoubtedly strike a chord with all of us. Enjoy it I did!!

Gives you something to feel good about

Living just 5 miles from Ground Zero I haven't felt the urge to read any of the many books chronicling the events of that horrible day. On a strong recomendation from a friend I picked up THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN. Yes this story will bring tears to your eyes but they will quickly be replaced by sheer awe at a community that, without a moment's hesitation, opened its heart and its doors to complete strangers.

If this story was written as ficton one would accuse the author of an overactive imagination. The people of Gander and it's neighboring communities jumped at the chance to render hospitality and comfort to the "plane people", as they referred to them. This story takes the reader through the full range of human emotions from tears to laughter. Yes, laughter. I want to go to GAnder myself and just hug everyone I see.

If you read one September 11th book, make it this one. It provides a lesson we all could learn about being a good neighbor.

One Glimpse of Human Greatness!

A friend told me about The Day the World Came to Town a while back. I knew it was about September 11th and I was feeling a bit overloaded on the sad stories that resulted from that tragic day so I put it off.

Of course, I knew there had been some amazing demonstrations of community, heroism, and other stories of the unexpected graces that resulted from that horrible dayâs events and yet this story was probably the one that made me fully appreciate the paradox of grace in the midst of tragedy all the more.

Gander, New Foundland has never been a major tourist spot on anyoneâs map in its history. However, many have touched down in Gander over the years as it served as a refueling station for prop planes and jetliners before they had better capacity for transcontinental travel without a fuel stop.

Gander is a small town of 10,000 and when 38 jets were ordered out of the skies on September 11th to Gander, some 6500 ânew citizens suddenly arrived without notice.

What followed the arrival of those jets and the frightened human beings aboard makes for the incredible story of a community that stopped everything it was doing and welcomed their guests as if they were relatives. And, this wasnât just a quick stop. Gander provided for the âplane peopleâ for three days without any master plan and advance preparation.

The Day the World Came to Town is an inspiring story about the strength and goodness to be found in ordinary human beings when they come together in tough times. Author, Jim DeFead does a great job of making this story a personal one. He focuses on the experience of several individuals and families among the local people and the visitors. He tells this amazing story of community through their eyes and hearts.

While I recognize so many have had their fill of stories about September 11th, The Day the World Came to Town is a story to be read again and again to remind us all that this world can still be a hopeful place of incredible grace!

A compelling story of goodness. Highly recommended!

Daniel J. Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota USA

The Glory and the Dream

Published in Paperback by Bantam (01 July, 1984)

Author: William Manchester

Amazon base price: $29.95
Used price: $5.95
Collectible price: $44.50

Average review score:

Simply wonderful

This book is exactly what its title says: a history of American from 1932 through 1972. The book is thorough and long, and yet fluently readable. You certainly won't be aware that you're reading a book of more than a thousand pages. Manchester strikes a good balance between the major political events and the lives of ordinary Americans.

Most impressive is Manchester's political even-handedness. He regards no one as a villain or a hero (well, FDR comes close, but almost everyone who lived through those years considered FDR a hero).

Having been written in 1973, the book does show some effects of the Viet Name debacle; there is a tendency to assume a moral equivalence between the communist countries and the democracies. Nowadays only the most mindless America-haters believe that any such equivalence ever existed, but remember that in the aftermath of Viet Nam, such feelings were easy to adopt. But Manchester never loses his objectivity or his ability to take the long view. In examining the Red Scare - McCarthy era, for example, he manages to treat each individual case on its own merits, something very few writers have been able or willing to do.

Manchester's choice of topics is invariably apt: the things which seemed important at the time are the things which he treats as important. The only event which struck me as deserving of more attention than he gave it, was the Hungarian uprising of 1956.

Manchester doesn't completely understand the music of the 60's but no one over 35 (at the time) did! The book was written at a time when faith in big government solutions to all social and economic problems was taken for granted. Also, Watergate had not yet played itself out when the book was written, although he gives it plenty of attention.

But all of my reservations are minor. I don't know of any single book which is so effective in telling the reader what it was like to live in America during those 40 years, and also so effective in describing America's role and behavior in the international community during those same years, as this one. The next time you're tempted to read a self-help book by the latest anointed guru whose insights might justify a short magazine article, read this book instead. You'll walk away with a much better understanding of the world you live in, and how it got that way.

Superb Treatment of Mid 20th Century America!

Anyone fortunate enough to read the first few chapters of this terrific work by William Manchester will no longer wonder why he is considered one of the finest historians writing about the 20th century. From the opening description of the tensions in Washington in the early 1930s with the conflict over the so-called "bonus marchers" to the ending essay on the removal of Richard Nixon from the Presidency in disgrace in 1974, there simply isn't a dull page in the book. As for anyone who hasn't experienced this author and his superb prose style, there is no time to waste!

This truly is a masterful and magisterial historical narrative of the period of time from the onset of the Depression to the climax of the Watergate scandal; all the color and detail one would want from a work purporting to cover such a momentous time span in our recent national melodrama is here in spades. His prose style is at once both erudite and immensely readable, and he always seems conversational even when discussing matters that are delicate or controversial. Whether discussing the momentous details of FDR's "New Deal", the daring and cunning of the Japanese in carrying out the attack on Pearl Harbor, the sad and sorrowful political potshots taken by scurrilous swine like Joe McCarthy during the House Un-American Activities Committee or the quizzically vengeful approach taken by insiders during the Nixon years, Manchester consistently steers us knowingly and safely through the rocks and shoals of domestic history, avoiding veering into the controversial reefs and coral that can rip us to shreds with partisan political revisionism and politically-correct views.

As he does in other books such as "American Caesar" and "The Death Of A President", Manchester always satisfies the reader's curiosity without being salacious, gossipy, or unfair. He takes great pains to be objective and as thorough as possible, and the sources he cites are always impeccable. If I have any criticism of the book at all, it relates to its long length, as I read the two-volume hard cover version a friend gave me as a birthday present. It is really a small quibble, however, for though it was along read I came away from the several week reading adventure feeling much better informed, and with a much better perspective on many of the troubling issues that have transpired in the fabled years since the Depression. I heartily recommend this book, but advise you to find yourself a comfortable armchair to escape to with book in hand. You are going to want to devour it. Enjoy!

Can't believe this is out of print

This book is a fabulous overview of the 40 years in question, capturing an America that no longer exists, but it reads very well even today. Just terrific.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Written by Herself

Published in Hardcover by Scholarly Press (December, 1861)

Author: Harriet B. Jacobs

Amazon base price: $11.00
Buy one from zShops for: $104.70

Average review score:

An American Classic

First published in 1861, this book is much more than a narrative about slavery; it addresses many issues of gender as well. To escape the philandering intentions of her master, and to try to win freedom for her children, Harriet Jacobs spent seven years hidden away in a garret over her grandmother's house, three feet high at its tallest point with almost no air or light, with only glimpses of her children to sustain her courage. Until the 1980's, this book was presumed by most scholars to be a work of fiction created by a white abolitionist, but Jean Yellin's groundbreaking research brought the real Harriet Jacobs to life. The book has been published several times since the 1960's, often in inexpensive paperback versions that are much cheaper than this edition (2000). However, I'd recommend either this edition (which includes the short slave narrative published by Harriet's brother John, A True Tale of Slavery) or an earlier edition edited by Yellin if you want the full historical background on the book itself.

A very poweful tale of the great injustice put on slaves.

I have read Incidents in the Life of a Slave by Harriet Jacobs, twice! I enjoyed reading her book. Her book is full of rich vocabulary. Her writing skills and the description of events she used was impressive, i.e. the separation of mother and child being sold to slaveholders, I felt the pain. In her writings, she constantly humbled herself because of her circumstances of being a slave and how she felt incompetent to write her life story. I must say that Jacobs did a magnificent job, considering her life of chattel slavery. Besides being courageous, strong and enduring, she was a very wise person. I think Jacob's does not give herself credit for being wise. She was very wise because she had to plan various strategies to outwit her devil master's attempts to capture her. She was wise in not trusting Harriet Beecher Stowe. What was Stowe's purpose of forwarding Jacob's writings to Mrs. Willis, which included her sexual history? Jacobs was no fool. Finally, the most indelible impression on my mind was when she hid in her grandmother's house, above the storage room, for seven years! I was right there with her. Great job Harriet Jacobs!!

Amazing Account of Our History!!

Jacobs has contributed a wonderful document to our nation's history of her experiences as a slave. This is a must-read for anyone with an interest in our country's history!!

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung : The Work of a Legendary Critic: Rock'N'Roll as Literature and Literature as Rock'N'Roll

Published in Paperback by Anchor (12 September, 1988)

Author: Lester Bangs

Amazon base price: $11.20
List price: $16.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $5.50
Collectible price: $12.00
Buy one from zShops for: $7.95

Average review score:

Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!

Although a fine collection of Bangs's work in its own right, 'Psychotic Reactions and Carburator Dung' is not as good an introduction to Lester's writing as the recently released 'Mainlines, Blood Feasts, and Bad Taste: A Lester Bangs Reader." While 'Psychotic Reactions' editor Greil Marcus chooses to focus more on Bangs as a prose stylist and cough syrup-chugging wildman, 'Mainlines'
editor John Morthland presents a more definitive overall sampling of Bangs's critic ideas and opinions. Nevertheless, there is plenty of Bangs's best here, including the title piece, "The White Noise Supremacists," "A Reasonable Guide to Horrible Noise" and the entire fourth section of the book, which collects Lester musings on the life and career of Lou Reed.

No surprise

that this tome gets five stars from everyone. Lester Bangs turned rock writing into a respectable craft. Critic, philosopher and party animal Bangs praises his heroes to the skies-The Velvet Underground, Iggy and The Stooges, The Troggs(!)- in gargantuan essays with the glee of Kerouac, and vilifies the artists who he feels are wrecking rock and roll with incisive precision, slaughtering sacred cows like Elvis, Elton John, James Taylor and John Lennon. Bangs clamors for the reckless spirit of rock to save humanity, who is sinking in a muck of pretentious hucksters and egotistical carnies masquerading as rockers. Lovingly compiled by Greil Marcus, we get to see some of Lester's more personal essays where he reveals much about his own troubled psyche and his attitude towrds what he did. The guy got banned from Rolling Stone for "disrespect to musicians"-how cool is that, to expose a so-called rock/revolution magazine for the establishment pig it truly is? All fans of noise and fire and unpredictablity in music need to read this onomatopoeia of the sound of rock and roll.

How to Rip Off Lester Bangs Without Trying OR Lou Reed Kills

Lester Bangs got it right. He was the only rock critic who wrote with the rhythm of rock 'n' roll and felt to his absolute core every note. He was absolutely insulted by blandness in music, and therefore, never wrote a bland review. His critics often criticize his "digressions," but they're missing the point; after all, great rock and roll is a digression from most socially acceptable behavior. Consequently, this book is absolutely essential for anyone who cares about rock 'n' roll's past, present or future. Read Lester to get to the heart of rock, then read Greil Marcus to come to terms with its uneasy mind.

Related Subjects: hdfc
More Pages: history Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500

history

Search for a Financial Book Review