history

Whether you are new to the field of teaching Social Studies or whether you are an experienced teacher, reading and using A Passion for the Past is a must. It is philosophical, engaging, stimulating, and practical at the same time. Jim Percoco has been generous in sharing his insights, strategies, curriculum ideas and specific lesson plans. He also shares his enthusiasm for teaching history, which is highly motivating in itself. If you are interested in stimulating ideas for an interactive teaching style, this is the very best source to check. Give yourself some time to read and work with this material - you will be inspired and guided - and so will your students! I can't rate this source more highly. Anyone teaching American History today will want to be familiar with Percoco's ideas.

Whether you are new to the field of teaching Social Studies or whether you are an experienced teacher, reading and using A Passion for the Past is a must. It is philosophical, engaging, stimulating, and practical at the same time. Jim Percoco has been generous in sharing his insights, strategies, curriculum ideas and specific lesson plans. He also shares his enthusiasm for teaching history, which is highly motivating in itself. If you are interested in stimulating ideas for an interactive teaching style, this is the very best source to check. Give yourself some time to read and work with this material - you will be inspired and guided - and so will your students! I can't rate this source more highly. Anyone teaching American History today will want to be familiar with Percoco's ideas.

Social Studies teacher James Percoco's book provides, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, "a new birth of freedom" for teachers, students and parents interested in reinvigorating the study of the past. I came across Percoco's book while reading an inspiring review in "The History Teacher" and no sooner than the following week did I find myself implementing many of the ideas that he created for his Applied History class. In each of the book's eight chapters readers are reassured that the study of the past does not have to be limited to overblown textbooks in lecture-oriented classes. In fact, Percoco, despite the challenges of national and state standards of learning, has created more authentic and therefore more enduring opportunities for each of his students to actively participate in the study of the past rather than reading about voiceless men and women in twenty pound textbooks. Whether it is creating historical bumper stickers, field trips to Andersonville, historical heads, or historically relevant monuments out of clay, readers of this book will immediately seek out ways to apply some of the same ideas to their own teaching style and schools. The book will also inspire readers to the fact that when the study of the past becomes meaningful to the students it also becomes fun. The book concludes with an in-depth appendix providing valuable resources for those topics Percoco addressed throughout the book. This is the first of two books (the other "Divided We Stand: Teaching About Conflict in U.S. History") by Percoco that should inspire in each reader a vision of how history can be taught to all types of students as long as it is taught with passion and meaning.

There is no doubt that this man is a hero. I am sure he has many heroic deeds and tales that Uncle Sam will not let him tell. That was the nature of Special Forces duty. I have read many books that are better written, and I wish Miller would have chosen a different person to document his story, but I am sure he had his reasons. The stories themselves are fantastic. I had to read the book in one sitting, I could not put it down. Someday I would like to meet Miller face-to-face, buy him a beer and hear him tell the story first hand.

this book held my attention the entire time.frank miller was my first sergeant while i was stationed in hawaii as a young buck sergeant. it was truly an honor to have served with this great american hero,not only because of the medal but alsohis genuine concern for his men.the book is a true reflection of the man.he always had a story to tell and everyone around was eager to stop and listen,usually departing holding their guts from laughter or an apparrent look of awe.irronicly years later i was sent to somllia with task force ranger,where we lost 18 of my friends 2 of whom also recieved the medal of honor (posthumousely)during the battle of mogadishu on oct. 3 1993 in which 2 books have been written about..."mogadishu!herroism and tragedy" and "blackhawk down". first sergeant always said, "tough times make you a better soldier",he was right.

Frank "Doug" Miller and I became friends during my last active duty tour in Korea in the mid-eighties. He would come to my office telling the stories that later became this great book. As his stories unfolded, I could smell the jungle and gunpowder. When I found this book, I sat down with stories that had been like long time friends. Doug's ability to paint the truth in superb word pictures of his life in Nam are almost as good as talking to him over a cup of coffee. With his passing, the loss of a great friend and soldier is somehow eased by reading and re-reading this book. We'll always miss this great hero.

A penny for our thoughts? More like a nickel and dime. Back before Woolworth's closed, you would have been able to buy this book there . . . along with a package a hair nets, a package of socks, the latest 45, genuine polyester bloomers, parakeet food, the cheapest eye shadow and lipstick known to woman (and an occasional man), and, at those special stores with a famous Formica-topped lunch counter, a grilled cheese and Coca-Cola. Today, Woolworth's is a mere memory to those middle-classers who spent time and money there. Woolworth's may have closed in 1997 (after 188 years of business), but author Karen Plunkett-Powell keeps the legacy alive as she takes readers on a nostalgic stroll down the aisles stocked with this and that. The reminiscences and recollections from die-hard customers add a warm touch but it's the test and photos take make the trip worth it.

Remembering Woolworth's is full of history, photos and memories of the old stores. It is a particularly readable book, and I especially enjoyed reading about the Woolworth store's overseas, as well as about Frank Woolworth's early years as a struggling merchant. I recommend this book for anyone who ever stepped foot inside a Woolworth's, or for those interested in how one man's ideas changed the world of retailing.

This book brought back so many memories - and I'm only 41! It's
fun to read, with a layout that mixes photos, anecdotes, drawings, and personal reminscences - almost like a magazine. Reading this book makes you realize that Woolworth's was everything Kmart and Wal-Mart are not - charming, inviting, and much more than a place to get a bargain. Author Karen Plunkett-Powell captures the Americana, the nostalgia, and the details that make us all smile when we remember Woolworth's. For me, it was about recalling the malted milks my aunt used to buy me at the counter when I was small, and the quick gifts I used to pick up for friends and my children from the Woolworth's that used to be located downstairs from an office building where I worked for many years. So many of our everyday experiences nowadays are empty -- do yourself a favor and travel back to a simpler yet more meaningful time by reading this book or buying it for a friend. It's not a typical boring history book -- and it makes a GREAT gift for the senior citizen in your life who you never know what to get for a present -grandma, a relative in a nursing home, a neighbor who signs for your packages or whatever - even if that person is not the type to sit down and read a book, they'll have so much fun leafing through it.

Like a needle in a hay stack; that is how I always felt among people in the world; yes, I have been a victim of rankism and I have been very aware of it, but the social consensus is so strong that it is very hard to find somebody that will admit this is going on. Everyone seems to believe that rankism is a normal part of life. I see friends suffering because of it, and yet, they swallow the angst and sadness and go on about their lives making themselves believe that it is somehow their fault whatever is happening. Maybe someday they will get to be an authority and make someone else suffer right? PLEASE EVERYONE, READ THIS BOOK!!
Fuller did a great job in bringing an awareness of rankism, though I felt he did not let himself go completely in his writing. Though he argues that rank itself is not the problem, and that the abuse of rank is the culprit; I believe rank itself causes people to automatically abuse it--rankism. Yes, I agree that rank is important in a society but most people in our society have an ingrained belief that to have high rank automatically equals to have authority over someone, in that authority means that whoever is under you is obligated to do whatever you want. Buy this book,read it, and have your whole family, friends, and rankists in your life read it too.

As I read Fuller's Somebodies and Nobodies, I realized that I have myself pulled rank and been the victim of rank-pulling. But more importantly, many problems on the world stage today could be address, maybe even solved, by taking a 'rankist' perspective: North Korea's illogical stance against the world, Osama Bin Laden's attack on the US and Bush's response in attacking Iraq - each of these are generated by issues of 'dignity' and 'indignation' as Fuller describes them. Read this book!

Fuller's book hits a nerve with everyone! Who hasn't been a "nobody" at some time in their life? All of us. Who hasn't felt the sting of that degrading stare or phrase? We all have felt in somewhere along the line. This books pops all those nasty "I'm better than you because..." looks and comments. It is a must read if we are ever going to create a culture of equals like we claimed we wanted when we founded this country.

There have been a lot of history of science books over the last few years - Dava Sobel in particular is very popular. If you like books by her or Jared Diamond or Amir Aczel, you'll love this volume. A smooth read, but with plenty of meat. The theme of the book is also rather more important than that of Sobel's Longitude; the program for the search for parallax was laid out in Galileo's Starry Messenger, and drove astronomical progress for centuries, and is still an important area of research, while remaining mostly unkown to the public. The only scientific theme which lasted longer, or generated more incidental progress, was the search for a proof of Fermat's theorem.

I don't think you can grasp the history of science without being exposed to the material in this book. Give a copy to the budding bookish teenager in your life.

Very impressive and entertaining work by Dr. Hirshfeld. The amount of historical research that must have gone into this book is stunning. He covers over 2,000 years of the history of astronomy and astronomers, from Aristarchus to Ptolemy to Copernicus to the 19th Century and into the modern era. And he puts it together is an extremely readable and compelling way.

Perhaps the single best thing about the book is how the author doesn't shy away from describing the science and technology at the root of the human story he is telling, yet he presents it all in a way that is understandable and interesting whether you are an expert or a novice.

I have read many books and articles on the history of astronomy in the past, and hands down this is one of my absolute favorites.

This is the best book on popular astonomy that I have read in many years, perhaps ever. It is hard to imagine a more balanced, better organized and readable description of a thorny technical topic than is presented here. In the mini-biographies of astonomers for 2,500 years, one is reminded ot Richard Rhodes book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" in which he capsules 20th century science, Chemistry in particular. Hirshfeld provides interesting and often amusing thumbnail sketches of all the Parallax protagonists from Aristarchus to the present. His descriptions of Tycho Brahe, Galileo and Kepler are particularlly vivid. I had always read that Tycho had his nose bitten off in a drunken brawl, but, alas, not so! It was in a drunken duel.

The balance of the book is outstanding; each progression of understanding of the magnitude of the problem is presented with equal weight. The actual magnitude and dimensions of the problem (physically measuring the movement of a star from the exremes of the earths orbit) are described in bite sized increments, until by the time that the problem is surmounted in the mid 1800s, the full appreciation of the achievement is inescapable. If genius is "an infinite capacitiy for details", then the astronomers, and Dr. Hirshfeld both fully qualify for the title.

I am enthusiastically recommending this book to every literate person I know. It is satisfying and mind stretching, beautifully constructed, illustrated and edited. A great book!

John W. Campbell, editor of the sci-fi magazine "Analog" coined the term "future history" about the chain of characters and stories written by Robert A. Heinlein. It's a brilliant term, because Heinlein literally created a fictional history of an entire people, from Earth, to early space travel, to settling the moon, to moving out among the stars.

This book, astonishingly out of print, contains many of Heinlein's best short stories and novellas, filling in the gaps for his major novels such as "Time Enough for Love" and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."

Heinlein apparently kept a complicated character-and-time chart in his study. This book has a copy of the chart, plus the award-winning stories and short fiction.

Included here: "Methuselah's Children"--the beginning of the story of the Howard Families that is taken up in the sweeping novel "Time Enough for Love." You'll also find stories that explain the founding of Luna City, pioneering space travel, and the revolution against the theocracy begun by Nehemiah Scudder.

If you are a Heinlein fan, this is a great book to have--fills out the gaps in his complete works. If you aren't a Heinlein fan, start with "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" or "Starship Troopers" to find out how great Heinlein's science fiction is.

Robert Heinlein is best known for his novels like Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, Friday, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, etc. I list of his great novels being too long to list here.

But he started out writing short stories in Astounding Science fiction (later to be renamed Analog) for John W. Campbell, Jr. This book contains what is called Heinleins Future History stories. Many of his novels fit into this future history as well. But it all began with the short story "Life-line", which was first published in 1939. Is it a great story? By itself, we probably wouldn't call it a great story. But it was the first by RAH.

Follow-up short stories like "The Roads Must Roll", "Blowups Happen", "Requium", "The Great Hills of Earth", "The menace from Earth" and "Methuselahs Children" are all also included here. All great short stories set in the Future History.

This book does have a little overlap with Heinlien's later Expanded Universe collection, but it isn't a lot. Both are worth reading, and re-reading.

Heinlein was made the first Grand Master of SF by the Science Fiction writers of America. An honor that this book shows him to be well deserving of.

Highly recommended book.

I stumbled upon this book in my younger days when I was tearing through the Sci-Fi genre and I have repeatedly since then gone back to it. Unfortunately, I lost my copy in a move and have ever since scoured garage sales and bargain book stores in vain. It is probably the best collection of short stories and novellas ever gathered in binding. The way Heinlein tells a story is not only mesmerizing but kind of eerie in the way he is able to almost predict a future from so far back. The events and times may not be correct but his vision isn't far off. Aside from being a visionary, the characters in his stories are as real as anyone you know today. In Heinlein's futures people act exactly as they always have..greed, lust, murder, love, loss of love, etc. The magic that is Heinlein is that he allows us to see our flawed selves through his mid-20th century eyes. I highly recommend this book especially if you have never read any Heinlein. I warn you though when you start,(if you can find a copy), be prepared to lose sleep and possibly a few meals....YES, IT'S THAT GOOD!!!!!

My husband and I first moved to Izmir, Turkey in 1996 and we both read "Scotch and Holy Water". We were still living in a hotel and had not yet experienced the country and very little of the people. I laughed through the whole thing and couldn't wait to see the places he wrote about. I read it again about two years later, we were still there, and it was even better. I couldn't believe how true the book was. It was like he was writing our story. Even forty years later not much was different. We did not live on a military compound and ended up moving to a very small village outside the city. We are very adventurous people with little fear of what kind of trouble we may get into getting lost. And we were lost MANY times!!! Learning the language was very important to really enjoy it. The people are wounderful and warm. Everyday there was something new that would crack us up. They have a very different type of logic. We will go back again one day.

I highly recomend Scotch and Holy Water even if you have no interest in Turkey. It is a great Read. He did a great job of bring out the realness of the country and the everyday living of the people as Turks and foriegners.

When I met John D. (as his friends called him) at the Karamursel Air Force Base in 1964, he had already been in Turkey for 6 years and was quite familiar with Turkish way of life. Having studied Latin, French and German and taught speech at the University of Notre Dame, he learned Turkish quickly. His passion for archeology motivated him to travel extensively in Turkey and visit the many ancient Greek and Roman sites there. As a bachelor he engaged himself in night life where he met interesting people, experienced local customs and became an expert (Saki) in drinking RAKI. An empathetic character, John D. had the innate talent to get along with people. He was a perfect diplomat with a charming smile, intelligence, humility (rare in those days for an American in Turkey) and a scholarly knowledge about practically everything. As an expert bridge player with capacity to drink anyone under the table, he was very popular in social circles. My brief friendship with him ended in 1965 when I left Turkey for an assignment in Canada. As a Turk I loved the book. It was a joy to read it. Thanks to "Scotch and Holy Water" I learned more about ancient history, Greek and Roman mythology and places I have not yet visited in Turkey. My Scottish wife who has been to Turkey several times and is very knowledgeable about Turkish culture also loved it. John D's humor, wit and description of Turks and American alike were just hilarious. When I read about my former colleagues Yuksel Enginsu, Bertram Crane, Kemal Simsek and John Hicks, it evoked so many fond memories of my days in Turkey. More than anything else in this book, as in life, John D. illustrates his deep understanding and respect for Turks and their culture. Anyone who has any interest in or connection to Turkey should read his insightful book. I was deeply saddened to learn that John David Tumpane, a truly Renaissance Man, died in October 1997. Muharrem Sev (Istanbul native), still residing in Ottawa, Canada (Sep 3, 1999)

I am half american half turkish airforce military brat. I can vouch that the attitudes and ways in the book in the time it was written and even in general today are the turkish people.
It is a great way to understand the culture. I first read this book after finding it my fathers library when I was 18. I read it as almost his own stories from his stationing there earlier on.

SCTV is perhaps the best comedy television ever produced or written. If you are at all a fan of the show, you will love this book. Who can forget Johnny Larue, 5 Neat Guys, The Days of the Week, The Great White North, the Sammy Maudlin Show, Bobby and Skip Bittman, and the VJ (before there were VJ's) Gerry Todd. The satire is dead on. The show just nails TV; the horrible vision that was the variety hour shows of the 70's, the newsroom, the "sweeps week", and especially the commercials.

The book itself is a running commentary on the show, it's stars, the writers, and the various ways the show aired. The photos are perhaps the best feature (who can forget Carl's Cuts with the pig-men) or the fact that Rick Moranis does Woody Allen better than Woody. Dave and Rick really do Bob Hope and Woody Allen so well it is scary. The book runs in mostly chronological order, with input from the starts all along the way. However, some of the commentary is WAY behind the scenes, perhaps a bit too far back for the average fan.

Dave Thomas, the author, does an excellent job of capturing the egos, the infighting, and the creative styles of the shows writers and performers. People often forget just how much talent came out of this ensemble: John Candy, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara; all have had major roles in TV and movie comedy since their stint on SCTV.

The best features of this book: The photos and the quizzes at the end of each chapter. The worst feature: too much information on the writers and producers behind the scenes and not enough info on what went in front of the cameras.

Overall, I recommend highly as a great look at the best comedy shows ever made.

This is like a sort of holy grail for SCTV fans. Tons of background information on how the cast(s) met and how they came together to create this unforgettable series. One of the things I liked about this book was how the writing process went for these people. It talks about how they got along with management and how passionate they were about getting their ideas on air. It also tells us what some of the highlights were for various cast members, but also some of the bad times. For instance, I didn't know how much tension there was among these people when Bob and Doug MacKenzie became stars. Even Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis were bothered by it, because they felt that those Great White North skits were not nearly the best things being produced on the show. It's also nice to see how things progressed over the years and how their outlooks on what they were producing changed. Just watch any first season episode and then one from a few years later and you will see what I mean. All in all, this is a very good read and is an ABSOLUTE MUST OWN for any fan of the show. You will definitely not be disappointed!

For years, I'd been waiting for some kind of compendium of SCTV trivia or a chronology of shows, and when this book came out, I had to buy it.

It's missing commentary from a few of the principal cast members, but overall, well worth the investment. The insight into that one episode with Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Gielgud alone is worth it, and it's got a well-balanced view of the show from the producers, to the cast, to the production department, make-up artists, etc.

It's a tragedy that this brilliant show hasn't been put on DVD just yet, but it will. SCTV was far more irreverent than SNL, and much cleverer than Monty-Python, not to mention more prolific. Until then, pick this up as an SCTV primer.

I've just finished reading Bill Madden's Pride of October. I couldn't put it down. When it is all said and done, this may be the best book on the Yankees--ever. This is a refreshing departure from typical baseball books, which are seldom more than protracted research papers. Madden visits Don Mattingly at his horse farm in Indiana, takes a tour with Whitey Ford of Whitey's old neighborhood in Queens, spends several days in South Carolina with Bobby Richardson, and finds the oldest living Yankee, Marius Russo, in Fort Myers, Florida (the Yankees didn't even know where he was!). Thanks, Mr. Madden, for the most honest, compelling and entertaining portrait of Yankee players I've ever read.

As a Yankee fan, did you ever wish you could just sit down with your heroes and ask them some interesting questions about themselves and their time with the Yankees? Well, in his book, Pride of October: What It Was Like To Be Young And A Yankee, Bill Madden makes our wishes come true. In a book that's as entertaining as the players and team it covers, Madden brings back so many memories of our past heroes.

For me, the book really hit home, when Madden sat down and talked with Bobby Murcer, who was a hero of mine as a youngster. In that chapter, Madden, through Murcer's words, tells the story of how disappointed Bobby was when he was traded from the Yankees after the 1974 season. When I read the passages, it brought me back to when I was fourteen years old and was crushed when I found out my favorite player was traded. Now, almost thirty years later, I realized Murcer was as devastated as I was.

Through Murcer, Lou Piniella, and Reggie Jackson, Madden also captures the very emotional days after the tragic death of Thurman Munson. Yankee fans who remember those sad days of August 1979, will have the strong emotions brought back when they read the words of Munson's former mates.

The book has many interesting tidbits about some very famous Yankees. For example, when talking to Phil Rizzuto, Madden, explains to us why Phil was and still is so scared of lightning. Yankee fans fondly recall how the "Scooter" would "bolt" from the booth as soon as he saw lightning. Well, when you read the book you'll find out why. You will also read how the events of September 11th, affected Phil's life.

An early chapter in the book deals with former Yankee pitcher, Marius Russo. Though I've been a die hard fan for over thirty years, I frankly never heard of Russo. Madden's chapter on Russo was special because Russo was a teammate of Lou Gehrig and the former Yankee pitcher tells how sad it was to see Gehrig suffer with ALS.

As a Yankee fan since 1967, I not only enjoyed the book, but also appreciated the fact that Bill Madden gave me a chance to "talk" to my heroes.

Baseball is a game of stories, and Bill Madden has transversed the United States to garner tales from a unique group of alumni, those who played for the New York Yankees through the twentieth century. The title is something of a misnomer. Some of Madden's subjects were never young Yankees. Reggie Jackson cut his teeth in Oakland, Lou Piniella caught fire in Kansas City, and Paul O'Neill even won a World Series ring in Cincinnati in 1990 before arriving at the East Coast. And even with the Yankee "lifers" interviewed for this work, many of the best remembered stories are about established ball players and their antics in their prime. Whitey, Mickey, Billy and Hank were hardly kids the night the Yanks trashed the Copa in 1957-in fact, it was Billy's 29th birthday that sparked the occasion. Yet this tale appears-more than once-among the multitude of memories along this nostalgic trail.

There are some interviews that actually do shed new light on Yankee history-or hagiography, if you will. Marius Russo's inclusion among Madden's subjects is fortuitous. One of the team's lesser known talents over the years, Russo, a left handed pitcher who joined the Yanks in 1938, was included in this work as one of the last living connections to the Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig. Russo sheds light on a remarkable Yankee pitching staff of 1939 remembered both for its depth and its sabermetrics. Seven starters finished the season with double figure wins: Ruffing [21-7], Hadley [12-6], Pearson [12-5], Gomez [12-8], Donald [13-3], Sundra [11-1], and Hildebrand [10-4]. Russo, added to the rotation late in the season [why?], went 8-3, including a 7-0 stretch in September. Russo would never win more than 14 games in any of his six Yankee seasons, but one of his most poignant memories involved fallout from the demise of Gehrig. When the Yankee team fell to fifth place in 1940, columnist Jimmy Powers of the New York Daily News reported that the entire team had been infected by Gehrig's "polio," as his affliction was then diagnosed. The report shook baseball and resulted in a $1 million lawsuit against the writer.

Another lesser-known Yankee interviewee was the observant bench jockey and reserve catcher Charlie Silvera, whose entire nine years of backing up Berra, Houk, and Howard produced only 429 at bats. Silvera recalls an obscure but impressive Casey Stengel accomplishment: winning five successive World Series with a depleted roster. The Yankees, under the rules of the day, carried two or three prospects who never made the team but counted against the 25-man roster. Silvera's recollections also highlight one of the secrets of the Yankee dynasty: a network of astute West Coast scouts who steered reports of promising young prospects to the East Coast Yankee front office that took such reporting seriously. Silvera as much as anyone recounts the awe that most players since 1920 have felt about donning the Yankee pinstripes. Silvera and others-including many of the household names--are as proud of their being Yankees as their personal stats as Yankees. In a year where Silvera, for example, did not get his first at bat until June 17 [1949], he still won his first of five consecutive World Series rings.

As all of the interviewed players wore Yankee pinstripes, it is hard at times to separate the individuals from the history of the team itself. And one era that Madden treats with considerable detail is the post 1964 Yankee decline. Some of the best interviews come from Yankees who played or managed through that ten year era: Yogi, Ralph Houk, Mel Stottlemyre, Joe Pepitone, Bobby Richardson, Ron Blomberg, and Bobby Murcer. There are many theories of the fall of the Roman Empire, nearly as many as to the decline of the Yankees in those years. The author and the players named above are in fair agreement that poor front office management [trading Roger Maris to St. Louis, for example], the failure of certain Yankee veterans to obey "one of their own," Yogi Berra, as manager, the free agent draft, the decline of the farm teams, and parity. One other applicable statistic: I looked up the 1965 Yankee roster, and discovered exactly one African-American in the starting lineup, Elston Howard [whose widow Arlene is the only non-player interviewed for this work], and one black pitcher on the staff, Al Downing.

As an interviewer Bill Madden is more Eddie Lopat than Vic Raschi. The questions arrive to the plate with a gentle thud in the catcher's mitt or get obscured in the dust in front of home plate. Madden has no problem getting his subjects to cry, but he is averse to making them squirm. Thus the free pass to Whitey "Slick" Ford, whose nickname comes from the old expression "city-slicker." Whitey's description of himself as a "professional drinker" in his playing days says nothing and says everything. It is no surprise he does not like to talk about Mickey and Billy, and Madden does not press.

But perhaps we should not be surprised that Madden is no Bob Woodward where investigative reporting is concerned. The author has covered the Yankees for a quarter century. I hardly think he would endanger the source of his bread and butter. It is in his vested interest in continue the legend, and he does this in a warm and congenial way. And we always have Jim Bouton for the hardball accounts.

PLUNKITT OF TAMMANY HALL translates remarkably well a century after William Riordon transcribed the wit and wisdom of the ward healer for whom the book was titled. The context of Plunkitt's stories has changed, but his essential messages have remained.

On a case by case basis, Plunkitt's adages care a certain amount of wisdom. His insights into how politics works - personal connection and service delivery trump issues and oratory - are especially poignant. Yet the reader of a hundred years ago and the reader of today realize that they are reading the philosophy of a rouge. Plunkitt's distinction between "Honest graft" and "dishonest graft" explains more his mindset than justifies his, and his ilk's, corruption. His rants against the civil service system make sense only up to the point of understanding that his preferred alternative is a spoils system that has little to do with public service.

Plunkitt speaks across time to two very relevant modern phenomena: voter apathy and corruption in politics. Although Plunkitt himself senses the beginnings of voter apathy, he would be shocked at the lack of interest today, especially amongst those in most need of a friendly government. But Plunkitt too would be able to recognize the cause - voter's of Plunkitt's day knew directly how their vote would affect their futures. Voting the right way might mean a job, or food, or some other service that would not otherwise be available. As government assistance has become fairer and more equitable, that direct connection has diminished.

As politics in Plunkitt's time was obviously far more corrupt than politics today, that condition too put the lie to the notion that dishonesty in politics is a new thing that has bred cynicism and thus a decline of civic participation. Its an interesting notion that could hardly be conveyed better than through this little book from the past.

I originally read this book in undergraduate school as Political Science major, and had to go back and find a copy because of the profound affect it had on my psyche. George Washington Plunkitt was a "stereotypical" politician. You know, the one who says what he needs to say to get elected; but once there does what's necessary for his party.

Comparing his comments to the actions of present day politicians, I don't think there are many differences. Everyone does a little grafting and civil servants are still "civil servants." Understood?

As with any politician, Plunkitt "seen (his) opportunities and (he) took 'em." This is a must for anyone interested in any realm of politics.

In history's rear view mirror, George Washington Plunkitt appears to be just another guy in a long line of corrupt politicians. There's no denying that he was corrupt, but as William Riordon recounts, Plunkitt honestly believed that he was not doing the public any harm. In fact, he believed that there was such a thing as honest graft, a sort of victimless crime. Certainly this was a self-serving philosophy, but there is a sincerity in his discourses that defies any trace of hypocrisy.

His belief that Tammany Hall was a benevolent organization that served the poor and needy put a bemused smile on my face. After all, Plunkitt doesn't see or doesn't admit to seeing that the robbing of public funds through honest or dishonest graft is what contributed to the social problems, like unemployment, poverty and crime, which for the most part put the needy and poor in their predicament in the first place. But he absolves himself from his actions by his now-famous defense, "I seen my opportunities and I took 'em." And this is what makes Plunkitt such a congenial and magnetic man, what makes him so damned likeable. You KNOW he's a thief, you KNOW he contributed to the misery of thousands. Yet his playful, plain-speaking style, his candidness about his activities, his wit, and, at times, his goofiness, make him different from other Tammany leaders like Boss Tweed, say, or Charlie Murphy. He's more in line with Big Tim Sullivan or James J. Walker.

George Washington Plunkitt was a charmer, no doubt about it. William Riordon was obviously under his spell. And the Johnson/Boswell comparison is very valid. It is difficult to maintain the utter contempt one should have for this thief. And yet... I would have loved to have had drunk with him at Hoffmann's bar and let him speak on for hours. Like Riordon, I think I would have been hypnotized too.

NB--Peter Quinn's brilliant Introduction serves the book well.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points