history

This is one of my favorite "coffee table" books. To begin with, it's huge. The cover is an outstanding photo of the breathtaking Neuschwanstein (there's an even better one on page 96). The first few chapters give an illustrated (via hand drawings as well as awesome photos) history of the castle, its many functions, and its evolution. Chapters 3 through 6 focus on the castles of Great Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Crusader Regions. The last chapter details more modern castles, walled towns, and palaces; with even more focus on the castle's architectural evolution. Included here among others are the Casa Loma (North America's largest), the Hearst Castle in San Simeon, even the Cinderella Castle at Disney World. If you're a fan of history, architecture, and/or photography, you will not be disapointed with this book.

A marvelous work that actually covers all the aspects of the medieval castle, instead of restating the common facts found in every history text book. Castles and Fortresses in clearly written and the text is supported with glorious photographs and diagrams. An absolute-must have for anyone researching or just interested in the subject. Accept no substitutes.

This is a wonderful and beautiful book that shows off the medieval castles we always dreamed about as children. The variety of castles, all shown in beatiful color photographs, present to the reader the various architectures and designs from different countries in Europe, and short written commentary give this book a five star rating. You can enjoy this book if you are in the age range of 3 to 103. This is the best photo book out there that shows off the medieval castles and fortresses of old.

This is the best book on Latin America I've ever read--it is extremely accessible for people who know nothing about Latin America, and for those who do, it is a major contribution to our understanding of the region. Rosenberg's vinnettes and explanations of the violence seemingly endemic to Latin America are brilliantly written and compelling. She captures the essense of the countries she writes about, and deftly explains their histories so that we understand the reasons for the violence. We can no longer just hear about the violence plaging Latin America and see it as irrational, wondering where it came from. Wonderful portraits of the perpetrators of violence, marking Rosenberg as different from the throngs of writers--journalists and others--who have focused on the victims of violence, on the corpses and grewsome stories. More attention needs to be given to the perpetrators and also those who live with such violence, who watch it and become numb to it, including ourselves. A major contribution to Latin American studies and the study of violence.

Not only has Ms. Rosenburg done a spectacular gob in writing an extremely readable book, she provides her audience vivid decriptions using a very personal approach that employs the use of specific people, their experiences and dilemmas. She also provides her audience with the neccessary historical and enviromental (social, politial and economic) information to put these personal and organizational accouts into the cotexts neccessary for reader to truely appriecate the psychology of the forces driving these extaordinary historical events.

Moreover, Ms. Rosenburg provides the reader with six different cases from six differnet countries. From Escobar's Medellin to Argentina's "Dirty War", she examines and analyzes different types of violence motivated by unique sets of circumstances.

I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN; A MUST READ FOR ANYONE INTERESTED IN LATIN AMERICA!

This is the second book by Tina Rosenberg I have read. The first one was Haunted Land about Eastern Europe after the fall of communism, which I also highly recommend. I'm so pleased with Rosenberg's style that I'm after her book on South Africa as well.

For almost a decade Rosenberg traveled through Latin America not shying away from really messy situations trying to make sense of a history of violence and very little respect for human rights. Tina experienced many of the situations herself such as being soaked with diluted acid by the police in the streets of Santiago, Chile, during marches against Pinochet or taking a nightmarish truck bed trip through guerrilla infested Peru. The Latin American economic, political and military elites also had their points of view captured by Rosenberg resulting, as far as I can tell, in a very well balanced collection of personal perspectives on the problem - violence in Latin America - intermingled with background historical information.

Rosenberg is very competent in summarizing the recent history and the roots of violence in Latin America. The author brings the historical review to life by interviewing perpetrators and victims. Violence in Latin America as viewed by Rosenberg emanates from a history of inequality. The native populations and the unwillingly imported black slaves and their descendants have been for five centuries exploited and victimized by greedy white Europeans. The resulting instable societies in turn fall prey of guerrilla groups, organized crime, drug lords, or the old fashioned military economic and political elites. The victimized population looses faith in the state and became passive or takes matters on their own hands solving social problems or even threatening or overthrowing governments. To tip the balance back the oligarchies can inevitably count on the CIA for supposedly counter insurgency help.

It's a chilling book with no solution on sight and Rosenberg didn't even include some remarkable facets of violence in Latin America such as domestic violence in a notably sexist society and the petit and not so petit common crime. Colombia is the first market worldwide for bulletproof cars - Brazil is the second.

It's an important book mainly for American readers since it shows the impact of American interference. Sadly it offers no solution - maybe there isn't.

Leonardo Alves - Tucson, Arizona - June 2002

LO QUE PENSE QUE NO ME INTERESABA SABER SOBRE EL BOX Y SUS CAMPEONES...

PERO ME CAUTIVO Y LO LEI HASTA EL FINAL !
AHORA SI PUEDO DISCUTIR DE BOX CON MI ESPOSO Y MIS CUÑADOS...¡Y HASTA CON MI SUEGRO, QUE ES EX BOXEADOR !

LE FASCINA... Y creo que es el caso con la mayoría de nosotras, las mujeres.
Lo que quiero decirles es que él compró el libro Y YO LO LEÍ ¡Y ME FASCINÓ!
Eso no quiere decir que vaya a gustarme el boxeo, pero ahora comprendo mejor la pasión de mi marido... Y AUNQUE NO TE GUSTE EL BOX, AMIGA, PARA TU ESPOSO SERÁ UN GRAN REGALO y a ti te 'fascinará la lucha física y emocional de todos estos campeones...

Los mejores campeones, sus victorias, sus sacrificios...
FABULOSO !

Good book, parts of the book are enthralling and vivid. Overall not up to 5 stars, however.

Black Edelweiss is a rare example of a personal WWII memoir written soon after the events (most of the draft was written while the author was a POW during 1945-46) with the emotional and historical breadth of a book written from a much greater distance of time and utilizing a variety of non-personal references. Johann Voss (a pseudonym) has put his life in the SS-Mountain Infantry Regiment 11 (given the name 'Reinhard Heydrich' in 1942) to paper in a way that the reader can truly assess the actions of a single soldier, his immediate platoon members and larger Regimental force rationally without the baggage of bias. This is not to say that the author has created a typical post-war apologetic piece that draws empathy/sympathy from the reader. Rather, Voss draws the reader along in an honest forthright story of his experiences as a loyal soldier within a larger group of comrades who, although fighting for the Hitler regime, did so with heart and passion for comrades, unit and country, but with clear chivalry (or at least as much as can fairly be expected in war) and battle fairness. It is the very nature of when this book was drafted (and little changed by the author later although published 60 odd years after being drafted) ' while the author was still feeling connection to and pride of unit ' that makes this NOT a typical Nazi apologia book. The book was however written at a time when the author was learning (second hand) about the atrocities of the Nazi regime and the SS structure more particularly, and as such the author is able to place his military experiences in perspective of the regime he served. This creates both an honest look at combat and the emotions invoked upon finding for what and whom he and friends served and died for. Emotion is raw and real in this book.

Voss starts and ends the book in third person from the POW pen, but in between weaves an engrossing story of how a young impressionable German is compelled to join an elite SS-Mountain Regiment; how this decision positively affects his life; how he survives the cold and combat of service above the Artic circle, in the Vosges Mountains, and the last days of the western Reich frontier; and how his earlier decision to join this elite group of men affected his life upon realization that his combat unit has been wholesale lumped with the SS of the Endlösung. The stories of regiment combat are visceral in content and quite rewarding. One can feel the cold, stress, fear and adrenalin of the situations.

I highly recommend this book if you want a clear and apparently unembellished, time-unbiased picture of a German combat unit in action. If you want to double your pleasure read Black Edelweiss back-to-back with another Aberjona Press production, Seven Days in January by Wolf Zoepf. This latter book deals exclusively with the SS Nord Division and it's combat both above the Artic Circle and the Lower Vosges and is pitched more from the pure combat history perspective.

As noted in the other reviews, this is one of the best war memoirs around, perhaps the best German memoir of WWII. Unlike so many other accounts written only years after the fact, Black Edelweiss was penned within the first years after the war and not originally meant for publication. I suspect the author, with a strong sense of family, wanted to have something to present to his decedents, something that he had completed as a young man still with the full emotion and confusion of the initial bewildering and catastrophic events that were the fate of his generation.

This memoir is interesting on a variety of levels. One is the account of mountain infantry training the author received as a young volunteer for the Waffen SS. Far from politically indoctrinated fanatics, we see an elite military organization preparing men for combat in modern war. I suspect that the emphasis on political and racial indoctrination was more a product of the pre-war years, when the Waffen SS was seen as a force against potential enemies within the Reich, not after say 1941 when large numbers of new replacements were needed to man an expanding number of divisions fighting in foreign theaters of operations. That and the fact that many foreign volunteers, some from ethnic groups lower on the SS pecking order, where filling the ranks of these formations as well. The emphasis went from "elite order of racial Uebermenschen" to "cadre of the common European struggle against Bolshevism". This latter attitude is mentioned by the author numerous times and obviously was one of his main reasons for joining the organization.

On another level is the sociological perspective of various views common among Germans during 1941-3. He sees his own class in school as divided between the idealists and the pragmatists. Some, like the author, saw the war as a personal challenge and were eager to commit themselves, while others saw it as the business of others and hoped to survive the chaos as best as possible, which is hardly the usual view we have of German youth of that time. Interesting in that the author shows us how universal this conflict of views is. One need only think of the attitudes of the generation of young Americans confronted with the Vietnam War and how they reacted, although in some cases in later life only to adopt the opposite view when it no longer required a personal commitment.

So some of us can respect the author's decision to serve his country as a soldier in wartime. But the branch he chose to serve with was the Waffen SS, part of the larger SS, which was to be branded a criminal organization by the Allied courts due to their administration of the Holocaust among other crimes. The author admits the crimes and the guilt of the SS (he found out about the death camps and other atrocities as a POW after the war), but can't condemn all his comrades, most of whom are dead, as criminals in serving a cause which they believed in, which the author never thinks included common knowledge of the criminal character of the SS. It is a quandary for which the author never finds an answer, perhaps because no answer is possible. That the author saw the Nazis as having perverted all the values that his generation had believed in, of destroying his country in a senseless war while pursuing the most inhuman crimes imaginable is tempered by the fact that he doesn't see the defeat of Germany as a liberation. . . See page 133.

The mistake was in not overthrowing the criminal regime themselves, which was a "disgrace", but in having to have their enemies do it for them. Furthermore, the final outcome of the National Socialist swindle was not inevitable, "All the same one lesson is clear: never again must there be any public authority without active popular control". Page 71.

There are others points the author mentions as well such as the belief common in Germany after the First World War that a new movement which would do away with the old distinctions of class and status, create a Volksgemeinschaft, was necessary for national rebirth. Also of special note are his interesting and gratifying comments concerning US troops in action and his description of Operation Birke, the German evacuation of their Lapland Army from Finland to Norway in the fall of 1944, an arduous trek of over 1600 kilometers conducted in good order under pressure from both the Red Army and later the German's former allies, the Finns. I doubt that this unique military achievement of the Lapland Army will ever be repeated.

This book should be of interest to all readers interested in the Eastern Front in World War II, particularly since it is one of the few accounts available of fighting on the Karelian sector, those interested in the history of the Waffen SS or those interested in a sociological perspective of Germany during World War II.

I am impressed with the stories in this book. First and foremost, there is Mr Bill Graham. Surviving the Holocaust, arriving in the US with less than nothing he was to become not only a successful entrepreneur, but also an icon. He is the promotor who developed the stadium concert format in the late sixties and early seventies. In addition to his own story, there are the stories of the bands who have become household names. If a rock band toured the US, Mr Graham was probably involved, especially if they played in either New York or San Francisco. This book is chock full of stories which make many a rock idol much more human. Unfortunately, it also reveals some of them as "scum buckets". If you are interested in a real-life, rags to riches story, or in popular music, this book will be interesting to you.

As a former roadie, this book gives a very accurate depiction of what it was like in the last 20-30 years in the concert tour industry. My experience comes firsthand, as well through the lore that is passed down from seasoned veterans. Bill Graham was an inspiring, hard-headed, revolutionary and daring character that made the concert experience what it is today, both for punters and roadies.

A must read for rock or any music fans.

'My Life Inside Rock and Out' is a very interesting account of the great rock'n'roll impresario Bill Graham, documenting his rough beginnings from the East Coast to San Francisco, where he really settled in to sink his teeth into putting on some amazing shows such as Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, the Doors, etc. Bill Graham was perfect for the budding psychedelic rock and blues industry because he had a strong business sense but also a tolerance for the absurd- and you will read more than a few absurd accounts in this book. What Mr. Graham did with BGP, the Fillmore, and the Shoreline, to name but a few, was so enriching to the Bay Area musical community, not to mention he also put on shows in the far reaches of the world. He was an agent/producer before things became so commercialized and calculated, and his tragic death struck a very deep and elegaic chord which still now resonates off the walls of corporate-sanitized America. But I Ratmouse will NEVER forget him.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advanced copy of this stunning pictorial tribute to Buster Keaton written by his widow Eleanor Keaton and film historian Jeffrey Vance. Page after page of photos I've never seen before (one of the highlights being a series of pictures of Chaplin and Keaton rehearsing their routine in LIMELIGHT!). I have nearly all the books published in English on Keaton and I've found at least 50 great photos in this book I've never seen before. Rudi Blesh's KEATON used to be my favorite Buster book, now it's Eleanor Keaton's BUSTER KEATON REMEMBERED. I was expecting more text -- I thought it was going to be a biography -- but it is actually an illustrated survey of his life and films. However, the text that the book has is beautifully written. Some of Jeffrey Vance's introduction is worthy of James Agee or Walter Kerr.

The book has a substantial Afterword by silent film historian Kevin Brownlow but why it was placed in the back of the book and not as a Foreword baffles me.

Although I never got to meet Eleanor Keaton in person I'm very glad she was able to write this book before she passed away. Who better to sum up Buster best in book form than his wife Eleanor Keaton?

Just when you thought you had read everything about the Great Stone Face, along comes this remarkable book. "Buster Keaton Remembered" is a revelation -- featuring a treasure trove of never-before-seen photographs and a thoughtful text by Keaton's widow, Eleanor (who, sadly, died before the book's publication). The closing comments by film historian Kevin Brownlow are a nice touch. In all, an affectionate and fitting tribute to a serio-comic genius.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Being a fan of Buster, I've read numerous bios, ranging from mediocre to all out hatchet jobs. Students of the "Great Stone Face" will learn a lot, I certainly did. The photographs alone are worth the price of the book, epsecially the "stills" from THE GENERAL, STEAMBOAT BILL JR. and ONE WEEK. Keaton always seems to take the proverbial "back-seat" to Chaplin, but Buster was the better comic, by FAR!!! And, as an added bonus, you can see how Buster and Eleanor made the "pork-pie hats" worn in so many of Keaton's films.

As the author points out, the series of naval battles fought in late October, 1945, collectively termed the Battle of Leyte Gulf, was the largest naval battle ever fought - in terms of men and ships involved. Although by that point in the war, the question was not if Japan was to be defeated but when and at what cost (the cost was high and would have been staggering if the atomic bomb attacks had not finally convinced Hirohito to accept the terms of the Potsdam ultimatum). From before Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Combined Fleet had been seeking the "decisive battle" at sea, where they would once and for all achieve naval superiority over the Allies (the U.S., actually, since Britain's naval efforts were quickly rendered inconsequential in the Pacific days into the war). At Leyte Gulf, the Japanese sallied forth - in their typically overly complex, arrogant, disconnected fashion - to destroy the American landing forces off Leyte - and turn back the flooding tide of the American advance. What actually happened, in a complex series of maneuvers and actions - involving tactical and strategic mistakes on both sides - resulted in a resounding American victory and the final destruction of the Japanese Combined Fleet. The Japanese would never again venture forth to meet American ships at sea - save the Yamato's desperate suicide run during the first week of the Battle of Okinawa. Cutler's account is well researched and is commendable in explaining complex events and evaluating tactical and strategic decisions - even if his writing style is not quite up to the dramatic content. Cutler rightly emphasizes the heroic actions of the Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts off Samar in attempting to fend off the vastly superior Japanese force under Kurita - which, through tactical and communications errors by "Bull" Halsey - had achieved position to destroy covering escort carrier task forces and the American landing fleet off Leyte (fortunately for the U.S., Kurita made the mistake of breaking off his attack on the verge of success). The Battle of Leyte Gulf is little known among the American public and the action by these "small Navy" sailors of "Taffy 3" should be memorialzed as a profile of courage. They exhibited the type of courage Japan - in their arrogance - was convinced the U. S. did not possess when they made their decision to precipitate a war with the "sleeping giant". What sweet revenge it must have been for USS West Virginia, survivor of the cowardly attack on Pearl Harbor, when her radar directed big guns rained destruction on the Japanese force under Kirishima at Surigao Strait. This is the definitive account of a decisive engagement of the war in the Pacific.and perhaps last great naval battle the world will ever see.

This is a fine work by Thomas Cutler that explains in great detail the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The explanation of Japanese and American ship positions and information from sailors who were actually in this battle make this a very special book. This book highlights the real strength of the U.S Navy at this point in time. That is, the core values of the U.S. Navy, honor, courage, and commitment. While the U.S. destroyers Hoel, Johnston, and Samuel B. Roberts were sinking many acts of bravery were witnissed. To a man, they never let their shipmates down. That is the highest compliment one navy man can give to another. Thomas Cutler also explains some of the reasoning for the japanese withdrawl when complete victory was at hand for them. A must book to read for anyone interested in the U.S Navy and to learn more about a very special type of bravery that is only present in the U.S. Navy.

My only complaint is the book is too short. A battle of this magnitude would benefit from a little more detail.

I dont know about you but when I heard that Spider-man was coming to theaters I went crazy. But I wasent about to wait that long to get a little bet of info on the movie so I got this book it tells you just the right amount of info without spoiling the movie I suggest you get this book!!!!!
SPIDER-MAN SPIDER-MAN DOES WHATEVER A SPIDER CAN!

BEHIND THE MASK OF SPIDER-MAN by: Mark Cotta Vaz is one of the best "making of" movie books I have ever read. Fair warning though, this book is so thorough that if you have not already seen Spider-Man then DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! Upon viewing some of the great color photos and reading the indepth information, you'll be completely robbed of any true movie surprises.

With that said...

In 205 pages, Vaz manages to provide tons of background on the characters, history, and production stages of Spider-Man. You'll find everything from pictures of original comic page art to step-by-step photos on the various concept sketches of both Spider-Man and the Green Goblin (Goblin in particuar is all over the place in the various designs). Vaz clearly did his homework as there are numerous interviews and sound bytes from everyone from Stan Lee to Sam Raimi to Willem Dafoe to producers, stunt people, and FX coordinators.

Rarely do "Behind the Scenes" books read as fast and as enjoyable as this one. Now granted, I am a HUGE Spider-Man fan, but I believe that anyone who enjoyed the movie will find lots of insight to be gained from this informative and entertaining book.

This is a beautiful and very informative book; I was very pleased with it. I really enjoyed all the behind-the-scenes pictures and the addition of the script is an added bonus.

If you're a Spider-Fan, you need this one. You will not be disappointed.

This was definitely a good read, no doubt about it. I'm sort of surprised that other people say it gives insight into the daily lives of the indians though, because I didn't get that at all. More what I got was insights into the way indians generally treated their captives (the ones who ran away and told their stories) and the way things were seen and the life of the settlers maybe (only by how they told the story). The book is all firsthand accounts from escaped captives and is sometimes gruesome but always very interesting. People back then knew how to tell stories.

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An amazing amount of material on the wildlife of North America and, the "wild" lives of American Indians and captured settlers.

The book includes firsthand accounts of Indian life, gruesome conflicts, brutal torture, spectacular escapes, and spirited pursuits. The Indians killed, tortured, and sometimes adopted white settlers. Some were made into slaves, some fully adopted as family members, and other slated for, and escaped sure death.

I was particularly facinated by descriptions of the wildlife. The size and age of trees. The abundance of wild animals--particularly the bears.

I've read this book twice and found every story interesting.

Not often do we get glimses of the past through ordinary people, placed in extra-ordinary situations. Many of these people could not read or write but told their stories which were dutifully recorded. The feeling of authenticity of the stories is strong.

Everyone should read this book to fully understand the capabilites of humans, both in brutality and in kindness and understanding.

An unforgettable book.

This is a short collection of some of the most famous Indian captivity narratives written during the late 18th and 19th centuries when warfare raged between white settlers and the native Indian inhabitants of North America. These narratives are not only interesting and entertaining as drama, but are invaluable to historians and ethnographers as they provide some of the best first-hand accounts of life among the native tribes of the United States at a time when they were being wiped out by white expansion.

These narratives show what life was like as an Indian, including all the blood and horror as well as the genuine kindness and devotion inherent in any human society. You will note that many captivity accounts were in many ways positive experiences for the captives who were adopted into a tribe and treated with the love and respect they would accord any of their own people. Such is the case with men like James Smith who spent five years living with the Ohio Indians along Lake Erie. These tales were popular in their own time for providing an entertaining escape for people who were both fearful yet fascinated by the Indians and their "savage" ways. From these accounts we learn much about Indian lifeways, food, culture, and religion. We also learn of the cruel barbarities that the Indians could inflict on their enemies, as we see in the tale of Dr. John Knight who witnessed the horrific torture and death of Col. William Crawford in 1782, or the daring escape of John Slover, who had spent many years among the Shawnee and Wyandot as a captive and who later escaped and returned to wage war against his former captors, only to be retaken after the Battle of Sandusky. A slow and terrible death awaited any escaped captive who fell back into Indian hands. But what is really interesting is the number of captives who spent many years living, happily in many cases, with the Indians, showing that they were not the totally savage heathens protrayed in many boosk and movies, but a society of human beings who could love and hate as equally as any other.

This is a valuble introduction to a fascinating genere of litereature and is an important part of history that should not be overlooked. To anyone interested in delving deeper into this subject I would also recommend checking out Archibald Loudon's "Indian Narratives" as well as "A History of Jonathan Alder".

This was a great read. Very well-written. It covered more than any other film book. I especially liked the exploitation stuff and how it mixed with art films: the yin and yang of indie cinema.

This is the best book ever written on independent film. I wish I could give it move than 5 stars, because Celluloid Mavericks is a pure pleasure to read: witty, informative and always extremely entertaining. No other book comes close to its breadth and detail, especially in regards to the previously uncharted territory between 1896 and 1960. This is my all-time favorite film book, well deserving of its many raves reviews.

This book blew me away. I love the way it covers the whole spectrum of indie film, not just "art" but "exploitation" as well. The story of how these films came to be against great odds makes for great reading. I learned something knew on every page. Highly recommended for fans of non-Hollywood films.