Product Description
This book is unique in its exclusive and comprehensive focus on the management of public funds. The book emphasizes defining terms, framing concepts, and examines common controversies in the field.The authors begin with a broad introduction to public finance administration. They then cover topics such as: revenue and expenditure; managing cash flow; capital budgets; and the financial components of human resource management. With its unique focus on the management of public funds, the book fills a need for courses in public finance administration by providing a public administration-based approach. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Review
I was intially a little concerned when I paid for a 2-day shipping upgrade and the estimated delivery date was 2 weeks.But, my fears dissolved when it arrived before I needed it - and in better condition than expected!The book itself is a great introduction to anyone interested in public finance administration.Highly recommended!

Fast delivery
I was very happy with the fast delivery and the condition of the book was very good.

Perfect
This is a perfect book, in great condition. Thanks for the speediness in sending the book.

Making Finance Make Sense
Most material dealing with public finance or budgeting delivers more drudgery than useful information.Reed and Swain cut through buzz words and cliches--their writng provides detailed explanation without confusingthe reader, offering a better understanding of how money moves in thepublic sector.I definitely recommend starting with this book before yougo anywhere else. ... Read more

Product Description

This new collection in the Southern Foodways Alliance's popular series serves up a fifty-three-course celebration of southern foods, southern cooking, and the people and traditions behind them. Editors Dale Volberg Reed and John Shelton Reed have combed magazines, newspapers, books, and journals to bring us a "best of" gathering that is certain to satisfy everyone from omnivorous chowhounds to the most discerning student of regional foodways.

Customer Reviews (2)

Cornbread Nation ... I ate it up!
Being Southern, I enjoy reading stories and accounts of the Southern experience ... especially as it relates to food.CornbreadNation Vol. IV (with an emphasis on Louisiana foods) is a delightful compilation of food stories from and about the South.I recommend it to non-Southerners as well so they can come to know us beyond the stereotypical "hillbilly" image.

This Yankee loves Southern cooking
The Southern Foodways Alliance was founded to celebrate, teach, preserve, and promote the food cultures of the American South.Cornbread Nation 4: The Best of Southern Food Writing is a collection of stories, poems, and essays about the foodways of the mountain South. It is one of a continuing series which includes Cornbread Nation 1: The Best of Southern Food Writing, Cornbread Nation 2: The United States of Barbecue, and Cornbread Nation 3: Foods of the Mountain South. Don't set your calendar by their appearance (four have appeared in six years), but each edition will whet you appetite and your sense of adventure.

The editors have taken these offerings from symposiums held by the Southern Foodways Alliance and newspapers, magazines, journals, and books. Like its predecessors, the book is something of a homemade quilt, with contents of varying levels of content.

The opening essay is from the wonderful Edna Lewis and sets a very high standard. She writes of her love for the wonders of spring: baby calves, pigs and lambs; a breakfast of shad, skillet potatoes, and batter bread; wild greens and lettuce salads; wild strawberries and cream. If this book does nothing else, gaining an introduction to Edna Lewis is worth the full purchase price.

There's an order of sorts based on themes, but I enjoyed jumping around more. Highlights include:

The history of Tabasco--invented in Louisiana after the Civil War.

Boudin (sausage made of pork, rice and gravy) accompanied by coffee "black as Louisiana sweet crude oil".

Rick Brooks on ordinary people seeking family recipes lost in the floodwaters of Katrina, recipes for bread pudding, sweet-potato casserole, jambalaya, and doberge cake, an eight-layer yellow cake, filled with dark-chocolate frosting and encased in chocolate ganache.

The Colleton family of South Carolina and their dinner for 40 of red rice, she-crab soup, butter beans, chicken purloo (a baked rice dish), fried blue crab, garlic crab, oysters and grits.

Buckshot Colleton is asked about the yellow gunk inside crabs -- "It's the fat of the crab." And in Gullah? "Buckshot's trademark smile curls onto his face. `We call that the fat of the crab'".

A North Carolinian on cornmeal dumplings: "My grandma made'm when the thrashers came. She would pat'm out and lay'm in the pot and when she took'm out and put'm on your plate they had her fingerprints on top".

I've taken my title from Jessica B. Harris's "Living North/Eating South": "My passport may be stamped Yankee, but there's no denying that my stomach and culinary soul and those of many others like me are pure Dixie."

The editors write: "We've closed the book with a benediction. By a preacher. Very Southern, to be sure. Maybe it should have come at the beginning, and we could have called it grace". Starting with Edna Lewis was graceful enough for this reader; the entire series is well worth seeking out and savoring and this volume is no exception.

Robert C. Ross 2008


PS: If you you haven't met Edna Lewis, it's my great pleasure to introduce you. Bob ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

A National Treasure!
The book "Walter Reed Army Medical Center", A Centennial Pictorial History 1909-2009, pays homage to the most famous military hospital of them all.As a former Army medic, who was stationed at WRAMC 77-80, I can tell you that this book is a must for any soldier, or Army doctor, nurse or corpsman, who had the privilige of serving at the worlds most famous Military hospital.The book chronicles 10 decades, with a chapter dedicated to each time period, that is loaded with facts and of course an archive of endless B&W and color photo's that have rarely been seen.This hospital has hosted and taken care of soldiers in every war, dating back to World War One, to the modern warriors of today's military serving in the middle east.The hospital has been visited by almost every sitting president since 1909, as well as caring for their medical needs.General Douglas MacArthur and many famous generals have made their rounds at WRAMC, as both visitor and patient.This book has brought back many memories for me, and it was an honor to be on hand at the opening of the new hospital while stationed their in the late seventies.Although Walter Reed is due to close in September of 2012, and a new Walter Reed is slated to be opened in Bethesda Maryland, nothing can ever take away the iconic status of this original Army hospital located on Georgia Ave in Washington DC.After going through this book, the reader will quickly understand that this hospital is a national treasure,and that after closure, the original hospital building that still stands today, should be declared a national historical landmark.This 280 page coffee table remembrance is a well deserved tribute, to the men and women of the United States Army medical service, who served their country since 1909,at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, taking care of our war wounded. ... Read more

Product Description
John Reed conveys, with the immediacy of cinema, the impression of a whole nation in ferment and disintegration. A contemporary journalist writing in the first flush of revolutionary enthusiasm, he gives us a record of the events in Petrograd in November 1917, when Lenin and the Bolsheviks finally siezed power. Containing verbatim reports both of speeches by leaders and the chance comments of bystanders set against an idealized backcloth of the proletariat soldiers, sailors, and peasants uniting to throw off oppression, Reed's account is the product of passionate involvement.Amazon.com Review
The situation in St. Petersburg was growing more and moretense.The People's Revolution had begun by overthrowing the corruptTsarist regime in March 1917, but the workers and the peasants feltthe revolution had much farther to go. Tired of fighting a war thatmeant little to them, the soldiers also grew restless: "When the landbelongs to the peasants, and the factories to the workers, and thepower to the Soviets, then we'll know we have something to fight for,and we'll fight for it!"

Lenin pressed the Bolsheviks to seizepower. On the night of October 24, an organized mass of workers,soldiers, peasants, and sailors stormed the Winter Palace. On thefollowing day, at the opening of the second Congress of Soviets,Trotsky announced the overthrow of the provisionalgovernment. Counterrevolutionary forces marched on the capital, butthe Revolutionary Army triumphed. After all, "[t]his was theirbattle, for their world; the officers in command were electedby them.For the moment that incoherent multiple will was onewill."

In Ten Days That Shook the World John Reedtells the story of Red October and the Russian revolution from aunique, firsthand perspective. Reed, an American journalist, was onassignment in Russia for The Masses--then the principal radicaljournal in the United States--and spent his days walking the streets,reading and collecting handbills, newspapers, and posters, and talkingto people. As a result, Ten Days crackles with energeticimmediacy. At its best moments it reads like a novel: Reed recountsconversations and arguments, details political machinations, andspeculates on personal motives. Though this is no mere piece ofpropaganda, Reed's enthusiasm for the revolution infuses the text(some readers may be put off by Reed's florid prose), casting eachcounterrevolutionary act in a negative light. Helpful notes flesh outthe background for those less familiar with the preceding events andrender this a solid work of history. Ten Days That Shook theWorld is a stirring account of a stirring event. --SunnyDelaney ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Wrongheaded But Still Worthwhile
"Ten Days That Shook The World" is an often confused and pedantic book designed to serve a murderous cause, so much so in parts it reads like "Helter Skelter" if written by Squeaky Fromme. But beneath the surface lies a worthy piece of history written by a journalist whose eye for detail and complexity is sometimes the equal of his partisan passions.

John Reed writes here of the October Revolution of 1917, in which the Bolsheviks, hardline communists who played but a small role in the popular overthrow of the Czar months before, "soared...from a despised and hunted sect... to this supreme place, the helm of a great Russia in full tide of insurrection!"

The October Revolution (which actually fell on November under the old Russian calendar Reed follows in this text) was not then a battle against monarchy but against fellow socialists, moderates like Alexander Kerensky who were continuing the Czar's war against Imperial Germany in hope of securing a peace agreement Russia could live with. Meanwhile, Russians suffered and died, and thus a cry went out to replace Kerensky. It was led by Bolsheviks like Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, who claimed Kerensky was selling Russia out and demanded he be thrown on what Trotsky vividly called "the ash-heap of history" along with all other socialists who would conciliate with Russia's middle class. And what to replace them with? Why, the Bolsheviks, the only group who could be trusted with power of any kind. Naturally, when they got it, Trotsky signed a peace with the Germans even Reed termed "disastrous".

It's tempting to review the revolution here more than the book, especially as Reed saw this book as a "how-to" manual for the Western proletariat. But "Ten Days", after a dry and extended set-up, develops an energy as it follows in often touching vignettes the ten days when Kerensky's regime was decisively overthrown. It was written in a famously short time and published in 1919, when the story was still fresh and before the Soviets had a mind to rewrite their own past to eliminate discordant voices and inconvenient friends.

Reed, as others note, seems everywhere here; talking to Trotsky, eating potato soup with Bolshevik soldiers from a common tub, sweating illiterate sentries checking his passes, even at one point meeting counter-revolutionaries in their hideout while a rightist leader, "for whose arrest the Military Revolutionary Committee would have paid a fortune", sits writing on a toilet.

One notes throughout this book a tendency for Reed to ascribe to the common man of Russia one voice, a voice that unfailingly corresponds to the Bolshevik cause, never mind that there were a number of other parties enjoying vocal support. Such emotional declarations are approving noted, as is the derision heaped on those who speak differently. The people often appear as one collective mass, whether walking contemptuously past a church where they once worshiped or telling Reed that the only thing worse than being under the Czar is capitalism.

But Reed is too good a journalist to leave it there. The fact is "Ten Days" now and then, almost offhandedly, poses a number of questions that would become uncomfortable to Soviet dogma. At one point, after Kerensky is sent running for good, a question about freedom of the press is raised, by a Bolshevik no less. Trotsky answers that such freedom has no place in a Revolutionary society, because newspapers can be used as a tool of bourgeoisie oppression.

"Who's oppressed now!" Reed records a voice crying out. "Cannibal!"

Cannibalism is what happens with revolutions all too often; it did here. Reed may have been on the wrong side, but in moments like this he cuts through the propaganda and tedium to deliver a message worth heeding.

awesome!
all was awesome! the book came in fast, for a great price and in great shape.

". . .The Internationale Unites The Human Race . . ."
This is Jack Reed's well-written but highly partisan and pro-Bolshevik eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution. Reed's Soviet Socialist biases drip from every page like an oily coating, and this may irritate readers who are not quite so utopian as was Reed. TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD is all but useless as an objective history of the event, but it is extraordinarily useful as a subjective interpretation of the birth of the first Communist state, and therefore, it is an interesting, fascinating, and valuable document well worth reading.

Don't forget what we know now
It should be pointed out that since the 1980s new information about Reed has come to light through access to Soviet archives. These sources reveal that Reed wasanother in a long line of influential Americans who were paid agents of one of the deadliest totalitarian forces in human history. This doesn't tend to get mentioned when the NY Times and academic establishments praise this book's greatness.

One of a kind
This book is one of the most biased books ever written, but this shouldnt be taken as a criticism. This is one of the those history books that was written by someone that was actually there at the time things were happening, and the author made it clear that he was not trying to present "both sides" of the story. He was going to present the "people's side" (at least at that specific time). You dont have to be a communist to enjoy this book. In fact, you can compare the dream the people had at that time with what they actually got later. Beautifully written, this book makes you live the revolution. As you read it, you find yourself walking down the same street with the people at that time and listening to them talk and argue and even fight. Thanks to Reed's amazing style you can visualize the whole thing. ... Read more

Product Description
The end of a scourge

"The prayer that has been mine for twenty years, that I might be permitted in some way or some time to do something to alleviate human suffering, has been answered!"
--Major Walter Reed, writing to his wife, New Year's Eve, 1900

As he wrote to his wife of his stunning success in the mission to identify the cause of yellow fever and find a way to eradicate the disease, Walter Reed had answered the prayers of millions. For more than 250 years, the yellow jack had ravaged the Americas, bringing death to millions and striking panic in entire populations. The very mention of its presence in a city or town produced instant chaos as thousands fled in terror, leaving the frail, the weak, and the ill to fend for themselves.

Yellow Jack tracks the history of this deadly scourge from its earliest appearance in the Caribbean 350 years ago, telling the compelling story of a few extraordinarily brave souls who struggled to understand and eradicate yellow fever. Risking everything for the cause of science and humanity, Reed and his teammates on the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Board invaded the heart of enemy territory in Cuba to pursue the disease--and made one of the twentieth century's greatest medical discoveries. This thrilling adventure tells the timeless tale of their courage, ingenuity, and triumph in the face of adversity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Excellent History
The summary is a bit misleading (hence only 4 stars) in that it states that it will explain what it was like for people living in the time.It didn't do this (try reading Fever 1793, a fictionalized account of the yellow fever epidemic for this) but it did provide an excellent historical account of yellow fever and the attempt to deal with it.The book sometimes rambled, giving the history of where people were born and such, that was not important to the historical accuracy of the book but it was not annoying enough to make me stop reading.This is not a light read - I have no medical background and struggled with some of the terminology but found it a compelling account.The author did an excellent job of turning something that could be boring as sawdust and making it come alive as the men struggled to put an end to this devastating diease.

most interesting
Seemed to be a well researched and well written book, and a fascinating topic. On the cusp of a sea change in medicine worldwide, these Doctors on the frontier like Walter Reed, Carlos Finlay (of Cuba), and William Gorgas helped to nearly eradicate a once deadly illness through creative reasoning and disciplined scientific method. While not a complete page-turner, and not quite able to transport the reader to the time and place-I still found it to be a well organized, informative, and ultimately interesting book. It's not long and easily worth the time. I got interested in this subject after reading a David McCullough book about the Panama Canal, a project that most likely would not have been attempted by the U.S. had not the centuries old myster of the cause of Yellow Fever been at last solved.

Yellow Fever - The Journey of its Cause
Highly recommended.From the start just like a good mystery, this book grips and holds your attention as it unfolds the discovery of what causes yellow fever.The rolls of the individuals in academia and medicine are insightful.Vivid descriptions portray the full affect of both the human and economic devastation caused by this disease.Had is not been for the few couragous individuals who chose to pursue their beliefs and instincts against the mainstream beliefs of the day, there is no telling when the cause may have been discovered.Their stories are amazing as well.The book is factual and well documented.The challenges faced by the individuals, cities, and countries during the time of the book are not unlike those faced today in searching for the cause and cure of illnesses such as West Nile or the flu.

The eradication of yellow fever was one of the great achievements ofthe 20th century
Yellow fever first appeared in the Carribean over 350 years ago.
This was a devasting illness that claimed the lives of roughly 20% of it's victims. The disease went virtually unchecked for well over 200 years and wreaked havoc in Cuba, Hispaniola and throughout South America.The cause was unknown. It would kill millions.As international trade grew in the latter part of the 18th century, epidemics of yellow fever would spread north to many cities in the United States as well.Outbreaks would occur as far north as Boston and New York.In 1793, a historic outbreak in the city of Philadelphia would claim more than 5000 lives, roughly 10% of the city's population.By the mid to late nineteenth century it was becoming abundantly clear that uncovering the cause of and ultimately finding a cure for this scourge was becoming a top priority for the U.S. government.In "Yellow Jack" authors John R. Pierce and Jim Writer tell the remarkable story of those committed doctors and scientists who would put so much on the line in a heroic attempt to unravel this complex and often frustrating medical mystery.
Carlos Juan Finlay, a researcher working in Cuba in the 1880's and 1890's, is generally credited as the first to identify a particular species of mosquito as being responsible for the transmission of yellow fever.His theory was quite controversial and it would be a quarter century before his suspicions would be confirmed. Theconventional wisdom at that time was that the disease was highly contagious and could be transmitted by what was then known as "fomites".Pierce and Writer explain that fomites are "all contaminated objects or materials from yellow fever patients (clothing, bedding, furniture and so on)".Most medical experts also attributed the spread of the disease to unsanitary conditions.Many would point to the filthy conditions that existed in the island nation of Cuba as the likely source of the disease.
As unlikely as it might seem, the sinking of the battleship USS Maine in Havana harbor in 1898 would act as a kind of catalyst in solving the riddle of yellow fever. President William Mckinley issued a call for 125,000 volunteers and war was declared on Spain.Among those who would serve with distinction in Cuba was future President Theodore Roosevelt. Seeking to avoid a devastating loss of life among U.S. troops being sent to the Carribean, U.S. Surgeon General George Miller Sternberg would appoint what would become known as the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Board, a four man panel led by Major Walter Reed.The group was essentially charged with investigating infectious diseases on the island of Cuba. There was an awful lot at stake and the urgency of their mission cannot be underestimated.Enlisting in the battle against yellow fever was not for the faint of heart.
The second half of "Yellow Jack" is more or less devoted to the work of the U.S Army Yellow Fever Board.Pierce and Writer have done an outstanding job in recounting the events that would ultimately lead to the eradication of this most dreaded disease. I think you will find that "Yellow Jack" is a very well written book that will hold your attention from cover to cover.Highly recommended.

Scary History of Yellow Fever in N. America
Up until about 100 years ago every summer in the South was met with dread as the Yellow Jack would invade cities and the epidemics would last until the first frost.

This book provides a history of those dark days and the triumphs and tragedies of the group of Scientists and Doctors such as Walter Reed who studied and fought the disease that killed more americans than Spanish bullets during the Spanish American War.

Yellow Fever spread to the New World from Africa carried over by mosquito larvae in the water casks of European Slave ships ferrying Africans to the Dread Sugar plantations of the Carribean.Trading ships from the Carribean would frequently land in american ports carrying the mosquitoes and people infected with yellow fever frequently causing epidemics along the atlantic coasts plagueing such modern urban areas as Philadelphia and Baltimore.

This history of yellow fever shows why there is so much concern today with imported diseases such as West Nile and Avian Flu.

The book is also a good history in the advance of science and medicine since the 18th century as peominent American physicians of the 1780's still bled their patients to balance their humours and blamed the epidemic on stinky garbage vapours while in the 1890's the doctors were seeking out an insectivoid vector for the disease. ... Read more

Product Description
This anthology of twenty-four short stories by 15 American writers is the first of its kind; never before has a collection been devoted entirely to Mexico as it appears in American short fiction.

Includes stories by William Cullen Briant * Stephen Crane * John Reed * Jack London * Charles Flandrau * Katherine Anne Porter * William Spratling * Edna Ferber * John Graves * Jan Gabrial * Jack Kerouac * Margaret Shedd * Edmund J. Robins * Eugene K. Garber * Dorothy Teft and Carolyn Osborne ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fabulous cross cultural reading experience
Edward Simmen, an English professor at the Universidad de las Americas-Puebla (in Mexico), edited this fantastic collection of short stories whose common thread is that of American authors writing aboutMexican settings.The period covered by the stories ranges from 1850 to1960 Mexico.If you are a Mexican or Latino reader trying to grasp howAmerican writers have depicted Mexico through the years, or you are anAmerican trying to figure out what to expect south of the border, this bookis a must read.I had it at a seminar with Prof. Simmen himself, and I canhardly forget a more joyful and illuminating cross cultural readingexperience...You will enjoy the trip, one way or the other. ... Read more

Product Description

John Dominic Crossan, the eminent historical Jesus scholar, and Jonathan L. Reed, an expert in biblical archaeology, reveal through archaeology and textual scholarship that Paul, like Jesus, focused on championing the Kingdom of God––a realm of justice and equality––against the dominant, worldly powers of the Roman empire.

Many theories exist about who Paul was, what he believed, and what role he played in the origins of Christianity. Using archaeological and textual evidence, and taking advantage of recent major discoveries in Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Syria, Crossan and Reed show that Paul was a fallible but dedicated successor to Jesus, carrying on Jesus's mission of inaugurating the Kingdom of God on earth in opposition to the reign of Rome. Against the concrete backdrop of first–century Grego–Roman and Jewish life, In Search of Paul reveals the work of Paul as never before, showing how and why the liberating messages and practices of equality, caring for the poor, and a just society under God's rules, not Rome's, were so appealing.

Readers interested in Paul as a historical figure and his place in the development of Christianity

•Readers interested in archaeology and anthropology

Customer Reviews (24)

Informative but Misleading
Before I give any positive or negative critique let me say that I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is serious student of the New Testament or to any interested in Paul and Empire.

That being said, while this book is extremely beneficial, to the extent that it paints a picture of Paul's context that is rarely seen, it hardly deals with Paul's writings in an academic manner.But for now let me stick with the good points of the book to begin.
This was an almost always invigorating and interesting read that at most points read with the ease of a novel. Often pictures are excluded from academic works for whatever reasons, however Crossan does not shy from their use, and in this particular work they prove extremely helpful in transporting the reader to the context of Paul. Perhaps even more exciting and helpful were the block quotes that littered the entire book from engravings on stone and imperial edicts, to 1st century literature. By the time you finish the book you feel as though you lived for a time alongside Paul.

If I were Crossan, and I certainly am nowhere near him, I would have limited this book to the task of painting a picture of the empire in Paul's world as was so wonderfully done. Personally I feel as though I was mislead as to what to book would produce once I began reading the few and far between exegetical discussions of Paul's letters. Though I did not count, I would be surprised if there were much more than 50 pages committed exegetical discussion. A similar amount ink was spilled putting the reader in the modern day archeological sites visited throughout the book.

From these two authors I was hoping for a more thorough and academic treatment of Paul. Instead what I got was little to no interaction with other scholars, and great assertions with little to no backing. It is not that their assertions were necessarily unfounded, but when one makes claims that change shape of Pauline theology they should certainly dedicate a good deal of pages to address the claims and certainly interact with other scholarship both in agreement and disagreement.

Again, great read and highly recommended to those seeking a better understanding of Paul and Empire. If I were teaching a class on Paul I would likely require this book if not just for the archeological pictures and block quotes alone. But as a warning to all would be readers, read Crossan and Reed but don't take their Pauline theology as gospel, they certainly didn't earn it in this work.

A more historical Jesus
Crossin is an excellent scholar and presents a more historical Jesus than most. It makes the reader want to go back and reread the Gospels.

Still Searching
It's hard to give Crossan a 3 for one of his books. He's a great writer and scholar, and his previous collaboration with Reed (Excavating Jesus)was a great book and an interesting combination of viewpoints. Notwitstanding those factors, the current book is a good book, but simply does not really address "How Jesus's Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom" - the subtitle. As other reviewers have pointed out, the book does give us a detailed look at Roman life in the 1st century, and also some detail about Jewish life (though much less than the Roman counterpart). There is also lots of interesting information about Paul, some of which I found enlightening.

The book spends a lot (and I mean, a LOT) of time talking about the archeology of the current Middle East as well as the ancient Middle East, but, to tell you the truth from my perspective, these archeological tours, though interesting at times, add very little to the story of Paul. Indeed, our first 2 tours have nothing at all to do with Paul or his communities.

I'm also not sure that the book should be entitled "In Search of Paul" because there is very little about Paul per se. I think MacCoby's (1987) "The Mythmaker" is a much better book about Paul.

The bottom line is that this book does have some interesting and enlightening information about Paul, but you have to spend a lot of time digging through the archeological material to find it. I'm reminded of Akenson's (2000) book "Saint Saul" that also had good information that requires lots of effort to extract.

If you're a beginning student, this probably isn't the right book for you. And if your interest is Paul per se, you'll probably be disappointed. This book is best read by students of sociology interested in the time and place. But for those purposes, I think there are better books (e.g., Malina's "The New Testament World", Finegan's "Archeology of the NT", and even MacCoby's "The Mythmaker.").

Isolated
My review is not low because of a conservative anti-Crossan bias (not that I'm unbiased), but the book, for all its great length and detail about the cultural world of the 1c Roman empire, barely gets into the Apostles teachings and theology.

Perhaps more inexcusable, is the fact that the book interacts almost not at all with any dissenting scholarly opinions, and completely ignores the most significant Pauline scholars out there.

Useful perhaps to understand the culture of the time, but not helpful to understand Paul's thought.But still Wayne Meeks "The First Urban Christians" does a much more thorough job at this.

Valuable Conjecture - read them all.
I wanted to really learn what we could say was true about the Bible and Christianity and discovered Crossan. I have not been let down. He and his colleagues - using scientific methods and Biblical scholarship - have the best there is to offer in terms of an informed opinion about how and why Christianity formed.

It would be best to read Crossan's previous books that form the basis of thinking for this book on Paul. They lead up to the point in history where Paul plays his role. And they create the informed mindset that will help you get the most of this study on Paul.

If I were organizing anything from an graduate/undergraduate course of study to a weekly Bible study, these are the books I would use to teach from.

If you want to really understand Jesus and Christianity - historically and or Spiritually - your search starts with Crossan. Look no further (for now), you have found what you were looking for. ... Read more

Product Description

Immersion into town life in York, South Carolina, was an easy task for Robert C. Patrick Jr., a native of nearby Gastonia, North Carolina, who had familial ties to York's elite. But his personal connections proved to be a mixed blessing to the project. His informants were more forthcoming than they might have been with an outsider, but he never published his findings--to protect the privacy of his friends, he said. Now Patrick's 1954 Harvard dissertation has been edited by John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed to produce this first publication of Townways of Kent. It invites modern readers to experience midcentury small-town life as seen by the town's white upper and middle classes, and in particular from the viewpoint of "Old Kent" families. Often disparaging in their views of the neighboring African American and mill village communities, the townfolk proved to be further subdivided along rigorously defined lines of economic status and ancestry, but pride in maintaining their particular vision of the town shines through.

The volume also includes an introduction by the Reeds to place Patrick's work in its historical context.

Product Description
The Haida are a Canadian Native American group which lives on the Queen Charlotte Islands, just off the coast of British Columbia. This is the triangular archipelago which looks like it is a piece broken off of Alaska. This collection of Haida songs, collected early in the 20th century, gives many insights into Haida culture, including class divisions, belief in reincarnation, and the status of women. This etext is presented with the full Haida interlinear text. (Quote from sacred-texts.com)

About the Author

John Reed Swanton (1873 - 1958)
John Reed Swanton (19 February 1873 - 2 May 1958) was an American anthropologist who worked with Native American peoples throughout the United States.

Born in Gardiner, Maine, Swanton's work in the fields of ethnology and ethnohistory is well recognized. He is particularly noted for his work with indigenous peoples of the Southeast and Pacific Northwest. He attended Harvard University from which he earned a Masters in 1897 and a doctorate in 1900. His mentor was the famous Franz Boas, whose influence on Swanton is clear. Following his education, he did fieldwork in the Northwest, and then began working for the Bureau of American Ethnology, where he remained employed for almost 40 years.

In his early career in the Northwest, he mostly worked with the Tlingit and Haida. He produced two extensive compilations of Haida stories and myths, and transcribed many of them in Haida. These transcriptions have served as the basis for Robert Bringhurst's recent (1999) translation of the poetry of Haida mythtellers Skaay and Gandl. Swanton spent roughly a year with the Haida.

After that, Swanton studied Muskogean speaking peoples in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. He published extensively on the Creek people ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Indispensable for a True Understanding of Southerners
The South and its people have been subject to more than a double ration of misinformation and stereotypes despite the insistence or even obsession of southerners to tell about the South.A suitable corrective for these oversimplifications comes in the writings of John Shelton Reed.Reed, a University of North Carolina sociologist, manages an accurate, sympathetic, and amusing characterization of important southern "types."There's something for everyone here.This book, together with Florence King's SOUTHERN LADIES AND GENTLEMEN and some of Lewis Grizzard's works, gives a good introduction to Southern types.Of course a a warning is necessary: while Southerners, as Roy Blount, Jr. observed, like to act typical, they also take a sheer delight in being unpredictable just for the holy hell of it.

Reed knows his types: the Good Ole Boy, the Aristocrat, etc.These people the southern landscape and provide entertainment for each other.These are people who are apt to equate loving the Lord and SEC football, and favor Coke to Pepsi.

I suppose one could quibble about some types that he omitted, but this is a short and enjoyable book and well-worth the reading.Hell fire, podners: Professor John Shelton Reed is a wonderous writer who will bring you to a smile like good barbecue. ... Read more

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A witty and sometimes outrageous collection of essays presenting one Southerner's viewpoint about what makes the South the South. As the Washington Post said, "Reed knows his region intimately, probably as well as anyone around, and manages the impressive feat of regarding it both seriously and lightly." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A Southern apologetic for the intellectual
In this collection of essays and articles, John Shelton Reed tackles the zeitgeist of the South.He goes about it with an academician's skill that enables enlightened humor and sound argument while avoiding cheesy, low-grade cliche.

Reed emphasizes the importance of cultural/regional distinction.He acknowledges that the South, like any other region, has its problems; however, when it comes to culture, it rules the world.In a country becoming more and more like the James McMurtry song "I'm Not From Here, I Just Live Here," this distinctiveness is more important than most people think; therefore, Reed takes great pride in it.

If you live in the South, Reed will articulate things you've always felt and will give you an appreciation for what makes your homeland unique.If you're from somewhere else, perhaps you'll gain a new understanding of what makes Southerners tick.But whoever you are, I think you'll like this book and I highly recommend it.

hilarious
Mr. Reed sure can write.I don't always agree with him; to turn around what he says about Steve Earle, Reed's politics are suspect.And more importantly how can he believe that Randy Travis is better than Earle and Dwight Yoakam?Still even when I didn't agreewith the book I enjoyed reading it.The essays on country music and Ted Kennedy are worth the price of the book by themselves.Best of all it's wonderful to see someone defending my home region who isn't a confederate flag waving idiot.

Makes you proud(er) to be a Southerner
I've long been a fan of John Shelton Reed's "Letter from the Lower Right" in Chronicles magazine, and gave very high marks to "1,001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South," which he wrote with his wife. But for some reason, I had never made an effort to track down and read any of the collections of his essays. I see now what a mistake that was. I wish I'd read this back when it was new.

It was some consolation to find that the articles and essays here assembled were definitely worth the wait. Reed is a very funny writer, but he's not a "humorist" or humor writer in the sense of, say, Dave Barry or even (to move outside the region) P.J. O'Rourke. You'll definitely get a laugh out of many of these pieces, but you'll also find them deeply informative. Reed is, after all, a serious researcher and thinker, and the two indisputable facts that define his writing-- that he loves the South, and he *knows* the South -- feed off one another.

Granted, many of the essays here are more than a little dated (some date back to the Carter Administration), and I'd love to know how things have changed in the thirteen, fifteen, or almost twenty-five years since some of them were written. But that's no doubt just one more reason to track down Reed's more recent collections.

Southerners, including expatriates, will nod knowingly at much of what Reed says, and will get a kick out of seeing themselves depicted so accurately in print. I hope they'll also take to heart his commitment to preserving many of the things -- from culture to accent -- that make the South truly distinctive. Folks from other parts of the country will find that Reed has not only made that sometimes-puzzling region a little easier to understand, but has made the trip a remarkably pleasant one.

Southern wit and wisdom
This book cannot be recommended too highly to anyone with the slightest interest in the South. It is, in every sense, a delight to read and will easily withstand repeated readings.

This is the third of John Shelton Reed's books that I have read and its style sits somewhere between that of "1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South" and "My Tears Spoiled My Aim". The book comprises a collection of dispatches culled from Reed's contributions to newspapers, journals and magazines between 1979-1990. Most of these are 1,000-1,500 words long.The book begins with observations on two of his favorite themes, Southern identity and the New South, before moving on to Southern culture, food, politics and religion. Reed is a favorably prejudiced but acute observer of Southern manners, quirks, oddities and behaviour.

The dispatches are written to entertain and don't disappoint. I found plenty at which to laugh out loud. However, this is not to say that Reed is not surreptitiously engaged in a secret mission to raise his readers' awareness of the character and virtues of things Southern. There's plenty enough here even to make a Yankee laugh - especially some of his more elliptical humor. I particularly liked his comment on Ted Kennedy: "For my part, I rather like the fellow. He's certainly the closest thing to a good old boy that Massachussetts will ever produce - which isn't to say that he ought to be president, merely that I think he'd make a pretty good drinking buddy as long as somebody else did the driving."

Reed is exceptionally good at capturing the spirit or the essence of something and making it seem familiar to you. I have never visited Bob Jones University but, in just over three pages, Reed made me feel I knew what kind of place it was. He does the same for a number of Southern characters and institutions.

Reed is a gifted cultural interpreter who appraches his topics with respect, affection and good humor. It's tempting to say that Reed is a popularizer but that belies his considerable writing talents. Whilst everything is written in an engaging style, Reed makes few concessions to his readership - he delights in his use of language and deploys an extensive vocabularly that would make some of my students reach for their dictionaries.

All in all this book is an unqualified delight. Go buy it now - you won't be disappointed.

J. S. Reed was my Favorite Professor.
When I took Sociology of the South under Dr. Reed at the University of North Carolina, he immediately won the respect of everyone who heard him speak, by virtue of the mix of humor and humble generosity with which he offered up quite a prodigious wealth of knowledge, and because of his graceful personal style.These qualities are evident in his writing.

Now that I live in gritty Gotham, and am faced daily with a culture amazingly alien to the one in which I was raised below the Mason-Dixon, I think every day of the issues he explored in his class (and in his books).He has done depthy and earnest sociological study of issues which plague the minds of Southerners and people who know them:Why Are Country Lyrics So Sad?Why Are Cheating Husbands More Likely To Get Shot Down South?What Exactly Is A 'Southerner,' and Why Won't They Shut Up About That Old War?(and) What, Exactly, Is The Big Deal With Kudzu?I highly recommend this book, as well as My Tears Spoiled My Aim. ... Read more

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Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan joins archaeologist Jonathan Reed to illuminate the life and teaching of Jesus against the background of his world. ... Read more

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more