Product Description
This Fifth Edition provides comprehensive coverage of the principles, theories, human relations techniques, and decision-making skills that are required to manage a workforce to profitable results. It helps managers satisfy obligations to owners, customers, and employees while maintaining a positive work climate, developing job expectations, disciplining marginal employees, and addressing workplace diversity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Amazing
I'm not a newbie at chess, but I got lazy for awhile. I started at World Chess Network.com , and was a measly 400. However, within two weeks I've jumped to 1000+, and have beaten people as high as 1300! If you practice with this book anything is possible.

Goes over classic games and explains what's going on after every couple of moves to keep your interest. Some of the sweetest games ever are in this. Especially Anderssen vs. Lierskitzky!

This book is not aimed at people who don't know how to play, try weapons of chess by bruce pandolfini for that.

Interesting !
Basic essential knowledge for chess players ! for intermidiate players ( 1600 - 1800 ) to improve their attacking skills . ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A great first opening book for beginners
I was a bit disappointed when I finally received it. I expected something that would help me to spot general mistakes in blitz games, but take my word for it, it's for the individuals who seek a book about basic traps in the king pawn games and beginning opening guidelines (castle early, advance only the center pawns, etc).

Nevertheless, it is an excellent and helpful book for the beginning individuals. It emphasizes the important concepts and the format is easy to read. It also tells of possible mistakes in the opening and how to basically take advantage of them. If this were the first opening book I read, I would be a better player today. This book is also recommended for those who teach chess, as it could serve as a reference book.

A Great Tactics Book For Opening Play
This is the natural follow-on to Mr. Walker's OPENINGS FOR JUNIORS. Thiswork includes 34 well annotated short games (fewer than 25 moves) whichillustrate the teaching points in the first part of the book.Anadditional aid is the variety of openings and defenses these games present.

If a serious student of chess, with a rating below 1500, were to studythe games you will be prepared for most tournament competition with the oneglaring exception -- the Evan's Gambit. While not seen in every tournament,enough people still use this opening to have warranted it'sinclusion.

Still, the book is well worth the money to purchase and thetime to study. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a basic primer for those who know how to play chess and are seeking to improve their skills.John Walker draws upon his many years of teaching experience to provide the essential knowledge that will both help readers start winning games immediately and lay the foundation for a deeper understanding of chess tactics and strategy.Each "thing" is explained in an easy-to-follow lesson, which is followed by exercises that enable the reader to check that he or she has fully understood the concept.Topics include: the basic checkmates; essential endgame knowledge; tactics and combinations; middlegame themes; practical tips; and opening play. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great book for introduction
This book will improve your play.
Walker goes through step by step how to improve your game.
He starts by making sure that you understand basic tactics, then where others go to openings he goes straight for the end game. By using this approach he shows you how to win from established positions. Once again it is about tactics.
From here he moves to openings, he gives you standard openings, then explains the principles behind them, once again it is tactics.

I strongly reccomend this book especially to beginners and average players, but I beleive that everyone will come away with something from it

One of the Best for Improving Players
I am a strong (A) player with a large library of quality books.I purchased this one to use in teaching my friends the joys of this ancient game without scaring them off with reams of variations.The beauty of this book is that it presents the most essential chess concepts in a manner that will not scare off newer students to the game.I especially enjoy how the book starts with the endings and tactics and then progresses to strategy.

I am a HUGE fan of Tarrasch's the Game of Chess and Lasker's famous Manual--however both of these works are quite verbose and will not foster a love from the game in most newbies.Get this book and use it to teach your friends how to play a solid game of chess.Get this and use it in combination with some of the classics (may I suggest art of the middlegame?) and begin the climb to expert status! ... Read more

Product Description

Tomorrow's managers are off to a strong start with this fully updated and streamlined edition. Each chapter includes an increased emphasis on globalization and environmental responsibility and a new chapter on Events Marketing appears in Part V.  The practicality of previous editions continues with mini-case studies, contributions from industry experts, profiles of corporations, profiles of hospitality professionals and a new student DVD-ROM packed with resources to support readers’ coursework and their careers. It covers tourism, lodging, restaurants, managed services, beverages, conventions and meeting, and leisure/recreation; in addition to examining gaming entertainment, marketing and human resources, and leadership and management. For individuals interested in a hospitality industry career.

Customer Reviews (7)

Introduction to Hospitality 5th Edition
This book is very informative and filled with a multitude of information about the hospitality industry. The book contains articles on managers from a variety of different hospitality positions including restaurant, hotel, and tourism which allows those that are serious about entering the hospitality industry to get a glimpse of what actually goes on in that position.

No.1
Have used this book through out all the editions. This is the best of its kind. The author has wrapped each subject into a comprehensive chapter. Would be at a loss if this went out of print. For me it is No.1 Intro to Hospitality text.

INTRODUCTION TO HOSPITALITY 4TH EDITION
It was my 1st experience purchasing books off of Amazon.This book has all the reading materials for my class. I couldn't believe the pricing for this book was so low. When my other classmates shared how much they paid( over $80). It was such a blessing to pay what I did. They have the 5th edition but the information is the same. I will shop more @ amazon.com for reading and other items.

Fast!
quick shipping, great condition! it is a hard cover but the book is very light and easy to cary around. also came with DVD!

Intro to Hospitality
Great book and exceptional service.I bought as a textbook for an on-line Restaurant Management course.It is well written and easy to follow. I love the course. ... Read more

Product Description
Exploring Drafting is designed for use in introductory drafting courses at any instructional level. This edition has been revised to provide improved and expanded CAD drafting content, while retaining the title s strong emphasis on drafting fundamentals and basic drafting techniques. CAD coverage includes an introductory chapter and CAD applications sections throughout the book.

The Worksheets provide drawing exercises to correspond with the textbook ... Read more

Product Description

Strategies and solutions for successful VoIP deployments

Network Business Series
Justify your network investment

• The step-by-step approach to VoIP deployment and management enables you to plan early and properly for successful VoIP integration with your existing systems, networks, and applications.

• The detailed introduction offers a common grounding for members of both the telephony and data networking communities.

• IT managers and project leaders are armed with details on building a business case for VoIP, including details of return-on-investment (ROI) analysis and justification.
• A VoIP deployment is presented as a major IT project, enabling you to understand the steps involved and the required resources.
• The comprehensive look at quality of service and tuning describes when and where to use them in a VoIP deployment. These are often the most complex topics in VoIP; you'll get smart recommendations on which techniques to use in various circumstances.
• You learn how to plan for VoIP security, including prevention, detection, and reaction.

Voice over IP (VoIP) is the telephone system of the future. Problem is, VoIP is not yet widely deployed, so there are few skilled practitioners today. As you make your move to VoIP, how will you know how to make VoIP work and keep it working well? What changes will you need to make without disrupting your business? How can you show your return on this investment?

Many books contain technical details about VoIP, but few explain in plain language how to make it run successfully in an enterprise. Taking Charge of Your VoIP Project provides the detailed plans you need to be successful in your organization's deployment of VoIP. Through their years of work in the field, authors John Q. Walker and Jeffrey T. Hicks bring a project-oriented approach to VoIP, with much-needed clarity on getting VoIP to work well.

Taking Charge of Your VoIP Project starts with simple concepts, each chapter building on the knowledge from the last. Although not a technical manual, you learn about the standards, such as H.323, G.711, and Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP), and the implications they have on your VoIP system. Most importantly, you'll gain expert advice and a systematic guide on how to make VoIP work for your organization.

This volume is in the Network Business Series offered by Cisco Press. Books in this series provide IT executives, decision makers, and networking professionals with pertinent information on today's most important technologies and business strategies.

Customer Reviews (10)

Why VoIP Engineers need Project Management skills
Let's face it, Network Engineers and VoIP Engineers are dime a dozen nowadays.However, Technical Engineers with excellent Project Management skills usually makes it to the top of the heap.

If you are VoIP Engineer and dead serious in improving your craft when it comes to large roll-out, deployment, management and troubleshooting of your VoIP product, you need this book to guide you in all aspects of the life cycle.

This book gave me the proper mind-set on how to approach VoIP deployment projects no matter how big and complex they are, ranging from businesses leveraging remote agents to a centrally-located Contact Center with 300 Agents using our VoIP application.

This book will prepare you starting from the project initiation, during the pilot phase, measurement and feedback gathering, all the way to the final acceptance and roll-out phase.

A good read as well, not too technical, not too business-centric.Deserves a spot on a VoIP Engineer's library.

Very Good Book
This book is well focused to management people moving to VOIP, it has a good chapter introducing the subject but nothing too technical, in ROI it gives very nice arguments to deploy it. Best Chapters i read were the ones talking about QOS and SLA. They were good and showed really well explanations about it.
I would recommend this book to be bought by project people or to add to your library.

Excellent IT Planning Guide
This book offers good strategies for implementing VoIP. It covers the feasibility studies required and pre and post evaluation of the network. Technical details are covered well but the most important aspects such as QoS, SLA's are explained in some sort of details, which is an important area when dealing with VoIP.

I used this book as one of my main reference in my final year project with UOL BSc in CIS.

I recommend this book not just for Engineers, Technicians, Managers and IT staff, but also for anyone wishing to learn about the basis of VoIP.

VoIP From a Business Perspective
John Walker and Jeffrey Hicks's "Taking Charge of Your VoIP Project" (ISBN: 1587200929, Cisco Press) is an installment in Cisco's Network Business Series line of books and covers the topic of voice over IP (VoIP) from a business strategy perspective.Although the book does cover some technical aspects of VoIP, its main purpose is to guide the reader in understanding the steps from beginning to end on how to develop a business case all the way to deploying a successful and secure VoIP deployment.The book covers eight major areas:

* VoIP Basics
* Building a Business Case for VoIP
* Planning for VoIP
* Do It Yourself or Outsource?
* Quality of Service & Tuning
* Ongoing VoIP Management
* Establishing VoIP SLAs
* VoIP Security

This book's primary audience is meant to be at the managerial and above levels, although it does have value for senior technical staff, albeit from a different angle.For the management level, the book's value is in how it covers enough technical detail to make the reader aware of the complexities of VoIP, yet at the same time it presents both a business rationalization and realistic implementation steps so as not to scare the reader away (from the technology).For the senior technical staff or technical manager, the details of the technology will seem rudimentary, but the business framework may be less familiar territory, and therefore more valuable.For the technical audience, it addresses the often asked question of, "Where's the business need for VoIP?"

The eight categories can really be summed up into three major headings: VoIP Technology Summary, Business Justification, and Deployment Considerations.The "VoIP Basics" or technology summary provides the necessary background information on the PSTN and legacy PBX's in order to present the context for understanding how VoIP is a change in voice technology.This section is brief, and Walker and Hicks end with a general overview of data technology and how you converge old voice technology into it, discussing signaling, transport protocols, codecs, and the hardware necessary to make everything work.In terms of the business case for VoIP, the authors present three major cost savings opportunities: toll cost savings, simple network savings, and productivity savings.These areas are commonly talked about and should not be a surprise to the reader; the value here is that the book enables the reader to talk intelligently about the cost savings areas to a business audience.From here, Walker and Hicks cover how to project the ROI, how to make sure you have the data to back up your projections, and what associated costs should be considered before starting the project (e.g., is it cheaper to outsource?).Lastly, the authors spend time discussing both the pre and post implementation requirements and implications of running VoIP, spending less time on the technical details and more time on the big picture of implementing such a technology:Considering the quality requirements (i.e., QoS), integrating VoIP into a network management structure, establishing SLAs with the customer, and securing the technology.

Overall, the book provides a good, but broad treatment of how to present a case for VoIP and then deploy it.The irony of the book is that the readers who can best utilize the information will probably be the ones that find the book a little boring.For example, experienced managers will take away the unique points of implementing VoIP and recognize how it can fit in a realistic way for their particular environment.On the flip side, the knowledgeable network technician will similarly be able to see the nuances of VoIP that the book presents and understand the implications for the existing network.To both audiences, the pre-existing experience and knowledge may cause them to find the book too basic, although the lessons learned will most likely be valuable to them.To the less experienced readers (technical or managerial), the book is a great starting point and will most likely engage them more, but without additional references or resources (e.g., basic project management skills, understanding business budgeting cycles, etc.), the information learned may be just enough to make them dangerous.

"Taking Charge of Your VoIP Project" is a great resource for its intended audience of decision makers and project managers.It is not necessarily meant for the technical person doing the implementing, although the information is beneficial as it ties the technical to the practical.

Don't Start Without It!
I recently read the book titled "Taking Charge Of Your VoIP Project" by John Q. Walker and Jeffrey T. Hicks.ISBN: 1587200929.
The title is a great reference for understanding VoIP technology and helps identify the many aspects that one must consider for a successful deployment of Voice over IP.Reading this book ahead of time will empower the reader with the lingo, technology and solutions to be effective when leading a team.
The book starts out by giving the reader an understanding of the basic technology concepts surrounding traditional voice networks, or Public Switched Telephone Networks (PSTN) and then goes right into the basic technologies that allow Voice over IP (Data) to be a viable alternative to the traditional phone networks.
Chapter 2, Building a Business Case for VoIP, gives the reader good information to ponder over and helps identify purpose for building a case for a VoIP solution.
The next chapter, "Planning for VoIP" is one of the larger chapters and for good reason.After all, anyone in business knows that planning determines whether the project will go smoothly with little surprise or whether it's a disaster.In this chapter you'll learn about reliability, call quality assessment, and over all VoIP readiness assessment, among other things.
Another great chapter is Chapter 5, "Quality of Service and Tuning".Probably one of the biggest challenges that an organization will face.QoS is challenging due to the complexity of a true end-to-end QoS solution in an already complex data network.Accomplishing QoS requires in-depth knowledge of the existing data network.Furthermore, the communication to others on the team of what it's going to take to get the network "up to snuff" to support VoIP will be a task in and of it self.It makes ATM technology look quite attractive.The chapter has quite a bit of detail; however the authors don't drop the reader over the deep end of the technologies.
I would recommend this book to those that are anticipating implementing Voice over IP in their network, those that are in the process of piloting Voice over IP or even those that are in the midst of a VoIP implementation would benefit from this title.
The book is best suited for Project Managers, management, telecommunication and Data networking personnel.Really and truly, most anyone would benefit from reading this title.It covers such a broad range of information that having a well educated project team is going to ensure that the project goes smoothly and all things are considered.This book does an excellent job of presenting all of the issues that personnel involved in a Voice over IP project should be aware of to ensure success.It gives the reader a great appreciation for the complexities and helps a great deal with ironing out a good sound strategy.
This book has several figures, tables and diagrams.Like the old saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words".This statement holds true in the title.Like I always say, pictures are good.
The book covers everything you'd think about and everything you wouldn't think about.
Coming from the data side of a VoIP solution, I thought I had enough figured out to make a VoIP project a success.This titled made me think about issues that I would have otherwise over looked.Especially issues relating to traditional telecommunications.
Don't start you project without this book.It may end up costing you more than this book in mistakes if you don't. ... Read more

Product Description
What would cause an otherwise intelligent, well-educated, and, by all accounts, privileged Californian to forgo an easy life in the United States to struggle for survival in a land of strife and mortal danger? With this question in mind, journalist Mark Kukis retraces the personal and spiritual evolution of the most reviled American traitor since Lee Harvey Oswald. "My Heart Became Attached provides a detailed biographical account of John Walker Lindh’s journey, beginning with his childhood in an affluent San Francisco suburb. Kukis then follows Lindh’s footsteps to Yemen, where he learned Arabic and radical Islam, and on through the wild hinterlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The journey culminates with the violent prison uprising at Mazar-i-Sharif.

While conducting research, Kukis achieved unparalleled access to major players in Lindh’s life. In Pakistan, Kukis found the militants from the jihad group that trained with Lindh in a Pakistani camp. Kukis also conducted several rounds of interviews with Lindh’s friend who initially settled him in an Islamic boarding school, with Lindh’s instructor there, and with fellow pupils in the hardscrabble Pakistani village where he studied the Koran before journeying into Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, Kukis interviewed Taliban soldiers who fought at Mazar-i-Sharif and General Dostum, warlord of the region. Ex-roommates, family members, and friends all contributed to Kukis’s research, resulting in the most thorough portrait available of the American Taliban. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Lindh's odyssey.....
The controversial story of John Walker Lindh is well-researched in this book. While the author was unable to speak with Lindh or his parents, he travelled to distant lands such as Yemen and Pakistan to interview people who met, studied, and trained with Lindh. The author remains relatively objective in his treatment of Lindh, neither condemning nor commending him. After reading this book, Lindh comes across as a sincere and thoughtful, albeit naive Muslim, perhaps swept up in the momentum of where his new found religion took him. After 9/11, many people will be outraged by the suggestion that Lindh was anything but a cold-blooded terrorist, especially since he was present when CIA agent Mike Spann was killed. Personally, I think the situation is far more complicated than that. I think that Mr. Spann was a true patriot who died defending the country he loved, but at the same time, I see Lindh as a sincere Muslim who thought he was defending the religion he loved. Who am I to say which one is superior? Also, I have to ask, if Lindh never joined the Taliban, and was not present that fateful day in Afghanistan, would Mike Spann still be alive? I'm afraid the answer is no. With that said, the author points out that only Lindh himself knows his true motives and intentions. I would have liked to learn a little more about Lindh's pre-Muslim days, but overall I found the book compelling and informative.

American Taliban--Ordinary Teenager
Mark Kukis, the author of "My Heart Became Attached," tells what ends up being a rather pedestrian story about a young American who briefly gained notoriety as the "American Taliban" after 9/11.

John Walker Lindh is the son of middle class parents who grew up in a comfortable household around Washington, DC and then in the San Francisco suburbs.Lindh, like many teenagers curious about the world and trying to find himself, develops a teenagers interest in Islam and the Arab world.

Lindh converted to Islam in his late teens and, with a convert's zeal, throws himself into studying the language, culture and religion of the Arab/Muslim world.His first visit to the region was a trip to Yemen to study Islam and Arabic.

After a brief trip back to the US, Lindh follows a friend he met at a local mosque to Pakistan.While there Lindh begins studying with more extreme and violent interpreters of his religion.He eventually found himself in a training camp for young Jihadists.The best of the camp's graduates were sent to fight in Indian held Kashmir.However, Lindh was determined to be too weak and poor as a soldier and was thus encouraged to go to Afghanistan.

Lindh arrived in Afghanistan in the late summer of 2001.He trained at an al-Qaeda camp frequented by Osama bin Laden, and sat through what he thought were many boring bin laden lectures.He was then sent to the front lines of the Taliban's battle against the Northern Alliance.After 9/11 and American firepower was inserted into the conflict on behalf of the Alliance, Lindh and his comrades were quickly taken prisoner and sent to a makeshift prison at Mazar-i-Sharif.When a group of prisoners began a rebellion against their captors, Lindh escaped to the relative safety of a nearby cellar.However, he did briefly share the field with CIA officer Mike Spann, shortly before Taliban rebels murdered Spann.

After the riot was finally quelled a week later, Lindh was taken by his American captors into custody, but not before a CNN crew could film the one interview that launched the infamy of the "American Taliban."

The author was unable to interview Lindh for this book.He was, however, able to track down nearly everyone who came into contact with Lindh during his journey from suburbanite to Taliban.The story he tells is of a kid who stumbles from one place to another, somehow finding himself in bin Laden's audience and on the Taliban front line.That this could happen to such an ordinary American kid is the true lesson of this brief, but excellent, book.

disappointed
I was hoping to read more about why Walker Lindh committed the acts he did, but without a firsthand account, learning his beliefs was not possible.
Also, the author should have tried to weave in the political dynamic of the world into the story instead of treating Walker Lindh as an isolated person.

Very Informative Page Turner
Kukis keeps you turning the pages on this well written biography of the American enigma which is "John Walker Lindh".

Kukis daringly retraced Lindh's steps through the unforgiving hotbed of madrassas and dusty towns in the middle east to deliver an excellent recount of what happenned to this unique young adult. Kukis's interviews of those closest to Lindh in his final months before capture really gives you an insight to a world much different than Lindh's United States.

This is a must-read for anyone who enjoys keeping abreast with current events as well as those who wish to peer into the mind of one of the most notorious 9-11 figures.

An Incredible Odyssey
Mark Kukis has done what few authors have the nerve -- or skill -- to do:explored Lindh's path from American student to Taliban fighter by actually following in Lindh's footsteps.Along the way, Kukis vividly describes the places and personalities that shaped Lindh's transformation.Unfortunately, the Lindh family declined an interview with Kukis to tell their side of the story.However, Mr. Kukis does not let this setback interfere with his narrative, instead depicting Lindh as seen by people in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- a richer, more accurate and more rewarding depiction than would likely have emerged from an interview with the Lindh family in the comfortable confines of their California living room.

In the end, Kukis leaves deliberately unanswered the central question in the Lindh paradox.Is John Walker Lindh a hapless American kid who made some really bad choices in finding himself -- the kind of bad choices many of us have made in life, only with drastically worse consequences?Or is he a cold and calculating zealot pledged to jihad against those he perceives as non-believers?The answer is ultimately locked away in Lindh's mind as securely as Lindh himself is incarcerated, but Mark Kukis has done an excellent job in literally walking in Lindh's footsteps to try to find that answer. ... Read more

Product Description
John A. Walker Jr. was a Chief Warrant Officer and communications specialist for the US Navy. In 1985, he was arrested for selling classified secrets to the Soviet Union. Upon his arrest it was revealed that he had been acting as a spy from 1968 to 1985 and that his son, brother, ex-wife, and an acquaintance had also participated in the espionage ring. Altogether, their actions constituted one of the most serious security breaches in US history. In 1990, the New York Times stated, "Mr. Walker provided enough code-data information to alter significantly the balance of power between Russia and the United States."

What motivated a career naval officer to become a spy during the height of the Cold War? Over the years, statements by Walker have been reported in various books, newspapers, and other media outlets, but Walker has never told his own story--till now. Walker has decided to make public a private document that he originally wrote for his children to explain his actions. Among the reasons he gives for publishing this work is the following statement:

"As I grew older, I came to understand that the wars that had taken place during my entire life were just a symptom of a larger national policy. I watched my uncles and aunt go off to World War II, my brother to Korea, and myself to Vietnam, all of which were waged on foundations of lies. Voltaire said that history is a lie agreed upon by historians. How true.

"I cannot classify myself as a visionary or idealist, but just a simple citizen who became angry by the government lies. I did conclude that the US system of government was broken, so I felt justified in breaking some rules in order to help save it.... Why did I feel responsible or qualified to end the pattern of perpetual war? I cannot answer my own questions. But then, my insane stunt seemed to have worked. By the admission of both the US and the USSR, I provided the most extensive intelligence ever to the Soviets. With my material in hand, the Soviet government eventually realized the US planned no attack upon them, so my actions have contributed greatly to the Soviet Union's decision to end the Cold War."
... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Poorly Written, A Disappointment
John Walker's story is one that is fascinating, terrible, and somehow distinctly American. It's quite interesting to hear him rationalize his reasons for selling American secrets to the USSR, as he goes extremely in depth regarding the motives for his work. The story on the whole, however, is disappointing.
For those looking for a fast paced spy thriller, this story shows to be a boring, winded account that describes every detail of every house Walker bought, every car he drove, every military exercise he ever did, and even the restaurants he ate at. These trivial details make the story far too long and quite lacking in interesting content. In addition, Walker, despite being a talented spy, lacks any sort of talent as a writer. His sentences are badly formed, confusing, and hard to read. The book as a whole, written as a memoir, proves to be more like a collection of random ramblings. Those ramblings, like those of a stereotypical convict, are filled with rationalizations, excuses, and exaggerations that leave the reader frustrated and tired. If someone really wants to know about the life of John Walker, they will find far more information by spending ten minutes reading about him on Wikipedia.

The "Con Artist" who conned himself
This is a well-written, smooth, fast read by an author who admits that he never finished High School. But despite this major shortcoming, he proved to be smart enough to sail through the Navy, hitting all of his promotion benchmarks well ahead of schedule, ascending to the position of Chief Warrant Officer of a nuclear submarine communications crew, and doing so in record time. At the same time, he became one of this nation's most notorious and most devastating spies.

Having already read the book "Family of Spies," I bought this book for one reason only: to try to get inside the head of someone who would betray his country as Walker has done. My idea was simple: to try to understand why a person whose country had given him so much would do so. Unfortunately, there are not many "real" answers given here, but a skilful recycling of many of the same old "phony ones." It seems that all of the captured spies must be reading each other's memoirs, for they all seem to have had the same epiphanies that led them down the road to spying. John Walker offers up all of the same old lame but seemingly exotic reasons given by others of his ilk, like Aldridge Ames and John Hansen, among many others.

Walker perhaps puts these reasons best on pages 156-57, where he appeals to the excitement and adventure inherent in the dangers spying evokes. Interestingly he compares the thrills of spying to the exhilaration criminals in other areas such as drug and gunrunning and bank robbing, experience. But the crowning reason he gives is only transparently credible and it has an existential twist to it: "the thought of creating international change that would affect millions of lives. In short, spying to Walker was about being and coming alive in the world: Spying was DOING something that did not require pinching oneself to determine if he was still alive.

Anyone who believes this thinly concocted "cock-and-bull" story is also ready to purchase that proverbial bridge in Brooklyn.

For those like myself, (the ultimate armchair existentialist thinker) in search of deeper psychological reasons, this book will leave one cold. It does not even whet the appetite. For although Walker inadvertently leaves a trail of tantalizing, if not facile clues, he still admits to nothing real. He claims all was well with his intact family even though his father was an alcoholic, lost his job, had a life-changing car accident, beat his wife, and then abandoned his family -- only to be discovered accidentally and much later in life (in fact well after "Johnnie boy" was a grown man).Interestingly, John was the only one in the family who tried desperately to reestablish a relationship with his wayward father? And one fears that here he rather desperately glamorizes and exaggerates that reconnection a bit too much for comfort.

Surely one can read between the lines and see in the subtext the seeds of the "real" story rather than the "imaginary" cover story the author has artfully spun here. However, it will take an armchair psychologist with greater skills than those I possess to unravel this twisted psychological ball of wax and make sense out of how the abrupt upheaval of his otherwise idyllic upper middle class childhood may have turned a taciturn child with self-esteem low enough not to finish high school and to end up marrying Boston "trailer trash," into a high energy, fast-track sailor, pilot, sail boat racer, megalomaniac and emotionally unstable superspy. Blaming it all on his alcoholic wife and a phony Cold War, although both may have been true, explains next to nothing.

What seems clear is that Walker is nothing if not a "con artist extraordinaire." However, it seems that the person he has conned the most has always been himself. There is more tragedy and pathos in this story than meets the eye. In the companion book "The Family of Spies," a fuller picture of John Walker emerges because it is composed of narratives by those who were affected by him. For my taste that is a much much more honest book and a more honest portrait of John Walker. However, it is not better written. It can't be denied that the skill of the writing in this book is the best evidence that Walker has made good use of this time in prison.

Three Stars. ... Read more

Product Description
Building on the strength of Keith Walker’s acclaimed The Poems of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1984), leading scholar Nicholas Fisher presents a thoroughly revised and updated edition of the work of one the greatest Restoration wits.

• Includes the text of Lucina’s Rape, Rochester’s adaptation of Fletcher’s revenge tragedy Valentinian,  in a text that readily identifies Rochester’s revisions
• Presents the poems in versions that were current during Rochester’s lifetime, allowing the reader to experience the poems as Rochester’s contemporaries did
• Incorporates insights and discoveries made over the last twenty-five years and texts of manuscripts that previously were unavailable for study

Product Description
Errata Editions' Books on Books series is an ongoing publishing project dedicated to making rare and out-of-print photography books accessible to students and photobook enthusiasts. These are not reprints or facsimiles but complete studies of the original books. Each volume in the series presents the entire content, page for page, of an original master bookwork which, up until now, has been too rare or expensive for most to experience. Through a mix of classic and contemporary titles, this series spans the breadth of photographic practice as it has appeared on the printed page and allows further study of the creation and meanings of these great works of art. Each volume in the series contains illustrations of every page in the original photobook, a new essay by an established writer on photography, production notes about the creation of the original edition and biographical and bibliographical information about each artist.
Walker Evans' American Photographs is arguably the most important photobook ever published. Originally conceived as a catalogue to accompany Evan's one-man show at The Museum of Modern Art in 1938, it has been out of print for many long stretches of time. Books on Books 2 presents the original 1938 edition with the 87 legendary black-and-white photographs that defined the documentary-style aesthetic. This volume also reproduces Lincoln Kirstein's great original essay as well as a contemporary piece by John T. Hill, the author of many books on Evans, including Lyric Documentary, published in 2006. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

America's most famous photo book
What can I saw about this remarkable photo book that hasn't been said before?Well, not too much.Actually not all the photos are American, three were taken in Cuba in 1932.I prefer the second section with thirty-seven photos of buildings and the man-made landscape in the eastern part of the country.Several of these are regularly reprinted, year after year, in books, magazines and now on the net in blogs or sites dealing with architecture.

The history of this famous book is quite fascinating.Over the years there have been four editions. Originally published by MoMA in 1938 (the five thousand copies were letterpress printed) to coincide with an exhibition of a hundred of Evans photos. Oddly forty-seven of these don't appear in the book and thirty-three in the book didn't make it to the exhibition. Even photos that appeared in both had different cropping or were from different negatives of the same event.

The second edition, in 1962, was again published by MoMA in an edition of four thousand copies, letterpress printed from the 1938 plates.The third edition, with the photos now out of copyright, was published by the East River Press.This edition is best avoided because it was printed by offset-litho from pages in the 1938 book rather than from the original prints.

This, the fourth edition, was again published by MoMA to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary in 1988.The eighty-seven photos here are printed as duotones, using a very fine screen, with prints made from the original negatives, but one exception which was made from the printed photo in the 1938 book because the negative had been destroyed.

The original 1938 exhibition photos have long been forgotten, (though if you are interested they are shown in Walker Evans the Hungry Eye) so it is this book that carries on his legacy.Unfortunately prices vary enormously for the different editions but you can see what pages in the original book looked like by checking out the Walker Evans: American Photographs (Books on Books).

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

Major Disappointment
This book (and the one on Atget which I also bought) was a major disappointment.While this may be a re-presentation of the work as originally published, the photographs are reproduced in almost miniature scale. Little value for the price, in my view.

Not good for scholarship
This is an incredibly disappointing text for those of us interested in studying--or even casually enjoying--photographs.And please note that all the so-called "5 star" reviewers are actually hacks for the company.That in itself should reveal something about the integrity of this printing.

A classic ruined
American Photographs hasn't been printed since 1998, a real crime.And here someone has obtained the rights to reproduce the entire book and we end up with this slapdash mess.Why cram this classic onto the scanner bed?Why shrink it, cut it and staple it back together?Why print this edition at all?Let's have the book in its original state, as Walker Evans intended.If only Errata Editions had taken a cue from Steidl and their fantastic reissue of The Americans.New paper, new scans of the negatives, fantastic printing.Instead we have this cheap facsimile."But it's better than nothing at all!"I disagree.American Photographs deserves better.

Great start to a promising series
Admittedly I was skeptical when I first heard about this series because they were descibed as a "book within a book", but after receiving the first two titles I clearly understand the purpose, and as books of scholarship, I like the approach. One of my frustrations with the Parr Badger books is that they only show the cover and one or two spreads, and with these I get to see the entire book and get a much better sense of the original. The essays avoid academic jargon and are easy to read and very imformative. Just ordered the other two available titles and looking forward to what's next in this series. ... Read more

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This popular textbook has been completely revised and updated to provide a comprehensive overview and to reflect all the latest developments in this rapidly expanding area. Chapters on the impact of molecular biology in the development of biotechnology have been fully updated and include the applications of molecular biology in the areas of drug design and diseases. There are also completely new chapters in developing areas such as genome technology, nanobiotechnology, regenerative medicine and biofuels. By presenting information in an easily assimilated form, this book makes an ideal undergraduate text.

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Customer Reviews (1)

No Regrets
This book tells the most accurate account of The Walker Brothers years as teen idols,as it is told from Gary and John's point of view and who should know better.It gives an inside view of what actually went on during those years, making sure they correct other books who have given obviously false stories.It is funny, sad and takes you right back to those dizzy days when they were touring and thousands of teenage girls were screaming and crying just to get to see them for one time.Although Scott did not participate in the writing of this book, the insights given by both Gary and John help the reader to get a good idea what he really was like and to see his funny side too which is not often reported on, Scott had a terrific sense of humor and this comes across in some of the accounts.If you were and still are a Walker Brothers fan then this is the book for you, I thoroughly recommend it. ... Read more

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Exploring Drafting is designed for use in introductory drafting courses at any instructional level. This edition has been revised to provide improved and expanded CAD drafting content, while retaining the title s strong emphasis on drafting fundamentals and basic drafting techniques. CAD coverage includes an introductory chapter and CAD applications sections throughout the book.

The Instructor's Manual provides answers to questions in the text and the solutions to all problems. ... Read more

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Provides instant access to useful instructional resources, ready to print, as you need them. Reproducible masters are presented in PowerPoint format for easy classroom use. Related Web links allow you to connect to numerous online resources. Also included are lesson plans that you can quickly customize to make daily lesson planning easy.

Also included on this CD is the ExamView Assessment Suite. ... Read more

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With an introduction by George Haven Putnam. This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1915 edition by G.P. Putnam's Sons, London. ... Read more

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Walker Evans's career spread over 46 fitful and prolific years, yet in a scant two, 1935-1936, he produced the singular body of work that came to define him. During that brief time, while working for the Farm Security Administration (previously the U.S. Resettlement Administration) photographing the consequences of the Great Depression, he refined a hybrid style that combined documentation with sly personal comment. He delighted in traveling incognito as an artless photojournalist, but with the independence to satisfy his own artistic designs. Walker Evans: Lyric Documentary presents these seminal images for the first time as a comprehensive, cohesive body of work, in chronological order. These are prime examples of Evans's alchemy, his seemingly effortless transformation of mundane fact into sweeping lyricism. They not only define his mature style, but also offer a path for artists of future generations. Evans has been called the most important American artist of his century, and the impact of his vision reaches well beyond the province of photography. With texts by John T. Hill, Heinz Liesbrock and Allan Trachtenberg. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

An Essential Walker Evans Book
At once a splendid coffee table book and an impressive work of original scholarship, "Walker Evans: Lyric Documentary," by John T. Hill, has much to please nearly everyone. The duotone black and white reproductions are sumptuous, among the finest I have seen. They illustrate Evans' seminal production during the years 1935-36, photographing for the US Government's Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression. Their selection, presented in chronological order, is a fine mix of the familiar - many of Evans' greatest images - with lesser known works and variants. Of particular interest to me is a plate comprised of two consecutive exposures that the author has joined together into a powerful panorama (pp. 158-59), a risky move that he manages in bravura fashion.

John T. Hill has written, co-written, or edited, to my count, at least nine books and catalogs on Walker Evans, including "Walker Evans First and Last," "Walker Evans At Work," "Walker Evans The Hungry Eye," "Walker Evans Simple Secrets," and "Walker Evans: Havana 1933." As Evans' friend and colleague for ten years at Yale University, and then as executor of Evans' estate for twenty years, John Hill is uniquely qualified to discuss the photographer and his work. And as a printer of Evans' photographs for nearly forty years, Mr. Hill possesses a thorough understanding of this photographer's oeuvre and intentions.

John Hill's two essays - one on an unpublished lecture Evans gave at Yale, illustrating what the photographer called his "aesthetic autobiography," and the other a short history of Evans' book publications within the context of their times - are important additions to Evans scholarship. Additionally, Alan Trachtenberg has provided an illustrated essay comparing the image selection and sequencing of the two major editions (1941 and 1960) of Evans' and James Agee's "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men."

Of the countless books and articles that have been written about Evans in the thirty-plus years since his death, "Walker Evans: Lyric Documentary" is among the best. It is one of a few that I would classify as an essential Walker Evans book.

Rodger Kingston
Kingston is the author of "Walker Evans In Print: An Illustrated Bibliography."

"Walker Evans:Lyric Documentary" by John T. Hill
Walker Evans' famous gift as a photographer is said to be his ability to erase himself as the creator of the images he captured, but he was there, of course, and made the necessary artistic judgments that distinguish his work.John T. Hill's masterful book, "Walker Evans:Lyric Documentary" is, in every way, an apt tribute to Evans' artistry.

Giving us a comprehensive presentation of the best work from Evans' most creative period is valuable enough.Yet Hill has provided something equally wonderful and useful, by illustrating what Evans called his "aesthetic autobiography."Using an unpublished lecture at Yale, in which Evans identified works of art, architecture and science he viewed as inspirations for his work, Hill furnishes compelling examples from these artists as visual annotations to Evans' work.

The result is exactly what one would hope for--not a laborious reinterpretation or egotistical "appreciation" of these great photographs, but a vivid presentation of the images themselves in a fashion that invites interest in the background material as an additional reward for the viewer."Walker Evans:Lyric Documentary" is John T. Hill's fifth book on Evans and provides new insights into the work of the legendary photographer, considered by many to be the greatest artist of our time.This book is a great achievement by Hill, although fittingly, the reader will scarcely notice the skilled editorial hand shaping and ordering these powerful photographs that need little adornment.

Randall Roden

A uniquely fresh look at the photographs of Walker Evans
This is the only book I know of that contains Evans' own account of his aesthetic genesis with illustrations of his visual sources.Excellent essayby John T. Hill, who was a colleague of Evans at Yale University.Particularly noteworthy are the very finely reproduced plates of the seminal work of Evans during the years 1935-36.These are easily the best reproductions of Evans photographs that I've seen. A scholarly work and an important research tool. ... Read more

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In 1824, John Walker purchased a 500-acre farm in Kingand Queen County, Virginia, and began working it with a dozenslaves. The son of a local politician and planter who grew tobacco,Walker lost status when he became a devout Methodist, raised wheat,and treated his slaves like brothers and sisters. He also kept adetailed and fascinating journal.

Drawing on this forty-three-year chronicle, Claudia L. Bushmanprovides a richly illuminating study, a microhistory that is rewardingto read. Walker sets aside most of the "Old South planter"stereotype. He sold wheat in Baltimore and Norfolk and invested inrailroad stock, and yet he grew, spun, and wove cotton for clothing,tanned leather, and made shoes. He avoided lavish creature comforts infavor of purchasing the latest farm equipment. So far from losing outto soil exhaustion, he experimented with improved farming methods,nourished his land, and kept his yields high.

Walker's journal describes the legal cases he tenaciously pursued,records devotion to the local Methodist church, and explains hispractice of Thomsonian medicine on slaves and family members alike. Heprovides insight into women's work and lays out the drama of blacksand whites living in close intimacy and constant fear. Walker humblyreferred to himself as "a poor illiterate worm," but his diarydramatically captures the life of a small planter in antebellumVirginia. ... Read more

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Americans were shocked to learn that one of our own had fought for the Taliban. Emerging froma gruesome battle at the end of the Afghan War onto the evening news, the so-called American Taliban would become linked inextricably to the CIA paramilitary who interrogated him, All-American Hero Mike Spann, who died in that battle, beaten and tortured to death. Public opinion was one of outrage. The Bush administration vowed to make an example of the traitor. Attorney General John Ashcroft promised to bring Lindh to justice for participating in the murder of Spann. Why then, after threatening treason and the death penalty, did the government suddenly abandon a trial in favor of a soft plea deal? Why did they let him get away with it? To answer the question, this book puts John Walker Lindh on trial, but it also examines the case against the U.S. government that a trial might have revealed. What double game did the government play before the Afghan War, involving oil pipelines, CIA soldiers, and Saudi payoffs? Why did they hang Mike Spann out to dry? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

What We Don't Know Will Hurt Us
Richard Mahoney is a respected political and diplomatic historian, but here he almost bites off more than he can chew.This is probably the fullest account yet possible of JW Lindh, Afghanistan and the US government & oil companies' murky dealings with the Taliban and other Central Asian actors.Mahoney presents a very damning case, involving cynical doubledealing and profiteering, against the Bush administration ideologues in particular, but there's plenty of blame to share among recent administrations.The main flaw in this riveting book, noted by others, is that the data is suggestive but not conclusive; both supporters and opponents of the war on terror (read: resource wars) must read and evaluate Mahoney's evidence carefully.Cf. M. Klare, "Resource Wars" for a near-definitive study of this subject.So much of the Lindh story remains shrouded in secrecy---and criminality---that an authoritative acount must still wait for years to pass.Yet another reason to rip through the web of lies and deception emanating from the White House and Pentagon!

Time to vote out the enemy
Mahoney provides a meticulously researched treastise that exposes the incestuous link between many of our leaders and the Taliban/terrorists.Mahoney is particularly revealing and damning (through his presentation of facts, not opinion) concerning the Bush administrations and their very close links with the Saudis and the oil industry.The author details not only what President G.W. Bush knew about the pre-9/11 attacks but also how he and his fellow power brokers helped foster and fund the very groups that attacked us.It seems a pipeline through Afganistan and the megamillions it would bring (no, not to you; to your political and industrial leaders) were more important than protecting us from a threat that, as Mahoney clearly shows, was very well known long before the attack on the Twin Towers.Only after 9/11 did President Bush choose to replace sending millions of dollars to the Taliban with sending bombs.

There are heroes in the book, people such as the late FBI's John O'Neill, who knew what was going on and encouraged our leaders to act.These few brave souls were summarily marginalized and dispensed with.However, by detailing their insights and courage, Mahoney offers some hope, if his readers can only find the will to even partially replicate their bravery.

Getting Away with Murder, though bleak, encourages us through example to speak out, to act, and to vote with selfless conviction.

What else does the government and Mr. Mahoney have to hide?
Mr. Mahoney covers a lot of ground in his book but at the end fails to provide anything but a hypothetical argument based on circumstantial evidence to suggest, but not prove, that either John Walker Lindh or the "American government" is responsible for the "murder" (Mr. Mahoney's words) of CIA para-military operative Johnny Michael Spann.The book is very interesting, and provides great insight into both the Global War on Terror and Mr. Spann who was a brave and selfless servant and hero of our country. However, the book does not live up to the sensational title or provocative pictures on the cover jacket.

First of all was there a "murder?" Murder is a civil crime. Despite Mr. Mahoney's excellent research, he fails to include a discussion of the "law of land warfare." This law clearly states that in war combatants are allowed to kill other combatants.Mr. Lindh certainly was a combatant. However, was Mr. Spann a "combatant" or a "non-combatant" advisor to US forces? If Mr. Mahoney had addressed the thorny issue of whether members of the CIA' SAD (Special Activities Division) were "combatants" or merely "non-combatant advisors to US combat forces" he might have provided some insights to the complex and critical discussion on the roles US government and civilian "non-combatants" can/should play in times of war.These include but are not limited to: Can non-combatants carry weapons? If they carry weapons can they fire at the enemy? Does the Geneva Convention cover government non-military or civilian non-combatants?The Department of Defense is wrestling with these issues as more and more support services provided to combat troops are being outsourced to non-DOD organizations.

Mr. Mahoney devotes a chapter to building an argument for how historical US foreign policies may have contributed to the rise of terrorism, but in it he deals unevenly with the relative contributions of the last three administrations.He spends a good deal of time detailing alleged Saudi influence during the Bush 41 and Bush 43 administrations but does not mention a word on the possibility that Saudi money may have contributed to US foreign policy making during the Clinton administration.I find that interesting because according to Richard Perle and David Frum, in "An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror" the Saudis were shamelessly seeking to influence the Clinton administration. Here is a quotation from Perle and Frum's book: "Within a month of Bill Clinton's winning the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1992 the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce donated $3.5 million to the University of Arkansas to create a `King Fahd Center for Middle East Islamic Studies.' One month after Clinton's inauguration the University of Arkansas got $20 million more from the Saudis." Saudi money is an insidious and perhaps near omnipresent factor in our government's foreign policy decision-making processes regardless of our President's political party.

Mr. Mahoney spends thirty pages detailing the heroic efforts John O'Neill made to combat terrorism while in the FBI, but I am not sure this interesting discussion contributes to the question "who got away with murder?"I sincerely agree with Mr. Mahoney that John O'Neill should never have been forced into retirement and that he was perhaps our nation's most effective pre-9-11 antiterrorism agent. However, it was the policies of President Clinton's Administration, the Janet Reno Justice Department, and the entrenched bureaucrats in the FBI that failed to allow O'Neill's unorthodox approach to his responsibilities, and ultimately forced him to retire. Mr. Mahoney leads us to believe that it was the Bush Administration's approach to foreign policy that caused O'Neill to retire. Additionally, Mahoney never mentioned that it was a memo from a key member of Reno's Justice Department in 1995 that precluded the CIA from sharing intelligence information about participants at the January 2000 Al-Quida meeting in Kuala Lumpur with the FBI. Two Al-Quida attendees of that meeting subsequently came to the United States and "played key roles in the September 11 cataclysm."Had the FBI received the nanes from the CIA those two Al-Quida could have been interdicted while entering the USA.

I enjoyed this book for Mr. Mahoney's detailed research. However, he obviously had a political axe to grind because he selectively shares information that is very critical of Republican Administrations, but shades the impact of the Clinton Administration foreign policy and Reno's Justice Department errors. An example is that Mr. Mahoney went into great detail about the problems Attorney General Ashcroft brought upon himself while trying to bring charges against Mr. Lindh, but he does not even mention the Justice Department/FBI scandal regarding the 1995 Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City. In Jayna Davis' book "The Third Terrorist" she convincingly makes the case that Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols did not act alone. Although the book was published in 2004, beginning the day of the bombing Ms. Davis gathered evidence and collected statements from eyewitnesses that clearly implicated foreign participants and perhaps even foreign/Al-Quida control of the Murrah Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City. Although she provided all her information including the names of the eyewitnesses to the FBI in OKC, they never followed up on it and were content to prosecute only McVeigh and Nichols. Apparently an order not to pursue the leads Davis provided the FBI came from up the FBI/Justice Department chain-of-command. If Al-Quida was involved in the 1995 OKC bombing why wouldn't the leadership of our country want to expose it? Perhaps the fact that McVeigh's execution had to be postponed in 2002 after it was revealed that the Justice Department/FBI had withheld evidence from McVeigh's defense attorneys is another indication of the kind of problems that exist in the bureaucracy that is supposed to honor the law while defending and protecting the rights of American citizens. If the Department of Homeland Security and the new Intelligence Czar are going to provide this nation better service than our national intelligence and police forces have in the past, a thorough investigation of Jayna Davis's startling allegations is required ASAP.

Perhaps Mr. Mahoney's next project should be to research and publish a book that explores why in 1995-2004 the Justice Department and FBI failed to follow-up on the evidence and witnesses Jayna Davis provided them. Who in Clinton's Administration made the decision not to pursue the Islamic connection to the Murrah Building bombing and why didn't McVeigh and Nichols ever implicate the Islamic men they were seen with before April 19th 1995 and in the case of McVeigh on the day of the bombing? Why didn't Secretary Ashcroft take immediate steps to reopen the OKC bombing investigation after he was confirmed?The nation deserves answers to these questions.

A moving and important book
I almost didn't buy this book.The world is awash with 'what really happened' books, and the cover contrives to suggest one of those 'inside the organisation' action accounts which make good beach reading but add little.
In fact this is an extraordinarily clear and touching account of the struggle going on on for the soul of America, personalised by the two tragic lives of Mike Spann - CIA agent,and John Walker Lindh - the young Californian fleeing from the degeneracy as he saw it of his home society and finding a fate he could never have imagined as 'The American Taliban.'Their story is framed between chapters detailing the history of US foreign relations since the sixties which alone would would earn the book a place on my reference shelf.Mr Mahoney's respect and love for the best of American culture and tradition confronts his disgust at its takeover by the power of oil and money which he unhesitatingly describes as 'corrupt.' As a lawyer, he is well placed to detail the scandal surrounding the quashing of the Lindh trial, but he expressly avoids any implication that this was simply a case of a misled teenager.While its a litle hard to believe that the one thing standing between arrest of some of the Twin towers attackers before their attack was an interoffice feud between the FBI in Washington and their New York chief, John O'Neill, Mahoneyneverthless regards Mr O'Neill - tragically killed on 9/11 - as a true American hero.
Well researched, well written and well connected, this is an important book. Buy it America!Read it! Then go out and vote -before its too late.

Great Read!
I found this book spellbinding.Mahoney takes two ordinary lives before 9/11, that of Mike Spann (CIA paracommander) and John Walker Lindh (the American Taliban), and spins them into the web that the United States, the Soviets, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have been weaving for decades.Spann and Lindh will come face to face in Afghanistan, a meeting with a tragic ending, but what are the global circumstances that the world powers put into motion that led to this fateful rendezvous?Mahoney takes us into a historical perspective spelling out the wheeling and dealing that went into supporting Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, the plan to build oil pipelines, the Saudis financing terrorists, and how the United States, rather than submit to an investigation that would reveal its duplicity and involvement, dropped nine out of ten charges against Lindh. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (11)

Comics at their best
The newspaper comic strip has been around for a little over a century and the earliest comic books are around eighty years old themselves.That's a reasonably long time, and there have been a lot of people who've worked in the field.Many have been pretty mediocre, a small group have been good, and there are an elite few who've been truly great.Although you may not agree with the complete list (I don't), Masters of American Comics does a pretty good job selecting the artists who belong in this elite group.

This coffee table book is divided into two parts.In the first section, we get a history of the comics in general, with a particular focus on the contributions of the elite artists.The second section is a collection of essays by various writers both inside and outside the comic industry; each essay deals with one of the fifteen featured artists.

Who are these artists (who also often wrote their material)?The first (both chronologically and within the book) is Windsor McCay whose Little Nemo in Slumberland remains one of the most wildly imaginative comic strips ever.McCay, incidentally, was also one of the very earliest animators.Lyonel Feininger's career was pretty brief, but his Kinder-Kids strips offer some more mind-bending art.George Herriman was the creator of arguably the greatest comic strip ever, Krazy Kat.E.C. Segar brought Popeye to the world in a comic strip that was far more clever than any of the cartoons.

Frank King's Gasoline Alley dealt with more of the mundane aspects of life, but did so brilliantly; it is the longest active comic, though King's successors have made it a pale shadow of its former self.Chester Gould's Dick Tracy brought hard-boiled crime to the comics, and Milton Caniff raised adventure to a new level with Terry and the Pirates (and later Steve Canyon).

More modern artists include Charles Schulz, whose Peanuts is probably the most popular strip ever.Will Eisner brought a new respectability to the medium with The Spirit.Jack Kirby, the first real comic book artist in the bunch, is well-worth mention for his part in creating most of the great Marvel superheroes (and a few DC characters too).Harvey Kurtzmann does not have a single famous character, but his role in the EC comics of the 1950s and the early Mad Magazine was considerable.

R. Crumb was a major figure in the early underground comics movement.Art Spiegelman, Gary Panter and Chris Ware are all still active and further extending the boundaries of what comics can be.Spiegelman would also win a Pulitzer for his Holocaust epic, Maus, demonstrating that the medium was more than just kids' fare.

There is a heap of art in Masters of American comics, much of it in color, making this quite a treat, and an excellent companion piece to the museum exhibition which inspired it.It also shows that quality and popularity are two almost separate fields:the big strips of today - Garfield, Dennis the Menace, Cathy, Marmaduke, et al - are not even mentioned.Yes, you might not like every artist selected (for example, I cannot find much to like about Panter, whose distinct art must be an acquired taste) and you might think of others worthy of inclusion (for example Steve Ditko, Alex Raymond or Bill Watterson).Nevertheless, this book is a gem which not only provides a history of the comics, but is a great pleasure to read.

Not what it could have been
MASTERS OF AMERICAN COMICS strives to be an overview of this interesting group of artists, but suffers from the fatal flaw of examining comic strips and comic books in the same work. These two very different types of storytelling don't really belong together and it gives the book a split personality. While beautifully illustrated and well-researched, this would have proven to be more valuable had it focused on one genre or the other. Despite my affection for both of these men and their creations; Charles Schulz and Jack Kirby are just not natural companions in any book. Also missing were any number of comic strip artists. Al Capp, Noel Sickles, Walt Kelly, and Alex Raymond are all mentioned but are given the short end of the stick here. Their presence would have been preferable to Crumb or Panter's; not because these men are not talented, but rather it would have made this work more cohesive. I understand this is a companion book to a joint exhibition of Hammer Museum and The Museum of Contemporary Art, but as such the exhibition suffered from the same flaw. If you are interested in the history of the comic strip in America this will be a nice sampler, but it obviously could have been much more.

Peanuts and Jimbo; an uneasy marriage.
I loved the idea of reproducing much of the art from the original work, with editor's notes, erasures, pencil lines all showing. However, the mixture of the work of hugely popular mass-market artists like Schultz and (in the underground, Crumb) with more recent avante-guarde artists like Panter seemed odd to me. Peanuts was a cultural phenomenon, but has anyone actually ever read "Jimbo". I didn't, even when I bought "Raw" years ago. I appreciate boomer artists raised on the pulps would want to do something more "high-brow", but for me, the very nature of the medium mitigates against the sophisticated existentialism of, say, Chris Ware. Sure, I guess that has it's place, but what makes comics great is how the artists develop ways of making it easier for anyone to read and understand, not harder.

Off The Wall Popular Culture Definitive Volume-A Must Have.
As a Lender to the Exhibition this book covers in its voluminous pages, the actual chance to see the exhibitions in LA, Milwaukee and New Jersey Museums was only aided by this graceful tome. Four Stars ****!

Damaged cover on a great book
I purchased this book for a Christmas gift, the cover was damaged and it should have been protected in shipping.
The box it was shipped in was in perfect condition the inner protection, well there was none!

I purchased this book as a gift for the person who viewed the exhibit with me, it's an excellent book, a great retrospect. ... Read more