Customer Reviews (4)

a good effort
Theology of the Body Explained is a gallant and partiallysucessful effort by Christopher West to make Pope John Paul II's talks on this subject more accessible for those Catholics who aren't theologians.

It is very serious, very careful and pretty ponderous. The book really doesn't take off until you've slogged through 70+ pages.This is a mighty subject and an important one and West deserves praise for trying to get the message to to the peoplebut except for highly motivated grad students or those who want to really wow them down at the parish hall, Theology of the Body Explained is a bit more than most folks can digest.

Christopher West wrote another book, Theolgoy of the Body for Beginers that is much shorter and far more lay person friendly.

Required reading for EVERYONE!
This book is so amazing.He makes John Paul's encyclical understandable to the average person.I believe and tell people all the time that this should be required reading for everyone, christian and non-christian, catholic or protestant.Find the answers for the meaning of life and more.

Detailed Down to Earth View of Theo of the Body
In this book, Christopher West handles the Theology of the Body by John Paul II in a way that respects the beauty and seriousness of the subject.He also brings John Paul II's very thick language down to earth so that your average person can fully grasp the details of the Theology of the Body.

At the very beginning of the book, Christopher West covers John Paul II's impact on religious studies.He provides a fantastic, well thought out picture of John Paul's development into the Phenomenological and Personalistic giant that led him to develop the Theology of the Body.This study gave me an understanding of the importance of John Paul's general teachings and what brought the Theology of the Body into existence.

The book is complete in its coverage of the Theology of the Body, ending with how it follows on Humanae Vitae.And the Theology of the Body is a great follow up to Karol Wojtyla's (John Paul II's) 1960 book entitled Love and Responsibility.

The book is solid, full of details and captures the depth of TOB.If one is looking for a less detailed (summary) view of TOB, see Christopher West's "Theology of the Body for Beginners."

Excellent Accessibility and Depth
Christopher West is a well-established name as a popularizer of John Paul II's Theology of the Body. This book differs from West's other works in being a systematic commentary on the pope's 129 noontime talks on the meaning of the human body according to Catholic Christianity, which we given over five years early in his pontificate (1979-1984).

The organization of the book is impeccable. The book is divided into six "cycles", which are formed according to the main themes of John Paul's talks, which I list below:

1. "Original Man": Adam and Eve before the Fall, and how their integrity as individuals and in their relations with each other and God contrast with our imbalanced, Fallen condition.

2. "Historical Man": our current, fallen state. West explains the Pope's penetrating analysis of how exactly sin touches our lives.

3. "Eschatological Man": a stirring vision of how our form is divinized (which reminds me of Eastern theology's emphasis on the Transfiguration) and how marriage is consummated with our perfect communion with God in heavean.

4. "Celibacy for the Kingdom": one might wonder how celibacy fits into the picture after the Pope does so much to elevate the dignity of marriage, but in fact here West shows how celibacy and marriage complement each other.

5. "The Sacramentality of Marriage": this treats John Paul's study of St. Paul, including a wonderful explanation of an unpopular phrase from Ephesians: "Wives, be submissive to your husbands...".

6. "Love and Fruitfulness": West looks into John Paul's closing reflections on Humanae Vitae, the encyclical of Paul VI that raised a fury among Catholics who were disappointed by the papacy's continued stance against artificial contraception.

The cycles are in turn broken down into sections, each of which generally comments on one or two of John Paul's noontime audiences. Everything is scrupulously referenced not only to the Theology of the Body talks (which Pauline Press also publishes) by also to the Catechism and pertinent encyclical letters on sexuality and the human person. At the end of each cycle, West also has a review section, summing up the key points of that particular cycle.

In this book, West recounts how the Theology of the Body had helped him heal from a long period of being a lapsed, worldly Catholic, and this sense of wonder and freedom permeates the book. There is food for the mind and the heart, as I have grown to appreciate the dignity of marriage, celibacy, and the human person in a way I would never have expected just a few years ago. The very methodical organization and annotation of this volume might lead one to suspect that this book is dry, but it in fact reads wonderfully. In the space of a few weeks I read the entire book, in spite of a busy schedule as a medical student.

While it is best to read this book along with the original talks of the pope themselves, this commentary could be read on its own with great profit, as I have done. I am working on the original talks, but I read way ahead with West's book, loving every minute of it, and shall return to John Paul's masterpiece with that much more understanding and appreciation.

Professor West has done the world a great service in promoting John Paul II's magnificent celebration and defense of the human person. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Recounts the manifold hardships the troops and their officers endured
Edited and annotated by Charles M. Robinson (history instructor at South Texas Community College and a fellow of the Texas State Historical Association), The Diaries Of John Gregory Bourke: Volume Two: July 29, 1876-April 7, 1878 is the next published installment of the personal journals of John Gregory Bourke who served as cavalry lieutenant in Arizona from 1872 up to the evening before his death in 1896. A noted ethnologist who wrote extensive descriptions of Native American tribal life and customs that he observed first hand, he illustrated his diaries with both sketches and photographs. This second published volume opens as General Crook prepares for the expedition that would lead to his infamous and devastating Horse Meat March. The diary faithfully recounts the manifold hardships the troops and their officers endured. The diary then continues with the story of the Powder River Expedition and culminates in Bourke's eyewitness description of Colonel Ranald MacKenzie's destruction of the main Cheyenne camp in what become known as the Dull Knife Fight. With the main hostile chiefs either surrendering or forced into exile in Canada, field operations came to a close and Bourke finishes this second volume of his memoirs with a retrospective of his service in Tucson, Arizona. Enhanced for the modern reader with extensive annotations and a biographical appendix on Indians, civilians, and military personnel named in the diaries, this outstanding series continues to be a seminal and strongly recommended contribution to American Frontier History and Native American Studies reference collections and supplementary reading lists.
... Read more

Book Description
Accounts of lynching in the United States have primarily focused on violence against African Americans in the South. Ken Gonzales-Day reveals racially motivated lynching as a more widespread practice. His research uncovered 350 instances of lynching that occurred in the state of California between 1850 and 1935. The majority were perpetrated against Latinos, Native Americans, and Asian Americans; more Latinos were lynched in California than were persons of any other race or ethnicity.

An artist and writer, Gonzales-Day began this study by photographing lynching sites in order to document the absences and empty spaces that are emblematic of the forgotten history of lynching in the West. Drawing on newspaper articles, periodicals, court records, historical photographs, and souvenir postcards, he attempted to reconstruct the circumstances surrounding the lynchings that had occurred in the spaces he was photographing. The result is an unprecedented textual and visual record of a largely unacknowledged manifestation of racial violence in the United States. Including sixteen color illustrations, Lynching in the West juxtaposes Gonzales-Day’s evocative contemporary photographs of lynching sites with dozens of historical images.

Gonzales-Day examines California’s history of lynching in relation to the spectrum of extra-legal vigilantism common during the nineteenth century—from vigilante committees to lynch mobs—and in relation to race-based theories of criminality. He explores the role of visual culture as well, reflecting on lynching as spectacle and the development of lynching photography. Seeking to explain why the history of lynching in the West has been obscured until now, Gonzales-Day points to popular misconceptions of frontier justice as race-neutral and to the role of the anti-lynching movement in shaping the historical record of lynching in the United States. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

"Waste" (please) End Horror!
After enjoying "7 % solution" as a manna sent from heaven, I tasted stale bread in reading the aforesaid title. It was a huge let down, in terms of everything. The theatrical environs made the work overtly sensational and reduced Holmes' stature(can you imagine it?)to that of a novice trying to assess the world with the help of GBS. Sorry, but I just can not digest it.

a nice read
While shorter than Meyer's First Holmes Pastiche (The Seven Per Cent Solution), the West End Horrors is a much better book. Meyer still uses real figures (Oscar Wilde, Bernard Shaw, and Bram Stoker etc), which is silly and seems like a poor attempt at making Holmes less fiction and more reality. And while this volume doesn't have any action sequences like "Seven Per Cent", it is an excellent mystery that puzzles the reader until it builds to an intriguing and believable climax.

One thing that the buyer should take note of is that this is not "The White Chapel Horrors" (Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper) as many reviews have confused the two.

The West End Horrors is a really well-written Holmes Pastiche. I am looking forward to reading Meyer's Latest Holmes offering, the Canary Trainer.

Better Than the "Seven-Per-Cent Solution"
I was reluctant to read this one after the "Seven-Percent Solution," but Mr. Meyer disappointed me by writing a much better story.

This story appeared first in Play Boy, and the book is a longer revision of that one.

The story is about Murders that haunted the west end. Of course Sherlock Holmes cannot hold back when there are murders nearby.

The good thing about the book is that Mr. Meyer does not claim that any of the manuscripts provided by Doyle were forgeries. The bad thing is that he still uses real characters, like Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Bram Stoker, which I still say is dumb.

One other thing I hate about these pastiches is that they insist on saying that Watson was a real person, and that he used to publish his work under the pseudonym Conan Doyle, or else that Conan Doyle was the agent under whose name Watson used to publish works. I realize that this is one way to make things continue, but come on, we all know that we are only fooling ourselves.

Anyhow, I think the book might deserve 4 stars if not for the little drawbacks I mentioned above, and I am sure you are going to enjoy it, but try first to get it from the library, just in case you detested it.

Gotta love Sherlock!
I've read The West End Horror 3 times and absolutely love it. I would recommend it to anyone who likes Sherlock Holmes and I think Nicholas Meyer writes even better than Conan Doyle! I used part of the solution as an example in a project I did recently on the... well if I give you the topic, I'll also give you the solution to the mystery so I won't spoil it.

A slight let-down
This novel is somewhat anti-climactic. (Not just because it's a Holmes novel, which generally means 80% of the story is investigative dead ends, followed by 2% Holmes having a brainstorm and throwing Watson into a cab, leading to 10% villain's confession, ending with 8% denouement.) Having read Meyer's first Holmes homage, "The Seven Percent Solution," I was hoping for another effort of similar quality. "The West End Horror" does not quite live up to such lofty expectations. Clearly, it is well-written, capturing (and possibly improving on) the flavor of the original Doyle stories, and it is only by comparison to Meyer's brilliant first book that this one seems to struggle. Unfortunately, Meyer just tried too hard with this one to be clever. The "famous people" cameo in "Seven Percent Solution" made perfect sense. Sigmund Freud is a character because he was the most logical person for Watson to seek out, given that situation; he needed a medical consultation in the field in which Dr. Freud first made his reputation before the whole psychoanalysis fad took off. In "The West End Horror," however, the same trick is overdone, making the entire plot seem excessively like a gimmick. Oscar Wilde drops in and interacts with George Bernard Shaw, Bram Stoker reluctantly introduces Holmes to Henry Irving, and Gilbert and Sullivan are on hand to be interviewed about a murder victim. It's a little bit like the beginning of "Titanic," where Rose brings some paintings by Picasso aboard the doomed ship, wondering aloud if one day they'll ever be worth anything. In the hands of a lesser writer this would be a recipe for disaster; Meyer being an excellent writer, it's still a four-star novel. Still, the plot would have worked just as well, and possibly better, had the theater critic been named Bob, the famous actor Fred, the comic opera tandem Frank and Joe, and the gloomy novelist Aloysius, instead of throwing the famous personages into the mix and allowing the readers to become distracted by such unhelpful musings as "Is Meyer suggesting that Bram Stoker and Henry Irving are lovers?" (A: Probably not, but when Oscar Wilde tells Holmes that Irving is possessive of Stoker's time, one does wonder.) Freud's appearance added to the first book. The appearance of the entire membership of "Who's Who in London Theater, 1895 Edition" detracts from this one.

As a postscript, although the story does begin with a stabbing death in London, and although the synopsis on the book cover does point out that the killer is nicknamed "Jack," readers should be aware that this is NOT a Jack the Ripper novel. ... Read more

Book Description
When first published in 1969, Horizons West was immediately recognised as the definitive critical account of the Western film and some of its key directors.
This greatly expanded new edition is, like the original, written in a graceful, penetrating and absorbingly readable style.It provides definitive critical analysis of the six greatest film-makers of the Western genre: John Ford, Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher, Sam Peckinpah,Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood. And it offers illuminating accounts of such classic Westerns as The Searchers, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,Once Upon a Time in the West, Shane, and many many more.
Among the completely new material in this edition is Kitses's magisterial account of the work of the greatest of Western Directors John Ford. Kitses also assesses how the Western has been challenged by revisionist historical accounts of the West and the Western, and by movements such as feminism, postmodernism, multiculturalism and psychoanalysis.
The product of a lifetime's labour and love, Horizons West is a landmark of scholarship and interpretation devoted to what is for many Hollywood's signature genre. It provides a compelling account of the powerful mythology of America's past as forged by Western filmsand the men who made them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A CLASSIC STUDY RE-WORKED AND REISSUED
Back in the late 1960s Jim Kitses wrote an enjoyable study of three western directors who at the time were not nearly as highly regarded as they are today. His chapters on Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher were marvelous because both directors had pretty much completed their contibutions to the western genre. The chapter on Sam Peckinpah left something to be desired since, at the time, Peckinpah had only three feature films--all of them westerns--under his belt. This new edition addresses that problem by providing a career-length reassessment of Peckinpah's contributions to the western. The other new material--mainly on John Ford and Clint Eastwood--is certainly readable, but I'm not certain that it was essential. Nevertheless it is good to have this volume back in print once more.

Magnificent Expansion
This is a magnificent expansion of Kitses' 1970 book, which looked at the Westerns of Anthony Mann, Budd Boetticher and Sam Peckinpah.It is fine reading for anyone interested in the Western.

Kitses has added a marvelous chapter on John Ford, which examines all Ford's westerns from Stagecoach (1939) to Cheyenne Autumn (1964).Kitses' comments are sensible and to the point.His discussion of The Searchers is very well done, and he raises excellent points about The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.Also, he has written good analysis of Sergeant Rutledge and Two Rode Together, two late Westerns that few critics pay attention to.

Kitses has left the text of his original work alone, except for adding some to the Peckinpah chapter.While his comments on Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid are perceptive, the Peckinpah chapter is probably the weakest in the book.I am not sure if Kitses dislikes Peckinpah or if he disliked critics who like Peckinpah.

Kitses then adds two chapters, one of Sergio Leone and one on Clint Eastwood.The Leone chapter is okay but is far colder than the rest of the book.However, the chapter on Eastwood is terrific, one that strikes a fine balance between praise for his achievements and an awareness of the flaws in those achievements.This is perhaps some of the best serious analysis of Eastwood as a director that I have read.

Strongly recommended for all readers interested in Westerns. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Read, Marvelous Pictures
Mike Cochran and John Lumpkin have teamed up again. This time the Associated Press' Texas dynamic duo have put out a wonderous book dealing with West Texas culture, history, and geography. At first glance this bookappears to be a coffee table book one would flip through just to oggle theaward winning pictures of John T. Montford. It is that, and a whole lotmore. Montford's mavelous pictures are equally balanced by the excellentlycrafted words of award winning reporter and master story teller MikeCochran, and his partner John Lumpkin, Head of Associated Press' Texasoperations. This is a must read no matter where you hale from. But bewarned, even a dyed in the wool Easterner, will find it impossible to putdown. Five stars for Photography, Writing, Content, Humor, and (well readit and find out!) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

on realms of gold
This is a very sympathetic record of Keats' letters and poems, and anyone interested in his thoughts/personality is likely to find themselves pleased. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (4)

Excellent concise history ruined by politics
The narrative style is lovely.The chronological swath is impressive.The graphics are informative and easy to read.The authors are distinguished scholars.This book has everything going for it...except that it's ruined by politics.Basically, everyone in this part of the world at that time EXCEPT the white men who happened to be building the country has a reason to be proud and pissed off.Mexicans.Indians.Women.Animals.Slaves.Russians.Spanish.Rocks.Trees.Rivers.All of you guys were cool, just minding your own business when, BAM!, a horde of ignorant, exploitative and self-interested white men called "Americans" came along and destroyed your peaceful civilizations.

Too bad.This is really a good book, but it would be a really great book without the white man's guilty conscience.

I am offended
"...When Cartier met natives along the Newfoundland coast they greeted him with the only European words they knew - aca nada, "Nothing is here" in Spanish."

This is WRONG. I can't believe Hine and Faragher call themselves historians.

The name Canada comes from a chance meeting between Jacques Cartier and two young native Indians in 1535. The two Indians were showing Cartier the route to their village, Stadacona but they called their village "Kanata", (the Huron-Iroquois word for village). The name stuck and Kanata was then used by Cartier and other explorers to apply to an increasingly larger area. In 1547 everything north of the St. Lawrence River was designated as "Canada." The first official use of the name was in 1791 when Quebec was divided into Upper and Lower Canada. On July 1, 1867 - the date of the country's confederation - the name "Canada" was assumed.

A very good book, whose point of view will irritate many
On its own terms, this book is a huge success.

It synthesizes the past 30 years of serious historical research which revolutionized the presentation of the history of the American West by rescuing the experiences of groups who had been relatively ignored by standard interpretations.Indians, women, blacks, Latinos, Asians, workers are dealt with at length and with sympathy.

The research of anti-capitalist/neo-Marxist, anti-imperialist and pro-environmental historians is summarized and we can see the importance of the challenges they raise to old style historians.

The range of topics is impressive, and the writing is lively and intelligent. (I'd say this is suitable for the college junior/senior level.) The bibliography is amazingly up to date.

The reason why I don't give it a 5 is its lack of balance.At times the authors editorialize crudely--with dismissive judgements ("nonsense") and exclamation points galore to show us when we should boo or hiss.

Less empowered (victim) groups are too often treated as noble, and the majority as vile.This is the Achilles heel of a generation of historians who went into this field with strong orientations and sympathies.

But even more than the distaste for the majority groups, the biggest drawback is the relative lack of attention paid to them. I'm not saying, in an old fashioned way, that they should extol the "achievement" or mindlessly glorify the "Anglos" or capitalists.There is too much solid evidence here that the achievements were not 100% beneficial and that the white males could act and think in apalling ways.But they were the majority actors and this book can too often lose sight of that.At times it feels like the center is missing.

Still, it's an impressive, thought-provoking book.(The section on attempts by cowboys to unionize should be treasured by anybody who was ever spoon fed the Turner thesis.) But it probably should be the second book to give a neophyte, not the first.

A new and highly recommended interpretative survey.
This new interpretive history of the American west is recommended reading for college-level students of American history. Drawings, posters, photos and illustrations pepper what remains a panoramic view of history andcharacters which succeeds in documenting some of the major trends andpersonalities of the West. Highly recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
Storytelling World/Storytelling Magazine Award Winner

A lively collection of the best and scariest stories told by Texans

Some humorous, some haunting, and some just late-night terrifying, these stories, gathered by two favorite Texas tellers, span a rich cultural heritage from the earliest Spanish explorers to the present, from La Llorona (the Weeping Woman) to the vanishing hitchhiker. Introduced by John O. West and John L. Davis, two of Texas' most respected folklorists, the stories include tales adapted by European settlers to their new southwestern settings, more historically rooted legends about such early pioneers as Britt Bailey of the Gulf Coast prairie and Josiah Wilbarger of Austin, and those notorious contemporary cautionary tales known as urban legends.

With two appendixes addressing selection, learning, and telling of stories as well as sources and scholarship, Texas Ghost Stories is a full-service compendium for tellers, teachers, readers, and collectors. Celebrating both the blending and the diversity of Texan cultures through the timeless stories we love to be scared by, it is a treasury for all Texans and for those who really want to know us. ... Read more

Product Description
"Earth has no sorrow that earth cannot heal."
The best of John Muir: 332 quotations, the distillation of his thought, the essence of his beliefs. Muir was the foremost conservationist of his time: nature writer, social critic, realist, a romantic, a visionary.A long-needed collection that features an excellent subject index. Painstaking bibliographic references make this an invaluable addition to one s Muir Library.(Yosemite Association.) If asked for a succinct statement of his beliefs, Muir might have replied:
"In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Still Useful, even with google and John Muir Exhibit
I am frequently asked for the source of particular Muir quotations. Answering these requests is difficult, because many of Muir's best passages were written in different locations. Muir frequently wrote for newspapers and magazines, and then later edited his writings for book publication. So, there are sometimes two or three slightly different versions of the same Muir quote! In addition, some of his most memorable quotes come from his journals, only part of which have ever been published.

One way of finding many of Muir's best quotes is available through this 1988 compilation by Peter Browning. Browning has selected quotations from Muir filling 74 pages, arranged chronologically. Each chapter reflects a particular time period. For example, the first chapter, "So Little a Time, " reflects 1860-1869. The book ends with a chapter reflecting some Muir quotes from as late as 1920, published quite a few years after his death.
The most valuable feature of the book is the index. The 22 page index includes most of the topics that one might think of when thinking of John Muir, for example, "Animals," "Bears," "Earth," "Mountains," "Nature," and "Wilderness." It also contains many topics you might not expect: "civilization," "darkness," "ignorance," "People," and "wives." Then, under each of these topics, you will find the first line or a portion of a phrase which uses that topic in the quotation.

Thus, if you look up "Freedom," in the index, you will find five quotes using that word, indicated by phrases like "boasted f. of the town," or "f. and beauty and peace come in." If you look up the latter, you'll find this relatively-unknown gem from Muir: "Only spread a fern-frond over a man's head, and worldly cares are cast out, and freedom and beauty and peace come in." Browning indicates the source of each quote, this one from both the Atlantic Monthly (January 11,) and My First Summer in the Sierra, with the correct page numbers indicated. Browning also indicates when it was first written, when that can be determined; in this case on June 13, 1869.

With the advent of the World Wide Web, it is now possible to do a search on the John Muir Exhibit Website for the source of many Muir quotes. If you need to find the source of a particular Muir quote, you can do a search on the John Muir Exhibit website with the Sierra Club host server search engine. This allows you to type a key phrase from the quote you are trying to find, and if it is on any of the books Muir wrote which we have online, you should find it.

Even with the Web, Peter Browning's compilation provides a very useful service, allowing keyword searches, and it is also fun just to leaf through the book to read many of Muir's best quotations. Of course, at 98 pages, the book is not exhaustive, and the selection are those preferred by Browning. Some of my favorite quotes are not found in Browning's book. But most of Muir's best quotes can be found in the book, so I recommend it if you have a need to find Muir sources.

This review is also available on my John Muir Exhibit website:
[...]

Useful resource for locating Muir quotes
I am frequently asked for the source of particular Muir quotations. Answering these requests is difficult, because many of Muir's best passages were written in different locations.Muir frequently wrote for newspapers and magazines, and then later edited his writings for book publication.So, there are sometimes two or three slightly different versions of the same Muir quote! In addition, some of his most memorable quotes come from his journals, only part of which have ever been published. One way of finding many of Muir's best quotes is available through this 1988 compilation by Peter Browning. Browning has selected quotations from Muir filling 74 pages, arranged chronologically. Each chapter reflects a particular time period. For example, the first chapter, "So Little a Time,"reflects 1860-1869.The book ends with a chapter reflecting some Muir quotes from as late as 1920, published quite a few years after his death.The most valuable feature of the book is the index.The 22 page index includes most of the topics that one might think of when thinking of John Muir, for example, "Animals," "Bears," "Earth," "Mountains," "Nature," and "Wilderness." It also contains many topics you might not expect: "civilization," "darkness," "ignorance," "People," and "wives." Then, under each of these topics, you will find the first line or a portion of a phrase which uses that topic in the quotation.Thus, if you look up "Freedom," in the index, you will find five quotes using that word, indicated by phrases like "boasted f. of the town," or "f. and beauty and peace come in." If you look up the latter, you'll find this relatively-unknown gem from Muir: "Only spread a fern-frond over a man's head, and worldly cares are cast out, and freedom and beauty and peace come in."Browning indicates the source of each quote, this one from both the Atlantic Monthly(January 11, 1911) and My First Summer in the Sierra, with the correct page numbers indicated.Browning also indicates when it was first written, when that can be determined; in this case on June 13, 1869.With the advent of the World Wide Web, it is now possible to do a search on the John Muir Exhibit Website for the source of many Muir quotes. If you need to find the source of a particular Muir quote, you can do a search on the John Muir Exhibit website with the SierraClub host serversearch engine.This allows you to type a key phrase from the quote you are trying to find, and if it is on any of the books Muir wrote which we have online, you should find it. Even with the Web, Peter Browning's compilation provides a very useful service, allowing keyword searches, and it is also fun just to leaf through the book to read many of Muir's best quotations.Of course, at 98 pages, the book is not exhaustive, and the selection are those preferred by Browning.Some of my favorite quotes are not found in Browning's book. But most of Muir's best quotes can be found in the book, so I recommend it if you have a need to find Muir sources. ... Read more

Book Description
Informed by historical scholarship and media analysis, this book takes a critical look at this award-winning show from a wide range of perspectives.

Eminent scholars Peter C. Rollins and John O'Connor make an important contribution to the field with an eclectic mix of essays, which translate visual language into on-screen politics. While the series may be criticized as "idealistic," its clever techniques of camera work, lighting, editing, and mise en scene reflect America's best image of itself, and entertains a loyal audience that desperately wants to believe in the nobility of the American dream. This collection introduces readers to the sensibilities to appreciate the show's nuances and the necessary knowledge to avoid any misreadings. It will be of interest to students of politics, popular culture, fans and critics alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The West Wing
speaks about how popluar culture influences the real thing and vice versa. A must for all political junkies

Camelot the way it should have been
The West Wing is an idealized look at how the American presidency should have been; idealized but not flawless. Jed Bartlet has plenty of things to drive anyone close to him around the bend.This book looks at the Emmy award-winning series from a number of perspectives.Anyone interested in American history or the presidency will find this an essential look at a peculiarly American institution.Great Job. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Delightful.
A fine collection of the stranger part of the West. Good cartooning, & absorbing reading.


There is a sub-genre of Westerns, growing in strength, called the Weird West.

Anybody who likes this book would enjoy--Daisy Kutter: The Last Train
Or
The Riot at Bucksnort and Other Western Tales (The Works of Robert E. Howard)

Entertaining and Informative
This collection of black and white entertaining comic-style renderings of vignettes about the West is really well put together.Most of the stories concern actual events from the times of Manifest Destiny to Turner's "End of the Frontier", though there are few ghost/supernatural stories set in a western setting for the reader looking for items of a "weird" bent.

Note: Everything included in the collection is backed with bibliographic citations.Thus this collection with judicious use could be used as a supplement to a study of American History.

NOT LIKE A JOHN WAYNE MOVIE...
One of the many "Big Books" from Factoid Press, this volume delivers up a multitude of disturbing, humorous, and crazy tales from the West of yesteryear. Cleverly (and sometimes graphically) illustrated, this book would probably not be a good read for anybody who believes that the Old West was John Wayne-esque, where the good guy always won the duel and got the lady. The real West was more like a spaghetti western, where even the good guys were cut from a dubious cloth. Included in this volume are the stories of the ill-fated Donner Party (who were forced to dine on one another), Six Gun Slade (whose treatment of his opponent was surely an inspiration on Quentin Tarantino),Liver-Eatin' Johnson (the name says it all), Cowboys vs. UFO's, the slaying of a prehistoric bird in Arizona, and many, many others. Perhaps most amazing was how frequently people crossed the line from outlaw to lawman- it's almost as if being a murderer or train robber was a necessary prerequisite for a law enforcement job! The role of blacks, women, and homosexuals is discussed with refreshing frankness, and the clash between Anglo, Spanish, and Indian cultures is addressed as well. This book is entertaining and educational at the same time, and highly recommended to anybody with the slightest interest in what went on in the real Old West.

Wild, Wild West?
Paradox press adds another "Big Book Of..." that shares the same flavour of it's "brothers".A wide style of illustration helps the feel of this book, as do the wide array of "tales" culled from the period.Nice that they included several not-so-well-known tales.Note: this is NOT a refrence guide, but an rather enjoyable read.

YEE-HAH!
The Old West is full of legends.And you'll find a passel of 'em in this volume from Paradox Press.Many of the stories spotlighted here are a mixture of American history and mythology.But as the Unsinkable Molly Brown (who is featured in the book) would say, "It makes for a goodstory!" ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the excitement of things one does not understand immediately
the three authors have found an excellent way of trying to put into writing an intense experience in professional drama in west-africa, an experience which is way beyond the western concepts. It communicates in a very lifely way their scholarly preoccupations mixed with their human insights. ... Read more