This is my first introduction to Greene & Greene's work. If you have never seen it before, think of Frank Lloyd Wright's work, except everything is allot more rounded, and comfortable looking, except for the exteriors. I would say though that Frank Lloyd Wright was a better architect, but he could have gotten Greene & Greene to make his homes interiors allot more homey looking, and less dated. If your a fan of Wright's or the Art's & Crafts movement buy the book.

The Greene brothers were architects who designed in the Arts and Crafts style. Like Frank Lloyd Wright, their style was so distinctive that they are not considered as examples of a type, but as architects whose style stands by itself. Unlike Frank Lloyd Wright, the Greene brothers' practice was almost completely limited to personal residences. This has probably limited the reach of their reputation. Outside of the Gamble house, which has been made into a museum, the work of the Greene brothers is generally not accessible to the public. All but one of their houses was in California, most of them in Pasadena. One wonders how well known Wright would be had he never designed the Guggenheim, or the Marin County Civic Center, or if he had never ventured outside of Chicago.

This book addresses the problem by taking us inside twenty-five examples of Greene and Greene's work. The text is accompanied by the breathtaking photography of Alexander Vertikoff. I own a large collection of books on the architecture of this period, and those illustrated by Vertikoff stand in a class by themselves. His photos are magnificent, doing justice to the material he portrays. I doubt if there is a finer photographer working in this field today.

With photos like these, it would have been easy to turn this volume into nothing more than a glorious picture book. Instead, Bruce Smith provides an engaging story of the careers of the two architects. The best writing is found in an extensive introduction, where the author discusses the Greene and Greene style in general terms. One can see at a glance how the style starts with Arts and Crafts. Indeed, there is a wealth of Stickley furniture in many of the houses. It is equally obvious how the two went beyond the plain craftsman designs so common further east. The Japanese influence was much stronger here, and the craftsmanship in the wood joinery was much more refined. There is more woodworking than carpentry here. The woods included Burmese teak, Honduras mahogany, Port Orford cedar, oak, maple and redwood. In some cases, the brothers were able to design furniture, landscaping and gardens to go with the architecture.

For the remainder of the book, we get a tour through twenty-five houses designed by Greene and Greene. Each house is presented in the order of its design and construction, with a history of the entire house to the present day. In some cases, this includes restoration after some abuse. Some of these houses were created on a budget; others were done with no apparent limits on the imagination of the architects. All are works of art, created as a labor of love by all concerned. For anyone unfamiliar with the work of Greene and Greene, this is an excellent introduction. For those who are already captivated, this book is a must, if only for those magnificent pictures.

As an aspiring woodworker with apparently very little natural talent, I can only view Greene & Greene's work with a mixture of awe and jealousy. While I find much of what Wright has done to be at times inaccessible and dated (primarily because so many others have attempted to copy or incorporate his style into theirs - and failed miserably by the way), the Greene's work is absolutely gorgeous, and would fit in with many current styles.....But then again you all know that. The question is why buy this particular book?

If you are looking for wonderful, full-page color photographs this is it. The first 50 pages are devoted to the G&G style; there is a page or two devoted to Materials, Joinery, Lighting etc. Descriptions are quite brief, and include a couple of pics.

The next 170 pages are devoted to 25 different houses with narration about the original design process, the ensuing history, and the current state. Again tons of color pics, and lots of shots of the furniture they designed to go with the particular house.

If you are looking for an in-depth discussion, check out Randall Makinson's "Architecture as a Fine Art/Furniture and Related Designs. These two books (now available in one edition) cover the G&G history in detail, but have less photos (many in black and white). They do have many front on center views of the furniture (as well as early drawings) so if you are interested in building their furniture, these books make a suitable companion to the one being reviewed.

This book proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the "good doctor" was completely guilty of conspiring with John Wilkes Booth. Despite the way the Mudd family has manipulated the story and the media for decades, the truth is finally coming out!!!

A True account of Mudd's involvement. Though he cried foul, "The guilty dog barks the loudest".

The Notes' section alone is worth the cost of the book!

Opus, being a thick book of about 500 pages, reads in a snap. It has everything a good spy novel is entitled to have, big stakes, big suspense, big thrills with twists and turns hardly any other genre can offer. But this novel delivers an extra punch, in what I'd call a chill of authenticity. Take a brief look at the author's biography and you'll realize how much the factual side of the fiction is rooted in the real experiences of a real person during one of the bleakest periods of modern history.
Mr. Alexander, a seasoned U.S. diplomat who went through inevitable rigors of being assigned to an Eastern Bloc country at the peak of the Cold War, knows what he's talking about. His insight and intimate knowledge of how and at what risk and expense things were being done back then give Opus the validity the best works of fiction enjoy.
Talented narration and deft elaboration of the characters, many of whom are put through a galaxy of dramatic and psychologically challenging predicaments, elevate the almost documentary account of the adventures of an American chasing a seemingly impossible dream in the unyielding and treacherous environment of the other side of the Iron Curtain to the level of an outstanding piece of fiction.

This is a wonderful book! The adventure begins in post-war Germany and brings you through many more countries to weave an exciting tale of suspense, intrigue, culture and patriotism.

The hero of the novel is an extremely likeable young man who is confronted early in his career with a story about Beethoven that stirs his passion for music. This passion leads him to encounters with dangerous and unlikely bedfellows. The story has many twists and turns and will keep you riveted until late in the evening.

An exciting novel of intrigue set in Eastern Europe at the height of the Cold War. Travel with the hero - a United States Diplomat - throughout West/East Germany, Hungary, Greece, the United States, and the Soviet Union as he searches for a mysterious musical manuscript. His adventures and experiences serving as a United States diplomat in various countries in Europe contain all of the elements of a diplomatic thriller. You will enjoy this novel. The story is creative and interesting.

This is an excellent book, illuminating both the life and intellectual development of Howe, one of this country's foremost literary critics, and the world of New York's literati much throughout the twentieth century. It gives insight not only into the thoughts and work of this serious, idealistic, and highly intelligent man, not only into his complicated, social, religious, and intellectual background, and his encounter with the new world, at times clashing against the values of his ancestors, but also into the riveting history of Jewish socialist ideas, stemming directly from the Pale, shaping the American political, intellectual landscape throughout the century. In the process, it reveals the widening split within the Jewish community, the potential of the developing "kulturkampf," and the winding path of the bitter struggle, still characterizing the polarized groups of the more traditional and the more radical academics of our time. Reading Alexander's work, one learns not only to appreciate Howe's vision and moral development but also to place them in the context of the history of Jewish intellectual thought in search for the Messianic age. One may even note some of the crucial commonalities between this search and that of a number of European Jewish literati in our century. Of course, Howe's paradoxical attachment to the "world of our fathers" was not an option there. As true children of the Enlightenment, some of the European intellectuals remained simply detached and alienated from the tradition; others became communists or "Catholic socialists," following the instructions of the Popular Front and struggling against the transgressions of Franco rather than paying attention to the threat against Jewish life and being in Nazi Germany. Howe was more complicated and more "Jewish" than that (of course, he also had both more freedom to be Jewish and later more time to learn about, and recognize the consequences, of the Holocaust). Yet the process of living in, and the difficulties of assimilating to, a hostile world in need of redemption show deep-seated commonalities between these groups. They also reveal the ramifications and the price of such process and such need. While aware of the power of these forces, Alexander treats his subject truthfully and sympathetically. And despite his critique of Howe's initial opposition to both US involvement in World War II and the creation of the State of Israel, Alexander remains true to his task to trace Howe's steps and penetrate his ideas and imagination as truthfully as possible. The result is that he paints his subject as a great tragic character, vulnerable, torn by contradictions, intelligent, insightful, and despite everything, "better than ourselves." This is an excellent book, beautifully written, moving, exhilarating, and dramatic.

Edward Alexander is not going to win the hagiography (lives of the saints) award of the year but he just might capture the critical biography prize because his tripartite study of the intellectual condominiums that co-mingled in the mind of Irving Howe is work of meticulous scholarship, felicitous writing style and a literate feistiness. The latter is perhaps the most endearing part of this absorbing book: Alexander has chosen to write a biography of a man whose political views, historical understanding and religious thinking (or lack thereof) he does not share. In fact, in a personal communication with his future biographer, Howe once referred to Alexander as my favorite reactionary. It is therefore a tribute to Alexander's skill th! at he has been able to reconstruct Howe's remarkable contributions to the American socio-political agenda and the Jewish component thereof while at the same time offering his, Alexander's, editorial strictures of Howe's political, literary and cultural myopias and tunnel vision. In his youth adolescence and early 20s - a period that coincided with the rise of Nazism and the outbreak of World War II - Irving Howe (né Horenstein) pledged his troth to the Trotskyite vision of the world, that is to say, an anti-Stalinist yet totalitarian form of communism which filtered the all political events through the doctrinaire lenses of the party line. The contrition which Howe expressed later in life about this part of his career could not be anticipated in the ferocious advocacy he advanced in his numerous articles in Labor Action about a version of history in which only the workers' causes and the class struggle had any validity. In this shameful and embarrassing period Howe was able! to analyze World War II as a unidimensional clash between! two capitalist systems. Alexander has gone through the painstaking and undoubtedly masochistic exercise of reading the articles that Howe wrote under his own name and under a pseudonym in order to document the vapidity of Howe's incredible ability to write about the most seismic events of the twentieth century - World War II and the Holocaust - without mentioning the uniqueness of Hitler's racial policies and, the targeting of Jews. There is no better example of ideological blindness filtering out unpleasant truths that might alter the rigidities of one's political beliefs. The ideological straitjacket which immobilized Howe's not inconsiderable intellectual potential was seen especially in the Partisan Review magazine crowd, among which Howe was a distinguished representative. The love affair which the largely Jewish coterie of Jewish intellectuals attached to that journal carried on with the American-English poet T.S. Eliot is a curious and archival example of the syndrome ! known as self-hate. Alexander notes with irony and some delectation the affection displayed by Howe and other Jewish intellectuals for a poet whose anti-Semitism was as unsubtle as his poetics was refined. Author Alexander also faults Howe for his inability in the late 1940s to register the importance of what Winston Churchill called an event of world history that would require two or three thousand years to conjure with - the creation of the State of Israel. For Howe and his ideological brethren Israel's re-birth was to be seen only under the rubric of fighting British imperialism. Even as late as 1982 when Howe was ready to celebrate Israel's creation, he made it a point to note that acceptance of the State did not imply any Zionist commitment. In his many digressions in this biography, Alexander rejects the use made by Howe and other (including this reviewer) of the term "Arab-Israeli conflict," as if it implied some kind of equalizing of responsibility. Says Ale! xander: "It's the Arab war against the Jews - period.&! quot; Alexander calls one of the chapters in his book The Request of Jewishness, by which he means Howe's slow and painful re-insertion into the Jewish orbit of history. In some ways it was predictable because Howe was a kind of Yiddish-speaking Marrano who despite heroic efforts to submerge his "parochial" heritage, found it bubbling to the surface in the soft cadences of the first language he spoke as a child in the Bronx and in the warmth he remembered in the image of his virtuous, hard working parents and the thousands of other simple Jewish immigrants who people the world of his youth. Later in life when he was reviewing a major book by a feminist critic, he conjured up the picture of his parents as an antidote to the rigidities of feminist theory. Howe's odyssey from Marxist ideologue to secular Jewish guru was neither smooth nor without its troughs and depressions. It began in the 1950s with his interest in editing Yiddish short stories and poetry, an exercise! in which he exhibited skill, sensitivity and sober judgment. It continued with Howe's entry into the university world, where, despite the absence of a Ph.D. in English literature and in a discipline notoriously prejudiced against Jewish scholars he achieved more than a modicum of success teaching at Brandeis, Stanford and Hunter College of the City of New York. The early 1960s was probably the turning point in terms of Howe's Jewish loyalties, as he himself hinted in his 1982 autobiography. Alexander details the controversy which swirled over Howe because of his unhappiness with Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, a book which first appeared in serial form in The New Yorker. Howe organized a forum under the banner of his journal Dissent, during which the book was dissected asnd repudiated. Critics later argued that Howe had led a lynch mob against Arendt's book - a description which Howe and his supporters vigorously denied. By 1976, the bicentennial of the American revol! ution, Howe had come full circle with the publication of hi! s most famous book - World of Our Fathers. Alexander wryly observers that in 1940 none of the Partisan Review crowd could ever have conceived that their union-organizing, Trotskyite polemicist cum literary critic, would produce an affectionate, absorbing and best-selling volume about the hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants who had come to New York City beginning with the turn of the century. In publishing this extraordinary document Howe digested a library of Yiddish books, memoirs, letters, newspapers and other archival materials in order to tell his story and to let the participants of his drama speak out to history. Alexander recognizes the incisiveness of Howe's reconstruction of the Jewish immigrant community, its cultural riches and linguistic treasures. But he also advertises the book's weaknesses - its preoccupation with secular Jewishness at the expense of its religious dimensions. Howe's main argument was that Jews came to American for non ideological reaso! ns - to save themselves from persecution at worst and to make a better living for their families at best. Alexander does not contest this point but observes that there were thousand of other Jews who fled Czarist Russia and went to Palestine for ideological reasons. In the last decade of his life, before he was felled by illness Irving Howe injected himself in numerous political and literary skirmishes and Alexander is there giving us a lively play-by-play account of the victories, defeats and draws. Some of Howe's best critical works pivoted around the claims of the new university curricula where the books of "dead white males" are now denounced as holdovers from a despised canon. Howe would have none of this nonsense. Perhaps the best of Howe's writing was Holocaust memoirs and the difficulty of establishing esthetic criteria for a literature aages@interlog.comthat had no precedents and which "succeeded only when it failed." If there are any faults in A! lexander's stimulating biography they flow from a surfeit o! f its virtues. In an effort to be thorough Alexander has read virtually everything that Howe wrote and what others wrote about Howe. However, this reviewer found the parts about Howe's struggle with defining his Jewish of much greater interest than those parts dealing with Howe's interest in the esoterica of literary criticism, American ethnic politics, black writing and the American novel. Others will undoubtedly disagree. -30-

Although my initial interest in this book stemmed from a pursuit of amatuer paleontology, I soon discovered that Dr. Alexander had written a very general and succinct discussion of how and why bones are as they are. His presentation ranges from most interesting mechanical considerations to those of esthetics. The very well written text is supported by beautiful photography -- who would have thought that 'bones' could be so interesting?

My only regret is that I am reviewing a borrowed copy. Unfortunately, the book is out of print, and I cannot find even a used copy. I intend to contact the publisher and encourage a second printing.

Meanwhile, check you library resources. This book is well worth reading and contemplating.

G. Patrick Martin, Ph. D.

This is an excellent book. This book shows how the causes of Israel and Zionism are just and how its foes are vile, despicable, hypocritical, liars, and at least in some cases, anti-Semitic. He also exposes the so-called "peace process" between Israel and the PLO as being a set-up for the purpose of destroying Israel in stages and how the Israeli Government is complicit in this plot. I just pray that this plot is defeated.

This book is great on three critical dimensions

Format--Structure Content--Concepts Reality--Real-life

The format of very succinct articles is the key to all great literature.

Usually the things of most worth are simply stated Majestic in concept Whip sentences in writing Words with wallop, like burning, hanging and the rack

Words that crash through our defenses That force us to face reality That compress a vital concept Into spear-like succinctness

The concepts are true--and illstrated to establish their verity

The practicality of each article and concept is substantiated by the real-life experiences that serve as their basis

This is a vital addition to the literature on system design and development: projects.

Scorpion's Sting combines elements of clever detective work, compelling personal narrative, and Southwestern life and politics to create an intreguing tale that any reader will love. When McKenzie's unlikely hero, Hal Taylor, adds part-time detective work to his credentials as a high school history teacher and father, he quickly finds himself involved in one of the biggest cases in Arizona history. McKenzie adds vibrant character depth to an excellently developed story, and the result is a terrific novel.

E.P. Alexander, Longstreet and Lee's Chief of Artillery, wrote two books. This book, his first, was written while Alexander was in Central America, without access to the Official Records, etc. Thus, he wrote primarily from memory. Alexander started the work at the urgings of his children and did not intend the work to be published. It was meant for his family only. As a result, it is a very personal account of his life during the Civil War. He does go into detail regarding battles in which he participated and freely offers his opinions about various strategies, tactics and leaders. (If no one but his family was to read it, then there was no one to offend.) In his opinions Alexander comes across as scrupulously honest and straight-forward, not to mention intelligent. Later Alexander decided to write a 2nd book; and at first he used these recollections as the basis for that book (whose title I forget). He then gave up this tactic and wrote his 2nd book from "scratch". So now, Gary Gallagher has once again come to the rescue and pieced together Alexander's first writings - which is this particular book......Overall, I found this to be one of the most interesting and enjoyable books I have read. It is very funny at times; then often sad. It contains much information about battles; and also insights into the leaders of those battles. But while his 2nd book is a strict military tract about the Civil War, this 1st book also gives the reader a "feel" for the people involved. It was a joy to read - one great book!

One of the most enjoyable memoirs I've ever read. I disagree with the reviewer who said Alexander tended to bragg about his accomplishments. If anything, I thought this book rather modest. However, Alexander is not shy about sharing his opinions, but this did not impress me as bragging. His vignettes of the leaders he had personnal dealings with are priceless and add a dimension to my impressions of men such as Lee and Longstreet. The book left me wanting to know about Alexander the man. No good biography of him exists to my knowledge. I read one account a number of years ago in 'Civil War Times Illustrated' that stated he had a rather nasty temper. I was unable to form a mental picture of the man from reading his book because the narrative is that of a good-natured fellow teling the openly honest story of his war service. I was left wanting to get to know this person a little better. This is a must read.

I think that as time goes by, Porter Alexander's personal memoirs, written for his family and thus very candid, will come to be seen as an outstanding work both of historical reminiscence and of 19th century writing. The Introduction, in which Alexander tells of some incidents from his boyhood, is worth the entire book. But, there is more. Alexander worked either as signals officer, ordnance officer or artillery commander for virtually everybody in the Army of Northern Virginia, including Beauregard, J.E. Johnston, Stonewall Jackson, Longstreet, and Lee. He participated in virtually every major battle. He has the rare ability to desribe events in a fresh and modern manner, so that the reader is there with him in the thick of things. I can only imagine the thrill that the editor must have had when he found these papers at UNC in 1989. Alexander apparently wrote a more formal history of the Civil War published in 1907 with which I am not familiar. Although the frontispiece shows an unremarkable face, the writing shows the glowing intelligence and enthusiasm that must have impressed his superiors and led to his being given one responsible assignment after another. By being present, but a generation younger than the ANV leaders, he is able to give both intimate, but also critical pictures of them. This book is indispensible to anyone with an interest in the Civil War in the Eastern Theater. A true classic.

This book, unlike Alexander's more recently discovered personal memoir, is only for the serious scholar. His account of strategy, tactics and troop movements is almost completely unleavened with anecdotes or personal reactions. I found it to be very dry, very hard to maintain interest in. That isn't to say it's not an important book -- it is, very much so. There are areas where Alexander's knowledge falters and he should not be taken as a sole source of information, but in general, this is a very detailed and worthwhile account by an intelligent participant. But recreational reading? Not on your life. I'd recommend the author's Fighting for the Confederacy instead.

I believe this to be the most accurate, and honest, first-hand account of the Army of Northern Virginia. After reading this book, your perception of certain battlefields will never be the same. Not only was Alexander a true soldier, but also a fine scholar.

Alexander's memoirs is perhaps the best of any officer from the North and South. His narrative is brutally honest when it comes to the strategies of the Army of Northern Virginia. He is also not shy when it comes to pointing out mistakes made, even when made by Lee, Jackson, and others of the high command. Alexander writes in a very clear, and understandable way. He starts out with his being on the West Coast when the Southern states begin to secede from the Union. When his home state leaves, he reports to Lt. McPherson, later to become an admired officer in the Union army, that he must go with his state.

From here, Alexander gives his first-hand experience in nearly every battle fought in the Virginia vicinity, as well as Chickamauga in the west. You may also be surprised to find out that he writes in detail about the Army of the Potomac as well, giving its officers and strategies both praise and criticism. He always uses their reports, as well as the South's, when it comes to their accounts of the battle, and their casualty lists, giving credence and respect to both sides.

Alexander was one of Lee's most valuable officers, and perhaps his best artillerist. He was a man Lee could not spare. Longstreet and Jackson both appreciated his great knowledge and value. This book will not disappoint you. Many historians have given great praise and due credit to Alexander's scholarly narrative. I highly recommend this book to any Civil War buff.