Kenneth William wrote a series of five books on Ulysses S. Grant in the 1950's. He died before he could complete his supposedly "definitive treatment" of Grant the general. Williams' books are well-researched and you will find few factual gaffes. However, his writing style is often torturous and his passion for meaningless minutiae will probably drive you crazy. He excels in listing every detail of a battle until you're shaking your head or holding it as you reach for the aspirin bottle.

Williams' reverence for Grant is evident throughout. He is also peculiarly defensive about the issue of Grant's occasional over-indulgence in whiskey and in his footnotes he becomes almost hysterical on this topic. This type of hagiography is misplaced in a serious work and seriously undermines the credibility of the work. William's five volumes have been pretty much forgotten in the modern era and for good reason. He tells the reader almost nothing about Grant as a human being, his private life (pivotal in Grant's story) is regally ignored throughout.

If you are interested in examining Grant as a general, opt for the much superior books by J.F.C. Fuller, available on Amazon. This is a lifeless and boring treatment of a highly complex and fascinating man.

I think the book is better than the other review gave it credit for. I will agree that he does go out of his way to discredit Grant's drinking. But on the whole these are pretty informative books not as dry as the other review says they are. The two new editions by the University of Nebraska Press have great introductions by Grimsley and Simpson. Simpson gives more credit to Williams than the review here gives. These introductions are excellent. But the volumes are not always about Grant. The Kentucky Invasion is covered in the second volume as is the battle of Murfreesboro. I recommend these books to anyone interested in Grant and/or the Western Theater of the Civil War.

The critic's review of this book is rather depressing when one considers what happened when Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Productions hired Richard Farnsworth to play the title role in the early 1980s film, The Grey Fox. The film was brilliant from beginning to end as are most of Farnsworth's films. Also, in the film, there is no mention of a gay lifestyle though back in the early 1980s, that was more taboo than today. Find the video and enjoy the story.

John Boessnecker (with the help of Mark Dugan) continues his exploration of the California and Old West outlaw/lauwman history. With works like this one and With Badges and Bullets, and Gold Dust and Gunsmoke he is rapidly taking his place as one the important chroniclers of outlaw/lawman history during this period. Like his numerous other books, this one is both attractive and satifisfactory to scholars because of its properly researched and amply footnoted text and to buffs and interested readers because of its sprightly, generously illustrated and beautifully presented text.

I bought this book under the impression that I would learn lots of Kanji if I worked through it, but I was very wrong.

This book is boring. It lists about 1200 kanji, but all it is a list and some boxes for you to practice writing them in. Sure, it shows you the stroke order and compounds, but everything is written in roma-ji, and the compounds aren't that useful anyway. You aren't going to learn much, even if you do fill up the boxes with Kanji. There are no exercises to increase recognition, and if you have never encountered the words before, simply learning the Kanji will not teach you how to use the word. If you have learned the word before, most likely you learned the Kanji along with the word. Don't make the same mistake I did and buy this book. There are much better books for learning Kanji.

This book is one of the best self-study guides I've ever laid my eyes on! The instructions are very clear, starting with tips on how to learn the characters best, and ending with the direction of the brush strokes when writing them. If you are serious about learning Japanese, I would definitely recommend this wonderful book.

This is a good example of a real master at work. I connect more with his black and white portraits more than anything else in the book. He's the best at what he does and it's a damn shame that he's fallen off the radar screen. This is a reprint edition. Most of the photos look very dated. That's why I don't connect with much of it. The pictures lack a timelessness which takes them beyond commerce and into art.

Hiro seems to have dropped off the map which is too bad. His portrait work is great. It seems that he got a little looser in the 80's which works for me. Still, his work never strays from the spare design style which made him the hot ticket. This book does not make me want to run out and take pictures. I wonder about his lighting more than anything. These photos are paradigms of design and composition but not much beyond that. This is a great textbook for the advertising photographer. What worked then can work now. I would be very interested seeing what Hiro is producing now. Hiro, Hiro where are you?

Not only does this book only go over the very very basic steps on how to use this program, which I could have figured out how to use to program by doing this without the book, but is out-dated. I think it was a good idea to have color and show lots of pictures of screens that the author is talking about, but half the screens have already been changed in the new updated version of this program. There are options the book talks about that are no longer offered in the program or are gotten to by different steps.

This book continues the series of excellent colour learning guides from Sam's. I enjoyed the Frontpage 2000 guide so much I also purchased the Word 2000 and Publisher 2000 guides. Full colour really makes a difference! Plus, every step is explained visually, right down to showing which menu option to select, by showing the menu with the mouse hovering over the correct option. If you're looking for an in-depth description of every command in Publisher 2000, this book shouldn't be your first choice. If, however, you want to learn the more useful features of Publisher 2000 in an easy to understand and remember format, this guide will serve you well.

This is the worst piece of garbage I have ever read. It is outdated, useless when it was new, and overall a waste of time and money. I feel sorry for the trees that were used to make the paper for this book. THIS RATES A BIG ZERO.

I bought / read this book in 1976 and still have it .... I've made some very profitable real estate investments since then .... and just part-time. This book is a very inexpensive way to learn and DO the basics of what making money in real estate is all about. VERY down to earth and easy reading .... it changed my life. These principles still work today and probably always will.

I was very disappointed in this book. I got it because of the authors Sulieman Allen, LeAnne Howe, and Julian Lang, none of whom are in the book. The writers in the book are all very good, but I really wanted to read more of LeAnne Howe's work!

If you truly want to understand the spirituality of Native Americans, you must read their poetry and fiction, not some white person's weekend workshop going on a spirit quest. Native spirituality is embedded in Indian humor, reflections on nature, and the tears that have been spilled dealing with the aftermath of 300 years of persecution. I laughed and cried as I read such literary treasures as "Old Harjo" and "How Coyote Lost His Manhood." The majority of the these stories are modern, and they show us that Indian literature is richly poignant. The anthology is compiled by Paula Gunn Allen, America's Indian Poet Laureate, and is a wonderful addition Gunn Allen's other fine books.

I believe that Mark Twain, the most discpicable writer of the modern era, has made a mockery of literature. This book incorporates both poor language skills and a prejudice towards slaves and young men. I believe that this book, along with every other Mark Twain book, should be burned. if Mark Twain was still alive, I would like to burn him as well.

Until I read TS Eliot's critique of Huckleberry Finn, I didn't understand the book. The point that Tom Sawyer is the actor/director and Huck the audience, wallflower, altruist--is a simple fact I simply overlooked.

Eliot's reading of the book's final line makes a thoroughly entertaining read deeply melancholy. And if what Hemmingway says about Twain is true, namely, that Huck Finn appears in one way or another in every work of American Literature thereafter, it sheds light on the melancholy and loneliness that is American literature in the modern age.

I found this book to be informative. I learned a lot about the singer. I found it amazing how she turned music around with her voice, and how influential she was, and still is today. The book covered a lot of her life. I think the author did a good job of describing Mrs. Cline, and relating to the reader how she was, and how she acted. It left a good impression of the way the singer really was. Why not 5 stars then?...The author got on my nerves at times. The author was a total Cline fan, and painted a picture like she did no wrong, or was justified for doing it. She cheated on her husband, and used her body to get what she wanted out of life. Interesting as the story was, and influential as she was, she had a lot of faults. The author points them out, but the author is too caught up in the singer to give an unbiased view of her actions...or so I thought. If you are a Patsy Cline fan, then this book is very helpful in learning about her life, and things you may not have known about her. Her rise from poverty to star is quite amazing, and she is quite the singer.

I enjoyed the close-in story about Patsy. It's well told, but the abundance of exclamation points made it sound like an elementary school reader. I also was not interested in the author's opinions.

This book is for people who want to train other trainers. It is NOT for people who want to work with the actual products! It seems that instead of giving helpful, instructional details on the many unique configurations possible for IIS and Proxy Server, It focuses on BASIC configurations and THEORY. If I wanted THEORY (TCPIP, The Internet, etc), I would have purchased another book for these theoretical subjects. The 'snippets' of detail and 'case studies' do nothing for me. The case studies are simple and don't touch upon any detail that is usable in the real world. Much of what is written in this book insults my intelligence. I will most likely stay away from any 24-seven books.

Well written in terms that can be undersood by virtual beginners, but with the kind of details required by NT IIS administrators.

Covers most aspects of setting up a basic IIS server. Dips into more advanced subject such as ASP.

Only moan: needless typos in one or two places that may cause confusion for some readers.