Walton's book, while wonderfully written, has several glaring errors that make one question whether he bothered to keep his facts straight on the events taking place in his book. For instance, in the opening paragraph of the book, the author crosses the bridge from Concordia "County," Louisiana into Natchez, MS. Any self-respecting Southerner knows that Louisiana has parishes, not counties. In addition, he talks of Charles Evers, brother of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, as longtime mayor of Philadephia, MS. Actually, Evers was mayor of Fayette, MS, which is quite a long way from Philadelphia. I enjoyed the book, but I found myself wondering how much of it was accurate. As a native Missippian, his family story tugs at my heartstrings and leaves me wondering if things will ever change in my home state. I only wish I could trust his story to be true.

This is purer in its idea than in its executiion, but the story of an African-American man travelling back to Mississippi offers many interesting observations about race and history. I especially enjoyed all the quotes, excerpts he provided.

HAVING GROWN UP IN LAUREL, MISSISSIPPI, A TOWN OF APPROXIMATELY 20,000 IN THE STATE'S SOUTHERN END, I WAS PLEASED TO FIND ANTHONY WALTON'S BOOK SPEAK NOT ONLY TO THE COMPLEX HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI AND IT'S RACE RELATIONS, BUT THE PRESENT - AND HOW THE PAST DOES (OR FOR SOME FOLKS DOES NOT) INFORM THE PRESENT. HE WEAVES AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY WITH THE LARGER HISTORY OF THE NATION AND WITH REMINISCINGS WHICH, ALL TOGETHER, SPELL OUT A SMART AND HEART-FELT PORTRAIT OF THE IMMEASURABLY DIFFICULT TRANSITION FROM THE DAYS OF THE "PECULIAR INSTITUTION". IS MISSISSIPPI INTEGRATED TODAY? NOT BY A LONG STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION. BUT WALTON HELPS US TO PUT THIS IN PERSPECTIVE - ALLOWING US TO WITNESS THE HORROR OF THE PAST AS WELL AS HELPING US TO REALIZE THAT CHANGE - ESPECIALLY IMMMENSE CHANGE - TAKES DECADES, IF NOT CENTURIES. INSIGHTFUL, WARM, AND HIGHLY READABLE.

Gideon Page gets fired and starts on his own with a manslaughter client and a woman who bakes rats. I had hopes that this book would be much better, but the action was slow. It took forever to get to the court scenes, and they were dissappointing. I never figured out what motivated Dr Chapman to be so stubborn with his lawyer. There are parts of this book which entertain with appealing characters, but overall, I had to force myself to finish it.

Grif Stockley's PROBABLE CAUSE is full of well-defined, memorable characters. Gibeon's Guys: Spunky Sara, a daughter with wisdom; Rainey ,a girlfriend who's so in love she's trying to protect herself; Dan, a budding partner with his own expansion plan; and then there's the clients. Egotistical, sociopathic, obcessive-compulsive, bill paying clients. Finally, meet ex-social worker cum attorney, Gideon Page. More real than shredded wheat with raisens. The only way you'll ever meet people like these is in Grif Stockley's imagination, and in PROBABLE CAUSE.

Grif Stockley is the writer you have probably never heard of -- but should definitely read. I picked up this book, finished it, then picked up all of his others. Loved them all! Better than John Grisham any day.

I found this to be one of the worst books i have ever read in my life. It is almost impossible to follow the storyline as the main characters perspective is amazingly introverted and scenes are sometime fragmented causing confusion. This story is nothing new and has been written since the invention of words a million times over, and i really have no comprehension of why this book is considered good literature

I truly believe that Ellison's condensed prose is one of the best novels I have ever written. If a person says that they do not enjoy this book, it is because they are bad readers who completely missed all the motifs, foils, and statements that Ellison says with this book. This book takes a serious, easily cliched, topic and works it so well that I felt the need to read this book multiple times. And even after all that, I still feel that I need to read it more, just as to sink into every line. It is a must read, for those who read to the fullest!

oh baby it was good, i liked it so much that i bought it for my baby brother.

First, I want to say that I have NOT read this book; I have some comments based on its table of contents. I teach research methods in education, and have served on over a hundred dissertation committees in education and other fields (including several dissertations in psychology), and I would not use or recommend this book primarily because of its extremely limited treatment of qualitative research. Despite the book cover's claim that the book deals with "the entire range of research methodologies in psychology", the coverage of qualitative methods appears to be limited to one chapter on naturalistic and case-study methods. (A second chapter which deals with field research in fact seems to focus on quasi-experimental and single-subject designs, which are not qualitative.) The rest of the book is heavily quantitative/experimental in its approach (there are three chapters on experimental design alone). It seems revealing that although there are sections on the limitations of naturalistic and case study research and correlational and differential research, there is no explicit section on the limitations of experimental research. There is also no discussion of one of the most common qualitative approaches used in psychology--the qualitative interview study, which is different from a "case study". (For more on this approach, I recommend "Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies", by the psychologist Robert Weiss.)

If you are a student in a very quantitatively-oriented psychology department, this may be a useful book for you. However, at a time when many research methods books are devoting much more space to qualitative methods, Graziano and Raulin's book seems a bit anachronistic. Several highly regarded research methods textbooks that are more even-handed in their coverage are David Krathwohl, Methods of Educational and Social Science Research: An Integrated Approach (second edition, 1998), and Colin Robson, Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers (1993; second edition forthcoming). There is also an enormous literature on qualitative methods specifically; simply search this site under "qualitative research".

As a Ph.D. student that is about to start my dissertation I found this book extremely helpful in wading through the various research and analysis methods. Filled with examples (although principally focused on Psychology), the book has helped me plan my dissertation. A great reference book and in my opinion a must have for those who are about to start their dissertation.

I decided to adopt this text for my course as it is comprehensive, up-to-date, and includes a wealth of supplementary materials that are web-based, as well as available on the accompanying CD. Recommended highly for undergrad AND graduate students.

I picked up this book thinking it would be an elegant blend of science, history and philisophical musings a la Lewis Thomas--but Barnett has failed utterly. He shifts from psuedo-philisophical ponderings to sounding as though he's lecturing to a bunch of college freshman. I can't possibly give it a one star because I did find a lot of the information interesting, but on the whole, I put down the book rather dissatisfied.

At any rate they should since we have created their habitats in, around and under our cities, towns and farms, and we feed them well. Occasionally we try to poison them but it never works for long. Usually, as Barnett, who is Emeritus Professor of Zoology at the Australian National University, explains they reject our poisons outright as something new in a familiar environment ("neophobia")--one of their clever tricks--and when we counter with one of OUR tricks (pre-baiting) we kill them all right, but they counter by upping their breeding schedule and soon the losses are made up.

I think Barnett does a good job of making this an interesting read although the latter parts of the book are perhaps more scientific than some would like. He begins with the rat in history and literature, recalls the black plague and other rat-carried diseases, and then tells the story of how the rat became domesticated in the nineteenth century primarily as a laboratory animal to run mazes and push levers for rewards and punishments. He explains how this white albino rat has come to differ in its habits and traits from its wild counterpart, the so-called Norway rat, noting, for example, that lab rats are usually not neophobic. Instead they approach just about anything new. There is some interesting material on the black rat which tends to live in trees or on or near the top of dwellings while the Norway likes the ground and sewers. The material on the mole rat of India and the rice rat of Malaysia and some other species could have been expanded.

Barnett goes into some of the research done on rats, both in the lab and in the field, and demonstrates just how hard it is to conduct useful and rigorous experiments and how easy it is to misread the findings. He looks into the mystery of rats seemingly dying because of stress and suggests that what kills them is a lowered immune system response to disease agents. (p. 170) There might be an unstated suggestion that stress can do the same thing to humans, perhaps to a lesser degree.

I think that Barnett's excursion into the philosophy of science and the limitations of applying animal research to humans (with quotes from philosopher K. R. Popper and geneticist R.C. Lewontin) toward the end of the book might have worked better in some other volume. At any rate I would have preferred instead more material on Barnett's personal experiences with rats. The material he does give us from his early days in London during World War II and from his lifelong research and experience is interesting and could have been expanded, especially in a book like this aimed at a general readership.

There are a number of black and white photos and drawings of rats, a Glossary, a list of References, and an Index. Bottom line: interesting and not nearly as repellant as a work on rats could easily be.

Whether you love rats, hate rats, or have no understanding of them at all, this is a great book. It's very objective, written in an accessible format, and absolutely fascinating.
This book should be a must read for anyone who keeps rats as pets, as it lends a much better understanding of "rat psychology" than one would get from simple pet care books.

There are lots of little wise sayings in this book. Some are great, some not so great. For instance, "We attract those we feel we are worthy to be with". Nonsense. My whole ... life, I only attract gurlz I despise. How bout this one, "The only thing we 'have to' is we have to die when the time comes and we have to live until the day we die". Very inspirational, I guess. But I require something more full-proof to totally believe in it. We HAVE TO pay taxes. We HAVE TO eat, therefore we HAVE TO work. I read many self-help books because I need alot of help, personally, and this was by far the worst one. What does the author hope to accomplish by giving us a bunch of quotes. We will never remember all of them. The only way to remember each one is if there is a story attached to each of them. That is why I recommend Wayne Dyer's Wisdom of the Ages if you want something more meaningful. Again, not everything in that book will be accepted by everyone, but at least you will be able to remember the ones you do treasure.

This little book of thoughts is a compilation of the author's previous 4 little books. It is filled with many excellent items of conventional wisdom concerning the things we all deal with in daily life. For those who appreciate books of thought, I recommend this book, as well as a similar little book of gems called "Open Your Mind, Open Your Life: A Little Book of Eastern Wisdom" by Taro Gold.

This is a book of excellent quotations. Some we may not like to admit. Dr. Robert Anthony's books are wonderful and if you are willing to take responsibility for your actions (and your thoughts) your life *will* turn around!

a collection of poetry from as far back to phillis wheatley to today, so if you a fan of black poets from older day, you can find some of their works in this collection

The Vintage Book of African American Poetry, edited by Michael S. Harper and Anthony Walton, is reminiscent of a somewhat earlier anthology EVERY SHUT EYE AIN'T ASLEEP (also edited by Mr Harper and Mr Walton). The poems in the Vintage Book span three centuries, from Jupitor Hammon and Phillis Wheatley, to Carl Phillips and Reginald Shepherd; the 20th century, as one might expect, is most generously and gloriously represented. This reviewer has always prized the work of Countee Cullen and of Robert Hayden; and is grateful to make the acquaintance of Sterling A. Brown and Gwendolyn Bennett (her poem "To A Dark Girl," written early in the last cnetury, is an irreducible greatness); Langston Hughes is shown to advantage in the selection of his work, many of the chosen poems being new to this reader. It shames us that hithertofore we had not been familiar with the work of Boston-born William Stanley Braithwaite. Claude McKay and Jean Toomer appear in these pages, McKay's finely wrought sonnets being familiar from other anthologies. New to us, and a gift for which the reader is grateful, is Margaret Walker's "October Journey," of Keatsian loveliness.

Stylistic diversity exists here, and surfaces in a salient fashion as we reach the middle of the twentieth century: Gwendolyn Brooks (both formal and colloquial); Bob Kaufman (can we cavil at the omission of his fine eulogistic poem "Afterwards, They Shall Dance"?); Etheridge Knight (whose diamond-like haiku enliven our sense of the possibilities of the form); and the Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, whose "Bounty" is indeed a marvel. Raymond Patterson's baldly unsubtle imitation of Wallace Stevens ("Twenty-Six Ways of Looking at a Blackman") strikes this reader as a culpable generosity of inclusion on the part of the anthologists.

We find merit in the poems of Audre Lorde and Lucille Clifton; Sonia Sanchez's piece urging nuclear disarmament does not affect us positively, on either a political or an esthetic level, a slack garrulity that is too long-winded to be a slogan and too formless to be a poem. Jay Wright, Michael S. Harper, Al Young and Toi Derricotte (almost exactly contemporaneous) fashion lyrics of beauty, ingenuity, toughmindedness and considerable appeal. We value Marilyn Nelson's poem (charmingly sardonic) called "Emily Dickinson's Defunct." Yusef Komunyakaa, Thylias Moss, and Rita Dove -- justly renowned poets -- are in the Vintage Book (Komunyakaa a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1994, Dove a recent U. S. poet laureate). Nathaniel Mackey's poems display an unparalled intelligence and ability to renovate and renew the language; his work should be more widely known. Elizabeth Alexander cages wrath within formality in "The Venus Hottentot", and is quite effective in her sequence of poems about Muhammad Ali. And finally, an autumnophile reviewer must congratulate Anthony Walton on the achievement of his lyric "The Summer Was Too Long"; great poetic force is also to be found in his poems on Thelonious Sphere Monk and Emmett Till.

In short, this is a splendid anthology, recommended to all. There are lapses into the ineffectual stridency of sloganeering; nonetheless, we venture to say that the reader will be nourished and fortified by the majority of the poems in the Vintage Book of African American Poetry. These are lyrics of immitigable beauty, of consummate artistry, of serious esthetic accomplishment.

An excellcent collect of African American Poetry. Never really been interested in poetry, but after reading this book can't wait to read more poetry any kind of poetry.

If you're looking for a super-accurate detail-oriented definitive authority on duck plumage, you won't find it in "Painting Duck Decoys..." The 24 color plates within could've been done by any budding high school art student. If not crude, they are at best poor approximations, not terribly useful for anyone concerned with painting decoys realistically. Perhaps the proportions of the ducks depicted will be of use to some. But most serious artists will undoubtedly find much more accurate information in books featuring photographs rather than the amateurish paintings in "Painting Duck Decoys..."

The book is inexpensive and provides basic images of several duck species. However, it provides painting instructions only for mallards. For example, the book lists the primary paint colors for the other species, but it doesn't offer any information as to which of these colors are to be mixed to obtain the colors depicted in the images. This was a problem when I needed to repaint by Woodie dekes.

I am excited to see this book being offered at Amazon.com I became familiar with Anthony Hillman's book when I began painting my own decoys and had trouble finding any refrence material at hobby shops, craft stores or sportsman shops but my wife called our local library and found this book and it has been a God send. People have been very impressed with my refurbished decoys! So were the ducks! Although I am finnished painting my decoys, I am going to buy a copy for my collection! It is a piece of art in it self, The illustrations are crisp, clear and precise. The instructions are freindly enough for a beginner! I want to thank the author, Anthony Hillman for sharing his knowlege in his book. I have looked at all the hunting catalogs and have found that with the help of Anthony's book, my decoys look more realistic and I have saved money that I would have forked out for at least 4 dozen new decoys.

At first this book may seem like it is about the adult use of spanking, corporal punishment and flagellation but what it is really about is a look at how society views such behaviors. The problem with this approach is that the argument becomes tied up in questions of childhood abuse and institutional correction. While I was impressed with the variety and number of historical literature Anthony uses, he does not show why human beings today are interested in these topics. The evidence he cites is almost always historical, about children, or about comic pop cultural references in modern England. There is nothing in this book that says that adult spanking, CP or flagellation is indeed seen as a "vilified vice" because he does not look at that issue. Attempts to describe why people are interested in these activities have no grounding in current reallife practice only passages from historical lierature. This book really needs to be spun as an historical investigation instead of an attempt to make CP, spanking and flagellation between adults understandable.

British popular culture chronicler Anthony examines the flagellatory impulse (the "English Vice") in thoughtful, scholarly fashion from several viewpoints: as media frisson, as deplored form of academic and domestic discipline, and as sexual fillip between consenting adults.

Drawing on a vast array of historical and literary sources, he traces the roots of recreational flagellation to the archetypal roles and scenarios it delights in recreating. Sadomasochistic erotica is plumbed for its most potent school masters, slave masters, governesses, wicked stepmothers, and uncles from hell.

_Thy Rod and Staff_ shines as both passionately argued defense and superbly researched survey. From _Harriet Marwood, Governess_ to _The Spencer Spanking Plan_, from Rousseau to the Spanner case, it abounds equally in good parts and food for thought.

Includes footnotes, select bibliography, index and 16 pages of illustrations from 800 AD to the twentieth century.

The first thing to tell you about this book is to tell you what it isn't. Firstly, this is NOT a work of erotic fiction. To be sure, this book includes many short excerpts from historical erotic texts, but they are always used to back up the arguments of the author. Secondly, this book is NOT a clinical analysis of flagellation. The theories of Havelock Ellis, Krafft-Ebing and yes, Freud, are discussed in one brief chapter, but the work of psycho-analysts do not dominate this book.

Instead, this book is a rational, journalistic investigation into the human flagellatory impulse. It also sets itself apart from every other book on this subject by avoiding any knee-jerk prejudices and refusing to condemn "this filthy vice" outright. The author keeps an open mind, and seeks to understand, rather than to judge. "I do not regard the flagellatory impulse per se as disgusting" says Anthony. "[The] purpose of this book is to offer another, rather more benign, certainly broader, view of flagellation." In pursuit of this aim, Anthony's approach is to break his book into three parts:

Part One tackles "this filthy vice" head on. Anything bad that has ever been said about flagellation is found here. Anthony briefly outlines the history of flagellation and demonstrates why this topic is still taboo in mainstream society. Although Anthony applauds the abolition of corporal punishment in schools, he makes a very convincing (and rational) case for "reasonable and judicious" corporal punishment of children in the home. After a brief clinical chapter in which the author gives the nod to the theories of Ellis, he outlines the use of flagellation in modern and historical literature. Part one of "Thy Rod and Staff" is an illuminating and enlightening read.

In Part Two, Anthony tackles the major issue - erotic flagellation. Here, the author gets down to the specifics of what flagellants actually do. The various male and female "dominant" personas (The No Nonsense Lover, The Governess), the scenarios in which they operate, the implements and costumes they use - and how all of the above combine to make up a flagellatory encounter, are discussed. If you are so inclined, yes, you will find the various erotic excerpts here sexually arousing. This excellent part of the book is full of hints for those couples who wish to indulge in flagellatory practices. Far from being an act of giving and receiving pain, Anthony demonstrates that in reality, erotic flagellation is a form of love.

Finally, Part Three attempts to set the deeds of flagellants against society as a whole. Anthony argues here that we are all being fed a diet of sadistic material by our mass media, and despite the fact that mainstream society is, in many ways "sadomasochistic," flagellants will continue to remain one of the scapegoats for western society's ills. Anthony rightly considers this a tragedy, especially when you consider that "What flagellants actually do is easily enough stated: they smack each other's bottoms."

My only criticism of this book is the occasionally gaseous prose. Anthony's book employs some grandiose terminology here and there, but fortunately, it does not detract from the central message in his writing.

This book also comes with an extensive bibliography of flagellatory sources, as well as footnotes. There are also a collection of well chosen illustrations which document the use of flagellation throughout history. Taken as a whole, this is a learned, rational and humane book. It is essential reading for everyone with a serious interest in this topic. One can only hope that Anthony's plea for tolerance is taken up by other authors.

If you are in college and like to read technical documents, hey, it's probably the book for you! If you're like me, a high schooler, and you really like and remember documentaries from the History Channel but have a hard time reading extensive historical info, don't get this book! You'll end up spacing out from boredom because it gets too complex and you have to reread each paragraph 3 or 4 times just to remember it for the next 10 minutes.

This book is so boring that I often find myself staring blankly at the page for long periods of time wondering why I even signed up for Dual Enrollment Western Civilization (we use this book, unfortunately). The text, which bombards you with facts, dates, names, and geographical locations one after the other unceasingly, is enough to scare anyone away from a history major. It has numerous maps (one every couple pages), but geez, the book is the cure for insomnia for crying out loud! Two words into the text and I'm out like a light! It is far too technical. It also talks of things as if you already knew what they were talking about, like it's supposed to be a refresher for us.

As an 11th grader on block schedule, I have already taken World History (1 year ago), and I have to say, I remember more from THAT textbook right now (which wasn't fun either) than from that which I read last night from this textbook. Lists of dates and names don't cut it. It doesn't give interesting info, and some areas are surprisingly summarized into only a few sentences while others are unmercifully long winded; and should not begun to be read past 6 PM! God forbid a battle come up, it's like a list of geographical locations: so and so fought at the [insert place], whereafter they fought at [name] and so forth until I can't even clearly distinguish from the text WHY the battle even started in the first place. The Persian War and Peloponnesian War are what we've covered on the war fronts, and they listed what the militaries did and where they fought. It was like a manual. I'm sure that's great reading for a historian, but for the average Joe, it's equivalent to staring at a blank wall for 10 hours- you don't accomplish or remember anything.

That's a high schooler's take on the book. For a high schooler, this book equals doom! For older people, it might be a pleasant read....(*yeah, sure...)

This is a well balanced study guide with a variety of questions and answers. There are no tips or model answers for the considerations of specific documents, it would help to also have an orientation. Just as there are answers to multiple choice, true false, and completion it would help to have answers on further consideration of the documents section. The Map exercises should also have there answers in order to benefit from such exercises especially when your working with distances between cities, locations. Take the case of Chapter 14, how long would it take to reach the Moon on a mountain bike, with a car, on a jet, or a cruise ship, it all depends on the speed that you may assign to the vehicle. This is like playing TRIVIA, pag. 143. Suggestions for further consideration should have a model answer unless you require just an opinion.

The book looked brand new. It arrived in about a week. I would recommend to anyone!