The new Oxford edition is a big improvement on the first. At least the two major practicing bodies of Marxist-Leninist thought today (ISO & RCP) are at least mentioned by name this time! The context is informative and the critical edge is penetrating. Those of us who have marched with those groups will appreciate a little uninfatuated, academic, outside perspective. The RCP's fading post 70's glory is mercilessly skewered, and the ISO's sectarian hair-splitting is given necessary historical background. But there's something missing from the analysis. Any practicing worker or Marxist/activist will want to know what is GOOD about the parties that survive today. Shouldn't there be some forward thinking? We are still out here, organizing against police brutality, fighting the right-wing backlash, advocating workers' power, fighting for freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal. There is a vanguard of a real democracy we see only glimmers of in the history of the Left.

Paul Nabhan's latest book is a delight to read. His clear writing style and effective way of illustrating important points gives the reader a pleasant break from the more technical books on the topic of seed evolution and dispersion. But don't be deceived by its ease of reading, the book is full of facts about early native agricultural practices in North and Central America, contains warnings about our loss of natural vegetation, especially rain forests, and tells of our rapid loss of plant diversity.

Dr. Nabhan is the cofounder of an organization called Native Seeds and is currently Assistant Director of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona. In these dual roles he has had ample opportunity to observe what is happening to our natural vegetation and to record how the diversity of plants in our world continues to shrink at an alarming rate.

His book is divided into a series of chapters each with names intended to draw the reader's interest. Examples include: "Turning Foxholes into Compost Heaps," "Drowning in a Shallow Gene Pool," and "Invisible Erosion." Each of his 12 chapters focuses on an important point. The first one presents an interesting history of plant evolution from the earliest Paleozoic times through the late Cenozoic and explains how the large, plant gene pool created the wonderful diversity we have all come to enjoy. In the next several chapters Dr. Nabhan first addresses the great diversity of plants found in forests of the wet and dry tropics and next speaks about how this great diversity led to the emergence of many cultigens we now depend upon for our staples. He also points with alarm to how rapidly this diversity is being lost as large areas are converted to agricultural lands or are clear cut for their lumber. Other chapters focus on the need for saving examples of seeds from plants that are becoming extinct and the advantages in tropical areas of using local plant species and local farming techniques instead of introduced hybrid plants and "modern" agricultural techniques. In later chapters Dr. Nabhan chronicles the demise of wild rice in the Great Lakes region, the near loss of a species of rare gourd in Florida, and why the production of maize in many areas of the northern Great Plains is not nearly as great today as it was in past generations. Finally, he offers a word of caution to plant geneticists saying that they could learn a lot from looking at the problems associated with the raising of domestic turkeys.

The main theme of Dr. Nabhan's book focuses on the need for plant diversity and how the maintaining of a wide gene pool for each species is critical for the survival of each species. All of this, he cautions, has direct effects upon mankind because many of these plants form elements of our primary food supply. Throughout the book the author inserts brief warnings for the reader to ponder. On page 27, for example, the author notes the prevailing attitude among many plant geneticists. He quotes one of them as saying, "If we need rare strains to breed a stronger variety of grain in the event of an epidemic, we go out and collect them." The problem, as Dr. Nabhan notes, is that already for many plants there are no longer wild strains to use.

If you are taking American History and are using the Enduring Vision text, you MUST get this book to accompany it. Not only does it have a summary, but also key terms and sample questions to help you pass the tests in class. I would deffinately recomend it!

Hughes delivers a good sci-fi novel here. I won't go into the plot details, but you won't be disapointed. He has a very unique and magnetic writing style that keeps the reader interested throughout. It's a shame more people won't read this one. Recommended.

Should English be declared the official language of the United States? Should students be educated in their native language? For how long? Why? This balanced examination of a hot issue, originally written for young adults, can be used in college level courses in sociology, education, and politics. Providing a historical overview often missing from newspaper articles in 8 concise chapters, the book provided me with a far better understanding of the complicated politics of simply teaching English as a Second Language to immigrants. I found the complicated arguments, presented in relatively simple words, far more interesting than jargon-ladden essays usually read in university courses.

Pine Bluff Arkansas is the background for fifty four of Paul Greenberg's most personal pieces. These are the experiences that shaped Greenberg's life including family, religion and baseball. "Entirely Personal" is a collection of short pieces that help the reader to understand what has shaped Greenberg's editorials. This is an appraisal of how his enviroment set the scene for his writing.

As Chinese herbal therapy is an extremely extensive and complicated discipline, every well-informed work on this field, therefore, is beneficial. Despite certain imperfections, this enumeration is one of them. The work began as a list of Chinese medicines for quick reference to meet personal needs. Everyone engaged in Chinese pharmacology, or Chinese medicine in general, knows to what dimensions such a primary "quick reference work" can expand. Neither this book is any exception. Without any doubt the amount of labour devoted to its preparation had to be enormous. It supplies people in science and medicine with an amount of about 2000 names of medical drugs used in Chinese medicine. Nevertheless, we can find in the work some mistakes, which seem to be a certain blemish on its beauty. They can be divided into several groups: 1. Minor faults of a technical nature. They concern some dropouts in succession of headword numbering. Thus the item 0063 is followed by 0065, 0432 follows the item 0430, 0483 follows 0481, 0557 follows 0555, 1098 follows 1096 and No. 1960 is entered instead of 1690. 2. Incorrect transcription. For instance the character "pei" (north) is transcribed as "pai" (0021a, 0076) or as „p'i" somewhere (1002, 1003). The character „shu" in the names of herbs as pai-chu, must be pronounced and transcribed as „chu" (0306, 0742, 0862, 0925, 1010, and many others). Character „chieh" is transcribed here as „chiai" (0099, 1486), characters „yu" (oil) as well as „yü" (jadeite) are transcribed with the same syllable „yu" (0013, 1872). Instead of „Mai-t'ou-ts'ao" (0398) there must be Hei-t'ou-ts'ao; „Liang-hsien, Wei-liang-hsien" (0737) correctly has to be Ling-hsien, Wei-ling-hsien and so on. 3. From the practical point of view, a lack of unity even confused arrangement as to the structure of items seems to be more serious mistake. The basic structure of an article has to be - as it is explained in Introduction by author - as follows: The article represents the major name of a medical drug; synonyms, alternative names, are placed in the parentheses behind the major name; minor names, names of other parts of plant also used as drugs, are the second level minor items. In fact, we meet with many variations of this notified model, which relates a substantial part of articles: 3.1. Synonyms. a) Though some of alternative names are placed in parentheses behind the major name, a great number of them is entered in other place as headword. At the same time there is no appearance of explicit key, why was some chosen as the headword and the other was not. b) If the alternative name is entered as a headword, by rights there should to be a cross-reference to the paragraph-major name. This procedure is kept in several items, nevertheless the feedback cross-reference fails in majority of articles (0006 versus 2007, 0099 v. 0964, 0321 v. 0824). In some cases, even the original major name is in parentheses behind this new item, considering that it conversely takes the position of the alternative name (0642 v. 1060, 1057 v. 1998 and so on). c) If there is a cross-reference, it is written in various forms and it is not quite clear if this heterogeneity may have any distinctive function: 0096 Chia-p'i(see Wu-chia-p'i), 0398 Han-lien-ts'aoSee 0886, 0401 Hei-ch'ouSee Êrh-ch'ou, 0873 Mêng-shih=Ch'ing mêng-shih 3.2. Terms in the parentheses. The synonyms of the drug's major name should be placed in the parentheses. Unfortunately, this presumption is often not valid and we can meet with the following cases: a) The name in the parentheses is the name, or names respectively, of drugs obtained from other parts of the plant. A great many instances of this kind occur. For instance 1553 "Ti-yang-ch'üeh (Pai-mai-kên)"; Ti-yang-ch'üeh is the aerial part of Lotus corniculatus, still Pai-mai-kên is the name used for the root of the same herb. Then the pharmaceutical name Herba Loti, concerning the whole article, is also not quite correct, because that for Pai-mai-kên is Radix Loti. b) In the parentheses, instead of alternative name of the drug there is a name of the herb which the drug originates from. For instance 0312 "Ch'ung-wei-tzu (Ch'ung-wei, I-mu-ts'ao)"; the item Ch'ung-wei-tzu is the name of Leonurus artemisia's seed, Ch'ung-wei as well as I-mu-ts'ao are names of the plant or its herb. 3.3. Minor items. The situation here is rather confused, too. We can observe this state of affairs: a) Minor items represent the names of other species of the plant the drug originates from (0917, 1484, 1525, 1622, 1716, 1748 etc.). b) Minor items at the same time represent a mixture of the names of species as well as those of other parts of the plant used as drugs (0599). c) Minor items are the names of forms of the drug prepared in different way (0786). d) Some of minor items have no index, while others are indexed with letters -a, -b, -c etc. (0222, 0324, 0702, 0786, 0917, 1051, 1254, 1525 and many others). The meaning of this double indication is not clear. 3.4. Many of major items are indexed with a capital letter "A" behind the number: 0103A (0216, 0260, 0297, 0398 and so on). In the book no explanation is given for the purpose of this form of entry. If we take in account that the Enumeration had been developing in the second half of the 70s, when there existed incomparably less systematic literature from this branch than today, one cannot term the work devoted to it - the identification of Chinese, English and Latin names etc. - anything other than heroic. Nevertheless, in accounting the prospective next edition of the book, it would be appropriate to consider carefully how to rearrange the text and put the items more precisely and systematically. (The complete review is published in Archív Orientální, 68, (2000), No. 2, Prague)

As I stood in the cafeteria line behind a Malaysian exchange student at Campbell University in North Carolina, I was so glad that I had read my Essential Malaysia. Remembering its warnings on the effects of pork on the digestive tracks of native Malaysians, I was able to bridge the great cultural divide that separates that pacific gem from rustic Buies Creek. When asked by the local food service preparation worker what my Malaysian cohort had said about the ribs she had served him, I gladly replied, "I think he said, 'The ribs make me juicy.'" Thus, a potentially sticky incident was defused.

This book is the best resource on land navigation i've seen. I use it regularly in teaching land navigation in conjunction with search and rescue to area fire departments. The author makes the hard-to-explain easy to understand for beginners and experts alike.